Author |Peppers
Hu Jianlin, a senior fitter, was transferred to the HR department of the headquarters by mistake when the group laid off employees, and was mistaken for a related household with "someone behind him" and received preferential treatment in the company. Because he didn't understand Internet slang, he also regarded "optimization" as a positive word, but he reversed the anti-layoff alliance and was promoted and raised all the way.
This misalignment of identity has brought countless laughs, and it also makes "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!".has become a rare "workplace satire" comedy at present. In the decade of the last century, Huang Jianxin's works such as "Black Cannon Incident" and "Back to Back, Face to Face" made a spicy critique of the bureaucracy of the units within the system, but after that, the workplace in domestic films went in the two directions of "inspirational" and "love", but rarely went deep into the workplace relationship.
Judging from the current box office results, "The Annual Meeting Can't Be Stopped!".On the first day of release, "Sneaking" became the box office champion of the day with 48 million, and the annual meeting can't be stopped!ranked second with a higher proportion of films.
The reason for this is that the frequent black words and the background settings of Internet giants will make many people think that this is a movie that benchmarks white-collar audiences in first- and second-tier cities. The structural comedy based on the character setting also makes it difficult for the editing of the trailer to highlight the laughter caused by the misplaced identity.
But this does not prevent "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" from becoming an attempt by comedy to get out of the "safe zone", and when offense and satire return again, the value of comedy should be re-emphasized.
"Reality is far more absurd than imagination".
In the creative process, the most shocking point for the main creator is that he originally thought that he was creating an absurd story that does not exist in reality, but in the process of interviewing, he found that the bizarre story they thought was not only real in reality, but even much more outrageous.
The absurd reality in the era of efficiency is the origin that touched director and screenwriter Dong Runnian's continuous creation of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop". "In my observation and understanding, the Internet giants are the place where the smartest and most powerful group of people in China gather, representing our most advanced productivity. But when we chatted with our friends, we found that in such a rigorous system, there will be a lot of absurd things and a lot of absurd mistakes, and this contrast is particularly interesting. ”
But friends can only complain while continuing to work hard. Screenwriter Ying Luojia revealed that this sense of powerlessness between "lying flat" and "involution" is also one of the starting points of creation. They hope to create a film that will become a "mouthpiece" for migrant workers"In recent years, I feel more and more that we need to laugh too much, and we need to vent our frustration too much. ”
The annual meeting can't be stopped!The script was written on and off for five years, and in the process,The creators observed that the social mood and environment are constantly changing, and the overall story has been overturned 8 times, and the protagonist has changed several rounds
In an earlier version, the protagonist of the story was a character similar to Ma Jie, a migrant worker at an Internet giant, who presented problems from an internal perspective.
Around 2020, Dong Runnian happened to see a piece of news: In a high-end office building in Wangjing, Beijing, a homeless man locked himself in a no-man's storage room during the day, and waited for the employees in the building to sneak out of the pantry to eat and drink for free after work. He can even know which departments are working overtime or not, and find a place where no one is working.
Dong Runnian found this story very interesting, so there was also a version of the script in which the protagonist was Zhuang Zhengcheng, who later infiltrated Zhonghe Group, and it was up to him to seek justice for the laid-off factory.
But they soon realized that the story was not enough to constitute a complete "satirical comedy" and wanted to find a more absurd expression. At this time, the two screenwriters thought of Master Liu Baorui's stand-up comedy "Lian Sheng**", which tells the story of a rich man's son Zhang Haogu who was illiterate and whimsically went to refer to the imperial examination, but because of the corruption of officialdom, he was promoted to ** by mistake and became a big official.
So in the final version, Hu Jianlin, a "guanhu" who represents the old order, appeared, and he was promoted again and again in an enterprise full of formalism and bureaucracy, and it happened to be **.
In order to make the "workplace" really land, during the creation period, the creators did a lot of interviews, and the three protagonists in the film all work in the HR department, and one of the consultants of the opening credits is a former HR director of a major Internet company. These interviews cover the detailed daily work of the HR department, as well as the slang, ranks, and rules of the Internet giants.
