Ni Zifang.
The 2024 Spring Festival "broke five", and the total box office of new films in the Spring Festival stalls exceeded 5 billion yuan early, and the top four were Jia Ling's "Hot and Hot", Han Han's "Flying Life 2", the animated film "Bear Infested 10", and Zhang Yimou's "Article 20", but in terms of the volume of discussion, it seems that the Spring Festival stalls only have "Hot and Hot" and "Article 20", which temporarily ranks fourth at the box office.
The new film believes that Jia Ling's "Hot and Hot" has been rising at the box office all the way in this summer, which is due to the re-popularity of the loudest emotional movie in the film market in 2023 since "Hello, Li Huanying", and it is the small emotional movie that has been ignited again. But if it is comprehensive, the only ones who can perfectly combine hot emotions with sincere feelings are Zhang Yimou and "Article 20".
The discussion of small emotions and big feelings movies in Spring Festival movies also involves a topic that is often confused by the industry, that is, what is realism? What is a realistic theme? The film industry's specious understanding of the concepts of realism and realistic themes has made pseudo-realism rise all the way in the film market, but the film market has a process of turbidity and purity, and the real realistic theme, that is, movies like "Article 20" based on sincere feelings, is the development direction of realistic films.
1. Why are small emotions hot?
Jia Ling's new Spring Festival film "Hot and Hot" is adapted from the movie "100 Yuan Love". Le Ying (played by Jia Ling) in the film has been at home for many years and has nothing to do. After graduating from college and working for a period of time, Le Ying chose to disconnect from society and close her social circle, which she believes is the best way to "reconcile" with herself. One day, under the "tricks" of fate, she decided to live a different way. In careful contact with the outside world, Le Ying got acquainted with boxing coach Hao Kun (Lei Jiayin). When she thought that her life was about to get on the right track, the tests that followed were far beyond her imagination, and her hot life had just begun to ......
The important thing is said three times, **100 pounds is not the core attraction of "Hot and Hot", **100 pounds is not the core attraction of "Hot and Hot", **100 pounds is not the core attraction of "Hot and Hot". However, since the release of the film, Jia Ling announced the news of **100 pounds filming "Hot and Hot" through Weibo, and now the film has been hotly discussed, and the discussion about "Hot and Hot" can be seen in the eyes, and this topic of "**100 pounds" is mentioned more. Regardless of whether the topic of "**100 catties" covers up the true content of the film, this inspirational content has indeed become a strong emotional link between this film and the audience, which makes "Hot and Hot" a distinctive emotional movie, Jia Ling's "Hello, Li Huanying" three years ago is the beginning of emotional movies, and 2023 is the hot year of domestic emotional movies.
Consumption and commerce, which provide emotional value, are collectively referred to as the emotional economy, which is a less rigorous definition. Emotional economics is generally considered to be the latest economic term to be proposed, in fact, as early as 2010, the book "Emotional Economics" by the British author Hill has been published in China. Hill, who has served as a consultant to dozens of well-known companies, is an accomplished marketing expert, and his book "The Economics of Emotion" shows us how to evaluate and manage the emotional responses of customers and employees by studying the human facial code to gain a competitive advantage and success. Hill argues that in this increasingly competitive environment, many products are similar, and only emotion determines what makes them unique. The core idea of the book "The Economics of Emotions" is that "Raise the edge of emotions for business success." ”
For the 2023 film summer file, those successful works really practice the "emotional blade" proposed by "Emotional Economics" to "raise the emotional blade and achieve commercial success". The "emotional blade" of the movie "All or Nothing" is what can you do in the face of fraud, and the plot in the film makes people's backs chill. One of the "emotional blades" of the movie "Disappearing Her" is that you should never have a "love brain", and everything that the characters in the film encounter because of the "love brain" makes the audience afraid. The "emotional blade" of the movie "School Dad" is the chicken baby and the "school district room", although this is a cliché topic, it does not prevent you from being whipped by such a topic again when you are ** movie.
Whether it is "Hello, Li Huanying" directed by Jia Ling, who has no **, or "Hot and Hot" led by Jia Ling, who is **100 pounds, they are all emotional movies that make full use of emotional value. In terms of emotional value, there is no essential difference between "Hot and Hot" and "Hello, Li Huanying".
First of all, "Hello, Li Huanying" establishes empathy with the audience because of a deep understanding of comedy. Aristotle talked about the characteristics of comedy in "Poetics", he believed that comedy imitates characters who are worse than ordinary people, and the so-called "poor" does not refer to "bad" in the general sense, but refers to a form of ugliness, that is, laughter (or funny), and what is ridiculous is an ugliness that does not hurt others and does not cause pain. In the joyful "Hello, Li Huanying", the "slightly fat" Jia Ling is the "ugly who does not hurt others and does not cause pain", she successfully makes us understand the characters in the film through empathy, so as to achieve empathy, laugh and cry with them, without considering the roughness of the plot of the film. The effect of the film on the purification of people's souls is by no means something that absurd comedy can give, but has a bit of a tragic flavor. Aristotle's earliest definition of tragedy states, "Tragedy evokes feelings of compassion and fear, and purifies such emotions and gives them harmless pleasure." In this sense, "Hello, Li Huanying", which has an absurd comedy shell because of the formal crossing, still brings people harmless pleasure at the core, which is an excellent tragedy.
