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Is the victory of “Mom” and “Sister” really a victory of female films?

Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Entertainment Hard Candy” (ID: yuleyingtang).

Author | Gu Han

Edit | Li Chunhui

In the past few years, women’s reshaping of the entertainment consumption ecology can basically be regarded as two stages, and at the same time two models.

First, with the increase of women’s spending power and online activity, the consumption of “little fresh meat” male sex emerged around 2014. The small screen market dominated by TV stations and video sites can be said to be extremely pleasing to female users. The big heroine, sweet pet dramas, danchang dramas, and talent show variety shows are still the absolute protagonists of screens.

The other wave is that with the awakening of female consciousness and the spread of feminist discourse, gender has become a hot topic on social media. The objects of female content consumption have also shifted from “brothers” to “sisters”, and from female gaze outward to female introspection. After the drama series and variety show were swept by the “sister” in 2020, it will be the turn of the movie market in 2021.

First, “Hello Li Huanying”, directed and acted by Jia Ling and starred by Zhang Xiaofei, watched the people all over the country cry and collected more than 5 billion box office, becoming the well-deserved king of the Spring Festival stalls.

Later, “My Sister”, created by “National Sister” Zhang Zifeng and Yin Ruoxin and You Xiaoying, was well-received, breaking the box office record of Chinese film history Qingming drama drama and the cumulative box office record of Chinese film history Qingming family movies.

For a long time, the movie market has been masculine. In the box office charts of Chinese movies before this year, almost all the top 30 movies were male leading actors, male creators, and masculine themes. Even some films have been accused of “straight male cancer” (such as the early works of Happy Twist), which still does not affect their overall success.

And this year, not only the Spring Festival file was won by “Li Huanying”. In the Qingming period that just passed, the four new films, except for one cartoon, more or less involved women’s issues. But on the other hand, is the victory of “Mom” and “Sister” really a victory of female films?

It’s still a victory for “Crying Films”

When “laughing” becomes readily available, “cry” becomes more precious. It is worth paying for a movie ticket and going to the cinema in person.

It’s hard to say since when, comedy no longer tried Bai Ling, “tear film” began to dominate in important periods, including dog blood pure love film, main themeThere are many genres such as Lujiaguo movies and realism genre movies.

Indeed, as many people of insight have already observed, “emotions” are playing an increasingly important role in boosting the box office and helping spread. Looking at the phenomenon-level movies in recent years-“Wolf Warriors 2”, “Wandering Earth”, “I’m Not the God of Medicine”, or the next level, last year’s annual hits-“Eight Hundreds”, “Send You A Little Girl” “Safflower”, all have the correct national sentiment in the correct timestamp, thus reaping dazzling box office results.

Among many emotions, family affection is the most universal and contagious one. Many commercial blockbusters, while rushing towards the prospect of industrialization, have not forgotten to add some father-son, father-daughter, mother-daughter relationships as “lubricants” (successful or unsuccessful), let alone the home of this type of emotion-reality theme.

Although “Li Huanying” uses comedy genre and fantasy crossing elements, it is undeniable that the description of the mother-daughter relationship (especially the lines and the details of interaction) and the portrayal of the customs of the 1980s have all ended. It’s very “real” and can effectively trigger similar memories in the audience’s mind, thereby triggering empathy.

It can be seen that as a very private film in nature, “Li Huanying” actually has no great ambitions in its creation, does not make redundant attempts to show off skills, and does not forcefully create topics for the sake of popularity, and finally presents The effect is pure and gentle. It can be said that “Li Huanying” does not want to offend subjectively, and it has also managed to impress the audience with true feelings.

But precisely because of this, the “female power” of “Li Huanying” is actually more reflected in the mutual support between women. Whether it is Jia Xiaoling’s desire to disappear in order to let her mother live a better life, or the friendship between Jia Ling and Zhang Xiaofei outside the play, or the “de-vulgarization” of the language and laughter of the camera (next door “Tang Detective 3” also Just send a wave of assists). But in essence, the film finally returned to the sacrifice of Acura’s mother, and did not really challenge the male-dominated mainstream value, and lacked the critical awareness that female films should have.

So, is “My Sister” doing better?

The creative motivation of this film is completely different from “Li Huanying”.Screenwriter You Xiaoying mentioned in an interview that her creative inspiration came from the release of the second-child policy in 2016, and the creative opportunity is first from an ethical perspective, not a feminist issue. It was only in the later stage of creation that I decided to move closer to the latter, highlighting the plight of women.

This leads to an indescribable sense of “twisting” in “Sister”. On the one hand, the oppression that women may encounter in their lives is fully revealed to her sister An Ran alone: ​​domestic violence, being asked to pretend to be disabled for the second child, sexual harassment from the elders, ruined career prospects, workplace discrimination… Even talking about a boyfriend is “Momboy.” No one looked at it and felt that her steps to break free should not stop for anyone.

But on the other hand, under Zhu Yuanyuan and Xiao Yang’s superb interpretation, the two most memorable relatives are typical but reasonable figures. About half of the film, the younger brother also changed from a bear child to a little pitiful. In the end, he even took the initiative to make sacrifices for his sister. The three of them woven a family net for An Ran.

