双语 | 看《速8》的你，或许正在拯救好莱坞

4月14日，万众期待的《速度与激情8》如期而至，接下来便锐不可当，在短短两三天的时间里一骑绝尘，票房一路狂飙——首日狂揽4.7亿，此后更是接连刷新了内地影史单日最高票房，也成为了内地影史上票房最快过10亿的电影。

事实证明，《速8》在北美口碑分化严重，但确实合中国观众的胃口，而中国观众对好莱坞大片的票房影响力也越来越重要了…

A random tour around Chinese cinemas these days gives anyone a clue of Chinese movie goers’ sensibilities, and how Hollywood franchises built upon muscle cars and fictional orcs are igniting the world’s most populous nation.

这几天，无论你在中国哪个影院随处一瞥，就能嗅到中国影迷对电影的敏感度，见识到好莱坞超级跑车及虚构半兽人系列电影是如何燃爆这个世界人口大国的。

Portraits of Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are everywhere on posters and digital signages in theatre lobbies saturated with the tempting scent of popcorn. At one point, three out of every four show slots are allotted to a single title: Fast & Furious 8.

影院大厅里充斥着爆米花的香味，海报和数字显示屏上随处可见范·迪塞尔和巨石强森的形象。一时之间，每四档电影里有三档都显示着同一名字：《速度与激情8》。

China’s long-running fascination with special effects, brawn and outsized personalities has driven the eighth instalment of Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious franchise to become the biggest worldwide box office debut of all time, according to the studio. It reported US$532 million over the opening weekend in 63 territories, smashing record holders Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

据该电影工作室透露，由于中国影迷长期以来对特技效果和彪形大汉形象的喜爱，环球影业的这部第八集速度与激情系列影片成为史上全球首映票房最高的影片。据报道，该电影在全球63个地区的首周末票房达5.32亿美元（约合人民币36.6亿元），远超记录保持者《侏罗纪公园》和《星球大战：原力觉醒》。

The China opening alone raked in US$190 million -- more than a third of the global box office takings and double North America’s -- within 72 hours. Cinema managers were exhilarated that China’s movie market is showing signs of life again following a gloomy 2016.

中国市场上映72小时内票房即达1.9亿美元（约合人民币13亿元）——逾全球票房收入的三分之一，是北美票房的2倍。中国电影市场摆脱了2016年的低谷，开始恢复生机，影院经理们对此喜闻乐见。

“It was a full house even late at midnight,”said Tan Yanran, a university student who went to watch the picture on Monday. “It has become the talk of the town.”

“即使是夜场，也是场场爆满。”周一，一名观看《速8》的大学生谭嫣然（音）说，“这个话题几乎无人不谈。”

Not only did Fast & Furious 8 dominate the three biggest days of China’s box office in history, it also broke into the charts of the most popular hash tags on China’s Twitter-equivalent Sina Weibo.

在中国电影票房史上，《速度与激情8》不仅连续三天创下票房记录，还跻身“中国版推特”新浪微博的热门话题榜。

But, at home in America, with US$99 million in ticket sales, the high-octane action is nowhere near becoming a history-making success, even scored by its predecessor Furious 7, which grossed US$147 million domestically for its kick-off weekend in 2015. In fact, the project is only the 38th biggest opening weekend haul in the US.

而在美国本土，《速度与激情8》的首周末票房是9900万美元（约合人民币6.8亿元），但是这部激烈的动作大片离历史性的成功还差得很远，甚至还不及《速7》——2015年，《速7》的本土首周末票房为1.47亿美元（约合人民币10亿元）。事实上，《速8》的成绩只能位列美国首周末票房榜的第38位。

Reviews are divided, too. While Variety’s Owen Gleiberman labelled the feature “a dazzling action spectacle,” Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal panned it as “soulless, graceless, witless, incoherent, and, not incidentally, brain-numbingly long at 136 minutes.”

对该片的评价也呈现两极化。Variety综艺杂志的欧文•格雷伯曼称其为“炫目的动作大片”，而《华尔街日报》的乔•摩根斯坦则认为这部影片“没有灵魂、粗俗、空洞、不合逻辑，毫无疑问，影片只会让大脑在136分钟里变得麻木”。

The movie failed a ratings war on Rotten Tomatoes too, garnering a score of 6.6, a sharp drop from 7.9 by Furious 7.

在评价网站烂番茄的评分战中，《速8》也败下阵来，只得到6.6分，和《速7》的7.9分相比，大幅下滑。

▲《速8》烂番茄评分

Still, the thriller demonstrated how, with its invigorated population flooding movie theatres by the hundreds of millions, Chinese audiences have saved a string of big-budget movies that would otherwise have failed in Hollywood.

