As of July 24, the box office of the comedy movie "Catching Dolls" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li has exceeded 1.8 billion yuan, temporarily ranking first in the box office list of the summer of 2024. Maoyan Professional Edition predicts that the total box office of the film in the mainland is expected to exceed 3.3 billion yuan.
As one of the "seed players" in the summer of 2024, "Catching the Doll" has attracted much attention since it was finalized. The film is directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo, written by Peng Damo, Yan Fei, and Lin Bingbao, and starring Shen Teng, Ma Li, Shi Pengyuan, Sarina, Xiao Bochen, etc. The film uses humor and witty ways to tell the absurd story of a couple raising a baby in reverse. Recently, directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo were interviewed by "Variety" to share the behind-the-scenes creation story of the film.
The story has been polished for ten years
Inspired by social journalism
The protagonists of the film, Ma Chenggang (played by Shen Teng) and Chunlan (played by Ma Li), have a considerable net worth, but they have difficulties in their children's education. Ma Chenggang saw that his eldest son Ma Dajun was profligate and unlearned, so he decided to conduct a "reverse education" for his younger son Ma Jiye. The couple took the young Ma Jiye back to the old home where Ma Chenggang grew up in his childhood, and they concealed the fact that the family was wealthy, trying to cultivate the child's hard-working and hard-working character. As his son Ma Jiye (played by Shi Pengyuan) grows up day by day, he gradually realizes that he is actually in a "life" that has been arranged for a long time......
The film is the third feature-length comedy film cooperated by Yan Fei and Peng Damo after the movies "Charlotte Troubles" and "The Richest Man in Xihong City", and it is also the latest work in the ten years since the birth of Xihong IP. Yan Fei and Peng Damo introduced that after filming "Charlotte's Troubles", the two began to prepare for this film. The original inspiration came from a radio news story I heard many years ago: a family had been "poor" raising their children, and the children were not told that the family was particularly privileged until they graduated from college. Yan Fei and Peng Damo find this news particularly interesting and full of joy, which is very suitable for making a comedy.
The script of Yan Fei's "Catching the Doll" has gone through a long development process, and the biggest difficulty is that the main creators did not have the experience of cultivating children at that time. "I haven't been able to get the story out for years. Today, our children are all 10 years old. In this process, we have accumulated a lot of creative materials and evidence. Yan Fei said, "Three films in ten years, during which I have gone through three stages of my life - youth, standing, and being a father. Time brings a sense of life and stimulates our desire to express it. ”
From "Charlotte's Troubles" to "Catching Dolls", Yan Fei and Peng Damo have always been tacit partners. There is no clear division of labor between the two of them, and their work is basically synchronized, "When creating a certain bridge, whoever feels more deeply will write first, and then discuss and revise together." Yan Fei said.
The exterior of the film was filmed in Qingdao, in order to highlight the story background of the protagonist's family with "four walls", the art team has renovated the courtyard in the film three times in different years to reflect the different growth environments of Ma Jiye. "The renovation work should take into account the actors' schedules, seasonal changes and plot requirements, and the requirements for the art team are very high." Yan Fei said.
"Shen Ma Combination" has a high degree of adaptability
From stage plays, to Spring Festival Gala sketches, to the big screen, Shen Teng and Ma Li have been partners for many years, and the audience popularity is increasing day by day. In "Catching the Doll", the "Shen Ma Combination" plays a pair of wealthy businessman parents who pretend to be poor for the sake of chicken babies, and the two intensively create jokes between the dislocation of being rich in fact and pretending to be poor. Some netizens commented, "Their chemistry and comedy baggage are simply natural." ”
The two directors Peng Damo revealed that they originally wanted Shen Teng to play his eldest son Ma Dajun; Later, Shen Teng became a father, and his appearance and mentality were more qualified for the role of his father Ma Chenggang. Talking about cooperating with Shen Teng and Ma Li again, Yan Fei and Peng Damo sighed, "In the past ten years, everyone has a family and children, and the experience and perception of life are very different from before. This experience will help the actor portray the parent character more accurately. ”
Ma Li said that playing her mother Chunlan this time is "both familiar and challenging." She shared, "I'm also a mom and have a natural familiarity with the role of mother. But Chunlan's character is different from mine, on the one hand, she is a little entangled in the matter of raising a poor son; On the other hand, I hope that he will become a talent, and this role is very complicated. It was a challenge for me to show her cuteness on top of the complex undertones. ”
For comedy performances, it is important to create a second time on set. Shen Teng and Ma Li had a lot of improvisations on the filming site of "Catching the Doll". For example, in the scene of grandma's fake funeral, as soon as his son turned around, Ma Chenggang pretended to cry very sadly; Then, Ma Chenggang hugged his son, and his eyes showed guilt and distress. "I didn't expect Brother Teng to handle this scene so layered." Peng Damo said.
Young actor Shi Pengyuan tried his first hand at comedy acting, playing his grown up son "Ma Jiye" in the film. "Ma Jiye is like living in a huge scripted killing game, surrounded by NPCs (non-player characters, tool people). The moment he discovers the truth, the psychology of the characters is complex and tangled. How should he face his grandmother and parents? How do you accept the world you live in? For me, it's more difficult to deduce. Shi Pengyuan said with a smile that the other actors got all comedy scripts, and only he got the suspense scripts.
Xiao Bochen, the actor of the childhood Ma Jiye, is also impressive. According to the director, Xiao Bochen stood out from more than 1,000 children of the same age who have a foundation in acting across the country, "Xiao Bochen has an excellent performance in "The Glory of the Fathers", and he has a very high match with Pony Jiye. His performances are smart and natural, with a natural sense of humor. ”
The topic of education provokes thought
"Catching the Doll" satirizes the educational issues behind "Jackie Chan" in a witty way. At the end of the film, Ma Jiye's "anti-killing" and "awakening" after completing his studies interpreted the core theme of "refusing to be kidnapped", which resonated with the audience.
Actor Shen Teng said that people of different ages can get different feelings in the film. "As an elder, you may think about your own problems in family education through the content mapped in the video, so as to understand your children better; From a child's point of view, it may be better to understand the difficulties of parents - although parents are not necessarily right, they are really attentive. ”
In Yan Fei and Peng Damo's view, parenting anxiety is human nature, and they don't want to portray anyone in the film as a "villain". Therefore, the main creative team designed the ending of the child's reconciliation with his parents, as well as Ma Chenggang's line - "You think we have controlled your life, but why don't you control our life?" ”
Talking about the theme of the film, both directors said, "In the film, Ma Chenggang and his wife's mentality of hoping for their children to become Jackie Chan and education from the doll is easy to resonate with both parents and children. It is difficult to define the mutual influence of parents and children on each other's lives. On the one hand, children should understand the good intentions of their parents when they grow up independently and make life choices. On the other hand, parents should grasp the scale of their children's life planning and be wary of bondage and kidnapping in the name of love. ”
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