Give Jay Chou a trick： How to successfully steal a scene in a group portrait movie

1905 movie network feature After three years, the sequel finally released today. In addition to the previous "Hulk" Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and veteran actors Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, the second installment also welcomes new characters, "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe’s villain Boss, and "Jay Chou" Jay Chou’s magic prop shop owner.

Movie poster

Previously, whether in the United States or domestic propaganda materials, Zhou Dong has always occupied a prominent position, ranking as one of the nine leading stars of this group portrait film. Even Mark Ruffalo said in previous interviews that he is a fan of Zhou Dong. Xiao Dianjun thought that the Chinese finally don’t have to make soy sauce in Hollywood blockbusters, and can compete with many Hollywood big names and play in the same scene. After going to the theater this morning and watching the first screening, I realized that I was too naive!

Mark Ruffalo and Zhou Dong for a photo

However, the key point was that there was no sense of existence at all. He was a character that would not affect the plot even if he was deleted. Moreover, his acting could only be considered as his true character, without any surprises.

Chairperson Zhou and Grandma Zhou Caiqin

It’s a pity that Zhou Dong missed this great opportunity to make a comeback, but we won’t give up easily. Xiao Dianjun is here today to offer Zhou Dong’s advice and recommend eight group portrait movies to see how the actors have risen up, broken through the siege, and successfully stole the show.

Before recommending it, it is necessary to first explain what is a group portrait movie? There is no exact definition, but we can observe some basic characteristics of it: there is generally no absolute protagonist, and the story thread and narrative angle are not single, but multi-protagonist, multi-clue narrative, often with complex narrative structure. For example, this year’s Oscar Best Picture, and the recent hit.

Family films are a common genre of group portraits, reflecting the personalities of individual family members and their relationships. The film depicts a bizarre family: a grandfather who is kicked out of a nursing home for taking drugs and telling dirty jokes all day; an uncle who is gay and recently committed suicide; a brother who has not spoken for nine months after taking a dumb vow to get into flying school; a father who is an egomaniac who sells success. The family embarks on a road trip to get their young daughter into a beauty pageant.

A beautiful woman in the sun

It’s not easy to compete in such a group of roles, but Blaisling, who was less than ten years old at the time, succeeded. In the film, she looks sloppy, has a chubby belly, loves ice cream, but dreams of becoming a beauty pageant champion. In the end, she infects everyone with her innocent smile: on the way, everyone forgets her at the gas station, and she smiles without any complaints; when her brother finds out that he is colorblind and cannot be a pilot, she warms him with a hug; on the stage of the beauty pageant, knowing that she is not suitable for this stage, she tries to do the striptease dance taught by her grandfather for his last wish. This little girl conquers all adults with her innocent kindness, and even the gaps in her teeth when she smiles are very cute.

Group portraits are also often used in detective movies, such as "Murder on the Eastern Train" and so on. A group of people with ulterior motives and evil intentions are trapped in a relatively closed environment, and then accidents happen. They die one by one until the real murderer is found.

In 2006, Mr. Ichikawa, a 90-year-old director, remade his three-decade-old classic, "The Inujin Clan," his last film starring the famous detective Kazuichi Kaneda. The film featured an all-star cast of old playwrights and idol entertainers, from Koji Ishizaka to Kyoko Fukada, and even the famous director Yukiki Mitani. But the most memorable feature of the film is Ms. Tsuji, played by Nanako Matsushima.

The family that fights against each other in "The Dog God Family"

The center of the dispute over the inheritance of the Inu God family is this girl. Whoever marries her can get all the inheritance, but all the grandchildren who show their love to her die one by one, and all the evidence points to this weak woman who is powerless.

I believe that the audience has never suspected her for a moment. Although she has all kinds of strange actions, how could such a beautiful woman as an angel be a murderer, how could she do anything bad. And every time she is in danger, someone will always save her at all costs, and the protagonist’s aura will burst.

So who says appearance doesn’t matter? She doesn’t even need to say a word, as long as she stands there quietly, the whole world has already fallen under her skirt.

