The spy drama "Sparrow" is a hit. Some people say that Li Yifeng uses his "good looks" to sustain him for half the time. However, some people are not convinced. They think that Li Yifeng's performance failed to interpret the complexity and layers of the protagonist Chen Shen. He was overwhelmed by the strength of the supporting villains such as Zhang Luyi, which was embarrassing.
"Sparrow" is easily reminiscent of last year's "The Pretender". Last year, many viewers watched "The Pretender" because of Hu Ge, but ended up becoming fans of acting actors such as Jin Dong, Wang Kai, Liu Mintao, Wang Ou, and Liu Yijun. This helped "The Pretender" gain both ratings and word-of-mouth. This year, "Sparrow" also adopts the strategy of matching popular idols with powerful actors. Judging from the current ratings, Li Yifeng has an obvious role in boosting ratings, but the audience is also very controversial about his acting skills.
After the popularity of "Gu Jian Qi Tan", Li Yifeng successively starred in popular IP dramas such as "Tomb Raiders Notes" and "Qingyun Zhi". But unfortunately, the attention of these dramas is high, but the quality is not high. This time he plays the leading role in a spy drama with a lot of acting skills. Li Yifeng himself said that "Chen Shen met the right character at the right time." However, he obviously didn't do enough.
From facial paralysis to micro-expressions, Li Yifeng is a bit far away from Chen Shen
Chen Shen in "Sparrow" is set to be a double agent with a barber background, lurking next to Bi Zhongliang, the leader of the Wang Puppet Agent Headquarters. He often goes to the MGM Ballroom to dance, hang out in entertainment venues, and helps Bi Zhongliang run the opium business. But behind the scenes, he shoulders a mission, dives deeply into human nature, and engages in thrilling battles. Chen Shen is the kind of charming person who looks flashy on the outside, but is as affectionate as a sea of hearts. Such a role is difficult, but it can become a classic and is worth playing.
Li Yifeng plays Chen Shen, and his appearance is not a big problem, and it also shows his personal aggressiveness in acting. The problem is that his current acting skills are not able to carry Chen Shen's rich inner drama. Indulging in fun, tango, and teasing dancers, his body movements are tense and his eyes are empty and powerless. It was the first time in three years that I finally contacted the organization. The person who came to contact me was the sister-in-law I had been looking for. He just "furrowed his eyebrows" and "raised his hand" without showing any signs of the turmoil in his heart. In a scene with Zhang Lu, who plays the villain Bi Zhongliang, Zhang Lu used his eyes, facial expressions, and words to pressure, intimidate, and test Chen Shen. Li Yifeng's reaction was to "glare" and "stretch his nostrils." This kind of performance not only fails to show the full charm of Chen Shen's character, but also often makes people feel that he is not really involved in the play.
Some fans defended Li Yifeng, saying "Fengfeng's acting skills have been improving." Indeed, from Baili Tusu's paralyzed face in "The Story of Ancient Swords", to his face finally slowly having micro-expressions and micro-movements, to his relationship with Feng in "Lao Pao'er"Xiaogang played the opposite role and burst out the emotions of the character. Li Yifeng's progress deserves recognition. This kind of progress is reflected in his occasionally good performance in "Sparrow", but what cannot be concealed is the weakness of his overall performance, which is still quite far from the role of Chen Shen.
A common problem among young freshmen this year is that they have good looks but poor acting skills
In today’s film and television industry, there are quite a few good-looking talents with controversial acting skills like Li Yifeng
From "Zhu Xian·Qing Yun Zhi" and "Fantasy City" to "A Little Smile Is Alluring", "To Youth: So You're Still Here" and "Tomb Raiders Notes", whether it is the big screen or the small screen, it is the world of young talents such as Li Yifeng, Ma Tianyu, Yang Yang, Wu Yifan, Lu Han and so on.
Among these young talents, Li Yifeng and Ma Tianyu both relied on Dragon TV's talent show "Come on!" "Good Man" accumulated popularity and debuted; Yang Yang was chosen by Li Shaohong to play the role of the adult Jia Baoyu and officially entered the entertainment industry. Wu Yifan and Lu Han were both members of the Korean boy group EXO, and their popularity skyrocketed after returning to China to develop. Each of them is glamorous and has huge fan support.
However, probably because they debuted based on their "good looks" and lacked professional training, the acting skills of these fresh actors are generally not up to par. Most of their performances have the characteristics of facial makeup, dull expressions, and standardized smiles. When they appear in idol dramas and play the role of "male gods", it won't be too inconsistent, but once they encounter roles that need to show depth, there will be a lot of problems. As a result, although they have produced many works, they rarely have masterpieces that stand out.
It's just a big wave, and such overdraft of popularity is not a long-term solution. Some insiders predict that these small fresh meats will soon face a replacement. The shelf life of fresh meat without acting skills is undoubtedly very short.
The audience is complaining that the main drama has turned into an idol drama. Casting should not be based solely on appearance
With the popularity of these little fresh meats, this year's big and small screens are filled with some film and television dramas that make the audience shout "eye-catching". Many of these works are fast-food works with "good looks" as the selling point. They pay high prices to star young actors, and then reduce other production costs regardless of the overall quality of the film, because they know that the popularity of popular young actors can quickly translate into ratings and box office. This is clearly a strategy to make quick money.
Inspired by "Nirvana in Fire", even traditional drama themes such as "spy war dramas" quickly emerged with a variant called youth inspirational spy war dramas. The first to be given such a clear label was "Decryption" starring Chen Xuedong, Yinger and others. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name and tells the secret and great story of Rong Jinzhen, a mathematical prodigy who cracked the "super code". Chen Xuedong, who came out of "Little Times", plays Rong Jinzhen, an autistic mathematical genius. Not to mention that Chen Xuedong's acting skills are immature and he can't play the role of an autistic genius. The plot of the film is also delayed and watered down in various ways, which ruins the original story that was originally good for no reason.
atIn the film and television industry, it should be a general industry rule that the right actor plays the right role. However, more and more producers and production agencies are blindly pandering to the audience, using whichever star is popular, and regardless of the star's acting skills, without any training, they just play the leading role from the beginning, without bothering to polish the script, and do not study photography, costumes, makeup, or photography. Then when it comes time to sell the film, they consciously add the word "youth", as if "youth" is a fig leaf for all those who are eager for quick success and shoddy production, and as if they are not youthful if they don't like watching such "youth movies" specially provided by fans.
After being baptized by so many bad movies with good looks and low quality, we still want to appeal to relevant practitioners in the film and television industry not to be impetuous and to respect the laws of creation. Popularity in casting is important, but suitability is more important. Proper use of idol stars and providing appropriate opportunities for idol stars to grow into acting talents is the way for the healthy development of this industry.
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