Among the many new films in the National Day file, there is only one pure family comedy movie.
The starring Wei Xiang, Wang Zhi, and Allen are all happy twist teams, and it is natural that this movie is also labeled as a comedy.
In the past few years, due to the scarcity of domestic comedy film creation, happy twist comedy has become a "golden signboard".
Although there has always been criticism at the word-of-mouth level, it is undeniable that happy twist comedy is indeed very popular with audiences.
Among them, the ace actors are Shen Teng and Ma Li, who have become a pyramid of actors and actresses in the field of domestic comedy.
Shen Teng became a tens of billions of box office actors with "Charlotte Troubles", "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and "Walking on the Moon Alone".
Ma Li has blockbuster movies such as "Iron Fist of Shame" and "This killer is not very calm".
However, compared with the success of Shen Teng and Ma Li, most of the other actors launched by Happy Twist are weak.
For example, Wei Xiang has been playing a supporting role in Shen Teng movies in the past, but in the past two years, he has also begun to appear as the protagonist in some comedy movies, his representative work is "This Killer Is Not Too Calm", which won 2.6 billion at the box office last year's Spring Festival.
In addition to the appeal and schedule advantages of the heroine Ma Li, it is undeniable that the market influence of happy twist comedy movies is undeniable.
This year, starring Wei Xiang once again cooperated with the director and behind-the-scenes team of "This Killer Is Not Too Calm" to launch a comedy movie "It Doesn't Seem to Be So Hot", which was released on National Day.
The main creative team obviously wants to replicate the success of "Killer", but unfortunately, the results after the release of the film are indeed like the title, "it seems that the blood is not so hot", far lower than the expectations before the release.
The film currently has a Douban score of 7.2, far better than the 3.6 points of this year's "Super Family", and even works such as "This Killer Is Not Too Calm" starring Wei Xiang himself.
Unfortunately, word of mouth failed to bring box office, 7 days after release, the box office just exceeded 80 million, ranking first in the recent release of new films, and even surpassed by the animated film "Wang Wang Team 2" in terms of arrangement and attendance.
In this issue of the "Cinema Detoxification" column, let's talk about the quality of this movie——
"It doesn't seem to be so hot"
Lose to Win
Straight to the point, compared to the previous "Super Family", this film is definitely a "surprise" with capital and bold!
It is also a remake, adapted from the Spanish comedy "Basketball Champion", and the original score is only 7.2 points.
To be reasonable, the remake can not "destroy the original", and this alone is rare in the field of domestic films.
Without Ma Li's help, this time Wei Xiang picked the beam alone, but fortunately, Allen and Wang Zhi, who were playing together, were familiar faces.
The story tells the story of Wei Guozheng (played by Wei Xiang), a basketball coach who is extremely persistent in victory, and is forced to enter a special school to teach because of violations.
When the conceited coach who pursues "playing is to win", meets a group of players who love basketball but "have negative ability values", in the daily relationship between chicken and duck and the interrupted basketball training, will the on the verge of collapse have a miracle to continue his undefeated myth? Can they lose positively, and make the way to the upcoming league?
For example, the title of the movie "It Doesn't seem to be so hot", itself reveals a self-deprecating meaning, and the title has revealed the style positioning of this movie that wants to be anti-genre and anti-routine.
The main plot of the film revolves around the story of Wei Guozheng, a basketball coach played by Wei Xiang, who was sent to teach in a special school for violating the law, and thus led a special team composed of mentally handicapped people to participate in the game.
At first hearing such a plot design, it is estimated that many people will mistakenly think that this film will be made into a serious educational public welfare movie. However, the film's director has taken a different approach, using comedy to explore social topics, and using successive hilarious humor bridges to dissolve the pathos and seriousness behind the story.
The surprise of the film is that the whole film has both the humorous "laughing fruit" that comedy movies should have, and the sincerity and vividness of realistic themes. The choreographer did not make the story into a commercial comedy film that forcibly stabbed the audience and sold humorous baggage, but found a balance in multiple levels such as comedy elements, sports inspiration, warm expression, and realistic care, constituting an anti-routine comedy with laughter and tears.
As far as the comedy level is concerned, the film is always in a joyful and funny atmosphere, the choreographer is very good at using techniques such as breaking expectations, creating contrasts, and emotional reversals to create a comedy effect, starting from the first scene of the movie, the burden of laughter rises and falls, and the insertion of comedy bridges is often unexpected, so that the audience is caught off guard.
For example, in the first basketball game at the beginning of the movie, Wei Guozheng and Coach Ma have been going head-to-head on the court for many years.
In the middle of the game, Wei Guozheng came to the players' training room, and made a mockery of the players, vividly shaping the image of a poisonous tongue coach, but the next shot suddenly reversed, and the object of Wei Guozheng's training was actually the opponent team, so his poisonous tongue criticism of the players just now instantly became "yin and yang weirdness" and ridicule.
This plot design is not only funny and funny, but also very effective in explaining the character of coach Wei Guozheng.
