"Charlotte Troubles" is very much like a combination of several commercially successful films this year - it follows the traversal cloak of "Return to Twenty", inherits the old song sentiment in "Hong Kong", and "speaks for Dick" in a self-deprecating and self-black way like "Pancake Man". But it is better than these films in all aspects - its crossing is more absurd than "Return to Twenty", and its core method lies in the subversive "destruction of childhood", rather than losing ground between warm pulse and laughter and anger;
Its frequent classic repertoire is more in the service of narrative, whether it is tribute or subversion, behind which there are characters' situation and mentality support, not flowing into the pile of peddling feelings; its attitude towards Di Si or Loser is more real than "Pancake Man", which essentially sells the success of "having money and having everything, failure will lose life", "Xia" is at least sincerely appeasing tens of millions of di si and more ordinary people who are willing to think of themselves as di si, what you have is what you deserve, don't do that" He dreams of climbing the dragon and cherishing the people in front of him is happiness.
"Charlotte Troubles" is probably the most hilarious comedy of the year, compared to more of its kind that has moved a lot of comedy elements but can only make people laugh, it has made a lot of effort to trigger people's laughter, thanks to the director who has been immersed in the theater for many years has a more subtle grasp of the audience's grasp, but also thanks to Shen Teng's gradually self-contained comedic thinking. In many cases, people are not watching Charlotte, but more like Hao Jian on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala. The overall temperament of "Xia" is also closer to the long-cherished spring festival gala high-quality sketches.
It should be emphasized that the sketch is not equal to the dense paragraphs in most domestic comedies now, which are the word arrangement combination game of popular words and playful words on the Internet, while the sketches need to rely on the construction of dramatic conflicts that conform to the principles of comedy, as well as the performance of the actors in place.
But this also leads directly to the biggest problem of the film - although it uses enough and effective baggage to ensure the continuous laughter in the theater, but it also makes the overall logic of the whole film appear distorted due to the excessive attention to the amusing and funny of each detail. The core conflict of "Charlotte Troubles" is to solve Charlotte's life crisis (and whether it is middle-aged or not seems to have little to do with it), but if you remove the part of the dream crossing that did not actually happen (and the part with the most concentrated distribution of sketch-style baggage), you will find that in fact, no problems have been solved, nothing has changed.
The only thing that has changed is that Charlotte has changed from dissatisfaction and unwillingness with her own uselessness to a triumph in the spirit of A Q. Charlotte, a man who had achieved nothing, continued to achieve nothing, and in his dreams his situation improved not because he became a better person, but deliberately made others worse. Even in his dream, he regained his love for his wife, most of which had to be attributed to his real-life memories. That is to say, after people have laughed and enjoyed, they will find that the plot that occupies most of the film has no other meaning than amusing, and the emotions and psychology of the characters are completely divorced from the logic of reality, even the paragraphs in the dream are difficult to justify themselves. The same is the use of fantasy surreal techniques to assume a "if it is repeated" story, Hollywood's "Groundhog Day" more than 20 years ago can form a contrast, the latter's set of the same absurd and bizarre, people can't help but be funny, but the character's personality and mentality change can touch people's hearts in the absurd background, relying on the nature of people who are universal.
In addition, "Xia" supports a worrying way of thinking and values: because he has no love, he asserts that love is all vain; because he has achieved nothing, he believes that ideals do not need to be pursued; because he cannot catch the goddess, he imagines that beautiful girls are bitches; because he is a Loser, he advises all dicks to live this life on their own. To sum it up in one sentence – if you can't change the world, then change your heart, and it's enough to be content with what you have.
So, in this regard, Charlotte Troubles is still essentially no different from most of the movies of our time, and it is a commodity that has been assembled and synthesized with careful consideration. The difference is nothing more than that some goods peddle idols, labels, and SELL IP, and some products appeal to feelings, make you cry, or make people laugh.
"Summer" pours all its wisdom into the nerves of how to effectively dispatch people to laugh, and it has done quite well, but after laughing, it may only be a slightly empty skeleton and a rapidly blurred memory. Like "Back to Twenty", it uses a set of stylized plots to sell people a truth that is not uncommon in chicken soup texts; like "Hong Kong 囧", it uses a batch of songs that are enough to be nostalgic to deconstruct the symbolized midlife crisis; like "Pancake Man", the gesture of endorsing Di Si is only hoping that Di Si can pay more money to buy it, but its unreliable attitude and orientation still betray it, and it still lacks basic sincerity in really paying attention to the troubles and sufferings of Di Si.