On August 12th, the sun was blazing in Changsha and the temperature was around 30 degrees.
Even with such hot weather, it could not resist the enthusiasm of many people in Changsha and the audiences who came for the movie.
Huangxing Road Pedestrian Street is located within the Wuyi Square business district of Tianxin District, Changsha. It is the most prosperous area in Changsha.
Prosperity is prosperity, which only refers to the large number of people. Currently, Changsha is still a second-tier city, and all aspects of the situation have not yet reached the first-tier threshold.
Everything still needs to be developed, which also gives the Bright Times Cinema Company an advantage. In response to the call for cultural development from the local cultural and tourism department, a Bright Times Cinema was built at the very visible entrance of this pedestrian street.
Next to it is the large supermarket Yihetang, which makes the flow of people in this area very huge.
Coupled with the influence of Mango Channel for many years, Changsha has become one of the top entertainment and cultural centers in China. The local people are very sensitive to entertainment, so the scene in front of the cinema today can be said to be a sea of people.
"Sincere Dragon!"
"Chu Xuan!"
"Liu Yifei!!"
The specific movie viewing date and location are marked on the movie ticket. If you want to get the Hunan road show status of "The Sky: The Enemy", you can search the Internet to find out clearly.
It was only around eight o'clock in the morning, and the local people who got the news from various channels on the Internet were filled with people standing in front of the cinema, at the entrance of the pedestrian street, and across the street in front of the Yihetang Shopping Mall.
A few days ago, when I was in Wuzhen, my first stop, I felt that there were hundreds of people waiting for the movie to open. It was very exciting. Compared with the current situation, it really pales in comparison.
Seeing this scene, Chenglong, Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei were also not expecting it. Such a scene is limited to the red carpet at award ceremonies. Who knew it would appear in a road show of a movie.
Even Chenglong, who is used to seeing big scenes, judging from his experience in film roadshows in the first half of his life, this is the first time that he has felt such a high level of enthusiasm from the audience for a movie.
"Public opinion has worked." Chenglong and the couple looked at each other and found the answer in their hearts.
I have been in Hunan for more than ten days, and have conducted road shows in Changsha, Zhuzhou, Zhangjiajie, Changde, Yueyang and other places to promote the film. The continuous Reuters news has divided and continued the small-scale public opinion about the film.
Topics such as # Leading the New Field of Chinese Films have become more and more popular, making more and more people curious about the film, and also letting more and more people know about the crew's road show status.
With the combined popularity of Chenglong, Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei, and the time and location of the final roadshow being clarified, it is understandable that the crowd will be attracted to come offline to see the big stars, resulting in such a heated scene.
"Hello everyone."
"Hello."
The couple and a group of actors greeted the crowd, just like walking on the red carpet at a TV and film festival. With security maintaining order and the cheers and looks of the enthusiastic crowd on both sides, they walked into the cinema.
The crowd waited until they saw the celebrities they wanted to see, and when they saw the celebrities entering the cinema, they were so excited that they wanted to follow them.
Unfortunately, only people with movie tickets can line up to enter. More friends who don’t have movie tickets are anxiously asking how to get movie tickets. What’s more, they even grab people who have movie tickets and ask if they can sell them.
ticket.
The scene was extremely exciting, and it was a spectacle to take place during the road show of a movie.
Such a hot situation also amazed those who came after.
"Good guy, the gongs and drums are roaring and the firecrackers are blasting." He Jiong, Xie Na, Zhang Jie and Kuaiben members came to the scene and used exaggerated words to describe the scene at hand, which shows that they have created such a hot situation for the movie.
Shock.
Are you sure this is a road show and not a confirmed blockbuster movie release?
Only when a movie is released across the country for a day or two, and is highly likely to be a hit after being verified by the market, will it attract many people to come and watch the movie.
But even if it is determined that it is likely to be a hit, judging from the situation in previous years, so many people will not gather at once.
This is just a road show, it has only been shown a few times in Wuzhen. At this stage, it is such an unprecedented event. So what will happen to this movie once it is released?
"It's too exaggerated." The great director John Woo lined up to enter the venue. Even he felt that such a hot scene was too exaggerated.
I have been a director for so many years and have directed dozens of films, many of which were huge hits. For example, last year's "Red Cliff" broke the record for the highest box office in the mainland box office market and won the annual film box office crown.