And An Ran himself is also portrayed as that after stripping away the external coldness, there is still a heart inside that needs to be loved and loved, and expects to be recognized by his parents, so he will finally choose to reconcile before his parents’ graves. Resist the affection for the younger brother inspired by the blood relationship.

If you lean towards ethics, this will be another touching family movie; if you lean towards women’s rights, it will also be a bold female movie. However, the main creator did not make a very clear choice. Instead, he jumped repeatedly and ended up with an open end, so that in the end, he won a high box office while also incurring word-of-mouth controversy.

The reason for this situation is probably because the Internet is sufficiently fragmented-the family marketing on Kuaishou and the criticism on Douban can almost coexist in parallel without interfering with each other.

Of course, from another perspective, although the open ending has caused a lot of saliva, it has also aroused continuous debate, attracting interested audiences to enter the cinema to check it out, and maintain the enthusiasm for the film Is advantageous. “Sister” cannot be said to be a very thorough female film, but it can be said to be a very successful female hit.

female film, Where to go?

Of course, there are no more “female films” in female films in China. In 2018, Zhuangzhuang Arita produced “Over the Spring” directed by new director Bai Xue, and the crime film “Find You” starring Yao Chen and Ma Yili; in 2019, there was “Send Me to the Clouds” which boldly talked about women’s eroticism; in 2020, there is a net. “Spring Tide” broadcast.

However, apart from “Find You” which has certain genre elements, the other three are obviously more literary films. On the one hand, this has created a threshold for the general public. On the other hand, it will inevitably face a more critical look and stricter scrutiny. The final box office was 9.952 million (“Passing the Spring”) and 29.538 million (“Send Me to Qingyun “), 70.79 million (“Spring Tide”).

Including “The Eleventh” in the same period as “My Sister”. Although self-proclaimed as a comedy, in fact, the female characters are diversified and full of vitality. The performances of actors Zhou Xun, Dou Jingtong and Chun Xia also have their own surprises. However, the film is too experimental in style, and the threshold for understanding is higher than the above three films. It is difficult to penetrate into the broader sinking market. The current box office can exceed 60 million.

Of course, it is shameful to use the box office theory to win or lose, and the hard candy man is not trying to prove the failure of one party with the success of one party, or compare one party’s loftiness to the other party’s compromise. However, before the Internet or other theaters suitable for the distribution of literary and artistic films have not yet matured, female films, as “niche non-mainstream” that are destined to challenge the mainstream, are likely to have a problem of expression and box office for a long time. Dilemma. Moreover, box office data actually represents not only commercial revenue, but also the intensity of dissemination and the scope of penetration.

And the rare thing about “My Sister” is: For many women’s questions, although it failed to give answers, it pushed the question itself before more people’s eyes and triggered in-depth discussions on women’s topics from all walks of life. In this regard, Mr. Hard Candy believes that it deserves a more fair evaluation, at least it should not be arbitrarily labeled.

Of course, looking at the progress of female films at home and abroad, in addition to the emergence of female masterpieces, the rise of female filmmakers is also a phenomenon that deserves attention. Especially in Hollywood, female directors are no longer limited to independent TVMovies, but commercial blockbusters featuring female protagonists such as “Wonder Woman”, “Captain Marvel”, “Mulan” and “Black Widow”.

On the other hand, in China, the film industry has a long history of “booming and declining”. There are already 10 tens of billions of box office gentlemen. Among the mainland actresses, Dongyu Zhou, who has the highest cumulative box office, is stuck at 9.595 billion, and further down is Bai Baihe (8.357 billion), who was once the number one chick film and has many female protagonists, and One of the most successful female comedians, Ma Li (7.374 billion).

In the last Spring Festival file (2019), there were statistics from the media that only one of the six finalized live-action blockbusters was starring a female, namely Stephen Chow’s “New King of Comedy”, and the others were basically male protagonists. Male group portrait. Therefore, when Jia Ling and Zhang Xiaofei beat “Tang Detective 3” to win the first place in the Spring Festival in 2021, even because of the special circumstances of the global market, Jia Ling is expected to hit the world’s highest box office female director, which is far more meaningful than a film. Success is great.

Including the success of “My Sister”, in addition to the film itself, it also achieved the “achievements” of post-00 Zhang Zifeng, from younger sister to older sister, from child stars with few roles to new students who can play the leading role and “carry the box office” Acting as an actress is also a good thing.

In short, just as a healthy market ecology should have its own merits in commercial films and literary films, female films and female filmmakers must prove their professional and commercial values ​​to improve the status and discourse of women in the entire industry. Rights, overthrowing stale rules and creative consciousness, etc. As an audience, you should actually be more tolerant. After all, this may be a rather long process, with compromises and even regressions.

At present, it seems that 2021 is indeed a new year for women’s films. “My Sister” Yu Wei is still here, ranking first in the rankings, and is expected to hit 800 million and 900 million box office. And this weekend (April 16) there will be another dual heroine movie “August Weiyang” (Zhong Chuxi, Tan Songyun) adapted from Annie Baby’s novel.

For the 51st file half a month later, there will be “She in the World” directed by Zhang Aijia, Li Shaohong, and Chen Chong, starring Zhou Xun and Zheng Xiuwen, and a crime comedy with two heroines starring Ma Li and Song Jia directed by Li Yu “Sunshine Robbers” two films featuring female creators and female actors. Who will be the next female hit? What would an ideal Chinese female film look like?