The emotional value provided by "Hot and Hot" is not higher than that of "Hello, Li Huanying", but it is more important to be down-to-earth, which is the core competitiveness of emotional movies. In terms of content, the synopsis of "Hot and Hot" gives people the impression that this is a counterattack movie, and it is the dream process of a loser in life. But "Hot and Hot" is not, the film has no real counterattack, and the so-called "hot and hot" has not fallen into the real life of the protagonist. The logic of the film is that I was a loser before, and I wanted to win once, and although I didn't really win for a while through a certain event, "I felt" that I won for a while. Life is not hot and hot, life is still a chicken feather, but I have a "heat wave" in my heart, such a "dream-making process" is in line with more ordinary people, and it is easier to establish emotional links. If the counterattack movie is "hot and hot" for ordinary people, the two-hour movie watching, the less enthusiastic "Hot and Hot" can make many ordinary people reminisce for a lifetime.
2. Great feelings are valued in sincerity.
If "Hot and Hot" belongs to the victory of small emotions, Zhang Yimou's latest Spring Festival movie "Article 20" is a masterpiece that perfectly integrates small emotions and big feelings.
It should be said that "Article 20" is a big theme, and the film focuses on the provisions of Article 20 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China on legitimate defense, and tells the contest between love and law. In order to establish an emotional connection between such a serious theme and the audience, Zhang Yimou has made two efforts, one is to package it in the form of comedy, and the other is to establish a sense of ritual. The packaging in the form of comedy ensures the so-called "good-looking" of the film, which is a simple means to establish an emotional connection with the audience, and the establishment of a sense of ritual that Zhang Yimou is best at not only allows the audience to empathize with the situation in the film, but also shows sincere feelings.
With the efforts of this aspect, "Article 20" has become a realistic work of group portraits, opening up realistic themes in a comedic way, presenting social group portraits with life stories, laying out all kinds of life with laughter and scolding, and conveying the people's most simple value expectations for fairness and justice in the balanced quest between emotion and reason, public order and good customs and laws and regulations. Among them, Lei Jiayin and Ma Li dedicated a lot of light comedy scenes in the film, so that the serious big-theme work "Article 20" will not be so heavy. The encounters of the characters in the three cases in the film gradually empathize with the audience: in this mortal dust, everyone is a "soul scattered in the world", although they have "dreams", but they have also "been confused", when they encounter injustice and fall into a trough, they can only "resist and endure silently", struggle in forbearance, stick to it in gritting their teeth, and "sincerely ask" at every darkest moment, whether they can "be brave", "relieved", and "work hard as they did at the beginning", Until what is unfair finally wins justice.
But the film "Article 20" does not simply stop at emotional empathy. As a realistic film focusing on the theme of "legitimate defense", the movie "Article 20" presents the image of three prosecutors with different identities and personalities. Han Ming, who started a family, has the professional mission of a prosecutor at work, and has family responsibilities as a husband and father in life; And Lu Lingling, played by Gao Ye, is a warrior with an idealistic spirit, who dares to fight and question in order to seek fairness and justice in his heart. As the boss of the two, the "Tian Jian" played by Wang Xiao is a person who follows the rules and regulations, and everything is based on the rules and procedures. Lu Lingling, played by Gao Ye, as a subordinate of Tian Jian and a colleague of Han Ming, her persistence in seeking justice "not hitting the south wall and not giving up" infected Han Ming played by Lei Jiayin, and the two shook Tian Jian played by Wang Xiao with their difficult search for the truth. It is in the persistence and transmission of justice that the three cases in the film finally ushered in a fair answer.
The establishment of a sense of ritual has always been the strength of Zhang Yimou's films, and it is also an important magic weapon for Zhang Yimou's works to stand out. For example, Zhang Yimou's last Spring Festival work "Man Jianghong", most of the length of the film is a cocoon-like detective process, which makes the film almost a tortuous detective film, and the last trick to open up the film pattern is the final "recitation of the whole army". The big scene in the final stage of the film, from one person, to the herald, to some soldiers, to all the forbidden troops, recited together, "Angry hair rushes to the crown, leaning on the railing, Xiaoxiao rain rest." Raise your eyes, look up to the sky and roar, and be fierce. Thirty merits, dust and earth, eight thousand miles of clouds and moon ......In the words of fans, such a scene is very burning, and it is easy for the audience to empathize. It can be said that Zhang Yimou is good at making the audience empathize with the audience through the big scenes of the movie. Although this method is a bit "straightforward", it combines the plot and the love to the depths, and such a big scene works.
Back to "Article 20", if you use more space to show Lei Jiayin and Ma Li's husband and wife bickering like the first half of the film, the film is easy to slide into a shallow quagmire, and that kind of film is at most a funny film, not a film with social significance and social value. With the deepening of the three cases in the film, one plot twist after another, and a deafening line, it just rightly returns to the legal value of "Article 20". In the film, the scene where Lu Lingling (played by Gao Ye) and Han Ming (played by Lei Jiayin) slapped the table because of a dispute over the case left a deep impression on the audience. "What makes a mother willing to leave behind her husband in prison and her five-year-old disabled daughter and choose to die? It was her desperation of the law. It was Lu Lingling's words that awakened the sleeping heart of justice in Han Ming's heart, and "What we are doing is not a case, but someone else's life!" This line, which is based on the voice of a real prosecutor, is even more deafening. And Zhang Guisheng's unexpected death, Hao Xiuping's leap on a high-rise building, finally triggered Han Ming's six-page questioning about legal fairness about legitimate defense at the hearing, which made the social significance of the film more distinct.
The author is a contracted art critic in Shandong Province).
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