This year's National Day movie schedule can definitely be called "Red Autumn".
On September 23, there will be four main theme movie works set for eleven schedules.
Among them, " Ordinary Hero " is adapted from the real deeds of rescuing and rescuing a boy with a broken arm in Hotan, Xinjiang;
" Homecoming " is also said to be adapted from a real event. The fictional country "Numia" assists to evacuate .
's third " steel will " tells the birth of "the first molten iron in New China", and it is also said to be adapted from a real event, "In 1948, in the Northeast, the remnants of the Kuomintang planned to blow up the Anshan Iron and Steel factory while evacuating. At a time of crisis, the fighting hero Zhao Tiechi led the Communist troops to the hinterland and destroyed the enemy's conspiracy..."
Another "King of the Sky" tells the story of the Chinese Air Force test pilot (removed).
The trend of the above four films basically announced that the theaters in October this year will be resounding with a high-pitched red theme.
But after "King of the Sky" was withdrawn for unknown reasons, a movie "Search and Rescue" starring Donnie Yen and was urgently fixed to fill the vacancy. Main theme animation movies ("New Cinderella 2", " I am Tyrannosaurus Rex ", "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad 5: My Alien Friends").
However, as in the past, the entire theater chain has been supported in terms of film arrangement, and has high hopes to play the main role at the box office.
The main theme movie is good, but looking back, October 2008 , the audience can still see ancient costume magic love movies like " Painted Skin " adapted from "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai";
On September 29, 2009, it was a commercial The spy war blockbuster " Wind " leads the eleventh period; two years after
, from " Di Renjie: The Empire of Heaven " directed by Tsui Hark to " Painting the Wall " directed by Chen Jiashang , Chinese costume blockbusters In 2013,
brought a visual impact to the audience; in 2013, there were many Chinese blockbusters such as "Heart Flower Road Release", "Ruffian Hero: Dawn Rise", " Dear ", " Golden Age " and so on. At the same time, it covers different genres such as comedy films, biopics, action films, and art films.
From 2015 to 2018, we can still see comedies such as " Charlotte Troubles " and " Hong Kong 囧" competing in the National Day stalls.
But it seems, since 2018, we don't see commercial productions like this anymore.
After 2018, there seems to be a clear trend of strengthening the theme of the National Day films.
From 2019 to 2021, films such as " Me and My Motherland " and " Chinese Captain " can be seen from the title of the film.
"Captain of China", like "Crash Landing", is a disaster film about a civil airliner dealing with emergencies in the air.
In the eleventh period in 2021, the two main theme films " Changjin Lake " and " Me and My Fathers " occupy the market. Among them, "Changjin Lake" broke a number of film history records and achieved a box office of up to 3.2 billion during the schedule.
This is not a simple commercial effect, but a double effect.
This year, since the beginning of the year, theaters everywhere have been singing the main theme.
On February 1st, Zhang Yimou 's " Sniper " was released. The film is based on Korean War , with Volunteer Army sharpshooter squad leader LiuWen Wu leads his subordinates to complete the task for the story structure. The fighters still outwit their seasoned opponents with experience and perseverance.
The whole film was shot in real location, the real temperature was dozens of degrees below zero, and the details of the soldiers' tears freezing on their faces touched my heart deeply.
" commented with emotion: "The good life is not easy to come by now. Recalling bittersweet thoughts is of great significance. With so many soldiers shedding blood on the battlefield, we have no reason not to cherish the beautiful life of the moment. "
The changeable autumn is not just that "King of the Sky" was suddenly withdrawn, but actually changed in September this year.
Young director Li Ruijun director " Into the Dust " was shortlisted in February this year The main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival, but no one of the crew directors and actors are there. Filmmakers generally avoid film events as a last resort.
This small-budget film with an investment of only two or three million yuan was released on July 8 this year. Since then, word of mouth and box office have gradually increased, and it has continued to be popular and discussed in theaters for nearly two months. More than 400,000 people rated the film on the Douban website, and the score was as high as 8.5.
, but it was only at the box office of 100 million At the pass, the distributor of the film received an order to stop showing it on September 8. The audience and netizens were a little noisy about this. However, they were amazed, and on September 26, netizens found out that it was also banned by the whole network on the Internet media. It has been removed.
netizens joked that "Hidden in the Dust" is really hidden in the dust. As for the specific reason for the removal, it has not been announced.
"Hidden in the Dust" strives to create a landscape of the earth, always pondering the people on this land
The natural landscape of the midwestern horizon and the presentation of people's living conditions continue the thinking of Chinese filmmakers in the 1980s...
There is romance of love, as well as the texture of realism and a hard, pressing society Relationship brushstrokes.
It is also a film of local political economy.
From the perspective of narrative structure, "Hidden in the Dust" is a love film. The hero uses a few grains of wheat to print a plum blossom on his lover's arm, The director used the smallest props in movie history to write a touching love story.
took down "Hidden in the Dust", and some netizens believed that as long as the hard life of the rural civilians was shown, it would have a negative impact.
Of course, we will take this joke as one Happy.
In 2017, the State Administration of Film of China submitted the film "Wolf Warrior 2" produced in the same year to the Oscar committee for the best foreign language film.
In recent years, the leading concept of Chinese theme films has emphasized the awareness of "Wolf Warriors", from the narrative From the structure to the lines, attention is paid to highlighting the fighting spirit.
