The combination of Yang Mi + Yu Qian is very fresh.
When the official lineup of the movie " Nothing That Can't Be Solved by Hot Pot" (hereinafter referred to as "Hot Pot") directed by Ding Sheng was officially announced, many people felt the same way - it would be interesting to have such a combination. Think about it, top-notch, coupled with the popularity and acting skills of Brother Qian, the topic is full of buzz, the expectations are soaring, how bad can the box office be?
But the reality is that a hot pot meal can't solve anything - in the May 1st season of 2024, this movie completely failed. By the end of the holiday, it only received 53 million box office, and the cumulative box office is predicted to be less than 100 million, while several leading films They are all around 300 million, which is a huge disparity. Although the film's scenes are simple, the cost is still over 100 million, and Yang Mi alone received a lot of salary. With the current performance and reputation, the film will undoubtedly lose money.
html At 12:00 on May 5, "Hot Pot" suddenly officially announced that it would withdraw from the May Day schedule. However, judging from the historical data of withdrawn films and re-uploading them, it is hard to be optimistic and the defeat is certain. Behind, it actually reflects the loneliness of He Jianfeng, the only son of He Xiangjian, the founder of the electronics giant "Midea", who entered the entertainment industry.
｜The Loneliness of the "Beautiful" Son
Another "left behind" movie in the May 1st slot, " Journey Through the Moon ", is expected to have a final box office of more than 60 million (currently less than 38 million). Director Li Weiran and "Hot Pot" 》Director Ding Sheng, who is also a commercial film director and has won advertising awards, can be said to be sharing the same fate this time.
What is even more coincidental is that "Hot Pot" and "Moon" are both produced by the same company, "Baina Qiancheng" - owned by He Jianfeng, the son of Midea Group founder He Xiangjian.
"Baina Qiancheng" was formerly known as Hualu Baina, which was owned by the state-owned China Hualu Group at the time. It was founded in 2002 and entered the capital market in 2012. At the beginning of its establishment, Hualubaina's main business was the production of TV series (such as "The Great Emperor of Han Dynasty"), and later expanded into the field of variety shows. In 2014, it acquired the variety show production company Blue Flame at a cost of 2.5 billion yuan. Produced popular variety shows such as " Crossover Singer " and " Goddess's New Clothes ".
2016 was the peak period of Hualu Baina's development. That year's revenue was 2.575 billion yuan, net profit was 385 million yuan, and its market value exceeded 50 billion yuan (now only 5 billion is left). However, around 2018, the entertainment environment changed. Even with the support of central enterprises, Hualu Baina's operating conditions still plummeted. This year, Blue Flame, which cost 2.5 billion to acquire, was sold at a loss of 4.4 million yuan.
At the beginning of 2018, Hualu Group withdrew, and Infore Group, a subsidiary of "White Knight" He Jianfeng, rushed to help, spending 1.8 billion to become the actual controller of the company. After 2020, He Jianfeng successively invested hundreds of millions of yuan (a total of 2.4 billion) to acquire 31.5% of the shares, thus becoming the largest shareholder. In 2022, Hualu Baina officially changed its name to Baina Qiancheng.
He Jianfeng, who was born in 1967, followed a different path from his industrial father He Xiangjian.
As early as 1994, He Jianfeng left Midea to set up his own business and established Infore Group. It mainly focused on capital operations and acquired and invested in various industries. The industries were complex and had little to do with each other. At the end of 2023, Infore Group spent tens of billions to take over the furniture leader Gujia Home Furnishing, bringing He Jianfeng into the spotlight again.
Although He Jianfeng did not take over the Midea team, he is the only son of He Xiangjian and is still regarded by the outside world as a prince-like existence of the Midea Group.
At present, Infore Group's business involves the fields of culture, environment, consumption, investment and technology, including auctions, maternal and infant, children's clothing, robots, financial technology, and powder metallurgy parts. When entering the entertainment industry, the starting point was the acquisition of Hualubaina.
He Jianfeng’s Capital Map (Source: City Realm)
Previously, Baina Qiancheng mainly focused on drama series and had less involvement in the film industry. Even if it did, it would only be as a co-producer with relatively small investment. In 2021, the controlling acquisition of Beijing Wonderful, founded by former Beijing Culture Vice President Zhang Miao (which has participated in popular films such as "Hello! Li Huanying" and " Sniper "), is considered a big deal, and it also used this curve to enter the film industry.
