Wen | Xiaoyu
Following "Imitator", a new Taiwan drama was listed on Douban real-time hit TV last week, currently ranking second only to "The Long Season", and the rating also rose from 8.6 to 8.9.
This fantasy comedy called "Bad Obsession Cleaner" (hereinafter referred to as "Bad Obsession") is being broadcast on the international version of iQiyi. Unlike "Want to See You" and "She and Her She" only use parallel time and space as seasoning, fantasy can be called the main dish in this play, and plots such as Kappa possession and tattooing people can also be classified as supernatural elements.
At the same time, the Taiwanese film "About Me and the Ghost Becoming Family" (hereinafter referred to as "About Me and the Ghost"), which has been popular for more than two months, is also a proper supernatural film, which broke into the top ten in Taiwanese film history with a box office score of more than NT$300 million, and the current Douban score is 8.8.
It can be found that the existence of supernatural themes in the recent Taiwanese film and television market is not weak. Although the two works are not consistent realism, the style of Taiwanese film and television creation is still vividly displayed in them. And from the perspective of subject matter, we can also glimpse a corner of Taiwan's supernatural films in recent years through them.
Reflection of real dilemmas in micro-horror and hilarity
"Bad Obsession" tells the story of high school student Pu Yiyong who found that he actually had the ability to communicate with "monsters" after he suffered a car accident. In a situation that is half a last resort, half to solve the puzzle, he and the rookie female police officer Chen Kaiying and the school's nemesis Cao Guangyan embark on an adventure to help the "monster".
"Monsters" are the life of human obsessions after they are embodied, and they represent various emotions such as longing, sadness, and regret. Behind the generation of obsession is the truth that the protagonist group needs to explore, and they will also gain different insights from it. Why Ichiyong can see the "monster" and his plans for the future is the main line of the play, which always runs through the plot of the unit and has a clear context.
This form has been similarly presented in works such as "Soul Ferry" and "The Sun of the Lord", but the specific content filled in by the play still has many uniqueness.
Such as dense but reasonable laughs. The comedy effect of "Bad Obsession" basically depends on the character character, the young man with a smelly face in the middle school is simple-minded, the bottom policewoman has a hot temper, the top medical student is cute and straightforward, and the brain circuits of the trio's protagonist group are forced to connect to produce a funny spark. "Monsters" are also endowed with interesting characteristics, and the kappa who only likes Ichinaga, the incomparably narcissistic tattoo beauty, and the barricade avatar with the temperament of the underworld big brother also contribute a lot of jokes. The funny character actions and line generation are different from the nonsensical and exaggerated comedy style with thresholds, which can make it easy for the audience to get laughs.
At the same time, "Bad Obsession" does not focus on the creation of a horror atmosphere, but also uses comedy to reduce the thriller of supernatural elements, which makes it much less frightening than "Soul Ferry", and the market that can be put on is broader. Unlike "The Sun of the Lord", which is easy to understand, the show does not have a prominent idol love plot. But the emotional line is not obvious, but it causes the grand situation of CP stew, and the degree of goodness is no worse than that of idol dramas.
A good comedy can make people laugh and laugh and cry, and "Bad Obsession" can indeed see a lot of tears after laughing. The farewell of the Kappa-possessed pharmacist to his parents after his death, the company of the general teacher and the homeless people during his lifetime, the fat director and the chance of the road protector are all sincerely moved.
Secondly, the play continues the attention paid to social issues in the creation of Taiwanese dramas in recent years, and each unit story maps to real dilemmas, including workplace bullying, young people living alone, homeless people, hoarding, etc. However, limited by tonality and duration, its depth of discussion of a single issue is certainly not as deep as that of works such as "Our Distance from Evil".
"Bad Obsession", a genre fusion of comedy + supernatural and a mapping of real dilemmas, also appeared in "About Me and Ghosts". The general content of the film is that Wu Minghan, a straight male policeman, was forced to "tie the knot" with the male ghost Mao Mao and was unlucky all the way after marriage, and even screwed up the anti-drug case that his colleague Lin Ziqing had buried for a long time. In order to save the crisis, Wu Minghan, who was homophobic and afraid of ghosts, had to join hands with Mao Mao to pursue the murderer across the border, and the process was full of conditions and jokes.
According to the evaluation of moviegoers, "About Me and Ghosts" is also a "hilarious and crying" commercial work. I still remember that when the trailer was launched, the underworld marriage, starring Xu Guanghan showed off his figure, and dancing "Dancer" and other contents whetted everyone's appetite. But judging from the current stable wind reviews, the film's brilliance obviously depends on more than just a large scale.
The film belongs to two parallel lines, one is that Wu Minghan wants to help Mao Mao find the murderer who killed him and make him feel the knot of the world, and the other is to promote the police and bandits to solve the case and catch the criminal. It treats same-sex CP as a gimmick, but it also explores the vulnerability of homosexuals to school bullying, parents do not understand, and on the basis of seeking equality, raises deeper questions such as whether same-sex marriage can legally guarantee love.
Create a terrifying atmosphere with folklore features
The style of Taiwanese film and television creation is not only reflected in the reflection of reality, but also the presentation of regional and folk characteristics as always.
The southern Fujian dialect and flavored snacks that pop up from time to time have always been an important means for Taiwanese film and television dramas to build regional memory, and supernatural films are no exception. What is more noteworthy in supernatural films is the use of a large number of folklore, such as the legend of Kappa guarding the village near the river in "Bad Obsession", and the red envelope picking, marriage, and wedding hall decoration in "About Me and Ghosts".