Of course, this laurel has to put aside the two Hollywood movies. Domestic movies only count the domestic situation.
Compared with Hollywood's box office, these older generation directors don't have the confidence, and they haven't had this idea for a long time.
If you kneel for a long time, you will always lose your enthusiasm for the outside world, and you will become accustomed to fighting within yourself.
He thinks it is unreal that a domestic film can create such a grand event.
Is this something a mainland movie can do? And it’s still in the road show stage.
People who knew it knew that it was a domestically produced movie, but people who didn’t know it thought it was the release of the epoch-making 3D movie "Avatar" that was being promoted.
Invite the navy!
However, what is the use of asking the navy to go offline during the road show stage?
There are still a few months until the release, so hiring a marketing team now is not compatible with selling tickets during the release. The timeline is stretched too far, and this is not a normal marketing method.
After much deliberation, there is no partial explanation. I can only admit that this heated situation is real against my will.
But what causes this?
John Woo thought about it over and over again, and finally figured it out.
The allure of the unknown is extremely huge, just like Tsui Hark's "The Legend of Shushan", the first pure fairy tale movie.
Xianxia... flying with a sword? Overturning mountains and seas? These are all unknown elements to the audience. How will they be presented if they can appear in the movie? This is very attractive, and ultimately led to the success of this movie.
However, this is an unknown element that can be imagined.
Whether it's flying with a sword or climbing over mountains and seas, viewers who are familiar with traditional culture will have their own reveries and scenes.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! What the audience is curious about is how these pictures will be presented on the big screen.
And often the further curiosity is the unknown that people can't imagine.
Just like the promotion of "Avatar", why should I wear Roshizi's 3D glasses to watch the movie?
This is something the audience cannot imagine. Before this promotional report, who would have thought about what glasses to wear to watch a movie?
This is a breakthrough in cognition, so "Avatar" aroused the curiosity of many viewers as soon as it was promoted last year.
Compared with the only one or two news revealed in "Avatar" so far, the topics in "Skyfall" are a breakthrough in knowledge.
A monster like a drop of water splits the universe in two?
A city composed of countless cave scenes?
Countless monsters spliced together into a magnificent ancient city?
The male protagonist navigates the Dongfeng missile?
What the hell are these inexplicable topics!
Before these topics appeared, who would think of what these topics revealed?
Just because we cannot think of these things under normal thinking, these are unimaginable unknown elements.
This will make people very curious and eager to find out.
He also came here because of this curiosity, and wanted to see what the competitors in this National Day stall were like.
"Hello, audience friends, I am Chenglong."
"I am Chu Xuan."
"I am Liu Yifei."
"Oh——" The large screening hall can accommodate 500 spectators. Faced with the greetings of the three leading creative superstars, the whole audience responded enthusiastically.
John Woo wore a hat and a mask and looked at Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei.
"1949", which was released during the National Day holiday, and "Red Cliff", which was released last year, were preceded in preparation time by "1949".
As early as 2004, he took over this task and made a movie to represent Hong Kong as a gift to the country in 2009.
Unlike the mainland, this type of gift film is officially funded in the mainland, but in Hong Kong you have to raise your own funds.
This is the difference between socialism and capitalism. To make a gift film, you have to raise your own money. The Hong Kong Film Association has no structure.
Due to funding problems, "1949" was in the planning stage for a long time, which resulted in the subsequent project "Red Cliff" being released before it was finished filming.
To be honest, in the movie "Red Cliff", he wanted Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei to play Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao, mainly because they fit well together.
However, at that time, Bright Times and Yinghuang had already announced their cooperation in "Attack on the Wall", so there was no other way.
Don't look at the decline of the Xiangjiang film industry. The more it goes downhill, the more fierce the competition becomes. Everyone wants to be the first to seize the mainland market and seek development, but this is the only way out.
Seeing that Yinghuang Entertainment is associated with Bright Times, other entertainment companies that compete with Yinghuang Entertainment will naturally regard Bright Times as a thorn in their side and hinder their development.
The logic here is very clear. Yinghuang is bright and has development channels in the mainland market, which will allow Yinghuang to grow stronger. The growth of Yinghuang will squeeze the living space of other entertainment companies in Hong Kong.
Therefore, in Hong Kong, except for Yinghuang and TVB, which is online with Mango Channel, most film and television entertainment companies do not have a good impression of Bright Times, including Mango Channel.
