Zeng Nianqun
The Spring Festival in 2024 set two records: first, the Spring Festival box office exceeded 8 billion, setting a new record in history; second, Jia Ling lost a hundred pounds for “Hot and Spicy”, and the Spring Festival box office led the box office with 2.7 billion in 8 days.
“Hot and Spicy” stills
Female directors are willing to take risks
This is not the first time Jia Ling has aspired to win. As early as 2019, Jia Ling’s debut film “Hello, Li Huanying” was suppressed by “Detective Chinatown 3” within seven days of the Spring Festival, but a dark horse came back and finally ranked among the top three in film history with a performance of 5.4 billion. Now that “Hello, Li Huanying” is being reviewed, it is inevitable that the film’s performance does not match its box office performance and that it feels too sketchy. It is undeniable that “Hello, Li Huanying” is the culmination of Jia Ling’s many years of experience in sketches. However, the mother-daughter relationship between heaven and earth is the key to victory. The emotional implementation of “Hello, Li Huanying” makes “Hello, Li Huanying” and The slapstick comedy that has become popular in recent years has marked a watershed moment.
As Jia Ling’s second-year film, “Hot and Spicy” was promoted in the early stage to focus on extreme weight loss, so it was easy to fall into the criticism of a “slimming movie”, but fortunately it did not. The story is adapted from the Japanese movie “One Hundred Dollar Love”. The original film tells the story of a decadent ordinary person who remains ordinary after hard work. Jia Ling not only used the two major increments of weight and comedy, but also used the scale and expression of the story to her own advantage.
The director of the original work, Masaharu Takeru, tried his best to capture Ichiko’s bloated waist, but the lead actor Sakura Ando was a lightning bolt compared to Jia Ling. Jia Ling did not simply change the original lightweight character into a heavyweight, but instead allowed herself to lose a hundred pounds along with the characters in the film. This is not only a physical limit challenge, but also a kind of dedication and sacrifice.
Jia Ling’s understanding of comedy does not stick to “Hello, Li Huanying”. The film relies on the background of the story of “One Hundred Dollars of Love” and reshapes the comedy without being sketchy. Le Ying, played by Jia Ling, is neither a joker nor a comedian, but a serious and tragic character who goes against the grain. Most of the comedy effect comes from the misplacement of supporting roles and details. Life did not hammer Le Ying to death with a hammer, but cut her with knife after knife. In the end, she hit the bottom in despair and walked towards the ring to break through herself.
The adapted characters inherit the “mourning” of the original work, but have their own expressions. It was also a disheveled defeat in the boxing ring. In the original work, Yi Zi held her boyfriend’s hand and left in mourning. In the adapted version, Le Ying left the scumbag behind and left with her head held high, because she had won over herself in her heart. We can see the shadow of “The Life of the Disliked Songzi” in Leying, which is a combination of Yizi and Songzi. On a spiritual level, Leying is more like a pine nut with inner awakening, rather than a simple copy of Ichiko.
Of course, Jia Ling’s most ruthless thing was to lose 100 pounds. It was originally just a scene in “Hello, Li Huanying” where the box office exceeded 3 billion and she became as thin as lightning, but she actually realized it in the form of a movie. There is no technology, only ruthless work. This kind of emotional intelligence and mobility are unprecedented in the entertainment industry and are probably unprecedented.
The old director returns to reality
Another big surprise during the Spring Festival is not “Flying Life 2” which ranked second at the box office or “Bear Bears: Reversal of Time” which ranked third, but “Article 20” which ranked fourth.
“Bear Bears: Reversal of Time” will undoubtedly set a new box office record for this series of brands, but its contribution to film history is mainly outside of creation. In the first half of 2023 alone, its peripherals earned 2.87 billion in revenue. Although “Flying Life 2” has reversed the decline in the reputation of “Four Seas” and its Douban score has reached a new high for Han Han’s works, in addition to its strong release during the Spring Festival, it has not made any breakthroughs in creation.
Zhang Yimou won the Spring Festival and National Day ticket sales last year with “Red River” and “Sturdy as a Rock”. Unfortunately, both films received mixed reviews, raising the audience’s expectations for “Article 20”. In particular, the script of “Sturdy as a Rock”, which also has a realistic theme, has a weak foundation and is barely completed. The Douban score almost fell below the passing line.
