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"Catching Dolls", starring Shen Teng and Ma Li of Happy Twist and directed by Yan Fei and Peng Damo, has been released for a week and has already taken the lead in both box office and screening (grossing over 1.3 billion in 5 days), and is considered to be the "rescue work" of the summer season.

Unlike the familiar Happy Twist works such as "Charlotte's Troubles", "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and "The Lone Moon", "Catching Dolls" is not a counter-attack movie with an imaginary setting. Although the film still continues the routine of Happy Twist to make use of identity dislocation and other contrasts to create jokes and gags, the audience's viewing experience is unlikely to stay at the level of "just laugh". Many people bluntly say that this is an "educational horror film".

"Catching Dolls" tells a story of "raising babies" in reverse. Rich parents "pretend to be poor" and, through extremely precise manipulation, practice the educational philosophy of "only those who endure hardship can become successful people", hoping to replicate their own path to success and raise their children into what they want.

Many reviews compare "Catch the Doll" with "The Truman Show", but the former only controls the children's lives, but cannot go further when the lies are exposed, and the questioning and criticism can only stop at a certain point. When the son Ma Jiye's real face overlaps with the poster image on the wall of the monitoring room, his grievances and anger all burst out, and his father Shen Teng can only follow behind with a dry laugh, chase awkwardly, and argue with specious arguments. But comedy cannot bear these emotions and cannot show the father and son turning against each other. This "cannot" just reflects the real life in East Asia: How can children have the heart to really blame their parents who "do it for your own good"? Go your own way with that little shadow of childhood, go home for dinner, and still be a neat and tidy family.

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

Written by Yibaqing

In the name of love:

The built world

In the movie, in order to train a rich second-generation to take over his own business, Ma Chenggang (played by Shen Teng) adopts the strategy of "raising in poverty" and creates a 24-hour immersive learning environment for his son Ma Jiye (played by Xiao Bochen in childhood) in the form of all NPCs (Non-Player Character, referring to non-player characters in the game).

The sick grandmother (played by Sarina) in the shabby room is Teacher Li, an education expert who wrote "Sending You a Great Filial Son"; the mother Chunlan (played by Ma Li) seems to be busy doing laundry and cooking, but there is a team behind the scenes to take care of everything; the foreigner "encountered" on the way to school is a foreign teacher who is here to practice oral English with Jiye (and the dialogue can only be based on the textbook); from math problems and piano music to calligraphy and physics knowledge, the "neighbors" who perform their duties are a whole team of famous teachers...

It is not entirely accurate to describe Ma Jiye's life as a Northeastern version of "The Truman Show", because his life arrangements were not for entertaining the public or being "watched", but had a clearer purpose and utilitarianism: to be admitted to the Department of Business Administration of Peking University and Tsinghua University, and to inherit the family business as a filial son with both good character and good academic performance.

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

In this constructed world of suffering, Ma Jiye's parents have two identities. As irresponsible actors, they keep a close eye on the grandparents who come to visit, to prevent them from revealing their wealthy identities, and secretly give money to their children. At the same time, they pretend to go out to work, but in fact they get in luxury cars and go to the villa to continue their short-term luxury. No matter how hard it is, they can't let themselves suffer. As spectators from a God's perspective, they can easily read their son's private diary and infer clues of his every move from it. They can also create difficulties even if there are no difficulties, and set moral tests for their son from time to time, and then check his reactions through the monitor to examine the effectiveness of education.

How could they bear it? It was in the name of love. The most typical scene is that Ma Jiye betrayed his father's trust and used the family's savings to buy a tablet computer. He wanted to return it after trying it for 7 days, but his father framed him and made it impossible to return the product. He had to pick up bottles to save money to pay for his trouble.

The father guided him to the football field and spent money to rent the field so that his son could dream of getting rich in the sea of ​​empty plastic bottles. The whole family chased each other with bottles. But behind this warm and happy scene, there was still the "good intention" of cultivating his son's entrepreneurial thinking, which was all an illusion and chilling. The cleaner in the real world saw this family and told the truth: "Without a little money, you can't even pick up bottles."