On the court, he is a poisonous coach with a strong desire to win and lose, and regards winning games as all pursuits in life, but on the other hand, Wei Guozheng is an alternative freak who exudes a cute temperament, he has been competing with rival Coach Ma in the open and in secret for many years, often tripping each other, as long as he has the upper hand slightly, he can't help but be complacent.
It is not difficult to see that the choreographer deliberately portrayed Wei Guozheng into an alternative protagonist with character shortcomings. His imperfections and flaws add dramatic tension to the next twist of the story.
When Wei Guozheng entered the House of Benevolence, he was forced to start training this special team composed of mentally handicapped people, from the beginning of incomprehension to the perfunctory after being forced to accept, and then to a series of chicken flying dog jumping training routines after gradually establishing feelings with the players, and finally sublimating into letting go of personal desire to win and lose on the field, and turning into respect and understanding for the players, helping them realize their ideals and find their own glory.
The choreographer built the character growth and psychological arc of Wei Guozheng's character very clearly and completely, which became the main line running through the film. At the same time, when an ace coach suddenly "fell off the altar" to become the coach of a special team, he suffered every day from being tortured by a group of "negative" players to collapse and cheer up to face the daily life of constant challenges, and this gap was portrayed by the choreographer in a comic way.
The starring Wei Xiang is a veteran actor who has been immersed in the field of comedy for many years, and he is very suitable for playing this kind of comedy little character with a somewhat greasy behavior, a poisonous tongue and a funny behavior. After all, comedy itself is an exaggerated interpretation of real life.
Wei Xiang's unique personal temperament and performance style are quite consistent with the film's playful and funny style, in addition, the film also has the participation of comedians such as Zhou Dayong and Yu Yang, which also adds a lot of jokes to the movie.
The core of a good comedy film is often a relatively serious theme expression.
"It Doesn't Seem to Be So Hot" is under the comedy genre, and it is also an inspirational and warm reality movie.
From the core of the story, the movie tells the story of a group of humble characters who bounce back in the cold ridicule of others, and constantly fight to win respect and honor. There is no lack of nuanced portrayals of the inner world of small people in the film, and the audience can easily substitute the characters in the story, so as to be moved by the positive and infectious power conveyed by the story.
What is more rare is that the film does not blindly sell sensationalism, and the shaping of the group image of the mentally handicapped has always stood in an equal perspective, which is rare in previous domestic films.
The protagonist of the film, basketball coach Wei Guozheng, and Le Guang, a teacher of the House of Ren'ai played by Wang Zhi, represent two attitudes towards people with disabilities in the current society.
Compared with able-bodied people, people with disabilities are usually considered to be vulnerable groups, marginalized groups, often suffer from strange eyes and unfair treatment, the film does not avoid these relatively realistic cruel sides, so from the perspective of female teacher Leguang, she sees the vulnerable side of the students of the Benevolence Home, and always subconsciously thinks that they need protection and care to avoid their contact with the outside world.
But when basketball coach Wei Guozheng entered the Home of Benevolence, he believed that people with disabilities should not only be sympathetic and cared for, but also need to be treated equally and fairly. And competitive sports just provide an opportunity, because on the pitch, they are only players – the best respect is to beat the opponent as hard as they can, which is true equality and respect.
The film uses this to make the audience think that the best way to treat people with disabilities is to do business as usual. Although the whole movie is about a mentally handicapped person, it is not offensive, nor is it self-touching, and it really makes the audience laugh and feel a warm and moving power from the heart.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the director boldly selected several "young people" with mental disabilities to star in the film, and their real and valuable performances all prove the seriousness of the film, not just grandstanding, but deeply cultivated enough to move people's hearts, presenting a dark horse comedy full of fun, elegant and common appreciation.
Overall, this movie brought me a viewing experience that exceeded my expectations, telling a joyful and funny but warm and inspirational alternative competitive story, which can be said to be the most relaxing comedy movie in this year's National Day file.
At the end of the article, let's talk about the movie's box office failure.
The objective reason is that in the past two years, "Happy Twist Comedy" has encountered a bottleneck in creation, and more and more remakes have appeared, but the reputation has continued to decline, especially this year's "Super Family", which made many audiences who rushed Shen Teng into the theater shout that they were deceived, and the result of such an overdraft reputation will inevitably lead to the negative impact of the audience on subsequent works.
Therefore, although "It Doesn't Seem to Be So Hot" is not produced by "Happy Twist", because the starring actors are all Happy Twist Royal Actors, it will also be affected by Happy Twist Comedy.
On the other hand, today's audiences have higher and higher aesthetic requirements for comedy, and the requirements for comedy movies are the need to be "hilarious", and although this film has comedy elements, the core is a warm film that cares for people with disabilities, which is already relatively niche in terms of subject matter, which leads to limited box office thresholds.
What's more, in terms of the box office appeal of the starring actors, Wei Xiang is far less popular than Shen Teng and Ma Li, and naturally cannot replicate the success of the latter.
It's just that the box office is the last one, for such a comedy, it is indeed a pity!