This can also be seen from several major themes and major works that were vigorously promoted in October this year. In
"Iron Will", the protagonist is full of hatred for 's American imperialism and ism, and he is holding a cannonball The film is full of anger: "This is the American Empire The steel of ideology... Once the steel is smelted, as many shells as they shoot, they will shoot back twice as many. To crush them completely. ”
“Iron Will” has such a line: “Our brothers, resist the bombardment of artillery every day. They are bullying us with steel. "
"The King of the Sky" is a story about a test pilot, but the advertisement of the film also highlights that China has been invaded or harassed: "The fourth-generation stealth fighters of the foreign military have repeatedly entered the waters under our jurisdiction. We are still third generation. "
The screenwriter here created a vague concept of geography and international law: "jurisdictional waters".
Similar to this, "Homecoming" also uses a West African "Nubia" as a fictional background location.
in " In "King of the Sky", war is an unspoken prospect: "Heart disease) If not cured, it is too passive to fight.
"King of the Sky" also emphasizes the heroic and heroic spirit of the Chinese Air Force pilots: "You have had close contact with other people's stealth fighters. "
The dazzling and explosive violent aesthetics is an important visual packaging technique for such wolf warrior consciousness, from "Wolf Warrior" and "Changjin Lake" to "Sniper" and "Iron Will" and other red theme blockbusters.
Among them, the juggling montage in the lens language and the changing reality relationship in the narrative complement each other.
For example, the computer-animated special effects of bullet time are used repeatedly in "Sniper". Edited together, they constitute a visual spectacle in the story.
And these gunfights and action scenes greatly enhance the visual impact of the film, highlighting the theme slogan "Those who commit crimes will be punished even if they are far away".
This year's "Homecoming" The story is not like "Wolf Warrior" about the special forces galloping in Africa to rescue the Chinese people, but about the civilian staff of the embassy leading Chinese diplomats and overseas Chinese to withdraw from the war-torn West African "Nubia".
But the film also Borrowing the background of the country's rebels to join many submachine guns strafing, gunfights, cars full of armed soldiers chasing shooting shots. The film also uses five or six corpses hanging from wires to render the violence and blood of the rebel country.
Right now , "Homecoming" is leading the film market in the eleventh period, which should be directly related to its visual prominence of action and attention to the constant design crisis in narrative.
Some of these films are explained with subtitles: adapted from real events, meaning It is creating a sense of authenticity and narrative authority.
, but its image texture and even performance style are beautiful, juggling montage style, and will not pursue the realistic life texture of "Hidden in the Dust".
More Don't talk about the reality of social relations and the face-to-face with historical memory.
In the narrative, the main theme movie can also see the continuation of some old routines.
In "Homecoming" and "Iron Will", there is an ideology A relatively backward character, to form some harmless conflict with the protagonist. The backward character in
's "Iron Will" is still a man with glasses and an intellectual appearance, and his lines are to me, who has seen many red themes It is very familiar to the audience of the movie: "This place is only suitable for growing sorghum ... If you resume production in this place, I will kneel down for you. "
The narrative of the film ends with the production of molten iron. With the release of the red molten iron, the big red subtitles appear on the screen - the words "fire of life" symbolize that steel is the life of the republic.
is hot and red here. In the scene of
In terms of narrative method, the main theme movie also pays great attention to absorbing the narrative method of Hollywood movies.
"Sniper" easily reminds me of French director Jean-Jacques Arnold 's story of sniper duel in World War II " Soldiers are in the City ".
Zhang Yimou's story is not a "two-hero confrontation" structure like "Soldiers in the City", but a team duel between soldiers on both sides.
However, in the storytelling, the Volunteer Army squad leader Liu Wenwu and the US Army Sergeant John were written as "old rivals" who both knew each other and fought wit and courage.
Facing the pattern of the theme movie dominating the world, the filmmakers were worried. There are also various private discussions and public unofficial statements inside and outside the film industry.
On July 7, 2022, National People's Congress representative and directorJia ZhangkeIn an interview with Sina Entertainment, the title is: "Can't Make Chinese Movies a Main Theme Store". In the interview with
, Jia Zhangke expressed his heartfelt words with a little concern:
"We used to be a very lively and diversified investment structure, and now Chinese movies are only the main theme stores. This is for Chinese movies and for future generations. , a completely irresponsible approach to Chinese culture. I can not say this, hello, hello, everyone, but I want to say kindly that after a long time, this is a big problem, really can't Do it like this."
Some fans and media people also expressed a view of the supremacy of art on the Internet: "A movie itself is a work of art, and people who watch movies should appreciate the movie from the perspective of appreciating art, and should not be promoted. To other heights, it will make the artwork lose its original pure taste."
Under such appeal, this year's November film schedule is still the main theme film, but the results so far have not been satisfactory. " Securities Times " reported according to the box office results on the first day of the National Day file: "The 2022 National Day file continues the characteristics of the main theme movie of the previous year", but "the overall performance of the market is light."
" Beijing News " reported , By noon on October 3, the box office of "Returning Thousands of Miles" exceeded 500 million, and the total box office of the National Day file exceeded 700 million.
As of noon on October 2, the box office data of "Ordinary Heroes" is 51.955 million and the data of "Iron Will" is 28.6841 million. According to
, compared with the 3.1 billion box office of "Changjin Lake" in 2021, this year's National Day box office performance will definitely shrink significantly.
In fact, as early as September 29, a media person from the "Internet Phantom Thieves" made a pessimistic prediction based on the pre-sales of the eleventh period: "The National Day movie market is almost gone..."
However, no matter what No matter how worried or cheered the insiders are at the box office of the main theme movies in this year's eleventh period, in my opinion, the phenomenon of the main theme movies thriving will continue for many years.