I have two collections of Han Han's manuscripts called "Bright and Frank". Each set contains two books, one of which is named "Brightness" and is known as the "Wordless Book of Heaven" and the other is titled "Tandang", which is a photocopy of the manuscript.
In the 2012 "Ghostwriting Gate" event, Han Han released his handwritten work "Triple Gate" in order to prove his innocence. At that time, he sat on the floor, unfolded the manuscript paper into a page, and gestured with one hand "Look at my evidence".
After a series of troubles, Han Han compiled the manuscript into a book called "Bright and Frank", which clarified its quantitative limits and emphasized the value of rare items. Fans rushed out of the house, and I was part of the big event."
Of course, I'm not a Korean fan, I just support his articles, more precisely, the online comments of the pre-2010 blogging era - the kind of outspoken, outspoken sharpness and power, which looks "cool". There's another reason why it seems a little too formal and sublime:
When someone makes an appropriate and powerful noise, the audience should give them a round of applause and cheers.
On my bookshelf is a collection of Han Han's manuscripts.
After "ghostwriting", Han Han's enthusiasm for writing seems to have decreased, or he has become discouraged, and he has never left any writing behind.
As you all know, he has made a career change.
In 2014, the directors debuted a work called "The Future", and since then, more than 10 years have passed. In the Spring Festival schedule in 2024, the movie "Flying Life 2" directed by Han Han has achieved a huge box office success, followed by "Hot and Hot", which won the runner-up in the Spring Festival file.
The former writer, whose achievements in the film industry have become increasingly prominent, has risen to prominence as a top director of commercial comedy films. However, as fans of the past, their emotions are complex and changeable.
He's not the guy I once hoped to applaud him anymore, because the crowd that applauded him has quietly changed; He's not the one who always makes noise, and for the past decade he seems to have kept a low profile, completely disappearing from the public; His films feature humorous jokes and golden sentences, and while they look catchy and popular, they are very different from the sharp style of the past.
He once called himself a "truth-telling vested interest" and a quasi-dissident, but now, no longer making any noise, he has become a conservative and obedient "cynic" in the bustling Vanity Fair.
In order to make a qualitative evaluation of Han Han's latest work "Flying Life 2", it is necessary to start from the perspective of IP - this is a racing-themed series IP with high commercial value.
The first and second installments cleverly combine elements of comedy, racing and sports, and Han Han successfully transformed this IP into a series that can be replicated. The third work is just around the corner.
Perhaps, "Fast and Furious" is capable of filming more than ten productions.
However, this also reveals the problems of director Han Han. The first thing that hits him is that he is always hovering in his comfort zone.
After the failure of "Four Seas", he needs to carry out a counterattack. So, naturally, he chose the racing style he is most familiar with and focused his attention on Flying Life five years ago.
Before becoming a director, Han Han was not only a writer, but also a professional racing driver. Bayinbrook, he is close to you; He is very knowledgeable about the theory of racing; He's also quite familiar with how to appeal to an audience of racing enthusiasts.
It's no exaggeration to say that this is really his comfort zone. The humorous elements that Han Han shows in "The Future", such as "Riding the Wind and Waves" and "The Four Seas", are his forte, but these elements are not all smooth sailing. However, the racing theme combined with comedic elements can greatly stimulate the audience's enthusiasm for watching the movie, not only in his comfort zone. Perhaps, in the case of a sluggish box office in the future, Han Han will always choose to launch the IP of "Flying Life" to continue his career.
In the world of business, this is completely understandable, it's just-
He went deep into his comfort zone, but the artistic value of the film didn't seem to stand out for the past decade. Although he was a warrior of words, I would have preferred that he would have achieved some innovations and breakthroughs in the field of film.
In the work "Hot and Hot", Jia Ling successfully stepped out of her comfort zone - losing fat weighing "a bag of cement", which made many chubby viewers feel deep pain, not to mention the 100 catties lost. Therefore, Han Han's "strategy" of choosing to enter the comfort zone seems more economical.
For me, a former fan, Han Han "shouldn't have done this", he should have been perceptive and "destructive", or more accurately, he should have the ability to break through and innovate. His image in the past (confrontation with authority) gave him expectations, but his current image has changed dramatically.
Of course, such an expectation is undoubtedly an "emotional blackmail", or rather a "moral kidnapping" - I must admit. Moreover, such expectations are unrealistic, and Han Han is completely suppressed after 10 years of transformation into a director - he does not even dare to touch social issues anymore.
