2024 summer comedy movie traffic code and localization strategy
2024-08-31
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
the movie "safe evacuation from the 21st century" presents a brand new form of comedy. the two-dimensional genes of the original comics are not only well inherited and transplanted into the movie, but also the narrative and audio-visual presentation of "hot-blooded excitement", "stalk culture" and nostalgic and fresh localized "chinese dream core" seem to be more important than the theme of "growth anxiety", forming a new aesthetic orientation in which "how to tell" takes precedence over "what to tell". the picture shows a still from the film.
cheng bo
comedy is one of the main carriers of the marketization, typification and even industrialization of contemporary chinese films. at the same time, because it touches on real-life issues and triggers discussions on self-media topics, the relationship between film and media has surpassed specific strategies such as short video promotion, and has entered the track of stimulating social issues and even integrating into the context of the times. this has led to the emergence of many hits in chinese comedy films in recent years, as well as many controversies.
whether it is comedy stars such as jia ling, shen teng, ma li, xu zheng, dapeng, or the "comedy universe" of happy twist and big bowl entertainment, in the process of borrowing remakes or genre integration, the localization strategy is prominent. in the inertial continuation and paradigm leap of "grassroots comedy", the combination of warm realism and comedy is also more conscious. this summer's works such as "catching dolls" and "reverse life" continue this trend. the emergence of such a new-look comedy work as "safe evacuation from the 21st century" seems to have more accurately connected the excitement points of young audiences in a new form, becoming a new result of the combination of youth subculture, two-dimensional culture and comedy movies.
since the new century, "grassroots comedies" represented by "crazy stone" have appeared in clusters, making "grassroots" replace the "jokes" of traditional feng's new year comedies and become the "traffic code" of domestic comedy films. the civilian nature of the protagonists of comedy movies in terms of social class is analogically linked to the "defects" of comedy characters as described by aristotle and the relative position of the audience's "looking down" on them. of course, with the uneven quality of works, in the constant copying and imitation, "grassroots" is also constantly being generalized, consumed and even distorted, and "the superposition of suffering" has once become a "cliché" from "sadness" to "joy".
however, following this clue, some excellent works such as "the piano in a factory", "dying to survive" and "miracle stupid kid" later combined comedy and realism better, showing the characteristics of the fusion of "tragicomedy" and "social problem drama". in a sense, the summer season "retrograde life" may be the latest achievement under this strategy. moreover, the "personality" of the protagonist from a workplace elite to a deliveryman is also conducive to creating a dislocated comedy scene and adding a touch of novelty. overall, the quality of the work is quite satisfactory, and the spatial environment of the city, family, and workplace, as well as the group portrait of the deliveryman, all have highlights. unfortunately, "retrograde life" seems to be somewhat lacking in the courage and ability to "leap forward in the paradigm": not only are the characters, events, and situations in the comfort zone of the traditional "grassroots comedy", but the theme and value communication also seem a bit stiff and even preachy, so the flesh and blood of the natural and real urban civilian class seems vague, and the emotional resonance expected by the work is not so real in the audience.
on the surface, "catching dolls" also looks like a "grassroots" show, but such grassroots is disguised and illusory, even a kind of "game play" and "reality show". in order to better train and train his son, the rich man who came from a grassroots background deliberately disguised his family life environment as a commoner's courtyard. family members, neighbors, and friends are all roles arranged to make "poor children grow up early". the hypothetical situational technique of "happy twist" comedy is continued here, and the "grassroots" traffic code replaces the realistic life logic with a non-realistic game logic.
if "reverse life" is a realistic description of class decline and situational dislocation, its shortcomings may lie in the imperfection of realistic logic and the lack of flesh and blood in reality. "catching dolls" deliberately distances itself from realistic logic, dealing with the situation of class inversion under the premise of playfulness, and precisely suspending and avoiding the risks that realistic logic may bring. therefore, on the one hand, it is not more constrained by the "grassroots", and on the other hand, it receives the comedy bonus of the "grassroots".
we should also note that "catching dolls" has also put a lot of thought into combining the comedy model with localized innovation. "hot and spicy" in the spring festival file is a remake that handles the localization issue well. even jia ling's "weight loss" is a very effective means of localization and personalization compared to the original work "love for 100 yuan". although "catching dolls" is not a remake, it has found effective comedy methods such as "ma peter" in reference and mixing, and in cross-cultural translation, which are not very "high-end" but not vulgar. it is appreciated by both the refined and the vulgar, and it is equally important to "give directly" and "meaning", and it must conform to the aesthetic habits of chinese audiences. this may also be a traffic code. in this sense, whether it is the "hot and spicy mode" or the "happy twist mode", as long as the audience is willing to pay for the work, the localization strategy is implemented relatively successfully. otherwise, it is a simple patchwork and stereotyped work that is not digestible and does not adapt to the local environment.
