The screening hall of the Beijing Film Academy is brightly lit. Feng Xiaogang looked at the immature student who asked questions in front of him and picked up the microphone.
"A lot of people tell me how to do it, but they are not qualified to teach me that I started making New Year films, so I don't need people to tell me how to make New Year films. Now I'm going to set another rule. ”
It was the last day of 2002, and the students who watched the film were blocked in their hearts, so they asked Director Feng on the stage, is "Mobile Phone", which ended in tragedy, still a New Year movie?
Establishing another New Year film rule is Feng Xiaogang's answer.
In the following 20 years, we gradually got used to looking back at history and exploring the universe in the theater during the Spring Festival, excited, tearful, but laughing less and less.
Three years after the epidemic, there have been long queues at the entrance of this Spring Festival cinema, and it is difficult to find a ticket. Zhang Yimou led the comedians to rush around the ancient city to win 4 billion box office, and Guo Fan led the old actors to wander through the universe and create a domestic sci-fi miracle.
The behind-the-scenes stories of actors, plots, and productions have rushed to the hot search again and again. Netizens in the comment area quarreled over which movie was good.
Can walk out of the theater, relatives and friends, but can not say that it is worth recommending each other's family movies, can only watch the old film again, listen to the familiar sigh.
"1997 passed and I miss it."
Just after the Spring Festival in 1997, Han Sanping, director of Beijing Film Studio, found Feng Xiaogang, a 39-year-old unemployed young man, and tactfully pointed out that of the three films he shot in Beiying, two were planted.
To put it more directly, throughout 1996, Feng Xiao was "shot" for two consecutive works, and the latest film was stopped 10 days after filming.
Nearly 40 years old, Feng Xiaogang believes that he will not do anything other than directing. He wanted to be famous and want to make money, but after the shutdown, Wang Shuo, who founded the Good Dream Company with him, left the United States to heal his injuries and left for the good dream. Investors also see Feng as box office poison.
Feng Xiaogang was drunk, and when he woke up, he was already a "ghost shaved head", and he simply shaved his head. The movie that was stopped was called "Living a Messy Life", but it was the best portrayal of his life at that time.
Han Sanping appeared at this time. He wants to choose a New Year director to make a comedy reflecting the reemployment of laid-off workers, and do his best to give the full support of Beijing Film Studio. The best actors, they have found - Ge You, who won Cannes with Zhang Yimou's "Alive".
A still from "Alive"
The choice of director needs to be carefully considered. Originally, Zhao Baogang and Zheng Xiaolong were among the candidates, and the reason for finally finalizing Feng Xiaogang was that he knew the living conditions and willingness of civilians best.
Feng Xiaogang seriously retorted before the only remaining opportunity: "Not all social hot spots can become the selling point of movies." Those who suffer in reality need to be liberated in the movie. ”
It is not appropriate to rewrite the story of a laid-off female worker into a New Year comedy, and the tragic ending runs counter to the original intention of the New Year film. Feng Xiaogang immediately remembered the novel with himself as the protagonist, Wang Shuo's "I am not a layman".
In addition to the story, Feng Xiaogang became a director because of Wang Shuo and successively participated in the filming of "The Story of the Editorial Department" and "Beijinger in New York". In the story, Wang Shuo wants to be popular with his buddies, so he wrote Feng Xiaogang's real name into the novel, became the teacher of the three protagonists, and guided them to run a "good dream one-day trip" business.
On the day of the conversation, Feng Xiaogang immediately called Wang Shuo across the ocean. Wang Shuo asked him, how to change a novel that is too idle to make fun of others?
Feng Xiaogang explained, changing it to the story of "hello me hello everyone".
Wang Shuo
After obtaining the adaptation right, Feng Xiaogang added, in order to facilitate the passage of the script, can the name of the original author not be signed on the film?
Wang Shuo nodded in agreement. After returning to China, Feng Xiaogang did not come to see him, and the 50,000 yuan adaptation fee sent by someone was also rejected.
Feng Xiaogang and Wang Shuo's good dream company has become a thing of the past, and the good dream exclusive to Feng Xiaogang is underway.
