Seeing that there was an interview with a filmmaker, in which director Lu Yang said a sentence very emotional, he said: 2021 he feels particularly long, because there is no good movie to watch.
At the end of 2019, after watching "Manslaughter", I had not been in the cinema for half a year, occasionally passing by the mall with half the stores, and the film was still displayed in the roll-up. In 2020, most of the New Year files were extended to the second half of the year, in order to reduce losses sold to streaming media, "囧Mom" sold to streaming media, theater managers collectively boycotted Xu Zheng, this boycott is actually based on the fact that everyone feels that the epidemic will soon pass, and the theater is still the base camp of the movie.
However, I watched "Love Myth" starring Xu Zheng in the theater a few days ago, and it was released in any theater as usual, and before that, the films he participated in directing had also been on the National Day file. Behind this logic actually means that the cinema is less important to the movie, the movie is less important to people, and since it is not so important, it is naturally reconciled.
Knowing this year's list of high-scoring films, it can basically summarize the current situation of Chinese films this year and even in recent years (only for mainland releases). The score is tied for the highest scores, "The Eleventh Time" and "Fame and Fame", the former I did not watch, I knew that it was a niche literary and art film directed by Chen Jianbin. The latter is a script-killing suspense film, I still quite like, watching the movie back in the zhihu search for a lot of "careful thinking" brain holes about this film.
Films that are not so popular can occupy the top two, and there should be a certain proportion of fans participating in the selection. Of the remaining eight films, four of them were produced in the Spring Festival slot. Li Huanying has Jia Ling's true affection and win-win box office reputation, but it is still quite immature in terms of directing techniques. The highest-scoring "Crowds" is based on a Japanese film starring Masato Sakai and is not original. "Assassination of a Novelist" is first-class in stunts, and its uniqueness is not as good as Lu Yang's own "Embroidered Spring Knife". I didn't expect Detective 3 and Secret Visitor to make the list.
▲Swipe up and down to see the complete list of 2021 Chinese high-scoring movies
In fact, this summer Chen Zhengdao's youth film "Midsummer Future" is a little better than "Secret Visitor", although the genre is completely different. Chen Zhengdao also gave an interview with Zhihu, who observed that it is becoming more and more difficult for young audiences to please now, such as romance films, he thinks that it is sugar, but the audience feels that it is.
He said this not to criticize the aesthetics of young people's movies, but to have a very humble attitude to learn from young people. He would reflect on whether it was because he was old that it was difficult to get to the point of the younger audience. Remind yourself that it's okay to be old, but don't be daddy. He has been very active in both film and television circles in the past two years, and the TV series focuses on women's issues. Last year, there was a crowd to help the brother and sister kill the ghost father's "Skyscraper", this year there are three girls emotional "Love is Delicious", his characteristic is that the sense of form is stronger than the story.
Zhang Yimou has been extremely prolific in recent years, and "On the Cliff" is considered to be the middle of it, because it is a spy war theme that he has never been involved in, and the box office is high in his recent works. "On the Cliff" can see the cold image style of the old director, but it is not as pure as "Shadow". The performance and rhythm are solid, but it can also be seen that the script is inherently weak, leaving no aftertaste and thinking for the audience.
"Chosin Lake" has a large box office and scenes, and the score of "My Hometown and Me" that was not on the list is similar to that in my heart. The Hong Kong films released in the mainland are almost only a category of police bandits, and "Furious Case" is an old-school shooting method, which is not as good as "Peerless".
In fact, this year I was also invited to participate in a website inventory selection, film and television category can be multiple choices, but I have a single choice, one is not to comment on those who have not seen it, and the other is that it is really difficult to choose (out).
In the first two years, I didn't think that Chinese movies were much prosperous, but I felt that this year I did enter an ice age. The higher-scoring movies that I know did not make the list this year were "The Lion Boy", "Love Myth" and "Bomb Disposal Expert 2". "Bomb Disposal Expert 2" is the average level of Hong Kong films. "Love Myth" is a very rare little bourgeois romance film in Chinese films, with a breath of life. It was not included in the list but it was released too late, and it just missed the list selection, in fact, it was as high as 8.8 points.
