Text | Ling Hu Boguang
With the end of the TV series "Crazy", the "Three-Body Problem" TV series version has also started on-demand to end, and the 2023 Spring Festival file has officially ended, of course, the Spring Festival movie is still being released, and the war of the two head movies "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Manjiang Red" has not stopped from box office to public opinion.
The Chinese film and television dramas in the 2023 Spring Festival are really a big outbreak, you must know that before the release at the end of 2022, the "epidemic" superimposed on various factors has led to a very lack of domestic popular culture, especially the most serious problem of domestic films.
I still remember that because the National Day file was released, there was only one commercial blockbuster "Ten Thousand Miles Home", and at the same time, there were several small and medium-cost main theme movies. Coupled with the rumors of the withdrawal of films such as "Deep Sea", the news that Chen Kexin left overseas streaming media, and rumors such as Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yimou ran away.
At the end of 2022, domestic film and television dramas also set off a public opinion frenzy, but in reverse.
The 2023 Spring Festival file has made a good start for this year's domestic film and television dramas, and I think this significance may be much greater than many people think. When we look back in the future, this Spring Festival stall is likely to be a period of dividing line between Chinese pop culture in the new era.
The movie has a sci-fi epic, and the TV series is a big hit? The 2023 Spring Festival file is too strong
The 2023 Spring Festival movie is the best definition, after all, the seven movies are very clear, "The Wandering Earth 2", "Manjiang Red", "Nameless", "Bear Haunted", "Deep Sea", "Exchange Life", "Chinese Table Tennis".
Although the current box office public opinion "Manjiang Red" and "The Wandering Earth 2" are inseparable. But when it comes to the impact on Chinese films, "The Wandering Earth 2" is groundbreaking, it can be said that the kind of film released in 20 years, its influence on Chinese science fiction blockbusters, the Chinese film industry and Chinese pop culture will be unprecedented.
Now many people underestimate the significance of this movie, and its status in the future will only increase.
"Manjiang Red" and "Nameless" are the first file, and the difference between them and "The Wandering Earth 2" is the benchmark of China's heavy industry blockbusters in the new era, and the film of China's fifth and sixth generation of big directors + medium investment old themes + powerful stars + top traffic stars + commercial operations in the post-traffic economy era.
The quality of these two movies is actually good, but it is the encounter with "The Wandering Earth 2", which is really too dazzling for Haoyue, causing the lantern to become a firefly. If it is in the past schedule, maybe no one doubts the box office of the former, and the fans of the latter will blow a wave.
"Exchange Life" and "Chinese Table Tennis" are the defeat of medium-cost poor comedy, and the latter is the dilemma of China's medium-sized investment in such sports theme films, both films have poor results, the audience discussion is not high, and the sense of existence is also very low.
This flowing Spring Festival file, the iron-clad "Bear Haunted" I believe there is no need to talk about it.
The overall level of domestic dramas in the 2023 Spring Festival file is also very high, and the TV series broadcast longer can be regarded as spanning the entire schedule, and the first hit of the Spring Festival file is "Go to a Windy Place" that started on January 3, not only the word-of-mouth results are gratifying, but now a flat petal score has reached 8.4, a proper classic drama.
Then there is the twin stars of the Spring Festival file, the sci-fi drama "The Three-Body Problem", although the results are slightly inferior, but because of the high restoration of the original plot, and the selection of powerful actors to successfully shape the characters, and the adaptation of some magic strokes has won praise from fans and audiences.
The other is "Crazy", although the end of this drama is a little rushed, but I believe that there is no need to talk about how popular it is.
In fact, there are two TV series worth mentioning in the Spring Festival file, one is "Moses on the Plain" with only 6 episodes and a very literary temperament, and the other is "Gentlemen" that has just been released, although the "delay" is no longer strong.
Other TV series are not good in all aspects, such as the suspense drama "The Daughter Who Came Back" that opens high and low, and then the first TV series "The Right Way to Open Life" and so on after Huang Bo's return.
The domestic animation "Deep Sea" in the 2023 Spring Festival file, it is most similar to "The Wandering Earth 2", the top investment in domestic commercial animation, a comprehensive breakthrough in technology, and a new song with a theme that breaks through the mythology, but unfortunately there is a problem with the plot.
