2023 Chinese film inventory: the schedule is uneven, and there are hidden worries in prosperity

Source: China Youth Daily

2023 is an important year for Chinese films. The recovery of the industry, the uneven schedule and box office, the achievements and shortcomings in creation, the improvement of the originality of high-box office films, the "word-of-mouth and box office upside down" of realistic themes, the routines of commercial films, the self-satisfaction of literary films, the "expensive ticket prices" of movie tickets, the chaos of purchasing agents, and the chaos of big data killing ripeness...... These topics have been widely discussed. At the end of the year, looking back on the Chinese films in the past year, there are gains, expectations, and shortcomings, but I believe that Chinese films that have been on the road will continue to move in the right direction in the new year with the support and encouragement of the audience.

Which movie is the Pick of the Year in 2023?

"Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun", from the mediocre market response in the early stage of the release, to the miraculous counterattack after the crew's frequent roadshows across the country, "Fengshen" itself has also experienced a process of "Fengshen", although the box office is not the highest, but the tribute and use of classical mythology and even traditional culture in "Fengshen" has made it withstand the test of word-of-mouth and promoted domestic magic blockbusters to a new level.

"Man Jianghong" is the first batch of dark horses to run out in 2023, and has made remarkable achievements in the Spring Festival file, which has directly made the entire schedule popular while increasing the festive atmosphere. The film is entertaining enough to arouse the curiosity of the audience, and the successive reversals at the end of the film have become the biggest highlight of the film. Zhang Yimou is "old and strong", and the box office appeal has been enhanced through the film. Chen Yu's script has been universally affirmed, actor Lei Jiayin has performed well, and the comprehensive strength of "Man Jianghong" is good.

"The Wandering Earth 2" has a bright box office, but the topic popularity has dropped a lot compared with the first part, and Chinese sci-fi blockbusters are in urgent need of newer and more localized ideas; "She Who Disappeared" has opened the way for topic marketing, with strong genre colors, and has also brought great controversy to the high attention; "All or Nothing", the realistic theme has encountered the general environment of the end of northern Myanmar's telecommunications, creating a high box office, and the educational significance is greater than the entertainment value; "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" and "Deep Sea" are the "light of Guoman" In 2023, the concrete embodiment of the former, and the former is slightly better because of the activation of Tang poetry feelings of audiences of all ages; "No Name" integrates two pairs of commercial films and literary films without a trace, and is the blockbuster with the most distinctive personality in 2023; "Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department", "Yongan Town Story Collection", "Mistakes by the River" have a strong literary and artistic temperament, and are niche favorites......

The choice of Chinese films of the year in 2023, the above films will have different choices due to different audiences, different aesthetic preferences, etc., and if these movies are judged as a whole in a large evaluation system or a longer time dimension, the probability of winning "Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun" will be higher.

Pay attention to the common choice of original, commercial blockbusters and literary films

Whether it is a head movie, or a small and medium-cost production, including literary films, attaching importance to the cultural origin of the story, highlighting the personality elements of the main creator, and focusing on establishing multiple connections with the audience, have become the unanimous choice of many domestic films in 2023.

Drawing nourishment from Chinese history, culture and classical literature, this has greatly improved the original concentration of domestic films, "Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun", "Man Jianghong", "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" These three films are enough to support the original pattern of domestic films in 2023, which is different from some films in the past that like to find inspiration from the treasure house of traditional culture but are not satisfactory, these three films can see the following distinct characteristics: the dramatic extraction of the story is more direct, the main creator's thinking about the prototype story is more profound, and the film is closer to the aesthetics and values of contemporary audiences. This sign makes people full of optimism about the way out for the creation of stories in the future of domestic films to tradition and classics.

Literary films in 2023, although there are "high box office" and "strong personality" routes, but the overall emphasis on originality is the same, high-box office literary films include "No Name", "Deep Sea", "Mistake by the River", although these three films give people the impression of commercial films at the level of production and marketing, they are essentially "literary film narratives" Temperament will eventually eliminate their commercial film model, which is a phased presentation of the pursuit of high box office by literary films for many years, and its direction is to finally achieve a box office comparable to that of commercial films, while also ensuring that the literary core and form of the film are not destroyed by the commercial taste. Among these three films, "The Mistake by the River" is a dark horse, and the skillful use of many favorable factors such as "crime genre" + "Yu Hua's original work" + "cutting-edge director" + "actor performance" has pushed it onto a fast lane of box office revenue, making the obscurity of the story itself less important.

The "Flying Saucer" sentiment of the 80s of the 20th century, as well as the accurate depiction of the spirit of the characters, are very attractive, and the "Stories of Yong'an Town" focuses on small town life, fan culture (fan is a cultural term, referring to the obsession with movies, and fans have a more professional understanding of movies - editor's note), and industry comedy "three-in-one", which is absurd and real, full of different kinds of appreciation. These two movies are full of "original" charm, and they are also unavoidable for domestic films in 2023.

Prolific realistic subject matter, vague realism

The box office of the summer of 2023 will exceed 20 billion yuan, and the three realistic movies "Disappearing Her", "All or Nothing" and "In the Octagon Cage" released in the summer not only set the tone of the schedule, but also laid a distinct background of realistic themes for the films throughout the year. In addition, "Dad", "Parrot Killing", "Wading through the Angry Sea", "The Three Teams", "I Am a Mountain" and other realistic themes or movies that focus on realism are also constantly reinforcing the perception that 2023 is a big year for realistic films, but unlike "Chinese science fiction", "Chinese history", "Chinese mythology" and other themes that have been universally recognized and do not have much controversy, "Chinese reality" While the theme is carrying the box office, it is also facing many controversies and even criticisms, and the realism content in realistic themes may be one of the reasons for controversy and criticism.

