Domestic comedies make people unable to laugh, which is a problem pointed out by many reviews in recent years. Comedy was originally the most appealing genre at the box office, and laughter was just needed by the audience, but in the past two years, the comedies have distanced themselves from the audience's real life enough for safety. A longitudinal comparison of the 2022 and 2023 Spring Festival stalls, comedy is just an embellishment, not the mainstream. (In 2022, "This Killer is Not Calm" and "Super Family" will be scolded for bad movies; In 2023, "Exchanging Lives" will not be hotly discussed, and although "Man Jianghong" gathers many comedians, it is not a comedy. The audience's trust in domestic comedy has been almost exhausted. (This year's New Year's Day comedy "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" regained a little confidence for the audience.) ）
Almost every movie in this year's Spring Festival file has comedy elements, which is very rare in previous years. And they all seem to be mustering up the courage to return to reality: the legal dilemma of ordinary people ("Article 20"), the otaku girl who wants to win once ("Hot and Hot"), the frustrated racing driver ("Flying Life 2"), and the absurd and hypocritical film and television industry ("Mr. Red Carpet"). Why is it still criticized by many people as the "most watery" Spring Festival stall? Is it a better option to incorporate comedy elements into other film genres than to pursue pure comedy with complete structure?
From the full comedy
to the comedic element
Has comedy really lost its fans? With the word-of-mouth of the Spring Festival Gala sketches year by year, people's interest in Spring Festival comedy has also begun to waver. On the comments**, we can see many opinions that "you don't need comedy" and "you're tired of watching comedy". Even creators are starting to create more restrained comedies. On film and television information platforms such as Douban and Maoyan Professional Edition, most of the films in this year's Spring Festival have the genre of "comedy", but the interesting thing is that they are actually "not comedy enough".
Stills from the movie "Article 20". Viewers who have seen these films will find that they are essentially using different comedic elements to lead to their own deep, non-comedic narratives. And these fragmented comedy elements don't seem to have lost their fans. Ordinary audiences do not evaluate the film based on the completion of the comedy and "whether it is enough comedy", after all, whether it is "Hot and Hot" (Douban score 80), "Flying Life 2" (Douban score 7.)8), "Article 20" (Douban score 77), all of which have achieved phased success in word-of-mouth and box office. The comic elements that are attached to these works and do not dominate fulfill their task.
In this year's Spring Festival, creators began to abandon comedy that is far from reality, has a complete structure, and pursues hilariousness, and instead uses appropriate comedy elements to focus on specific issues in daily life, which can also be a development trend of comedy.
We can't even say that the former is "more comedy" than the latter, because comedy has never been difficult to define or categorize. It can be transformed into a variety of forms: poetry, literature, video, short **, Internet jokes, and many people even think that news creations such as "1818** Eye" or "Tan Talks about Traffic" are also comedies. It is this amazing elasticity and plasticity that allows comedy to be active in different forms and in different eras.
Comedy is like a toolbox full of novelties, allowing different creators to take what they want. In this year's Spring Festival, although no one chooses pure comedy, in fact, all creators are looking for suitable comedy tools to try to achieve their own narrative goals.
In the movie "Hot and Hot", comedy plays a role of contrast. Jia Ling uses the comedy of a series of supporting roles to highlight the non-comedy of the protagonist. Le Ying, played by Jia Ling, has always been soft-spoken, whether it is in the initial otaku stage or after her success, she rarely shows the exaggerated comedy performance skills that were commonly used. Those family members who have their own hearts, girlfriends and ex-boyfriends who are embarrassed, and the half-way waste Chai Haokun (played by Lei Jiayin) are the characters who are more likely to make people laugh in this film.
Stills from the movie "Hot and Hot". Generally speaking, Le Ying's obese image is more likely to carry comedy in the story. In traditional comedy, obese people are more vulnerable to "disparagement humor," which takes pleasure in attacking vulnerable groups, which can be ethnic and sexual minorities, residents of specific geographies, and of course, obese people. The protagonists lead the audience to laugh at the obese people in the story and enjoy their pain together. Even in mainstream images other than comedy, the portrayal of obese people does not reflect reality well.
Bradley Sanders Greenberg, an American communication theorist, and others have analyzed the stigmatization of obese people in film and television productions. Their findings show that the proportion of obese people in screen image is much lower than their proportion in real society. The presentation of these characters is relatively negative, they are generally marginalized people outside the protagonist group, they are always relatively passive in the setting, and they lack growth and change in the narrative.