Dong Runnian recalled,The content of the lines in the script is relatively certain, but in the process of specific interpretation, the two protagonists, Dapeng and Baike, also gave a lot of surprises。For example, when Hu Jianlin met Ma Jie for the first time in the company, Ma Jie said "You will be my subordinate in the future", while bowing his head and bending down, his posture was lower than that of his "subordinate", and Hu Jianlin immediately gave an immediate response, which was the result of on-site co-creation.
In addition, the actors in the movie also have rich experience working in large factories: Dapeng was an employee of Sohu before, Bai Ke also has experience working in TV stations, and many supporting roles are talk show and sketch actors, but most of them also have their own jobs.
"These actors themselves provide us with a lot of realistic support at the level of the play, and they will also have a great sense of conviction when acting. ”
Why doesn't anyone make workplace movies anymore?
The spicy satire of the workplace in "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" is very reminiscent of a series of works by Huang Jianxin in the tenth decade of the last century. Dong Runnian revealed,There are also corresponding tribute shots in "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop".: In "The Black Cannon Incident", there is a huge analog clock behind the leader, while in "The Annual Meeting Can't Be Stopped", the background of the conference room is a huge LED clock wall.
Stills from the Black Cannon Incident.
The Black Cannon Incident tells the story of Engineer Zhao who sent a telegram to the hotel saying "Lost Black Cannon 301 to find Zhao" in order to find a "black cannon" lost in chess, but was transferred from his post on suspicion of ciphertext, and a tourist interpreter who was not familiar with the installation of the project took over his work. The story reflects the absurd reality of "outsiders in charge of insiders" in the system, and political consciousness is greater than professionalism. Subsequently, "Dislocation" and "Back to Back, Face to Face" also continued the theme of satirizing workplace bureaucracy, criticizing and exposing the problems of the units in the system at that time.
After Huang Jianxin, this kind of film works that satirize workplace bureaucracy gradually decreasedWorkplace movies turn to the two themes of "love" and "inspirational".The former is represented by "Du Lala's Promotion" in 2010, which tells the love story of Du Lala and his boss Wang Wei, and the latter is typical of "Chinese Partner" in 2013, which is based on the entrepreneurial story of New Oriental.
In recent years, the frequent workplace dramas have also been accused of "falling in love in the guise of workplace dramas." "The suspension of workplace content and the hustle and bustle of the love line make it difficult for workplace themes to resonate with the audience. In addition, workplace dramas such as lawyers, real estate agents, and doctors that focus on a specific profession rarely have excellent works that dig deep into workplace relationships.
Around 2017, Dong Runnian observed that there were constantly workplace-themed works in the drama field, but there were gaps and disconnections in the film field. Dong Runnian was born in a dual-income family, and when his parents came home from work, the most talked about at the dinner table was his unit and colleagues. When he grew up, his friends often complained to him about the workplace, "Work occupies the daily life of most Chinese, but it is rarely reflected in film works." Dong Runnian said.
Why is there a generational disconnection in workplace movies?From a creative point of view, on the one hand,Most screenwriters lack professional life, and they need to be supported by a lot of interviews when making original scripts。In addition, Dong Runnian also thinksAlthough the workplace theme is a bonanza, it is very difficult to pull out a clear clue"There are so many people and things to talk about and topics to be expressed. Because it's actually a microcosm of a society. From what angle, I think it's actually quite difficult, especially when it has to be condensed into the two hours of the movie, which is actually a very headache in terms of creation. ”
In the larger external environment, satirizing authority is also at risk of being audited。In the 80s, the "Fake Big Sky" series of cross talk actors Yang Zhenhua and Jin Bingchang in the Northeast directly learned someone's accent and gestures, and the effect was wonderful, but then it was ** for many years.
The appearance of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" allows us to see a return to the previous workplace satirical comedy, but there is also a lot of controversy.
In the current Douban short comment, many viewers think that the "happy ending" at the end is too idealistic: middle-level corruption** is ultimately saved by higher-level leaders in the system, rather than directly pointing to the problems of the system itself.
