The watershed at the box office in the summer of 2024 is undoubtedly drawn with the release of the movie "Catching Dolls". The film achieved a box office of nearly 500 million yuan in three days, and the box office exceeded 1.5 billion yuan a week after its official release. single-handedly brought the entire market on fire, and the commercial success of the film goes without saying.
"Catching the Doll" box office poster
Back to the movie itself, comedians Shen Teng and Ma Li both returned to the stage, and choreographers Yan Fei and Peng Damo cooperated three times to create the "Xihong City Universe" behind the scenes, and the energy that erupted when the four of them gathered together cannot be underestimated. If "Charlotte's Troubles" tells the youthful dream of middle-aged people through time and space, "The Richest Man in Xihong City" focuses on the spring and autumn dream of ordinary people who get rich overnight, "Catching the Doll" is to break free from the relatively empty story settings of the first two films, and land on the educational topic that the Chinese people are thinking about - the eternal "dream of Jackie Chan".
Shen Teng and Ma Li cooperated again
With the family-friendly nature of comedy and the super popularity of the "Shen Ma Combination", "Catching the Doll" may be the film that contributed the most laughter to the theater this year. But if you define this comedy with "it's over", you obviously underestimate its stamina. With the popularity of the film, topics such as poor education, control education, and guilt education have gradually continued to ferment on various platforms.
Recently, Yan Fei and Peng Damo, the two directors of "Catching the Doll", accepted an exclusive interview with The Paper reporter in Beijing. In the interview, these two post-80s creators born in the same year reviewed their respective theatrical practices on campus and their tempering of "seeing all beings" in the era of happy twist. When it comes to "Catching the Doll", they do not shy away from talking about the similarities with the movie "Truman's World", and give their own interpretation of whether the education model of the father Ma Chenggang in the film is cruel.
As the director who is most proficient in using the "Shen Ma Combination" at present, the four of them have become close friends who talk about everything after more than ten years of personal friendship and content cooperation. Talking about this hilarious comedy, that layer of faint sadness, how can you continue to write plays for "Brother Teng and Sister Li" in the future? The two directors also confessed their troubles and hopes.
Yan Fei
Peng Damo
【Conversation】
The more comedic it is, the more sincere the performance must be
The Paper: First of all, congratulations to "Catching the Doll" after its release, which has brought the whole summer file hot, and it is currently the leading schedule. Can you reveal your box office expectations for "Catching the Doll"?
Peng Damo: We don't have any expectations at the box office, as long as it's better than last time.
The Paper: The last time the two co-directed "The Richest Man in Xihong City", the box office was 2.55 billion yuan.
Peng Damo: Yes, it's in 2018. In fact, the speed at which we make scripts and make movies is very slow, and over the years, many people's habits of watching movies have also changed, many people prefer to watch short videos at home, and many friends around me don't go into the cinema very much.
The Paper: Can you recall the resumes of the two, Director Yan Fei graduated from the Department of Military Performance, did he know his senior brother Shen Teng when he was in school? Director Peng Damo developed the "Firecracker Comedy" during his time at the Beijing Film Academy, did he have a soft spot for intensive laughter at that time?
Yan Fei: Yes, Brother Teng was quite "conspicuous" when he was in school, and he was relatively active. My graduation drama "I'm Waiting for You in Heaven" was also Brother Teng's graduation drama that year, and in the same play, we still played the same role. The military skills are not big, and everyone is usually in a relatively closed environment, looking up and not looking down. My teacher and Brother Teng know each other very well, and they often arrange sketches or something together.
I remember that their class rehearsed a "Young Praetorian Guard", and the whole play lasted two hours, and Brother Teng played the cook in it, and it took less than five minutes to appear. During the time he appeared, the audience burst into laughter, and many people came to watch the play in order to see him. At that time, he was such an actor, he didn't look obvious, laughing, and popular, but as long as he appeared on the stage, the light could not be hidden.
