■ Fan Yuchen
Annual party, Lunar New Year stalls, comedy.
At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, when these three keywords came into view, I did not dare to set my expectations too high for the movie "The Annual Party Can't Stop". I'm afraid it will be another pile of "tickling" type jokes - after all, we have watched too many domestic comedies like this, which are either neither salty nor bland, or are vulgar with low style. In short, it makes people laugh. Come out and can't stand it.
However, the main creative team of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" gave me a little bit of hope. Dong Runnian, whose previous works have a good reputation, Dapeng, who is good at telling little people's growth and comedy stories, and comedy stars Bai Ke and Wang Xun of different styles. , Tong Mo Nan, the "Carnivorous Animals" group, etc., and Ouyang Fenqiang, who has been absent for many years, and Li Naiwen, a powerful member of the "Uncle Circle", have joined. People can't help but wonder, what kind of sparks can "Divine Immortals" create? In addition, this movie focuses on the workplace, and the video clips during the announcement period have resonated with me, a "worker", and I want to find out.
The movie tells the story of Hu Jianlin, a fitter at the standard parts factory who was transferred to the group headquarters by accident when the group was downsizing. Along the way, Hu Jianlin was out of tune with the environment. While making all kinds of jokes, he also reflected a series of thought-provoking weird phenomena in the workplace. In the end, the complex truth behind the misalignment came to light, and Hu Jianlin and his colleagues Ma Jie and Penny's battle to expose the shady stories of senior executives and resist unfair workplace culture began...
Nearly 120 minutes of watching the movie, I enjoyed myself for the first time in a long time I laughed heartily and applauded countless times for the precise expressions that hit the hearts of "workers": "Align the granularity" and "The key to the problem is to find the key issues", all wrapped up in high-end jargon There is some doctrine; there is hypocrisy that seems to be flat management, but it is actually just flattering; there is some; there is some making outsourced employees do hard work but has not promised to become regular employees; there is some; originally down-to-earth and upright, but in order to keep their jobs The helplessness and sadness of having to turn a blind eye and comply with the rules of the workplace... just like many netizens commented, "Finally, there is a comedy movie that truly understands the pain of the current workplace."
However, if you say It seems that these accurately captured workplace elements alone cannot sustain the huge goodwill that a successful comedy brings us. I keep rethinking, what is the narrative "secret" that makes this movie funny but not greasy, understanding but not pandering, idealistic enough but not suspended from the ground?
From the beginning of the 1998 standard parts factory annual meeting with Hu Jianlin's song "My Future Is Not a Dream" to the end of the movie in 2019 at the group company's annual meeting where three migrant workers bravely spoke out, the first and last clips with the characteristics of the times may be able to tell. The reason why this movie has a good narrative: its comedy does not come from a collage of hilarious elements, but is based on a rigorous and complete comedy structure. A little character breaks into a strange world, and through his onlooker perspective, presents the environment to the audience in a "stranged" way, not to mention destroying the original absurdity. This is a basic principle of classic comedy creation. program.
And "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" skillfully adopts this classic comedy structure. Because Peter, the HR vice president of Zhonghe Group, drank too much and read the wrong registration form, Hu Jianlin, a fitter who has been working hard in the workshop for 20 years, accidentally... He was transferred to the headquarters in a big city by mistake. The person who was actually planned to be transferred was Zhuang Zhengzheng, the head of the factory's supply and marketing section, who bribed Thomas, the head of the headquarters.Hu Jianlin's accidental intrusion is already a satire on the profit-based operation of personnel in a huge company, and Hu Jianlin, who is completely unfamiliar with modern large companies, naturally opens the door to comedy, and all the character relationships and behaviors caused by this , both absurd and reasonable: Ma Jie, the HR manager who was coerced by Hu Jianlin in the "wrong transfer" incident, although he quickly realized the matter, had to hide it to save his job and went around covering up the loopholes; Hu Jianlin's abnormal transfer The news made people who didn't know the inside story speculate that his "backstage" was the chairman. In order to please the chairman, he was promoted and raised for no apparent reason; Ma Jie did not dare to let Hu Jianlin intervene in any actual work, and only asked him to write down In order to remember the names of the company's employees, Hu Jianlin would call them by name when he saw them, which frightened the employees who were in the midst of layoffs. Another example is that Hu Jianlin insisted on intervening in the layoffs without knowing what was going on. He understood the word "optimization" as "a good person". "Ci'er", to give promotions and salary increases to the technical backbones who were about to be laid off by the company...
If you recall the entire story line carefully, it is not difficult to find that even if there is no deliberately added "big joke", "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" The comedy concept itself is also mature enough, and the plots are interlocking. One mistake leads to another, making the audience understand and smile at each other because of the absurd things in reality. In the ensuing absurdity, the power struggle behind Hu Jianlin's misalignment was gradually revealed: It turned out that Thomas, who had been bribed by Zhuang Zhengzheng, secretly used substandard parts to mix into the products of the standard parts factory, not only to enrich himself, but also to enrich the company. Vice President Xu Yunfeng overthrew the Chairman in a big game.
Through this power game, the film also triggers deep thinking in the midst of laughter. It not only raises the issue that has plagued the entire era in decades of economic development - in the cruel market competition, is it necessary to be fair and caring in the same boat, or is it necessary to Profit-oriented and efficiency first? It also inspires us to think about the dilemma that everyone is in - why is modern workplace management unable to restrain bad habits in the workplace? How should "beating workers" deal with themselves in a vicious workplace culture?
Therefore, "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" proves to the audience that comedy is not equal to amusement. Serious realistic insights and well-structured texts are the source of comedy narrative power. In my opinion, in addition to the solid text, this movie also touches the core of comedy-equality and respect.
The famous carnival theory of the former Soviet literary theorist Bakhtin believes that humor and laughter originate from catharsis and release from the real order. Its essence is the deconstruction of hierarchy and authority, and the replacement of single-tone monologues with multi-voice dialogues. . In the practice of comedy creation, if the deconstruction and satire are not careful, they will become the creator's complacency, and once again become condescending ridicule.
The valuable thing about "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" is that its satire does not target any one person or group of people, but reflects on the oppressive power structure and yearns for a positive workplace culture of equality and respect for each other. Therefore, the film portrays each character with a level-headed gaze, and everyone has space to express their own voice - for example, Zhuang Zhengzheng, who betrayed the factory, also has his unspeakable pressure to survive, and Xu Yunfeng, who is in the whirlpool of power, also has With his persistence in business management. At the same time, the film has a warm and reasonable understanding of every weak person who is not respected - one of my favorite moments is when Pan Yiran was offended by a drunken male boss, Hu Jianlin's protection of her was not a hero saving a beauty. The strong man protected the weak, but he used some excuses to fool his boss and let Pan Yiran escape successfully.
At the end of the movie, the three "workers" who exposed the truth and challenged authority won. They rapped on the stage to express the aspirations of all working people. Some people may say that the movie gave this act of "rectifying" the workplace an overly idealistic ending. But I think giving people a chance to challenge reality and release their ideals is what comedy should be about, right? The annual meeting in the movie is just like the noisy carnival described by Bakhtin. Through a ridiculous story, it reaches the ending of justice defeating darkness and hard work being rewarded. It echoes the original intention of the factory annual meeting in the 1990s.As director Dong Runnian said in an interview: "Life can get better, and we can change our destiny through hard work. This value is worthy of all of us re-building confidence."
Indeed, the annual meeting cannot be stopped, and even more so Everyone hopes for the best together. The New Year is here, we need to party hard, and we look forward to moving towards a better reality after the party.
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