The Spring Festival is here, it’s time for family reunions, and the annual Spring Festival has also arrived.
Since last year's Spring Festival release "Journey to the West: Conquer the Demons" sold 1.2 billion, the Spring Festival release has become more and more popular, and both inside and outside the industry are paying more and more attention to the Spring Festival release.
On the first day of the new year, four movies including "Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven", "Omen", "The Story of My Ex" and "Where Are We Going, Dad" were released at the same time.
However, before the release, the popularity of the four movies was clear. "Havoc in Heaven" itself is a familiar story, and the lineup of Chow Yun-fat, Aaron Kwok, and Donnie Yen is far superior to other movies.
The clues can also be seen at the box office. "Havoc in Heaven" sold 120 million yuan on its first day, setting a new first-day box office record in mainland film history.
There have been two or three movies in China that have exceeded 100 million in a single day, but this is the first time that they have exceeded 100 million in the first day.
As soon as this box office came out, the industry was immediately excited and thought that the mainland box office record might finally be set by someone else.
However, it had only been released for one day, and the film was overwhelmed by overwhelming negative reviews and complaints.
This movie is completely in the style of an online game, and I don’t know what the director and creative team’s aesthetics are.
Even as a mythical movie, "Fu Hua Dao" is not as good as Zhang Yimou's "A City Full of Golden Armor" many years ago. The golden armor was simply unwatchable.
The one who wants to cause trouble in the Heavenly Palace is the Bull Demon King, who has more scenes than Sun Wukong.
The subordinate Erlang Shen wears gold armor, the Jade Emperor wears silver armor, and Monkey Brother's chain-locked gold armor turns into a leather coat with some bronze sculptures on it. The quality is similar to that made by Jiangnan Leather Factory.
Nuwa empress is full of the aura of dust, and those who don't know it think she came from heaven and earth.
The costumes, character modeling, and special effects are all impressive.
As for the plot, Patriarch Bodhi was instantly killed by the Bull Demon King with one move.
By the way, the protagonist, Brother Monkey, is in love, but he is still a vixen. I don’t know what Mr. Six feels about it.
Of course, there are also plots in the movie that make people cry.
Sun Wukong finally stopped the Bull Demon King and Yang Jian, defended the Heavenly Palace, then helped the Jade Emperor repair the Heavenly Palace, took the initiative to get under the Five Elements Mountain, and said flatteringly, "Buddha, your hands are so heavy."
Regardless of whether you cried or not, someone must have cried anyway. This was probably the monkey who took the initiative to be trapped under the Five Elements Mountain in the first version.
A few years later, if people who have not read the original "Journey to the West" watch "Havoc in Heaven" for the first time, they will definitely be dismissive of Sun Wukong.
That's it? Still a hero?
Rubbish!
It seems that not only the directors of Xiangjiang have no historical knowledge, but they also cannot understand anything from the past.
Not to mention the "I want this sky to be able to cover my eyes no longer, I want this earth to be able to bury my heart no longer, I want all living beings to understand my intentions, and I want all the Buddhas to disappear into thin air."
Holy shit, at least taking the initiative to crawl under the Wuzhi Mountain is almost like feeding shit.
The audience's eyes were sharp. After 120 million on the first day, the total in the second and third days of the Lunar New Year was only 200 million. The box office started to collapse as soon as the Spring Festival holiday began.
No matter how much it is promoted, hundreds of millions are spent on hiring some team to do special effects, it is the first film in China, etc. Donnie Yen specifically imitates a monkey in order to play Sun Wukong well, but the audience just doesn't buy it anyway.
The box office of "Omen" was average, with more than 70 million in three days, which was not as good as the one-day box office of "Where Are We Going, Dad?"
This variety show movie has been criticized worse than "Havoc in Heaven", but there are some differences.
"Havoc in Heaven" was criticized by everyone, whether professionals, movie lovers, or ordinary viewers. However, "Where Are We Gone, Dad" was mostly criticized by professionals and movie lovers, and not many ordinary viewers criticized it.
