Why isn't comedy movie funny?

"Can modern people make comedies? I have to do anything‘ with tears in laughter ’disgusting, and miss the movies that make people laugh from beginning to end."

This is a high praise of "Brother, Hello" in Douban. It is also a similar dilemma of a considerable number of domestic comedy movies in recent years: not funny.

Negative comment Ruyun

"Funny" was originally a subjective feeling. Each audience's laughter was different and the threshold was different. Therefore, it is difficult to have objective standards to judge whether the work and the work became more and less funny. But when you open the short video platform and the community forum, the comedy bridge section and the wide stalks of the screen are still the "Charlotte Trouble" and "The Richest Man of the West Rainbow City", which destroyed half of the time ago when it was released many years ago. On the Douban entrust, sorted by time, you will find that most of the new evaluations of these films are four or five stars.

When these films are released, more criticisms are still -funny, lack of depth, and especially lack of film. At that time, people may not have thought that after a few years, more and more comedy movies began to try to integrate high concepts and new types, and also pursued depth and sensation, but slowly lost in the basic requirements of the comedy "funny" comedy. Points.

The new attempt is happy, but a considerable part of the audience's demand for comedy movies is still relaxing and open -minded, and they are unwilling to slide heavy. The "exceeding expectations" part of the creator's attempt to provide "exceeding expectations" may be exactly the embodiment of "inconsistent expectations" for them.

If you can only "walk a leg" after all, which leg should be valued for today's domestic comedy movies?

A generation has a generation of "funny"

In 1997, "Party A and Party B" knocked on the door of the New Year's Eve. Comedy officially established a place in domestic commercial films and began to expand the growth of the mainland film market.

In the following two years, Feng Xiaogang launched the New Year Comedy Trilogy, accounting for nearly 4%of the annual box office ratio. With the development of urbanization, the middle -class aesthetic at that time occupied the dominance of discourse, and the "Feng's Comedy" was gently ridiculed the production and life in the poor way of old Beijing.

Zhou Xingchi, who became the "king of comedy" earlier, was later in the time of fire in the Mainland.

The "Journey to the West" in 1994 was introduced to the Mainland in 1999. With the dissemination of pirated discs, the film was popular among college students. The "nonsense" Hong Kong -style comedy began to be accepted by the Mainland, and added a color of "postmodernism" to it, which is exactly the exit of the new young people who confused before and after the millennium.

Since then, Zhou Xingchi began to go north and filmed comedy films loved by mainland fans such as "Shaolin Football" and "Kung Fu". "Kung Fu" once again broke the comedy ceiling and got more than 10%of the box office proportion in 2004. But the more powerful is his influence outside the theater. Many viewers still contact Zhou Xingchi through a CD and TV. The "Chow Xingchi Phenomenon" once became a cultural term. This also allowed him until 2016 "Mermaid", which could also set off a frenzy of ticket purchase with the slogan "owing Zhou Xingchi a movie ticket".

Newcomers are not far behind. In 2006, "Crazy Stone", which invested only 3 million, unexpectedly became popular, and the 23 million box office had a big fight, which made Director Ning Hao go to the stage in one fell swoop. With the deepening of urbanization, the town youth and the new generation of audiences have gradually become highlighted in popular culture, occupying a new right to speak, Ning Hao's "Crazy Series" is to transfer the lens to the grassroots little figures, bringing up the small small figure, and bringing a small small figure The trend of cost black comedy.

And when the domestic production and grassroots meet, the "囧" forced to add jokes will completely ignite the market. In 2012, "People in the Thailand" was born in the air, becoming the first Chinese movie in history to break through 1 billion in the box office, making many incremental audiences who have never entered the theater in the past to become a member of the movie watching group. That year, the comedy film contributed more than 18%of the box office to the film market. Of the 315 domestic films throughout the year, more than 50 comedy films.

It is precisely because of the success of "Taiyu" that the happy twist market for many years of the drama market has begun to seriously consider the possibility of entering the film market. As a result, Xingxin Twist chose the drama "Charlotte Trouble" that year, and adapted film and television. In 2015, "Charlotte Trouble" landed on the National Day file with a dark horse. Douban opened 8.4, and eventually swept the 1.441 billion box office.

Since then, except for 2016, there are some of the most domestic comedy films with the highest box office each year. In the past, comedy directors who stirred Fengyun gradually declined, and more often retired to the second line to cultivate newcomers. Except for the occasional adopters of the well -known comedians, when the director (such as Wang Baoqiang, Huang Bo, Jia Ling), the attention of Chinese comedy films is almost difficult to remove from the happy twist, and the happy twist itself seems to be difficult to recognize in the work recognition. Du Qian's peak of "Charlotte's Trouble".

