unexpectedly became the highest-rated comedy in five years, but director Dong Runnian said that he wanted to give up several times

After 29 days of release, the box office reached 1.032 billion yuan, and the Douban score was 8.2 points, making it the highest-rated domestic comedy in the past five years. In the face of such good results, Dong Runnian, the screenwriter and director of "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!", wrote in his circle of friends: In fact, I don't know what to say. Just thank you to the audience, thank you.

A few days ago, in an exclusive interview with Yi Feijun, he revealed that this film began to be created as early as 2017, but because he never found a breakthrough point, he was interrupted several times in the middle, and he once thought about giving up the project.

Workplace drama is good fodder for filmmaking

Before becoming a director, Dong Runnian was a very good screenwriter. He has collaborated with Ning Hao in "Heart Flower Road" and "Crazy Alien", and with Guan Hu in "Lao Paoer" and "Chef Drama Ruffian". His script's insight into real life and grasp of the true feelings of ordinary people have been well received both inside and outside the circle.

The screenwriter and director of this film, Dong Runnian

Around 2017, he began to prepare to direct his own films, and successively conceived two stories, "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" and "The Man Caught by the Light". "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" was first conceived, but "some problems were not figured out" in the creation, but "The Man Caught by the Light" was created smoothly, so the latter was filmed.

Exploring the relationship between people and self-perception in the extreme environment is a topic that Dong Runnian has always been interested in. "The Man Caught by the Light" chooses a sci-fi coat, telling the story of a strange light that descends on the earth and people's emotional choices in the face of disaster. "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!" uses a comedic shell to tell the story that happened in the workplace, "I hope to push the story in the extreme direction under the premise of seemingly absurd, which is more conducive to our expression." Dong Runnian said.

The workplace is a big area, and movies need to tell a whole story. Dong Runnian remembered the high school reunion he attended in his early years, and he was fascinated by the "workplace terminology" when his classmates chatted, "The words they said were very vivid and interesting, and at the same time there was a certain irony, and they also complained about many people and things in the workplace, which was very interesting." "The professional habits of the screenwriter made him keenly feel that these stories and details are very dramatic, and they are good material for filmmaking.

Although workplace stories are staged every day, in the past ten years, there have only been a few domestic movies related to the workplace, such as "Du Lala's Promotion" and "Gorgeous Office Workers". Dong Runnian has watched many excellent Japanese and Korean workplace film and television dramas, which gave him the idea of creating a workplace movie. Naturally, he came up with the term "annual meeting". Born in Tianjin, he was often taken by his father to attend various galas in the unit when he was a child, "Dozens or hundreds of people get together and can call each other by name, which is a very warm feeling." "Decades have passed, and now the annual meetings of those big companies can be seen on the Internet, and some even choose to hold them in stadiums, with tens of thousands of people. In Dong Runnian's view, the changes of the "annual meeting" are a microcosm of socio-economic and social development, showing the changes and style of the times. He decided to use the "annual meeting" as the entry point to tell a workplace story.

Get inspired by the cross talk "Three Levels in a Row".

In 2017, Dong Runnian wrote the first draft. The story is about a small employee who found out that he was going to be laid off, and in order to save his job, he came up with a trick: if he had the opportunity to make a good impression on the leader at the annual meeting of the unit, he might stay. Although this story is very complete, Dong Runnian always feels that the theme is very thin, "It only tells about a person's experience and feelings, but it can't bring out the various workplace problems and workplace topics we learned in the interview." "So, the creation got stuck there.

This card is three years. The turning point came from a news that Dong Runnian accidentally saw in early 2020: in the building of a large company in Beijing, during a health inspection, he actually found a homeless man sneaking in and living in it for a month. He locked himself in a storage room during the day, waited for everyone to get off work at night, and only came out to look for food, and when he was tired, he slept on the chairs that were spliced together. This news subverted Dong Runnian's previous impression of these large companies, "Under such an advanced management system, there are such management loopholes, which seems bizarre and absurd." This inspired him, "I began to find out what the film was really trying to say, what it was going to satirize. ”

Dong Runnian rewrites the story. This time, he changed the protagonist to an employee of a foreign branch of the company, because of the conflict between the upper echelons of the company, the branch was wronged, so all employees were laid off. The branch sent the employee to the headquarters to complain, but he mistakenly found the leader who signed the layoff, and was thrown out. The penniless employee had no choice but to "lurk" in the company, trying to find the chairman of the group and redress his grievances for him and the branch.