“Article 20” learned the lessons of “Solid as a Rock”, and the script was more polished. Three self-defense cases belonging to “past perfect tense”, “present continuous tense” and “future perfect tense” respectively belong to the protagonist Han Ming. The “ongoing tense” Wang Yongqiang case is a countdown hourglass, and the “future perfect tense” is about to be The son’s courageous contribution to the case pushed the Zhang Guisheng case into the “past perfect tense” dilemma. The three cases pulled each other and supported each other, eventually prompting the conservative Han Ming to take the step of hearing.
In terms of exterior decoration, “Article 20” borrows the comedy and ensemble effects of “Man Jiang Hong”, using a comedy plate to display the social pain points of public concern. In the core of reality, the characters were once trapped in a dilemma between advance and retreat, and they clung to the sleep and awakening of “Article 20” of the Criminal Law. It is no exaggeration to say that “Article 20” is one of the most realistic film works after “I Am Not the God of Medicine”.
Coincidentally, “Article 20” and “Hot and Furious” are both comedy-drama in a tragic tone. The difference is that “Hot” touches on the bitterness of virtual life, while “Article 20” imbues the road of realism with a romantic and humanistic temperament.
The inspiration that “Article 20” gives us is not only the popularization of the “justifiable defense” clause, but also that we should not be content with the simplicity and efficiency of inertia, but be afraid of the complexity of fairness and justice, let alone the cost of correcting errors, and Ignoring the true nature of fairness and justice.
The Sorrow of Withdrawal
Another “biggest” in the Spring Festival season is that four out of eight films have been withdrawn, setting a new record for the number of withdrawn films. Among them are hits such as “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” and “Mr. Red Carpet”.
It has become the norm for films to be withdrawn on schedule or due to poor box office performance. The former is usually due to lack of preparation or confidence, while the latter is often beaten to a pulp in the game. During the Spring Festival of 2023, “China Ping Pong: The Last Strike” was withdrawn on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year due to poor box office. The more famous withdrawal is undoubtedly the 2018 summer blockbuster “Asura”, which was criticized for being withdrawn three days after its release. “China Ping Pong: Jedi Strikes Back” was later re-released on a large scale, while “Asura” disappeared without a trace after being withdrawn.
Different from previous withdrawn works with low reputation, among the four films withdrawn after their release this year, the Douban scores of “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” and “Mr. Red Carpet” are not low, with the latter scoring 6.8, slightly higher than Ning Hao’s previous film. “Crazy Aliens” scored 6.4 points. The former even scored a high score of 7.9.
Together with “Hot”, “Flying Life 2” and “Article 20” which scored close to 8 points, they formed the strongest word-of-mouth cluster during the Spring Festival in recent years, but the result was an ending of ice and fire. The box office of “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” will exceed 90 million, while the box office of “Mr. Red Carpet” will be less than 90 million. The other two canceled cartoons, “Bajie: The Lower World of the Canopy” and “The God of Wealth”, stopped at more than 3 million and more than 900,000, and they didn’t even taste the Spring Festival soup.
“Let’s Shake the Sun Together” is the final chapter of Han Yan’s “Life Trilogy”. The previous “Get Out!” “Tumor King” and “Send You a Little Red Flower” are both word-of-mouth and box-office wins. The high score and low performance of “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” is a lesson in blood and tears of improper scheduling. After all, the Spring Festival schedules are all about happiness and upliftment, and are related to cancer. The tone of pathos cannot be reconciled.
“Mr. Red Carpet” is a consequence of the unfavorable release. From its withdrawal in November last year to the crowded Spring Festival, early marketing and pre-sales stumbled all the way. Ning Hao’s brain-burning black humor is high-end in comedy. The filming of “Mr. Red Carpet” is not ugly, and there are many easter eggs in the film and television fandom culture. It and “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” are a waste of money if they are not squeezed into the Spring Festival slot. .
From this situation, it can be seen that the Spring Festival period has the best ticket sales, but it is also the main factor that the family does not recognize. Whether it is due to lack of preparation, wrong aura, or weak works, in the end you may lose even the scumbag. Fortunately, “Mr. Red Carpet” and “Let’s Shake the Sun Together” still have a chance to be re-released. (The author is a film critic)
[
责编：张晓荣 ]
