The box office exceeded 1.1 billion, how did Chen Sicheng "break" the game?

When asked what the core elements of a successful filmmaker are, he said: "I think the most important thing should be to love movies, love the world, you have to open your pores and sincerely embrace something." ”

Author|Dong Fei, Editor|Lone Pigeon

Chen Sicheng's office is simple and airy, and a desk with curved lines decorates the room with a bit of Zen. But the environment didn't diminish the hectic period of the film's announcement, and he still used fragmented time to discuss a certain shot with the team before the official interview.

On June 22, the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, "Disappearing Her", written and produced by Chen Sicheng, was released, opening with a disappearance case, quickly throwing suspense, foggy, ups and downs, bringing the audience an immersive and shocking experience. With the truth revealed, the film not only completed the genre upgrade of domestic suspense films, but Chen Sicheng and his creative team also raised the upper limit of their creative ability again.

"Disappearing Her" poster

Since the "Detective Chinatown" series, "Manslaughter" series and other works have repeatedly won high box office, Chen Sicheng has become a representative figure of domestic suspense films. But he did not become complacent, but had a more cautious attitude towards the market, and in the conversation, he stressed the need to respect the audience, "let the audience trust the film, and rekindle the audience's enthusiasm for the film, especially for domestic films."

The game-breaker is in the middle of the game

The first thing that impressed Chen Sicheng in the project "Disappearing Her" was the initial setting of the character: a man first said that his wife was missing, but the next day he found a strange woman lying next to him, and this woman insisted that she was his wife... Such a character relationship has formed the starting concept of a suspense story.

But Chen Sicheng was not satisfied with the first version of the script handed over by the team and began to revise it himself. How to fill the bones of the relationship? How to enhance the sense of suspense, substitution and refreshment of the story? During the screenwriting process, he kept jumping out of the story and asking himself. And the answer is hidden in real life - his vicious cases in Southeast Asia in recent years are interspersed in the narrative, giving a deeper dramatic conflict to the love and hate of several protagonists, localizing the logic of story advancement, and finally presenting the "game breaker in the game" on the big screen today.

However, there is information on the Internet that "Disappearing Her" is adapted from a Soviet film "A Trap for Bachelors". But the latter is very unpopular and rarely seen. In this regard, Chen Sicheng explained the reason: I didn't know that there was this film at first, and after the script was written, director Cui Rui said that the opening bridge was very similar to a movie he had seen. In order to avoid copyright risks and reduce plagiarism, Chen Sicheng bought the copyright of the Soviet film.

"Disappearing Her" screenwriter and producer Chen Sicheng

In the film, the wife mysteriously disappeared during the wedding anniversary trip, the mysterious forces behind the strange woman, the visa that is about to expire, the weird Mandela effect... As a film that "strictly prevents spoilers", the iteration of the suspense and the reversal of good and evil in "Disappearing Her" are quite praised by the audience. As early as when he was working on the desk, Chen Sicheng had already made up the specific picture in his brain, which benefited from the creative inertia formed by his years of research on suspense films.

In his opinion, the narrative is "not very new", but a change in perspective: just as "The Sixth Sense" and "Island Horror" use the perspective of ghosts looking at people, "Forbidden Island" uses the perspective of a mentally ill person to see the world, the narrative perspective of "Disappearing Her" is to unify the victim and the perpetrator. Essentially, this is an innovation built on mature typing.

If you have to distill a theme for the film, Chen Sicheng defines it as "choice". He Fei in the film originally had many options, but was consumed by desire, and always made wrong choices at critical moments. The scars shared by the three heroines are by no means limited to the expression of gender issues, it represents the trauma of all groups in a passive state in life. For example, the scars on Chen Mai's body come from the school bullying she encountered.

Ni Ni as Chen Mai / Shen Man

But Chen Sicheng did not set a theme at the beginning, wanting to express something to the audience, "Making a movie is not reasonable, you must not tell the audience, I want to tell you what is the truth." In his view, the film is a mirror, the creator uses the movie to see all living beings, the audience uses the movie to see themselves, a good work, the audience can interpret it from multiple angles.

