All along, in terms of movies, the appearance of Fan Peng Yuyan can still guarantee box office results. Thanks to his handsome and tangible appearance, not only has he captured the hearts of a group of female fans, but also Peng Yuyan's evaluation in front of a large number of male audiences is also well-known.
But this time his new film, The First Incense (2021), seems a bit mushy.
The film is adapted from Zhang Ailing's novella "The First Burning Incense", the film was released for nearly ten days, the box office performance was mediocre, not even 50 million, which is obviously not ideal in the context of the current billion. Not only that, in terms of evaluation, Douban's score of this "First Burning Incense" is only 5.5 points, and it has not passed.
I think that it is not the "pot" of the actor itself, the problem is probably in the casting, the temperament of the actor and the temperament of the character image in the original work are almost incompatible.
The 50-year-old Yu Feihong plays his aunt Mrs. Liang, Ma Sichun plays Ge Weilong, and Peng Yuyan plays Qiao Qiqiao.
Xu Anhua, who holds the red Andy Lau in one hand, is somewhat strange for the distribution of roles.
About Ge Weilong, Zhang Ailing's original novel is described like this -
Her face is plain and beautiful little convex face... The eyes are long and beautiful, and the double eyelids are deeply marked, sweeping straight into the sideburns. Slender nose, small fat mouth. Perhaps her facial expression is slightly lacking, but only because of this sluggishness, it shows the gentle and thick ancient Chinese mood - "Agarwood Crumbs • First Burning Incense"
Obviously, Ge Weilong's image, although not exquisite, is slender, a pure love girl with a classical Chinese temperament, and at the same time with some charm. However, Ma Sichun may be able to play some eccentric girls, but compared to this Ge Weilong, who has both a melancholy temperament and a sinking nature, it always feels as if something inside is missing.
In addition, I have to say that Ma Sichun's figure sometimes makes people feel how to be fat and thin, with broad shoulders, and hidden from time to time, which is so incompatible with Ge Weilong's "slenderness".
About Georgie Qiao, played by Peng Yuyan, the novel is described like this -
He was even bloodless than Zhou Jijie, and even his lips were pale, like plaster casts. Under the black pressed eyebrows and eyelashes, the eyes were like the wind blowing through the waseda field, sometimes revealing the blue light of the water under the rice, flashing and darkening again. Man is tall, and he is born well-proportioned, and his clothes are so obedient and casual that people forget the existence of his body. Compared with him, Lu Zhaolin seems to be much more stupid - "Agarwood Crumbs • First Burning Incense"
Admittedly, it can be seen that Peng Yuyan has made a lot of efforts in the process of shaping this role, and he has always been strong, and he has been thinner in the film, and the eyebrows and eyelashes of black pressure are also available to Peng Yuyan. But only one thing, the gloom and self-indulgence of Qiao Qiqiao's body seem to be unable to be performed by Peng Yuyan, who has always shown the image of sunshine. Asking Peng Yuyan to perform a kind of gloom? It's something I can't imagine.
In general, it may be that director Xu Anhua is trying to make a big adaptation of the original novel? Otherwise, in terms of respect for the original work, this movie is not qualified. The novel's "First Incense" is actually a pre-war Hong Kong version of "Madame Bovary", which is a kind of sinking and degeneration that Can Know But Cannot Introspect and Control when Ge Weilong faces desire. But this movie version of "First Incense" still makes people a little stunned.