Peng Damo: When I was in the acting department of Nortel, I was influenced by Mr. Zhu Zongqi and liked comedy very much. Ms. Zhu has been retired for many years, she has a deep study of comedy, and I still remember her telling us in class, "The more comedy, the more sincere the performance, if you don't even believe the creator himself, how can you make the audience believe it?" These words have influenced me to this day, and it is the motto of our comedy.
At that time, my state was not quite the same as other classmates, they were all busy running the crew and writing papers, I was with like-minded classmates in the drama club to arrange sketches, often strung the created sketches into excerpts, and went to major universities in Beijing to perform, without charge, just to see more audiences. The reason why I called my comedy style at that time "firecracker comedy" was that I hoped that the burdens in it would explode intensively one after another like firecrackers.
The Paper: Did the two meet during the Happy Twist period? You all came from acting majors, why did you all go behind the scenes later?
Peng Damo: That's early, Yan Fei and I are the same age, both born in 1983. In 2002, we met in the pre-exam tutorial class of military arts, and later when we did skits at different schools, we often worked together.
Yan Fei: Later, we all felt that we were more suitable for creating behind the scenes than acting, responsible for the integrity of the work, and enjoying the sense of control of this kind of creation. When I graduated in 2006, I collaborated with Big Demon on my first drama "Project Satan", which received a good response and opened the way for Beijing Small Theater to perform.
Later, we collaborated, and we also created separately, and slowly became famous in the circle, but the audience didn't know us at that time. Later, Yu Kai, the founder of Happy Twist, found us, and Shen Teng, as the first batch of actors, also sent us an invitation to do a big theater drama together.
The Paper: What is the biggest gain from this experience in Happy Twist for the two of you?
Yan Fei: It's just that the audience is starting to be different, and most of the people who watch small theater dramas are literary and artistic youths, and they are a specific audience group. In Happy Twist, the audience we face can be said to come from all walks of life, and there are people of different ages in various industries, which requires us to consider more aspects in our creation.
The early twist works are still more like "parties", after the two of us arrived at the twist, I hope to bring in the storytelling side of the work, a performance can't be all smashing baggage + song and dance performances, lively, plus a few "external flower arrangement" jokes just passed, this is too much like a "party".
After all, we are all theater majors, and we still have the desire to express ourselves as authors, hoping to present a complete story on stage. Every time you create, you must not only tell the story completely and beautifully, but also tell it to a certain level even if the professional audience sees it; It is also necessary to add comedy elements that everyone likes, and bring these baggage and rhythm into it.
So, we screwed up at first. Frankly speaking, at the beginning of the twist, we were embarrassed to call our works dramas, but stage plays, because once you say that this is a drama, everyone may have a benchmark in their hearts, like "Teahouse" and "Thunderstorm", that is a drama.
Peng Damo: The biggest gain in Happy Twist is that the audience has seen more, and there are many comedians in Twist, some of them are actors, choreographers and directors who are professional in drama, and there are also cross talk actors, so everyone explores together. For example, cross talk itself has summed up the law of "three flips and four shakes", but it may not be fully applicable to the stage of twist. Our previous works were also comedies, but it's not particularly the same as twist's works that are purely full of laughs, this is a process of mutual influence, everyone has been together for a long time, and they know each other's aura, and the humor points will naturally come out. Twist's current comedy is still based on the story, and the platter at the same beginning is different.
Yan Fei: In fact, the comedians who came to Mahua are all humorous people, and this group of people come together to create, which is a kind of healthy competition. When an actor says a line on stage, the audience gives the most direct response, and if I see that the mobile phones in the audience, the front and back are lit up, I know that this burden is not ringing.
The Paper: After Happy Twist opened up the situation, you were also invited by the CCTV Spring Festival Gala crew to create popular sketches such as "Today's Happiness", "Help or Not", "Do What You Like", how do you evaluate this creative experience?
