Our reporter Miao Chun
"The annual meeting cannot be stopped!" poster.
《What’s in the Zoo? "poster.
"Provisional Heist" poster. The pictures accompanying this article are all provided by the producer
"If You Are the One 3" "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" "What's in the Zoo?" ""Temporary Heist"... Recently, many domestic comedy movies have been released, leading the audience to laugh at the past and welcome the new year. Among them are works such as "The Annual Party Can't Stop!", which has received the highest score among domestic comedy films on online platforms in the past five years. As the Spring Festival is approaching, several comedy movies or movies incorporating comedy elements have been announced to be released in the near future during the Spring Festival. The film market is ushering in a wave of domestic comedy films.
The dark horse comedy film became a blockbuster
"The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" will be released on December 29, 2023. It tells the story of Hu Jianlin, a fitter who was transferred to the headquarters by accident when the group was laying off employees. He was full of jokes because he was incompatible with the environment. On January 5, 2024, Liu Fan, an associate researcher at the China Academy of Arts, happily sent a message to WeChat Moments after watching the movie, praising it as a "rarely good comedy." Liu Fan is an expert on the film industry and genre films. He believes that in recent years, the number of popular domestic comedies has decreased compared with previous years. This is partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, but it cannot be entirely attributed to this. "Comedies are different from other genres. They require screenwriters, directors, and starring actors to work together to create and constantly collide, so that more sparks and inspiration can emerge." "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" goes beyond the platter-style comedy and over-the-top farce. , has a complete structure and logic, and has profound irony, warm sympathy and compassion for the weak. "Its appearance is the result of the hard work of its core creative team. It represents that local original comedy works finally broke out and broke out." Creative Lows.” Zhang Tong, senior analyst at
Maoyan Research Institute, said that "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" has gained high reputation on various platforms since it was released, and it also showed a "dark horse" status after its release. As of January 17, 2024, the film's box office has reached 827 million yuan. According to Maoyan Professional Edition, the total box office will exceed 1 billion yuan. She said that Maoyan users and the media generally praised the film for its dense laughter, interesting plot, and outstanding acting skills. Its true presentation of the current workplace made the audience laugh and resonate strongly.
"The Annual Party Can't Stop!" screenwriter and director Dong Runnian has written scripts for comedy films such as "Beautiful Heart" and "Crazy Alien". He said that the script of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" took five years to write. He interviewed many friends who worked in large companies and factories, and also collected some news reports to understand the real situation in the workplace. For example, in the film, Hu Jianlin's absurd behavior of "rolling names" while walking around the company, making everyone mistakenly believe that he will be laid off, came from Dong Runnian's interview with the human resources department of a certain company. He introduced that during the actual filming of the film, actors such as Dapeng, Baike, Wang Xun and Sun Yizhou all had strong creative abilities. They frequently used "live-action" and "inserted situations", and their on-the-spot performance added color to the film. few.
Zhang Tong believes that the absolute number of comedy movies has not decreased in recent years. As the audience’s consumption of content has upgraded, the single type of domestic movies in the early years has been difficult to meet demand, so more and more themes, types, and elements have been integrated. movies, comedies are no exception. For example, the box-office hit "Detective Chinatown" series and "Man Jiang Hong" are both comedy + suspense, "Hello, Li Huanying" is comedy + family affection, and "Walking Alone on the Moon" is comedy + science fiction, etc. "Integrating elements from other genres is a good direction for comedy to explore. Audiences always need freshness. Adding elements from other genres allows comedies to be 'funny' while also having a larger space for expression and a richer presentation." Zhang Tong said.
