Text|Linghu Boguang.
Let's write about Feng Xiaogang today, his "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3" released at the end of last year was a very unsuccessful performance, and combined with the previous TV series "North and South" and "Echo", it was unsuccessful, compared with Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, he was obviously abandoned by young audiences.
The 2024 Spring Festival stall is coming soon, and this Spring Festival stall is recognized as the "weakest Spring Festival stall".
You must know that Feng Xiaogang was very successful in the past, and the box office list of Chinese films in the 10 years around 2010 is not counting Hong Kong directors. is Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yimou are kings, Jiang Wen is not a commercial film, and Chen Kaige's commercial performance is not as good as him, so around 2012, Feng Xiaogang has a very bad temper and scolds the air, so he is known as a small steel cannon.
In 2017, Feng Xiaogang also made well-known remarks, and at that time, Feng Xiaogang directly said in a public interview with ** that there is a lot of garbage in China, and the audience has formed so many garbage movies, and the garbage everywhere must have something to do with a large number of garbage audiences. 6 years have passed, and it is not clear whether the Chinese audience is garbage or not, but the audience has indeed abandoned him.
This matter has something to do with the times, and now the audience scolds film and television dramas for being bad or something, especially when many people see a bad movie, they will feel that the script is too bad, and they can write it themselves better than the director and screenwriter. In fact, film is second only to games in terms of complexity among cultural works, and film is a comprehensive art, which is both commercial and artistic, both entertainment and cultural products.
As a mass culture product, its social influence is huge.
In the 8090s, there were no commercial films in mainland films because of environmental relations, and the fifth-generation directors such as Zhang Yimou were literary films, and Hong Kong commercial films in the same era were the first in Asia and the second in the world, which was very capable of playing. So in the mid-to-late 90s, with the opening up of the mainland market, everyone was facing a transformation.
The transformation of the mainland wants to make commercial films to make money, and Hong Kong needs to transform to face the decline of the mainland, either like Jackie Chan and his gang to go to Hollywood, or come to the mainland to adapt to the market. The problem is that Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" led in 99 years, and Zhang Yimou's "Hero" opened the era of Chinese commercial blockbusters in 02 years.
Feng Xiaogang's "Party A and Party B" was released in 1997, and it was a success in the market that year, and was hailed as the opening of the Chinese New Year.
I think this ** is a bit like some Hong Kong films at that time, that is, it is not a literary film, but a down-to-earth commercial comedy. The Hong Kong flavor of Hong Kong films comes from down-to-earthness, Hong Kong is a very crowded civil society, people are close to people, and there is no sense of distance and mystery, which makes Hong Kong movies unacceptable. He is fresh and spicy, just like a food stall, and the chef also has a high level, but you can't cook kung fu dishes in a food stall, and the taste must be a little heavier, and it is like eating at home, not like eating out of the house. Hong Kong movies must have great comedy conflicts and exaggerated conflicts, otherwise why come to the theater to watch you?
From the mainland's point of view, Hong Kong used to be a leader in all respects, and even the lives of its citizens were several grades higher than that of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In addition, at that time, the mainland's cultural consumer goods were still in the initial stage of shoddy production, and the production level was much lower than that of Hong Kong. This is the reason why the era filter came into being.
Feng Xiaogang's comedies at that time were actually quite close to the "Hong Kong flavor" production method, not that he often talked to a few friends about a story and found a screenwriter to save up a movie. The previous generation of filmmakers was not very industrial from the root, and their industrialization was likely to fail.
Later, Zhang Yimou's commercial films liked to engage in some very embarrassing spectacles, maybe he thought this was "industrialization". Hong Kong films are also not good at industrialization, and the ideological reason is partly due. Although Feng Xiaogang also followed the trend and filmed "Night Banquet", he actually did better in the field of commercial blockbusters. His "Assembly" has led Chinese war blockbusters for more than ten years, and until "Eight Hundred" is actually his model of local + Korean + foreign special effects team.
This didn't end completely until the rise of Wu Jing and Guo Fan, and this "Ten Thousand Miles Home" is completely a mainland team.
Feng Xiaogang's comedy is not mentioned, he was the king of mainland comedy before Ning Hao got up. Commercial films such as "No Thieves in the World", "Assembly Number" and "Tangshan Da**" are all excellent commercial blockbusters in China, but it is a pity that "1942" was unsuccessful at the box office, and the later "I Am Not Pan Jinlian" is quite experimental, and "Fanghua" is also a classic.
Why can't the commercial films of Hong Kong directors work, after Wu Jing and Guo Fan came out, in fact, Tsui Hark and Lin Chaoxian can still keep up with them at the aesthetic and technical levels. The themes of "Outwitting Tiger Mountain" and "Operation Red Sea" could have had depth, but Hong Kong directors could only weaken the themes to martial arts films and gunfight films, and do some technical industrialization.
Even if Hong Kong filmmakers maintain their previous level, they will not be able to complete the transformation of industrialization, not to mention that the level of others has dropped so much. Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and other mainland directors didn't understand this matter, and the commercial blockbusters they directed were not the same thing. The commercial blockbuster directed by Feng Xiaogang is actually more than Zhang Yimou.
