Movie box office and word of mouth are sometimes linked, sometimes upside down.
For example, now a high-scoring movie released in China: Douban 8.4 open score, still stable at 8 points, released for 5 days, the schedule dropped to only about 2%, the daily box office has dropped to less than 900,000, so far the box office has not broken through ten million.
But this movie called "Auspicious Ruyi" is really good, so far, Douban more than 20,000 viewers have scored a high score of 8.1.
How good is it?
Director Guan Hu commented that the film is "a real force, can not be described in words, this film is not only your family, but also a work written for the whole of China."
Huang Bo said, "Seeing the fatalism of life in repeated refractions, I feel that I have a lot of momentum after reading it, and I have to go back and think about it."
Actor Zhang Yi gave a very high evaluation, saying that "Auspicious Ruyi" is "a landmark film in the history of Chinese cinema".
In the face of the heat of the spring festival stalls that are coming soon, this movie about how the Chinese people celebrate the New Year has been "quietly" released in advance, which is actually the most year-round movie.
"Auspicious Ruyi", just listening to the name has already smelled the taste of the year, and its goodness has been spread among the industry and fans as early as half a year ago.
In July last year, "Auspicious Ruyi" was shortlisted for the Golden Jubilee Award of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, and there were not many people who saw it, and word of mouth spread early in the morning, and the audience who came to see it even asked for tickets at a high price.
Some people say they even cry out of contact lenses.
The director, screenwriter, and star of this movie are all the same person: Dapeng.
That's right, Dapeng, Dong Chengpeng, is the Dapeng who made "Pancake Man" and "Sewing Machine Band", and the Dapeng that many people classify as making comedies. This time, his "Auspicious Ruyi" made many people cry.
In the early film reviews, the praise for "how to break through the narrative structure of traditional domestic films and how to carry out artistic experiments" accounted for most of the praise for "Auspicious Ruyi", if it were not for the name on the poster, it is difficult to imagine that this literary and profound film came from the hand of Dapeng, who is famous for vulgar comedy.
This time, Dapeng was impressive.
How could a director who makes a commercial film want to make such a film, and what kind of film is it?
In 2018, Dapeng made a 48-minute short film, "Auspicious", which tells the story of a Girl who drifted north to her hometown in northeast China for the New Year after the sudden death of an old man at home.
The film that won one of the best creative short films is the predecessor of "Auspicious Ruyi", which should be the first half to be precise.
"Auspicious Ruyi" describes a comedy director who returns to his hometown in the northeast and makes a movie about how the family celebrates the New Year. This play within a play is the short film "Auspicious". Dapeng's uniqueness lies in this, through deconstruction and then reshaping a "auspicious ruyi" that we see now.
Many people in the circle highly recommend this film, and zhang Yi mentioned earlier is one of them who is very excited.
After watching the premiere before, he commented that this is a god film, although the "god film" is inevitably too prestigious, but "I definitely regret not watching it, there has never been such a movie in the world" is indeed a direct expression of his love for this movie.
Dapeng, from the youngest 1 billion commercial director, has successfully transformed into a restrained and profound literary and art film director, with rave reviews, and everyone who watches it is envious.
However, the current "Auspicious Ruyi" is not the original intention of Dapeng shooting, and he does not even want the plot in the movie to happen in reality. Because at the beginning, he just wanted to shoot Grandma for the New Year, and initially, the name of the movie was "Grandma".
The story between the grandmother who stayed in the countryside to take care of his stupid son for a lifetime, and the niece who was pulled up by the grandmother, because the North Drift also bears the pressure of survival - Dapeng's original plan was actually to film the dialogue between the two generations of women in the form of a documentary.
However, when the crew arrived at Dapeng's hometown, Grandma suddenly fell seriously ill and fell into a coma.
Dapeng, who is under great pressure, smokes one cigarette after another, and is sad and painful, but if Providence is like this, then it must continue, and the New Year cannot let everyone be busy in vain.
