February 20, 2024 8:22 am
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Image caption,
The film is a remake of the 2014 Japanese hit film “100 Yuan Love”.
The Chinese film market’s box office revenue during the Spring Festival period reached 8.016 billion yuan (approximately 1.111 billion U.S. dollars), breaking the record of 7.822 billion yuan set during the same period in 2021 during the epidemic. Among them, the comedy film “Hot” directed and starred by Chinese actress Jia Ling became the champion of the Spring Festival period with a box office of 2.72 billion yuan (approximately US$378 million), breaking the box office record of a Spring Festival drama film in film history.
The film is a remake of the 2014 Japanese hit film “100 Yuan Love” and tells the story of a 30-year-old “home girl” who has no job and a closed social circle. After experiencing a series of setbacks in life, the heroine finally changed her life through boxing practice and lost more than 100 pounds (more than 50 kilograms) at the same time.
The seemingly straightforward plot was a hit all over China and sparked heated discussions. How can this female film, which is full of “positive energy” and goes from “laying flat” to “breaking self-restrictions”, break through in the fiercely competitive Spring Festival period and even break the “Article 20” released at the same time and directed by the great director Zhang Yimou? Woolen cloth?
Chen Chi-ting, assistant professor of cultural studies at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, who has studied Chinese films for many years, told BBC Chinese that the box office success of “Hot and Spicy” (2024) is not much compared to the IP (Intellectual property) of “One Hundred Dollar Love” (2014). Big relationship. He said that the first reason for the film’s success was that Jia Ling’s plump image in the past was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the audience wanted to witness how Jia Ling could really “lose 100 pounds.” Furthermore, it is the psychological demand of Chinese audiences for “comedies, inspirational films, and heroine types.” “In conjunction with the film’s powerful short video marketing, it successfully touched the audience’s emotions.”
Anthropologist Lin Zhenru, assistant professor at the China Studies Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the BBC that the reason for the movie’s “popularity” naturally has many factors that are not directly related to the content of the movie, including marketing methods and so on. However, she believes that the reason why the movie was a hit and “applauded” is that the film seriously depicts the “dangerous consequences” that will occur if women are domesticated into a “pleasant personality” instead of praising the sacrifice of such a personality. Professor Lin said that the film breaks away from expressing the life course of women from the perspective of the “male gaze” and also satirizes and exposes the “hypocritical pursuit of strength” of patriarchy. “Finally, there is a woman who does not sacrifice herself. Being appreciated is not about pursuing love and gaining glory, nor is it about being liked and being respected. It is already very rare in the Chinese film environment.”
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Jia Ling: This is not a weight loss movie
Many Chinese state media commentators also praised the film for refusing to “lay down” and bringing full positive energy. They believed that the heroine practices boxing to achieve her own goals in life, rather than to attack others. Many netizens also believe that this film, directed by a female director, presents a female perspective and encourages women to “love themselves” and “women should not make things difficult for women”.
For example, a reviewer named Joe on Douban, a popular Chinese film review website, said, “There are fat girls in the movie, but there are no fat women who make fools of themselves. There are mistresses and women who cheat in marriage, but there are no sluts.” Women humiliation and excessive moral criticism. There is a male protagonist in the movie who shines at the beginning, but he is not the savior of women.” He added, “At the end of the movie, it reminds everyone with a pleasing personality, ‘Live for yourself.’ , this sentence is particularly convincing when said by a female comedy star like Jia Ling, who has often used her fat figure as a point of self-deprecation.”
Faced with the success of her new film, director Jia Ling also posted on Weibo on January 16, saying that emphasizing that loving yourself was her original intention in making the film, and losing weight was secondary: “I know you will understand after watching the movie that this is not a weight loss movie, even It has nothing to do with boxing… Many people asked me why I made this movie. I want to shout out: Because of love! Because of longing for love! In 2024, everything is still too late, remember to love yourself!” “Jia Ling’s post” immediately appeared on the It topped the list of hot searches on Weibo that day.
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Image caption,
A woman weighs herself at a bariatric hospital in Tianjin.
Analyzing the good and bad aspects of this film, Professor Ling (pseudonym upon request), who teaches media and gender at a Chinese university, explained to the BBC that “Hot and Furious” uses “sports” as its theme, which accurately combines the independence of women in China today. This trend of thought focuses on the main group of people in this trend, that is, young women in their 20s and 30s, and explores their relationship with their families and obesity. The portrayal of the male protagonist is also a unique perspective of female directors, so it has won the favor of the majority of Chinese women. accepted and succeeded.
However, Professor Ling also said that the paradox of the movie is that it mainly conforms to the “individualism” and “atomization” in the capital market, that is, “as long as an individual works hard, he will definitely gain something.” logic. At the same time, the film eliminates the more “sad” plot and emotional core of the original Japanese film. “This is also an officially accepted view.”
Weight anxiety and stereotyped aesthetics
In addition, weight loss has always been a hotly debated issue for women. Some commentators believe that even though Jia Ling emphasizes that this film is not a weight-loss movie, this commercial film can still achieve great success in marketing in the mainstream film market.
But critics say that Jia Ling will record every step of the “transformation” process of gaining 80 pounds for acting and then losing 100 pounds for the audience to know. In other words, this is a marketing ploy. Before the filming of the movie starts, , the audience knows every step she takes through short videos and film interviews, just like watching a reality show, and finally seeing the results of her efforts in the theater. In other words, it is impossible for the film to have an ending in which she fails to lose weight. The audience definitely needs to see her “changed into a different person.”
Yan Ning, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and known as the “goddess of scientific research,” posted an article on her official Weibo account saying that she has fallen into rigid aesthetics again. She said in the article that many people appreciate that Jia Ling can now wear a big wave evening dress, which deeply Feeling “amazing”. “But she was really beautiful before. Why use secular aesthetics to assimilate an interesting person?” These words once again aroused heated debate among Chinese netizens.
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Su Qinhua, a doctor of gender studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, once told BBC Chinese that the trend of “thinness as beauty” is actually closely related to consumerism, and the public has been domesticated to only regard a thin body as the only standard of beauty. She told reporters that the American feminist movement, which originated in the 1960s, had strongly called on women to love themselves and respect different bodies regardless of whether they are fat or thin. Su Qinhua emphasized that it is good to promote “body positivity” (Body Positivity), that is, the concept of praising diverse bodies: “On the one hand, it forces the public to think more about the possibilities of the body, and allows people with different shapes and bodies to come into the public eye. The body The positive movement also gives those who dare to embrace different bodies the power to express the needs and demands of these women to companies.”
However, despite the clamor of scholars and feminists, the beauty and slimming industry has never shown any signs of decline. At a time when short videos and social media control the public’s “visual experience,” many studies have shown that young women are more anxious about their bodies than their elders.
Lin Zhenru told the BBC that the “Hot” movie is certainly not a perfect movie. She said that “the best scenes in the movie can all be found in “One Hundred Dollar Love”. However, she emphasized that the script and story seriously considered the assumption that women should not just be cute and beautiful to be lovable, nor did they emphasize the assumption that thinness is the ultimate goal of women.
Commercial development of “Hot and Spicy” continues. Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Economic Journal revealed that the stock price of China Literature Group, a listed company that produced “Hot and Spicy”, rose by 9.7% this morning (January 20) as the movie became a hit. Jia Ling will also cooperate with Tencent again to release the filming process and behind-the-scenes footage, including of course her weight loss and “transformation” process.
