Original title: Too much stamina, heart-burning pain… Fighting “cruel” has become a big gimmick in crime suspense films
After the recent release of the crime suspense film “Wide the Angry Sea”, the highly contagious sensory stimulation brought by the film, as well as the stirring anger and uneasiness and other psychological feelings, have become the most discussed highlights among movie fans. At the end of the year, there were a lot of crime-suspense films. Movie marketing slogans such as “too much stamina”, “heart-burning pain”, “sweaty palms and soaring heart rate” can be seen everywhere, and “brutal” fighting has become a big gimmick for such films.
Reporter Shi Wenjing
“Scale” and “cruelty”
The Lunar New Year period is a time when box office competition is fierce. According to a rough calculation, there are 10 movies in this period, including “Walking in the Angry Sea”, “Hot Search”, “Silent Notes”, “The Secret”, “Breaking Point”, “The Killing”, “Rage”, “Blood Burning”, “Stealth” and “Goldfinger” With the release of crime-themed and suspense-themed films, as well as the unreleased films such as “The Mistake on the Riverside”, “Rescuing the Suspect” and “Manhunt”, the crime-suspense genre has become the favorite creative genre of Lunar New Year film directors. The magic weapon for these films to attract the audience’s attention is the “scale” and “cruelness” of the film’s story content, which maximizes emotional appeal.
In the hit movie “Rescue the Suspect” some time ago, Chen Zhiqi, a Chinese gold medal female lawyer with a fictional background in Southeast Asia, was forced to defend a death row prisoner and overturn the case when her daughter was kidnapped, and then got involved in the crime of another mother lynching her enemy. In dispute. In addition to attracting audiences with a story that has twists and turns and constant reversals, the film’s marketing also uses “scale” and “cruelty” to create eye-catching gimmicks. From the film’s “brain-burning suspense, heart-piercing emotions”, “chills down the spine, cold sweats”, “tragic crime, strong maternal love”, “incisive and full of stamina”, “domestic crime film scale limit”, “crying until fainting in the 88th minute”, With advertising slogans such as “Be Scared in the 99th Minute” that are not shocking, it can be seen that the film wants to attract the audience with an explosive storyline.
“Crossing the Angry Sea” is directed by Cao Baoping and stars Zhou Xun and Huang Bo. It tells the story of a father’s crazy revenge after his daughter was murdered while studying abroad. The film continues the strong rhythm, large scale, and strong emotional style of Cao Baoping’s films, which has become the selling point of the film and the real feeling of the audience watching the film. The film is essentially about family, ethics, and human nature. It creates a group of crazy characters with character flaws or antisocial personality disorder. The entire film is filled with the anger of the father played by Huang Bo, including blood, violence, car crashes, and falling into the sea. There are many elements of crime suspense, constantly creating a tense, anxious and immersive movie-watching experience for the audience. The reminder that “audiences under the age of 18 should watch with caution” can also explain the “scale” and “cruelty” of the film. The film’s advertising slogans and audience reviews include “too much stamina”, “heart-burning pain”, “pain and trauma of native families in East Asia”, “hardest movie of the year”, etc.
Many upcoming crime suspense-themed films also use “scale” and “cruelty” as selling points, highlighting the explosive, cruel and other characteristics of the story. In “Hot Search”, which will be released on December 1, after self-media editor-in-chief Chen Miao published a popular article, he unexpectedly received a request for help from the person involved, and a series of unexpected events were involved. In addition to marketing, the movie can bring the audience to think about the real society, and it also emphasizes strong emotional selling points such as “annual relief” and “revealing the true ugliness”. For another example, the poster slogan of the police and gangster movie “Rage”, which will be released on December 22, is “Eat gangsters, kill like crazy”. The film combines various action elements such as gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, car chases, etc., and is a “brutal feeling” “Excellent video.
The clustering of crime suspense-themed films during the Lunar New Year is actually a continuation of this year’s box office trend in the film market. On this year’s annual box office list, crime suspense-themed movies performed well. “All or Nothing” and “The Vanishing Her” both earned more than 3.5 billion yuan at the box office. “Sturdy as a Rock” easily exceeded 1.3 billion yuan at the box office. “Rescue the Suspect” The box office of “The Eighth Suspect” was close to 500 million yuan, and the box office of “The Mistake on the River” also exceeded 300 million yuan. This year, the film market has a rich supply of films of all types and diverse themes, but compared with previous years, there are more crime suspense films.
Harvesting genre film bonuses
Integrating various genre elements such as crime, action, horror, romance, suspense, etc., with strong dramatic conflicts, strong emotional immersion, and high-intensity sensory stimulation, crime suspense films have always been very important in the film market. Creation type.
The creation of a sense of reality in crime suspense genre films is the key to this wave of new films reaping box office success. For example, “All or Nothing” focuses on telecommunications fraud, and “The Disappearance” focuses on wife-killing scams. The recently released “The Mistake on the River” and “Wading the Angry Sea” are also films of this type. In their adaptations of the novels, these two films either inject a sense of reality and reality, or inject topical emotions that resonate with current audiences. , to attract the audience with strong emotional appeal.
Another feature of this year’s crime suspense films is that they use imaginary story backgrounds or have the stories take place in Southeast Asia and other places, using “large-scale” plots to attract audiences. There are many such films this year, such as “Sturdy as a Rock”, “Rescuing the Suspect”, “Anti-Drug 3: At the End of the World”, “Manhunt”, “Crossing the Sky”, etc. “Desperate” and “The Disappearance” also use the same method.
Superhero blockbusters have “failed” and romance films have failed to hit the box office. Apart from heavy industry science fiction blockbusters and costume masterpieces, costume or contemporary crime suspense films have become the favorites of creators. Even in very mature markets for crime suspense films, such as Japan and South Korea, continuously upgraded works are still helping to revive the film market. In addition to the introduction of blockbusters, the box office of Korean movies is supported by crime suspense movies such as “Crime City 3”, “Hero”, “Negotiation” and “Smuggling”. This year, new films such as “Rescue the Suspect” are also remakes of Korean movies. It is common for crime suspense films to be remakes of each other in the Asian film market, and the genre of domestic crime suspense films is becoming more and more mature. These new films include realistic styles, black styles or absurd comedy styles, etc., and they are constantly integrating and applying similar film elements. With localized expressions, more and more creators may delve into this genre.
