is it enough for a movie to just be a hot topic?
2024-09-19
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■our reporter li ting and trainee reporter zang yunjie
in the past mid-autumn festival, the national movie box office closed at 389 million yuan, with a total of 1.355 million screenings, setting a new record for the same period in chinese film history, but the average attendance rate was the lowest in the same period in the past decade. take "wish you happiness!" as an example, the attendance rate was only 3.5%. urging marriage, losing a single child, divorce cooling-off period, frozen embryos... this is a movie that brings together many hot search topics, coupled with the blessing of a group of acting actors, it was highly anticipated before the screening. the film's first day of scheduling was not bad, accounting for 17%, but the subsequent market trend was not optimistic, and the scheduling gradually declined. in the end, the three-day box office totaled 27.4 million yuan. coincidentally, many new films released during this year's mid-autumn festival, such as "wild child" and "determination to run away", are full of topics, which makes people think: is it enough for a movie to be topical?
can social topics trigger empathy?
"the film is called "wish you happiness!", but the actual plot is not so happy!" mr. liu wrote in his circle of friends after leaving the cinema. the film tells the story of a couple, luo yu and bai hui, who are in the cool-off period of divorce and are involved in a dispute over the ownership of embryos of an elderly person who has lost his only child. this brings out the struggles, perseverance and choices of three families. as the plot progresses, all kinds of unpredictable difficulties in life are shown one by one without concealment. family changes, marital disputes and the advent of accidents hit life like a storm.
the characters in the film have their own characteristics, and their experiences and choices are thought-provoking. xia meiyun, played by wu yue, was extremely struggling and painful when facing the cruel reality that her daughter became a vegetable. she even said by her daughter's bedside, "even mom has thought about giving up on you." her helplessness and despair were beyond words.
at the moment of divorce, bai hui, played by song jia, smiled and said to her husband, "i wish you happiness." she finally made this decision not because of despair about marriage, but because she was loyal to her heart. song jia said that at this moment she truly became a "big heroine", letting go of her emotions and choosing to pursue the life she wanted. while watching the movie, zhong chuxi deeply empathized with the scenes in the film. when luo yu, played by xiao yang, asked bai hui at the civil affairs bureau, "if you knew the result of the divorce, would you still choose to get married?" bai hui answered "yes", she said that her emotions were a little "unbearable", and she liked this attitude towards life that "seeing the unbearable result, but still having the courage to embrace feelings."
director kang bo admitted that he had also thought about what he would do if he encountered such impermanence in life, but he did not come up with an answer. "in the past, we lacked education about fertility, death, and pain." he hopes that after watching the movie, the audience will feel the energy inspired by the protagonists after experiencing trauma, and be inspired by the courage they convey. whether they choose to forget the past or go with the pain, they just need to find the answer to their own happiness. as the theme song of the movie sings, "don't be afraid, don't be afraid", and the slogan expresses, "because life is difficult, i wish you happiness."
it is undeniable that this type of narrative undoubtedly touches on many social issues and has its own topicality. various golden sentences about career difficulties, the loss of children in old age, childbirth trauma, etc. have emerged one after another, which also provides emotional value for the audience. however, the setting of too many topics has eliminated the credibility of the story. the evaluation of an audience member is quite representative: "it seems to be a bit of piling up suffering and forcing sadness. it doesn't feel deep, but only stays at the accumulation of numbers. the audience only gets one beautifully packaged slogan after another."
is being on the trending search list the magic weapon for success?
an in-depth analysis of the main new films of this year's mid-autumn festival shows that although their performance methods are different, they all have more or less hot search topics. "wild child" takes "de facto orphans" as the entry point, and reveals the living conditions of marginalized groups in society through the joint struggle of the two protagonists. "determination to run away" depicts delicate emotions and shows the tenacity and helplessness of individuals in the face of life's difficulties. even in the comedy "avengers", the protagonist is trapped in multiple tragic situations such as his disabled brother, relatives, emotional injuries, and betrothal gift storms. from the perspective of dramatic structure, their development context is quite similar-the beginning is introduced with hot topics, the parties involved show their own difficulties in the middle, and the ending is that they get out of the predicament and live a different life, which inevitably feels like posing.
once upon a time, topical films often achieved big success with small investment, and emerged as dark horses by virtue of their differentiated perception. examples include "dying to survive" with a box office of 3.1 billion yuan, "send you a little red flower" with a box office of 1.4 billion yuan, "the pancake man" with a box office of 1.1 billion yuan, "my sister" with a box office of 800 million yuan, and "go away! tumor king" with a box office of 500 million yuan. especially in the past two years, moderate "selling misery" on the screen seems to be able to arouse more empathy from the audience. among the top ten movies at the box office last year, "the vanishing girl" based on the "chinese pregnant woman falling off a cliff in thailand" as the prototype, "all or nothing" against telecommunications fraud, and "in the octagon cage" adapted from the "fighting orphans in liangshan, sichuan" incident all had obvious topic effects, attracting waves of movie-watching crazes. to the extent that how to create topics and get on hot searches once became the most important topic in movie marketing.
however, this "magic weapon" has somewhat failed in this year's mid-autumn festival. at present, what kind of movies can really impress the audience? in the fiercely competitive entertainment market, how can filmmakers find their own direction? this is a question facing film creators and practitioners. let's wait and see.
(source: wenhui daily)
