In recent times, there have been a lot of romance films, but the quality is not satisfactory, and it seems that they are not very popular with the audience, especially young audiences, and they continue to complain. On February 14, 2022, Valentine's Day, the film "Ten Years of One Pin Wen Ru Yan" won a high box office and was the box office champion on Valentine's Day, reaching 143.0753 million yuan. The next day, February 15, the box office fell off a cliff, only about 10 million. On February 15, "Ten Years of A Pin Wen Ru Yan" Douban opened a fan score, 14,049 people participated in the score, and the final score was only 2.8 points. Among them, the one-star bad rating rate is as high as 69.5%. 5-star reviews accounted for only 0.8%. The audience complained one after another, basically thinking that they had been completely fooled into the movie theater, and watching this movie was a complete waste of their time. Some fans even joked that Zhao Fei's "Ten Years of One Pin Wen Ru Yan" can surpass director Bi Zhifei with hard work and oil. As we all know, director Bi Zhifei's "Pure Heart, DreamIng Showbiz" who was ridiculed by the group has a Douban score of 2.2 points.
It is no exaggeration to say that "Ten Years of Warm Words" has plunged the romance into an unprecedented crisis of trust. Frankly speaking, "Ten Years of A Pint of Warmth" is not the author's "dish", so it is unlikely that he will be fooled into going to the cinema to see it. In the face of everyone's complaints, the author also watched this phenomenon-level movie on the Internet, and it seems that it is not as unbearable as everyone complains. Turnip cabbage has its own love, and no one can force others to maintain a high degree of consistency with themselves. In any case, the movie must be watched by yourself, and only after watching it can you make remarks or your own thoughts and feelings. Criticizing a movie without watching a movie is a hooligan in the film critics. Overall, the quality of romance films in the recent period is not satisfactory, the homogenization phenomenon is more serious, the lack of differentiated expression, the lack of emotional power to impress the audience's hearts. Many love movies, the content, bridges and even lines are similar, watching one is not much different from watching ten. Sometimes I have actually seen a movie, but because I am not deeply impressed, I feel as if I have not seen it.
We may also recall the creation of romance films: during the "Cultural Revolution", above the revolution, love had no place. There is a very interesting phenomenon in the literary and artistic works at that time, that is, the heroine does not have a husband, and even if she has a husband, she cannot be by the heroine's side, so we have never seen the figure of Ah Qing's husband Ah Qing in "Sha Jia Bang". Smashing the "Gang of Four", there was a novel by Liu Xinwu, "The Position of Love", which was a sensation, and the newspaper broadcasts at that time repeatedly recommended the broadcast. In other words, whether love should occupy a certain place in people's lives is a question that needs to be discussed and re-recognized. For a long time, there were really not many love films in Chinese movies, but there were some "love fragments" that people relished and were unforgettable. For example, there is a famous line in the film "Li Shuangshuang" that everyone is familiar with, you are in love first and then get married, we are married first and then fall in love.
Li Xiuzhi's love for Xu Lingjun in "Wrangler", no matter what faction he is, whether he is left or right, is to identify Xu Lingjun as a good person and a good man. The most touching passage in "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" is that the heroine Feng Qinglan pulls the car hard in the snow, and the car lies her seriously ill lover. Of course, the most memorable thing is that in "Furong Town", Qin Shutian's love for Hu Yuying is to encourage Hu Yuyin and encourage himself to live, to live like an animal...
1979's "Lushan Love" was a classic of romance films, even a classic within a classic, which caused a huge sensation at the time. But now it looks a bit "pediatric". Especially for younger audiences, it is "no feeling". As we all know, love is the eternal theme of literature and art, including movies. In fact, romance is also the most primitive type of romance, the most common type, but also the most difficult genre, but many love film creators are not deeply aware of this. Because love is closely related to everyone's life, everyone has a unique experience and feeling of love, so it is very difficult to have a differentiated expression of love and the expression of moving people, and it is necessary to have a unique experience, unique discovery and unique presentation of "love and its love story and love life".
Romance and comedy are so-called "light films" that can be small and broad. Because there are some cases of romantic films and comedies that have succeeded in small and broad, many creators flock to it and yearn for it. Compared with romance films, comedies can make people relax and cathartic. And romance can sometimes feel heavy, even unbearable in life. In fact, romance is the oldest and most common type, but also the most difficult genre to shoot, because love is closely related to everyone's life, everyone has a unique experience and feeling of love, so it is also very difficult to trigger more of this differentiated expression of love. Romance and comedy are all clean movies, well, but because comedies can make people relax and cathartic, and romance can sometimes make people feel heavy, even unbearable weight in life.
Whether it is 520, 214 or Tanabata, it is a kind of scene, in fact, it is a sufficient reason for the audience to enter the cinema to watch movies. In other words, the love film chooses to be released at such a "suitable" node, which is more to arouse the attention of the audience, attract the attention of the audience, and inspire them to go into the cinema to watch movies. In fact, the most difficult thing for Chinese films now is how to effectively attract audiences to go to the cinema to watch movies In the author's opinion, various means and methods can be adopted, all means and methods, and even unscrupulous means. No matter how much the white cat and the black cat catch the mouse, it is a good cat.
The title of the film is a technical job that requires more intelligence and imagination. Now, now, the title of the romance film is getting longer and longer, and the original intention is to use the differentiation of the title to attract the attention of the audience. But everyone's brain is getting longer and longer, not the longest. Only longer, may also lose the differentiation and uniqueness of the audience, but also lose the attraction to the audience. Now many people are relishing the great success of "Predecessor 3", hoping to be able to copy and concoct... However, "The Predecessor 3" was able to obtain a relatively high box office, which was suitable for the social environment and cultural entertainment environment at that time, but it has quietly changed. If you must say the experience of "Predecessor 3", it is that the romance film should create and create more common topics for the current audience group and the mainstream audience group, which can cause more interaction and achieve a greater level of empathy.
Many romance titles want to pursue a unique or even extreme presentation. Next, there will be "To My Strange Lover", "After Meeting You", "I Really Hate Long-Distance Love", "Meet You", "Crush • Tachibana Huainan", "Can You Not Leave Me", "Have Always Liked You", "Miss Each Other", "We Look Like Love" and other romance films will be released. I don't know if you can remember after watching these various titles, and whether you have the desire and impulse to go into the cinema to watch movies. After personally watching these various titles, there is no title that can make a deep impression and never forget. More importantly, a romance film should be able to attract the audience, the title is only an external element, it needs to have a better cast, and at the same time, the creator needs to have a unique feeling and expression of life, love life, and have a new discovery of life and expression of society, and have a differentiated aesthetic expression. In Stephen Chow's movie world, anything can be ridiculed, but only dare not ridicule love.
In fact, this should become the starting point of love film creation, that is, we must have the most sincere attitude, while looking for others' different expressions and experiences, effectively attracting and infecting the audience, establishing channels for dialogue, and forming positive interactions. Produces a larger level of empathic resonance. By the way, an event about love movies is being planned and on the way, hoping to play a positive role in improving the quality of romance film creation and production.
Rao Shuguang: Currently the president of the China Film Critics Association, researcher, doctoral supervisor. Former Deputy Director of the China Film Archive (Deputy Director of the China Film Art Research Center), Former Secretary-General of the China Filmmakers Association, Former Director of the Film Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
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Gao Shangjun (Chairman of the Performing Arts Working Committee of the Taiwan and Hong Kong Film Research Association of China) - Edited and distributed
Gao Shangjun took a group photo with the performance artist Zhong Xinghuo (representative works: "Today I Rest", "Li Shuangshuang").