In early April, "Best Bad Friends 2" directed by Wang Jing, starring Zhang Guorong, Liang Jiahui, Lan Jieying, Mao Shunyun, Lou Languang and Chen Jialing officially started filming.
This movie has attracted many attention from the beginning. Among the several starring actors, Zhang Guorong has just become popular because of "A Chinese Ghost Story", while Liang Jiahui has just returned from filming "Tongzhi Zhongxing" from the mainland, and Lan Jieying's current reputation is mixed.
(Note: "Tongzhi Zhongxing" is the third part of "The Legend of Cixi" after "The Old Summer Palace" and "The Curtain of the Rule". Another time and space has not been filmed. It is now jointly filmed by DreamWorks and Chinese Film Cooperative Production Company. It will be released in the summer after the later completion.)
After joining DreamWorks, Liang Jiahui only played a few small roles in other movies, but he made two more movies in mainland China, and was ridiculed as a "red actor" by some Hong Kong media.
Such a cast is simply eye-catching.
About half a month later, the scandal between Cheng Long and Lan Jieying gradually ceased, which was the result of the joint efforts of Jiahe and DreamWorks.
In the report on "Splashing Wine Sect", although Jiahe tried his best to clear Cheng Long, in the end, many people believed that Cheng Long was wrong, and there were even rumors that Cheng Long was extremely lustful.
With Cheng Long's current fame, there is no need to rely on hype to expose it, so this scandal is harmful to him but not beneficial.
Lan Jieying is more profit than harm. Because of her long-term ban on TVB, her fame has been consumed almost the same. Now she is famous for winning the Best Newcomer for the Academy Awards and having a scandal with Cheng Long. She then starred in Wang Jing's new film and had an unknown relationship with Kang Jianfei. So much so that Lan Jieying stayed on the entertainment page headline for half a month, and her exposure exceeded that of Hong Kong's top actresses.
However, this news spread to Japan and Taiwan, and Cheng Long's fans there stopped. Taiwan is a little better. Japan's Cheng Long fans collectively criticized Lan Jieying, and some even made calls or wrote to Oriental Entertainment, claiming that if they did not ban Lan Jieying and others would commit suicide in protest.
Unlike the boycott that Lan Jieying received in Japan, Wang Shuxian became popular overnight in Japan and South Korea.
In April, the screening of "A Chinese Ghost Story" in Asia had completely ended, with a total box office of more than 137 million Hong Kong dollars in Asia.
In another time and space, although "A Chinese Ghost Story" has a box office in Hong Kong only good, it is very popular overseas. In addition to Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, "A Chinese Ghost Story" has also been released in eight countries including Japan, France, South Korea, Finland, Sweden.
Now DreamWorks' overseas distribution capabilities are even stronger. "A Chinese Ghost Story" was released in Japan, sweeping the box office market during the Spring Festival in Japan. Wang Shuxian surpassed Lin Qingxia with just one drama and became the most popular foreign actress in Japan.
South Korea is even more crazy. Although the box office in South Korea is much lower than that in Japan, the Korean love for "A Chinese Ghost Story" can no longer be described in words.
Wang Shuxian became the dream lover of many men in South Korea, and Zhang Guorong also ranked first among the most popular foreign male stars in South Korea (Cheng Long ranked third).
Just before the filming of "Best Bad Friends 2", Zhang Guorong went to South Korea to play a show. After recording the show, he caused a small commotion.
A review from Japan's "Movie News" gave "A Chinese Ghost Story" a very high rating: "The investment cost of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is one-fifth of "Shushan", and the box office in Japan is one-quarter of "Shushan". However, from the perspective of film art, "A Chinese Ghost Story" is more surprising than "Shushan".
"Shushan" is better in its special effects, scenes and beautiful scenery. In these aspects, "A Chinese Ghost Story" is much inferior. "A Chinese Ghost Story" is also extremely old-fashioned in terms of the plot. It is far less exciting than the story of "Shushan".
