The total box office list of mainland film history has been counted. But these movies on the list counted by Maoyan Pro always feel strange.
Not to mention the "mixed" foreign films, a total of 10, 6 main theme and comedy movies, which can be said to account for most of the country.
The well-made "Nezha" and "The Wandering Earth" were left behind by commercial films, and after watching the rankings, people couldn't help but think deeply, what happened to Chinese movies?
First, the film with artistic value "surviving in the cracks"
Aside from the foreign "Avengers 4: Endgame", let's talk about our 9 domestic movies.
These domestic films, the real artistic value, I am afraid that only the animated film "Nezha: The Demon Child Descends" and the sci-fi movie "The Wandering Earth 1, 2".
Unfortunately, they are difficult to produce, expensive, have no traffic stars, and the audience is relatively niche, struggling to survive surrounded by commercial films produced by assembly lines.
"The Wandering Earth 2" with excellent special effects and touching plot "beat the siege" surrounded by many popular movies in the 2023 Spring Festival file, and has received extremely high praise, but the box office ranks last.
Whether it is overcoming danger again and again, showing human unity and wisdom, or special effects comparable to blockbusters. Some netizens said that here in "Little Broken Ball", he saw the hope of Chinese science fiction movies.
But its shooting cost is not high compared to other films.
"Manjiang Red" as a feature film, the cost is 500 million. "Ball 2" lasts nearly 3 hours, the acting school is full of stars, the special effects and props are not "five cents", and it only costs 400 million.
According to statistics, the film uses more than 10,000 special props, the moon truck is restored 1 to 1, and the exoskeleton robot that can lift a hundred kilograms by thin people is also a real thing, which can be described as a "financial explosion".
Such a careful work, because it is not flattering, compared to other commercial films, the box office is squeezed in the last place, which is really regrettable.
Let's talk about "Nezha", although it is adapted from mainland mythology, in the storyline, it very cleverly subverts the positive image of Nezha in the past.
Nezha, who should have been the hero of the Spirit Pearl, became the Great Demon King of the Mixed World. This adaptation is very interesting in terms of plot. Although it almost subverted the original work, friendly comments on the Internet continued after its release.
The feedback shows that this idea is correct. Nezha's story is already well-known, and if you want to stand out, you have to go off the beaten path.
After all, in recent years, the other two successful domestic animated films "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" and "White Snake: Origin" have proved that if you want to be innovative, you must boldly deconstruct and reshape the original work.
In addition, the idea of the whole movie is also profound. The core of the story of "Nezha" is "my life depends on me".
Director Dumpling said that Nezha is the most rebellious hero. He was challenging the mainstream moral concept of "filial piety first" at that time.
In today's society, it is also to encourage the audience not to succumb to fate. Such a deep and warm movie, still failed to hit commercial films and entered the top three at the box office.
It is even more pity that after "Nezha", there are not enough good animated movies.
Fortunately, it is said that after the broadcast of "Nezha", many animations have new capital investment, but domestic animated films still have a long way to go if they want to rise.
Science fiction movies and animation are the shortcomings of domestic movies, but some netizens said that the appearance of "Little Broken Ball" and "Nezha" made him feel that the gap between us and Hollywood movies is no longer out of reach.
In 2023, there will be more such good movies.
Second, commercial films are mixed with "wind and water"
The 3 main theme movies were fruitless. The first and second parts of "Changjin Lake" mainly show war scenes, the production team is strong, the starring actors are popular, and the box office is also high.
"Wolf Warrior 2" is still a bit interesting, and it was also a super-phenomenal movie back then and even now.
But to be honest, "Garland Under the Mountain" has always been a peak that domestic war films cannot surpass.
The 3 comedy movies are indeed full of laughter and make people relax, but they always feel "understood".
"Hello, Li Huanying" plays the emotional card well, but it still has shortcomings and depth.
"Detective Chinatown 3" has filmed so many films in the Tang Detective series, in fact, there are some "poor donkey calculations".
Only this year's Spring Festival file "Manjiang Red" is still interesting, but there are also many slots. The plot is too simple, the spatial location is chaotic, and the music is shocking, which makes people scratch their heads.
And after a few hours of foreshadowing, it was the fake Qin Juniper who was stabbed to death, and the ending turned out to be just to let Qin Juniper recite Yue Fei's "Manjiang Hong", and many netizens expressed surprise.
I don't know when commercial movies have sprung up.
The purpose of commercial films is to obtain commercial benefits in the short term, so they do not consider deep content.
"Hero" can be regarded as the first domestic commercial blockbuster, with a box office of 250 million yuan in the mainland, which fixes the underlying logic of commercial blockbusters: big directors, big investments, big stars, and big scenes.
The film is shot quickly, and the money is made a lot. It is also commonly known as "making quick money".
However, now these commercial films can't even catch up with "Heroes", which was not favored by the audience at the beginning. The plot of the small era series directed by Guo Jingming is bloody, and you can still watch it when you serve the Tao.
Some commercial films in the back are really "spicy eyes". Take domestic youth films, "To Youth", "The Year in a Hurry", "Left Ear", etc., the actors have no acting skills, and the plot is sparse.
The matching of the cast and the expression of the core of the story will directly affect the audience's perception, the audience does not like it, even if the box office can watch it, it means that it is not a good movie.
There are not no good directors in China, so why is there a lack of good movies?
Third, commercial films "forced" good directors
When it comes to movies, the director is definitely an important part. Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye, Li Xiaoshuai and other directors have good strength, but their works are not very popular in the domestic market.
Even though they have won numerous awards internationally, the domestic market has never welcomed them.
In 2018, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday entered the last day, on the movie box office list, Jia Zhangke's "Children of the Rivers and Lakes" only ranked fifth, and even the "youth pain film" "Sadness Against the River" ranked third.
Jia Zhangke has a nickname called "the king of banned films". Because of the scale and subject matter, his films are rarely released in China.
Do not follow the trend, the theme is too real, not as exciting as commercial films, this director, now seems to rarely appear in the domestic market.
Fortunately, internationally, he has made a lot of fame.
At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018, "Children of the Rivers and Lakes", as the only Chinese-language film shortlisted for the main competition unit in recent years, only lost to Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Thief Family".
However, in the hearts of fans, Jia Zhangke has long been without the need to prove himself with awards.
After all, as early as 2015, the Cannes Film Festival awarded Jia Zhangke the Golden Carriage Award for Lifetime Achievement, and he became the first Chinese director to win this award.
Some netizens concluded that their "failure" may be too true. Spending time polishing the script and studying the presentation of the picture, but it is not as good as the cookie-cutter commercial film, which makes people cool to watch and willing to pay for it.
Jia Zhangke said that he planned to make a costume movie, and in order to find the feeling in the Qing Dynasty, he had stopped work for a whole year.
But under this trend of "making quick money", this method is really "stupid".
"Manjiang Hong" cost 500 million yuan, and after only a month of filming, it earned 4.25 billion at the box office, and the good works that went abroad were quite bleak in the domestic market.
Now the domestic film market is basically covered by commercial films, but literary and artistic works should bloom in a hundred flowers.
The names of excellent directors such as Lou Ye and Li Xiaoshuai also seem to fade in the mouths of the audience. The future of Chinese films still depends on works of artistic value to save.