Hot reality creates prosperous situation
Domestic movies have never lacked comedies. The year 2012 was an important watershed for domestic comedy films. "囧囧路之囧" became the annual box office champion with 1.002 billion yuan. From then on, domestic comedy films entered the "1 billion+" era. From then on until 2016, the annual box office champions of domestic films were comedies. It was not until the appearance of "Wolf Warrior 2" in 2017 that this situation was broken.Zhang Tong pointed out that directors and actors who are good at comedy genres have promoted the emergence of high-grossing domestic comedies. Directors such as Stephen Chow, Xu Zheng, Jackie Chan, Feng Xiaogang, Ning Hao, Chen Sicheng and directors under the Happy Twist label all have their own specialties. In the direction of comedy, the production has also gradually developed from the initial small and medium-cost to high-cost and large-scale production. In recent years, more directors, including famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, have also tried to make comedies, while young creators such as Dapeng have gradually explored their own styles.
Over the past decade or so, Chinese comedy movies have emerged one after another with various styles, achieving a prosperity of comedy movies that is relatively rare in the world. Liu Fan pointed out that the rapid development of Chinese society and the earth-shaking changes in people's lives have led to the continuous emergence of a variety of comedy materials, stimulating creators to create colorful comedy works.
Comedy is also a universal human language. "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" appeared at the New Year's Movie Reception hosted by the China Film Foundation and China Film Group Corporation before its official release. Foreign envoys stationed in China and people from the Chinese film industry enjoyed this grand gathering of Chinese comedians.
Jointly meet the needs of family fun
Recently, movies such as "Fake Agent", "Away", "Hot and Furious", "Mr. Red Carpet", "Flying Life 2" and "Article 20" have announced that they will be released or scheduled to be released shortly before the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival stall. They are either comedy movies or contain comedy elements, making the audience full of expectations.
Comedies are a must-have for family viewing during holidays, so usually large-scale comedies are released during the Spring Festival, National Day, Summer, New Year's Day and other schedules where there is a demand for family viewing. Comedies or films with comedy elements that are currently scheduled for the Spring Festival are also in line with the family-watching motivation of the Spring Festival. Zhang Tong said that judging from the audience's "want to watch" data, the live-action movies that currently perform relatively well are "Flying Life 2" and "Hot and Spicy". The leading actors of both films, Shen Teng and Jia Ling, are deeply loved by the audience. comedian.
Liu Fan pointed out that comedy movies are especially suitable for collective viewing in the cinema. Only by sharing emotions and infecting each other can the entertainment effect of comedy movies be better exerted. If the live effect in the cinema is good, even if the film quality is not very good, it will achieve good box office results. For example, "Unfamiliar Life", which was released on May 1st in 2023, had a moderate reputation, but it counterattacked at the box office a few days after its release and won the "May 1st" box office championship. He said that the next comedy he is looking forward to is "Hot", "The first film directed by Jia Ling, "Hello, Li Huanying", achieved a surprising but reasonable high box office." The title of the second film "Hot and Spicy" is just right, and we will wait and see how it will be released."
Regarding the future creation of domestic comedy films, Liu Fan suggested that we should first be rooted in reality, grasp the pulse of the main audience, that is, those in their twenties and thirties, and create an emotional resonance with them. "Although the comedies of Ning Hao, Chen Sicheng, and Xu Zheng "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" also has traces of the American film "Shadow Tycoon" and the Russian film "The Imperial Envoy", but they are all very successful localized creations that can resonate with local audiences." Secondly, major movies should open their arms and absorb comedians and comedy ideas from other platforms. For example, Dapeng and Baike, the protagonists of "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" are both first-generation Internet people, and some actors who stood out from the "Annual Comedy Competition" joined the film. The end of the film uses rap and talk shows. The form expresses emotions and pushes the film to a climax.
Zhang Tong believes that comedies will remain the mainstream type of domestic films for some time to come, and there will be more comedy works that focus on the present, are close to life, have more unique perspectives, and have smaller entry points. "The audience also hopes to continue to see realistic comedy works like "The Annual Party Can't Stop!" that are more connected to themselves, so that domestic comedy movies have both breadth and depth, and are richer and more diverse."
