"Forbes" magazine once stated from a business perspective that if "Hello, Li Huanying" box office exceeds " Wonder Woman "'s $821 million, Jia Ling will become the world's highest-grossing female director.
So far, according to the professional version of Maoyan, the box office of "Hello, Li Huanying" has reached 5.320 billion yuan, and 118 million people entered the theater to watch it. As overseas screenings unfold, this prediction is almost certain to come true.
Why "Hello, Li Huanying" can achieve such a result, the public has had a lot of discussions before. The sincerity that the film exudes everywhere is obviously an important factor in attracting the audience.
This kind of sincerity is first embodied in emotion. The film reveals the tolerance and trust of the mother to her daughter, the unconditional love, and the daughter's efforts to give her mother happiness and happiness, which directly touches the audience's heart.
Secondly, the true restoration of the film scene and the tacit performance between the actors have also greatly enhanced the persuasiveness of the story.
And all of this is inseparable from the emotional investment of Jia Ling , and the use of an ingenious reversal story structure in the creative process to push this core emotion of the film to a climax.
This is a commercial film with a lot of personal memories and a very strong personal touch. It has a unique style and makes its success difficult to replicate.
Use real memory to create the truth of the film
five years ago,Jia Ling composed the story of herself and her mother into a 20-minute sketch, and put it on the stage of the show "Span1span Comedy Story ".
Even though there is no environment on the stage, this emotional and sincere sketch under the spotlight quickly touched the hearts of the audience and made people tearful.
In the film creation of "Hello, Li Huanying", the basic character relationship, narrative main line and main actors of the sketch are retained, and more specific character depiction and story development are added. This is unprecedented in upgrading the sketch to the film.
The main line of the sketch is the tragic story of a daughter who unexpectedly returned to her mother's youth after the death of her mother and helped her mother chase love in a comedy skin. The film inherits the classic story structure of "back to the past", and incorporates all the important moments in Jia Ling’s mother’s life, adding more characters, restoring the characteristics of the mother in the many stories and the relationship between the characters, and establishing the mother’s vividness. Character image.
In real life, Jia Ling's mother Li Huanying was the first person in the factory to have a black-and-white TV set at that time. In the movie, in order to inject comedy color into this true story, in the process of "buying TV", the plot of Li Huanying and his colleagues queuing for the last TV in the store is inserted, and Jia Ling will guide the result. On the one hand, it succeeded in making the otherwise plain story interesting. On the other hand, it allowed Jia Ling in the movie to participate in important moments in her mother's life, opening up the bondage of mother-daughter love after returning to the past.
Jia Xiaoling (played by Jia Ling), who knows the direction of the real story well, also tried to use a volleyball game in the movie to allow her mother to get acquainted with the factory director’s son, and then through a series of matching methods, They end up together so that the mother can lead a more prosperous life.
Nevertheless,Li Huanying in the film failed to make the same choice as Jia Xiaoling's wish in the matter of marriage partner as in reality.
In Jia Ling's real memory, her mother is always open-minded, optimistic and understanding. Through the joyful stories in the film, we can also clearly feel these characteristics of Li Huanying. At the same time, Jia Ling used this to restore a side that her mother rarely showed to her in real life, so as to show her mother's changes.
In this way, this film has no cool shots. It uses bits and pieces of trivial details to tell Jia Ling's love for her mother like a trickle. The audience can feel Jia Ling wants her mother to live. Happy, happy wishes. There are even some lines that Jia Xiaoling said to Li Huanying in the film, just like the words Jia Ling wants to confide to her mother in real life.
This film began with Jia Ling's nostalgia for her mother, and it also grew out of it.
Use creative skills to enrich the true feelings
Except for Jia Ling’s investment in narrative and characters, the reason why this film has such a high concentration of emotion is worthwhile For film structure, scene creation and actor performance.
If the film stays on Jia Xiaoling's structure of going back to the past and trying to make her mother happy, it will easily fall into the ordinary.
used this structure as early as 1985 in " Back to the Future". The male protagonist once inadvertently returned to 1955 and brought his parents together; the protagonist in the 2004 "Butterfly Effect" I want to go back to the past and change the direction of the real story by changing a little thing. Most of these films are showing elements of science fiction films,Which covers a lot of suspenseful colors.
"Span1span Charlotte's Worries " The protagonist goes back to the past to rewrite his failed life, using this traditional structure. However, the film attempts to replace the previous suspense style with a comedy style. "Hello, Li Huanying" also tried to make the film more comedic, but to the end, "Hello, Li Huanying" suddenly returned to the suspense style, which was a big reversal.
Based on the fact that "young mothers can't sew clothes", Jia Xiaoling in the film suddenly understands that she thinks silently makes her mother happy, and her mother already knew it. This uncomplicated reversal makes the film's use of comedy stories gradually pushed to the climax of emotions suddenly reached its peak.
The love that Jia Xiaoling tries to make her mother happy in the film is gentle, while the deeper love and fulfillment revealed by her mother for her through the reversal flow out like a flood, breaking the audience’s psychology In the defense line, emotions rushed straight to the peak like a roller coaster, and then fell to the bottom when Jia Xiaoling was about to return to the future. The audience's emotions were firmly affected by this mother-daughter relationship.
I have to admit that the mother-daughter love expressed in the film is truly in place. In the setting, Jia Ling also tried to restore the characteristics of the era at that time, to make the setting of "Back to the Past" true and believable, and also used a lot of warm yellow light to create a simple, beautiful and warm atmosphere, visually helping the audience establish a right The perception of emotion in the film.
Film Art Director Zhao Hai once introduced to the media that during the film art preparation stage, he went to Jia Ling’s hometown of the chemical plant in Xiangyang Mountain, Hubei, and learned about the director’s ideas while surveying the scene. For example, the sunlight filtering through the glass and spilling into the infirmary, the picture of a family of three on the grass slope, and the renovation design of the volleyball court are all designed to create a warm environment.
in the performance,Jia Ling is a natural performance with real emotions from beginning to end. The actor of her mother Li Huanying Zhang Xiaofei is not only her long-term working partner, but also a close-knit friend. This kind of tacit understanding accumulated over the years makes their interaction in "Hello, Li Huanying" more natural. Facing her, Jia Ling releases the most sincere emotions in her heart.
Although these experiences can be used for reference, the most precious emotional core and memory of the film can hardly be copied. It is difficult to say whether there will be movies like "Hello, Li Huanying" that will also be popular with audiences in the future. But what is certain is that Jia Ling, who has experience in directing for the first time, will definitely not stop at "Hello, Li Huanying", she may continue to create surprises for us.
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