文|Linghu Boguang
On May 7th, "My Altay" directed by Teng Congcong, screenwriter Teng Congcong and Peng Yining, starring Ma Yili, Zhou Yiran, Yu Shi, Jiang Qiming and others, was officially broadcast. Watch this drama The trailer is different from those assembly line, industrial saccharine dramas. The broadcast performance and reputation of the TV series are also very good. Since the show has not been finished, I will not analyze the show itself.
Today I mainly want to write about it from another angle, that is, if you pay attention, you will find that in the opening credits of this drama, it is very obvious whether the producer "Dapeng" is there. That's right, it's the Dapeng you think of, the Dapeng in "The Man with Hanging Silk", " Pancake Man ", " Sewing Machine Band " and "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop". The drama
is a drama he produced and supported. It is similar in nature to " I am not the god of medicine " supported by Xu Zheng and Ning Hao. It is also similar to Wu Jing’s support for Guo Fan’s “ Wandering Earth ”, and Guo Fan’s support for “ Universe Exploration Editorial Department ”.
To be honest, the future of Chinese film and television dramas will depend on filmmakers like the "Dapengs", really.
The lead actor won the Best Actor Award, and the director’s movie became a box office hit? How did Dapeng "rise"
Many netizens who don't pay attention may still have an impression of Dapeng from the period of "Diaosi Man" and "Pancake Man". This somewhat familiar person has watched "Annual Meeting" and knows that this New Year's Day movie starring him is good, and he can vaguely name a few works, but in fact Dapeng has already gone through the third stage.
If "Diaosi Man" becomes famous and "Pancake Man" gets 1 billion at the box office, then "Sewing Machine Band" will have a backlash, which will be his first stage. Then he starred in " takes risks ", " the beneficiary " and "The Big Winner", which is the second stage. He has been quiet for a few years and has not directed any movies. He has been starring in movies to accumulate himself.
The third stage begins with directing the literary film "吉祥如意", and then 2023 can be said to be a watershed year for Dapeng. At the beginning of the year, he broke his image by starring in "Unknown". He directed two movies, "Keep You Safe" and "Hot", both of which grossed around 1 billion at the box office. His starring role in "The Eighth Suspect" won the Best Actor Award at the Shanghai Film Festival. Finally, he starred in the New Year's Day starring "" Annual Meeting" was a hit at the box office and received a very good reputation.
followed up with the miniseries "My Altay", which was produced for the first time and supported a new director, and it was a hit again.
Actually, I personally saw an interview about this drama before. During this year’s Beijing Film Festival, Dapeng helped young filmmakers realize their dreams as a judge of the Project Venture Capital Committee. In an exclusive interview with the media, Dapeng said that although his identity is changing, his original intention of providing movies with good content for the audience remains unchanged.
At the venture capital site, he encountered projects that lacked late-stage funds. After watching the clips, he decided to provide support with practical actions to help the projects complete the later stages and promote the release of the film. "My Altay" has similar meanings.
I think film talents like Dapeng are the hope for the future of Chinese films. In addition to his own rapid progress and the production of many excellent works. It is also because he, like Wu Jing, Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Guo Fan and other filmmakers, likes to support young directors and contribute fresh force to the Chinese film and television industry.
For example, Ning Hao supported young directors such as Lu Yang of "Xiu Chun Dao" and "Assassination of Novelists", Wen Muye of "I'm Not the God of Medicine", and the Olympic bid of "All or Nothing".
Xu Zheng has supported young directors such as "Cohabitation in Time and Space", "The Player Behind the Scenes" and " Love Myth ".
Wu Jing supported Guo Fan of "The Wandering Earth", and Guo Fan supported Kong Dashan, the director of "Space Exploration Editorial Department".
Although Chen Sicheng himself is very controversial, he has supported all the young directors of domestic suspense and reasoning commercial films, such as the two directors of "The Disappearance of Her", Ke Wenli, the director of "Manslaughter 1", "Manslaughter 2" and "The Third Brigade" ""Ball Lightning" director Dai Mo, to several directors of "Tang Tan Online Drama" and so on.
Even Han Yan, the young director of "Little Red Flower" and "Shake the Sun", supported the director of "Life Events".
Han Han has supported young directors such as "King of the Sky" and "Famous".
"My Altay" cannot be separated from Dapeng? Chinese films are also inseparable from the "Dapengs"
There are many examples of domestic young directors supporting young directors, and now it is Dapeng's turn to start supporting young directors. Of course, judging from the works of the young directors listed above, they must be mixed, but the number of excellent works among them is far greater than the bad ones. The most important thing about
is that if everyone has an impression, you will find one thing.
Since the fifth generation of directors in China (directors from Hong Kong and Taiwan are not mentioned in the same system), you should have heard of Zhang Yimou's "Smart Girl", Feng Xiaogang's "Gang Girl", others like Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen, whether they are good or not, or what their character is like Not to mention, have you ever heard of them supporting a certain young director? successor?