Yan Fei: Creating Spring Festival Gala sketches is different from the stage plays in our creative theaters. The sketch is different from the stage play, and the Spring Festival Gala sketch is different from the sketches in other places, and the aura is different. There are too many TV viewers watching the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala, and we can't get real-time feedback from them. As for whether a burden can be shaken, we usually "press the stage" (audition) before the official live performance, find audiences from different groups to watch the performance first, and then make adjustments through their reactions.
Poster for the movie "Charlotte's Troubles".
The first half of the movie is from the perspective of Ma Chenggang, and the second half is from the perspective of Ma Jiye
The Paper: After experiencing the tempering of theatrical comedy and Spring Festival Gala sketches, the movie "Charlotte's Troubles" was born, and I noticed that this movie was launched after the performance of your play of the same name.
Yan Fei: Actually, the script of "Charlotte's Troubles" was written according to the movie script, and at that time, all the conditions for filming the movie were not available, so the drama was filmed first. The performance was very successful and gave us the confidence to adapt it into a film in the future.
Peng Damo: The drama version of "Charlotte's Troubles" starring Zhang Zidong and Ma Li. Zidong is the actor who played his eldest son Ma Dajun in the movie "Catching the Doll" this time, he can be said to be the "queen actor" in our stage play era, from the prince in "The Satan Project" to "No One is Allowed to Laugh" and "X Love Files", he has been playing with us in the small theater for many years.
Zhang Zidong as Ma Dajun
The Paper: In the domestic film industry, the creations of the two have almost always been bound, in terms of creative focus and personality traits, what are the complementarities between the two?
Peng Damo: After entering the film industry, we are bound to meet many big producers and actors, like me, who are more introverted and not good at communicating with people, and two people can strengthen each other's courage together. If you want to write a script and become a director together, there will definitely be bumps and bumps, but the arguments come and go, our friendship is deeper, and the works are also good, and it is very comfortable to be bound together to create.
Yan Fei: First of all, we can play together, because creation is very lonely, and if someone can help you share this loneliness, it will be a very lucky thing. Sometimes when I have dinner with screenwriter friends, others will feel the bottleneck in creation, and at the end they will throw out a sentence, I really envy you. The reason why we are slow to create is because most of the time we are immersed in a state of relaxation, often raising the bar on a variety of topics, and it is in this kind of almost playful and argumentative that the creative inspiration appears.
The Paper: From "Charlotte's Troubles" to "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and then to the current "Catching the Doll", it can be said that the IP of "Xihong City Universe" has been established. Is it a huge idea from the beginning, or is it just going with the flow?
Yan Fei: Not really. The three movies of "Xihong City Universe", "Charlotte's Troubles" is a big dream of youth, which corresponds to the fact that when we were drifting in Beijing, when we were poor and miserable, we missed the campus time and the goddess in the class, and wanted to summarize their respective youth eras.
"The Richest Man in Xihong City" is about a big dream of making a fortune, just invited by Universal Pictures, to give us the book of the old movie "Brewster's Million Windfall" in the 80s of the last century, we see that this theme is good, suitable for us to play.
"The Richest Man in Xihong City" poster
The idea of "Catching the Doll" came after "Charlotte's Troubles", but the script writing was after the release of "The Richest Man in Xihong City", and the excitement of this script was first and foremost high concept. One day, the big devil came to me excitedly and said that there was a very rich father in Liaoning who insisted on the way of "raising his children poorly", let his son go to an ordinary school, ride a bicycle to send his son to school every day, and then drive himself to work after he was done.
But creation is like this, get a particularly down-to-earth story, put it in our hands to play. At the beginning, we also took some detours, after nearly ten years of repeated consideration, we gradually came back, that is, the people around this child can not be all "fake", the teachers and classmates he came to the school are real, but in the tube building of his own home, they are all characters arranged by his father. In the meantime, there is a closed loop of going out and coming back, and we did not make the news a realistic movie, but gave it a romantic color, and wrote it as an absurdist allegory.
