Recently, as one of the series of activities of the 4th Aolaiwu Awards Season, the 3rd Aolaiwu Forum, hosted by the Aolaiwu Group and hosted by the Aolaiwu Film Critics Association, was held at the Wynn Palace in Macau, China. This forum is divided into two halves, both hosted by the famous Beijing TV host Tian Ge. In the second half, Wan Chuanfa, deputy director of the Film Culture Research Center of Shanghai Theater Academy, Suo Yabin, professor of the School of Drama and Film of Communication University of China, A Lang, editor-in-chief of "Watching Movies", Han Haoyue, the famous film critic, Lin Jinxuan, editor-in-chief of "Contemporary Film", Macau University of Science and Technology Zhang Linming, associate professor of the School of Humanities and Arts, and Hu Jianli, secretary-general of the Australian Laiwu Film Critics Association, who served as the academic host of this session, discussed the topic of "how Chinese films can resonate with the audience's emotions in realistic themes."
In 2023, China's film industry recovered quickly after the epidemic. The film market was well supplied and excellent films continued to emerge, igniting the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies. The annual movie box office in mainland China once again reached a high of 50 billion yuan. Works with realistic themes such as "In the Octagon" and "All or Nothing" dare to touch on hot social issues of concern to the people and have won wide attention from society. How realistic-themed movies can better resonate emotionally with audiences is an issue worthy of discussion by film academics and critics.
Characteristics of emotional expression in Chinese realistic-themed films in recent years
Professor Wan Chuanfa, deputy director of the Film Culture Research Center of Shanghai Theater Academy, said that the creation of realistic-themed movies in recent years has shown several major characteristics in terms of emotional expression: First First, in terms of emotional expression, current Chinese films are returning to the mainstream Chinese film tradition. This tradition is the mainstream line pioneered by directors Zheng Zhengqiu, Cai Chusheng and Xie Jin. Among them, the creative mode of family ethics as a method was firstly restored. In terms of aesthetics and narrative, the emotional expression is restored to an ordinary person. "The Octagonal Cage" and "The Three Brigades" are all emotional expressions of ordinary people. This is actually reconnected with the entire film tradition, so it can trigger The audience resonates emotionally.
Secondly, in the process of modernization and transformation of traditional Chinese culture, current films place special emphasis on the direction of film Confucianism. In fact, this is a continuation of film Confucianism, a continuation of people, love, and excellent ethics unique to China, and an insistence on idealism. In addition, the entire emotional expression is different from the past: movies in the past hoped to adopt an emotional eclecticism, but recently the expression method of movies has changed, and it is no longer eclectic, but folding. For example, "The Myth of Love" is an emotional film for the middle class. After its release, it was welcomed not only by intellectuals, but also by ordinary citizens. The basic reason is that the emotion in the film is not compromised, but is a very well-folded expression. This folding triggers various collisions and resonances of the entire emotion and emotion.
Another interesting phenomenon is that in recent years, the emotional expressions of reality-themed movies are the emotional expressions of fairy tales, such as "The Miracle Kid" and "The Octagonal Cage". In fact, they are all processes of counterattack from the bottom and belong to emotional fairy tales. way of expression. Fairy tale expressions exist in a large number of Chinese films, especially reality-themed films: "Mom!" " is a fairy tale expression about the emotions of the elderly, "Send You a Little Red Flower" is a fairy tale expression of a special emotion, and "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles" is a fairy tale expression of culture. The most fundamental reason why these films are so popular is that they have great innovations in this area.
A Lang, the editor-in-chief of "Watching Movies" and a famous film critic, believes that if "Hero" in 2002 is regarded as a turning point for Chinese movies, then today, in addition to visual stimulation, audiences also require psychological resonance when watching movies. At this time, works that are closer to reality appeared. The recently released "The Third Brigade" is a masterpiece of realistic themes. This movie describes people in real life, and this person also has the spirit of "chivalry" in traditional Chinese culture, making the connection between the excellent traditional culture and the genes of reality Forming a wonderful connection, this is a very heartwarming part of this movie.
What's particularly exciting is that "The Three Brigades" is a story that actually happened in real life, including the original character. After the movie became so popular, he never gave interviews and still did the same things as on the screen. Sometimes movies provide us with several dimensions of thinking, which have both practical significance and the spirit of traditional Chinese culture. The first and second half of today's forum revealed a secret of Chinese films - that is, we have finally passed the stage of imitation and reference, and finally started to pay attention to the people and things in this land. Our movies are somewhat similar to the crops grown on this land. This crop only belongs to this land. If it is moved to another land, it will not survive. This is also the future of Chinese movies.
"The Octagonal Cage" is a hit that integrates the audience's feelings towards Wang Baoqiang.
Zhang Linming, associate professor at the School of Humanities and Arts and Assistant Dean of the School of Film at the Macau University of Science and Technology, expressed his own views on the reality of Macau becoming a performing arts capital. He said that there are a large number of performing arts activities held in Macau almost every day, including the Macau International Film Festival, Macau International Film Festival, Asia Pacific International Film Festival, etc. There are also many independent film producers and independent film creators in Macau, but Macau's film industry has not been developed over the years and is more dependent on Hong Kong. Macau has a very long history of film screening. Almost with the birth of film, we can see some film images in Macao. Macau University of Science and Technology is building an academic platform for the Macau Film Archive, which has just been launched. Macau has a very special regional advantage. Here you can see some native images from almost all over the world, and it has the advantage of multi-cultural collision.
