In the precipitation of the years, the old cannon of the past has added a bit of softness, which just fits the character image of "Loyal Dog Hachiko". In and out of the play, Feng Xiaogang is surprising the audience.
Author|Leon\Editor|Lone Dove
Feng Xiaogang, who has not been seen for a long time, returned this year with two works, one is the online drama "Echo" directed by him, and the other is the popular movie "Loyal Dog Hachiko", adapted from the Japanese IP of the same name, he plays a dog loving university professor Chen Jingxiu in the film, and the relationship between people and dogs has earned countless tears from the audience.
The box office of "Loyal Dog Bagong" has exceeded 200 million, and the ratings of various platforms have also maintained a high score level: Maoyan 9.4, Taobao Ticket 9.1, Douban 7.9, achieving a win-win situation at the box office and word-of-mouth. At present, the single-day real-time box office of the film has repeatedly counterattacked, and the long-tail effect is obvious, which is expected to achieve better results.
This pioneer of mainland New Year films, once opened up territory in commercial films, leaving behind "Feng's Comedy" such as "Party A and Party B", "Not Seen, Not Scattered", "Endless" and so on, and then tried to explore in art, directing works with both personal feelings and realistic criticism such as "Rally", "1942", "I Am Not Pan Jinlian" and "Fang Hua", boldly wandering between business and art, unwilling to be a slave to the box office, and began to be faithful to his own expression.
In addition to creation, his personal characteristics are also changing, and the once combative, sharp-spoken and sharp Feng Xiaogang has disappeared, and has become much gentler and indifferent. In the precipitation of the years, the old cannon of the past has added a bit of softness, which just fits the character image of "Loyal Dog Hachiko". In and out of the play, Feng Xiaogang is surprising the audience.
The pioneer of mainland Chinese New Year films
On January 5, 1993, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Film Industry Mechanism, and China's film system began to reform comprehensively. In the first few years, the film market was still at a low ebb, suppressed by the hot TV drama market at that time.
Han Sanping, then director of Beijing Film Studio, and Zhang Heping, general manager of Forbidden City Pictures, tried to save the market, hoping to make a New Year film and looking for a director who met the audience's tastes. At that time, Feng Xiaogang, who had already made the movie "Forever Lost My Love" and the TV series "A Land of Chicken Feathers", came across this opportunity. He adapted Wang Shuo's novel "You Are Not a Layman", and the first draft of the script was titled "A Heart Hotter Than Fire", which was later "Party A and Party B".
"Party A and Party B" stills
Shooting this film, for Feng Xiaogang, is a bit desperate. Because before that, several projects such as "I Am Your Dad" and "Living a Messy Life" prepared by him were aborted for various reasons. He wanted to prove himself through this work, and for this reason, he also accepted a condition that seemed extremely risky at the time but also very advanced: not to take the director's salary, but only to participate in the box office share.
The script of "Party A and Party B" focuses on commercial logic and tells the story from the perspective of the audience, with an investment of only 3.4 million yuan, but finally won 36 million yuan at the box office. More importantly, the film became the first New Year film in Chinese mainland, and at the same time, it also established the concept of "New Year file" in the mainland and fixed this schedule for a long time. After that, every year in mid-to-late December, a director will join the New Year file with a new film, and as long as Feng Xiaogang is there, the position of the overlord of the New Year file has basically not changed.
In 1998, Feng Xiaogang chased after the victory and went to the United States to shoot "Not Seen, Not Dispersed", winning 43 million yuan at the box office and becoming the box office champion of domestic films that year. In the next two years, he directed "Endless" and "Big Names" successively, with a box office of 35 million yuan and 42 million yuan respectively, ranking the runner-up and champion of the domestic film box office list that year.
At this point, the "Feng's New Year Comedy" has matured day by day. His films continue Wang Shuo's populist humor, focusing on grassroots, ridiculing elites, and strong Beijing-style humorous lines, all of which make him the most well-known national director by the audience. Whether it is the classic line "1997 has passed, I miss it" in "Party A and Party B", or the classic monologue of the mental patient played by Li Chengru in "Big Shot", it can be seen that Feng's comedy is a certain advance in reflecting social reality and is never outdated.