This May Day show is He Jianfeng's first initiative in the film industry - "Ojiang Meizhi", the first producer of "Hot Pot" and "Huizhou Guangyou", the first producer of "Moon", both received hundreds of thousands of dollars. Its holding companies.
was unexpected, but failed miserably. Together, the two movies will cause hundreds of millions of losses to Baina Qiancheng (re-releases of "Hot Pot" may not be able to turn the tide).
Before the holiday, on April 28, Baina Qiancheng had just released its first quarter financial report, with a net profit of about 3.52 million. Compared with the same period last year, it turned a loss into a profit. Coupled with the benefit of two consecutive releases on May 1st, therefore , causing its stock to hit its daily limit on April 29. However, the two main films are both upside down. It is conceivable that the opening after the holidays will not be good.
"Moon" seems to have a literary style (actually it is a romance film) just by looking at the title. It is conceivable that it will not be a hit. However, why did Yang Mi + Yu Qian's "Hot Pot" fail miserably?
still has to return to the movie itself to discuss.
｜The disconnect between the creators and the audience
"Nothing That Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot" is a typical "script-killing" story, which has become very popular in recent years, such as " Famous ", " Riverbank " and other films fall into this category It is a genre with concentrated scenes and emphasis on reversal. If handled well, it can easily make a huge difference and even catch up with heavy industry movies (such as "The Wandering Earth 2") at the box office.
In comparison, the script-killing attribute of "Hot Pot" is stronger. After all, the backgrounds of the two aforementioned films are either the Republic of China or ancient times, and the various elements are richer. The main scene of "Hot Pot" is a theater backstage warehouse, with four characters using mahjong tiles as aliases, plus a "Kaizi" Director Fu... It's just a place with a few people, it really saves money.
But modern dramas also have the weakness of modern dramas, that is, they cannot kill people casually like the Republic of China and costume dramas. After all, once someone dies, the matter will become a big deal, and it will not be easy to continue the story... If you ignore everything, bite the bullet, or even "ignore your conscience" to continue the story, you will end up with a It's out of control, and the circle will never come back, and "Hot Pot" falls into this exact situation.
Therefore, the finished film will be stretched.
It is no surprise that the Douban score of "Hot Pot" has just reached the passing level (6.3 points). Among the popular short reviews, the first one to bear the brunt is this - "This movie completely shows the upper limit of the director and each actor. It can be called "Nothing" "What a movie can't prove". "
There are many negative comments like this. For example, netizen "Did I say anything?" commented: "Two stars for Yu Qian. I can't explain it after watching the movie. I was confused. "Yang Mi's acting skills are so dramatic that she can't explain the plot clearly in just one script..."
The situation on the main creator's side is completely different. When
director Ding Sheng was interviewed at the beginning, he was full of confidence. He said that he wrote the script and completed it in two months. The process was smooth and very satisfying. The actors are also very supportive. Teacher Yu Qian, after reading the script, immediately decided to adjust the schedule to coordinate with the filming of the film, and almost completely accepted the director's ideas.
As for the female lead, Ding Sheng originally thought that this role was not perfect, had flaws, and was different from Yang Mi’s previous roles, but unexpectedly, after reading the script, she agreed to play the role without making any requests. What is even more exaggerated is the actor Tian Yu. He told Director Ding many times that this script is just an embryo of a beauty. If everyone cleans up and describes it, it will become a big beauty.
Comparing the two, why is there such a big difference between the audience's comments and the self-perception of the director and actors, just like the Yuanyang hotpot in Chongqing, one is "clear soup with little water" and the other is "hot and piping hot"?
director Ding Sheng graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Beijing Film Academy in 1994. In 2000, he got the opportunity to make a movie called "Fuss". In terms of story, it is a bit like "囧". But maybe this film was a bit "ahead of its time" for the mainland film industry. Anyway, it was a huge hit and had a big impact on Director Ding, so he "returned" to further his studies in the directing department of Nortel.
Later, he joined the advertising industry and shot 300 TV commercials in six years, including five image films for Chongqing. He had to stay for more than half a month for each shot. It was considered to be the filming of "Hot Pot" "One of the origins of.