Peng Damo: The script creation of "Catching the Doll" began in 2015 and has experienced countless bottlenecks, such as how much exaggeration can be accepted by the audience? Another example is the father Ma Chenggang who raised his son poorly, what kind of psychology did he come from?
Later, we gradually figured out that the mentality of Chinese parents looking forward to their son Jackie Chan is more universal than this news, which is also the personal feeling that we only have after we really became fathers. Chinese parents are generally like this, before they have children, they say that they will "go free-range" in the future, and when they do have children, this environment determines that they cannot let their children lose at the starting line.
I also saw some viewers say after watching "Catching the Doll", like "Truman's World", the two are indeed a bit similar. But "Truman's World" is also a classic routine that many people hide from a person, which is like a classic model of a meta-story. "Truman's World" is a big company that sets up a realistic world for Truman in order to earn ratings and squeeze Truman's "reality show" value. Although the parents in "Catching the Doll" deceived their children, their starting point was to love their children and give their best for their children's growth.
"Truman's World" poster
Yan Fei: In fact, when writing the script, the perspective of the character we set for ourselves was neither Ma Chenggang nor Ma Jiye, but Ma Dajun. It is not only related to this story, but also has a sense of distancing from the sidelines.
The Paper: Can you talk more about the name of "Xihong City"? As the setting of the three films, how do you step by step to structure the relevance of the city in the films?
Peng Damo: Xihong City is a homonym for "tomato", in fact, it is a symbol, we understand it as everyone's hometown full of happiness, and we hope that every audience can become its "citizen" when they enter the theater, just like returning to their hometown. In fact, this also brings in a lot of our memories of what our childhood hometown looked like, although the filming locations of the three movies are different, but the Xihong City in the movie is a northerly city, and it is a city with a sense of happiness.
After the three movies, many fans have begun to look for the interrelated easter eggs, such as the school that Ma Jiye went to this time, and the plot is Charlotte's school in "Charlotte's Troubles", but it was repainted later. Including the school uniform and school emblem on Ma Jiye in "Catching the Doll", it is the same as the school uniforms of Xia Luo and Ma Dongmei.
"Xihong City No. 7 Middle School" school uniform
Yan Fei: People often say that the characters in comedy are dull and flat. The little people in Xihong City all carry our observations of the Northeast people, and they all shape the characters according to the friends and experiences around them. We usually magnify their loveliest side, and even if some of the characters are lazy and slick, they show their vivid, humorous side.
The citizens in Xihong City are all fun and lively, such as the driver of Ma Chenggang inside, which can be described as the culmination of taxi drivers in the Northeast. I remember that in the past, taxis in Changchun had on-board radios, and they went to help the police to contain fugitives, and there were too many stories of righteousness and courage like this. When we write about the little people in Xihong City, we will look for prototypes, and any character will be written for a long time.
The Paper: "Catching the Doll" is not without adventure from the perspective of the narrative of the play, and soon after the opening of the film, it is revealed to the audience that Ma Jiye actually lives in a difficult living environment that his parents specially built for him, rather than letting the audience and Ma Jiye discover this secret together at the end of the film. The two directors, as screenwriters at the same time, must have their own ideas about this, can you talk about it?
Peng Damo: "Catching the Doll" is not a suspense film, not like "Island Horror" (2001, starring Nicole · Kidman), and finally shakes out a big bottom. In this era, no matter how much you hide it, one day after the movie is released, the audience will know the mystery.
Yan Fei: Of course, there is a trade-off to be made, if you peel back the layers to show it, there is no doubt that the suspense of the story is stronger. But if this mystery is uncovered first, the comedy is undoubtedly more enjoyable. When making the script, we hope that when the audience watches the first half, they should be able to empathize with their parents' choices and pity the hearts of parents all over the world.