The essence of "A Chinese Ghost Story" lies in the people and ways of interpreting the story:
First of all, Director Kang Jianfei found the best story spokesperson, that is Wang Shuxian. In this film, Xiaoqian played by Wang Shuxian captured the hearts of the audience with amazing beauty, and the whole film was filled with a strange and sad romance and liberal atmosphere. The gorgeous female ghost Xiaoqian is enough to make any man in the world fall in love with him, and her unforgettable love with Ning Caichen becomes the eternal sadness in the hearts of the audience;
Secondly, let’s talk about the interpretation of this film. The drama "A Chinese Ghost Story" shows an extremely high screenwriter level, with a tense and bright rhythm, and the plot development seems to have stepped on the development node of the audience’s hearts and emotions.
In the design, Xiaoqian's white clothes are as snowy as snow, elegant and light, Ning Caichen seems to be dressed as a book boy in the Song Dynasty, and Yan Chixia's shape is rough and simple. The soundtrack in the film is the highlight of the highlights. In addition to the melody, it is richer in Chinese and classical beauty. The deep mixing and echoing effects create a sense of space and mystery. In the film, the erhu, harpsichord, flute and other Chinese and Western instruments are mixed. From every detail of the film, we can find that the music and sound effects and plot development are almost seamless, like the music that escapes the woods. The harpsichord represents the roar of the tree demon and the flute shows the sharpness of the Taoist priest. The two sound tracks are chirping up and down, from far to near, and change in real time as the camera progresses, giving people the desire to follow the Taoist soaring into the sky and escape from the woods.
Let’s talk about the action scenes. In this film, all the masters’ fight shots are shot from bottom to top, and the photographer lies on the pre-built slide rail to chase them out. This creates a three-dimensional scroll effect. The master’s martial arts movement changes to two-dimensional as the one-dimensional picture, and the fast translation of the follow-up shot is three-dimensional, making the entire action scene rich and thrilling. The director uses a lot of tilted composition lenses and block cutting editing techniques, and the low-camera upward shots, making
The object is deformed, and the lens of oblique composition and the editing technique of block cutting make the lens feel unstable, thereby enhancing the sense of movement, creating a huge momentum and strong visual shock. Overall, the action scenes in "A Chinese Ghost Story" are different from traditional Chinese Kung Fu movies. They focus on real kung fu with one move, but deification and illusion of martial arts, and through special skills and editing methods, creating visual wonders beyond the physical conventions and limits of the human body..."
The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, which has been in operation for two years, recently listed "Police Story", "Shushan" and "A Chinese Ghost Story" as textbooks. These three films have become compulsory courses in the Director's Department of the Academy of Performing Arts.
As for Europe and the United States, the release of "A Chinese Ghost Story" will have to wait until after the Cannes Film Festival. I don't know how many box offices it can get.
As the director of "A Chinese Ghost Story", Kang Jianfei's reputation in the Japanese film industry has also risen to a higher level. Some people have respectfully called him a commercial film master - because Kang Jianfei's movies are often sold well in Japan.
This time, when he went to Japan to shoot "Mr. Smiths", Kang Jianfei was blocked by Japanese reporters at the scene.
In "Mrs. Smith" adapted by Kang Jianfei, the male and female protagonists are all multinational killer groups, and their headquarters are located in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The male and female protagonists played by Kang Jianfei and Chung Chuhong accidentally met and fell in love when they completed the assassination mission in Japan.
The film has several countries, and all of them are countries and regions with higher box office in DreamWorks. The filming of many countries can make the film international and high-end. Secondly, it is also cater to the fans of these filming countries to increase the overseas box office.
Of course, filming in multiple countries has also caused the cost of shooting to double.
After Kang Jianfei's shooting plan was initially formulated, a dedicated person was already responsible for the preparation.