Chunlan, the mother, did resist when her son was looked down upon and even bullied by his classmates for picking up bottles, but after venting her anger, she was able to remain silent in front of the Hermès handbag presented by her husband. In the information gap of "you can do whatever you want if you have money", there are a lot of jokes, but also people feel the frustration of being played by the little Jiye who was kept in the dark but had clear eyes and "the children of the poor have to grow up early".

In "Rural China", sociologist Fei Xiaotong used the term "differential pattern of association" to describe the structure of social relations, referring to the fact that every household draws a circle with its own status as the center, and the size of this circle depends on the strength of the central power. "It's like the ripples that occur when a stone is thrown into the water. Everyone is the center of the circle of his social influence."

In the "Xihong City Universe", Ma Chenggang, with his invincible status as the richest man, that is, the financial resources and power behind him, has pushed this circle far and wide. Ma Jiye grew up like this day by day, until adolescence, even if he (played by Shi Pengyuan) had doubts in his heart, he could not attribute them. He could only ask emotionally in the political open class when the teacher talked about "matter determines consciousness", whether there are aliens or mysterious forces secretly controlling everything in fate.

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

The most ironic thing is that even this class was staged as part of the teacher evaluation and promotion. Although it was claimed that "the open class is just like any other day", in the warm classroom atmosphere, every student was assigned a line to raise their hands to answer questions. Only the outsider Ma Jiye changed his identity and became the only destroyer of this tacit understanding. When Ma Chenggang painstakingly built a "world around him" for his son, the seemingly normal people outside this world, even in the school, which is supposed to be a simple place for teaching and answering questions, are doing their best to perform their own drama in the pursuit of fame and fortune.

Standard children:

ObjectificationSuccessor

Psychologist Erich Fromm once said, “The opposite of education is control.” The saddest thing about Ma Chenggang’s drama is that Ma Jiye’s life was not allowed any other possibilities.

Even the long-distance running interest he discovered by chance was an unexpected gain from running 5 kilometers to and from school every day under the difficult education. As the successor of a multi-billionaire, in order to cut off Jiye's distracting thoughts, in the name of "for your own good", Ma Chenggang waved his hand and carefully designed a disease for his son that "cannot participate in competitive sports but does not affect his daily life", and paid a large sum of money to arrange for the girl who had a budding early love with his son to transfer to another school. As a result, there has been only one way to Huashan since ancient times. Out of a sense of guilt, Jiye's pastime after returning home has also become "I want to learn children's studies".

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

Apart from studying, nothing else matters. When Teacher Li, who played the role of a grandmother who had been bedridden for ten years, was seen playing basketball by Jiye, she was accidentally exposed and had to be forced to "go offline". At the funeral, only Jiye was truly sad, while everyone else was only concerned with how to play the role well and cover up the truth, and turned a deaf ear to his sobbing. To put it another way, even the source of Jiye's grief, those memories of his grandmother from childhood to adulthood, were all brainwashed by the pre-set bitterness of filial piety. As the accomplice of all this, it was the "chief education officer" Teacher Li who first revealed his true feelings, and could not help but "resurrect" to respond to the cry of the fake grandson. The biological parents were indifferent, and they just wanted to push Teacher Li away in a panic to avoid being exposed again.

After all, in the eyes of two successful businessmen, the focus of "catching dolls" is no longer on the last two words, but on "catching". What is caught is the successor's plan to succeed but not fail, which is also analyzed by experts, the physical and psychological data, speech, behavior and micro-expressions of the successor. All indicators are quantified by scores, so during the mock exams, parents repeatedly revealed the test papers like gamblers, anxiously and greedily, and were ecstatic at the rising scores.

After all, his son is just the final product of this standardized assembly line. Even his understanding, filial piety and firm belief that "knowledge changes destiny" that he is most proud of are traits that have been carefully selected and acquired through learning from his surroundings. If he can be admitted to Peking University or Tsinghua University, it will prove that Ma Chenggang's original decision was correct and put an end to his self-admiration over the years.

It was not until Ma Jiye left the college entrance examination early and used a blank paper to retaliate against his father that the absurdity and fantasy of the first hour of the movie finally became down-to-earth. The truth was revealed, trust was broken, and in the brightly lit basement where experts gathered, he asked his parents sadly and calmly, "There are no photos of you on the wall. Who are the two teachers?"

