There is a kind of movie that is not favored by theaters but is praised by the audience. "Charlotte" is one of them.

The story begins with a middle-aged man named Charlotte.

Charlotte, who has accomplished nothing, is dissatisfied with reality and relies on his wife Ma Dongmei for parasitism. When attending the wedding of his former crush Qiu Ya, he failed to show off and was ridiculed. He became angry and made a scene at the wedding. Just as the scene was chaotic, his wife Ma Dongmei arrived. In order to avoid Ma Dongmei's pursuit, Charlotte fled to the bathroom for refuge. He was so drunk that he fell asleep on the toilet and woke up inexplicably back to his high school days.

What would you do if you were given a chance to do it again?

Faced with starting over, Charlotte made a completely different choice. He became the godfather of music by relying on the songs he remembered. He married Bai Fumei Qiuya, drove a luxury car, lived in a mansion, and partyed on a yacht. From then on, he reached the pinnacle of life. Unfortunately, his beloved wife Qiu Ya cheated on him, and he was diagnosed with AIDS. For a time, everyone deserted him, but when he looked back, only Ma Dongmei still loved him as always.

"Charlotte's Trouble" is a small-budget film produced by Happy Twist Group for the first time. There are many details and truths hidden under the laughter. At first glance, your face will burst into laughter, but if you look closely, you will shed tears. Full shirt. In fact, the director just used uncanny craftsmanship to disguise all kinds of living situations in the world into a comedy. Only when we peel off the coat of comedy can we truly see the core of reality that makes people laugh and cry.

It would be a shame if you just laughed at the movie as a joke. Below, I will explain why this movie counterattacked and became a dark horse in the fiercely competitive National Day schedule from three aspects: the film's counterattack, characters, artistic features and practical significance, and gained a good reputation.

01. The road to counterattack: from never being favored by theaters, with far less than 30% of the film schedule, to the ultimate box office of 1.441 billion, which is the embodiment of quality and the accumulation of reputation

< p> Five years ago during the National Day holiday, Happy Mahua, who was testing the waters of the film market for the first time, met Xu Zheng, who was playing at the commercial box office. The low-budget comedy "Charlotte Trouble" bumped into the "囧" series of "囧". Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "the brave will win when meeting on a narrow road". However, for profit-seeking theaters, ensuring theater attendance and revenue is the first priority. Whoever has a good box office record will be given more films. It is their default underlying logic for arranging films.

At that time, theater chains were collectively not optimistic about Happy Twist's "Charlotte", and gave 70% of their film schedules to "囧" and "The Nine-Story Demon Tower", while "Charlotte" was We can only share the remaining 30% of the film with several films such as "Rescue Mr. My Life". The lack of sufficient film schedules meant that the box office on the opening day would not be able to hit the box office. Charlotte, who had no film schedule at that time, was really troubled.

However, what no one expected was that there was a huge contrast between the poor film scheduling rate and the good reputation among the audience. Netizen? Obama runs fast? said this:

"Charlotte" is a thousand times better than "囧" and "Pancake Man".

The good word-of-mouth reputation from the audience became the key to the film's counterattack. Finally, on October 4, "Charlotte" counterattacked "Embarrassed in Hong Kong" and became the biggest National Day movie in 2015. dark horse. In the end, it received a Douban score of 7.6 and a box office of 1.441 billion, completely beating "囧 in Hong Kong" which only had a score of 5.7.

Although a good start is half the success, it is not an absolute factor. Quality is the last word. I remember that Shen Teng said sincerely when promoting the "Venus Show" talk show: If everyone goes into the cinema and thinks this movie is not good, then you should not pay for any of Shen Teng's future works. It's my punishment. ?

At that time, I thought it was just a joke by Shen Teng to exaggerate the atmosphere of the show, but I didn’t expect that what he said was actually true. So where does Happy Twist's confidence come from? Of course it is their hard work in all aspects during the pre-shooting. This situation of turning defeat into victory is the counterattack of "Charlotte Troubles" and also the counterattack of Happy Twist. What supports their counterattack is good quality and good reputation.

02. Character image: Underneath the different character settings is a unified ugly face, which is the weakness of human nature, and the differentiated ugliness is to contrast the only bright spot of human nature

Characters are symbolic figures that reflect all living beings. The film is like a mirror that reflects the true face. The characters are like ordinary people in real life who reflect themselves through the mirror. Although there are many different characters, there is always one that you can click with, and what they reveal may be a side that you dare not admit and face, or it may be a side that is extremely compatible with you.