The animated version of "Three-Body Problem" caused ridicule on the whole network, but fortunately, the short animation collection "China Strange Tan" came back, and the serial animation "Dali Temple Diary 2" and "Assassin Wu 674" and other works are of excellent quality, they support the development of domestic animation in the new era, some people may wonder what this can say, the 2022 Spring Festival TV series "The Beginning", "The World", the movie "Changjin Lake" and so on.
A sci-fi epic, a gangster legend? "Crazy" and "The Wandering Earth 2" say something
The first angle: the 2023 Spring Festival file proves that China's film and television industry has entered a new stage, top works are exploring the boundaries of China's film and television industry, and the aesthetics of mainstream cultural works in the market are becoming more and more advanced, and the combination of these two points is leading the rise of Chinese pop culture to the world.
1. Suddenly the boundaries of China's film and television industry are mainly "The Wandering Earth 2" and the animation "Deep Sea", "The Wandering Earth 2" for Chinese science fiction, Chinese film and television industry, including the entire Chinese popular is "nuclear bomb" level.
I am a middle-aged sci-fi fan and have seen countless sci-fi movies, but they were all foreign before. Now looking at the world, except for American sci-fi blockbusters, such grand sci-fi epic blockbusters that can cause people to think deeply and cause heated discussions after watching it, other countries can't make it!
In fact, in recent years, the United States has also been full of Hollywood blockbusters such as Marvel, the level of American science fiction films is declining, "Avatar 2" is no exception, "The Wandering Earth 2" proves that the mainland film industry has reached a new height.
"Deep Sea" is the same for the Chinese animation industry, technically surpassing the previous "Nezha: The Demon Child Descends", "Jiang Ziya", chasing light animation "White Snake", "Nezha Rebirth" and "New God List: Yang Jian" and other grades, with an investment of 300 million plus 400 million publicity, so the director said that it would take 1.2 billion to return the cost.
This animation is really a new benchmark for domestic animation technically, but the story and expression are a pity.
And what about the "Three-Body Problem" TV series? I think there are still some regrets, at a glance can see that the investment is obviously limited, although the director team has tried in the cyberpunk picture of modern drama, and then the concept of science fiction in visual art, but the texture itself is still not enough.
The best texture of this drama is Ye Wenjie's period drama, which is also what the director is best at. In addition, it is a very restored "three-body game" scene of the original work, which is a half-breakthrough in technology.
2, "Crazy", "Go to the Windy Place", "Daughter Back" and other works have not made many breakthroughs at the level of the film and television industry, but do you feel that Chinese idol dramas are not dirty, Chinese police and bandit gangster drama characters are handsome and beautiful, and Chinese science fiction works actually have their own aesthetic system?
The reason is that China's film and television industry has developed better, forming industry standards, and mainstream film and television dramas have become more specialized and industrialized in art composition, lens language, service and scene scheduling. The actors are better looking, the costume road is more fashionable, the texture of the scenery scenes is more advanced, and even the soundtrack is valued, and the fashion of film and television culture is rising.
For example, "Go to a Windy Place" The scenery of Yunnan's ancient town, and then the fashion sense of the male and female protagonists.
For example, in the early stage of "Crazy", Gao Qiqiang a large group of people black-pressed a piece, suit and leather shoes and sunglasses, plus a good lens language, the fierceness of Liu Huaqiang of the previous domestic triad drama "Conquest", this kind of scene can only be seen in American gangster films, Japanese gangster films, Hong Kong and Taiwan gangster films and Korean gangster films.
Now domestic dramas also have this kind of tyranny, very screen charm villain works.
There are few female characters in this drama, the sexy and domineering sister-in-law Chen Shuting, the beautiful and intellectual aunt Gao Qilan, the sweet and cute Meng Yu, and then the cute and slow posing Xiao Wu and so on.
Domestic audiences have misunderstandings about the aesthetics of film and television works, and have always demanded what is realistic and grounded. In fact, this is a subconscious counterattack when the script and production are not good. Literary and artistic works themselves are derived from life and higher than life, and many people used to scold mainly that everything else is rotten, and aesthetics have always been devalued.
Let's see if the second creation short video of "Crazy" is overwhelmingly cutting, Gao Qiqiang's stills of killing fish before, you see that you have the high-end sense of foreign gangster films in the past, which is relying on the excellent film and television industry, and the aesthetic level of cultural works has also risen.