Nagisa Oshima’s film tells the story of Hao Hao’s famous "Shinsekumi" at the end of the Japanese shogunate. It is adapted from a chapter in Sigma Ryotaro’s "Shinsekumi Blood Stories," which depicts many famous warriors, including Isamu Kondo, Shinsekumi Tohata, and Director-General Okita. The Shinsekumi is Japan’s last samurai organization, and they have a brutal and strict discipline code known as the "Dharma of the Bureau," and anyone who violates it must commit suicide by dissection, which is where the name of "Yutaka" comes from.

This is a mysterious movie, half of which is derived from the plot of wanting to talk about it, and half of which is derived from the beautiful face of Matsuda Ryuhei who upends all living beings. The beautiful boy Kanai Sobaburo, who he plays, broke the peace in the game after coming to the new selection group. Several members secretly fell in love with him, and there was an incident of jealousy.

In the film, Asano’s loyal pursuitMatsuda Ryuhei

Bushido has always had a tradition of "masculinity", and the masculinity is even more prevalent in the new selection group. It originated from the story of "Chrysanthemum Alliance" in "Three Words and Two Beats". In Japan, it also derived the meaning of "broken sleeves" and extended to "chrysanthemum and knife" that summarize the characteristics of the Yamato nation. These cultural details are fully explained in the frown and smile of Matsuda Ryuhei.

At the age of sixteen, Ryuhei Matsuda, who was not yet cracked, had a face like a silver plate, red lips and white teeth, and a sense of heroism mixed in with his femininity, which compared Shinji Takeda to Shinji Takeda, and made Tada, played by Tadanobu Asano, fascinated. It is no wonder that such a monster, played by Takeshi Kitano, wants to kill him to avoid future troubles.

In recent years, Hollywood has entered a bottleneck period, and more and more funds, technologies, and actors have moved closer to the superhero movies of big IP. However, it has been difficult to produce new ideas in superhero movies after ten years of filming, so many group-portrait superhero movies have emerged, from the upcoming "Green Lantern Corps" and so on.

This is the same logic as the Japanese and Korean idol groups. When the audience’s demand for entertainment is getting higher and higher, a single star can no longer meet their needs. Therefore, many stars are piled together to create a visual feast, and there will always be one that you like.

"X-Men: Future Reversed," released last summer, is arguably the most complex and character-packed installment in the franchise. Wolverine travels from the future to the 1970s, changing the course of history, so there are two groups of mutants in the present tense and the past tense. Without looking at the relevant popular science posts, it is really unclear who is who and what special skills each has.

"Quicksilver Time" in X-Men: Future Reversal

But among so many mutants and superheroes, the most memorable ones are Quicksilver and his "Quicksilver Time". He solved the dilemma faced by Professor X, Magneto and Wolverine in just two minutes, and successfully rescued his father Magneto from the well-guarded Pentagon. He listens leisurely to "Time in a Bottle", plays all the enemies with applause, and has time to eat and do some mischief.

In fact, it was not Quicksilver who entered the Pentagon to save Magneto in the comics, but Brian Singer liked the character of Quicksilver very much, so he added a play to him, and also continued "Quicksilver Time" in "Apocalypse".

That year, Wang Jiawei and Liu Zhenwei formed the Zedong Company and planned to shoot. They signed 20 contracts for ten stars, but they didn’t make much progress after filming for a year. So Liu Zhenwei borrowed these stars and shot the whimsical "East and West" to make up for the shortfall of "Eastern Heretic Western Poison". Liu Zhenwei said: "At the beginning, those actors were almost schizophrenic. They were happy in the morning, and they were going to die in the afternoon."

The value of "Dongcheng Xijiao" is not only its unprecedented ultra-luxury star lineup, but also that these star big names have contributed unique "self-darkness" performances since their debut: Leslie Cheung and Wang Zuxian practice "eyebrows and eyes" to secretly see the autumn waves; Lin Qingxia plays a princess who thinks she is good at martial arts but is actually only fur kung fu; Jacky Cheung plays Hong Qi, the leader of the beggar gang who is full of Shandong dialect; Liang Jiahui plays the sissy Duan Prince who is single-minded to become a fairy; Liu Jialing’s role in Zhou Botong is always to wipe oil on his apprentices; and Zhong Zhentao’s role in Wang Chongyang is smashed to death by boots as soon as he appears.

