Domestic sports films need to be "loosely tied" to themselves first.
writing/Pang Hongbo
Break the stereotype.
In the preview of China Ping-Pong, there are some differences in the public’s impression of the national game. The national team was dissolved on the spot, and the new coach was questioned, and even had to deal with public complaints. The players drank, played cards and fought, and issued a desperate sigh that "our generation is destined to be cannon fodder."
For today’s young people, many people may not have the same impression of the national ball. In the long course, this is the "low valley for 6 years" of China Table Tennis Men’s Team. Such a large-scale pilot preview is a "cognitive break" for the young audience who are impressed by the invincible national football, but at the same time, it also shows the breakthrough in the selection of domestic sports films.
The sport with the highest national popularity takes the setbacks of the national ball as the starting point of the story, which makes China Ping-Pong become a schedule champion by satisfying the audience’s inherent impression of the national ball.
one
—Break the countryWhat does it mean that the ball is invincible?—
Breaking the inherent cognition of the public can stimulate new "eye-catching points".
In the eyes of Chinese people, table tennis is the sport that will not "lose" the most. In the 1970s, "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" started a story, and then Ping-Pong became popular rapidly, making the ball a "national ball". In the past few decades, Guoping has not only contributed countless "idols of the times", but also played a proud record with absolute dominance.
But in the 1990s, Guoping had a very painful "low valley memory". From the 1981 World Table Tennis Championships to the 1987 World Table Tennis Championships, national table tennis has an absolute dominant position in the world. But in 1988, table tennis first joined the Olympic Games as a formal event. At this time, great changes have taken place in the world table tennis, and changes have also been ushered in in the way of playing.
At the 40th World Table Tennis Championships in 1989, China lost all five sets to Sweden. At that time, the Western media even said, "We have opened a gap on the Great Wall of Wan Li!" As the title of the report.
Since then, Yun Enting succeeded Xu Shaofa as the head coach of China men’s table tennis in 1990, but the men’s team fell to seventh place in the Chiba World Table Tennis Championships in 1991. At this time, the young marshal who coached in Italy was ordered to return to China as the coach of the national team. However, at the 42nd World Table Tennis Championships two years later, the China team also failed to reach the top as expected.
Since then, Sweden, under the leadership of Waldner, has opened a dynasty of three consecutive World Table Tennis Championships. It was not until 1995 that the China Table Tennis Men’s Team overcame all difficulties and returned to its peak at the 43rd World Table Tennis Championships, ending the six-year low period.
This true and painful history of table tennis is little known among young people today. China Ping-Pong, adapted from a true story, just focuses on the history of China Ping-Pong Men’s Team.
In the preview, the starting point of the film is "Gothenburg fell short". In this short notice of more than one minute, it completely broke the public’s cognition of the national ball.First of all, in the face of fiasco, the consensus reached by the top management is to admit that the work in the past two years has failed. At the same time, the new coach is faced with many questions. Before the game, it is a trivial matter for the coach to choose to change the military taboo, and more importantly, it is publicly complained. "How to determine the main force in previous competitions", "Has the list of overseas competitions been publicized" and "It’s not that there is no pre-competition plan", which is completely invisible in domestic sports films in the past.
The players are drinking, playing cards and fighting, and issued a desperate sigh that "our generation is destined to be cannon fodder."
"China Table Tennis" can be said to have completely broken the audience’s inherent impression of Guoping. Even though this sport now has absolute dominance, Guoping has experienced the road of rising after six years of setbacks. What we can see is that Guoping is now strong in courage to face setbacks and gives great support to such themes on the big screen.
2
—How does the national ball "break the circle"—
High-burning is still the "pillar" of sports movies.
As a national sport, national ball naturally has a very strong mass base. All along, domestic sports films are facing the problem of breaking the circle, which is also the dilemma of domestic sports films at the market level. Leap, which was released on the National Day in 2020, holds the highest box office record of Chinese sports movies, with a cumulative box office of 836 million. The reason why this film can break the circle lies in the powerful appeal of "China Women’s Volleyball Team".
