This Spring Festival, it is not easy to see "Mr. Red Carpet".
On the afternoon of the third day of the Lunar New Year, in order to find a suitable show and theater, I had to go far and run an extra 5 or 6 kilometers to meet Liu Tianwang on the big screen.
A distance of 5 or 6 kilometers may not be much in Beijing. But in a second-tier provincial capital, this distance has been able to discourage most of the Spring Festival viewers who are dragging their families. I think that's why the 200-person hall of "Mr. Red Carpet" I bought only had a dozen or so spectators.
The perceived film arrangement is consistent with the attendance and data. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the proportion of "Mr. Red Carpet" was only 3.2%, and the average number of people per game was 7.5. If you think of the Spring Festival file before the ticket opening, "Mr. Red Carpet" insisted on not participating in the "mandatory minimum film schedule" turmoil, and you will secretly feel the cruelty of the competition in the Spring Festival film market.
"Mr. Red Carpet" is indeed not a special film for the Spring Festival. It has a high context and a gray tone, and although it is a comedy, the background is absurd after all. The most important thing is that those viewers who don't understand the "unspoken rules" of the film and television industry, even if they watch it, they probably can't figure it out. Without the desire to discuss, it will naturally not lead to a large-scale secondary transmission.
However, from the perspective of cultural sociology, "Mr. Red Carpet", a meta-movie like "how to make a movie", is most suitable for release during the Spring Festival, the largest schedule of domestic films.
It is a tragic song for old-school filmmakers, a sketch that satirizes the ecology of entertainment and public opinion, and a collection of movie magic "goofs" shots...... The more charming the illusion of the Spring Festival movie, the more scorching the public opinion, and the more the actors are indistinguishable from each other, the more the expression of "Mr. Red Carpet" can form a closed loop that reflects reality.
In fact, "Mr. Red Carpet" meets "Hot and Hot", and Andy Lau meets Jia Ling outside the play, which also constitutes a set of intertextuality.
The code words squeezed out between their teeth were: I am an actor, not a Joker (Joker), please respect my seriousness and hard work.
It's just that Jia Ling, who uses sincerity as a weapon, is simple and straightforward, and has achieved "shouting" with a weight loss of 100 pounds, while Andy Lau, who is always decent, chose to be separated by another layer and turned into a "whisper" of a real play.
Jia Ling's "shout" stirred up a thousand waves, ignited the box office and triggered a wave of public opinion, and her future career situation became more serious and complicated. Andy Lau's "Whispers" are like footnotes prepared in advance, explaining why Jia Ling's almost sacrificial efforts and self-proof are not necessarily a good thing in today's domestic entertainment environment.
After talking about the off-screen, let's go back to the movie itself.
Although the second half of "Mr. Red Carpet" seems complicated, it is actually a simple story. It tells the story of an actor who plays a farmer in order to win an award, but because of his in-depth experience of life, many branches are introduced, and finally the film shooting becomes a story of an accident. The reason why the perception is complicated is that, on the one hand, there are a lot of personal insinuations about Andy Lau, and on the other hand, it is the drying of the "unspoken rules" that are accustomed to in the circle.
Regarding the close connection between this film and Andy Lau himself, as well as his past experience with director Ning Hao, there were a lot of detailed gossip "archaeology" before the release of the movie, so I will not repeat it here.
After watching the movie, I think the three red images in the film are very suitable as keywords for analyzing "Mr. Red Carpet".
The first is the "red carpet".
This is a symbol of the glory of filmmakers, the joint between the film world and the real world, and the rules and decency that Liu Weichi wants to maintain with his hard work in the film.
The beginning of "Mr. Red Carpet" is the shot of the staff laying out the red carpet. The expressionless workers lay out the cheap red carpet on the ordinary ground and steps, and the back panels are erected, the lights are sold, and the cameras are gathered, and it becomes a magical place of glory.
The scene looks ridiculous. But as an industry based on a sense of ritual, film requires all practitioners to respect this assumption.
Liu Weichi, as a representative of old-school actors, respects this red carpet. But what he respects is not art, but rules.
As long as he faces the camera, he is always elegant, forbearing, introverted, and funny, suppressing unhappiness for a second, and hiding his ambitions well. Off-camera, his idol burden is bigger than the sky. Body management is consciously strict, even if you shoot short videos, you have to be right. You want to watch it Duang a bit, or skip the third section, sorry, he doesn't have this entertaining spirit.
He doesn't see movies as art, business, or entertainment, but as competitive sports.