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The term variety movie is also mentioned frequently. In the eyes of professionals, movies like "Where Are We Going, Dad" are as abhorrent as "Tiny Times".
There are box office hits, bad movies that are getting a lot of attention, and controversial movies. This Spring Festival is still a busy time.
As the long Spring Festival holiday has passed and the Lantern Festival is about to begin, "Havoc in Heaven" has firmly established itself as the Spring Festival box office champion with a box office of 780 million in 10 days.
"Where Are We Gone, Dad" grossed RMB 70 million on the first day? Thanks to the children's market, the box office reached RMB 580 million in 10 days.
"Omen" is a comedy film that is the tallest among the dwarfs. In addition, it is also a comedy. Although it only received 70 million in three days, the total box office in ten days reached 280 million.
Everyone is happy with this Spring Festival release. "Havoc in Heaven" still has hope of breaking over 100 million, and the hope is not small. After all, the subject matter and the lineup are there. Just listening to others saying it is bad, even those who have not seen it will be curious about how bad it is.
"Where Are We Going, Dad" is a dark horse, with a box office of nearly 600 million, which is a huge profit.
"Omen" also allowed Bernard to regain his health. It had been a long time since Bernard had a blockbuster movie.
Hello, I’m hello everyone, the Spring Festival show is fun without Future Pictures participating.
However, this also made the industry once again determined to take the path of remakes and adaptations. Xinghao Entertainment, the investor of "Havoc in Heaven", announced the preparation of "Three Strikes of Bone Demons" while the iron is hot.
Bernard is also planning to make "Omen" into a series, and also announced the official start of filming for the martial arts IP "Legend of the White-haired Witch", with Fan Binbin starring as the White-haired Witch practicing her clothes, and her partner Huang Xiaoming.
After the success of "To Youth", Guangxian made another youth film "The Year in a Hurry".
Huayang Media and Lay's are working together to warm up "Peace Wheel", which has been filmed and is entering post-production. Now that Xiao Ma is dying, the publicity and distribution of the main control will be left to their two investors.
...
It's all bustling with excitement and big moves happening all the time, but Future Pictures is a bit low-key.
The preliminary preparations for "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" are basically completed and will be launched soon.
"Detective Chinatown" Ning Hao took the crew to the country.
The filming of "Wolf Warrior" has been completed and has moved into post-production.
While Xu Zheng was conceiving the sequel to "囧囧", he took on the suspense film "The Master of Hypnosis" and worked as a producer at the same time. Li Qian could clearly tell from the chat that he wanted to change to the capital side.
As for Li Qian himself, he started working after the Lantern Festival and brought the crew to Suzhou.
In the 1986 version of "Journey to the West", the scenes of the daughter country were shot here.
The Humble Administrator's Garden is one of the four famous gardens along with the Summer Palace in Beijing, Chengde Summer Resort, and Suzhou Lingering Garden. The scene of the daughter country in "Journey to the West" in "Return to Youth" begins here.
The first scene is in the Humble Administrator's Garden, which is the main hall of the Kingdom of Women, where the king of the Kingdom of Women falls in love with Tang Seng at first sight.
These repeated scenes were not difficult at all, so Li Qian asked Qi Yukun to shoot them, and chatted with director Yang Jie outside the hall.
Director Yang, who is over eighty years old, is puzzled by Li Qian standing outside watching the excitement, "Does Director Li not need to control it himself?"
Li Qian smiled and said, "The two teachers performed it perfectly decades ago, so I'm not worried."
"The mentality was the same back then, but it's not the same time now. They may not be able to perform well." Director Yang still didn't understand.
"Actually, Director Yang's acting is almost good. Now we have special effects. My special effects company has analyzed all the facial muscles and expressions of the two teachers in several scenes in "Journey to the West". Every one of them has different facial features."