What's even more cruel is that Ma Chenggang never bowed his head until the last moment. "You think you are being manipulated, but aren't you also manipulating our lives? You are a lucky guy, and you are still wronged." He confidently sermonized the suffering he had endured in educating his son. Such a typical East Asian parent, it is difficult to admit mistakes, watching his son walk away, picking up the fatherly face and asking again "Will you come back for dinner tonight?" is the biggest concession. It seems that all the past can be written off.

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

"If you take it seriously, you will lose", the ending of the story returns to the family-friendly tone common in Happy Twist. Ma Jiye repeated his grade and got high scores but chose sports school. The high scores were cultivated by his father, and volunteering was his own choice. However, on the running track, he couldn't help picking up the empty plastic bottles thrown away by other team members. This somewhat cute and somewhat weird unintentional act was lightly described by his mother as "childhood shadow". Applying the setting of "The Lone Moon", perhaps only he in the parallel universe will understand that lucky people use childhood to heal their whole life, and unlucky people use their whole life to heal their childhood.

Wild Growth:

The Forgotten Dajun

In addition to the love-hate relationship between Ma Chenggang and Ma Jiye, the eldest son Ma Dajun (played by Zhang Zidong, born to Ma Chenggang and his ex-wife), who is not given much attention in "Catching Dolls", also has the cloak of "fools have good fortune", adding another meaningful side note to the film.

Ma Dajun is a "trash player" who is neglected by his father and mother. He has been living a life of luxury since childhood, so he scored 98 in the college entrance examination. He still did not achieve anything by studying abroad with his father's millions of school construction funds. Because he mistook the word "tu" in "老大徒伤悲" as "zou", he was heartbroken and tried to show his presence in front of his father, "Why can't it be the second brother who is sad?"

Stills from the movie "Catching Dolls".

When he appeared, he did not have a counterattack script of "taking back everything that belongs to me". On the contrary, he loved his half-brother who was obviously favored from the bottom of his heart. He did everything he could to trick Jiye, who was picking up bottles, into a hotel, just to make up an excuse to give his brother a bath and some money; when his brother disappeared during the college entrance examination, even his biological father suspected that he was the culprit behind the kidnapping, and only his stepmother defended him and said "Dajun would not do this", he still had no grudges afterwards, happily holding a banner that read "Never give up (abandon)", cheering for his brother on the sidelines of the sports field; even after seemingly turning evil, his goal of "reaching the top" was not to remove obstacles and inherit the family business, but to work out hard, silently implementing his father's words "go to the gym if you want to exercise", and literally climbed to the top of Mount Everest.

Funny? Not really. If Ma Jiye's counterattack by handing in a blank college entrance examination paper is "the favored are always fearless", Ma Dajun, on the other hand, killed the "the unattainable are always disturbing". He knew from the beginning that he was not the child who was supported by everyone, and he did try hard. After repeatedly not gaining his father's trust, he also shed tears of pain after his father's security guards pushed him to the ground to cover up his lie.

The moment he reached the top of Mount Everest, he shouted, "Old Ma, I don't need you to look up to me anymore" - Ma Chenggang told Dajun not to call him dad in public, and the name "Old Ma" became natural behind people's backs. The expectation of fatherly love eventually turned into the self-consistency of "a gentleman seeks within himself", and the helpless Adou still stumbled and grew up to be an adult that satisfied him. It is not easy to love yourself and others without caring about the eyes of others and without resentment.

How much hardship and self-adjustment is required? "Catching Dolls" has not been unfolded. This reminds me of this year's Hong Kong film "Diary of a Young Man", which also tells the story of a poor student brother and a good student brother. Under the polarized treatment of the tyrant father, the elder brother who did not graduate from elementary school fell to his death after the exam, casting an indelible shadow on this wealthy family. However, it is easy to die, but it is more difficult to live alone. Compared with Ma Jiye, who always shoulders the family mission, Ma Dajun, the prodigal son who has never been questioned, may be hiding the real thorny and untold East Asian growth path behind his heartless smile.

This article is exclusive original content. Author: Yibaqing; Editor: Hehua; Proofreader: Mu Xiangtong. The cover image is a still from the movie "Catching Dolls". You are welcome to forward it to your circle of friends. The end of the article contains an advertisement for the 2023 edition of "Beijing News·Book Review Weekly".

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