Famous writer and screenwriter Yan Geling: It is too childish and secular to judge movies based on box office

"I am looking forward to the participating films at this film festival." Yan Geling said that what Yan Geling felt most deeply about the China film market with capital support was the "box office theory." "We pursue box office too much, just like a nation pursues wealth." In Yan Geling's view, it is the market's excessive enthusiasm for box office that has created a series of chaos such as box office fraud.

The film market with the help of capital has entered the fast lane of rapid development. However, it cannot be ignored that the film market, which is surrounded by capital, has fallen into difficulties such as lost real themes, rampant IP, and serious content homogenization.

As a writer who has created excellent works such as "Return","The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" and "Girl Xiaoyu", Yan Geling attended the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival as a judge. For Yan Geling, who has only worked as a judge for three film festivals, she is still a novice in film criticism.

"We pursue box office too much, just like a nation pursues wealth." In Yan Geling's view, it is the market's excessive enthusiasm for box office that has created a series of chaos such as box office fraud.

The market's pursuit of box office is reasonable. For film production companies, high-box office movies can attract more audiences, increase popularity, and gain an advantageous position in competition with movies released at the same time to make profits. For audiences, the box office level of a movie has also become an important reference criterion for judging whether the movie is worth watching.

"I'm scared when I hear about the box office now." Yan Geling bluntly said,"Many movies seem meaningless, which is just a visual consumption, but many excellent movies do not perform well at the box office."

Yan Geling was particularly impressed by the film "Massage". This excellent film, which premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and eventually won the Silver Bear Award for Best Artistic Contribution (Photography), only won 3 million yuan after 10 days of release.

Regarding the box office failure, Guo Xiaodong, the leading actor at the time, said,"When the big waves wash away the sand, there will always be something that will settle down and prove to be gold."

"We should not emphasize too much box office. The film festival is a place that promotes the art of film. Let us return to the theme of why movies are made. It is very childish and secular to judge movies based on box office." Yan Geling said.

At the same time, as an excellent writer and screenwriter, Yan Geling said in an interview with media including reporters that current script creation particularly requires "personal independent thinking", and independent thinking is the foundation of artistic creation.

"I find it very regrettable that this is an era of lack of personal thinking. China people 'infect' each other too much. Everyone builds up the story after chatting. They lack personal thinking and style. After watching China movies, they feel that they have met many things before and have seen many things somewhere." Yan Geling said that she has lived in Berlin for a long time precisely because the environment there gives her space to think independently.

In addition to suggestions that writers need to think about at the moment, market-oriented screenwriters follow the creation of popular themes, and the lack of realistic themes has also become a pain in Yan Geling's eyes."Now we need creative screenwriters and writers. Don't be influenced too much by the market, but find your own voice and thinking."

Editor: yvette