In "Big Shot", Li Chengru plays a mental patient
In 2004, Feng Xiaogang continued to explore commercial New Year films and directed "No Thief in the World", which became his first film with a box office of more than 100 million yuan. Many people still remember that before the release of the movie, the producer Huayi Brothers chartered the T97 train from Beijing West Railway Station to Hong Kong, named "No Thief in the World", carrying Ge You, Andy Lau, Liu Ruoying and other main creators and a number of media, drinking and chatting all the way to Hong Kong for the premiere.
In the face of the market, Feng Xiaogang once said that he was "particularly lonely and defeated". It can be said that in the matter of opening up the Chinese film market, he followed the trend and made great contributions. But in mainstream critics, Feng Xiaogang's films have also encountered controversy and feel that they are too entertaining. Therefore, when the accumulation of the market reached a certain stage, he also began to consciously shoot serious works.
Try to innovate and break through yourself
Before the famous New Year film "Party A and Party B" in World War I, Feng Xiaogang actually had a lot of artistic pursuits, but for various reasons, artistic creation could not be carried out. But when the business was successful, he did not forget his artistic pursuits, and whenever he had the opportunity, he would shoot what he liked.
After filming "Endless", he made a realistic film "A Sigh" that showed the relationship of marriage. After filming the costume commercial blockbuster "Night Banquet", he made a war film "Rally", breaking through the main theme expression and revealing the cruel truth of war. From the beginning of this film, it is clear to distinguish the before and after styles of Feng Xiaogang's works, and his creative pattern has opened, focusing on the fate of ordinary individuals in the context of major historical events, with a critique of reality and thinking about human nature.
A still from "Rally"
Feng Xiaogang made his fortune by making New Year films, and he could have kept filming Feng's comedies, which was his winning weapon in the market, but he felt that "he should tell the truth". He was bent on filming "1942", which was based on the great drought in Henan and the people's flight from famine. The film invested a huge amount of money, costing as much as 210 million yuan, and the final box office only collected 360 million yuan. From the perspective of commercial income, it is not as good as the New Year film, but after 10 years of precipitation, the score of this film on Douban has risen to 8.1 points, and it has become a classic work of historical themes. When it comes to Feng Xiaogang's masterpiece, "1942" is definitely indispensable, which is another level of value.
Someone asked Feng Xiaogang before, do you still care about the box office? Feng Xiaogang replied, I don't care, I just don't want to become a slave at the box office. Therefore, he was more free in his subsequent creations, boldly breaking through taboos and trying some new possibilities.
Shooting "I Am Not Pan Jinlian", he technically chose a circular picture frame, and the film's exquisite square and circular photography skills created a new method of domestic storytelling. In terms of content, the exposé and irony of the bureaucratic system and public opinion management is also quite profound, and it is a groundbreaking and bold breakthrough.
The next "Fang Hua" is a movie in Feng Xiaogang's wish list, which is his youth memory and also captures the youth of a generation. In the end, this absolutely private expression of the work won a box office result of 1.423 billion yuan, becoming Feng Xiaogang's highest-grossing film work so far.
"Fang Hua" stills
Feng Xiaogang, who has been filming comedy for so many years, suddenly turned around to make literary films, which made many audiences unacceptable. However, Feng Xiaogang himself is satisfied, including the online drama "Echo" launched on iQiyi some time ago.
Feng Xiaogang also knows that textually, this drama is somewhat contrary to the audience's expectations of the "Misty Theater", and if the audience asks for the play according to the standards of hard suspense, they may be disappointed. However, this is actually an emotional reasoning drama, the director has upgraded the suspense genre in narrative, no longer simply doing commercial typed suspense narrative, but from the perspective of marriage and emotion, to explore human nature, explore how broad and deep the human heart is. The protagonist can solve the case but may not be able to solve the human heart, and the human heart is the biggest suspense.
Perhaps, this is also the reason why director Feng Xiaogang took over this drama, he hopes to make some innovations in suspense dramas, do not be routine, and also give the audience some fresh stimulation.
The actor's "sense of contrast"
In 2017, Feng Xiaogang won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor for the role of "Six Masters" in "Old Cannon", he did not attend the award ceremony that night, and director Guan Hu delivered an acceptance speech on his behalf: "I should win the Best Newcomer Award, because I am still a new actor who has just debuted, and I have no room for improvement if I give it directly to the actor." At that time, he was at a concert at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium, wearing a black leather jacket and just finished singing a song "The Price of Love".