Revisiting 1997, Feng Xiaogang filled in a self-narration lyric in his autobiography:
"In 1997, another spring, a director made a New Year film in China, which spread mythically throughout the city and miraculously piled up a mountain of gold at the box office."
"Party A and Party B" stills
Feng Xiaogang changed the script to the 11th draft, which finally won the approval of investors.
In the summer of 1997, he took Ge You, who was already a Cannes actor, to shoot at a nursery school in Beijing.
The crew was strapped for money, and the production director had to invite his friend Fu Biao to help with the drama, order boxed lunches and run errands for delivery. Feng Xiaogang wanted to pull Fu Biao to do the drama, and after learning that the other party was an actor, he simply pulled Fu Biao and his wife into the crew to act.
In order to save money, Liu Zhenyun, a writer who came to visit the class, was also detained to do a group performance, and as a result, a meal scene was filmed for seven days, and "in the end, the director spoke with teeth and flowers."
Liu Zhenyun made a cameo appearance in "Party A and Party B"
Feng Xiaogang can't afford to lose, and he urgently needs to get rid of the title of box office poison. In addition, due to the tight budget of the film, he made his determination early on, and the remuneration was not paid, and it was all divided according to the final box office.
More importantly, Han Sanping and his investors have warned him over and over again that he should only succeed, not fail. This is Feng Xiaogang's turnaround battle, and it is also the turnaround battle of Chinese New Year movies.
Since the 90s, film distribution companies have been losing money year after year, almost all of the best film studios in China have survived on borrowing, film production has been reduced, and the audience is less than one-third. As the year draws to a close, the theaters are empty, most of them are closed, and sometimes they don't open again until the fifth and sixth days of the first year.
"Actors don't act, and directors, props, and screenwriters are idle at home." It is not a joke in Feng Xiaogang's New Year movie, but reality. Like 2022.
"Red Fan District" stills
In 1995, the curse of the "gray Spring Festival stall" was broken by Jackie Chan. After mobilization again and again, all theaters held a negative attitude to release the New Year film "Red Fan District". Unexpectedly, as soon as the door opened, young audiences with parents and children dragged their families to fill the theater.
Mainland filmmakers quickly figured out the secret to the success of New Year movies: a comedy shot specifically for New Year's Day, with a happy ending and the main role being the star actor with the most marketable appeal. They urgently need such a New Year film belonging to the mainland to activate the market. Feng Xiaogang is the fulcrum that pries all this.
The four words "Party A and Party B" refer to the essence of the business relationship inside and outside the movie incomparably directly.
After 45 days, the movie was finished. After 7 days, the rough cut is complete. After another week, the second cut and post-production were completed. The most recent schedule is December 1997. Han Sanping asked all the production of Beijing Film Studio to make way for "Party A and Party B", and 150 copies were rushed out to the whole country in 15 days.
The preview did not work well. At the Beijing Film Academy, students throw things on stage after watching it. But Feng Xiaogang told his companions that his confidence in the film was "200%".
Because earlier, when entering the studio to mix, the projectionist master told him when eating a box lunch, I have watched it so many times and want to have fun, this film has popularity.
On Christmas Eve that year, huge billboards with Ge You appeared at conspicuous intersections in Beijing. In the dark theater, when the screen lights up, the first thing that appears is a stick figure animation with lines outlining a tiger and a red New Year's wish stained with joy: I wish the people of the whole country a prosperous Year of the Tiger.
"Party A and Party B" opens with a New Year's greeting
After the movie was released, Feng Xiaogang took Ge You and other starring actors to 21 cities in 17 days. For the first two days, Ge You boasted that fans in every city could speak differently. When he arrived in Nanjing, Ge You's hand had already signed and could not be lifted; When he arrived in Chengdu, Feng Xiaogang's brain was empty, and he shouted to the audience that it was New Year's greetings to his friends in Nanjing.
The story after that is familiar to everyone. At the box office in Beijing alone, the film recovered all investment costs, breaking the mainland film record at that time and ushering in a new era of New Year films.