comedy is a type of film that relies more on the performance of actors, so comedy stars with excellent acting skills and audience appeal are a very obvious traffic code. on the one hand, popular traffic stars turn to comedy, such as fan chengcheng in "great night" and "flying life 2", wang yibo in "hot", and zhang ruoyun in "safe evacuation from the 21st century"; on the other hand, traffic actors in other comedy fields such as crosstalk, talk shows, sketches, etc. turn to movies, such as yue yunpeng, li xueqin, and the cast of the "annual comedy competition". more important may be the so-called "teng content" problem, that is, how veteran comedians like shen teng, who are loved by the audience, can integrate their charm with movies. in the field of comedy movies, some actors work hard and love comedy, but they lack "chemical reaction" with their works and the audience, so the phenomenon of "thankless" seems to have become a kind of "metaphysics". because of this, those comedy stars that the audience still likes now should cherish their feathers, not simply pursue quantity, but should help good comedy movies under the principle of quality first.
"genre fusion" is another kind of "paradigm leap", and it can also be called a traffic code. sports, youth, fantasy, suspense, horror, and even meta-films with obvious authorial characteristics (such as "stories of yong'an town" and "cosmic exploration editorial department") have become outsiders in the development of contemporary chinese comedy films in recent years. compared with a single comedy, this may expand the potential audience of the film on the one hand, and it is also an innovation that keeps pace with the times on the other.
several years ago, li yang's "the adventures of li xianji" combined fantasy, youth and comedy on the platform of "comic-adapted live-action movies" and achieved good reputation. this year's summer movie "safe evacuation from the 21st century" presents a new form of comedy. the two-dimensional genes of the original comics have not only been well inherited and transplanted into the movie, but also the narrative and audio-visual presentation of "hot-blooded refreshing feeling", "stalk culture" and nostalgic and fresh localized "chinese dream core" seem to be more important than the theme of "growth anxiety", forming a new aesthetic orientation of "how to tell" taking precedence over "what to tell". three teenagers at the end of the last century, in the excitement and anxiety of the upcoming millennium, traveled to the future one by one or more people, just like different players with different perspectives, restarting the game tasks again and again. the timeline like a mobius strip, they don't want to become worse when they grow up, which is very "middle school", but it's like a fairy tale of adults missing their youth.
an interesting situation is that many viewers, especially young viewers, said that the viewing experience of "safe escape from the 21st century" was great, hilarious and exciting. although there seems to be nothing to say about the so-called "aftertaste" after leaving the theater, if you are asked to watch it again, you seem to be willing to do so. this feeling is a bit like playing games or watching game live broadcasts. "it's exciting at the moment, but there is little aftertaste, but you want to watch it again." these three things are difficult to satisfy at the same time in previous comedy movies. this may be a manifestation of the existence of a new "mysterious" comedy traffic code.
there is another phenomenon in this summer's comedy movies that is particularly worthy of attention - of course, it does not only appear in comedy movies, and it is not even just about movies, but in the broader social and cultural field, that is: the "joy" of comedy, which originally requires a more relaxed mentality and context to face, often causes "anger" in the media environment. controversy about comedy often goes beyond the reasonable boundaries of praise and criticism, and becomes a "over-the-top" battle of words. this in turn makes the creators and marketers of comedy appear trembling with fear, as if they are afraid of touching sensitive nerves that will be tightened at any time, triggering hot searches and public opinion, and thus backfire on the reputation or box office of the work. this is the case with the "weight loss" and "female" topics of the spring festival movie "hot and spicy", and the "poor" or "rich" topics of this summer's "catching dolls" and "reverse life", and the "innovation" or "nonsense" analysis of "safe escape from the 21st century". not to mention whether there are ulterior motives of "cognitive warfare" behind this, even if there are not, such a distorted media environment seems to hide a heavy, negative traffic code or traffic black hole, which is harmful to the healthy development of film art or the market.
(the author is the executive dean of shanghai vancouver film school, professor and vice dean of shanghai film academy)
>>>specially published by shanghai literature and art criticism special fund
(source: wenhui daily)