Macau is small, but it is full and rich; it is very modern and very traditional, a very post-modern tradition. Walking here feels very magical. You may think that the stories that happen in Macau are all OK and normal. It connects the East and the West, tradition and modernity - it is very diverse and inclusive. Many movies come to Macau for filming, but just coming to film is not enough. How to develop Macau's film industry, how to develop Hengqin, and how to take advantage of the advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will have great potential in the future.
Suo Yabin, a professor at the School of Drama and Film at Communication University of China, talked about the reality-themed movies that were popular at the box office this year. He believed that hot topic movies like "All or Nothing" are part of the reality-themed movies, and their creations have received more official support and cooperation. In response to national policies, it is an atypical and huge success. He personally thinks that a better example is "The Octagon". This film also touches on a hot topic. The prototype character in the film caused a lot of controversy seven or eight years ago. At that time, he even participated in the planning of films with related themes. Tell me if you can film it. Finally, many years later, Wang Baoqiang directed and starred in it. Although it was far away from the hot topics of the time, it was still a very successful work.
In "The Octagon", the male protagonist uses his children to box and trick them into buying insurance. He was scolded for a while, but looking at it from another angle, what he did can actually be called a good thing. Whether it's a person or a thing, if you look at it from different angles, the scale of evaluation may change, and the nature of the thing will also change. This is a particularly successful aspect of the film. The success of "The Octagon" also lies in the integration of Wang Baoqiang's personal experience and the public's feelings about him. This is a particularly awesome point. Chen Sicheng said that the movie itself may have a box office of 1 billion, and the additional 1 billion box office is actually because the audience will feel that Wang Baoqiang is perfectly integrated into the protagonist of the film. This is hard to come by, but every director and actor can find something unique of their own. It is particularly rare to be able to combine realistic themes with personal experiences and hot topics.
OEM is prevalent in some high-grossing reality-themed movies.
Well-known film critic and writer Han Haoyue said: In the past, there was a saying about reality-themed movies called pseudo-realism, and later it was called suspended realism. Now it should be called OEM realism.Many high-grossing reality-themed movies have labels attached to them, causing you to ignore the content of the film and only be attracted by its fancy labels. "I'm Not the God of Medicine" has a high box office, and everyone will think it deserves it. However, there are many things that can be discussed and questioned about reality-themed movies with high box office in 2023. Many of them do not rely on the realism spirit contained in the film or the story itself to attract audiences, but rely on the consumption of some social topics. The bundling of topics such as gender antagonism on social media, and even the consumption of the creators behind the movie, are all a chaos caused by the prevalence of real-life theme OEMism.
Han Haoyue believes that compared with high-grossing reality-themed movies, small- and medium-cost realistic-themed literary and artistic films present and explore realism more deeply, such as "The Mistake by the River" and "Universe Exploration Editorial Department" may not have high box office, but he From it, I feel that the work's concern for reality is more real, more systematic, and more critical than those high-grossing movies. He feels that a truly great work with realistic themes must be able to infuse 100% of the spirit of realism into a small incision. Labels and branding are not important, but what they want to express and sincerely tell the audience. Being able to be received by the audience without loss is an urgent problem that reality-themed movies need to solve.
Lin Jinting, editor-in-chief of "Contemporary Film" and executive editor of "Contemporary Animation", mainly talked about his own views from the perspective of domestic realistic-themed animated films, hoping to lead everyone to pay attention to the creation of realistic themes in Chinese animated films. To this end, she listed and analyzed three domestic reality-themed animated films in 2018, "Youth", "Yesterday's Blue Sky" and "Big World". The first two are about youth campus themes, while "Big World" focuses on marginalized characters. , the box office ranges from 2 million to more than 80 million. The first two films still have some shadows of Japanese comics in the style and plot, which are not localized enough. However, the animated films in the past two years have shown localized style and style. For example, the 2021 "Lion" focuses on local cultural themes and teenagers, as well as the dreams of ordinary people, and earned more than 200 million at the box office.
The reality-themed animated film "Tea No. 2 Middle School" released this summer, competed on the same stage as "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" and many excellent live-action movies, and finally received a box office of 384 million yuan, which shows that it is very popular. This is also an expansion of domestic animated films with realistic themes. This film is about youth and campus, which is very common in live-action films, but it is relatively rare to use animation and comedy. The director set the characters in the film to speak Northeastern dialect, which is very contagious. There are also many interesting campus stories. The ending is positive and upbeat, returning to reality, which is very down-to-earth. Moreover, the film plays the empathy card very well and the marketing is also very good.
Aolaiwu Forum was founded in October 2020. It is a high-end international film and television cultural industry forum held during the annual Aolaiwu Awards Season. The organizer invites leading figures, experts and scholars in the film and television culture industry at home and abroad to express their opinions or exchange opinions on hot topics such as the development direction and trends of the film and television culture industry in Macao, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China and even the world.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang
editor/Cui Wei