More importantly, shooting commercials allowed him to get up close and personal with superstars like Jackie Chan. After filming "Tough Guy" produced by Wang Jing, Ding Sheng collaborated with Jackie Chan in "Little Soldier" in 2010, and with this film he became a member of the mainland's billion-dollar director club.
Advertising directors are close to celebrities and capital. They can get the most out of their time, but they also have disadvantages. They are too easy to take into account the needs of the sponsors. They always strive to express their appeals in the shortest time and make the pictures as bright and beautiful as possible. , the details are in place. There are many advertising-style shooting methods in "Hot Pot", such as hot pot ingredients and juice splashing under various high-speed lenses... But they are out of touch with the whole scene, and even out of tune with the characters' movements and emotions at the time. They were just cut together.
｜The director overestimated his own abilities
In addition to their background in advertising, another thing that these two directors, Ding Sheng and Li Weiran, have in common is that they both write their own scripts.
In addition to the earliest film "Big Bang", Ding directed his own works, including the three films "Little Soldiers", " Police Story 2013" and "Railway Tigers", which he collaborated with. He also served as screenwriter. But the problem is that the scripts of action movies, especially Hong Kong-style action movies, are different from ordinary scripts. They are more like connecting words between Spring Festival Gala programs, just an embellishment.
Some people say that no matter who directs Jackie Chan's movies, in the end the "director" is himself. Although this is an exaggeration, it is not unreasonable. Jackie Chan's own action scenes have "authorship" , but it does not include literary opera.
The best film written and directed by Jackie Chan should be "Wonder" in 1989, but the story is not original, but derived from Frank Capra's "A Lady for a Day" in 1933 and "A Lady for a Day" in 1961. Tips and tricks."
In other words, the script of a Jackie Chan-style movie can only serve as the icing on the cake, but cannot provide help in times of need. But Ding Sheng thought that his directing and screenwriting skills could upgrade previous Hong Kong film classics to a higher level, so he produced "Police Story 2013" and "A Better Tomorrow 4", but naturally they were rejected. In fact, they all ended up failing.
But this time, the reason why he had the confidence to write and direct "Hot Pot" was probably because of "Rescue Mr. My Life", which is also a single-space drama, with very concentrated conflicts and is about to break out. To be honest, it's really good, with tension and relaxation, and it can be regarded as a masterpiece of this type of movie.
But this time "Hot Pot" is very different. It is not adapted from real events. There is no contest between the police and gangsters. The conflict between the good and the bad is not intense, and it even becomes lyrical in a sketch style at the end. This suddenly made the whole movie full of flaws, and I had to lament that I had overestimated my ability in fictional stories.
Although it actually belongs to the same genre as "Famous" and "Man Jiang Hong", when Ding Sheng wrote the screenplay, he probably did not have these two movies in mind, but the Japanese movie " Like the Moon" and Quentin Quentin Early classic " Reservoir Dogs ".
"Hot Pot" and "Suspicious Clouds Like the Moon" have too many similarities in setting. They are both characters who don't know each other. They got together temporarily because of a common opportunity, and then in a long dialogue , began to constantly reverse, including everyone's identity and the truth of the matter. But the biggest difference between the two is that "Suspicious Clouds" always revolves around the cause of the idol's death. After the true identity of each character is revealed, it can give people surprises and surprises. The idol himself is not present because he has passed away. The focus of everyone's discussion.
"Hot Pot" is very different. It seems that several characters are related to Director Fu played by Tian Yu, but he is also present, so this character is particularly weird and completely illogical. I really don't know that Tian Yu has read the script. Finally, why do you think that is a beautiful woman? It is obviously a tasteless piece of food that is worthless to throw away.
What’s more terrible is that Ding Sheng felt that paying tribute to "Suspicious Clouds" was not enough, and he had to come up with something more exciting. After all, he is a straight male action film director, and he has to "act with martial arts and sing" no matter what, so he thought of Kunming. Ting's debut film "Reservoir Dogs". Although this movie was born out of Lam Ling-tung's "Dragon and Tiger", it removed all the details and only used the warehouse as the main scene.
