"Hot and Hot" is Jia Ling's new film, which has achieved remarkable box office results in the Spring Festival, with a total box office of more than 1.1 billion within three days of release, and the final total box office is expected to reach 4.4 billion, and may even surpass "Hello, Li Huanying" and become one of the top three Chinese film box office. However, despite the box office hit, the film's word-of-mouth has shown a clear polarization, with one of the major points of contention being the portrayal of female characters in the film.
The portrayal of women portrayed in movies is generally unpopular and is perceived by some viewers as a "stigmatization" of women. For example, Le Dan, played by Zhang Xiaofei, was portrayed as cheating in marriage, and the child was not born to her husband, and she also asked Le Ying (played by Jia Ling) to help her, which was considered a negative image. Other female characters, such as Doudou played by Yang Zi and best friend played by Li Xueqin, are also portrayed as characters who take advantage of others or backstab the protagonist Le Ying. This led to a strong dissatisfaction with the female characters in the film among a part of the audience.
In addition, some viewers found the film's theme to be more superficial. Although the movie is adapted from "100 Yuan Love", which originally told the story of the heroine finding herself through boxing, the transformation of the heroine Le Ying in "Hot and Hot" seems to be more about losing weight and shaping her body, while ignoring her inner self-search. This deviation from the original storyline has led some viewers to feel that the film's core message has been weakened or misunderstood.
The film's presentation has also been criticized for its lack of innovation. In the early stage, it focuses on comedy, and in the later stage, it turns to sensationalism, but this technique has been used in previous films and lacks new ideas. Although Jia Ling's efforts to lose 100 pounds for the movie are admirable, her performance as a director does not seem to have met the high expectations of some audiences.
To sum up, the success of "Hot and Hot" at the box office has not fully translated into word-of-mouth praise. The portrayal of female characters and the interpretation of the theme in the film, as well as the lack of innovation in the presentation method, are all reasons for the polarization of the audience's evaluation. The existence of these critical voices also makes people better understand Wu Jing's previous view that the box office does not fully represent the quality of the film.