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This article contains some spoilers, please read with caution.

Text/Moyin Beet

It has exceeded 6 billion yuan, and the answer sheet has been handed in nearly two-thirds of the summer season. Behind this not-so-impressive data, there is also the contribution value of a strong contender for the box office champion of this summer season, and that is "Catching Dolls".

As expected, the reunion of Shen Teng and Ma Li further saved the cold situation of this year's summer season. So far, the box office of the film has exceeded 1.7 billion, and professional box office forecasts have reached 3.5 billion. What is more reassuring is that its Douban score hovers around 7.5 points, which is a rare high-scoring comedy film of Happy Twist in recent years.

However, "Catching Dolls", which seemed to have relatively good box office and reputation, has sparked waves of public controversy.

Image source: Douban and Dengta Professional Edition

On the one hand, a social media comment suspected to be from director Lu Chuan was the first to set off the entire Internet.

"It is a cultural tragedy that Mahua's low-quality, highly alkaline comedies dominate the Chinese film market." On July 17, director Lu Chuan's comment on "Catching Dolls" on Toutiao immediately became a hot topic on Weibo. Afterwards, his studio came out and said that the account had been hacked, but soon after, Toutiao officially said that "the information of the mobile device used to log in, post, and delete posts are all the same," and was unwilling to take the blame for the platform's lax information security.

A straightforward boy spoke his true feelings, but due to the industry practice of people in the film and television industry praising each other, he had to "make up for it" a little bit, and his next statement was that the main creators were all good friends.

Image source: Weibo

This statement still stirs up a thousand waves. "Low-quality, highly alkaline comedy films" can almost be understood as comedy films with no nutritional value.The focus of this statement is that comedy films without values ​​but purely funny dominate the film market, which should be worthy of reflection in the cultural market.

On the other hand, the film has received similar reviews in the mass market, and the core controversy has intensified.Some people say that comedy films just need to be funny.However, many big Vs have commented that the core of "Catching Dolls" is a horror movie.It is a film about the protagonist's parents who deceived a child in all aspects for more than ten years, making the innocent childhood live in guilt. It is simply a "Chinese Cthulhu" film.

Such polarized comments easily remind people of the masters' definition of comedy.

Zhao Benshan said that a skit is enough to make people laugh, and that it is not the responsibility of a skit to have educational significance. However, on the other hand, Zhang Yimou's previous film "Three Shots Surprise" was criticized for its overly skit-like plot. It can be said thatA skit only needs to make people laugh, but the requirement for a movie is that it must have the tendency to convey values.

Stills from "Three Guns Surprise"

Even though the controversy over "Catch the Doll" continues, one indisputable fact is that in this summer season,The market needed this skit-style "Catching Dolls" to save the situation, and it did it.

no doubt,This market-saving film also repeatedly illustrates one thing: the people need to laugh heartily in the cinema.

01

The success of the top comedy

"Catching Dolls" is not a "Happy Twist" movie in the strict sense.

After the success of "Charlotte's Troubles" in 2015 and "The Richest Man in Xihong City" in 2018, the director duo Yan Fei and Peng Damo "went solo" and established Xihong City Pictures (Happy Twist holds a 15% stake). Xihong City Pictures is also the first producer of "Catching Dolls", and Happy Twist is only ranked fourth.

In a broad sense, whether it is the director duo Yan Fei and Peng Damo or the comedy duo Shen Teng and Ma Li, they are all the creative team of Happy Twist.This means that "Catching Dolls" is still a Happy Twist movie.

From this attribute point of view, we can at least look at "Catching Dolls" from two dimensions: Happy Twist and the director team of Yan Fei and Peng Damo.

Poster of "Catch the Doll"

Among the comedy creation groups that have entered the domestic film market, Happy Twist is undoubtedly the top one. Starting with "Charlotte's Troubles", Happy Twist has created many box office victories in the past ten years, but there have also been failed films such as "Li Cha's Aunt" and "Super Family". Overall, it has won more than it has lost.

Between success and failure, the market gave birth to the term "Teng content", and all the films in which Shen Teng and Ma Li appeared together on the screen have never failed.

This sequence includes "Charlotte's Troubles", "The Shameful Iron Fist", "The Lone Moon", and also "Catching Dolls". Therefore, from the very beginning, this movie has been expected to be an absolute blockbuster in the 2024 summer season - the film has 100% Tencent content, the screen CP of Shen Teng and Ma Li, and the comedy guarantee of Happy Twist.