And like "Hot Pot", the characters in it don't know each other beforehand and all use code names. "Hot Pot" uses code names, while "Hot Pot" uses code names. There is an "foreign" character who is kidnapped in both films. In "Hot Pot" it is Director Fu, and in "The Fall" it is the undercover policeman.
However, it is more reasonable for a gang boss to temporarily gather a group of people to rob, but because of the demolition of the theater, a Sichuan Opera "troupe leader" can unite a group of strangers in the WeChat group to go to the demolition office in just a few words. Director Fu's family stole his embezzled money and even caused "human life". This is really unbelievable.
｜Capital cannot buy people's hearts
In addition to the director and the script, a script like this kills the movie, and it also tests the acting skills of the actors, because most of the time, they are looking up and not looking down, and everyone gathers together to chat, It's a big challenge for my line skills, it's more like performing a drama on the stage.
"Hot Pot" started shooting on February 8, 2023, and was completed on March 1. It only took more than 20 days to shoot, and because the scenes were very concentrated, it was shot in the order of the script, instead of different scenes as usual. , shot while jumping and backwards. There are six actors in the film, including Yang Mi, Yu Qian, Tian Yu, Yu Ailei, Li Jiuxiao and Huang Xiaolei.
Among them, Yang Mi is an actor that everyone can't see without looking up. She can be seen everywhere, and there is no freshness. And she doesn't have the feeling of being reincarnated in her performance. At a glance, she is still the top-notch Yang Mi. Therefore, we can only say that A word of "bad". What is most criticized about her is her line skills - she has a unique pronunciation method, which is very nasal and a bit mysterious and lazy. And no matter what role she plays, Yang Mi insists on using only this kind of pronunciation. In "Hot Pot" China is no exception.
Just as Director Ding Sheng said in an interview, Yang Mi's role as Yaoji in the film has flaws and is not perfect. To put it bluntly, he has a strong smell of dust, is good at dancing, and is a social butterfly. To be honest, this is a common role in previous Hong Kong films. It is a specialty of actresses such as Maggie Cheung and Qiu Shuzhen. It is easy to perform a true nature under the fierce appearance, which is both likeable and embarrassing.
But similar characters, when played by Yang Mi, are "the same face, the same voice", with no hierarchy or appeal at all.
As a famous cross talk artist, Yu Qian has his own unique line skills and can hold his own. But movies are not just language art, they also require the coordination of characters and stories. It is not difficult to find that regardless of the script, Brother Qian's ability to improvise is not as strong as expected. In "Hot Pot", he has few baggage that he can shake off.
Of course, there is a problem with the positioning of this character. At first glance, he sounds like a ruthless character. He is supposed to be a big boss, but when played by Brother Qian, he is very timid and more like a "funny". When things started, it immediately withered again and lost its backbone, thus making this already unreliable script even more untenable.
Tian Yu is a very recognizable actor, but as mentioned above, his role is actually absent in "Suspicious Clouds Like the Moon" and does not need to exist. Therefore, no matter how slippery and quirky Mr. Tian's performance is, it is still a bit weak and seems redundant.
Tian Yu has worked very hard, showing many different performance states in the film, including the stiff type, the cunning type, the choked type... But the best performance among them should be the stupid type at the end, that is He was delirious and all he could say was "What is daddy's daddy?"
"Hot Pot" is a very unique and down-to-earth food culture, and the movie "Hot Pot" is very much like a story that a few people put together in a lively atmosphere around a hot pot, talking to you and me. The atmosphere at the time was undoubtedly in full swing, but when it was actually filmed, it was probably a completely different story.
At the same time, at the production level, "Hot Pot" is also full of too many calculations, always thinking about how to fully implement the use and patchwork principle based on the wisdom and experience of the predecessors, and to use the most "cost-effective" team to produce In order to win the highest box office, there are not enough literary dramas and martial arts dramas to make up for it. One taken-for-granted reversal cannot solve the problem, so let's do two... But doing so will not really solve the box office and reputation issues anyway.
For He Jianfeng, the producer behind the scenes, although he is good at dancing in the capital market, the cruelty of the film and television industry is that -
capital can buy traffic and celebrities, but it cannot buy the hearts of the audience. Written by
| Planning by Li Yi and jacka
| Entertainment Chunqiu Editorial Department