The place where the story of "Disappearing Her" takes place is still empty, but everyone reads a distinct Southeast Asian style, just like the previous "Manslaughter" series. However, the two films have no intrinsic creative connection, although they are suspenseful and have different styles.

"Manslaughter" is realistic, the tone of the image is relatively simple and realistic, while "Disappearing Her" pursues the ultimate audiovisual language to fit the sense of dramatic withdrawal and the concept of drama within a play in line with the story itself. During the creative process, Korean director Park Chan-wook's style of using large color blocks to set off the mood of the characters, and Danish director Nicholas Winding Revern's lamp aesthetics, both of which inspired Chen Sicheng.

"Disappearing Her" scene

In the end, the film adopts highly saturated and high-contrast tones, coupled with the foggy island environment, Van Gogh's abstract paintings, and symbolic animals, creating an atmosphere where beauty and danger coexist, which not only hints at human desire, but also metaphorically alludes to the weakness, risk, and uncertainty of the characters in their emotions.

"We are not style for style's sake, style must be attached to the literary proposition you want to carry." Chen Sicheng said.

The possibility of seeing people

Chen Sicheng is an actor and has a good performance after turning into a director. At the same time, he is willing to provide opportunities for young creators to boldly use new talents on important projects.

"Disappearing Her" is co-directed by Cui Rui and Liu Xiang, Cui Rui graduated from the directing department of the University of Southern California in the United States and participated in many award-winning films, Chen Sicheng watched these works and felt that he had a very advanced aesthetic and was also familiar with Hollywood genre narratives. Liu Xiang is a photographer, and his directorial debut "The Unexpected Guest" is a suspense film, which was shortlisted for the "Focus on the Future" unit of the Beijing International Film Festival, "also plays with structure, and the degree of completion is quite high".

"Disappearing Her" director Cui Rui

Therefore, Chen Sicheng feels that the two have the consciousness of commercial creation together, do not make too pure and overly personal expressions, and are suitable candidates to direct this film.

From the perspective of industry development, "you must do your best for the industry to let more blood join"; From the perspective of company operation, it is also necessary to cultivate talents and expand the strength of the team. Because he is not from a directing department, Chen Sicheng chooses people who are "indefinite", and the most important thing is three factors: love first, talent second, and focus on third.

The same is true for choosing actors, Chen Sicheng pays more attention to more possibilities in actors. The actor must not be too solidified, and there must be a certain safe distance between him and the audience, that is, to maintain the mystery. "If there is no mystery between the actor and the audience, and the audience brings you a particularly powerful symbol, in fact, his credibility is reduced." He said.

And inviting Zhu Yilong to play the protagonist He Fei is precisely because Chen Sicheng feels that he can better protect himself in his acting career, and there is a "sense of ambiguity" on his body, and he has not been labeled by the audience as particularly distinct, so he can take on a variety of roles.

Zhu Yilong as He Fei

He Fei in the film combines helplessness, pity, madness, and distortion, showing a strong complexity, which is rare in the entire history of Chinese films. Zhu Yilong was very excited after reading the script and felt that it was too good. However, he is also worried about whether the role will affect the audience's perception of himself, and he has some doubts in his heart. Chen Sicheng invited Zhu Yilong to his home, sincerely sharing that the ultimate task of an actor is to create different people. "The myth of acting is not that I want to create a certain image for the world, but that I can play a man with a thousand faces." An audience that truly understands an actor is also an audience that can understand his pursuit.

In this sincere communication process, the main creator has a deeper understanding of the story and characters. Just as He Fei has many faces in the film, the audience also saw Zhu Yilong's richer performances and more possibilities. Especially in the scene at the end, as the hair is shaved, He Fei's inner secrets are completely exposed, the characters enter a state of madness and distortion, Zhu Yilong's performance is delicate and expressive, and the micro-expressions on his face are full of tension, which is greatly shocking.

In Chen Sicheng's view, performances in this state would rather be over-put than too tight. Like some extreme events in society, "people are sometimes in an extreme environment and extreme state, and that thing is out of control." Therefore, there is no question of "over" in performance.