For example, filming in Japan takes about 5 to 7 days. The crew has already reached sponsorship agreements with the Tokyo Peninsula Hotel and several merchants in Ginza, providing free venues for the crew of "The Smiths" for filming.
In addition, the Tokyo Peninsula Hotel will also provide Hong Kong staff on the "Smiths" crew with free food and accommodation for a week.
The price Kang Jianfei paid for this is that the Tokyo Peninsula Hotel logo appeared in the movie for a second. As for those Ginza merchants, they had to be much more casual, just a few indoor shots, which was completely a friendly cooperation.
Kang Jianfei was besieged by Japanese reporters. It was in the lobby of the Tokyo Peninsula Hotel that he was still setting up cameras with Li An and Zhong Zhiwen. The reporters who rushed over after hearing the news broke in regardless of the hotel security guards' obstruction.
After all, I went to other people's territory to film, so there was no need to offend local reporters. And when the movie was released, these reporters needed to cooperate with the publicity. Kang Jianfei asked Li An and Zhong Zhiwen to continue working, and he brought the dozen Japanese reporters to a corner of the lobby and said: "The Japanese journalist friends are so enthusiastic. I am very happy to be interviewed by you, but due to the tight shooting time, I hope everyone can understand. Today I can only answer a few simple questions."
After several years of study without any effort, Kang Jianfei's English level is still acceptable, and basic daily communication is fine. However, the English spoken by the Japanese is urgent, and sometimes even the British cannot understand it. In order to avoid the embarrassing things that are wrong and say wrong, Kang Jianfei still speaks in Chinese, and then translated into Japanese by the Japanese staff on the crew.
A reporter who was crowded in the front asked first: "Mr. Kang, I heard that you are directing and acting in an urban action movie this time. Why don't you invite Lin Qingxia, Li Saifeng or Miss Wang Chuxian as the heroine?"
Now Wang Shuxian and Li Saifeng are the most popular Hong Kong actresses in Hong Kong. Lin Qingxia also had many fans in Japan a few years ago because of "The Royal Sister" but she has been in a semi-retired state in the past two years. The movie Kakugawa film she participated in last year was not selling well, so her popularity has dropped a lot.
In addition to Wang Chuxian, Li Saifeng and Lin Qingxia, the Japanese really have no impression of other Hong Kong actresses. The "Best Partner" series also sells well in Japan, but the heroine Zhang Aijia is not very popular in Japan, and few Japanese can call Zhang Aijia's name.
So now Jiahe and Xinyi City are very embarrassed. The Japanese market has unlimited potential for Hong Kong films, but these two companies have never been able to launch popular actresses in Japan. In order to take care of the Japanese box office market, Jiahe and Xinyi City only have two choices. One is to go to Oriental Entertainment to invite Li Saifeng and Wang Shuxian to film, and the other is to invite Japanese popular actresses to Hong Kong as heroines. The first choice is cheaper Kang Jianfei, and the latter choice is good, but the pay for Japanese popular actresses is too high.
Kang Jianfei took this opportunity to introduce Zhong Chuhong to Japanese reporters. He called Chung Chuhong, who was dressed in sexy clothes, and said: "This is the heroine of "Mrs. Smiths". She is also a top-notch actress in Hong Kong. As for why Lin Qingxia and the others were not invited to play the heroine, the answer is very simple, because they are not suitable for this role."
"A Chinese Ghost Story" is very good. Has Mr. Kang considered filming a sequel?" asked another reporter.
Kang Jianfei nodded and said, "The plan for the sequel is currently under discussion. However, the sequel to "Shushan" has been finalized, and director Xu Ke will officially start filming in the second half of the year."
The reporter's questions began to shift to gossip: "Mr. Kang, there are rumors that Wang Shuxian and Zhang Guorong are in love. Is it true?"
Kang Jianfei smiled and said, "You have to ask the person involved. Okay, time is tight, I will answer five more questions."
Chapter completed!