"This is the equivalent of version 2.0 of "Annual Meetings Can't Stop!" Dong Runnian said with a smile, although he has improved a lot from the first draft, and there is no problem with the shooting, he still does not meet his requirements, "I always feel that it is still wrong, and it is difficult to convince myself." ”

When the creation was not going well, Dong Runnian even thought about giving up the project. Fortunately, producer Ying Luojia has been encouraging him and can't give up no matter what. Dong Runnian decided that the creative team would hold another "retreat" meeting, "If this thing can be discussed, we will continue to do it, and if it can't be discussed, we will let it go first." ”

After thinking about it, Dong Runnian thought of a cross talk "Thief Company" that he had watched, which was a show performed by Feng Gong and Niu Qun on "Variety Show" in 1990, which tells the story of a professional thief who keeps complaining to his "colleagues" because he is tired of the life of a thief. Dong Runnian has always felt that this work is the peak of satirical art, and he feels that he can learn from the artistic expression skills of "dislocation" in cross talk.

Dong Runnian thought of Liu Baorui's 1955 classic stand-up comedy "Three Levels in a Row", which portrayed Zhang Haogu, a gentleman who did not learn and did not know how to take the exam. Dong Runnian's "two pulses" of thought were opened, and he soon wrote a script that was "very close" to the public version.

Real workplace encounters make the audience empathize

After the release of the film, many viewers expressed empathy for the character's workplace encounters, in addition to accurate details such as "alignment granularity", the plot of Hu Jianlin being assigned by the HR (human resources) department personnel manager to "name" the company's employees is particularly absurd and ironic. This is due to the solid interview that Dong Runnian did in the early stage, when a friend who does HR said that "nodding heads" is also the content of their daily work, Dong Runnian was very surprised, "This is beyond our imagination, but after careful consideration, I think it is very reasonable, especially under the premise of a large layoff, when a person from the HR department names you, it is bound to cause panic among the parties." Dong Runnian processed this detail and put it into the movie, which became one of the funniest and most ironic scenes in the whole film.

In the film, Hu Jianlin, Ma Jie and Pan Yiran form a workplace "trio". In Dong Runnian's view, they represent three different types of workers in the workplace, and they are also the "three stages" that workers have to go through. Pan Yiran, a post-90s outsourcing employee, represents the "past" of the workplace, as a newcomer who has just stepped into the workplace, she has an idealistic enthusiasm and vision for the future in her heart, as well as a temper on her body. Ma Jie, the post-80s personnel manager, is like the "now" of a working person, the edges and corners of life are slowly smoothed out, and there are occasional idealistic small flames flickering in the depths of his heart, but only after getting drunk can he shout "Look up to the sky and laugh and go out, how can my generation be a Penghao person". In contrast, Hu Jianlin's seemingly reckless and wooden approach after the 70s is the "future" of the workplace that Dong Runnian wants to convey: "When you keep your sincerity, straightforwardness and kindness in your heart, even if you are over 40 years old, it is possible to turn over in the middle of your career and make a career." ”

Dong Runnian finally named the film "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop!", which has two meanings: one is the meaning of irony. In the film, the group encountered an economic crisis and had to take layoffs to reduce costs, but it still spent tens of millions of dollars to hold the annual meeting, which is a face project to slap a swollen face and fill the fat man. But from another point of view, the real "annual meeting" really can't be stopped, because the "annual meeting" symbolizes the determination of the enterprise to work together to overcome the difficulties in the market, and it is also a symbol of being close to the family. Dong Runnian also deliberately added a "!" after "the annual meeting can't be stopped", the purpose is to highlight a force, "When you read this sentence, it is both an encouragement and a good wish." ”

At the end of the film, the "trio" uncovered the conspiracy of the vice president in front of the chairman by singing and dancing on stage, and ushered in a happy ending. Dong Runnian bluntly said that as a comedy work, he hopes that the audience will have a sense of warmth and strength after walking out of the cinema, so that they can better face the next day's life.

Dong Runnian admitted that he is very curious about creation, and he will try different types of movies in the future, but the main creator did talk about this recently, "I will seriously consider the possibility of making a sequel, but the first thing is to find out what the theme of the sequel is."

-END-