He doesn't want to use movies to touch his heart, he doesn't want to use movies to leverage capital, and he doesn't want to simply serve the audience. He's just going to prove that he can win. He also believes that as long as you follow the rules, practice diligently, and work hard enough, you can win.
You could say that his "red carpet spirit" is utilitarian and self-centered. But looking at it from another angle, can it also be called "professionalism", can it be called "virtue and art", and can it be called "the drama is bigger than the sky"? No matter what others think, at least Liu Weichi, who is well protected, thinks that he is the latter.
The second is the red dot.
The red dot is the indicator light when the camera is turned on. This is what Liu Weichi loves and fears the most. When he played the role, he liked this little red dot. But when he is himself in life, he is afraid of this little red dot.
Before and after the red dot lit up, two worlds. This is the general rule of the film and television industry, and it has also left an ideological imprint on the actors.
Like many old artists, Liu Weichi has a hard time accepting playing memes, scherzos, or even a little flaw in his lines because of his accent. This is not to say that he is unwilling to pretend to be ugly, but when he faces non-fiction shots, he also has a character named actor Lau Weichi.
As long as the red dot is on, he doesn't want to reveal a little bit of his true self. This is what Liu Weichi thinks is the self-cultivation of actors. What he didn't realize was that the relationship between the media and people, between actors and audiences, had changed.
In this era when everyone has a "camera", it is too difficult for him to separate the two worlds before and after the red dot is lit up. First, it is true that from mobile phones and computers to sweeping robots and dash cams...... The bright shots are easy to perceive, but the dark shots are not easy to hide; second, in the eyes of the current audience, this kind of "dual personality" is not cute. The world before and after the red dot is lit up, and the audience has to watch it.
The rivalry between Liu Weichi and the UP master of the short video of Station D in "Mr. Red Carpet" performed his "red dot" spell very exquisitely.
When his partner was working, he felt that he was joking with all the plans proposed to him by the young UP master Summer. He doesn't want to reveal a bit of his true self, and he doesn't want to be "entertainment" fuel. When he returned home with Summer for a "one-night stand" after an ambiguous party, he nervously pasted all the "red dots" in the room, and he was afraid that his true self would be photographed and spread, and become a handle for blackmail, or a crusher for his career.
However, the funny thing is that the video that finally made him fall into the storm of cyberbullying and collapse his career was not the "one-night stand" video or the video of him losing control and smashing the car by the dashcam, but the filming footage he sent out himself - an action scene in which he starred in riding a horse and letting the horse fall.
This is the "Liu Weichi" who he thinks can be exposed under the "red dot", but out of nothing there is a public opinion of "horse abuse", which caused him to ruin his acting career.
In the era of pan-entertainment, the "red dot" has also become a blurred area.
The third is a red sweater.
That is, in "Mr. Red Carpet", the standard clothing of the Internet "predator" who relies on making money in the car circle every time he appears.
This investor is a cross-border "big man" brought in by Chen Weichi in order to find money for the movie. Art films with rural themes are only used to use "cotton jacket culture" to win awards abroad, and the market cannot be closed. Then you have to find some "pick-up man" who wants fame and does not seek capital returns, and pays for art.
This investor is not exaggerated, and who is the prototype of reality, we will put aside for the time being and do not guess. Let's just talk about why Liu Weichi and the director want to beat him. Not because of anything else, but because he doesn't follow the rules, or doesn't believe in the "assumptions" of the film industry.
Liu Weichi and the director are extremely serious, and they work hard for it, but there is no cost performance and no seriousness here in "Red Sweater". It's a big advertisement if it's good, but it's a group of Jokers entertaining themselves. When Liu Weichi wanted to persuade him to invest, he said that the artistry and ideology of the film were useless, and he had to show his talent and get a hole-in-one golf.
This is what touched me the most from "Mr. Red Carpet".
When an actor doesn't want to be a joker anymore and wants others to take him seriously, will the whole world laugh? After all, the "respect" that an actor gets nowadays is largely linked to his material gains, not his professionalism. "The drama is bigger than the sky" in the value balance of pragmatism, at most it is just a "no crazy devil can't live".
Finally, I would like to talk about the last shot of "Mr. Red Carpet".
Liu Weichi finally took a step, stood on the balance bike he had been refusing before, and found a moment of fulfillment and freedom. Some people interpret it as a way for him to finally find a balance between drama and "me", between new things and old ideas. I don't think he found the balance.
You must know that the key technology of the balance car is "self-balancing". The balance between the world and me, the old and the new has always been, just to see if "Mr. Red Carpet" is willing to step on it.
【Text/Tin Sheet】