Author: Li Xiaotian
Spring Festival is still suitable for watching comedies, today let's talk about the absurd comedy "Surging Crowds" and Rao Xiaozhi in the Spring Festival file.
First, some postures that you deserve to rise
Comedy, divided into many kinds.
The most common is traditional comedy, which is interspersed with a series of humorous and funny bridges in addition to the main story, relying on humorous actions and witty lines to promote the plot, and the early representatives of this comedy are Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The representative character in Chinese films is Feng Xiaogang, but Feng's comedy no longer relies on body movements, but more on the dramatic tension of the lines to increase the humor of the film.
Secondly, hilarious comedy, also known as nonsense comedy. The characteristic of this type of comedy is that the creators focus on how to be funny, and in order to be funny, even if the plot is contrary. The representative of this convenience is Kim Carey in Hollywood, Stephen Chow in Hong Kong, and Happy Twist and Xu Zheng in the mainland.
Again, action comedy, this does not need to be said more, Jackie Chan movies are typical. This category is to fully expand the traditional comedy to express the comedy conflict site by body movements to achieve a hilarious effect, and the bean series of comedies also belongs to this genre.
Also, satirical comedy, this type of film, is the use of comedy shell, to package a social theme, referring to mulberry scolding, comedy shell often has a sad theme behind it. In this regard, the early Chaplin was very good at it, such as "The Great Dictator", "Gold Rush", and "City Lights" are typical. As for the discourse circle, Zhou Xingchi's comedy "Domestic Lingling Paint" and "King of Comedy" are also typical. As for mainland films, due to the general environment, this type of film, the overall performance is poor, and the decent ones are "Donkey Got Water" and "Wasteland Chronicles", which must also be made with the help of the Republic of China period.
Then there is romantic comedy, most of these romance films, compared with hilarious comedies, belong to light comedies, such as Feng Xiaogang's "Do Not Disturb" is typical, and other "Beijing Meets Seattle", "33 Days of Lost Love", "Love Saint" are quite good. However, in this genre, it is easy to make bad films, not much to say.
Finally, it is absurd comedy, also called black humor, it pays attention to anti-routine, it is often not funny for funny, but with a well-designed plot, through a strong story conflict to reflect the inherent humor, this comedy way often uses unconventional, anti-routine ways to break the conventional situation, the story is told ingenuity. Typical films like "A Fish Named Wanda", "The Killer Has No Holiday", and Hong Kong's "Buy Murder Shooter". The mainland originally Ning Hao did a good job, "Crazy Stone" and "Crazy Racing", both made a very good start, but then "Crazy Alien" lost its taste and became a hilarious comedy, and Ning Hao was lost.
The above several comedy methods, which I have summarized by hand, are not rigorous and not necessarily right, and welcome criticism. Besides, many movies now tend to break boundaries and add multiple elements to the same film, a single genre is almost non-existent, and many films seem to be placed in this genre, and it makes sense to put another type.
It should be said that Chinese comedy is still in its infancy, which leaves an opportunity for people who work hard to make films, and they can quickly prove themselves.
Through two "Wolf Warriors", Wu Jing confirmed his first person in a Chinese military action film. Guo Fan used a "Wandering Earth" to sit on the best director of Chinese science fiction film directors. Xu Zheng also established his own status by relying on a "Tai 囧".
Compared with the above-mentioned directors who shot the blockbuster, Rao Xiaozhi officially announced his position as the top of the "absurd comedy" through three films.
However, it was all in time and it was not too late at all.
Second, Rao Xiaozhi has risen steadily with strength
Rao Xiaozhi, who mixed in stage plays in his early years, directed "Hello, Robbery! "Hello, maniac! "Carry Love to the End", "Salted Egg", "Fool", "Northeast Past", "Left Ear" and a series of wonderful dramas, and won the Best Director Award at the Ninth Chinese Drama Golden Lion Award, and the strength was fully confirmed.
After turning to the film market, Rao Xiaozhi's footsteps are very stable, step by step, not relying on blockbusters, not relying on luck, all relying on strength.
Rao Xiaozhi's first film was "Hello, Crazy! , in 2016. It's a stage-proven script that just brought it to the big screen.
This is a story like "Fatal ID", which tells the story of 7 normal people who do not know each other and are inexplicably locked up in a madhouse, and in order to escape these seven people, they have worked hard to escape, resulting in a series of ironic conflicts. 7 normal people are locked up together, this is very abnormal, very unconventional. However, in the end, it was found that they were actually the same person, and they were 6 personalities split off from one person.
The story is very simple, but peeling the onion like layer by layer, it is still very enjoyable.
Solid script, coupled with good acting skills. Hello, Maniac! Although it did not become a blockbuster, compared with the extremely low cost, the final result was still eye-catching, becoming one of the surprises in the film market that year.
Rao Xiaozhi, taking this step, is very steady and has also made a good start. Moreover, the cooperation between him and Wan Qian also got an excellent run-in, laying the foundation for the subsequent cooperation again. Wan Qian's wonderful performance in "CrowdEd" has a lot to do with this.
Then in 2018, in the november slot of the non-golden slot, "The Unknown Generation" turned out. There is still little movement before the release, and the coffee spots in the film are not enough, and it seems that there is not much market to sell. However, with its super reputation, "The Unknown Generation" successfully achieved a counterattack, winning 794 million box office in one fell swoop, becoming a group of uncompromising dark horses. By the way, Zhang Yu and Ren Suxi were completely red.