Data from the Professional Edition of Lighthouse, Douban

After the poisonous eyes, after 2015, the work with comedy -based box office was ranked among the top works. Among them, Douban's highest score was "Charlotte Trouble", and there were very few other works that broke 7 points.

Business movies themselves are a process of expected satisfaction. After watching excellent works, the audience will have higher expectations in the next seeing similar works, so it is not surprising that "difficulty surpassing themselves" in the audience's evaluation.

Strangely, there are creators in each era that can exactly the "laughing point" of the audience. Even from the beginning of "Party A and B", some people have criticized the commercial comedy film as "sketching", but it will never be like today This is in a state of "unhappy comedy movies". Feng Xiaogang's 2013 Weibo

The reason is of course many aspects. In addition to the specific creative level, we still need to see the changes in the market environment.

In the era when commercial comedy frequently broke the ceiling of the market, the role of movies in people's lives is becoming increasingly important. For example, from the establishment of the New Year's Eve to the Spring Festival, the film has become the new folk custom of the Chinese New Year. Nowadays, the decline in the number of movie viewers every year is making the cinema as the forgotten choice for the Spring Festival.

In the past, there were only hundreds of millions of box office movies, which seemed to be inadequate under the market volume today. However, in the era of lack of entertainment life, these films have really become the focus of discussion on the streets and alleys. And even the billions of box office today, hot search is full of hot search, but few works that can really become social topics appear.

"Charlotte Trouble"

There are also more and more alternatives of comedy movies. There are countless emerging creators in many fields such as short videos, live broadcasts, and talk shows. After all, comedy techniques are similar. Under the fierce competition, it is difficult to have a special comedy bridge. It is indeed increasingly not easy to make the audience with "knowledge and knowledge" laugh.

From pure comedy to "comedy+"

It is not only the market environment, but also the changes in the industry.

Some people in the industry told the poisonous eyes (ID: DOMOREDUMUMOU) that since the box office of "Hello, Li Huanying", a clear trend is that investors in the industry have become more popular with "crying and laughing" projects. It is conceivable that in the next few years, "crying and laughing" will still be a considerable part of the pursuit of domestic comedy movies.

But the success of any movie has its accidentality. It is not easy to copy it. Is "crying and laughing" really the best answer in the current market?

In the field of sketches, the trend of "happy head and sorrow" appeared early in the morning, which was also criticized by the audience, and even some creators were tired. Poisonous eyes analyzed the reason and helplessness of the "happy head and sorrow" last year (the previous article: "The tragic tail, is it the original sin of the sketch?") ", Now this trend is also transmitted to the film market.

Although "Hello, Li Huanying" is also sensational at the end, the completion of its comedy paragraphs is not bad, and there is no "not funny" evaluation.

This is a major advantage of sketches or drama adaptations. Because of its previous performance experience, its comedy paragraphs can get feedback from audiences, and further grinding laughter based on feedback. But if it is an original movie script, there is no process of trial and error. Will the audience laugh and be revealed after being released.

This is also during the period of "Charlotte's Troubles" and "The Richest Man of the West Rainbow City" in the happy twist team. Test.

But to this day, the high -quality drama reserves of happy twist are actually left. Future comedy movies cannot always rely on small products or drama adaptations. They still have to find a more suitable way out of the original movie script.

Some practitioners said that there are more and more films that are "comedy+other types" in the market, and it is inevitable that there is a bit of "laughes and types to make up".

There are passive reasons and active choices. Most of the film creators have the pursuit of "not self -repeat", so the creators who have a little achievement will try to add more self -expression on the basis of pure comedy, try more grand themes or more imaginative type.

This is the first step in the first step of "Comedy+Science Fiction". The previous work of the director Zhang Yuyu is the "Shame Iron Fist" adapted from the happy twist drama. However, in his own life, he is actually a "super animation fan". After reading the original comics of "Lone Moon" in one breath, he was deeply moved by the story, so he decided to take the film adaptation right. Although there are many problems in the process to overcome, he eventually completed his dream as a creator.

At the same time, as mentioned earlier, the audience has become increasingly richer in the channels of obtaining humor, and the comparative advantage of the film in this case is that it is long and visual.

Therefore, the film's more advantageous comedy presentation method may be some humor that requires strong plots and high concepts, and no longer the simple language humor in the past. For example, "Charlotte's Trouble" tells "What will you do in the past" and "The Richest Man of Xihong City", "How will you spend money suddenly"? The story is the humor that cannot be carried by the fragmented media such as short videos.