Therefore, they immediately changed the shooting plan and turned the camera on Wang Jixiang, the third son of grandma who was mentally ill, that is, Dapeng's third uncle. What is shown is no longer the relationship between Grandma and her nephew Queen Qingli, played by Liu Lu, but the story of the third uncle and her daughter Lili, who has not returned home for ten years.
Just as the filming was on the right track, the accident came again, and the third uncle's daughter, the real Lili, returned.
In Dapeng's words, they were filming a providence, shooting whatever happened, completely unable to control the content.
Liu Lu said that they do not have a script and may carry or put down the camera at any time every day; at the same time, as the only professional actor, Liu Lu must spend most of his time on the scene and cannot repeat it.
The intertwining of true and false has triggered a series of conflicts and confrontations, outbreaks and reconciliations.
Some people may associate this film with the Japanese dark horse movie of 2017, "Camera Don't Stop!" In contrast, Dapeng's response to this is: "Auspicious Ruyi" was created in 2016, when the idea was the current structure, and there was no reference.
From 2016 to 2020, for four years, Dapeng has been working on the movie "Auspicious Ruyi". He turned on the computer several times to prepare editing, and a few times he cried and put it down, but he couldn't continue at all. His grandmother's death hit him so hard that he broke down and had to see a psychiatrist.
When the short film "Auspicious" won the award, Dapeng took the stage to deliver the acceptance speech, and finally he said: "This award is dedicated to my grandmother, I miss you very much." He looked up at the sky, but he didn't know why he was saying it.
Back at the hotel that night, Dapeng cried a lot.
He just wanted to shoot his grandmother, originally, Liu Lu wanted to play him, to show the deep feelings between him and his grandmother, but he made another film and won the award.
Dapeng was born poor from childhood, his mother was born with illness, in Dapeng's childhood memories, his parents ran all over the country to seek medical treatment, so he was raised by his grandmother.
He was cheated out of the family's hard-earned debut fees, worked as a disgraced coal watcher, applied for all the music positions in Beijing, and even if he was only a small temporary worker, he stayed up late to work overtime.
After 15 years of north drift, the poor boy who came out of the northeast town finally came out - he signed a contract with Sohu to debut, became Zhao Benshan's apprentice, hosted variety shows, from network dramas to movies - now, every time he returns to the village, there are children to take photos with him.
But the price is that he loses too much time with his loved ones. Because of the film "Sewing Machine Band", Dapeng could not see the last side of Grandma, and even did not say the sentence "Grandma I miss you so much".
Not everyone can analyze this film from an artistic point of view, but the strong resonance caused by the strong and simple feelings in it is really echoed in the chest of every audience: we see ourselves from the three uncles, grandmothers, and Dapeng in the movie, which is the emotional entanglement of thousands of traditional Chinese families.
The sincerity of art, the sincere art, the combination of these two is precious, and the movie "Auspicious Ruyi" has done it.
Some people may question: If there were no accidents, the originally planned "Grandma" would have been made into "Auspicious Ruyi", would there be today's achievements?
But this hypothesis never holds, and Providence allowed him to make "Auspicious Ruyi", and there was no other way to confirm another possibility. It is also worth it for a director to have the opportunity to make such a movie in his lifetime, not to mention that Dapeng is only 38 years old.
In an interview, Dapeng said that he had not crossed the hurdle in his heart until now, and the psychologist told him that he did not have the opportunity to really say goodbye to his grandmother.
Today's life, we are always busy surviving, and ignoring too many precious people and things, and now, as this annual reunion day approaches, this "Auspicious Ruyi" reminds us to re-examine our lives.
It is worth mentioning that this movie chooses an old song that most people in China are familiar with, "Often Go Home to See", the movie is actually as simple and warm as the lyrics in it:
Often go home to see, go home to see, even if it is to brush the chopsticks and wash the dishes for my mother.
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