This May Day, the movie market is booming, which is both expected and unexpected.
The market has been buzzing, and in less than two days, the total box office has exceeded 820 million yuan.
But after watching several videos carefully, I felt like I was temporarily speechless.
The biggest winner is " Peacekeeping Riot Squad ", a peacekeeping police theme, starring Huang Jingyu, Wang Yibo, Zhong Chuxi, and Ou Hao.
made 136 million on its first day, ranking first in the single-day box office for three consecutive days.
’s far-leading results are in sharp contrast to the one-star and two-star short reviews on Douban.
" Howl's Moving Castle ", which had the highest number of wanted movies on all major platforms before May Day, is currently in a bleak situation. The film schedule of
has been fluctuating around 10%, and the cumulative box office is less than 80 million.
Lenovo Not long ago, Hayao Miyazaki's other new film " What kind of life do you want to live " just won nearly 800 million in box office. The gap of 10 times before and after is unpredictable.
" Kowloon Walled City: The Siege " starring Louis Koo and other Hong Kong stars has a score of 7.5. The reputation is also good, but it is still difficult to exceed 10% in the film schedule.
The most surprising thing is the comedy " The Last Day " starring Jia Bing, Tan Zhuo, and Xiao Shenyang.
From the title, story, style of painting to the cast, it all looks like a big online movie.
However, the box office performance after its release caught everyone off guard.
earned 174 million in two days, breaking the May Day comedy first-day box office record.
’s film schedule has also increased continuously from 15% to 20.3%, showing a strong tendency to reverse the decline and win the May Day box office championship.
This is a bit strange. Before
was released, many viewers predicted that "Thelma and Louise" was meant to be "funny" and would become the first cannon fodder in the schedule.
Is it because the audience is wearing "colored glasses" by mistake?
What is its actual quality?
With many questions, Brother Pi also walked into the theater and watched this new film.
01,
homophone movie carnival, how difficult is it to spend 1 million in 10 days?
Comedy is becoming more and more popular in today's movie market.
This also makes almost all movies want to rely on comedy.
Before the Spring Festival, the "Big Three" were all under the banner of "comedy".
Comedians came from all over the place to make guest appearances, and the film was full of funny jokes. The audience gained joy, the film gained box office, and the management gained profits. It seemed that a win-win situation was achieved.
"Thelma and Louise", which is the most popular on May Day, has the highest topic, has the highest attendance rate, and may also have the highest box office, is also a comedy.
Let’s first look at what kind of story the video tells.
If you were asked to spend 1 million in 10 days, how would you spend it?
This seems to be an old-fashioned setting. After all, in " The Richest Man in Xihong City ", Shen Teng, who completed this proposition, spent money with "100 million" level wealth.
But when this task falls to a person who has been diligent and frugal all his life and has to pay half of the toilet paper, things become interesting.
Jia Youwei, the ancient Greek god in charge of searching.
Toothpaste has to be "dried out" with a rolling pin. I never order soy milk for breakfast. I would rather suffer some physical pain than have a glass of expired milk.
traveled on an antique 28-bar, went to the supermarket to shop for goods, used discount coupons, and ended up spending 85 cents.
Jia Youwei cherishes money as much as his life. His biggest wish in life is to save 1 million and live a peaceful life.
lived like this for most of his life, and suddenly he received a bolt from the blue.
After an ordinary examination, Jia Youwei was diagnosed with an advanced stage of brain tumor.
There are 10 days left in life. The person is going to die and the money has not been spent.
Jia Youwei's parents died young and he was single. In order to save money, he never had a social life. Even his daily care was rejected by his neighbors.How to adjust
?
Huabei!
He thought of the brothers he admired when he was a child, so he sold his old and young children at a broken price, collected enough 1 million, and prepared to take his three brothers to the peak of life together.
The laughter of "Thelma and Louise" also arises from this contrast.
When a person who is completely fussy about searching faces the question of whether "remaining life" or "balance" will be reset to zero first, the energy he bursts out is quite powerful.