From a narrow perspective, this is the third film released by comedians Yan Fei and Peng Damo. The first two were "Charlotte's Troubles" and "The Richest Man in Xihong City".

Stills from "Charlotte's Troubles"

In terms of story context, several movies continue with a strong fantasy setting. "Charlotte's Troubles" returns to high school and masters the skills to get rich. "The Richest Man in Xihong City" requires spending a huge sum of money in a short period of time, and in this "Catching Dolls", everyone has to hide it from one person and fake a "poor" family environment.

If I had to say one thing that is different,In terms of the story background, "Catching Dolls" is slowly approaching social reality., placing the issue of children's education, which everyone will encounter, into the movie. Whether it is "Charlotte's Troubles" or "The Richest Man in Xihong City", the settings are more fantasy.

Yan Fei and Peng Damo are well-known in the film industry for their attention to detail. They will repeatedly polish and optimize the story script, and have even been described as abnormal.Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)As far as we know, an independent filmmaker who won an award at the Golden Horse Film Festival withdrew from the collaboration because he could not stand Yan Fei and Peng Damo's long polishing of the plot. This also shows the concentration of these two directors from the opposite side.

Stills from "Catch the Doll"

There are many funny scenes in "Catching Dolls", but the most lifelike scene is when Ma Jieye drags his mother and grandmother to the snack buffet. This can be seen as the control of details by the creative CP Yan Fei and Peng Damo.

"Catch the Doll" became the first blockbuster to save the market in the summer of 2024. First of all, it is a complete success of a comedy. This success is still based on the bonus of Happy Twist comedy. In terms of brainless laughter,There is only one Happy Twist in the market, only one screen CP of Shen Teng and Ma Li, and only one creative combination of Yan Fei and Peng Damo. There is no other store.

02

"Funny" and "scary",

It's the same movie "Catch the Doll"

It should be pointed out that Happy Twist's films were not evaluated as "low-quality, highly alkaline comedy films" until "Catch the Dolls".There is a voice in the market that accuses it of relying on vulgar jokes and lacking value depth.There have also been criticisms about the value of Happy Twist's films.

For example, in "Charlotte's Troubles", some reviews do not agree with the ending. Charlotte is still a lazy and gluttonous girl who relies on Ma Dongmei, a good wife and mother. Charlotte has no character growth arc. In "The Shameful Iron Fist", quite a lot of jokes come from the relationship between men and women.

Stills from "The Shameful Iron Fist"

Similar criticisms of values ​​are even more extreme in the film "Catching Dolls".

This is because it is a realistic story. The movie describes a story in which a group of wealthy parents decided to raise their second son in poverty so that he would not continue to indulge in material things. In fact, this kind of poverty-stricken upbringing even exceeds the poverty of ordinary families.

existYiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)It seems that it is precisely because of the deep-rooted parenting concepts such as "children from poor families grow up early", "raise boys in poverty and girls in wealth", and "only those who endure hardship can become successful" that this film is full of controversy in terms of values.

On the one hand, all the jokes in "Catching Dolls" are based on Ma Jiye's living environment being disguised as a poor family without being exposed. This plot fills up almost four-fifths of the film and is the source of more than 90% of the comedy scenes. Even though this part is funny, some viewers still feel that the film's narrative is monotonous and the viewing experience is tiring.

The focus is on the reversal part in the last 30 minutes, which generally refers to a valuable section after the "introduction, development, turn and conclusion" of the movie. However, in the movie "Catching Dolls", there is still no sign of the value orientation of the directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo, or the creative team thinks this is not important.

Stills from "Catch the Doll"

Ma Jiye's experience in "Catching Dolls" first stems from the fact that his elder brother grew up in a wealthy family and indulged in material things. The movie first criticizes this parenting concept, and the film's attitude towards the "poor raising" parenting concept is unclear.

At the end, Ma Jiye realized his personal dream when he applied for the exam for the second time and was successfully enrolled in the sports major. This seems to be a recognition of the "poor upbringing" education, believing that after experiencing this kind of poor upbringing and frustration education, Ma Jiye finally found his own way, the so-called awakening of individual consciousness.

Then, the director made up for two easter eggs. One was that Ma Jiye checked the plastic bottle when he saw it, and the other was that the wealthy couple decided to get a "smaller one". This revealed that Ma Jiye's "work" was also a failure.

