"Disappearing Her" has such a high box office, but director Chen Sicheng was scolded miserably

Text/Yu Xian(Senior media personality, film critic)

1.

"Disappearing Her" suddenly became a hit. According to the latest professional agency forecasts, the film's box office is expected to reach 3.3 billion.

Corresponding to the popularity of the broken circle, its reputation is seriously polarized, and the fierce discussion against its main creator Chen Sicheng - this situation is not the first time. It can even be said that Chen Sicheng and his films have caused huge controversy every time they are released, which is almost the norm.

So, "Why is it always you?" "——Among the commercial film directors of the mainland young and strong school, Chen Sicheng has become a special existence: the films he directed or supervised are far inferior to Ning Hao's reputation; The recognition and affinity of acting and directing are not as good as Xu Zheng and Huang Bo; In terms of creative ambition and genre diversity, it cannot be compared with Guan Hu; Another example is Guo Fan, who strives for excellence, Wu Jing, who is very popular, and Lu Yang, who is capable and sharp... It seems that they are more worthy of the "window dressing" of Chinese middle-generation directors than Chen Sicheng.

However, on the other hand, Chen Sicheng's diligence, high production, concentration behind the scenes, only specializing in the development of one type of film, and successive successes in the market, which is beyond the reach of Ning Hao Guo Fan and Xu Zheng.

In a word, as a director or core producer, there is really no second person like Chen Sicheng who shoots a lot, fast, and sells well. The most important thing is that it may not be too difficult to succeed once or twice (think Xue Xiaolu or Tian Yusheng), but almost every time without missing a shot, it is really not a fluke.

2

So, in addition to "greasy", "narcissistic" and "rustic", what magic does Chen Sicheng have? By analyzing "Disappearing Her", you may be able to understand one or two.

Needless to say, for crime suspense films, the quality of "Disappearing Her" is far from superior, and even compared with Chen Sicheng's previous "Tang Detective 1" and "Manslaughter 1", it is also more immature, simple and rough - in the final analysis, this is a new work co-directed by two young directors. Therefore, its selling reputation obviously cannot be attributed to "good shooting".

Among the many crime films produced by Chen Sicheng, "Disappearing Her" is the only one that truly connects the current Chinese reality

In the Chinese film market in recent years, the trend has become clear, and films that fit a certain public mood can sell well. And "Disappearing Her" and this year's biggest phenomenon movie "Manjiang Hong" have some similarities, they no longer render patriotic feelings and main action scenes like "Wolf Warrior" and "Operation Red Sea", but have developed a certain "multi-compound formula" that can grasp social emotions from multiple levels and angles.

"Manjiang Hong" has multiple genre labels such as costume martial arts, reasoning detective, and New Year comedy, and what makes it quickly "break the circle" is with a bit of over-interpretation of home and country feelings, traditional culture and other powerful pluses, so the film won a blockbuster victory in the Spring Festival file.

In "Disappearing Her", interlocking and multiple reversals of social reasoning is the foundation, and under the iceberg, there are gender and emotional issues such as marriage anxiety, girls help girls, girlfriend love, scumbags, etc., which are extremely concerned by the current young and middle-aged community. And, most subtly, no matter what opinions about the relationship, people seem to find empathy or solace in this film.

"Disappearing Her" movie poster

At the same time, national sentiment is quietly diffused here in a tortuous way. Urban legends related to Southeast Asia, such as "Chaotic Lot", "Kar Waist", and "Deformed Show", are also one of the factors for "Disappearing Her" to be hotly discussed and watched to a certain extent, and the audience has faintly gained a sense of security and pride in "This Music" while appreciating the exotic style.

Another factor that cannot be ignored is the basic setting of the film: crime. And this type has always been a fairly stable and reliable type of product in the film market: medium-sized investment is expected to reap medium and high-level returns. Hong Kong films in the golden period, Korean movies today, and Hollywood movies for a long time have all turned "crime films" into signature goods.

It's just that as we all know, in the mainland, there are too many constraints in the creation of crime films and television, so domestic crime themes with a certain quality are actually very poor. Chen Sicheng, on the other hand, regarded crime films as his main business by moving the place of the crime abroad.

The release of "Detective Chinatown" in 2015 also laid the core setting of all Chen Sicheng's leading crime films so far: broken families, desperate revenge

The significance of "Disappearing Her" to this creative sequence is that this time, it is finally a proper "Chinese crime" - after all, the murderer and the victim are Chinese. And the cases in "Tang Detective" and "Manslaughter" are either foreigners at all, or at most Chinese, in short, the inside and outside surrounding the crime are highly far from Chinese reality and current public sentiment.