"Disappearing Her" was authorized by the parties to the "Pregnant Woman Falling Off a Cliff in Thailand", which is considered to be quite alarming, but with the high box office of the film, criticism of the film eating the "gender contradiction" dividend and engaging in "gender antagonism" has been everywhere, and it is also believed that the film's catering to hot topics on social media has made the film cool down quickly after its hot release period. High topicality is a double-edged sword for "Disappearing Her", which brings high box office revenue, but also invisibly consumes people's patience to seriously face the core value of the film. This movie has become a masterpiece of "emotional consumption", with a score of 7.5 and a current 6.2, which also means that its realism elements are insufficient or seriously obscured.

If the fictional plot of "Disappearing Her" makes the work full of drama, then "All or Nothing" is highly consistent with the details of telecom fraud in northern Myanmar, and the ensuing crackdown on telecom fraud in northern Myanmar has become the focus of national attention, which makes this film have a striking practical significance and is considered the most "amazing" realistic movie in 2023. Compared with "Disappearing Her", "All or Nothing" has more realism content, but the film's narrative shortcomings, plot bugs, character flattening and other shortcomings have been revealed over time, and in the end it is inevitable that it will also be considered an "emotional consumption" product.

"In the Octagon Cage", adapted from the Liangshan "Fighting Orphan" incident, has attracted much attention because of the realistic theme directed by director Wang Baoqiang, but the final result of the film is based on Wang Baoqiang's personal transformation and life achievements, and the story itself has not triggered the public to think more about society, so the realism of "In the Octagon Cage" has been overly summarized as "inspirationalism", and the instrumental use of realism makes it difficult for "In the Octagon Cage" to be remembered and discussed by the audience for a longer time.

The high output of reality films comes from the encouragement of all parties and the audience's support for this type of film, and after "I Am Not the God of Medicine" created the "myth" of reality films, it is difficult to have similar films to compare with it, and this type of film has a tendency to be ambiguous in its creation. The industry has developed a Xi of liking to put new words in front of "realism", such as the popular "warm realism", and there is also the practice of putting urban, family, and emotional themes into the basket of realism, which is actually a kind of "OEM realism", which weakens the real and shocking, alert and enlightening value of realistic themes. Removing the "pseudo" and "dangling" in realism, especially not putting commercial interests in front of realistic themes, is perhaps the most important issue for this type of film at present.

The schedule is uneven, and there are hidden worries in prosperity

The box office of the 2023 Spring Festival (January 21-27) will be 6.758 billion yuan, second only to the 7.842 billion yuan of the 2021 Spring Festival file, ranking second in the box office of the same period in Chinese film history; The five-day box office was 1.519 billion yuan, second only to the same period in 2019 and 2021, the box office of the summer file (June 1 to August 31) was 20.62 billion yuan, setting a new high in the box office of the summer file in Chinese film history, and the total box office of the National Day file (September 29 to October 6) reached 2.734 billion yuan, returning to the level of 2017, and there were no hits.

Judging from the situation of several important schedules this year, in addition to the National Day file, other schedules can be described as "prosperity", but hidden worries can also be seen in the prosperity, along with the liveliness of the schedule, complaints such as "expensive fares", "purchasing chaos" and "big data killing" are also frequently raised, including the most popular summer file, which is considered to be that if the small and medium-sized costs have no sense of existence in this schedule, they will only rely on the head movie to "charge into battle" If there are only blockbusters left in the market, then investors and creators will focus more on profit-making purposes, which will lead to a single film genre and similar style, and even give birth to several giant companies, forming a monopoly in terms of production and discourse. At the same time, the potential risks brought about by the long-term lack of presence of small and medium-sized costs are also worth paying attention to, including: the entry threshold for new directors will be continuously raised, resulting in a lack of reserve talents in the industry, and the lack of necessary encouragement and rewards, which will lead to the narrowing of creators' horizons and the discount of talent and ability......

The desertion of the National Day file has exposed some problems, domestic films have been beaten back to their original shape in this schedule, and whether the movie is just needed by the audience has become a hot topic in this schedule. Why can't the glory of the past National Day file be repeated, it has become a situation that the industry needs to take seriously. The main types of war films and cartoons in the National Day file, one is no longer enthusiastically pursued, and the other is collectively dumb, which means that the simplification of the film type will affect the enthusiasm of watching movies, and it also marks the lack of creativity and innovation of works with the same theme, which are easy to be recognized and abandoned by the audience. This reminds the film industry that not the prime schedule will necessarily create a high box office, a good schedule also needs good works to inspire, and once a schedule leaves a bad impression, then the double dodge of the film company and the audience will make it easier for the future schedule to become unwanted.

The 2023 film schedule has entered the Lunar New Year schedule for more than a month, judging from the current situation, there is still a lack of powerful hits to lead the schedule, and the ensuing Spring Festival results will be attributed to 2024, the Chinese film market will bid farewell to 2023 in a tepid situation, although it will not affect the annual performance of domestic films as a whole, but it is true that the films in 2023 will also leave a lost tail. As early as November 13, the box office of Chinese films has exceeded 50 billion yuan, which is a good result, which is a good result, but it should also be used as a driving force to put the goal on 2024 and beyond, I believe that Chinese films will have a better future.

Han Haoyue Source: China Youth Daily

December 23, 2023 04 edition