It is for this reason that his idea of casting Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei in "Red Cliff" came to nothing and was decisively rejected by the capital behind him.
After the filming of "Red Cliff" was completed, the planning of "1949" was interrupted due to a lack of funds.
Why? Because some pro-Western capital doesn’t want to make a gift to the country. Due to all the entanglements and obstacles, it’s been three fucking years since he started filming this movie.
Not only that, the originally scheduled male and female protagonists are no longer playing. The wait has been too long and I can’t wait any longer.
The male and female protagonists were gone, and he was reminded of Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei again.
At that time in 2007, this young couple was already very popular, with fans all over the Taiwan Strait and three places.
The most important thing is that "1949" is a love movie!!
When he received the script, he was dumbfounded. What is all this capital?! Don’t you know what the background of our country was in 1949? It doesn’t matter if you don’t promote patriotism. A whole love-themed script was released in this special period.
Disgusting people?
Forget it, the management company that helped him connect through the Hong Kong Film Association actually arranged for Song Hye Kyo to be the heroine!
Song Hye Kyo?
South Korean stick actress?
Are you sure that a foreigner will be the heroine in a movie dedicated to the country?
He is just a director and a tool in the eyes of capital.
He also didn't know what the management was thinking behind the scenes. In Hong Kong's extremely complicated capital circle, what domestic and foreign forces were involved in the management, and who decided to let Song Hye Kyo participate in this gift film.
He had no idea, he could only act in accordance with the contract and this arrangement.
When he submitted the film for review and when he brought the film to China Film Group, he knew that he had offended some people in the mainland officialdom.
Romance movie? Or a foreign actress as the heroine? In this special period of National Day this year, it is destined to make some big bosses unhappy, including Han Sanping.
However, under the national family-friendly strategy, the film still passed the review.
At that time, seeing the way Han Sanping and several official officials looked at him, he felt a little embarrassed.
But he had no choice. Given the choice of moving forward or defaulting and going bankrupt, and being blocked by some capital in Hong Kong, he chose the former while seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.
He later gradually figured it out. The capital behind him was to use "1949" as a benchmark for "The Founding of the People's Republic of China"!
One is a movie with the main melody, and the other is a movie about love that puts the main melody aside but abandons the main melody.
If the mainland audience prefers the latter, then the real purpose of the management behind it has been achieved - to distort the patriotic thoughts of the mainland audience.
Thinking of this, he thought more clearly. There must be capital giants in the field of American and Western culture intervening behind the scenes. Only Western capital would be disgusted in this "culture war" in this special year and special time.
Mainland.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! He is very entangled, subconsciously he does not want his movie to be popular. If it becomes popular, it means that he is the executioner of cultural penetration and will allow capital in the Western cultural field to intervene in the future.
The domestic cultural industry is acting more aggressively.
But if it doesn't become a hit, this is another movie that he worked hard for five years to make.
How many five years can a life last? He also hopes that his works will have good results.
He also knows very well that compared to the domestic official media and traditional media, the media hegemony of the employer behind him is more terrifying. When the two movies "1949" and "The Founding of the People's Republic of China" are about to be released, extraordinary public opinion will definitely erupt.
.
He expected a romance film to overtake a patriotic film in terms of public opinion, and it was also something he was sure the management behind it would do soon.
However, the appearance of "Tianmu: The Enemy" made his determination seem to have a changing trend.
This movie came out before "The Founding of a Republic" was even promoted.
If this movie were an ordinary movie with an ordinary theme, then that would be fine.
It just so happens that this movie is science fiction, and it is also domestic science fiction.
What is domestically produced? Why should we label it with the words domestically produced? This is a subtle propaganda of patriotism.
Patriotic? In the eyes of Western capital, this movie will automatically fall into the same category as "The Founding of the People's Republic of China".
In the same category? Then they will all become the targets of destruction by those behind the pro-Western pro-Western movement during this National Day holiday.
"I'm just a director..." John Woo felt helpless.
He is just a director, he doesn't want to be involved in these things, he just wants to create with peace of mind, but the living environment does not allow it.
Their directors from Xiangjiang and Baodao are very famous, and they are also famous internationally. They have a place in Cannes, Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and even Oscar. They seem to be better and more respectable than directors from mainland China.