①Different characters have the same ugly face, and beneath the ugliness lies the truest weakness of human nature

The soft-boiled Charlotte; the selfish Qiu Ya; Hypocritical Yuan Hua; Xia Luo is a typical figure at the bottom of society. The unsatisfactory life brought him endless fantasies. If he doesn't know how to work hard on the ground, he will only feel sorry for himself. Relying on his wife Ma Dongmei, he has become a parasite who has no responsibility for his marriage and no pursuit of himself.

The outlook on life in "The Godfather" is: the first step is to realize self-worth, the second step is to take good care of your family, the third step is to help kind people as much as possible, the fourth step is to speak out for the ethnic group, and the fifth step is to Strive for honor for the country.

It is not easy for ordinary people to do the first two steps well, but Charlotte failed to achieve either of them.

He doesn't know how to love others. He turns a blind eye and turns a deaf ear to the real and silent contributions of others, and always pursues unrealistic and false ideas. Only after going through hell and experiencing the harshness of the world, and finally in front of a bowl of fennel marinade, did I find the true flavor of life.

From the appearance, Qiu Ya is most people’s dream lover type. She has beautiful appearance, elegant temperament, gentle manners, and good tutoring. She has captured the hearts of many stupid young people as soon as she appeared on the scene. But she is beautiful on the outside, but she is ruined on the inside. She is neither kind nor virtuous, and does not even have the most basic loyalty to marriage. Love is just a lie for her to pursue high material needs.

Yuan Hua is a typical proud man in the movie. He is an outstanding student cadre, a good student, and the son of the district mayor. He is a person shrouded in halo. But such a "three good students" walked out of school and hooked up with gangsters. He dared not speak out about Xia Luo's harassment, but chose to watch indifferently when his classmate Ma Dongmei was led into the woods by gangsters.

Xia Luo, Qiu Ya, Yuan Hua, including the teacher who receives the gift, and the classmates who despise and laugh at each other, these characters in the play are an important part of the movie. Through their ugly humanity, we can see another It is the truest part of human weakness. In fact, real life is like this, full of ugliness in all aspects, and comedy just amplifies this part.

②The existence of many buffoons is just to highlight the scarce and beautiful humanity

I would rather laugh in an electric car than cry in a BMW , this is Ma Dongmei! Apart from being a bit grumpy, she is particularly suitable for living at home. She is kind and willing to pay for Charlotte. It's a pity that she didn't fall in love with a man who wanted to live at home.

Ma Dongmei is a character with some bright spots in the movie. From the first line at the beginning, to pursuing Charlotte without fear of rumors, to leaving silently and leaving quietly, Ma Dongmei has always been herself, followed her heart, said what everyone wanted to say but didn't dare to say, and did what she wanted to do And what everyone dares not do is not artificial or false at all.

It can be said that the brilliance of humanity in her is the rarest part of the many ugly human natures embodied by other characters. The film has such a dazzling human highlight that allows the audience to see that the world in the film is not all gloomy. Her appearance is the only color, the only light, the only real person in the film.

03. Artistic features: Through the close contact between drama and film, sparks of collision between business and art are created

This is a film adapted from the stage play of the same name, Happy Twist Group The characteristics of the stage play are cleverly grafted onto the film art, and the details of the script are carefully crafted to achieve a perfect win-win between business and art. The extensive use of hilarious language gags allows the film to maximize the most basic comedy elements, that is, to complete the art of comedy through language.

From the embarrassment of matching clothes with the emcee when he first appeared, to the surprise when he returned to 1997, and then to his fame in the music industry, all these experiences are full of fantasy and humor. If you were to label this movie, would it be youth, nostalgia, love, or time travel? No, comedy is its biggest label and the soul that supports this show. What is comedy? In the words of Mr. Lu Xun: It's just on the stage. Tragedy destroys the valuable things in life for people to watch, and comedy tears up the worthless things for people to watch. ?

Because the film is supported by the IP of the stage play of the same name, the entire film is basically adapted around the creative ideas of a typical theatrical stage, converting the three-sided framed stage scene structure into the audio-visual language of the film. What stands out is polishing the movie dialogue and making good use of language gags. Each character in the film has a long dialogue, and there are all kinds of laughs hidden in every word you say and what I say. For example:

Qiu Ya is the famous school beauty in our school; and I am even more famous, I am a famous joke in the whole school. When I go to a banquet alone and dress up in chicken feathers, my classmates all dress up in chicken feathers. The child Charlotte had a hard life. As soon as she was born, Charlotte’s father was unknown. My father's name is Ma Dong. He died when I was born, so my name is Ma Dongmei. Drama is a performance that is constantly repeated and honed, and every successful comedy is constantly improved after hundreds of rehearsals. Compared with the rough scripts of movies, comedies adapted from plays will have more polished dialogues, more jokes, and more solid line skills, often linking link to link. Official media once commented on the artistic characteristics of this film:

Return honestly to the work itself. If it is a movie, shoot every shot well; if it is a novel, cherish every text; if it is a play, carefully consider every sentence. Lines, literary and artistic works may be like Charlotte in the film, through all kinds of impetuosity, to find the original self.

