Michelle Yeoh's success has slapped a resounding slap in the face of the mainland film circle

The 80th Golden Globe Awards ended, the news of Michelle Yeoh winning the film was on the Chinese Internet, Liu Yifei and Wu Yanzu also posted articles congratulating Michelle Yeoh on winning the award.

The Golden Globe Awards set two Best Actress in a Movie, the Best Actress in a Drama Film was Cate Blanchett "The Great Devil", and Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Category.

Shortlisted for Best Actress together with Michelle Yeoh, there are clown girl Margot Robbie, "horror film darling" Anya Taylor Joy, etc., and the competition is quite fierce.

The first Chinese actress to win a Golden Globe Award is Awkwafina, who won the award in 2020 for the movie "Don't Tell Her".

Both films, starring Michelle Yeoh and Awkwafina, have one thing in common: they tell the story of China or have a Chinese background.

"Don't Tell Her" is based on the real experience of the Chinese director of this film, telling the story of a Chinese American family who learned that her grandmother in her hometown in the northeast was in the terminal stage of cancer, and her parents decided to hide it from her grandmother, but her granddaughter wanted to tell her grandmother the truth in a generous way, so that her grandmother could face the last period of her life calmly.

In this contradictory atmosphere, the whole family plotted a huge lie - to hold a wedding for grandma's grandson in Japan, the purpose is to bring the family together to spend her last days with her.

There are many contradictions in this movie, the contradiction between Eastern and Western languages, the contradiction between Eastern and Western concepts, and the contradiction between the old and new generations looking at things.

It is these contradictions that are intertwined to make the film glamorous. In fact, the core of the movie is very simple, love and family.

The same is true of "Instantaneous Universe" starring Michelle Yeoh, many people feel that they can't understand it, camera switching, role switching, and universe interlacing.

Michelle Yeoh's Chinese mother, who runs a laundry in an American community, has an old and a dull life, and the biggest problem comes from filing taxes.

One day, when the couple went to file their taxes, husbands from other universes suddenly appeared and fought with their wives.

The core problem is that Michelle Yeoh needs to travel between different universes, possess herself in different universes, and fight against the evil forces that are at work. But in the end, she discovered that the evil force turned out to be her daughter.

Although the film's expression is very avant-garde and unconventional, the core of the expression is still very classic: Asian, family and love.

The love between husband and wife, the love between mother and daughter, the love between family, classic propositions, present a movie that surprises the audience.

You see, stories related to China can shine in Hollywood. You see, 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh plays a mother and can hold the Golden Globe Award queen trophy.

Previously, we often talked about a topic: the dilemma of middle-aged actresses, when they get old, they can only play their mother and mother-in-law.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with playing a mother and mother-in-law, the focus is on how to act.

Hui Yinghong said in the variety show that now looking for her script, basically playing her mother, but so what? Mom also has a thousand appearances.

For example, in "Blood Guanyin", Mrs. Tang who uses her daughter as a tool and as a social brand bag. Hui Yinghong won the Golden Horse Award for actresses.

In "Lucky Is Me", she met and accompanied by the low-level teenager Ah Le, and interpreted Aunt Fen who "Pingshui meets mother and son". Hui Yinghong won the Academy Award for actress.

There is also the blind mother in "My Extraordinary Parents", who struggles to raise her daughter. Hui Yinghong won the Chinese and American Film Festival for this.

Not only that, Hui Yinghong has also played many mothers, each mother is completely different. Playing a mother does not trap an actress, and what traps an actress is a good script and market environment.

Although Hui Yinghong has been very active in the mainland in recent years, she can only play a borderline supporting role in mainland film and television dramas, and the themes are mostly ancient dolls and family dramas.

In the mainland film and television industry, is there room for middle-aged and elderly actresses to play a role? Of course there is.

For example, in 2022, teacher Xi Meijuan won the movie "Mom! " won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress in one fell swoop. Playing against her is 85-year-old teacher Wu Yanshu.

Teacher Wu Yanshu, also known for "Mom! won Best Actress at the Beijing International Film Festival.

The movie is a good movie, with a rating of 7.6, but the box office is only 77 million. Of course, in the same type of warm literary films, and without the blessing of traffic stars and big coffee, this box office is already very good.