It's better, just like the commercial blockbusters directed by Guan Hu and Ning Hao (let's not talk about content and expression first).
The reason why Feng Xiaogang has not had commercial blockbusters in the past few years is the problem of "Mobile Phone 2", Jin Suo, Fan Fan has had accidents one after another, plus the company behind it, Huayi Brothers, is no longer good, the connections are still there, but there is no money, do you think you don't need money to make commercial blockbusters?
The next few works are not good, Feng Xiaogang was born at the bottom, and it was a small-budget movie at the beginning, so he could mock the rich with a slight smile, and when he became a hot director and got foreign capital, he began to tout foreigners, and when he got a big investment, he touted the rich, and the characteristics of speaking out for marginal characters disappeared.
Feng Xiaogang's change is in line with common sense, so it is worth thinking about as a phenomenon to study. After all, although movies are the sons of capital, they can also be independent. The big question is, what are the movie consumers? Today's young people in China are very special, in the context of the confrontation between China and the United States, and we are under great pressure to live in the deep water area.
Although young people complain about how to do it all day long, in the big narrative, there are also individual expression requirements that are very clear.
Therefore, the macro narrative is national self-confidence, institutional self-confidence and civilization self-confidence, works like "Wolf Warrior 2" and "The Wandering Earth". And individual works are to be down-to-earth and real, do those old directors understand the down-to-earth spirit of young people now? The answer is clearly no.
Finally, let's talk about so many garbage movies because of the topic of garbage audiences. The topic itself is a "chicken, egg" paradox.
In 2017, you must know that it was the peak of the traffic economy at that time, it was indeed like this before, I don't know if it's good or bad, there are people with acting skills and those who don't, I don't know how the story is, I don't know if the effect is good or not, I can only watch it by feeling. However, now ......"Oops, it's my brother's drama to watch", "So-and-so and so-and-so are sweet together", just look at things not only to see the work, but also to look at the face, and eat sugar with fried cp, and don't pay attention to the story at all, and I can't say that there is no before.
In recent years, domestic film and television dramas have been much better, but at that time, there were really many, and I don't know why they were so popular.
There are not only directors but also investors and producers who make things, what are they going to do? What does it matter to me whether it is good or not to make money? On the one hand, the old drama bones have superb acting skills, but the story is not good or the effect is not good, so they will hit the street or say that it is tepid, then they will pay for it, or they will be tossed in vain. Please Xiao Xianrou doesn't need acting skills, doesn't need a particularly good script, doesn't need particularly good special effects, stir-fried cp, plus unnecessary emotional lines, and it's a big sale.
Feng Xiaogang's sentence is not entirely correct, it should be said that "most people like good works, but now there are more and more Shi Zhenxiang students, and they let this phenomenon become popular." But a large number of viewers have something to say again, countless people graduate from the directing department every year, and everyone wants to get a piece of the pie, online dramas, micro-dramas, movies, TV series, stage plays, when newcomers try to do works, then, are they all going for profit and fame, and how many can they want to make a valuable and influential film.
Therefore, the subject matter is considered and extended on the already successful films, and then make works that are already boring and aesthetically tired, good directors will never take a piece of the pie, but will only add a piece of the pie to the film industry, so my personal opinion is: Chinese films are not too much garbage, but too little innovation.
In the past, the special effects of Chinese movies were not good, and it did not affect **, the key is where to use it and how the plot is.
It doesn't represent all audiences, summarize what are the requirements for a good movie, in the case of a reasonable plot, sci-fi high special effects, good plot in ancient costumes, modern resonance, spoofs are innovative, comedy is not unreasonable, action is based on plot, horror is exciting (you add the rest), movies that do not meet these conditions are bad, and the audience garbage does not mean that the audience likes some strange movies, and admires idols to kill some really good movies on the road?
Then may I ask what your directors are asking those traffic stars to do? Isn't it just for the box office?
Finally, Feng's argument generally ignores socio-economic growth. If it is fixed in a situation where there is no economic development, then the conclusion is right, the consumption power will not increase, that is, there are no new users, the old users are stimulated by different works, and the aesthetics will continue to improve, that is, the later users will choose better quality content when choosing entertainment.
However, with the growth of the consumption power of the national audience, the number of new users continues to increase, and these new users do not know what entertainment content is high-quality and what entertainment content is inferior, so their consumption tends to be satisfied first and then look for excellence.
These big Chinese directors are doing everything possible to make excuses for themselves, they are obviously the ones who got "rich" first, but they didn't use their rich knowledge to lead the people behind them, and said that the people behind them like garbage, so they make garbage for the people behind them, they obviously evade their responsibility to "get rich first", and enjoy the harvested capital, and finally laugh at the people who come after.
Therefore, this is the reason why Wu Jing and Guo Fan were able to rise, while Feng Xiaogang himself became obsolete.
Generations of talented people have come out, and a generation has passed.