Moreover, "Bad Obsession" also uses a lot of elements related to traditional Chinese culture, which are similar to folk customs. Pu Yiyong's "永" stands for "Eight Laws of Yongzi", which is the eight strokes in which the character "Yong" is written, representing the general body of strokes in Chinese calligraphy; Chen Nanying's "楮" is a synonym for paper, and Cao Guangyan's "inkstone" is inkstone. And the secret of Issei's and grandfather's communication with the "monster" is hidden in their brush calligraphy and painting, and the mention of the word "monster" seems to be another form of writing elegy for the dead.
In the world's supernatural film system, Southeast Asia occupies an important place. But as mentioned in the past, Thailand is far ahead, followed by the earlier popular Hong Kong zombie film. The weirdness that permeates religious concepts is a feature of Southeast Asian paranormal films, and Taiwan also belongs to this system, which creates a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere through a large number of folklore related to faith.
In "Bad Obsession" and "About Me and Ghosts", which are more comedy-style, the effectiveness of folklore thrillers naturally does not fully play out. But last year, the high-purity horror film "Curse", which was hotly searched on Weibo because of "obscurity", can be said to use it quite well.
Six years ago, the heroine was cursed for implicating her daughter by breaking into the altar dedicated to the evil god with her companions, and she harmed others in order to save her daughter, and even did not hesitate to return to the altar. At the beginning of the film, a pseudo-documentary-style lens is used to induce the audience to follow the protagonist to remember a special gesture and the so-called words of blessing, but in the end it is revealed that this is actually sharing the curse for the heroine's daughter. Whether it is the worship in the film or the curse that interacts with the audience, it is inseparable from religious belief.
The same is true of earlier films, the demon god boy and qiqi in the "Little Girl in Red" series, the marriage in "Corpse Memory", and the meat dumplings in "Zongxie" all cast a strong folk color on the film, and also made Southeast Asian audiences with similar cultures feel more creepy.
In addition to heavy horror films, the works of "Micro Fear +" will also have a deeper combination with folk elements. The heroine of "Psychic Girl", Xie Yazhen, has a pair of eyes that can see the two worlds of yin and yang, and was sent to the temple to practice at a very young age. Her job is to use her special abilities to help clients solve events that happen to them that science can't explain. In Taiwan, the "palace temple" culture that plays the function of social education and spiritual comfort has also been combined with the youth campus and the supernatural fear.
Taiwan's supernatural rise is timely
The works mentioned above are actually only some of the Taiwanese supernatural films in recent years. Unknowingly, the supernatural theme has formed a force that cannot be underestimated, promoting the self-innovation of Taiwan's film and television creation and going international.
In fact, there have always been supernatural themes in the process of genre Taiwanese dramas. The recognized beginning of the transformation and upgrading of Taiwanese dramas is the birth of the Zhi Theater series, the cooperation between HBO and Taiwan Public Television, and the development of supernatural genre dramas began here.
In 2016, Wang Xiaodi, Cai Liangming, Chen Yuxun and other first-line directors and screenwriters led the launch of theater planting, with the aim of enriching the types of Taiwanese dramas and cultivating actors in old and new ways. Among the four major themes delineated, the supernatural horror genre film that Taiwan dramas have rarely tried before is one of them. "A Thousand Bridges in a Dream" and "Building Block House" were all works at that time, but the market performance was relatively average.
The following year, the supernatural theme "Psychic Girl" was launched, which was the result of the first cooperation between HBO and Taiwan's Public Television. The drama broke the ratings record of TV dramas for many years, and also allowed Taiwan dramas to officially catch the east wind of streaming media.
Next, while Taiwanese crime suspense films are famous in the mainland, supernatural themes are also continuing to make efforts, including works such as "No. 11 Spirit Street" and "Love Bastards".
As for movies, the recovery came a little earlier than the series. In 2002, "Double Eyes" directed by Chen Guofu won the local box office champion in Taiwan that year, pushing Taiwanese terrorism to a new height. However, due to the high cost of the film, it was difficult to escape the fate of losing money in the end. With the lessons of the past, Taiwan fears that most of the future output is low-cost works, such as "House Change" and "Tricks".
In 2015, "Little Girl in Red", directed by "About Me and Ghosts" director Cheng Weihao, was a great success, setting off a boom in horror film creation in Taiwan. Two years later, "Little Girl in Red 2" not only exceeded 100 million at the Taiwan box office, surpassing its predecessor, but also became the first Taiwanese film and television work to enter the top ten of Netflix in the world after selling international copyrights. Then, "Human Face Fish: The Little Girl in Red Gaiden", "Kui Fall: Zongxie 2" and "Female Ghost Bridge" have achieved good box office results.
The business of Taiwan terrorism is easy to do, and naturally more creators and funds are pouring in.
After last year's "Curse" attracted widespread attention, director Ke Mengrong announced that he would release a sequel "Curse 2", and would also start the development of a series of horror films with "one-word titles" - "Sleepy", "Even", "Pickled" and "Burial". And the performance of this year's "About Me and Ghosts" will undoubtedly feed back to Taiwanese terrorist creation.
In the past few years, Wu Kangren , Lin Xinru , Xu Weining , Rainie Yang , Selina , Lin Baihong , Xu Guanghan , Qiu Ze and a large number of powerful or new-generation actors have all been involved in, and can even be said to love supernatural themes. While paying attention to Taiwan's crime suspense, you may wish to pay attention to the supernatural, it may not be the next type to take off in Taiwan's film and television market.