Jia Youwei uses a set of silky small combos to easily capture the temperament of his elder brother.
Every action of throwing coins revealed a carnival in a prosperous age that Chesou himself did not have before.
First, we arranged for the four brothers to stay in the presidential suite for 8,081 nights.
game arcade game currency, one person pushes a cart and enjoys the carnival.
ktv asked all the waiters to show off their beer, just to hear that big brother sound.
In the seafood mall, king crabs are on the left and Australian dragons are on the right. They are all released with a wave of the hand.
Not to mention, the movie has a lot of "Northeastern characteristics" and has the unique style of "old iron comedy".
The bathing culture is everywhere.
In order to have a good place to go after his death, Jia Youwei bought himself a "set" of luxurious cemetery, just because the sales were from Bai Yueguang when he was a child.
In order to feel the process of death, one has to experience the whole process personally.
A big bathhouse during his lifetime and a funeral parlor after his death.
All arrangements were made for bathing, washing face, and shaving, with a white vest and red pants, and the sense of joy could be seen on the screen.
In order to fulfill his childhood wish, he took the goddess to a luxury mall for shopping.
has tried all the packages on the upper body, and can also help her fight with debt collectors.
's childhood dream was almost realized when a bolt from the blue struck again.
Brain tumors are misdiagnosed.
money, but it’s all spent.
The three brothers face the poverty of their families and the goddess who has drifted away.
Jia Youwei's life has fallen into another extreme.
Focusing on "spending money" and "saving money", "Thelma and Louise" has a two-hour movie plot.
There are some parts that can really make people smile, especially viewers who like Northeastern regional memes will get more enjoyment from the movie.
But are these jokes and memes worthy of a record-breaking comedy title? Is the plot and interpretation of
worthy of setting off such a big wave of movie viewing on May 1st?
Sorry, Brother Pi may have to put a big question mark.
02,
Four brothers Jia Bing and Xiao Shenyang, why haven’t they moved around in 20 years? Values collapsed?
has to admit that "Thelma and Louise" does have some plot points that can make people laugh.
In addition to the old Internet memes, I call back the feelings of Xiao Shenyang's sketch 15 years ago. The scene where Jia Bing is holding a paper box and reselling "munitions" under the elevated road is surprisingly black and humorous.
But these are just flashes of inspiration.
As a theatrical comedy, "Thelma and Louise" is far from reaching the level of a record-breaking comedy, and even the quality itself is below the passing line.
The main creator of the movie has a background in short dramas.
director Uzhina has directed only two mini-series "Life Has Attacked Me" so far.
This kind of step-by-step development has also led to the production of "Thelma and Louise" being almost boring.
is a bit ambiguous in terms of editing, rhythm and core.
Let us temporarily ignore the logic and actions in the movie that do not conform to real life, and only focus on the characters and the core itself, giving a few simple examples.
Most of the jokes in the movie focus on the interactions between Jia Youwei after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and his three brothers who were his idols in childhood.
But what is puzzling is that the four of them have no emotional foundation, let alone the support of life interaction. They are just a grassroots team just for hard money.
Will a real-life old bachelor suddenly "discover his conscience" after a terminal illness, find a few middle school classmates he has not contacted for twenty years, and spend all his savings to realize their wishes?
is almost impossible.
Because there was no emotional support, Jia Youwei’s series of behaviors after his misdiagnosis, became a kind of cheap self-impression.
In his world, there is no one or thing to care about. In order to save money, he gave up all his social contacts.
And when he was dying, in order to prove his worth, he had to deliberately cater to these three familiar "strangers" through the "dog-licking" method of making money.
This makes the character Jia Youwei himself contradictory and unconvincing.
If the four of them are as close as brothers, sharing the same flesh and blood, so close that Jia Youwei, the eldest brother, is willing to spend life-saving money to provide them with entertainment, then why have they not contacted or moved around for more than 20 years?
