This year's New Year's Day box office broke a record of 1.517 billion yuan. However, the old IP movie "If You Are the One 3", a new work launched after 13 years, was far less than expected. The box office during the period was only 54 million yuan. The 605 million yuan of "A Shining Star" is very different; the Douban score of 6.2 is far lower than the 8.1 score of "The Annual Meeting Cannot Stop!" which is also a comedy. 》.
In 2008, "If You Are the One" ranked first in domestic film history with a box office of 251 million yuan. In 2010, "If You Are the One 2" also won the box office championship in the Lunar New Year box office that year with a box office of 471 million yuan. Now, "If You Are the One 3" not only cannot be Liao Hua in the 2023 Lunar New Year period when "there are no generals in Sichuan", but has become cannon fodder in the schedule competition. People can't help but feel that the once brilliant Feng's comedy may have become the tears of the times.
"If You Are the One 3" poster
Many people believe that the mainland Lunar New Year movie originated from Feng Xiaogang's "Party A and Party B" in 1997. Movies such as "See You or Die", "Endless", "Big Shot", "If You Are the One 1 and 2", and "Private Order" will be available to audiences in mid-to-late December, giving mainland audiences their own New Year films. The glib humor presents love and family affection, mixed with some social reality, life insights, and straightforward advertising placement, forming the gradually standardized characteristics of Feng's comedy. It not only detonated the box office but also contributed some famous quotes and jokes that are still circulated today. For example, Li Chengru's classic line in "Big Shot" about "not seeking the best, just the most expensive" in real estate was adapted and reappeared on the variety show "Actors Please Take Your Place" twenty years later.
Stills of "If You Are the One 3"
The ending of "If You Are the One 2" revealed that the hero and heroine Qin Fen (played by Ge You) and Xiaoxiao (played by Shu Qi) will get married in 2030. The movie "If You Are the One 3" is set in 2031. Before the honeymoon was over, Xiaoxiao started picking up trash with a charity organization around the world and didn’t go home for a full ten years. In order to ease Qin Fen's lovesickness, Lao Fan (played by Fan Wei) developed the artificial intelligence human Xiaoxiao, allowing Qin Fen to experience the feeling of love again. At this time, Xiaoxiao returned from his trip. Qin Fen is in a dilemma whether to choose a robot that is more in line with his inner ideal or a real partner. In the end, whether it is true or false becomes a matter of suspense.
Looking back now, it is not unreasonable to look back at the original popularity of Feng's comedy. Both the subject matter and the way of expression seem to sense the opportunities of the times. For example, "If You Are the One" shows the collision of different views on marriage and love and the relationship between men and women under the rise of online dating. Together with the popular dating program "If You Are the One", it reflects the hot topics of the times. After the film was released, it also became popular in Xixi Wetland, Hangzhou, where it was filmed. It was also an early successful attempt to promote the integration of culture and tourism through film filming. In "If You Are the One 2", although the plot settings related to the divorce ceremony and holding a funeral for yourself are comic-like exaggerations, they are still full of humorous philosophical thinking and life situations.
If the times were a train, "If You Are the One 1 and 2" were at the front of the train, but by "If You Are the One 3", it had been left behind. Although it uses fashionable dopamine colors and artificial intelligence themes, the plot, lines, love concept, including straightforward product placement all give people a feeling of being out of touch with the times. Perhaps because everyone is used to watching online jokers deconstruct life in a fancy way every day, the audience has become immune to Feng's comedy's tongue-in-cheek humor and soulful sayings, and some old jokes frequently cause embarrassment. When Xiaoxiao, played by Shu Qi, said to Jianguo, played by Chang Yuan, "You look ugly, but you want to be beautiful," I felt like I had traveled back to the Spring Festival Gala ten years ago. There are many flashbacks to the first two films throughout the film, and the core characters from the previous films appear again, recasting the baggage they had in the past. The "master-apprentice line" between Yue Yunpeng and Li Chengru, which has nothing to do with the main plot and is slightly redundant, was also used in the variety show "Actors Please Take Your Place". Li Chengru was ridiculed by director Chen Kaige as "an old artist who feels the sunset of the past era." The hotly discussed lines seem to deliberately create topics for the movie outside of the movie.
Stills of "If You Are the One 3"
According to the 2023 China Film Market Annual Inventory Report recently released by Beacon Research Institute and Xinhuanet, two-thirds of Hollywood series movies in 2023 will have a box office decline of more than 60%. The core reason is the inability to attract young audiences. This is true for Hollywood movies with mature business models. Domestic series of movies also need to think about how to solve the problem of IP aging. Although "If You Are the One 3" has found a new sci-fi style, it seems to be a fusion of innovation, but it only has fantasy concepts and no scientific logic. When Qin Fen and the robot laugh and talk, many plots are reminiscent of the 1996 Cai Ming and Guo The Spring Festival Gala skit "Robot Funny Talk" performed by Da. Using artificial intelligence to explore the nature of love and human beings is not new at present. Even though Qin Fen, who is seventy years old, is willing to fall in love, he encounters the problem of "99% cardiovascular blockage" halfway through, which may scare away many young viewers who come to watch romantic love. In the movie's Easter egg, 66-year-old Ge You joked to himself, "At this age, I can't act in love scenes."
Compared with the aging of IP and memes, the bigger problem of "If You Are the One 3" may be that it was made behind closed doors and lost the real-life atmosphere of the first two films. The main scene of the entire movie is located in Qin Fen's mid-level villa. The colorful scenery and intelligent furniture imagination make people feel like they have entered a vacuum world abstracted from everything. The movie casts the popular actress Yu Shuxin in a role, which is obviously intended to attract young audiences, but these superficial features are not enough. From "If You Are the One" to "If You Are the One 3", the audience has changed several times, and the Lunar New Year show has now given way to the glory of the Spring Festival show. To maintain the vitality of IP, it is better to lean down and ask young audiences what they like.