"Fast and Furious" in "Flying Life" is on par with Hollywood's top popcorn, but under the leadership of "Family Man", his "rice grains" bravely "destroy" everything. In the work "Flying Life", only a few ice cream cones were smashed and a few prop carts were overturned.
It looks like a metaphor.
The young man who once wanted to rebel against everything, the writer who once loudly declared to the "literary bigwig" that "the literary world is a fart", has now become a "movie bigwig", and it is very sophisticated. The general environment of society and the capital market have profoundly transformed a person with a devastating force.
Obviously, becoming a "cynic" seems like the path that must be taken in the current Vanity Fair.
Ten years ago, when Han Han released the work "After the End", people generally compared him to Guo Jingming. It cannot be ignored that compared to the pompousness and emptiness in "Little Times", the aesthetic tendencies of "After the End" can be considered normal at least.
In addition to the film and television industry, Guo Jingming's "commercial nature" has disgusted many audiences; The incident of plagiarism in particular made him widely criticized. Despite the fact that they are both transformations of writers, many people hope that Han Han will make a difference.
Ten years later, frankly, in the field of cinema, there is not much difference between them. Although the paths are different, they are all bound by the "capital chariot" in the end.
Although the works of the two directors Han Guo are different in terms of painting style, in terms of artistry, their works have obvious shortcomings. They pursued a highly unified goal – to achieve maximum success at the box office. These efforts can sometimes be successful, but sometimes they may not be as good as they could be. Guo Jingming's "Jue Ji" suffered a huge blow, and Han Han's "Four Seas" was also abandoned by the audience.
Guo Jingming used the "most worldly culture" to build his own film and television empire, and at the same time, Han Han is also building a commercial platform called "Tingdong Pictures". In addition to making films directed by himself, he has also led the production of major theme films like King of the Sky.
Mention the main theme and use Han Han's sharp remarks in the past to examine the current Han Han, what will happen?
About a decade ago, the energetic young writer's critique of mainstream ideas or institutional issues had become the cornerstone of the "spear of the son against the shield of the son" strategy.
Observe how he sharply evaluates the work "The Great Cause of the Founding of the People's Republic".
From the perspective of the kind of movie, it is more like a slideshow.
In China, this mediocre and neutral secondary second film produced by China Film has received a middle 5 point evaluation. ”
So, if he were asked to score the movie "King of the Sky" (which also happened to be produced by China Film), what should it be - that is, "5 points"? The actual evaluation on Douban is not particularly high.
Judging from the anti-authority characters created by Han Han in the past, we can observe that he tends to the main theme, with a strong sense of disobedience and irony.
However, we can also understand that in order to survive, we need to take responsibility for the team and fight for more of a dominant voice – and in addition, everyone's personality can change. At present, Han Han's strategic choice in the mainland film market has led him to make some kind of compromise.
In 2014, after the release of "After the End", he accepted an interview with "Southern ***" and said: "I am only willing to compromise with fate" because "if the weather is bad, you can't shoot, and other than that, there is nothing else to compromise". However, the textual quality of this road movie, which runs throughout, is not sharp, that is, a thorough self-assessment and compromise has been carried out at the beginning of the selection of the topic.
In a previous interview, Han Han made it clear that those who are unwilling to admit that they have compromised are actually putting on a show." This is in stark contradiction with the idea of "just compromising with fate", and he does not admit that he made a compromise from the beginning. Perhaps, he was not aware of this.
But in any case, he was successfully "disguised". In the past decade, the box office of films under the name of Han Han has continued to climb and he has been successfully promoted to the top director.
However, each and every one of the movies is very safe and does not cause any ill effects. He doesn't really want to have in-depth communication with the world, he just wants the world to cash out for him and enjoy it.
Therefore, what is really worth paying attention to is that whether it is "The Future", "Riding the Wind and Waves", "Four Seas" or the "Flying Life" series, each of Han Han's directorial works shows his "avoidance" and golden mean of reality.
Although Han Han's film style is not as ethereal as Guo Jingming's, his films also have a narcissistic tinge, and his worldview is at best the layout of Tinglin Town, a suburb of Shanghai.
In 2011, in an interview with "Southern ***", Han Han, who had not yet stepped into the film industry, gave advice: "The censorship of films, the avoidance of realistic themes, and the fact that many people who should have developed in the field of TV dramas or TV shopping have joined the film industry are all factors that have led to the decline in the quality of films." ”
Ten years after "stepping into the film industry", Han Han has always maintained an avoidance attitude towards realistic subjects, and he is not much different from other directors who are active in the current mainstream film and television field.
