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after experiencing the fifth and sixth generations, chinese films have entered an era that cannot be divided by generation. the individuality of film directors is infinitely magnified. they are all so different that they cannot be classified or summarized, so that the industry has given them a general name:

director of new power.

author | colon fish

editor｜xiaobai

typesetting | banya

the pictures in this article come from the internet

as the name suggests, they have taken on the new role of promoting the development of chinese films, and they seem to have had high hopes since they were born. unlike their predecessors, they live in an era of rapid economic growth in china, with more resources, connections, policies, opportunities, etc. than in any previous period of chinese films.

among the new power directors, there are relatively older generations, such as cao baoping, ning hao, xu zheng, wu ershan, chen sicheng, etc., who were generally born in the 1970s; there are also relatively younger generations, such as bi gan, gu xiaogang, and yin ruoxin , rao xiaozhi, wei shujun, etc., they were born in the 1980s and 1990s. in total, they are currently at the age of "thirties" and are in the limelight.

but it is obvious that from the current point of view, this generation of younger and emerging directors seems to be showing a certain trend of "starting high and moving low".

they often come out with their debut work and become a blockbuster and gain great expectations. when they release their second work again, they encounter a failure in word-of-mouth and market failure.

we can’t help but ask——

why do china's emerging directors always start high and then go low?

on september 13, 2024, yin ruoxin's "wild child" was released in theaters across the country. however, after the opening, word-of-mouth suffered a backlash and the market went into a downturn. it basically relied on wang junkai's fans to contribute to the box office.

the beacon professional edition shows that as of press time, the film had only received 218 million in box office in the 14 days since its release, and its subsequent trend has been basically weak.

although it is based on a true story of the survival dilemma of a "tramping boy", due to the lack of focus in the adaptation, it failed to bring out the sharpness of the realist subject matter, and in the end it only ended up with a dull result.

coincidentally, on april 3, 2024, gu xiaogang's "the world of grass and trees" was released nationwide, with powerful actors such as wu lei, jiang qinqin, and chen jianbin sitting in. in addition, gu xiaogang had previously accumulated international popularity with "spring river plumbing", as well as pyramid schemes crimes. with its strong genre setting, it's hard not to look forward to "the world of grass and trees".

however, the film's douban score was only 6.0, and as of press time, it had only earned 121 million in box office.

the positioning of the entire film is also vague, the commercial aspect is not thorough, and the literary and artistic aspects are not clear. in the poetic regional landscape, a modern interpretation of "mu lian saves his mother" is carried out, but he also intervenes in it and adds a headless portrayal of mlm life, striving to create the process of mother's alienation by mlm.

however, the mother's disenchantment and return at the end seems too imagistic, making it difficult for ordinary audiences to easily accept it.

the amplification of individuality is an important reason why domestic emerging directors cannot be uniformly classified; the structural imbalance between commercial and literary genres is a common symptom of problems in their second works.

from the perspective of director cultivation and development, it is understandable that young directors who make their debut with literary films should explore commercial genres in their subsequent creations. after all, if you want to become a professional director, you cannot just make the movies you want to make, but the goal is to make a film that satisfies the project and satisfies the investors and the market.

the pain of transition is a problem that every young director must face. looking back at the fifth generation, zhang yimou and chen kaige were also at a turning point in their careers - when they switched from art film creation to commercial film creation, they were bound to encounter one or two huge controversies, such as "hero" and "the promise", which were called "the promise" at the time. their waterloo, this is actually normal.

what's more, the current market environment faced by emerging domestic directors is much more complex than before. not only does the new group of audiences have higher aesthetic standards than previous audiences, but the media environment is also more complex and diverse. the audience's attention can easily be stolen by other media such as short videos and games. once the movies in theaters are not so attractive, the audience will vote with their feet.

it can be said that the competition is more brutal, and emerging directors are even more trapped in a "passive involution" situation.

in 2016, bi gan, a young director from guizhou, emerged with "roadside picnic". the poetry of chinese rural society rising under his lens, the non-linear narrative structure, the capture of confusion, melancholy, sadness and other emotions, as well as the chinese the unique tarkovsky style dazzled the industry. immediately, the film won the golden horse award for best new director at the 52nd taipei golden horse film festival, was nominated for the golden leopard award in the contemporary filmmaker section of the 68th locarno international film festival, and received the most attention in the focus on the future section of the 6th beijing international film festival. film awards, etc., were in the limelight for a while.

