In 2013, "Zombie" starring Qian Xiaohao made countless audiences see the hope of Hong Kong horror films.
Originally, everyone thought that this was the beginning, but unexpectedly, it became his final peak.
Since the rise of online movies in 2016, Qian Xiaohao has become a "trendsetter" and has become a "frequent customer" among them.
And most of the themes of his works are related to fantasy, and the emotional terrier has been played over and over again.
Finally, simply performed Master Lin Zhengying's famous work again, and maintained a frequency of three to four films a year, Qian Xiaohao seemed to have found his own acting direction.
But does the audience buy it?
It seems that there is not, rubbing Uncle Ying's popularity, consuming the feelings of masterpieces, his online film career is almost all wrapped in bad reviews, and his works in recent years have not even "passing the level".
Suddenly, by 2023, Qian Xiaohao will be sixty years old.
But he can also "go new" - recently, his new work "Mr. Illusion" starred in premiered on the whole network.
This work with the same title as "Mr. Spirit" cost only 8 million, and the box office has exceeded 4 million.
But the reputation of this movie is basically one-star bad reviews, and the barrage is even more "bad films".
In the words of netizens, the only highlight may be the figure of the supporting actress.
Nowadays, the Internet seems to be like this, relying on past stars + shoddy manufacturing, can only rely on "gimmicks" to attract people's attention.
It is also because of this that the plight of some middle-aged actors happens to be reflected.
Qian Xiaohao is like this, and so is Xu Juncong.
In this year's Spring Festival Network College, Xu Juncong's new work "Big Happy Event" is really a bit embarrassing, and the account is only 1.7 million in two days online.
Xu Juncong, who was born as a comedian, once had good acting skills, especially Liu Haizhu played in "Once Upon a Time in the Northeast", who was socially angry but dared to be bold.
Compared with embarrassing and funny, Xu Juncong interprets small people, really flesh and blood.
But since transforming into the Internet University in 2020, he has made 13 bad films in a row, and within two years, he has exhausted his popularity, and even his acting skills have disappeared.
Counting ahead, the familiar Chen Haomin and Fan Shaohuang have the above two similar experiences, so why do these middle-aged actors love Netda?
There are two reasons for this.
First, the money comes quickly, and there is a guarantee of income.
This is relative to the actors and producers, because of the particularity of the network, making its shooting cycle shorter and less investment, and the platform's monthly billing model also allows the producer to have a guarantee of cost recovery, and as for the actors, there are more filming opportunities.
Second, don't worry about acting, and there is not so much pressure.
Generally speaking, there will be some deficiencies in the polishing of the script of the Internet University, especially some actors' acting skills are numerous, and the reason why the film side will choose some middle-aged actors with familiar faces is to fancy the other party's suitable salary and remaining popularity.
And for actors, they will not worry too much about acting skills when they appear in such movies, and even if they are occasionally embarrassed, there will not be too much pressure.
In fact, in addition to these reasons, it is not so much that these middle-aged actors "love the Internet", but rather enter the "middle-aged dilemma".
The embarrassment of having no drama to shoot makes them willing to put down their bodies and enter the shoddy "industrial process" of some online movies, and fool the audience who love them with poor acting skills.
However, this is not the case for all middle-aged actors, and some of them are able to calm down and wait for the moment while trying to polish their acting skills.
For example: Zhang Songwen, who recently exploded because of "Crazy".
Since starring in Jia Fa in "Dragon Riding Monster" in 2005, he has been in the entertainment industry for eighteen years.
However, his acting path was not smooth.
In the three years since graduating from Hokage, he interviewed more than 800 crews, and none of them asked him.
Everyone around knows that he has acting skills, but he doesn't have a male lead face.
So, most of the time, he has nothing to play.
Looking at his resume, in the decade from 2006 to 2016, he worked with many stars, but the roles he played were small.
The only thing that impressed people was participating in Lou Ye's work "A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind", in which he played Old Tang, who let people see his solid acting skills for the first time.
During this period, the actor in the same period has received more than one million salaries, his annual income is only tens of thousands, and he rents only a bungalow in the suburbs of Beijing.
In life, he is even more embarrassed, and can only buy stale discounted vegetables.
It stands to reason that his works have also won awards, and although he is not very famous, he can make quick money.
But he didn't, and he still acted steadily, from "Summer of West River" to "Seeing is Nothing", and then to "Hidden Corner" in 2020.
In the entertainment industry, Zhang Songwen's name is getting louder and louder.
But for him, he just did the same thing as before - serious acting.
In "Crazy", Gao Qiqiang, played by him, stood in front of the fish stall, saw the arrival of the health management personnel, naturally washed his hands from the fish tank, and greeted him with a smile.
At this time, he bears the life of his younger brother and sister, and is a small person who is oppressed by life.
Restrained, cautious, and have to laugh at life, such people are all too familiar to us.
In the later stage, due to the change in his social status, the fierceness released in his eyes was also very real.
For example, when he was murderous, he pulled Xiaohu and said calmly, "Help me find Lao Mo and tell him that I want to eat fish."
These details are based on Zhang Songwen's speculation and understanding of life and characters, which gives rise to the three-dimensional image of Gao Qiqiang.
Actors, perhaps as they should be, must respect this profession and their original intentions.
Like Zhang Songwen, he is also a middle-aged actor, and Fu Dalong is also insisting.
Compared with the former, if he wants to make money, it is actually simpler, he debuted as a child star, and won three actors with a movie at the age of 31.
And he did not do so, but focused on the pure faith of acting.
When filming "Purple Sun", in order to play the role of Yang Yufu, a farmer, he went to the countryside to eat and live with local farmers and work in the fields for two months.
When it was turned on, he was so dark that the director almost didn't recognize it.
When the image is established, his performance is more tense.
For example, when facing a Japanese schoolgirl, his hand that raised the knife did not go down, and the struggle and suffering on his face were enough to move everyone.
It is precisely such a real performance that makes Fu Dalong famous in the circle, and various script invitations have also poured in.
But he refused, and fell silent again.
Among them, there are some big productions and quick money, but he doesn't care, and even refuses endorsements of up to tens of millions.
After four years, he returned to the life of an ordinary person, delivering takeaways, working part-time as a teacher, and renting a house, and his life was a little harder, but he found more opportunities to polish his acting skills.
In his words, "I'm an actor, not a star, and I try to do it as well as I can, and it's worthy of it." ”
In fact, Zhang Songwen and Fu Dalong are not without the crisis of middle-aged actors.
In this era of looking at faces and talking about traffic, long-term facelessness or no works will be forgotten by the audience.
But if there is no acting skills, always using "bad movies" to fool the audience, such actors will not last long.
In the final analysis, it is still necessary for actors to be able to calm down and focus on acting, but there is not much that can really be done.
There are too many comparisons in the entertainment industry, from travel pomp to actor salary, some stars start at one million in appearance fees alone, while some powerful actors are paid only tens of thousands for acting with heart.
In the impetuous Vanity Fair, there are naturally people who are willing to put down their acting skills and enter to make money.
But how long can this behavior, at the expense of itself, last? I don't know, perhaps such as Qian Xiaohao and Xu Juncong, after wearing out the last bit of patience of the audience, they were finally abandoned by the film side, resulting in a complete comeback hopeless.
Looking at it this way, perhaps like Zhang Songwen and Fu Dalong, acting with heart is a way to break the "actor's mid-life crisis".
(Movie Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Office: An An)