After everyone returned to Beijing, the China Directors Association held a celebration party for the crew of "Party A and Party B", "This is not for you Feng Xiaogang personally, but to encourage everyone to save the market for Chinese films." ”
"Party A and Party B" stills Liu Bei
In 2000, Feng Xiaogang was invited to a film creation symposium to talk about his experience in making films. But soon after sitting down, praise turned into criticism. Academics questioned that Feng Xiaogang, who only makes commercial films, is protected locally at the box office.
Previously, Feng Xiaogang had already created a box office miracle for domestic New Year movies in the three years at the end of the 20th century with three films with a box office of more than 30 million yuan, "Party A and Party B", "Not Seen and Not Dispersed" and "Endless".
He smiled and echoed those doubts, and smiled and asked the leader to approve the new film "A Sigh" as soon as possible. This film is also adapted from Wang Shuo's novel, which was stopped 3 years ago "Living a Messy Life".
Three years of Feng's comedy celebration, the excessive humility at the symposium, are all for this unfinished script.
"A Sigh"
The movie was released, Zhang Yimou praised the movie to break through the theme of extramarital love, and fans praised Feng Xiaogang to a new height. The conversation turned to the fact that it was enough to hope that he would make more fun movies than height.
Just as Feng Xiaogang summed up his self-summary in the face of college students, I know that you are here to have fun.
In those years, what could affect everyone during the Spring Festival was always the sad and happy stories of small people.
Chen Peisi starred in "Good Man Three and a Half", and Zhao Benshan starred in "Director of Men and Women". In "Seen Not Scattered", sick couples borrow money to buy a house, because a marriage without a house is unhappy; The wage-begging driver in "Endless" climbed to the top of Xiangshan Mountain, lamenting that Beijing had become bigger, and his classmates couldn't find it, so he was busy earning money; In "Nothing to Steal Fun", a family of seven or eight people live in a small house of more than ten square meters, anxious about eating, drinking and Lasa, in front of the screen, everyone laughs, as if they see themselves in it.
After SARS in 2003, Feng Xiaogang walked to the New Year with "Mobile Phone". In the past year, the epidemic has been serious, technology has developed, and mobile phones have become the main means of communication. When the movie was screened, many people laughed, and before the movie was finished, they rushed into the toilet to delete text messages and call records.
"Mobile Phone" stills Fan Wei
The difference is that at the end of "Mobile Phone", Yan Shouyi squatted on the toilet with his mobile phone in his face, full of fear, and it is not the familiar comedy ending of Feng's New Year film.
Is tragedy also considered a New Year movie? Feng Xiaogang said that as the first person to make a New Year film, I have reestablished the rules.
That year, in addition to "Mobile Phone", there were "The Lord of the Rings", "The Matrix", "Infernal Affairs", etc., international blockbusters and domestic films intertwined. And Feng Xiaogang once again won the box office championship of the New Year file.
In the same year, 7 SARS-related films were released, with a box office of tens of thousands of yuan, and even worse sold only a thousand yuan at the box office in Beijing. Pearl jade in front, empty slogans, perfunctory content positive energy movies, long ago eliminated by the audience with the box office.
A year later, Feng Xiaogang spent more than 300,000 yuan to charter the T97 train from Beijing West Railway Station to Hong Kong to attend the premiere of the movie "No Thief in the World". The train was named "No Thief in the World".
On the train, there are Hong Kong king Andy Lau and Liu Ruoying, the goddess of literature and art, who voluntarily become "thieves" in order to advance to the inland New Year stall, and there is also Wang Baoqiang, a fool root who is already a movie emperor but still has no name as a martial artist. The once absolute protagonist Ge You has become a cameo villain.
Andy Lau and Liu Ruoying in "No Thief in the World"
In "No Thief in the World", Feng Xiaogang completely broke the rules of Feng's New Year film reunion. At the end of the tragedy, the thief played by Andy Lau became the first protagonist to die in Feng's New Year story. Many people's eyes were red after watching it, and some young men muttered as they walked: "It's so humiliating, watching Feng Xiaogang's movie actually shed tears." ”
Feng Xiaogang was satisfied: "If it weren't for the people who were particularly real and wanted to see something, after watching the movie, they were really embarrassed to say that there was something bad about the movie." ”
The reputation is quite good, and on the New Year list, the box office champion has changed his name.