On the other hand, if their relationship is not that good, then why can't Jia Youwei realize his own value by donating money, sponsoring a welfare home, or leaving a charity fund named after himself? Director
never explained or solved this problem from beginning to end, which caused Jia Youwei's initial motivation to be suspended.
This kind of suspension runs throughout, making many scenes in the movie become sketch-style funny jokes without inherent logical support.
Especially after Jia Youwei knew that he had been misdiagnosed, the conflicts between the four brothers under the overpass in the second half were more like water without a source.
A second ago, they were as good as brothers. The three of them had no shame in spending their eldest brother's money.
started fighting in the next second, and broke up completely because of a few ordinary curse words.
can understand that this is a necessary part of a movie. Without the "breakup" scene, the plot of the forty minutes after Jia Youwei's misdiagnosis would be impossible to talk about.
But this simple and crude treatment makes the apparent "climax" of the movie a waste of time.
In my opinion, it is better to end it completely after the misdiagnosis, so that this film can retain some of the characteristics that can be called a comedy.
Coupled with this nondescript climax, as well as the deliberate sensationalism and wish-fulfillment editing afterwards, it only added an uncomfortable taste to this fast food, turning it into a tasteless piece of chicken ribs.
Finally, and the biggest problem.
video gives people an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
The source of this feeling is from the beginning of the movie. The director's subjective orientation towards Jia Youwei's saving money and searching was a negative .
In the director's shots, Jia Youwei's various behaviors of excessively saving money are ridiculed and ridiculed from beginning to end.
These ridicules are not the correct guidance and values.
Because Jia Youwei’s savings all came from himself. He did not influence or harm anyone in terms of morality or law.
There is nothing wrong with being stingy about saving money, there is nothing wrong with being generous, and there is nothing wrong with being diligent and thrifty at home.
On the contrary, those friends and colleagues who took advantage of his money-saving mentality and made him bleed or even make a fool of himself are even more shameful.
What this subjective filter causes is that the movie must develop in one direction to justify itself:
That is, after Jia Youwei learned that he was terminally ill, he had to become generous and spend money for his brothers and pay for his goddess. Only then will it become a kind of political correctness that everyone accepts calmly.
The life goal of a money-saving male protagonist should not be to serve others. This is too cruel.
The whole story looks more like the creator came up with a joke about "saving money, discovering a terminal illness, and spending money desperately."
and a group of people thought that we should try the whole movie, so we added many peripheral characters to fill out the story line.
So many bridge designs feel like they are being forcibly piled up.
No matter as the main creator or the audience, we should not wear colored glasses to criticize a certain type of people's outlook on life and values.
All this makes "Thelma and Louise" lose its authenticity as a comedy movie.
03,
Capital is winning, but something worse is happening
In fact, if you look closely at the "comedies" of the past two years, it makes people feel chilly.
Including "Thelma and Louise", in fact, after a little comparison, we can find that domestic comedies have completely fallen into routines, formulas and fast food.
first compare horizontally.
When I saw the title of "Thelma and Louise", which is full of homophones, I couldn't help but feel a sense of discomfort in my heart.
If we talk about " Charlotte's Trouble ", it is quite creative.
The later " Li Mao plays the prince ", " Desperate Househusband " and "This Killer Is Not So Calm" almost nailed the homophone movie titles to the pillar of shame.
"Professionals" are very experienced in commercial operations for this kind of mass-produced formulaic comedy. The remake of
combines the homophonic meme title, the protagonist's bizarre encounters and skit-style conflicts, the appearance of prime supporting characters, combined with fraudulent marketing, and a comedy product with a box office of over 100 million was produced.
In recent years, with the rise of short video clips and micro-series, some Internet celebrities have entered the market at the speed of light.
Uzhina, the director of "The Last Days Spending Money", is also the director of the micro-short play;
Li Zongheng, Zhang Baiqiao, Lao Si... in the film are all tens of millions of Internet celebrities.
This group of people are eager to enter another circle. The price is indeed not high, and it can also bring real fans and real money at the box office.
