Author: Lin Fei Source: IT Times
The story of cross talk music art is on the big and small screens, and there have been many films such as "The Smiling Man in the Rivers and Lakes", "The Rebel of the House", "The Legend of Dou Tianbao", etc., and there are not many people who are applauded, but what is really impressive is the 1987 movie "Laughing and Breaking the Love Network", which tells the story of the cross talk actors who found unhealthy trends when they went to the countryside to inspire their creation.
The recently launched indoor sitcom "Wanchun Laughing Club" is another crossover of Deyun Club, trying to present the front and back stories of the modern cross talk team. But judging from the current reaction, this attempt was not very successful because of problems such as the plot and performance.
The plot doesn't match reality well
The story of this play takes place in a little-known cross talk class - Wanchun Club, Xu Xiaoqian (played by Meng Hetang), Wan Xia (played by Zhou Jiuliang), Pei Zhijie (played by Luan Yunping), Lu Zhifei (played by Zhang Helun), Zhang Yuan (played by Zhang Jiuling), Wang Bo (played by Wang Jiulong) Six brothers with different personalities and love cross talk, not only have to run in the tacit understanding on the cross talk stage, but also need to adapt to the collective life full of situations.
is also produced by a comedy group, Benshan Media's "Legend of Magpie Knife Gate" launched last year successfully narrowed the distance with the audience by satirizing many social hot spots. And "Wanchun Funny Club" was filmed as early as 2021, one year earlier than "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate", so it is congenitally deficient in terms of current affairs background.
The biggest challenge for "Wanchun Laughing Club" is the plot. Successful works are often solved by clever plot design, but the jokes and plots in this play are seriously out of touch with the real life of ordinary audiences. The various difficulties encountered by a sluggish cross talk garden and the cross talk group could have built a bridge of emotional resonance between ordinary audiences outside the fans of Deyun Club and small theater fans, but these elements were not deeply excavated in the play, and the plot lacked depth.
There are also regrets in character building. Compared with the grassroots image in Stephen Chow's early works, "Wanchun Laughing Club" lacks a realistic depiction of the protagonist's life challenges, and the character's creation needs depth and authenticity, and the character's growth, struggle, and transformation can inspire the audience's resonance.
In comparison, it is much better to shoot before and after filming with "Wanchun Laughing Club", which is also produced by Deyun Club, which tells the story of a little emperor who sneaks out of the palace because he is obsessed with drama and goes to work in a Washe (ancient folk art performance venue).
In fact, the main creative team really wants to impress the audience, and it is very good to write the story of Guo Degang being invited by a TV variety show as a "harlequin" when he was just a little famous in the early days.
The performance is too traceful
In terms of performance, "Wanchun Laughing Club" is not very satisfactory. There are many actors in Deyun Club who are brilliant on the cross talk stage, but Yu Qian is the only one who has online acting skills in film and television dramas, and the roles played by Guo Qilin and Sun Yue are still in their comfort zone. As for Guo Degang and Yue Yunpeng's acting skills, the audience has a conclusion. The old faces of variety shows, Qin Xiaoxian and Meng Hetang, do not have an admirable role yet.
In "Wanchun Laughing Club", Xu Xiaoqian, played by Meng Hetang, is a lover who is obsessed with cross talk, and has undergone a period of professional training when he was a child, but only judging from the plot before and after he entered Wanchun Club in the play, the performance is exaggerated and unnatural, and he has brought in many of his own habits on the small stage, this problem also exists in other actors in Deyun Club, it is too deliberate, and there is a big gap with Jiang Shimeng's performance in the play. No wonder some people say that the whole drama is like a variety reality show in the cross talk garden, rather than a well-crafted TV series.
A tight, fluid narrative rhythm captures the audience's attention and keeps the plot tense and engaging. However, the performance of "Wanchun Laughing Club" in this regard is also unsatisfactory, and the plot rhythm is a bit slow and dragging.
There is still much more work to be done across borders
There are many cross-border opportunities for popular actors in Deyun Club, Guo Qilin, Zhang Yunlei, Yue Yunpeng, Meng Hetang, Qin Xiaoxian, etc. are the best proof, on the cross talk stage, they have won the love and support of the audience through years of hard work. Through years of hard work, the audience who loves and supports them has been converted into fans. With the support of the fans, then everything becomes easy. Participating in the recording of variety shows is to bring their fans across the border together, and the ratings are guaranteed to a certain extent.
But when watching the drama, facing more non-fan audiences, the actors of Deyun Club have to work harder.
Market response and audience evaluation are important criteria for measuring the success of a work. "Wanchun Laughing Club" failed to get out of the circle and met the audience's expectations. However, it is not surprising that as a popular figure in the cross talk industry, the Deyun Club led by Guo Degang has few successful attempts in the film and television industry.
In today's market, audiences are demanding more and more from comedy and expect more realistic, natural performances rather than exaggerated or artificial. It is not only Deyun Club that is facing this problem, but also another well-known comedy group, Happy Twist.