From a certain point of view, the modern director Han Han has made a thorough and resolute "departure" from the previous writer Han Han.
Many people spoke highly of Han Han's past achievements, as Xu Zhiyuan, a scholar who later entered the entertainment industry, pointed out: "From a certain point of view, Han Han's success is not his own, but in this emerging era of mediocrity." ”
The article, titled "The Triumph of the Mediocre," rose to fame at a time when Han Han was selected as a "young leader" and "man of the year." At that moment, Han Han's supporters were touched by the word "mediocrity", which sparked a heated debate.
Looking back, Xu Zhiyuan's comment is undoubtedly about "Xing Shi Hengyan". His prophecy came true, describing the "Han Han phenomenon" as a "spiritual consolation" that ordinary people do not want to bear the consequences.
You will feel that you are both involved in an act of resistance and feel so safe that you do not have to pay anything intellectually and morally, and you do not feel lost mentally, he is the most pleasant presence in this society. ”
In fact, isn't the current expectation of Han Han's criticism of reality through movies also to give him another "comprehensive psychological comfort"?
But does such a good thing really exist in this world? In that article, Xu Zhiyuan raised questions.
Now that the "technician" has changed careers, there is no more reason to offer you new opportunities.
Han Han always knew how to properly control his behavior.
In the past, although his articles were sharp, they always hovered within the security range of the time, not only banning the account, but even banning for seven days was not enough, at most it was just deleting the article.
Of course, under the current evaluation criteria, some points of view can even be considered "fatal". This safety criterion has also undergone corresponding adjustments in the period before and after his transformation.
From one point of view, Han Han seems to be "avoiding the public" and choosing to "escape the world" in the world of movies.
An underlying rule that generally applies to the mainland is that the size of an image is usually smaller than that of text. Thus, despite the ban on the film "Alive", ** remained popular in China, providing a livelihood for writer Yu Hua.
Han Han knew this situation well.
After transitioning into a director, he changed his writing style to avoid direct contact with real society, mainly out of safety considerations, and in the process of choosing a subject, he first carried out "self-castration".
Coupled with the power of the "Capital Chariot", it is more than capable of taming this creature known as the "Wild Horse". After all, unlike simply writing an essay or hands-on writing, making a film is more like the result of a team effort, requiring a lot of investment and accountability to investors. It is important to note that this practice is perfectly justified and can even be considered a virtue.
There is an experienced producer who is very fond of the fact that after participating in Han Han's films, the other party can recoup the investment and income in time, and has confirmed this many times. This indirectly proves that although Han Han is a businessman, he is not a "greedy businessman".
However, the commercial approach does not enhance the artistic value of the film itself.
Of course, the display of artistic value is by no means limited to the aspect of "paying attention to reality and criticizing social evils", and even if this aspect is ignored, director Han Han's film works may not achieve satisfactory results.
Many years ago, Han Han's favorite movie "Flipped" (Flipped), although it is not directly related to sharp issues, but in his childish emotions, it successfully described the classics; In 2023, Korean director Celine Song's "Past Lives" is calm on the surface, but it contains a deep historical charm.
On the other hand, Han Han's starring film, "Flying Life 2", although equally fascinating, lacks lasting appeal, and like his other works, there are few aspects worth thinking about. The popcorn he produces not only fully meets the safety standards and qualifications, but is also fried in its comfortable environment, and each one is delicious, but with a hint of "the beauty of the mean."
In fact, it is not only Han Han's "mediocre and bland" and Zhang Yimou, who once directed "Alive", but now there are more "commercial blockbusters" and "proposition compositions", which is undoubtedly a form of betrayal of the famous director Zhang Yimou 30 years ago.
However, among Zhang Yimou's works, the work "Alive" is indeed worthy of praise for future generations. As for director Han Han, he doesn't have a classic that is worth referring to and learning from many times.
Even so, Han Han managed to reach the top of the Chinese film industry – an achievement that would have been remarkable if he had not been Han Han, but someone else! However, without any presupposition, he is Han Han and must face the fact that "fame is actually difficult to achieve".
In his days as a writer, Han Han once modestly said: "Without heroes, how can a young man like me become famous." ”
This was true in the past, and it is still so.
However, unlike the man of the past, who became famous in his youth and destroyed all authority (which is exactly why his supporters in the past were dissatisfied with him now), now-
is shattering the past self to pieces.