My own scoring standards are a little stricter than zhihu, except for "Love Myth", which has not had an eight-point movie this year, and more than seven points is worth going to the theater.
Judging whether the film industry is prosperous, in addition to the box office (of course, this year's box office does not need to be mentioned, no one has summarized the total box office of the whole year), word of mouth, and several important indicators: is it a hundred flowers blooming? Is there any innovation? More sequels or more starts?
2019 was a year of hope for film practitioners, when there were many new attempts. The science fiction film "The Wandering Earth" sold well, and we thought that science fiction had come in the first year, and "The Three-Body Problem" was coming. The platter film strung together by several small stories is also innovative in the main theme narrative, of course, everyone is tired of this form now.
The top few on that year's Zhihu list can be said to be diverse: the literary crime film "The Party at South Station", the family life film "Long Day", the women's dilemma "Send Me to the Clouds", Lou Ye's storm clouds, and the school violence of "Young You". Not on the list, the box office myth "Nezha", the overseas favored "Luo Xiaohei War", and "The Origin of the White Snake", the animation alone has a strong momentum. There are also suspense films "Manslaughter" and youth films "Over Spring". The abundance of genres makes people think that spring is about to fill the garden.
▲Swipe up and down to see the complete list of 2019 Chinese high-scoring movies
The 2020 student cut off the half-year release period, objectively less than half of the movie. Until August, "Eight Hundred" won a high box office as the first test film after the epidemic, and gave practitioners hope: this time the film should recover, right? But I didn't expect that "Eight Hundred" was the annual crown.
This year's list has wanted to sigh, and the biggest problem is that there is no innovation in the film works. "My Hometown and Me" is a sequel to the motherland model; "One Second" is one of zhang Yimou's small costs and several films filmed at the same time; "Tang Detective 3" is the lowest rated in the series. The postponed Spring Festival files "Win the Championship", "Jiang Ziya" and "Emergency Rescue" did not meet expectations from the box office to the word of mouth. "Half a Comedy" is quite funny, but the volume is very small, and many people should not have seen it.
2020 is only equivalent to half a year's output, and it is understandable that there are few fine products, so everyone thinks that there will be a slowdown in another year. First of all, this year's hottest Spring Festival file did not produce any movies that could make a sequel, and the sequel is also one of the indicators of the success of commercial films.
As in the previous year, there was a lack of original scripts and the pioneering of new genres, such as the popularity of remakes. "Manslaughter" is already a remake, and "Manslaughter 2" is a remake based on the success of the remake. I think the remake was a successful but dismal box office youth film "Five Splashing Teenagers", when I watched it, I thought: If not a remake, it would be good.
There are no literary and art films that can win awards, go out of the circle, and even have no performance awards. This year is the main theme of the year, but it is only a copy of the past model. What is really topical is that "The First Burning Incense" is ridiculed by everyone.
So the question is: as spectators, do we still have to go to the cinema? Lu Yang answered this question. His answer was straightforward: if the cinema system collapsed, the film industry would be in danger. Knowing that there is some truth in the answer, he believes that the epidemic has caused difficulties in filming, and it is impossible for real people to live overseas. Objectively speaking, this is indeed the case. The "Manslaughter" series is set in Southeast Asia, the first part was filmed in Thailand, and the second part can only be set in Guangdong.
Liu Tao's TV series Star Sea, the line is said to be M country (Malaysia), but the scene is always in a hotel in Sanya, every time you see the bullet screen, everyone recognizes that it is a certain hotel.
Of course, movies can create realism by setting up scenes, the limitations of the scene are not fatal, and the shrinkage of the film and television industry is the deep reason. Because of the shrinkage, everyone will be more careful in terms of cost, and sequels and remakes will be safer than opening new ones. Li Huanying's success may have another aftermath, and the high-cost production of Spring Festival films has decreased, because the investment cannot be recovered.