It is also based on this differentiated advantage that comedy movies have the need to integrate new types or profound themes to a certain extent. Because it may make comedy movies stand out in the vast "section of the ocean", and give the audience a different experience, there can be a reason to enter the theater to watch it.

Why is "Comedy+" trapped

The "crying film" itself also has a huge audience, "crying and laughing" is not "original crime". However, the reason why "not funny" has become a general evaluation of many comedy movies is a large part of the reason is that the expected misplaced by marketing pre -film marketing.

Some films that are not pure comedies themselves are excessively enlarged their own comedy positioning during the marketing stage, and some of the words "tears" are unknown, resulting in those audiences with a "cheerful" mentality entering the theater, but they encountered expectations for expectations Crying films outside, so there is a bad review.

Take "Brother, Hello" as an example. The materials edited in the trailer before the release are basically comedy paragraphs. It was 6 days after the release, and only the material with the tears of tears was released.

For film marketing, it is not difficult to understand the main comedy card, especially when the actor lineup is basically comedian, comedy is the type of long -term sellers on the market. Card". However, once the expectations of "laughing from head to end" are inconsistent with some audiences, and the word of mouth declines, it will inevitably affect the subsequent box office trend. After one increase, this inertial thinking may not be the right choice.

According to industry analysts, if the filmmakers have insufficient confidence in their own film quality, the bonus of the first wave of audiences using comedy signboards may maximize the benefit; but if the filmmaker has full confidence in the quality of his film, then combines the film's film. The actual situation is frank to the audience and avoid the bad reviews caused by error expectations as much as possible, which is more conducive to long -term benefits.

But then again, the audience may not be exactly rejected by the experience outside the movie viewing expectations. Strictly speaking, the ending of "Charlotte's Trouble" also has a sensational paragraph, but it has not been disgusted by the audience on a large scale. This shows that the most critical factor is whether the quality of the movie itself is excellent.

At present, the lack of talents in the creative end of domestic comedy films is the primary dilemma that is difficult to break through the bottleneck.

On the one hand, the emerging comedy director and comedy screenwriter formed the "signboard" are very limited. Both "Crazy Stone" and "Taiyu" have two well -known directors, but the directors of "Charlotte's Trouble" and "The Richest Man of Xihong City" Yan Fei and Peng Damo, approaching the public's cognition Yuwu.

This is also a major trend after twist comedy enters the market. Because Twist works originated from the theater, the collective creative model is mature, the degree of industrialization is high, and the director's personal style is weak. Essence

What the public can remember is often only comedian. Compared with other types, in comedy, the role and influence of actors at various stages are greater.

When creating, the creation of many specific laughing points actually comes from the idea of ​​comedians, not the merit of the screenwriter. Taking "Lone Moon" as an example, the director and screenwriter Zhang Yu had previously told Poisonous Eyes (previous articles: "Lone Moon, Create a Universe for Romance"), "Tengge's creative ability and comedy performance experience is too rich than me too rich than me More, he must be the top in the aspiring performance, so every time I arrive at the scene, I only need to give Tengge. "For example, the scene of the frying door, the technical means are just" a shot "," clothes "," clothes "Flying", the remaining design was created by Shen Teng himself.

When shooting, the same comedy paragraph is performed by different comedians, and the effect may be very different. The term "content" can start in the audience's group, and it fully illustrates that Shen Teng's long -term excellent personal performance has settled in the audience's hearts, and even the audience said, "When you see Shen Teng's face, I want to laugh. "

During the announcement, the face of comedians is also the best advertisement for comedy. Compared with other types of films, comedy may be the type label that is closer to the actor.

Therefore, comedians with popular cognitive comedians are almost a task that must be completed during the planning of comedy movies. It is often even an actor to determine the performance and then have project planning.

However, comedians are also facing a state of inappropriate supply in the market. According to industry insiders, the actors of different comedy factions have different performance methods and ideas. It is difficult to generate chemical reactions blindly, so it is difficult to form a new continuous blood supply mechanism in the industry. At present, the comedians of the head are very limited. Basically, the actors of the happy twist are mainly based on the production needs of comedy movies.

Happy Twist has also obviously supported the middle waist actor to the head in recent years. For example, Wei Xiang, who used to be "gold medal green leaves" in the past, has picked up two consecutive films this year. But after the "green leaves" finally boiled into "red flowers", where is the next "green leaf"?

Overall, whether it is pure comedy or "comedy+", it is the best situation to give the right to the audience on the creative end. Do not have a blindly follow -up mentality because of the success of individual films. Although the new attempts that break through the existing framework will inevitably be unacceptable. The audience has long been formed on the expectations of the comedy "laugh from the beginning to the end", and the new works of high -quality work are required to break through and adapt.

Obviously, comedy is still on the road.

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