Dong Runnian responded that the current ending is the result of many deductions and more realistic ones. First, the chairman's words emphasized that "people who should not have lost their jobs" should come back, and the right to interpret them is still in his hands. The second is that the end of the movie falls within a few days after the end of the annual meeting, and the three protagonists have a better situation than before, "The current problem seems to be solved, but after half a year and a year, do you still have a happy ending?"”
"In real life, layoffs are definitely not a happy event, it is sad, painful and frightening. But comedy can jokingly express this thing that makes us feel scared, to dismantle this fear, so I hope to give everyone a powerful ending. It's one of my beliefs in doing comedy. ”Dong Runnian said.
Another controversy is the audience for the film. The large number of workplace slang in the trailer and the obvious background of a large factory make many viewers think that this is a movie for white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities. The box office on the first day failed to exceed that of "Sneak", which was released on the same day, which seems to show that the early screening has not completely spread the word-of-mouth.
Will the high-density workplace slang cause restrictions on the threshold for watching movies?Dong Runnian thinksThe annual meeting can't be stopped!is a structural comedy where all the laughs are built on the character traits and misplaced identitiesIn fact, there are only a few people who are the main exporters of black words, and this absurdity in the daily life of the workplace is understandable to most people. But this kind of structural comedy also objectively limits the possibility of its short publicity, because the real laugh comes from the sense of absurdity and poor information generated when the omniscient audience begins to accept each character and understands each character, which is difficult to fully reveal in one minute.
Paying attention to the workplace means paying attention to whether the upward channels of young people are smooth and transparent, which is actually a very acute social issue. More than 30 years ago, Huang Jianxin chose to focus on the system, and now, Dong Runnian has set the stage in a major Internet company, both of which are the preferred destinations for young people in the current era to dedicate their youth.
Thirty years have passed, efficiency has skyrocketed, but the absurdity is still there, and satirical comedy is indispensable.
Comedy needs to get out of the "safe zone".
Looking at this year's film market, comedies have not performed as well as they should. "Exchanging Lives", which has a declining reputation during the Spring Festival, has a box office of less than 400 million, and "Super Family", which is far lower than the box office expectations, makes the audience's confidence in the comedy of Happy Twist lower and lower. On the other hand, realistic themes shine in the market, and "Disappearing Her" and "All or Nothing" both rely on social topic marketing to get high box office.
Dong Runnian believes that the previous domestic comedies were more influenced by Stephen Chow, and most of them were deconstructions of authority, but under the trend of differentiation, everyone rarely has a unified goal, and there are few objects that can be unified and deconstructed. Comedy may have reached the stage of "reconstruction", and it is necessary to find the real problems that can arouse the audience's empathy at the moment. "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" and "Spit on the Workplace" are this starting point. This year's "Keep You Safe" ran out of 700 million box office in the cold period, which also grasped the real problem of "Internet rumors".
After graduating from the directing department, Dong Runnian first entered the screenwriting industry and collaborated with Ning Hao in "Heart Flower Road" and "Crazy Alien". When the director made **, he found that it was becoming more and more difficult to create comedy, and even posted a Weibo: "The current world is not a world that allows humor."
Another three years have passed, and Dong Runnian feels that this phenomenon is getting more and more serious: everyone has changed their habits by short jokes, and they only like short-term stimulation. Humor is increasingly disallowed at a time, and the offended have a chance to speak out and raise objections.
Offense and irony, these expressions that were originally common in comedy have gradually disappeared, and comedy has also retreated to its own "safe zone", using expectations to create "jokes" in an overhead environment, and no longer play its role in reflecting on reality.
"The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" is a rare comedy film that concerns about real issues, starting from the "small incision" to talk about the common but absurd facts in everyone's life, so that every migrant worker can substitute it. But do these problems only exist in modern businesses?
Just a week before the release of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop", the new drama "Thankless Courage" directed by Dong Runnian was completed. Dong Runnian told Fugu-kun that this is a comedy with a talk show as the theme, there are still Zhonghe Group in the story, and there will be a lot of satire on the workplace, and he wants to complete the unfinished part of "Annual Meeting" in the series.
Let the satire and offense return, let the comedy get out of the safe zone, "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!".is just a starting point.