The author believes that live-action movies have limited the opportunity for animated films, and at present, this year's animation films are not of higher quality than in previous years, "Lion Boy" was released for 10 days, and the box office was 140 million, not to the extent of going out of the circle.
Whether a year is a good year or a famine year, as long as you close your eyes, you can recall the masterpiece of this year and win. Tv dramas are a year behind the decline of movies, and when it comes to 2020 TV series, we can immediately think of "The Hidden Corner", "Thirty Only", "Chess Soul", "AnJia", "Dajiang Dahe 2"...
▲Zhihu 2020 Chinese high-scoring film part of the list
But this year's response is large, in addition to the tribute dramas "The Age of Awakening" and "Mountains and Seas", either the ratings are not good, such as "The City of Ideals", or the high and low are like "Sweeping Black Storm", or the influence is not enough such as "Rebels".
At the end of each year, I will regularly look at the annual inventory activities of several platforms to review the hot events of the past year and predict the development trend of the film and television industry next year.
This year, the theme of Zhihu is "Light and Shadow Re-questioning", still using its best questioning method, throwing a lot of questions to users and industry practitioners in the station that everyone is very concerned about. For example: Why do idols frequently collapse in 2021? Do we still need idols? Is the situation of the middle-aged actress getting better in 2021? Is the "big female lead drama" more and more routine?
Also participating in the discussion were the seven filmmakers of the year who stood out from the zhihu high score annual work list by combining the love of friends and the selection of head users: Qin Hailu, Huang Xuan, Jing Tian, Lu Yang, Wu Bai, Chen Zhengdao, and Yan Min. As excellent practitioners in the film and television industry, they and Zhihu head creators have to answer some questions that are closely related to themselves. For example, Qin Hailu was asked, "In 2021, has the situation of middle-aged actresses changed?" Jing Tian needs to answer "Is the big female lead drama more and more routine? ”
On "In 2021, is it still necessary for audiences to go to the cinema to see movies?" "This problem Lu Yang said very realistically, only the cinema can support this industry, once all put on streaming media, the industry immediately can not afford to make movies, because it can not receive back money." It is like this, the audience can accept spending fifty dollars to go to the cinema to see the giant Transformers, but will not spend so much money on the phone to see a small one, the audiovisual shock will be greatly reduced. On the other hand, if the director makes a movie for a small screen, he is bound to cut enough to fit, sacrificing a lot of picture details that can only be noticed on the big screen.
If you have a question, you will have an answer.
In the back-and-forth confrontation between friends, I made at least one thing clear, although 2021 is a year of great changes in the film and television industry, it sounds like bad news: idols have been disqualified, talent shows have been stopped... However, seeing so many people still paying close attention to the changes and development of this industry, and seriously sharing views and opinions shows that everyone is still full of hope in their hearts. Don't be afraid of more questions, afraid of being willing to answer less. The sign of the real decline of an industry is not that it is sung down, but that even the people who sing down are gone.
Finally, I took another look at this year's high-scoring annual work list and found that in the year-end review, those that can remain in the mind are still fresh and impactful works. In previous years, most of the hot discussion lists were low-scoring but high-heat works; as professional film critics continue to contribute high-quality content in Zhihu, many high-scoring works also appeared in this year's hot discussion list, such as "Hello, Li Huanying", "Chosin Lake", "Fame and Fame", "Sweeping Black Storm", "Awakening Years", "Mountains and Seas", "I Am Good in Other Places" and so on. Similar to what I observed, it basically represents the judgment of a group of film and television industry practitioners around me.
Now, near the end of the year, there are suddenly some works that can compete for the annual film list, and people can't help but fantasize: Will next year be better?
Hopefully it will be better, otherwise where am I going to kill time?
After all, the success of small and beautiful works such as "Love Myth" and "Love Is Delicious" can at least wake up some investors and creators: instead of superstitious traffic and IP production, it is better to write a script in a down-to-earth manner. And, who can really create from a female perspective, who can win more audiences and good reputation.