However, in "Hot and Hot", Jia Ling uses the way of becoming the protagonist and reinventing herself to throw the humor that once targeted obesity to other characters and bridges. At the same time, she also provides a relatively positive interpretation around the image of a fat person like Le Ying, such as the smooth display of the love of obese people. In many mainstream images, obese people usually have the characteristics of incompetence, which echoes the bias of many comments: "Jia Ling is fat like this, why is she in love with Lei Jiayin?" But why not? The film does not set up obstacles to Le Ying's series of romances that are subject to social prejudices.
Stills from the movie "Hot and Hot". Of course, the ** narrative and "inspirational" elements in the film still follow some stereotypes, such as obesity means low self-esteem and marginal life, and almost no one provides comfort to Le Ying when she is obese; And thinness symbolizes success, symbolizing that no one dares to depreciate their privileges, in the face of this privilege, Le Ying's arrogant and domineering sister, and Haokun, who thinks she is one level higher, silently bowed their heads. However, judging from the point of the story, compared with "getting rid of obesity", Jia Ling still emphasizes more on the control of her body.
Jia Ling used other people's comedy to highlight Le Ying's perseverance, and created a joke that fat people can not be ridiculed - now you don't have to laugh at me, laugh at others. ** Accounts for a large part of the film, but she doesn't want to repeat the demeaning humor of the past, and now she has the power to present a narrative that she feels is important.
The irony of comedy stars,
The star of satirical comedy
In the comments of this year's Spring Festival file, criticism of the image of celebrities once again appeared. Whether it is Jia Ling in "Hot and Hot" or Andy Lau in "Mr. Red Carpet", they have been ** by many people, and some viewers think that they are still far from the bottom, and their predicament is a false predicament. Film, as an art form with huge financial resources, will always be criticized in this way. There is always a natural absurdity in criticizing capital with films.
Of course, these works, which have obvious real-life references, are more likely to receive this kind of criticism than hilarious comedies that are fun for families. But, as the film historian D**id Bordwell has said, if you want something in your work, you are doomed to give up something. If you want to talk about reality, you have to face the reality of your response. In the end, these considerations about the gains and losses of form and content will gradually form the style of the creator.
The most stylized film in this year's Spring Festival file is undoubtedly "Mr. Red Carpet" directed by Ning Hao. In this film, comedy is clearly used as a tool to satirize the film and television industry. The film tells the story of how a star plays the bottom and cheats the audience and awards. Its concise imagery and roundabout irony seem out of place at this time, which is a work more suitable for the film festival system.
Stills from the movie "Mr. Red Carpet". "Mr. Red Carpet" is indeed challenging the theater chain, and it did not participate in the farce of the Spring Festival file from the beginning. In an interview with "Entertainment Capital", Ning Hao bluntly said that he expects to "show the audience something different", the style of this movie is deliberately simple, and the theme is about the ineffectiveness of communication. The challenge of this "unfestive film" to the theater chain is also part of the film's satire.
Like "Hot and Hot", the protagonist of "Mr. Red Carpet" is also playing himself again. Andy Lau in the mainstream Chinese New Year context is a family messenger in the style of "Wishing you prosperity"; But in the film, he becomes old and tired, unable to understand the language of young people, does not want to listen to the advice of his collaborators, and only wants to play the role of a poor character in the countryside just to win awards and fame.
The former means a lively comedy that communicates everyone, and the latter symbolizes a bleak comedy that can't communicate with anyone. Although the audience of the latter is much smaller than that of the former, the comedy that cannot be communicated is indeed part of the Spring Festival: awkward sketches with laughter, parents who can't find resonance, and perfunctory greetings ......For many young people, the Chinese New Year is also a gorgeous red carpet full of lice.
Mr. Red Carpet showcases the elements of "playing yourself again" in all aspects. Andy Lau plays the big star Liu Weichi, Ning Hao plays the director Lin Hao, and Jackie Chan, who did not appear, is also playing Chen Long. Each character is multifaceted, not only in "Mr. Red Carpet", but also in real life as directors and actors, and even other characters in these people's other works.
Many of the jokes in the film need to be combined with the real film creation and the best environment. This performance strategy of playing a specific image and transcending the image at a specific moment to reach reality has a long tradition in the history of comedy.
In both the New Comedy of Ancient Greece and the Italian Comedy of Improvisation, there are many typical characters who follow certain conventions. This pattern also applies to contemporary comedy, where Scott Sedita, a sitcom consultant and comedy performance director, summarized the character patterns of American sitcoms in "The Eight Characters of Comedy." Interestingly, these comic characters from ancient times to the present day do not strictly follow the rules, they just play the game of characters around these rules, constantly shuttling between their own image and their true selves.
Crosstalk and stand-up comedy also often use this technique, switching between real deeds and fictional jokes. At the same time, the audience of these comedies will be both immersed in the fun and offended from time to time, wondering if the jokes are aimed at the characters or at us in reality.