On Christmas Eve 2004, many theaters deployed a large number of security personnel. There were long queues at the box office from 9 a.m., tickets for the midnight show were sold out, and many screenings were extended until 5 a.m.
A hard-to-find movie is Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu". This year, people remember Feng Xiaogang, not Director Feng who makes people cry in "No Thief in the World", but the cameo character Crocodile Gang Boss in "Kung Fu" and that sentence:
Who else?
In the Spring Festival of 2005, Wang Baoqiang's hometown broadcast on the street, informing people from the nearby Ten Miles and Eight Villages to watch "No Thief in the World" together. Wang Baoqiang sat in the audience and listened to the chatter of people around him, is Andy Lau real? Is that kid real? ”
In the movie, he likes Feng Xiaogang's New Year film the most, the New Year trilogy does not fall, he is a group actor in "Big Names", and in "No Thief in the World", he defeated the actor Xia Yu and became a fool. After this Spring Festival, he became the absolute protagonist, and finally had the money to share a two-bedroom house in Beijing.
Outside the story, no one is willing to be stupid, and everyone wants to make more money during the Spring Festival. Zhang Yimou and "Heroes" are the best examples.
In 2002, "Heroes" was released, and many theaters across the country were all open and full at midnight, and the Lanzhou theater in Gansu was forced to open small halls and release them at the same time due to short supply. Ticket purchasers are required to register their ID card, one card and one ticket, and the alteration of the ticket is prohibited.
"Heroes" was released, a phenomenal viewing trend
In the end, "Heroes" won 250 million box office results, accounting for a quarter of the total box office of the year, which is the total box office of more than 90 other domestic films.
The film distributors are blunt, from the strong lineup and huge investment of Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, and Chen Daoming, everyone should understand that this is a commercial blockbuster in the pure sense. Zhang Yimou must be worthy of the high investment of investors, and compared with winning awards, he pays more attention to box office returns this time.
The New Year era of commercial blockbusters came without warning.
Chen Kaige filmed "Wuji", Chen Kexin filmed "October Siege", and Zhang Yimou filmed "Full of Golden Armor in the City". Screenwriter Reed thinks that Zhang Yimou's script is very problematic, and Zhang Yimou disagrees: "With the four names of Zhang Yimou, Gong Li, Zhou Yunfa and Jay Chou, 200 million box office, do you believe it or not?" ”
"All over the city with golden armor" stills Jay Chou starred in a mainland production movie for the first time
In the past, Feng Xiaogang insisted on not making art films, he believed that although literary and art films were good, they were costly, and they used other people's hard-earned money to build their own archway, "It's better to incorporate artistry into my commercial films as much as possible." ”
In 2006, Feng Xiaogang decided to adapt Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Hamlet" into an oriental version of the blockbuster "Night Banquet". As an artist who has been painting for more than ten years, he wants to shoot his ideal classicism in this huge film.
Ge You defended him: For the sake of the market, for the sake of New Year films, I approve of him making comedy. For him personally, he should no longer make comedy, he needs to make thicker movies.
What Ge You wants to say more has been said at the beginning of the century: "New Year films have become a brand, and the audience will look forward to it at this time every year." If it's a tragedy or a drama, it's okay, but it's better to be a comedy. ”
He doesn't mind that the label on his body has changed from a Cannes actor to a down-to-earth New Year actor, and it is better for others to make him happy for the New Year.
"Night Banquet" broke Feng Xiaogang's box office record that year, but its reputation collapsed, and the audience scolded after watching it. And Ge You once said: "I think the audience is still looking forward to his comedy the most, the New Year file, everyone is willing to be happy." ”
"Night Banquet" Zhou Xun
Before the Spring Festival in 2011, an article called "New Year Cards and Greeting the New Year" appeared on the homepage of major news websites. Writer Han Songluo unceremoniously pointed out that if CCTV's "Are You Happy" action group randomly interviewed in theaters of New Year movies, I am afraid that it would only get an unhappy answer.
There is no domestic New Year comedy for the New Year, and it has been in China for more than a year.