不过，这部令数百万观众潮水般涌入影院的激情大片，仍然向我们展示了中国观众是如何挽救了这些本可能在好莱坞失利的大片。

“As the growth of US market plateaus, China is bound to play a more decisive role in Hollywood releases’ box office receipts,” said Walter Woo, an analyst with China Merchant Bank International.

中国国际商业银行分析师沃尔特称：“随着美国市场的增长陷入停滞，中国必将在好莱坞电影的票房收入中扮演更具决定性的角色。”

Expansion in China’s box office market ground to a virtual halt last year following a 48 per cent growth in 2015.

2015年，中国票房曾暴增48%，次年，中国票房市场叫停虚高增长。

Still, it is widely predicted to surpass the US in the coming three years, aided by a cinema building boom that has made it home to 41,179 screens, enough to outstrip America’s total of 40,759 screens.

但是，得益于中国影院建设的热潮，人们普遍预测，中国电影市场在三年内将超越美国，中国有41179个放映屏幕，足以超过美国的40759个。

Chinese filmgoers, essentially made up of urban millennials deeply Westernised over the past four decades of the country’s economic reforms, have a long fascination with exotic foreign adventures and heroism, not to mention Hollywood’s forte of computer-generated images, special effects, brawn and charisma. They are easily swayed by a big Western name, such as Disney, Harry Potter or Emma Watson.

中国影迷主要是千禧一代城市居民，过去四十年的经济改革中，这些年轻人已深深西化，一直着迷于异域冒险和英雄主义故事，更不用提好莱坞最擅长的电脑生成动画、特效以及荷尔蒙爆棚的型男靓女。迪斯尼、哈利·波特、艾玛·沃森等响当当的西方名字，都能轻而易举地让他们趋之若鹜。

The success of the Fast & Furious franchise in China tracks the country’s rise to the world’s largest vehicle market.

《速度与激情》系列电影风靡中国，也体现了中国汽车市场跃居世界第一的崛起之路。

“Just look at how well Furious 8 fares and one will be certain that Chinese audiences are still turning up for US tent poles,”said Ray Zhao, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities.

“看看《速8》在中国的火爆票房，就能确定中国观众还是会去看美国大片。”国泰君安的分析师赵睿说道。

Foreign grosses contribute to 42 per cent of China’s total 2016 box office takings, despite the Chinese movie quota system that only allowed 20 per cent of annual releases to comprise imports. The quota is intended to fend off competition for domestic filmmakers.

尽管中国电影配额制规定，每年发行电影中进口片只能占20%，但2016年中国电影总票房的42%依然来自外国电影。配额制意在为国内电影制作人减轻竞争压力。

Before the release of Furious 8, a raft of big-budget US films that flopped at home have had to rely on China to reverse their fortunes.

《速8》发行前，大批美国票房“扑街”的大片必须依赖中国，才能收回成本。

Universal’s game-inspired franchise fantasy Warcraft, featuring humans battling the fictional orcs, raked up US$221 million in China -- roughly four times its US box office.

环球影业奇幻系列电影《魔兽》改编自电脑游戏，讲述人类与虚构半兽人之间的大战，这部电影在中国收获2.21亿美元（约合人民币15亿元）票房，大概是美国票房的4倍。

Other flops-turned-successes included Disney’s Tomorrowland, science-fiction Pacific Rim and action sequel The Expendables 3, with the last one grossing 86 per cent of its box office receipts in China.

其他起死回生的电影包括迪斯尼的《明日世界》，科幻片《环太平洋》和动作系列电影《敢死队3》，其中《敢死队3》总票房的86%都来自中国。

However, not every Hollywood box office flop gets a second chance in China. While Paramount’s US$135 million Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows scrapped a mere US$82.1 million in America, it fared even worse in China, earning US$59.1 million on less-than-flattering reviews.

然而，并不是所有好莱坞“扑街片”都能在中国寻得新生。派拉蒙的《忍者神龟：破影而出》预算高达1.35亿美元（约9亿人民币），在美国勉强收获仅8200万美元（约合人民币5亿元）票房，中国票房成绩更差，仅为5910万美元（约合人民币4亿元），且口碑欠佳。

即使对于《速度与激情8》褒贬不一，但已经大多数看过的观众表示，电影中音乐都非常燃，不管是最后的片尾曲还是各种高潮情节里的背景乐、插曲都特别好听。当然，最经典的还是《速7》致敬保罗·沃克的插曲《See You Again》，一起来听听~

英文来源：南华早报

编译：Janet、YOYO、Lyla

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