From a deeper perspective, it is difficult to find out whether "Catching Dolls" has a positive or negative attitude towards raising children in poverty and using frustration education.

In addition, the packaged world has also been compared with the classic work "The Truman Show", but the latter is a ruthless lashing out at the mass media packaging and influence on the world. This distinct value orientation is not seen at all in "Catch the Dolls", and this setting is more used to create jokes.

Image source: Internet

Therefore, in some harsh reviews, "Catching Dolls" was regarded as a Chinese horror film, in which a pair of parents deliberately deceived their son for more than ten years just so that their son could be admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University. The film is similar to some social realities such as "parents divorced after the college entrance examination", which is why the film was criticized for its expression of emotions and values.

03

The irony is that

Chinese films still need "Catching Dolls" to save the day

If there is no freedom to criticize, then praise is meaningless.

"It is a cultural tragedy that Mahua's low-quality, highly alkaline comedies dominate the Chinese film market." This statement, which was later deleted, proves that there is no room for criticism from peers in the film industry. This has been the "unspoken rule" of the industry.

Unlike "Catching Dolls" which was a huge success in the box office market, director Lu Chuan's new work "749 Bureau" has gone through 8 years of hard work to make money. This big production has been in preparation since 2016, started shooting in 2018, but was shelved in the middle and was still in post-production this year.

Poster of Bureau 749

I originally thought that "749 Bureau" would be released in the summer of this year, but unfortunately, there is still no release date information. Lu Chuan may have been inspired by this. Compared with the smooth sailing of "Catching Dolls", his new film is full of difficulties and obstacles.

The nearly eight years of preparation for Bureau 749 is a microcosm of the capital ebb in the film industry. Wuershan’s “Fengshen Series” was also prepared before this period.During this period of time, apart from the main theme movies, the number of Chinese blockbusters has visibly decreased.

Comedy movies, especially Happy Twist's comedy, have not been negatively affected by the industry environment.Even if the shackles of word of mouth are still exerting force, it will soon stand up again from the next movie.This undoubtedly made Lu Chuan, who has been "making industrialized films well", feel sad.

At the same time, Happy Twist's attributed films have also found a set of creative methodologies, that is, how to ensure the "Teng content", and even how to find a way to directly bring Shen Teng and Ma Li together. In the next movie, "Xihong City" can always be the carrier of the Shen-Ma universe and continue to roll.

Stills from "Catch the Doll"

This is undoubtedly gradually forming another potential shackle for the Chinese film market.

Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)In one article it was mentioned that "a bad start; some films are too old; whether the aesthetic demands of young people are understood; where to focus on emotional marketing this year". These are the problems encountered by the summer movie market this year. These concerns ultimately boil down to one thing: the market needs blockbusters to save it.

At present,The rescue blockbusters that the market expects often turn out to be not industrial blockbusters in the orthodox sense, but rather topical movies or skit-style comedy movies dominated by emotions. The only reason is that the creative team behind them has first-class appeal recognized by the market.

"Catching Dolls" is a typical market need, and it has also fulfilled its mission excellently.

Putting aside the core values ​​and spiritual core, from the perspective of the market alone, Chinese films still need "Catching Dolls" to save the market, which is determined by the current environment. The big screen needs laughter,Even a "low-quality, alkaline comedy" is a film that is in great demand.

In a sense,It is precisely because of the continuous success of "Catching Dolls" that more audiences can enter the theatersOnly users who have been trained to watch movies will go to see "749 Bureau" and "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century".

Stills from "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century"

This is the current situation of the film market. It lacks more attention than in the past, and any method that can attract attention will be recognized in the current market.

As for more experiments in the future of Chinese films, judging from this summer season, filmmakers have not stopped. More unconventional works such as "Under the Alien" and "Decryption" are being launched one after another, and "Catching Dolls" has created a good fortune., and the next brave ones need to show their strength to answer what will carry the next journey of the film market.

The comedy movie "Catching Dolls", created by China's top comedy team, has been subjected to harsh criticism that has risen to cultural significance, but has also been widely loved by ordinary audiences, as evidenced by its aggressive box office performance. The film's experience is telling the market that Chinese films need "Catching Dolls" and are far from the point where they no longer need "low-quality, alkaline comedy films like Mahua".