Some people say that he played himself in "Old Cannon", with a chivalrous spirit. The American "Variety" magazine said that the conflict between tradition and modernity described in the film is reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's "Classic Car".
In "Old Cannon", Feng Xiaogang plays the sixth master
Before that, Feng Xiaogang left many unforgettable roles for the audience on the screen. In "Sunny Day", he plays Teacher Hu, who tells about the Treaty of Nebuchu between China and Russia on the podium, and is teased by students in class, although it is only a few minutes of scenes, but it is very conspicuous. Even in the long-range shot, he went to the toilet to solve the problem, and he was still excited, and the details were portrayed very well, with the sourness and sadness of intellectuals.
And the boss of the "crocodile gang" in "Kung Fu" who received a box lunch not long after he appeared, can be regarded as the pinnacle of his cameo role, a sentence "Is there still a royal law, is there still a law?" It became a buzzword and is still ridiculed by people.
In "Kung Fu", Feng Xiaogang plays the boss of the "Crocodile Gang"
Years of career are enough to prove that Feng Xiaogang is a good actor, as Jiang Wen said: "He should have been an actor a long time ago, and he was 'misguided' as a director." "Feng Xiaogang's cameo role, with a lot of comedy, and has a sharp irony, the performance is flamboyant, but it can always be properly handled by Feng Xiaogang and find the scale of baggage.
"Old Cannon" can be regarded as an important masterpiece of Feng Xiaogang's identity as an actor. Director Guan Hu has an ambition to be a "character who can stay in film history". But among Chinese actors, who can play an old gangster who is nearly 60 years old? Guan Hu had considered Ge You, but when he thought about it, Uncle Ge was too gentle. Actor Liang Jing mentioned a mouthful, in fact, director Feng Xiaogang is quite like the sixth master, which is why there is a cooperation later.
Some roles are unattainable, and it is lucky to meet a role that suits you, but Feng Xiaogang is not only lucky in acting, but also comes from his requirements for himself with the quality of an actor. Although Feng Xiaogang is a well-known director, according to Guan Hu's recollection, the two never quarreled on the set. As long as it is needed by the plot and the director's requirements, Feng Xiaogang is fully engaged in doing it.
Feng Xiaogang is not an actor from an acting class, and when acting, he shows more true feelings in his heart. If you are not moved, it is difficult to shed tears, and if it is not funny, you cannot laugh out loud. Therefore, in the performance, he learned to "hide", try to have less performance components, and more true feelings.
In the recent hit "Loyal Dog Bagong", Feng Xiaogang plays Chen Jingxiu, a "science and engineering man" professor who lives in Chongqing as a foreigner, although he is a "rake ear", but he is a "Chinese father" who loves his family deeply.
In "Loyal Dog Bagong", Feng Xiaogang plays Chen Jingxiu
The reason why he took this play is largely because Feng Xiaogang loves dogs. Chen Jingxiu in the play has an indissoluble relationship with the dog "Eight Tubes". Outside the play, Feng Xiaogang once took in a stray dog and lived together for 16 years, and just passed away on the third day of the Lunar New Year this year.
Before filming, he and the dog in the film got acquainted with each other a few days in advance and "desensitized" the dog. In this way, the performance is more realistic and natural. Throughout the play, Feng Xiaogang's performance follows the texture of a life stream, pursuing real and natural reactions, he downplays the drama in life, and instead resolves the conflict in a way that seems warm but free.
In one scene, the dog dealer brought the "eight tubes" to the restaurant to prepare for slaughter, and Chen Jingxiu, played by Feng Xiaogang, followed all the way, and at the last moment, he thought that he would bring up the knife next to him and the dog dealer desperately, but he solved the crisis in a "outwitted" way.
A still from "Loyal Dog Hachiko"
In fact, this is exactly the character of this "old pedant", restrained and rigorous, and even the most urgent things are also melted by his bones. This also allowed the audience to see the "sense of contrast" given to the character by Feng Xiaogang.
Business and art, director and actor, film and online drama, for decades, Feng Xiaogang has traveled between different genres and identities, building his own brand and influencing the industry. Even in his sixties, he is still active on the front line, because he has always had a passion for creation, and from this he bursts into creativity.