The green dots are the marks that capture the muscles and expressions, not only to restore the appearance when he was young, but also to restore the performance of the scene back then." Li Qian explained.
"That's right."
Facing the high-tech special effects mentioned by Li Qian, Director Yang was not so amazed. Instead, he felt a little disappointed. He looked around and said, "Actually, when we were filming, the outside of this hall was full of people, and some of them came to travel."
of foreigners.”
"Then take pictures too."
Li Qian smiled and called the production director to make arrangements.
This plot was not filmed from "Journey to the West", but was filmed at the filming location of "Journey to the West", as a representative of film and television culture.
That is, behind-the-scenes footage and the like. After all, Chen Kun is the protagonist.
Chen Kun is a handyman on the set, driving cars and moving things.
In addition to the scenes between the Queen and Tang Seng in the Imperial Garden, there are also separate scenes, and the others are scenes involving Chen Kun working on the crew.
Actors in that era were just like ordinary crew members, earning tens of dollars in salary, unlike now where they are all big stars, so Chen Kunneng, who was a handyman, and Teacher Six wondered how several protagonists were mixed together.
For example, I did morning exercises with Teacher Six, doing monkey tricks, playing with sticks, and everyone bragging and spanking.
Next, we filmed a driving scene. After filming, the driver Chen Kun drove the actors back to the hotel.
On some shabby van, Chen Kun suddenly couldn't start it. Xu Shaohua, Teacher Six and others in the van asked, "What's going on?"
"I don't know what happened, but suddenly I couldn't start the fire." Chen Kun turned around and said.
"Stand back and let me come." Teacher Xu pushed the door open and got out of the car, then got into the driver's seat. After a few fiddles, the car started.
Just like that, Tang Monk, still wearing his cassock, drove away in a van with his three apprentices and Chen Kun, his face still looking light and chic after get off work.
This kind of plot doesn't have any special meaning, it's just fun and memories.
The only thing related to the main plot is the parting scene between Tang Monk and his apprentice and the King of the Daughter Kingdom.
The crew of "Journey to the West" filmed separate scenes again, and Li Qian's crew filmed Chen Kun who was watching. Seeing that Tang Seng was obviously moved in the scene, but had to leave in the end, Chen Kun's eyes appeared confused, until Tang Seng rode on
After leaving on the white horse, Director Yang Jie shouted "Ka", and then she understood, and her eyes became firmer.
"Click!"
Director Yang, who was in the play within the play, shouted "Ka", and Li Qian immediately shouted "Ka" too.
"Director Yang, let's do it again later."
Then he said to Chen Kun, "The changes in your eyes are too slow. After shooting several complete episodes of "The Kingdom of Women", this character has actually thought more about love. Do you know that Tang Seng was moved by the scenes in these episodes?"
, but had to leave because of Buddhist scriptures.
Your own relationship was also separated because of the difference in appearance and the gap between the ideals of both parties. But after so many years, at your age, both parties are physically and mentally the same age, and there are no longer those forced reasons, so
You have long been planning to go back."
"Then at what stage did my eyes change, or from the beginning?" Chen Kun asked.
"Don't be too early. Let's start when Monk Tang bids farewell with the hand-over-hand salute."
These details, including the previous statement to the Queen that if there is an afterlife, no matter what director Yang Jie thought at the time, it can be seen that Tang Seng was tempted.
Of course, Bai Longma may also know.
Normal people will be tempted. In "Journey to the West", the reincarnated Buddha also married a wife.
Continuing with the filming, when I saw Tang Monk no longer clasping his hands to perform Buddhist rituals, but performing secular rituals, Chen Kun's eyes began to become clear, as if he had understood something, and then turned to firmness and longing for his lover.
After so many years apart, there is no longer any obstacle between them.
...
After filming the scene in Suzhou, we traveled to several cities and filmed the historical events in fragmented shots.
At the end of February, Li Qian returned to the capital, and first went to the Bird's Nest to film the plot of the Olympic Games. It was impossible to restore the Olympic Games, so he just inserted Chen Kun into it.
