The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
In recent years, among Chinese films, there is a magical master key that opens the door to fame and fortune at the box office - Thai filming.
The most well-known to the audience, Chen Sicheng's "Tang Detective Universe" started in Bangkok, Thailand, Xu Zheng's "Tai Lu" series, the large-scale production of "Macau Storm 2", the 2019 word-of-mouth masterpiece "Manslaughter", and then go forward, purely taking Thailand as a scenic spot of "Dulala Promotion", as well as the crime theme of "Disciple", "Sweeping Drugs", "Mekong Action"... All of these films are now among the best at the Chinese box office or in terms of word-of-mouth.
The movie "Tai Wei'er", which will be released nationwide on May 14, also smells this "Thai taste". On May 12, the premiere of "Thai Flavor" was held in Beijing.
Poster of "Tai Wei Er"
The film is starring Gao Xiaopan, Li Zixiong, Lü Yi, Li Qinqin, Hao Zejia, etc., the plot is relatively simple: Beijing Hutong youth Tang Cake (Gao Xiaopan) ran to Thailand by chance for his girlfriend, was abandoned by his girlfriend and almost jumped into the river due to love, was rescued by Momo (Lu Yi), who runs a restaurant in Thailand's Chinatown, and went to Momo's restaurant to help. Then there are the two people familiar to the audience, and the Chinatown where Momo's restaurant is located in the middle of the way is also facing the risk of being acquired by the restaurant predator, but this story line is later transformed into the fact that the restaurant crocodile and Momo's grandfather are good friends, and the two also join hands to catch Momo's green plum bamboo horse but calculate the hell of her restaurant everywhere.
On the character line, Grandpa Lao Mo was devastated because of the death of his wife, lost his sense of smell and taste after drinking, and the father in "Diet Men and Women" fell into the same situation, so strong and silent, the famous chef became a weak person, and at the beginning there was quite a lot of ink to pave him, but he opened high and walked low, and later made a plate of prawns in one stroke, became a new kitchen god and saved the restaurant. In fact, Lao Mo is magically friends with the local tycoon who is said to be buying their Chinatown restaurant, the relationship is very hard, no matter whether he tries to be a kitchen god in the end, the tycoon friend has no intention of taking them.
Stills from "Tai Wei Er"
Talking about the emotional line, mainly the entanglement between Momo and Tang Cake and her Thai boyfriend, at this level, "Tai Wei'er" is like a love drama cloaked in the cloak of defending the restaurant, the plot of the two buying vegetables will have a soundtrack slow motion, and the back part of the movie also put a dynamic photo wall of two people for a long time.
Fortunately, in his career, Gao Xiaopan, who has spent a considerable amount of time as a cross-talk actor, can speak the Tao, uses a lot of local dialects in beijing dialect, is poor and grounded, and has some attachment to feelings at the same time. Lu Yi recently had a good performance in "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves 2", and in "Tai Wei'er", as the director said, "it is not so red", and the performance is sincere and simple.
There is not much scene-oriented soundtrack in the movie, and there is almost no atmosphere to create the scene, and because of the rapid switching between several lines, the logic is somewhat fragmented, so the scenes are very "dry", the high-definition background is blurred and the face is scary, and the audience will also be very focused on the actor's face, which also challenges the actor's performance.
Returning to the question of whether the main story and filming in Thailand is a panacea, films with related themes have appeared in Chinese theaters in large numbers for more than a decade, from the very beginning of the presentation of exotic styles such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and other exotic styles in Thailand to the later picking of a story that may cause controversy in China's current environment, such as "Manslaughter", Chinese filmmakers have obviously become more shrewd and profound, which also poses a challenge for latecomers.
The scene of the premiere of "Tai Wei Er"
When it came to "Tai Wei Er", the director mentioned the two words most during the premiere sharing session on May 12 as "regret". "Thai" is quite a bit untimely, first of all, when filming in Thailand, it encountered some fluctuations in Thai politics, "leading to our exotic content, the real local Thai taste, whether it is visual or tasteful things, are not so thoroughly displayed." The origin of this story, we still hope to explore the friendship between people, love, values of the collision, so we created such a story, Tang Cake such an ordinary person who makes pancakes, Laura is a small shop, Uncle Mo runs a restaurant, they are all in a floating market in Thailand, a place with more local characteristics. There may be regrets in the movie, or there are places that are not clearly stated, but thank you. ”
When taking stock of why Chinese films are always filmed in Thailand, the media often quoted an article titled "Why Film in Thailand" on the official website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which listed a variety of reasons including fast approval, beautiful scenery, advanced technology, professional personnel, and low cost. To sum up simply, there are three points: beauty, professionalism, and cheapness, which also has certain reference significance for the Chinese film industry.
The evaluation of local film and television practitioners in Thailand is generally more professional, and the team of "Tai Wei'er" also said that the local group performance is very dedicated, in the high temperature of more than forty degrees Celsius, after performing a play, they will stand in the same place in the sun and wait, waiting for the director to give orders. At the official level, thai governments at all levels have adopted a supportive attitude towards the filming of foreign films, which can provide "one-stop" services for filmmakers, and the approval is relatively fast.
But after a long period of cooperation, the place where capital goes in will always change, and the director team of "Thai Flavor" also said that in addition to political reasons, the filming of some places such as the royal palace can not go, often appear and negotiate a price with local actors, they sit on the ground to start, due to these funds and other reasons, originally planned to shoot in Thailand for 25 days, and finally only 16 days. "Since the launch of operations in April 2019 at Thailand's famous Amphawa Floating Market, our film crew has filmed in Beijing and Bangkok, telling the story of the landscape and cultural characteristics of the two places. Although in the end it was only compressed to Thailand for 16 days and Beijing for 2 days, as a cinema film, I admit that it has many regrets, but if our production cycle matches our entire experience and economy, this film still has its own value. The director said.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Ding Xiao