At this point, I believe that domestic film and television dramas will gradually lead China, even East Asian fashion culture, and finally to the world.
Finally, the best lens language is still "Nameless" and "Moses on the Plain", both of which are the credit of the director, because both sides are literary film directors with the ultimate lens language, and it is difficult for others in the market to learn, and the short animation collection "Chinese Wonder" is also a truth.
Sci-fi, anti-black and literary dramas? In the 2023 Spring Festival file, I see the hope of domestic film and television dramas
The second angle: the breakthrough in the genre of film and television dramas in the Spring Festival file in 2023 is obvious, one is the outbreak of old accumulation, and the other is that many works have also been released after the release, which makes Chinese pop culture more diversified and colorful.
The 2022 Spring Festival file is not as good as the 2023 except for the bug of "Ball 2", but also whether it is industrial aesthetics, or the theme breakthrough is far inferior, the real theme breakthrough in 2022 is only the time loop "The Beginning" domestic drama has not been played much, "The World" is a period drama is very frequent, "Changjin Lake" war films are the same.
The 2023 Spring Festival film and television dramas will be as high as five and a half in terms of breakthroughs in genre themes, yes, five and a half.
The movie "The Wandering Earth 2" definitely occupies a place for the further breakthrough and exploration of Chinese science fiction blockbusters. "Deep Sea" and "Chinese Strange Tan" are another for domestic animated films. The drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" is a breakthrough for domestic science fiction dramas. In contrast, "Nameless" is inferior to domestic spy war films, and "Manjiang Hong" is worse than domestic suspense comedies.
The TV series "Go to a Windy Place" opened the precedent of pastoral idol dramas in China's industrial era, and before "Country Love Story" was regarded as a rural life drama, which is essentially different.
The suspense drama "Moses on the Plain" has been ignored by many people, and here is a secret for everyone, because of the ecological relationship. Domestic films have various film festivals, and small-budget literary and genre films can also survive.
But the ecology of domestic dramas has always been more commercial, this kind of literary drama with artistic pursuit is almost nothing, the most genre drama aesthetic pursuit, such as suspense drama "White Night Chasing Murderer", "Hidden Corner", etc., "Moses on the Plain" is the only domestic literary drama I have seen in so many years, it is completely a 6-episode literary film, and the quality is still very high.
I can even assert that it is the audience who knows too much about Chinese social life, so this drama is only 7.7 points now. If it is the same foreign drama, the score will be 8.5, maybe even 8.8 points, because fans and Wen Qing especially love to use this kind of foreign work to put X.
"Crazy" is half, because the police and bandit anti-black theme had "Sweeping Black Storm" the year before last, "Punishment" last year, etc., but this work is better, and the police and bandit anti-black theme is more recent than the period drama.
The rest of "The Daughter Who Came Back" is a continuation of the social suspense drama, and "The Way to Open Life" is an urban life drama, so there is no need to talk about these.
A good start to the Spring Festival? I assert that Chinese pop culture will "rise across the board" in 2023
The 2023 Spring Festival file is really great breakthroughs and progress in all aspects of Chinese pop culture, but of course you have to say that there are shortcomings, as far as I see there are three old problems.
First, there are two works with traffic participation, not only the film and television industry, this old production model obviously lags behind the development of Chinese pop culture in the new era, but also resists and drags its feet.
Second, although the review has been opened up a little, it is not enough, some scenes in the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem", and then a large number of dubbing in the later stage of "Crazy" are not lip-synced, which is also a boss's problem.
Finally, there is the Chinese film and television industry, and the progress in cultural aesthetics, including actors, is obvious. But I'm sure many people have already discovered that it seems that the problem with the script is still very serious. It seems that we should pay attention to it now and establish a sound screenwriting system.
Finally, novels, film and television dramas, animated comics, music, games, variety entertainment, etc. are the constituent fields of popular culture.
There are obvious breakthroughs in three areas of the Spring Festival file in 2023, online novels have entered a dead end early, and the game has heavy works such as "Genshin", but no works are on sale in the Spring Festival file. The most bad thing to say about the Spring Festival file is variety entertainment, as well as recognized Chinese music!
I hope that other cultural fields can also be like science fiction, games and TV series!