With the development of the story, Ma Jiye grew up and began to have personal consciousness and opinions, that is, after Shi Pengyuan took over the role of Ma Jiye, we gave the perspective to Ma Jiye in the movie, so that the audience could directly attack Ma Jiye from this perspective and reflect on the excessive interference of parents in the growth of their children (what are the drawbacks). So in this movie, we are boldly making an attempt, the first half of it is from the perspective of Ma Chenggang, and the second half is from the perspective of Ma Jiye.
Shi Pengyuan as the young Ma Jiye
For "Shen Ma", there is actually no concept of CP
The Paper: Looking at the reaction of the audience and fans, the return of Shen Teng and Ma Li's CP combination this time seems to be expected?
Yan Fei & Peng Damo: Seriously, we don't actually have a concept of CP for them. The four of us have worked together for so many years, and we are both old friends and working partners, and we are easy to work together. Brother Teng and Sister Li are both very good actors, and in the sketch "Help or Not", they could even play an old lady and a young man before, which is no problem at all. This time, "Catching the Doll" is very suitable for them to play Ma Chenggang and Chunlan in terms of the adaptability of the actors, as a screenwriter and director, we must be responsible for the movie, what we have to do is to choose the right actors according to the plot.
The Paper: Talk about your exchange when you invited Shen Teng to appear this time.
Yan Fei: The process is very simple, we told him that this is a story of father-son love, and when he read the script halfway through, he muttered a little and felt how he had "blackened" (laughs). The big demon and I told him that the role of the father has his own set of parenting concepts, and this story can be discussed by everyone after it is presented, but Brother Teng, your task is to play this father so that everyone does not hate him and everyone can understand him. Brother Teng himself later understood that there was no villain in this movie.
Shen Teng as Ma Chenggang
The Paper: Personally, does Ma Li play a little bit this time? Of course, this has to do with the identity of the character's mother and motherhood.
Yan Fei: That's right, Ma Li has been using a mother's perspective to shape the character this time. In life, Ma Li is also a mother now, and she has a very personal feeling for Chunlan as a mother. At the end of the movie, Ma Jiye pointed to the list of famous teachers on the wall and said to his parents, "What about you, which two teachers are you?" Ma Li captured this heart-piercing scene very accurately on the set, she was holding her child and hugging her head and crying, she realized that as parents, they did something wrong and broke the child's heart. This is exactly how a normal mother should react.
Ma Li's layering of this performance is also very in place. When the child was young, she gave people the impression of being a little wife; When the child begins to thrive, she is a two-huh mother who focuses on the child's growth; When the last mystery was pierced by the child and she wanted to break through the encirclement, she did not have Ma Chenggang's chatter, as a mother, she was comforting the child and choosing to let go and respect the child's choice.
So she completely performed the growth and transformation of a mother, and put her understanding of the story and the character appropriately on Chunlan.
Ma Li as Chunlan
The Paper: There is also a female character in the movie, Sarina's parenting expert, who is also Ma Jiye's "grandmother", the funeral scene really made the audience see a mixture of joy and sorrow, she seems to have never appeared in a comedy before, right?
Peng Damo: Ms. Sarina is very humble on the set, and she often asks the two of us for a certain scene, "Is this possible?" ”
Yan Fei: When we were choosing "grandma" actors this time, there were actually many "old lady professional" comedians, including sketch actors. Later, we felt that we wanted to find a "national grandmother" that everyone recognized in their minds, and she had to be a "bitter grandmother", so Ms. Sarina was definitely the right person.
Sarina as Grandma
When I first told this story to Ms. Sa, she was very embarrassed and asked this is a comedy, why are you looking for me? We told her that this time we want to subvert the audience's habitual perception of your film and television image, and this is very important for this movie, even if you can't play the joy, we will help you adjust this feeling.
Just like the big devil just said, "When acting in comedy, sincerity is the most important thing." "When the plot has already laid you ground, what awaits you is nothing more than the explosion and contrast of the actors. Mr. Sa's performance this time also fully illustrates that there is no essential difference between acting in comedy and acting in a drama, especially for a good actor.