It was precisely because when Happy Twist was filming this movie that the lines in the movie were polished according to the requirements of the drama, we were able to truly abandon impetuousness. They calmed down and returned to the original and most important language carrier of comedy, using a large number of dense, rich, and interesting language gags to create the humor and irony of comedy, improving the comedy effect without being empty and embarrassing.

04. Practical significance: From Charlotte’s experience of being dissatisfied with reality and living a new life, I have the following two thoughts and revelations

Many people say that this is a very old-fashioned time travel. There is nothing novel about Shihuang Liang Yimeng, but in my opinion, the film has the magic power to change lives, and it brings me the most sincere touch every time I watch it again.

Because the practical significance behind the simple story is the truly valuable part of the film, it made me think about the practical significance of the film after laughing.

① Life is a process of constant choices. There is no right or wrong in the choice itself. If I had chosen that way, would it be different now? Almost everyone who is dissatisfied with reality will have such hypothetical thoughts. But when you really go back to the fork in the road where you made your original choice, will you be able to make the choice you want again? The fact is often that when you choose your first love that you will never forget, you may miss the person who stays with you through thick and thin, life and death, and sex.

Charlotte in the film unexpectedly had such an opportunity to make a new choice, but what did he gain in the end? It was Qiu Ya's cheating, betrayal, and despair lying on the hospital bed. Life was worse than being a parasite in front of Ma Dongmei. At least Ma Dongmei was sincere to him from beginning to end and never left him.

There are too many people like Charlotte in reality. They are tired of their lives and are pushed away by the cruel reality. They live like parasites or walking zombies. They either blame others or regret every day. wasting time. In my opinion, even if they had to do it over again, they still wouldn't be able to get rid of the current situation.

In fact, life is a process of constant choices. When you choose one path, you must give up another path. You can never have your cake and eat it too. There is no right or wrong in the choice itself. Blessings and misfortunes depend on each other, right and wrong. If you don't want to regret, you can only achieve your goals through hard work. This is the only correct way.

②Be a person who knows how to be satisfied and learn to cherish the people in front of you

The most important reason why Charlotte is unhappy in both reality and dreams is that he does not know how to be satisfied. He is still not satisfied with Ma Dongmei, a wife who is hard-working, kind and loyal, and who treats him wholeheartedly without asking for anything in return. Charlotte always thought about her unrealistic "Bai Yueguang" Qiu Ya. It wasn't until she tasted the feeling of being betrayed by Qiu Ya in her dream that she realized how good Ma Dongmei was and that she was the most cherished person.

On the contrary, Ma Dongmei has never had anything to deal with Charlotte, who has no ambition, has unrealistic wishful thinking, doesn't want to see her, doesn't assume the responsibilities of marriage, and just lies on her body and "sucks blood" every day. He is not satisfied and never complains about why he chose such a person as his husband in the first place. Because of love, she was content as long as Charlotte was by her side.

Those who are content will be happy even in poverty; those who are dissatisfied will also be worried about wealth. ?Lin Bu

Many married couples have known each other since childhood and have stayed together in poverty and humbleness, but have forgotten their original intentions and cannot waste time. In fact, it is not that life has become boring, but that they have lost themselves and turned a blind eye to the good things they have. Only when they are hit by external forces and experience heartbreaking pain can they understand the importance of those people and things, and understand that it is better to take pity on the people in front of you than to take pity on the people in front of you.

Those who know how to be satisfied, no matter whether they are poor or rich, are more likely to gain happiness; those who know how to be satisfied, no matter what kind of difficulties they encounter, are more likely to break out of the situation. God is fair. When he closes a door for you, he will definitely open another window for you. At this moment, as long as you live up to your time, live up to yourself, and cherish the people in front of you, you will definitely gain a beautiful life.

Written at the end:

In the humorous dialogue of the film "Charlotte", it uses irony to highlight the scarce and precious humanity through ugly human weaknesses. Brilliance. Use a simple, time-traveling "Nankeyi Meng" to reflect the practical significance of the film, inspire the audience to think about the connotation of the story, and learn to be alert to themselves.

This is a "three-no" film with no big stars, no big production, and no big marketing. However, the film was able to fight its way out of the fiercely competitive National Day schedule, and the box office opened low and went high. , the reputation has been rising all the way, and a beautiful counterattack has been completed. What is the reason? It depends on the high quality and good reputation of the film.