China Women’s Volleyball Team, China Table Tennis Team and China Diving Team are not only the pride in the history of China sports, but also the three most "broken circles" in audience coverage. According to the data of Cat’s Eye Professional Edition, in the portrait of users who want to see China Table Tennis, the proportion of people over 40 years old has reached 18.9%, and the proportion of third-and fourth-tier cities in active areas has reached 57.3%. This is enough to show that the film has great advantages in audience level, whether it is regional sinking or age coverage.
Therefore, for the national table tennis theme, the biggest problem is how to tell the story if you want to activate the audience to honor the "broken circle". In sports movies, the first demand of the audience lies in "passion", so "high burning" is always the pillar of the audience’s destruction.
However, in the past domestic sports movies, "high burning" was often too simple. Although the film is often "high-burning" at the end of the whole story, it can never satisfy the audience because of the bland narrative. Once the cross-section of the audience of the sport itself is not wide enough, then the film will completely become a "minority" film.
Leap, which was scheduled for the Spring Festival before, was able to win more than 800 million box office because the epidemic was postponed to the National Day in 2020, because of the narrative itself. The "high-burning" of this film is that the spirit of "China Women’s Volleyball Team" has been passed down, and it finally won the championship under great pressure from home and abroad.
As a sports film, China Table Tennis also has the characteristics of "high-burning". It is only in the pilot notice that the oppressive feeling is extremely strong, and all aspects of a "defeated army" are undoubtedly presented. It is precisely because of the previous "suppression" that the China table tennis men’s team returned to its peak in 1995 under great pressure, which made the film activation market have greater expectations.
three
—Can China still reach the top of the world?—
Sports is still about "humanity" after all.
The greatest charm of sports lies in maximizing the "unyielding" and "unafraid" in a mortal’s bones through an inhuman way.
In the pilot notice, the coach refused to admit defeat in the face of the "humiliation" of Guoping, so he promised to recapture swaythling cup in two years. After that, the frustration was exchanged for more questions, from questioning whether to reflect on the management style of the team to being publicly complained. In the face of great pressure, what Cai Cannon issued was "Can I fight again?" Perseverance.
From this point of view, the character of coach Cai itself can infect the audience. At the same time, as a collective, today’s audience’s impression of Guoping is that it always wins the hegemony. But behind this huge aura, it is such a difficult six years. The pilot notice also sent a very deadly "four questions" to Guoping: "Can China table tennis still beat Europe?" "Can China players still beat Waldner?" "Can China table tennis still reach the peak of the world?" "Do you believe it?" .
Although the result is proved to be "energy" through historical advancement, the "positive energy" inspired by the twists and turns of this process may be exactly what ordinary people can "empathize" at present. Especially in the impression of most people, a table tennis player with such a brilliant record can have the courage to look back on his failure and have the courage to overcome setbacks, which is a great spiritual incentive for the vast majority of ordinary audiences.
Similarly, as film directors, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei are constantly exploring different types of film creation. In 2019, Looking Up, directed by the two directors, faced the topic of "education", with a cumulative box office of 878 million and unanimous recognition in word of mouth. In 2020, the topic of "poverty alleviation" was touched upon in My People My Homeland.
This time, the two men dared to touch the theme of "national ball", and the grip was the painful memory of the lowest valley in the history of national table tennis. In the creation of genre films, both of them are constantly tested by the audience through exploration.
In 2017, as an Indian film, "Wrestle! Dad finally won 1.299 billion box office in the mainland with a strong counterattack. After the film, not only did the Indian film become popular in China, but it actually provided an answer to how sports films "broke the circle" in the market. After all, sports films rely on "people" to empathize.
In 2020, Leap won nearly 800 million box office in the National Day file (and the cumulative box office was 836 million). Apart from the penetrating power of the "China Women’s Volleyball Team" itself, this film is rare in that it is not only focused on a sport itself, but also the spiritual inheritance of two generations of women’s volleyball teams and the shaping of two coaches, which enable the film to accumulate enough capital to break the circle.
Sports films are often easily divided into "minority" branches, but in fact sports films have the genes that are most likely to "empathize" with the public. How to tell a well-known story is the key to whether the film can outperform the market.