In fact, this is one of the reasons why middle-aged actresses can't receive good scripts: the mainland market is not favored.

For comparison, in 2021, Hong Kong released a movie "Mom's Wonder Boy" about the growth experience of Paralympic champion "Su Shen" Su Huawei, produced and starring Wu Junru, which is her second film after 3 years.

After the release of "Mom's Wonder Boy" in Hong Kong, it triggered a movie-watching boom and received a box office of 28 million Hong Kong dollars, although it is not much in our opinion, but it ranks second in the Hong Kong box office ranking in 2021, second only to "Anita Mui", higher than "Bomb Disposal Expert 2" and "Furious Serious Case".

However, after "Mom's Wonder Boy" was released in the mainland, it only received 17.7 million box office, more than 10 million lower than Hong Kong.

On the other hand, "Bomb Disposal Expert 2" won 1.3 billion box office, starring Andy Lau with a smile.

"Furious Heavy Case" is even better, 001 million higher than "Bomb Disposal Expert 2", becoming the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in the mainland.

The audience just likes to watch commercial films, blockbusters, cool movies, no way. Capital is profit-seeking, and what the audience likes to see, capital will create.

Of course, this situation is not new to now, it has been there for a long time.

For example, Feng Xiaogang's masterpiece "1942", which has been brewing for 19 years, filmed for more than 4 months, and cost 200 million yuan, swept major awards, starring Zhang Guoli and Li Xuejian, and the photography, modeling, recording, and script all won awards.

However, after the movie was released, the box office was far lower than expected, with a total of only 360 million, which made the old club Huayi lose blood.

After that, in order to let the boss return blood, Feng Xiaogang spent a month filming "Private Order", with a box office of more than 700 million.

So Feng Xiaogang cursed: It is precisely because there are garbage audiences that there are so many garbage movies.

Feng Xiaogang is wrong in saying this, the audience does not like bad movies, the audience just does not like tragedy.

I wrote in the movie Mom! " and "Mom's Wonder Boy" and other movies in the comment area, I always see such a message: "Don't dare to go to the cinema to watch, just watch the clip I will cry to death." "Movies are good movies, but I don't want to cry in the cinema."

Is it true that the audience does not have the ability to appreciate? It's just that instead of choking up in the cinema, everyone is more willing to watch these touching movies at home and cry without scruples.

There are always people who say, "Hello! Li Huanying" is a sketch and a bad film, and it is not worthy of 5 billion box office at all. But I don't think so, in fact, the movie just captures the most classic thing - love.

More subtly, the movie makes you laugh most of the time, and the audience's tears are naturally outflowing, and it is the softest place of the heart that is hit.

After Zhang Xiaofei won the Golden Rooster Shadow, it was even more deserved.

The Chinese movie-watching tradition is like this, in the busy and stressful life, I want to go into the cinema to relax. When a touching drama and a brainless comedy are presented at the same time, most people will choose the latter.

In fact, the film does not need a grand theme, how tricky an angle, just need to write the script carefully and present it in a style that is more acceptable to the audience.

Unfortunately, today's mainland film market always uses the most grand and wonderful pictures with the most vulgar and pale scripts.

Just like the series of bad films made by Happy Twist in recent years, the audience spends money on the word comedy, but is scorched and tender by the bad plot.

This also reflects the second reason why middle-aged actresses can't receive a good script: because there is no good script at all.

Without a good script, it has become the biggest problem in the mainland film and television industry, and after so many years, Jin Yong's novel is still being remade.

Otherwise, find a novel adaptation, obviously the novel itself is quite good, after the adaptation is miserable, the story logic cannot be consistent, and the character character collapses.

Every year, so many screenwriting graduates from film and television schools, so many graduates of Chinese departments, can't you find a good screenwriter?

In the end, there are still too many external factors to interfere, investors can change the script, directors can change the script, and even actors can change the script. You change a few sentences, I change a few sentences, the plot book is the core of the movie, but from the beginning, the foundation is wrong.

Looking back carefully, the top actresses of Chinese films, Zhou Xun, Zhang Ziyi and others, because they can't make good movies, have all turned to the TV industry.

If you can't achieve higher achievements artistically, then compromise and concentrate on making money.