at this point, he has established his own mysterious, fantastic, and poetic film style, which is regarded as a model by a generation of literary youth and young students.

in 2018, bi gan once again brought his new work "the last night on earth" to the new year's eve. the film's poetic and romantic title, the beautiful tang wei and the marketing gimmick of "new year's eve with a kiss" attracted a large number of ordinary audiences. however, the film still inherits the style of "roadside picnic". when the elite narrative meets the eyes of the people at the bottom, the non-linearity becomes the story is obscure, the romance becomes empty, and the high expectations become low box office.

as a result, the next day, the box office and reputation of "the last night on earth" collapsed across the board, and accusations of "deceptive marketing" continued. although the film studio made a lot of money on the first day, this behavior will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the film as a whole. the damage is far-reaching to the box office and the industry's continued growth.

xin yukun is a proper first director. with the help of the first youth film festival, he launched "maze of the heart" in 2015. it has a rashomon-style multi-perspective structure, attention to and analysis of the social reality of rural china, and the exploration of the good and evil of human nature, desire, and the perfect creation of crime and suspense atmosphere all contribute to the film's high degree of completion. in the end, the production cost of 1 million yuan created a box office of 10.77 million yuan, creating a wonderful record for a small-cost film with a small gain.

in 2023, xin yukun released the movie "hot search". however, xin yukun always wanted to explore the theme of good and evil in human nature, which became the biggest problem of the film. as a movie about cyber violence, the film focuses on hot social issues such as cyber violence and privacy leaks, but it does not go into depth enough and only briefly touches on the social and psychological factors behind cyber violence without in-depth exploration. on this basis, xin yukun added a complex discussion of human nature, resulting in a vague theme and confusion for the audience.

in "the labyrinth of the heart", the characters have many lines and the villagers chatter, which is exactly in line with the current situation of china's rural society. but if you switch to an urban suspense crime film like "hot search", once the characters have dense lines, it will make people feel long-winded and ruin the texture.

facts have proved that if a new director, after laying the foundation of his own style with his debut film, wants to use this as a model and continue to copy and reproduce it perfectly in his future creations, or even want to be famous all over the world with one trick, he is completely digging his own grave. behavior.

some directors are good at a certain type of narrative or image style, which can bring freshness to the audience initially, but if they repeat similar techniques for a long time, the audience will lose interest.

what's more, the author's style is gradually formed by the director through long-term and continuous practice. information is exploding and the audience's tastes are changing at any time.emerging directors must abandon the idea of ​​adapting to constant changes and establish an attitude of adapting to ever-changing situations. they must dig carefully, keep pace with the times, continue to innovate, keep paying attention to social hot spots, and keep close to the market. only in this way can they win a place for their works. position.

in addition, some emerging directors may have succeeded in the early stage with some inspiration or opportunity, but in subsequent creations, due to a lack of deep creative skills and experience accumulation, problems were exposed in aspects such as narrative structure and character creation. for example, in the script, the plot logic may not be strict and the story development may be unreasonable; in terms of character creation, the character image may not be full and three-dimensional enough, making it difficult for the audience to resonate.

going back to the previous question, why do emerging domestic directors always start high and then go low——

there are not only the problems of the complex environment of the times, but also the problems of the emerging directors themselves. in the final analysis, it is still a problem of insufficient innovation.

from a historical macro perspective, we must show care and tolerance to this group of emerging directors, allow them to make mistakes and try things out, and allow them to fail and learn lessons.

from a long-term perspective in the future, we hope that domestic emerging directors can correct their creative attitudes and truly achieve sinking. although many creators on short video platforms may not have the educational background of intellectuals, they were born and raised at the grassroots level and have the deepest and most universal perspective. they truly understand the vast majority of china and understand the most vivid "nearby". emerging directors must learn from them and learn from life in order to sink realism to the bottom, instead of seeing too many freaks of "suspended realism" and "refined realism" like now.

at present, more and more media information is competing with movies for the audience's attention. only by becoming more urgent and continuing to create and explore can emerging directors maintain their "sharpness" and keep their works "high-flying" and "frequently watched". always new."