In 2007, the New Year file was two tough guy movies by Feng Xiaogang's "Rally" and Chen Kexin's "Casting Name". In 2011, two weeks after the release of "Jinling Thirteen", Zhang Yimou was still running publicity, and Tsui Hark even told the audience through the media that many details of "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" had to be seen twice in theaters to discover. In 2012, Feng Xiaogang brought "1942".
Domestic directors shoot tough guys, costumes, history, everything, but the lack of comedy. On the contrary, Hong Kong directors Wang Jing and Stephen Chow who came north insisted on the signboard of the New Year comedy, "Yangtze River No. 7" and "Great Inner Secret Detective Lingdog", even if the reputation is average, but they can always enter the top ten of the box office list.
The Spring Festival stall with few laughter, and "Thai", which simply tells the story of returning home, have become people's outlet for relaxation. In the theater, bursts of laughter continued for more than thirty seconds. In Hengshan, Shanghai, the theater is full at 9 a.m., and more than half of the elderly are over 50 years old.
In the reasons for recommending the movie, there is no artistic analysis or dissection of the theme, only a simple sentence, which is too funny.
The audience who laughed and enjoyed it followed the trajectory of the film to Thailand. More than three times as many Chinese tourists visit Chiang Mai as in previous years. To express his gratitude, the Thai Prime Minister personally received director Xu Zheng.
"Thai" stills, popular all over social networks
At the same time, because "1942" did not meet expectations, Feng Xiaogang spent a month to produce the comedy "Private Order" with a box office of 700 million.
The record-breaking "Heroes", "The Great Wall", "Rally" and "Full of Golden Armor in the City" have made people forget to carefully identify the truth behind the box office of the New Year blockbuster for many years.
At that time, "Hero" and "Big Shot" in the same period originally had the same box office, but the ticket price directly rose from the 10 yuan era to 30 yuan, which quickly achieved more than 100 million results. At the end of the preview of "Heroes", some viewers asked, does this film have a story? More viewers, until years later, the truth was revealed:
I can't understand it, but I'm embarrassed to say it, I think it's not enough artistic accomplishment.
"Night Banquet", "Rally" and "Only Yun Knows", Feng Xiaogang, who is rolling in commercial, art, and historical films, may have long forgotten what he said many years ago: "I make films mainly to meet the appreciation needs of the public, although this is considered to be despised by the majority of Chinese filmmakers." ”
Feng Xiaogang's last film work dates back to 2019. In the story, there is no familiar market, no little people who are anxious about buying a house and marriage. There is only one Chinese couple in New Zealand, who made their fortune by gambling, pulling back and forth to see the aurora and whales. Even if it is love, not many people resonate.
"Only Yun Knows" ended, the lights came on, and the audience sighed: It's finally over.
In the winter of 2019, Feng's New Year films are no longer favored by the audience. At the beginning of 2020, the "strongest Spring Festival file in history" came to an abrupt end. The doors of the theater are closed, the seats are empty, the projectionists change careers, and the director has no film to shoot, just like the gray Spring Festival file more than 30 years ago.
But when the lights came on again, there was no hilarious Ge You and Hao Meng Company. In the overcrowded theater, people shed tears for "Li Huanying", for the soldiers of Changjin Lake, and for the tragedy of Liu Peiqiang in the wandering earth.
There was almost no laughter. After Feng Xiaogang was absent from the Spring Festival file for two consecutive years, young people returning to their hometown racked their brains to find a family movie that they could take the whole family to watch, and in the end, only one "Bear Haunted" was shortlisted, the reason being relaxed, warm and funny.
"Bear Haunted", which has already filmed the 11th part, won nearly 1.3 billion box office in this blockbuster and big coffee gathering New Year file.
But its audience is almost no older people. The New Year family movie, which can make the whole family laugh, quietly disappeared into the New Year file.
Liu Bei, the heroine of Feng Xiaogang's first New Year movie, must watch New Year movies every year. She once partnered with Ge You and starred in the Feng's New Year trilogy including the movie "Party A and Party B".
As early as 10 years ago, she found that New Year movies are not so funny. Analyzing the reasons, she said:
"There was no attempt back then, there was no dead beggar for nothing, and it was not an arm-and-arm person who had to laugh. Didn't gnash his teeth, not as hard as he does now. ”