Then we went to Huairou Film and Television Base to shoot the final scene. The protagonists here are Teacher Qin Yi, who plays the elderly heroine, and Gao Yuanyuan, who plays the daughter.
For Teacher Qin Yi, who has experienced ups and downs, it is not difficult to play a character who has also experienced ups and downs.
As for Gao Yuanyuan, as long as she plays her true character, it would be enough if she only has her oriental beauty appearance and her performance is gentle, sexy, and intellectual.
After all, her birth and smooth growth were obtained by her father sacrificing the time he spent with his lover and daughter. Without a perfect daughter, his father's sacrifice would not be worth it in the eyes of the audience.
They all acted in their true colors, so there wasn't much of a problem, and they were all confined to one ward, so there were no transitions.
On March 11, the crew of "Return to Youth" ushered in the filming of the last scene, which is also the end of the movie.
It was just one shot, without even any lines, but there were frequent situations on set.
The male protagonist is already a baby at this time, and the person who plays the male protagonist is naturally also a baby. He is either crying, dozing off and about to fall asleep, or squirming around restlessly.
But it’s the last shot, so it doesn’t matter.
"The baby is too troublesome." Tong Liya, who had held the baby all morning, felt a little disgusted now. She once grabbed her to ask for milk, and once she peed directly, it was quite annoying.
Li Qian smiled and said, "It just so happens that your performance for those two seconds was not up to par. It just so happened that the child took the blame for you."
"What do you mean taking the blame for me..." Tong Liya rolled her eyes.
"Think about it for yourself. That expression was like looking at your beloved. If you didn't know, you would have thought you were babysitting someone else's child."
"It feels very awkward to be facing a child, and I haven't had many roles as a heroine before. As a heroine, I'm almost a supporting character."
"It's all throughout the whole film, not much. It's just that those scenes that can be imagined are not shot. It does not affect the integrity of the story. The audience can figure it out. You have a script and a biography of the character, and you can still figure it out.
?”
"But I just don't feel comfortable facing a child. When I look at him, I can't believe that he is looking at a lover." Tong Liya is also very distressed. Her acting skills have not reached that level yet, and every time her emotions are fully brewed,
Yes, when you look at the child's eyes, you will feel goosebumps.
"Then look at me and replace that child with me later." Li Qian was helpless.
"How about I just hug you and pat you." Tong Liya smiled narrowly.
Li Qian's mouth twitched, "Don't make trouble, be serious."
...
After the baby was calmed down over there, Tong Liya was almost ready and continued filming.
"Scene 151, one shot, twelve times!"
"start!"
The last scene had been played twelve times, and Li Qian cheered up and stared at the monitor.
After putting on makeup, Tong Liya, who is over seventy years old, gently hugs her lover who has turned into a baby and sits on the chair.
Although it looks like a grandma is holding her grandson, it doesn't feel like that at all. It's more like looking at her lover.
Here is the narration: He looked at me, and at that moment, I knew he recognized me.
The camera slowly advanced, and the baby's bright, big eyes were looking straight at Tong Liya.
Another close-up was given to Tong Liya. Her old face still has traces of her youthful beauty. Looking at her lover who has turned into a baby, the admiration and sadness in her eyes are intertwined.
After a while, the baby's eyes, which had been staring at Tong Liya, slowly closed.
Tong Liya slowly lifted the small sheet that covered him, covering his face with his eyes closed.
The camera slowly zoomed out, and even though the expression was unclear in the dim room, the sadness on Tong Liya's body could still be seen.
...
This time I passed the test, but it was still not enough.
It wasn't until the 17th time that Li Qian shouted loudly, "Pass!"
""Return to Youth" is officially finished!"
"call!"
Li Qian and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The launch conference was held on October 8th, and now on March 11th, except for the half-month holiday during the Chinese New Year, the filming has finally ended in four and a half months.