The Paper: The actor Xiao Bochen of the teenager Ma Jiye is also impressive, innocent and romantic.
Peng Damo: He's very spiritual. We found out from the TV series "The Glory of the Fathers", how can this child be so good at acting. When I met and talked, I felt that this child was very practical and relaxed, and there was no trace of artificiality.
Xiao Bochen as the young Ma Jiye
Yan Fei: Generally speaking, a child star who has acted in a drama often tenses up when he sees other crews, just like a little adult, and this kind of unnaturalness is exactly what we reject. Because we think that little adults are fake, and children's innocence is the most valuable. After he came, we observed him, in fact, the interview is a chat, through chatting, to see what type of actor he is. I found that this Northeast child sat there very casually, and he didn't speak in a tone of voice, just chatting with people in Changchun dialect.
There is a mature side to him, but it is not pretended. Because the young Ma Jiye has a crying scene in the play that is particularly important, we asked him, have you ever acted in a crying scene? And he said, oops, I can cry. Just have to let his mother be on the scene, he can look at his mother a few times and think about something, so that he can show it very smoothly.
The Paper: The end of the movie can be said to be a powerful "leopard tail", but many viewers also reported that they felt that they were still unfinished. Talk about your thoughts.
Yan Fei: At the end of the comedy movie, we still hope to give the audience a good sense of leaving. The ending of the movie backfired for Ma Chenggang and his wife, but in fact, the line that the audience ignored the most, Ma Dajun's ascent of Mount Everest, is our attitude towards this story. At the same time, according to the guidance in the movie, the audience will feel that Ma Jiye's disappearance was kidnapped by Ma Dajun, and this line is buried and there must be an explanation in the end.
Peng Damo: At the end of the whole film, it should be the eldest son Ma Dajun who climbed Mount Everest. It is a symbol of the story we tell, that is, Ma Dajun, the eldest son who has achieved nothing in the eyes of his father, can also achieve his own achievements in life when he follows his inner choice and works hard.
Regarding the ending, we have studied it for a long time, if according to everyone's inertial thinking, Ma Chenggang chatters endlessly, should Ma Jiye turn back, have a battle with his father, and output a meal of values. But if it really ends like this, many people will still feel that it is a mistake.
Yan Fei: Many young viewers may feel that at the end, Ma Chenggang owes his son an apology. We think that the acceptance of this movie is divided into groups, such as people without children, and parents with children who watch this story and have a different experience. I saw a netizen's comment, he said that he took his father to watch a movie together, and his father was tense throughout the whole scene, until the last movie, Ma Chenggang shouted at Ma Jiye's back, "I won't go home for dinner at night!" My father burst into tears. I think at that moment, the father-son audience also reached some kind of reconciliation.
The Paper: In the second half of the film, there is a very clever balance between the serious thinking of social topics and the laughter of comedy.
Peng Damo: In essence, we still want to tell a good story, and the integrity of the story itself includes the beginning and the end, including suspense, and then unraveling. On this basis, humorous and playful elements are in the DNA of this film. At the same time, we will not deliberately pursue amplification in these fun genes, everything must be subordinated to the creation of characters, or we must follow the characters. We won't make some "external flower arrangement" (a plot that has nothing to do with the story, but is funny) to dilute the main line, and simply pursue "laughing fruit".
Yan Fei: When discussing the script, we set a lot of baggage for the characters through "brainstorming". For example, he once wrote a bridge where Ma Jiye was playing a computer game with his classmates, and his computer suddenly crashed, and at this time a "teacher" came and taught him to learn computers from DOS (disk operating system). There are a lot of bridges like this written in our original script, and they are parallel to the main story, and I can guarantee that every single plot can be turned into a particularly wonderful sketch that can become a joke, but it will hurt the rhythm of the story. In order to make the story rhythmic and emotionally silky, it must be removed by subtraction.