Stills from the movie "Mr. Red Carpet". This deep interactivity of comedy makes its stage more open than other genres. If the comedy's own satire is almost meaningless, the audience will naturally offer richer satire. The satire of "Mr. Red Carpet" directed by Ning Hao is still a little smaller for such a huge audience, and many places have missed the point. Because of this, the audience rehearsed the second half of "Mr. Red Carpet" in their comments: the director has won enough commercial dividends, why should he point to the film festival? Why should an audience with a monthly salary of 6,000 listen to a big star with a salary of 60 million complaining? Is the real obstacle to the rural theme being these petty fights in the film?
The story of "Mr. Red Carpet" in the film industry became complete when sharp reviews from various angles spread, after all, film reviews are also an important part of the film industry. In comedy, the genre that places the most emphasis on audience response, commentary is particularly important. Even if the box office of the film is sluggish, and even forced to change gears, the creators have no position to complain, which is originally a phenomenon that "Mr. Red Carpet" wants to satirize - the ineffectiveness of communication. It's just that compared to other forms of comedy, the satire of the movie is much more expensive.
The interaction of comedy and reality
This year's Lunar New Year movies may be "not as comedy", but the comedy is still there, but most of them have receded into the background and played more subtle roles. In "Hot and Hot", comedy is a tool of contrast, and the comedy of others sets off the drama of Jia Ling and Le Ying; In "Mr. Red Carpet", comedy is a tool of satire, and those whining complaints not only hint at Ning Hao's own views, but also provoke the audience, calling for more criticism of this work and the film system.
In other films, the comedic elements are transformed into different tools that play a specific role. In the movie "Flying Life 2", comedy is a kind of speed limiter. The comedy in the first half of the film — Zhang Chi (Shen Teng)'s self-deprecation, the frustration of driving a classic car, and the absurdity of "Bayingbrook's soil" — are all designed to try to keep Zhang Chi as the protagonist as low as possible and limit his speed. In the atmosphere of comedy, the audience will slowly feel that "this guy is nothing more than that". In this way, when he is completely liberated in the inspirational racing scene in the later section and releases the power of **, the audience will be more touched.
Stills from the movie "Flying Life 2". In "Article 20", directed by Zhang Yimou and co-produced by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, comedy is a kind of conciliator. The short bickering in those parents and the triangular relationship with his wife and ex-girlfriend have made Han Ming (Lei Jiayin), the prosecutor's image, less "perfect" and more approachable. Zhang Yimou did not let him remain serious and serious in the space of the procuratorate all the time, but placed him in the life of firewood, rice, oil and salt, and experienced the trivial daily life that everyone would face. Therefore, when he finally popularized the law, he was more able to make people empathize. In this kind of work with the main theme, comedy can strengthen the imprint of human nature, and can integrate warmth into the cold law.
In the Spring Festival regulars in the "Bear Infested" series, comedy has always provided a kind of shelter. Xiong Da, Xiong Er and the natural jungle they represent are always opposed to the chaotic urban society, providing eternal solace for the bald strong. This tradition of focusing on nature also has deep roots in the history of comedy. In Shakespeare's comedies, we can already see nature as a refuge in reality.
Critic Northrop Frye pointed out that the natural world in Shakespeare's plays is a wonderland of love and life, providing an outlet for relief, relaxation and dreams. Therefore, when this year's "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space" cut the natural scenes and used a lot of pen and ink to depict the life of bald urban social animals, many viewers expressed dissatisfaction. These dazzling high-concept, parody comedies that mimic superhero films seem too far from nature. The audience of "Bear Infested" may be looking forward to Bear Ridge, which is far away from the city, and the kind of comedy that is simpler and purer.
A still from the movie "Bear Infested: Reversing Time and Space". In the hands of different creators, comedy can be shaped into different forms to serve different purposes. It can convey sharp sarcasm, create an atmosphere of harmony, and provide sheltered dreams. And at the right moment, it can also leave the scene at any time and give way to other positions and opinions. After all, reality is nothing more than a game that can be comedic over and over again.
Matthew Bevis, a professor of English literature, summed up the rebellion of comedy in "Comedy: A Very Short Introduction": "Comedy always wants to defile the gods a little, dethrone the patriarchy, shake up what exists. This sentence actually reflects the relationship between comedy and reality, it is not its responsibility to solve the problems of reality, it only needs to tease and tease reality a little.
The comic elements that are interspersed with the seams may be just as important as the well-structured comedy. For more realistic issues, comedy has many benefits, such as re-evaluating the importance of the issue, increasing the acceptance of ideas, or finding alternative ideas and directions.