And "Disappearing Her" is adapted from the sensational "Thai Wife Murder Case", so the film not only has the sense of curiosity and imminence of the "big case documentary" in the early years, but also contains layers of sensitive elements such as class, gender, ethics, and marriage.

Therefore, compared with the "Manslaughter" series, "Disappearing Her" can directly hook the subconscious of the general public, so it has become a hot search on social media and soared all the way in the film market, which is undoubtedly the natural result.

3.

In short, once we compare "Disappearing Her" horizontally with other domestic films on the market, and then vertically with other crime films led by Chen Sicheng, we will find the fact that Chen Sicheng firmly identifies the criminal reasoning/suspense genre, not only has high output, but also has been improving in the choice of theme and deep expression.

The "Tang Detective" series has increasingly strengthened its comedy and adventure attributes, which has made them a hit during the Spring Festival but has also attracted more criticism

On the contrary, among other mature directors in China who have mastered the power of the industry, there is no one as specialized in one type of product as Chen Sicheng.

The most embarrassing comparison is the famous "iron triangle": Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, they either have changed their interests, or have insufficient production capacity, or both, in short, in crime films and comedy films, these three former leaders seem to be a little stuck (not to mention the former "golden boys" Lu Chuan and Wuershan, who disappeared for years).

Moreover, even if Ning Hao, as a producer, produced a phenomenal film such as "I Am Not the God of Medicine", but the film and similar "Life Events", "My Sister", "Young You", etc., although the audience's word of mouth and cultural value generally far exceed Chen Sicheng's series productions, but from the perspective of film genre, they are all "drama films" or "literary films" in a broad sense, so in terms of commerciality, innately cannot be compared with action, comedy, crime or love genres, even if there are always successful cases at the individual level, However, as a "product", it is very difficult to sustain.

Therefore, Chen Sicheng's product manager-like persistence or craftsmanship spirit is unique in the current Chinese film industry, and his continuous success is obviously prepared, and also reflects the logical rules of the market. (His trumpet companion is Han Han, who is dedicated to the racing genre, and if "Chen Sicheng" is regarded as a business entity, then another similar is "Happy Twist", who continues to create comedy).

4.

In addition to "how did he succeed", another mystery surrounding Chen Sicheng is, why is he so scolded?

It seems that Chen Sicheng not only has the ability to attract audiences, but also has annoying characteristics that far exceed his peers. As long as we open social platforms, we can see a lot of name-named abuse against people. This is also extremely rare in the Chinese film industry, especially after Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang and other big directors, we generally rarely express too much concern for the director.

It has become the norm for Chen Sicheng and his films to cause huge controversy during their release period

The wonderful situation is like this, Chen Sicheng has won a large number of audiences while attracting a lot of criticism. The red on the box office list and the black on the public opinion field go hand in hand.

It should be said that the many accusations against Chen Sicheng and his works are definitely not groundless. Greasy middle-aged narcissism, male chauvinism, vulgar taste, exploitative thinking, lack of originality, consumption of social emotions... These problems are clearly presented in this series of films led by Chen Sicheng.

A large part of the criticism of Chen Sicheng stems from his low-grade taste as a "greasy narcissistic man"

As a film creator, Chen Sicheng's biggest problem is refutation of impurity, only knowing how to do addition without moderation. The "Tang Detective" series written and directed by himself is a typical case, with high-density plots and high-density lines mixed with vulgar and vulgar comedy bridges, and he always wants to densely fill every inch of space and every second on the screen, both to cover the loopholes in the plot and desperately to make the audience laugh. However, the rough plot twists and well-thought-out reasoning bridges always stumble, and they conflict with each other in temperament and taste.

In other words, he wants to please the audience too much, and he likes to draw snakes too much. However, his plays always only put enough effort into the core criminal motives and criminal methods, but the beginning and end of the whole story are often broken and pieced together. The most important thing is that the pair of nephews and detectives as the protagonists, in any case, the movie should belong to their story, but the plot of the "Tang Detective" series does not follow the characters at all, so the color of the film is extremely crude.

Therefore, among the cultural critics and literary and artistic youth groups who have sufficient reading experience and aesthetic reserves, Chen Sicheng's films will always encounter a large number of bad comments, and these bad reviews often rise to personal attacks on him.

And what is intriguing is that the more Chen Sicheng sells, the more he is scolded, which itself is two sides of the same coin: the critics and young people with good taste are a group with the ability to speak and the habit of speaking, and they constitute a large part of the "domestic public opinion field", and the repeated hot sales of Chen Sicheng's works mean that the public recognizes and loves this set, and this has further aroused the anger of this generally called "intellectual circle". They are not only angry with Chen Sicheng, but also angry because of the inferior taste of the average national standard.

5.

