《Keep Real》Does it look good?How is the reputation?

《Keep Real》 is a domestic comedy with a science fiction shell.Wang Changhai, played by Bai Jingting, has superpowers, but he has to relearn the "realistic rules" in acquaintance society, process approval and dinner rules. This also makes the film's laughter and controversy concentrated.

《Keep Real》Does it look good?

《Keep Real》This is not a comedy based solely on jokes.Its setting is very exaggerated: there are people with super powers in the world, and there are local superhero associations. The protagonist Wang Changhai returns to Rhine County with his skills and prepares to form a new combat team.But the real antagonist of the movie is not aliens, monsters or traditional villains, but human relationships, face, processes and various invisible rules.When an ignorant superhero breaks into a society of acquaintances, it will naturally create comic conflicts.

The most obvious characteristic of Wang Changhai, played by Bai Jingting, is his straightness.When he sees an achievement monument blocking the road at an intersection, he immediately demolishes it; he doesn't know where to sit at dinner parties, and he can't hear the twists and turns in the leader's words; when doing things, he only follows the principles and doesn't seek connections to pave the way.The funny thing about this character is not that he is stupid, but that he believes that things should run according to the rules.The audience laughed at him for not understanding the ways of the world, but in fact it was easy for him to see that many absurd rules no one liked, had already become a tacit way of life for everyone.

Lao Xia, played by Wei Xiang, assumes another comedy function.He is familiar with local rules and knows when to retreat, when to laugh, and when to take a detour.Wang Changhai is responsible for breaking in, and Lao Xia is responsible for dealing with it. The two of them are strong and soft, forming the most stable comedy relationship in the film.The combination of Bai Jingting's stupefaction and Wei Xiang's skating allowed many scenes to gain momentum quickly and prevented the film from completely turning into a didactic satire.

Why are word-of-mouth divided?

《Keep Real》 has distinct advantages and disadvantages.It localizes the concept of "superpower" and creates a very realistic comparison: the truly powerful ability may not be flying into the sky and escaping from the earth, but may be a certain relationship, a certain greeting, or a certain leader's "special thing".This setting is straightforward enough and easy enough for the audience to enter.Approval, queuing, trusting relationships, meals, pretending to be asleep, pretending to be hard, these scenes are full of daily experience, so you will feel a little embarrassed after laughing.

Controversy also comes from this directness.In the first half of the film, the focus of satire is on human society and grassroots ecology, with sharp jokes and a relatively focused rhythm.In the second half, the story needed to give the commercial film a clearer villain and a clearer victory or defeat, so the conflict gradually fell into issues of personal greed, collusion of interests, and illegality.This treatment makes the plot clearer, but weakens the more complex sense of reality in the first half.Audiences who like it will feel that domestic comedy finally dares to touch the pain points of reality, while audiences who don't like it will feel that the second half is too neat.

The score on Douban is more than 6 points, which also shows that the evaluation of this film is not one-sided.It is not a light-hearted comedy with so many laughs that it is enjoyable from beginning to end, nor is it a realistic satire that is particularly well-executed.It is more like a genre film with a clear direction and powerful expression, but there are still traces of compromise in the middle and later stages.For domestic comedies, this kind of attempt is rare; for audiences who expect sharper expressions, it does not go deeper.

What is the core of plot irony?

The most interesting part of the film is that a person with super powers loses to “normal rules”.Wang Changhai can handle dangers and complete combat missions, but he can't handle the seats at the dinner table, the prevarication at the window, and the subtext in the leader's words.The movie makes this contrast a joke, but also makes it a real dilemma: those who are capable may not be able to accomplish things, and those who can do things may not actually solve the problem.

The subplots of mother seeing a doctor, waiting in line for errands, and asking someone to clear the way make the film not just a satire on a certain bad guy.The contradiction between fairness, justice, human kindness and efficiency is placed in the difficulties of ordinary families.Everyone knows that jumping in line is unfair, but when it falls to family members, it’s hard to completely refuse the faster lane.The fact that the movie doesn't make all the people looking for relationships as bad guys makes it more watchable than ordinary sketch-style satire.

Wang Changhai's growth also has a bitter taste.At first he believed that a head-on collision could solve the problem, but later he gradually learned to follow the rules and even learned to approach the target in a way that was familiar to others.This transformation complicated the character and made some viewers uncomfortable.A person who is originally clean, direct, and almost ideal will inevitably become dusty after entering the real environment.What the movie wants to express is not that smoothness is maturity, but that the realization of ideals often has to go through an ugly process.

What audience is it suitable for?

If you like the performance combination of Bai Jingting and Wei Xiang, or if you like domestic comedies with a sense of irony, 《Keep Real》is worth watching.It has a lot of straight-forward laughs and some scenes that people can recall for a long time.Especially for viewers who are familiar with business procedures, interpersonal relationships and workplace rules, many of the laughs in the film will not be just easy laughs.

If you just want to watch a popcorn comedy without any burden, the viewing experience may be discounted.Its laughter is not purely hilarious, but there are many baggage behind it. There are realistic emotions behind it; in the second half, in order to complete the commercial narrative, there will also be places where the characters and plot are too hard.It is not a perfect comedy, but it at least gives room for discussion on whether domestic comedies can still satirize reality.

The title 《Keep Real》 is also very appropriate in the movie itself.It is indeed not smooth, the expression is angular, and there are areas that are not completely closed.But in a batch of increasingly reliable comedies, it is willing to put superheroes into the county's work problems and write super powers as irony of real rules. This recognition is enough for it to be remembered.

The highlight of 《Keep Real》 is the irony of reality under the comedy shell, but its shortcoming is that the conflicts in the second half are wrapped up in a more stereotypical style.Audiences who can accept this way of expression will be more likely to see its staying power.