Rao Xiaozhi, also because of "The Unknown Generation", has completely gained a foothold, has more resources to dominate, and go to the more mainstream market center to compete.
As a result, we saw "Surging Crowds", and it was a fiercely competitive Spring Festival stall.
As a film that was scheduled for the Spring Festival early, "Surging Crowds" is obviously very confident in its own quality. The answer given by the market also confirms this.
In the douban reputation that has been released, the scoring ranking of "Surging Crowds" ranks second, far above the popular films such as "Detective Chinatown 3", "Assassination of a Novelist", "Samurai Order" and so on.
It is said that the films with a Douban score of more than 7.5 can be classified as masterpieces, and "Surging Crowds" has obviously done it. Congratulations!
Look at the Douban netizens scored, the praise continued.
What is more important to know is that the battle for Spring Festival movies does not lie in how the first and second days of filming are made, after all, after several years of competition in the Spring Festival file, the market has matured. The amount of ranking in the first two days is largely related to whether marketing and publicity are done well or not. After the third year of the first year, the word-of-mouth effect began to ferment, and the role of simple propaganda was rapidly decreasing, and the good and bad word-of-mouth began to really show its effect.
In the 2018 Spring Festival file, under the promotion of marketing at the beginning stage, the best momentum was "To Catch a Demon", followed by "Detective Chinatown 2". As a result, the real winner in the end was "Operation Red Sea", which was initially leading the film and lagging behind, and finally counterattacked with a dark horse momentum.
In the 2019 Spring Festival file, also under the role of marketing, the most scheduled films are "Crazy Alien" and "The King of New Comedy", but in the end, it is "The Wandering Earth" that counterattacks with word of mouth.
The 2020 Spring Festival stalls have nothing to talk about, because the epidemic has stopped.
In the Spring Festival of 2021, the best start this time is "Detective Chinatown 3" and "Hello, Li Huanying", but the reputation of "Tang Detective 3" began to pull the crotch only one day after its release, and the word-of-mouth effect of "Surging Crowds" will inevitably cause fermentation.
So, the end result, is that "Crowds Emerge" will become the next "Red Sea Operation" or "The Wandering Earth"?
In any case, Rao Xiaozhi, after this battle of the Spring Festival file, has successfully promoted to the front-line director, and has sat firmly in the top position of "absurd comedy".
Third, the shell and core of "The Crowd"
From "Hello, Maniac! From "The Unknown Generation" to "The Crowd", each one is absurd, and it is full of humor and sharpness, which is very enduring.
The introduction of "Surging Crowds" says that the top killer Zhou Quan (played by Andy Lau) and the lonely group actor Chen Xiaomeng (played by Xiao Yang) exchanged identities in an accident. In the process of falling to the bottom, the killer re-examines love and life; the group actor completely reshapes his life in the process of impersonating the killer. The absurdity that the two people have experienced together, there are jokes, and there is even more blood boiling.
The story of exchanging lives seems to be a science fiction film, or a magic film, but "Surging Crowds" is unusual, neither science fiction nor magic, it is a real reality theme, relying on an accident.
In a word: a tragicomedy triggered by a piece of soap in the men's bathroom.
Specifically, it was a first-class killer who stepped on a piece of soap in the bathroom and fell to the ground and lost his memory. At the same time, a mass actor picked up the key to the killer's clothes cabinet, then disguised himself as a killer and lived a life of wealth. The killer, because of his amnesia, treated himself as a young actor based on his name and address on the credit card bill. The identities of the two people are switched.
For the killer, he wants to find his identity through clues, but all the information of the young actor is not correct. I can only think of myself as a mass actor and grope to live. In this process, he showed first-class planning and coordination ability, and began the counterattack path of a dick. From the point of view of an extra actor, his performance is quite inspirational. Even, in the process, he also met love.
For the real little actor, he entered the killer's house according to the key and the information in the killer's wallet and began to live a rich man's life. But when he discovers that the killer's target is an unarmed woman, he strongly arouses his good nature and wants to help the target of the assassination and let him take the opportunity to get out of danger.
After that, a series of conflicts and confusions, the situation gradually became out of control, but also full of many jokes.
However, the core of the story is still very simple, that is, how the lost person finds himself.
The city's reverse journey, the little dick silk can not see the future, can not see the direction, life has no landing, lonely. whereas
Well-dressed people, without love, without families, live alone. Whether it is a lack of money, or a rich person, the general unhappiness, are somewhat lost, this state, director Rao Xiaozhi did a good job.
Behind the absurd comedy, it must be the reproduction of the real social state, how the balance between the shell and the core, the form and the god, and the dynamic is skillfully grasped and then expressed in an absurd way, which requires a very clever setting. Overall, Rao Xiaozhi did a good job.
Hindered by the national conditions, in the setting of the story, "Surging Crowds" is not as exquisite as the original Japanese version of "The Method of Stealing Keys", and it also lacks a little sharp edge, but in the excavation of the state of the characters, Rao Xiaozhi still did it. Xiao Yang and Andy Lau are still very powerful in their respective role images, and they have achieved both form and god.
In the next few days, it will be up to you to see if "Surging Crowds" can really fight back. Such a good reputation, the cinema schedule should also rise.
In any case, Rao Xiaozhi has risen, and this is the biggest surprise.
Finally, it must be said that the good reputation of "Surging Crowds" is seriously asymmetrical with the current scheduling in movie theaters.
A good film must be seen by more people. Finally, I call for the cinema to add some scheduling so that people who like it can really see it.
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)