Top 10 Stars of "East and West"

But among these many deeply rooted characters, the most impressive is Tony Leung’s Ouyang Feng. What kind of melancholy eyes, what kind of Cannes Best Actor, is completely a sad unlucky egg. Every time he wants to harm the innocent Hong Qi, he makes himself miserable, and finally turns into a sausage-billed duck. Remember that classic line:

• Ouyang Feng: Little Er, get two sausages to eat!

• Shop assistant: Aren’t you eating? Want more?

• Ouyang Feng: I can’t pack?!

When I saw "The Wind" five years ago, I felt that there was finally hope that such a great movie could be made in China. But five years later, the number of domestic films that can reach the level of "The Wind" can be counted on one hand.

This film co-directed by Gao Qunshu and Chen Guofu gathers Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Hanyu, Wang Zhiwen, Duan Yihong and other celebrities, and even the actors are Zhu Xu, Ni Dahong and other old actors, but the result may be that no one thought that the most outstanding and most dramatic is actually Su Youpeng’s sissy white Little New Year.

Photo of the protagonist of "The Wind"

There is nothing flattering about this character. As the squire officer of the commander-in-chief of Wang Puppet Army, he tends to follow the Japanese, plays the Chinese, is tactful and two-faced, and finally gets what he deserves. But such a role has covered up many big stars, allowing Su Youpeng to sweep away the indelible Qiongyao drama image left by "Huanzhu Gege" and "Deep Rain", and also won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He specially found a teacher to learn Kunqu Opera for this role, and every move he made was charming and enchanting. So he was able to use this role to get rid of the burden of idols, broaden the way of drama, and further tap his potential, or to find his true self.

Japanese screenwriter-turned-director Yuki Mitani is also very fond of shooting group portrait movies, such as his "Broadcast Time" and "Magic Hour", etc. Every time he can gather a group of popular stars to play various strange comedy roles.

"Moment of Magic" is a photographic term that refers to the moment when natural light is best and most suitable for photography before dusk and sunset. The film tells the story of the character played by his wife, Satoshi Kido, who is caught cheating with the boss’s mistress Fukatsu Eri. In order to save their lives, they want to find the legendary super killer Tomiken, so his wife and husband Kidoshi hire third-rate actor Hiroshi Sato to play Tomiken.

"Magic Hour" group photo

The first half of the movie is rather uneventful, but after Hiroshi Sato’s appearance, the real comedy begins. He plays a down-and-out actor who is somewhat similar to Stephen Chow in the movie. Although his fate is bad and he doesn’t make a big hit, he maintains a strong belief and dedication to the performance. He plays the killer wholeheartedly in an experiential way, and there are many jokes between him and the real gangster. This kind of double acting within a play is very difficult to perform, but Hiroshi Sato uses his own strength to bring this ridiculous and cute character to the fullest.

Among American directors, Quentin Tarantino is also very enthusiastic about group portrait movies, such as his "Four Rooms" and "Inglourious Basterds", which are all group portrait movies.

In "Inglourious Basterds," a two-thread, five-chapter tale of World War II, Christopher Waltz plays a cunning, ruthless, psychopathic Nazi officer who is gritted with hatred.

Quentin Tarantino andChristopher Waltz

Mr. Waltz is short, average-looking and has a crooked mouth. Before "Inglourious Basterds," he was not well known even in his native Austria. But God made him meet Quentin Tarantino, "and as soon as the golden wind and jade dew met," he turned big guys like Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender into passers-by. He also won a Golden Globe, an Oscar and the Palme d’Or, and became the face of Hollywood badass and acting.

Generally speaking, at this age, the road of pretending to act cute is definitely not going to go through; and the appearance has also been finalized, and it is impossible to turn all beings upside down and allure the country. So Chairperson Zhou should carefully choose the script, please the director, and find a very attractive role for himself; or put down the burden of idols, learn from Leung Chaowei and Su Youpeng to release their nature and subvert their image; or like Sato Hiroshi and Waltz, study, carefully hone their acting skills, and strive for Yiming amazing. If the above cannot be done, I still advise Chairperson Zhou not to act in group portrait movies again!!!