On the surface, this is true.
But from the depth of their souls, many of them have already betrayed themselves.
Want to be famous in the world? Want to be famous internationally? You need to meet one of their requirements.
This requirement is not to be patriotic but to love them.
"Wow--" The movie was being shown, and the audience was shocked and exclaimed again and again because of the special effects and scene renderings.
John Woo was also watching, processing the thoughts in his mind while being amazed by the screen images.
The vast sky, the grand scene of the "zombie" chase, the magnificent five-story city defense panorama of Shenghai Survival Base, the spectacular mountain houses, the suspended silver cable bridge and the cave city...
Is this the special effect of the Brilliant Era?
Is this the strength of China Film Group Studios?
In the past, it was not obvious because the production companies and the market did not pursue such themes, and the national industry misunderstood that our country's film and television industry did not have the strength to produce such a huge high-end special effects picture.
Now that he saw it in front of his eyes, he felt that it was very unreal. What they couldn't do in Hong Kong was actually developed by the mainland. In terms of appearance, it was no different from the special effects in Hollywood, and it was even more...
There is a sense of being far ahead of their Hong Kong film industry.
"Incredible." He murmured in his heart.
Is this domestic science fiction?
A subject that has never appeared on the big screen!
It’s an element that makes domestic capital shake their heads and dare not even think about it once it is mentioned!
A movie genre that may always be crushed by Hollywood until it becomes autistic!
Now, a company in our country has teamed up with an official studio to produce it, and the quality is not inferior to Hollywood. Some uniquely Chinese scenes are even more stunning than Hollywood-style science fiction.
Of!
John Woo thought of the "Red Cliff" he produced, and he is still proud of the large special effects scene of the straw boat borrowing arrows. But compared to the extremely exquisite and high-precision special effects scene in front of him, his "Red Cliff" is considered
What a fart!
No wonder a group of netizens who have watched the movie have described the movie as a myth.
No wonder a group of film critics, filmmakers and the media are obsessed with it. Although the articles and reviews may have flaws, they are all generous in praise.
Judging from listening to the enthusiastic voices from the audience, if he was not the director, if he did not have a work to compete with this film on the National Day schedule, he would also watch it like the audience
You have to be passionate, but you can't do it yourself.
But... if you are so excellent, even a little too good, then your existence will completely block their way!
This movie can make the audience so cohesive and enthusiastic, and make the word science fiction have a "Chinese" position in the hearts of the audience. This will be more important in the consciousness than the patriotic propaganda with the main theme of "The Founding of the People's Republic of China"
It is even more terrifying under the influence of the form, which can hinder the development of Western science fiction in the Chinese market.
Impeding development is equivalent to taking away money, and taking away money is like killing parents. This is a fatal thing for Western capital that loves money as much as life.
John Woo has a strong hunch that the capital behind him will target "Skyfall".
"The Founding of the People's Republic of China" has not yet been promoted, so there is no point of countermeasure.
Now, while most film studios are still watching the market, "Skyfall" has soared into the sky.
As the saying goes, the first bird is shot, and the first bird is a living target.
Nowadays, the good reviews of "Cambodia: The Enemy" on the Internet are almost overwhelmingly positive. That is because "interested people" have not seen this movie and do not know how to operate and guide public opinion.
But all the good news is just the foreshadowing before the storm comes. After the road show in Changsha is over, it is expected that there will be a storm against this film by "interested people" both online and offline.
It doesn't matter if a TV series is popular. As long as the quality of the TV series is good, public opinion will not have much impact on it, because the cost for the audience to watch the TV series is almost zero. They can just turn on the TV to see whether it is good or bad.
But this is a movie, and it requires the audience to spend money. Once public opinion takes a turn for the worse and affects the desire of a large number of viewers to buy tickets, causing theaters to lower their film schedules, it will have a fatal impact on the movie.
"It would be great if You didn't release it this year, but it happened to be released during the National Day when they were going to launch a culture war. After all, it was born in the wrong era." John Woo lamented.
Although the public opinion of this movie is favorable now, and although the brilliant era behind it has mastered the propaganda tool of micro-entertainment, it is nothing in the eyes of them who control the media hegemony.
In the field of public opinion, he does not think that Bright Times and China Film Group are their opponents.
He also had a strong premonition that a storm was about to blow in the film industry!