On New Year's Day this year, only two new films were released, one of which is "Desperate Master" starring Chang Yuan.
Counting up, this is already the third consecutive year that the movie starring Chang Yuan has entered the "New Year's Day file". They are "Warm Hug" in 2020, "Li Mao Plays the Prince" in 2021 and "Desperate Master" in 2022.
The general environment when "Desperate Master" was released was not good, and some films that had been finalized chose to withdraw their files, and "Desperate Master" can insist on being released, but also has confidence in itself and the market. But Chang Yuan's acting skills have been discussed on the Internet.
01
Why is playing a leading role not as good as playing a supporting role?
Chang Yuan was born in a crosstalk family, and his grandfather was the crosstalk master Chang Baohua, who appeared on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1988 at the age of 6 and co-spoke crosstalk "Dialogue Fun Talk" with his grandfather.
Chang Yuan began to be recognized by everyone in the movie, playing some small roles.
For example, Charlotte's classmate Ment in "Charlotte Troubles", a sissy star;
the sissy boxer in "Iron Fist of Shame";
Liu Jiannan, who seems to be high in "The Richest Man in Xihong City", is actually super gold-worshipping;
Jupite, the feminine adjutant in "Walking on the Moon Alone";
These roles are few, but Chang Yuan plays them very well and is unforgettable.
In contrast, these movies starring Chang Yuan, although the box office is not bad, but the reputation and acting evaluation are not high.
The box office of "Warm Hug" broke 800 million yuan, with a Douban score of 5.2 points; the box office of "Li Mao Playing the Prince" exceeded 400 million yuan, with a Douban score of 4.2 points; the current box office of "Desperate Houseman" is 240 million yuan, with a Douban score of 4.9 points.
These comedy movies can all be classified as "high-concept movies", and the story is extremely hypothetical. For example, "Desperate Master" is about the elevator taken by the "straight man of steel" Hu Tienan, who suddenly failed, and when the elevator fell, a time and space shift occurred, and he entered a "different world", where men suddenly became the previous female characters, and the women who were previously troubled by machismo played the identity of the head of the family.
Chang Yuan can be said to have brought out his feminine side this time, and we can see that he learns various postures such as female walking and coquetry. For an actor, playing such a feminine role throughout the film is indeed a big test.
02
Why do audiences think his acting skills are not good?
Chang Yuan has always been very bold in the selection of roles, even if it is a sissy role, he does not refuse, but why do many audiences still think that his acting skills are not good?
I think the main reason is two points: First, his performance style is mainly "cold humor", this style of comedy, it is very difficult to perform, Chang Yuan's current skills are still difficult to control.
For example, in "Warm Hug", he plays Bao Huo, who has both obsessive-compulsive disorder and cleanliness, and he has a straight face and a single expression throughout the film, which makes people feel dull after watching it for a long time.
Secondly, those "cold humor" comedy masters such as Chaplin, Buster Keaton, etc., although their facial expressions are cold, they are often good at using various exaggerated body movements to achieve good comedy results.
In this regard, Chang Yuan's gap is very large. At present, the roles played by Chang Yuan are all dull expressions, stiff movements, and to put it bluntly, there is a deliberate taste of "pretending to be stupid". For example, Hu Tienan, in "Desperate Master", after entering the other world, feels that the whole process is played according to the appearance of women, and the jokes made in the process of men being forced to transform into female characters are rarely covered in the film. Although Hu Tienan is trying his best to resist the change of identity, his sense of comedy is not enough, and he even looks awkward.
Comedy film actors such as Stephen Chow, Shen Teng, etc., who are loved by the audience, take into account the "layering of facial expressions" and "the comedy of physical movements". For example, Stephen Chow used "seven expressions in ten seconds" in a scene in "Journey to the West" to prove his acting skills. Chang Yuan's dry humor style also shined in those supporting roles that did not appear much, but when he put this performance style into the entire film, the audience's patience was tested, and the "lack of performance-level facial expressions" and "too mechanical and rigid physical movements" made it difficult for the audience to accept.
Although Chang Yuan's portrayal has the characteristics of femininity, femininity, paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc., he always rotates in these characters, and the audience will definitely get tired of watching too much.
How to get out of the comfort zone of performance and add new connotations and possibilities to his performance may be a difficult problem that Changyuan needs to face in the future.