But whether it can support the creation of movie characters is probably a question mark.
Comparing it vertically, domestic comedies are on the way to fast food and will never return.
Over the years, every hit comedy has a fixed formula.
Jia Ling, specializes in sketch-style comedy, emotional shots and reversal endings.
Chen Sicheng is familiar with all kinds of fusions, mashups of various elements and remakes of ready-made works.
"Manjianghong" explodes another Zhang Yimou, with the accumulation of stars, the filling of comedy elements and the explosive ending.
And "Nothing Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot" released on May 1st is the biggest successor of "Zhang Yimou Formula".
After all, "Man Jiang Hong" was filmed in a compound,
"Hot Pot" directly framed the story in an old theater, and made a movie based solely on the dialogue of a few people.
What does this trend in the movie market look like?
You may have already felt that it is like a pre-made dish in a takeaway. According to statistics from the
e-commerce platform, the proportion of prepared dishes in my country’s takeout has exceeded 70%.
The proportion of fast-food "pre-made movies" in the Chinese film market may be even more alarming.
Fixed ingredients, fixed proportions, and even fixed cooking methods can be fed to diners and audiences with just a simple set of processes.
If things continue like this, the consequences of this phenomenon will be terrible.
First of all, when formulas become popular and routines are everywhere, a large number of homogeneous "good movies" will appear in various major schedules.
Although the actors in these movies are different, the plots are similar. They do not rely on creation to attract people. They focus on an emotional value that makes you cry and laugh. After the movie is over, you still praise it as a good movie. After reading
, it seems that nothing is left.
When the public is willing to watch this kind of movie, bad money will inevitably drive out good money.
's way of making money is simple, and people will flock to it. What will eventually be squeezed is the living space of sincere creators.
Secondly, when there is only one kind of movie, the audience will be disciplined and the movie aesthetic will regress.
Feng Xiaogang said that rubbish audiences create rubbish movies.
This sounds harsh, but there is some truth to it.
When there are more and more junk movies, the audience’s aesthetic appreciation of movies will be solidified and disciplined.
They will think that only fast-food movies are good movies, and they may no longer have the patience to appreciate a good movie with film art aesthetics.
If things continue like this, movies and audiences will influence each other, and the film creation ecology of the entire society will be completely destroyed or even subverted.
Finally, the aesthetics, romance, and poetic expression of Chinese movies may gradually disappear.
The whole society can be short-lived and fast, but movies cannot.
Movies are the art of light and shadow, as well as the art of expression.
Once upon a time, our film aesthetics conquered the world.
From "Raise the Red Lantern" to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", from "Farewell My Concubine" to "The Good Man of Three Gorges"...
Although film aesthetics is a broad concept, in the world's film creation system, Chinese films have been Uniqueness is the existence that is different from all cultural products.
But nowadays, the aesthetic expression of Chinese movies is disappearing.
When commercial films become popular, when "beauty" cannot make money, when "poetry" becomes a stumbling block for the God of Wealth,
any aesthetics can be sacrificed, and any expression can make way for commercialization. Once the
creation password is generated, followers will come as promised. The aesthetics and art of
movies were put on the shelf. After eating the fast food, businessmen made a lot of money, while Chinese movies only left a pile of chicken feathers.
There is no deep thinking in movies without depth.
Without aesthetic and romantic expression, there would be no cultural treasure of film art.
The production of all art is "slow".
But now, under the background of marketing points, fans, traffic is king, and fast food feeding, Chinese movies are actually becoming a carefully designed assembly line.
Romance is really dying out, and Chinese movies have entered the "fast food era."
According to big platform data predictions, the box office of Jia Bing's "Thelma and Louise" will eventually exceed 600 million.
After killing the goose and harvesting the eggs, Chinese film aesthetics will be the same as that of the national football team, leaving only a few highlights for memories.
This is something that every audience does not want to see.
But what is helpless is that this thing is indeed happening.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Mayfly
©Original丨Article Copyright: Pippi Film (ppdianying)
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