Chen Sicheng is also good at communicating with actors, by taking a sample on the spot. This was cultivated from the filming of "Detective Chinatown", because there are too many foreign actors in the crew who can't understand Mandarin, instead of pulling their necks and repeatedly talking about inefficient communication, it is better to personally act first, and the actors' understanding of the character's posture and speech skills will be more accurate. From the tidbits exposed by "Disappearing Her", we can see the scene of Chen Sicheng "talking" to Wen Yongshan, how to ruffle her hair, playful and cute.

Wen Yongshan as Li Muzi (fake)

But Chen Sicheng doesn't care how much he has done for this film, or how many shadows he has in the film, as long as the film looks good at the end. "It doesn't even matter if I'm a man or a woman, everyone watches the movie and thinks it's good, it's good." He said.

Inspire audience trust in the film

In recent years, Chen Sicheng's films have been obvious to all in commercial achievements. "Detective Chinatown" directed by him achieved a box office of 823 million yuan with a small broad, becoming the box office champion on New Year's Day in 2016; the box office of the second part of the series reached 3.397 billion yuan, setting a feat of breaking 300 million yuan for five consecutive days; the third part of the series still achieved 4.523 billion yuan at the box office during the epidemic. The two "Manslaughter" produced by him both exceeded 1 billion yuan at the box office, which were the dark horses of the Chinese film market that year.

"Manslaughter"

The continuous explosion made the Yitong film and television production company he founded quickly grow into a head brand on the domestic suspense track, and it is also a research sample of the domestic film industry. His design and use of suspense elements, his control of comedy jokes, the use and transformation of film history classics, and his perception of the audience's emotions... Gradually establish the norms of domestic suspense film genre narrative.

Despite his many successful experiences, Chen Sicheng feels that no creation is unconditional, no capital will be poured into a person, and limited conditions will change with the economic cycle, so it is necessary to consider the balance between art and business. As he said, "There is no infinite thing, just infinite action in finitude." ”

In "Disappearing Her", he is both a screenwriter and a producer, and the crossover of identities requires him not only to do a good job in quality control, but also to consider the return on investment and be responsible for the investment. Making a profit for investors and teams is a prerequisite.

"Disappearing Her" is not with Chen Mai

For the film's box office return, Chen Sicheng did not give a clear numerical expectation. He emphasized the difficulty of the current film market and hidden worries: the current macro situation of the film market is not ideal, the audience has shrunk from five films a year to two films a year, and this year's summer file is particularly competitive, not only clearing inventory, but also introducing Hollywood blockbusters.

Therefore, the biggest problem facing filmmakers at present is survival, to make the audience trust in the film, and to re-stimulate the audience's enthusiasm for the film, especially for domestic films. "Big water can make fish big, and only if the market is big enough can it accommodate a hundred flowers."

There is no ceiling for creation, the ceiling is broken, and Chen Sicheng is always looking to try new things, "I myself am also very afraid of 'running out of food', so I have to keep learning and then keep exploring." Next, he will also shoot a period type of story, and two online dramas and a movie will also be produced soon.

In addition to film and television creation, Chen Sicheng also pays close attention to topics such as the world pattern and cutting-edge science and technology in his daily life. The emergence of ChatGPT this year makes people anxious about the future, and Chen Sicheng feels that there is no way to resist, only to meet it. For everything, we have to look at it from a speculative perspective, there are both positive and negative sides. For example, the Internet has brought great convenience to our lives, but it is also "anti-elite", leading to the regression of world thought. These aspects of thinking will obviously also be reflected in his creations, giving the works a greater perspective.

Chen Sicheng at the event

From actor to director to screenwriter, producer, and boss, Chen Sicheng has achieved success in every step and every identity. But he never felt like a smooth ride, describing himself as an "optimistic pessimist." He likes to be plain, simple, close to Zen, but sometimes he has to meet and please something, so he often feels lonely.

When asked what the core elements of a successful filmmaker are, he said: "I think the most important thing should be to love movies, love the world, you have to open your pores and sincerely embrace something." ”

Then, it is to cherish every moment and every second of life, "you can't stop learning, you can't stop reading, you can't stop thinking."