There are many popular people, this is not Chen Sicheng a director to face, over the years, Xie Jin, Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige, Guo Jingming and other criticism, in fact, is not too much.

However, specific to Chen Sicheng, there may indeed be some special features. Obviously, he has a strong interest in reasoning detectives, gender relations, and nonsensical comedy, and these undoubtedly perfectly match the needs of the market.

Paradoxically, in these aspects, his vision, taste, and taste are really not perfected, so although he conquered the box office list with these "skills", that is, captured a considerable number of "ordinary audiences" who do not speak on social platforms, but the "poor information" he has is really not enough to convince the "senior audience", so he has been repeatedly attacked.

Peeling back the complicated shell of "Tang Detective 3" and "Tang Detective 1", in fact, the inside is the sad story of "daughter killing her father"

In other words, the identity of "film director", in the past, and even today, represents a certain aesthetic taste and depth of expression higher than the average person, but to Chen Sicheng, the product manager, his level and ability are enough to capture the public (or it is to say that it is the same frequency resonance with the most common public), but at the "elite" level, it is widely despised because it is "too low". At the same time, because of his business achievements and influence, because of the excessive attention of the whole people to film and television celebrities, he has been subjected to excessive controversy in the media and social platforms.

So, in a considerable sense, he resembles two predecessors in Hong Kong cinema in the 1990s: Tsui Hark and Wang Jing. In leading the team to make a very high-grossing genre film, he is like martial arts film professional Tsui Hark, and in personal interest and expression, he is very similar to the "king of" Wang Jing. Especially while selling continuously, and being constantly sneered at by public opinion, Chen Sicheng's situation is especially like Wang Jing.

6.

However, whether it is Wang Jing, Tsui Hark or Chen Sicheng, they are by no means lucky people. You know, diligent or greasy directors are the most routine in the film industry in any country. But why can only these few make a name for themselves?

In the final analysis, they also have their own "authorship". Tsui Hark needless to say, his chivalrous complex and enthusiasm for opening up the wisdom of the people are indeed the most outstanding among many Chinese directors. Wang Jing, on the other hand, is the spokesperson of small citizen culture, and most of his films convey the civilian values of worshiping Jin Muqiang and preaching morality, drinking and getting drunk today (that is, the main set of today's "Happy Twist").

So, what about Chen Sicheng, who is shrouded in hippie smiling faces and endless noise? In fact, his creative background is extremely sad and cruel, and the six crime films he led - the "Tang Detective" trilogy, the "Manslaughter" two-part series plus "Disappearing Her", in a word, the theme is "revenge", and basically a kind of silence in which the net of fish dies and dies.

Almost all of these six films are about the tragedy of one or more families. "Tang Detective 1" and "Tang Detective 3" even share the same story core: the desperate daughter wants to get rid of her father. In the "Manslaughter" series of "poor people fight against killing powerful people", both rich and poor people cannot escape the fate of breaking their families in the end.

Moreover, among these six films, the only thing missing is the iron law of "justice must triumph" that must be capitalized in most other domestic crime themes, and in this batch of stories, the crime is indeed solved, but the crime does not stop. So, in essence, they are all makeover film noir, and the emotional outlet is blocked and dark.

Therefore, this series of films is quite popular, and if you look closely, some superficial reasons do not constitute the whole story. Perhaps, it is precisely because they leave a small backdoor and drainage channel for those dark, ugly, cruel, and distorted in today's movie-watching era where "positive energy" is king.

Chen Sicheng's deep cultivation in the field of crime suspense films has brought him rich market returns, and also quietly conveyed his inner secrets as a creator

It may be that he is unaware, but perhaps he is aware of it, which is why he is so keen to divert the focus with all kinds of lame and vulgar jokes. Of course, it is more likely that when assembling products for the market, he consciously but unconsciously poured into the thoughts, loves and fears that echo human nature and society in the depths of his consciousness.

Therefore, another level of reason why he is always scolded is probably because he does not dare or does not know how to shoot this deep and heavy expression with a regular and serious shooting method that best matches this type of theme (such as Lou Ye's), and will only cook sandwich rice in a messy way.

At the same time, his male greasy and low-grade tastes are also bright and loud, and we cannot say that he represents all Chinese men or all Chinese filmmakers, but it is clear that he does have a considerable model. Therefore, this is particularly depressing.

Therefore, Chen Sicheng's film works are indeed honest. They are the projection of various realities in the current society, and the appearance of the once high-end literary and artistic categories after being flattened and trampled by the "common divisor", and they are also a creator's rebellion against the "new mainstream" policy.

That's right, in Chen Sicheng, "my camera doesn't lie."

(Some pictures come from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete; This article is from Tencent News client self-media and does not represent the platform's views)