In fact, Zhang Yimou and the others came to power due to the environment at that time, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (the same was true for film studios), and the support of the older generation like Wu Tianming. But after they became famous, especially their high status After that, at least in terms of supporting young directors.
really didn't put much effort into it except for their direct descendants like their children. In this regard, Jia Zhangke and Diao Yinan of the sixth generation are better, but generally speaking, they are far inferior to Ning Hao, who was supported by Andy Lau, and then to the generation of Wu Jing, Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Guo Fan, Chen Sicheng and Dapeng. After they rose up step by step, all they did was support young directors.
(I have always felt that the old capitalist film industry was too closed-minded and stubborn, and would not be able to survive for a long time if it did not support its own system).
Therefore, the rise of young mainland directors in this era is very obvious. Of course, the shortcomings are also very obvious. Commercial blockbusters obviously have not reached the glory of Hong Kong commercial films, and artistic films do not have the achievements of the fifth and sixth generations in Chinese film art.
For example, commercial blockbusters, if converted from the era, " Wolf Warrior " and "The Wandering Earth" are largely the same as "Police Story" and "A Better Tomorrow" from Hong Kong movies in the 1980s. In fact, from the perspective of the film industry, it has gone much further, but from a film perspective, the latter is still representative to a certain extent, but it is not mature yet.
Overall, we feel that "The Wandering Earth" and "Wolf Warrior" are more or less inferior.
I’ve talked about literary and artistic films here. Anyway, you can recommend domestic dramas such as "Where the Wind Goes", "Moses on the Plain", "The Long Season", "The Ming Dynasty under the Microscope", "The Three-Body Problem", "Under the City", etc. ;The animations "Spirit Cage", "Mortal", "Chang'an 30,000 Miles", etc.; and finally the games "Original God", "Black Myth" and so on.
The rise of young mainland creators in the new era is getting faster and faster, and it seems unstoppable. Although it is true that the overall situation is still a bit unable to move up or down.
With good actors and strong reputation, why does "My Altay" stand out?
These young directors are indeed different from the older generation who are waiting to die, and the films and TV dramas produced by the peace between finance and Internet capital after 2010. Just like the TV series "My Altay", when you started watching the trailer, you clearly felt that this drama was different from the coquettish ones on the domestic drama market.
After watching a few episodes, you will find that each episode is well shot, not only the camera language is good, the scenery is good, the soundtrack is good, the camera is good, the actors are real, the character relationships and event conflicts are real and interesting, the most important thing is It's quite natural, each character stands up and can be empathized with.
Isn’t this kind of work what China needs now? Be more sincere and less weight loss marketing.
I think the current Chinese film and television culture has different opinions on the impact of censorship, but capital negotiation is really the biggest enemy of the film industry. We want to see more authorial expressions from directors. This has little to do with the industrialization of the film, but has to do with the state's support for various large and small "film festivals".
Even if we don’t attract world-wide attention like Cannes and Venice, we should at least have excellent short film festivals like Clermont-Ferrand or Palm Springs. Only through these can we cultivate and discover outstanding writers and directors, and let them go directly to commercial theaters. Competition destroys their authorship.
To put it bluntly, a film festival is a place that provides an atmosphere for communication and artistic creation. Cinemas only provide opportunities for audiences to communicate with authors, but film festivals can provide multi-dimensional interactions between authors and authors, audiences and audiences, curators and distributors, investors, etc. Multi-directional communication and communication are the soil that can produce the author's film and television works that we expect.
means works that are free from routines, have style, and have their own creative expression and artistic style.
This film and television drama is applicable. As mentioned before, if Wu Tianming and others did not support Zhang Yimou and others. Of course, they may break out, but this will be a big change. Only when these young people grow up will they be able to take on an industry. A large number of outstanding foreign commercial film directors, such as Peter Jackson in the "Lord of the Rings" series, all came from international film festivals. poor boy.
Works like "My Altay" prove that China is not currently polarized between cinephiles and the masses. There is a transitional state between cinephiles and the masses, which I call pseudo-elites and sub-masses. This group actually prefers to watch commercial films, knows very little about film theory, and the film reviews they like to read are basically unprofessional.
But he is more willing to call himself a movie lover than the public. That is to say, their level is not much higher than that of the public, but they like to despise the public and lament that the audience's aesthetic level is really low, and this bad movie has so many box office. However, when he encountered a niche movie that he couldn't understand, and some fans told him what was good about the movie, he would say how good your crappy movie could be if no one saw it.
means showing an elite style in front of the public, and carrying the public flag in front of the elite.
In fact, there is not much separation between the cinephile group and the public. Niche films cannot survive without a large film market. Without niche films to explore and experiment, commercial films will also find it difficult to develop. In fact, we are very scarce in works like "My Altay", which is the case for movies and TV series.
The young actors were not well-known before the filming of the movie. The director was a young director, and he actually dragged the actors to live in Altay for several months, and the whole grassland was shot in real scenes. I checked and found no investment in this drama, but you wouldn’t believe it if it said it was 100 million or 200 million, right?
If you compare the 350 million "Hot" and the 500 million "Man Jiang Hong", you will understand the meaning.
Finally, if Dapeng himself can take a few more steps forward, such as starring in more works like "Annual Meeting" and directing more and better excellent movies. At the same time, we will support a few similar young directors to produce more works like "My Altay". Is there hope for Chinese film and television dramas?
