According to the May Day box office data previously released by Maoyan, the audience group with the largest drop in proportion was those under the age of 20. Not only has it declined sharply for three consecutive years, this year it even fell below 10% for the first time, accounting for only 6.5%.
Obviously, the Z generation born after 2005 no longer thinks that going to the cinema to watch movies is a necessary form of entertainment and social interaction. Only films that accurately match their circle culture can make them willing to go out of the house. For example, the previous "Looking Back" and the Japanese high-scoring animated film "Lonely Rock" (Part 1) (Part 2) currently being screened in theaters are both such works.
The Grandview Cinema is decorated with life-size character standees from "Lonely Rock".
On the afternoon of May 10, a special screening of "Lonely Rock" (Part 1) and (Part 2) was held at Shanghai Grand Cinema for thousands of people. The venue was almost full, and not only did fans from Shanghai and surrounding areas take this opportunity to gather together, but Japanese actor Mizuno Saku, who voiced one of the protagonists, Yamada Ryo, also came from afar to interact with fans and share his experience of interpreting the role with his voice.
"Lonely Rock" is adapted from the manga created by Hamamichi Akira, telling the story of four high school girls who formed a rock band together because of music. The movie version is re-edited based on the 12-episode anime series released in 2022, divided into two parts. The first part is the content of episodes 1-6, with a length of 90 minutes; the second part is the content of episodes 7-12, with a length of 77 minutes; the two parts will be released in mainland China theaters on April 25 and May 10 respectively.
The film "Lonely Rock" mainly tells the story of four high school girls who became friends because of music and formed a rock band together.
The story of the film mainly revolves around the growth of the protagonist Goto Doku. She has long pink hair and severe social anxiety, and can be called the only one among the people. Her only channel of communication with the outside world is the video account she opened with the nickname "Guitar Hero", where she will upload the guitar clips she plays from time to time and reply to netizens' messages.
The extremely socially anxious protagonist Goto is redeemed by music and his friends.
After entering high school, Goto accidentally met drummer Ichichi Kouka, who was also a high school student. She forced her to be the backup guitarist for the "Bonus Band" she and bassist Yamada Ryo formed. In addition, Kita Ikuyo, a socialite from the same school as Goto, served as the lead singer of the band, and the four girls embarked on the road to pursuing their dreams together. In addition to exploring how to create works with personal style, Goto also struggled to overcome social phobia.
The animated series "Lonely Rock!" has humorous lines and funny facial expressions.
In 2022, the animated series "Lonely Rock!" produced by CloverWorks was launched and immediately won high praise from the audience. Today, it still maintains a high score of 9.0 (out of 10) on Douban. The lines in the play are humorous, the facial expressions are funny, but the plot is not exaggerated ups and downs, but the touching feelings that touch the soul inadvertently are hidden in the ordinary life of high school students.
All four characters are portrayed in a full and rich way, especially the protagonist Goto Doku. Due to her extreme social phobia, she always feels that she is out of tune with her peers, but she longs to make friends. Therefore, she sometimes immerses herself in a world of delusion to comfort herself, and sometimes the desire to be recognized is like an out-of-control monster. Her contradictions and entanglements are like looking in the mirror for the audience, so this animation has also been praised as a "social phobia healing masterpiece."
Sometimes Goto immerses himself in a world of delusion to comfort himself, and sometimes his desire for recognition is like a monster out of control.
In addition, as a daily-oriented animation work with music themes, the interludes and soundtracks in "Lonely Rock!" are also refined. The songs of "The Bond Band" are composed by the famous musician Kusano Kayoko; the voice actors of the four characters all actually participated in the performance and singing, and Hasegawa Ikumi, who voiced the lead singer and guitarist Kita Ikuyo, also received special training in guitar playing like the characters in the play. Although the interludes in the play are not catchy pop songs, but rock music with a bold rhythm, fans are still happy to learn and sing them, and even created a set of light stick cheering dances to the melodies of interludes such as "Guitar, Loneliness and Blue Planet".
The two-part film version of "Lonely Rock" was re-edited based on the 12-episode series.
In 2024, the two film versions of "Lonely Rock" were released in Japan in June and August respectively. Since the film version covers the main content of the animation version, it is also very friendly to audiences who have not watched the series and have "zero basics", and as a result, a group of new fans have been gained. For fans of the original series, being able to relive it on the big screen is the best enjoyment.
During the special screening held yesterday for thousands of people, the Grandview Theater was packed with young audiences, many of whom even carefully cosplayed the characters in the play. Every time a song came on, the fans sang along, responded to the rhythm of the melody, and waved their light sticks. After watching the movie, the appearance of Mizuno Saku, who voiced the bassist Yamada Ryo, also brought surprises to the audience.
Yamada Ryo, voiced by Mizuno Saku, is the most contrasting character among the four members of the band.
Yamada Ryo is the most contrasting character among the four members of the band. At first glance, she seems to have a maturity and mystery beyond her age. She usually has no expression and her tone of voice rarely fluctuates, but she often says something shocking. In contrast to Goto Doku, she has a very strong sense of self-affirmation, and sometimes because of her excessive self-awareness, she seems a little stupid.
Regarding her second visit to Shanghai, Mizuno Saku said that the last time she attended an event with Aoyama Yoshino, who dubbed Goto, and she had very little free time and just went to the Bund to take some photos. But this time she had relatively ample free time. She visited many interesting places and enjoyed delicious food, which made Aoyama Yoshino, who was unable to come with them this time, very envious.
However, Yoshino Aoyama also made a special effort to greet Chinese audiences through the video and shared her personal favorite plot from the movie, which is the scene where Goto was kept after school for remedial classes - this content did not appear in the original series and was a new plot added to the movie version.
During the interactive session, after Mizuno Saku simulated the facial expressions of Yamada Ryo in the film, she couldn't help but sigh: "I originally thought that Ryo was a person with no expression, but now I find that she actually has quite a lot of expressions." She also talked about the key points in dubbing: "Although different emotions should be expressed with different voices, I was careful from the beginning not to inject too much emotional color into Yamada Ryo's voice. This is what I think is the most important thing to pay attention to when dubbing this character."
Mizuno Saku took a photo with the Goto Doku doll that transformed into the Desire Monster and the audience.
Mizuno Saku also transformed into Yamada Ryo once again on the scene and performed her famous lines. She said, "It has been nearly three years since I participated in the dubbing of "Lonely Rock". In Japanese activities, there is actually no such session of re-dubbing the role on the spot. Today, I feel that the me who dubbed Yamada Ryo at that time and the me now are different, so the Yamada Ryo I just performed may also have changed. Watching these scenes again here makes me feel fresh and happy."
As of press time, the cumulative box office of "Lonely Rock" (Part 1), which was released on April 25, has reached 19.18 million yuan; the cumulative box office of "Lonely Rock" (Part 2), which was released on May 10, was 4.313 million yuan in two days, slightly lower than the classic science fiction animation "Ghost in the Shell" (4.39 million yuan) released on the same day. The latter two films, together with the powerful Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece "Princess Mononoke" (84.61 million yuan in 11 days), the record-breaking "Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Dragon King", and the domestic animation "Octonauts: The Great Tsunami" aimed at young children, currently half of the top ten works on the box office list are animated films produced by China and Japan.
