Subtitle: Why it is the number one movie in history
…
Han Zhou and Han Sisheng left the cinema while the movie was playing.
This time, the host is Mr. Tang. With his ability, he is able to handle any occasion. This is just a small occasion.
But I can't avoid treating him to a drink later.
The reason why Han Sisheng and Han Zhou left was to immediately go find an old Peking Opera master who was the most important part of the filming of "Farewell My Concubine".
Han Zhou wants to invite this veteran Peking Opera master and a writer to work together as the film's artistic director.
Logically, Han Zhou should have done this himself, but Han Zhou doesn't have enough time now.
Moreover, most of the content was shot by Han Sisheng, so Han Zhou needed someone to lend a hand to Han Sisheng.
This old Peking Opera master is called Boss Chi, and this great writer is called Chen Hongjun.
As agreed, the two went to Fulon, the reception room of a hotel that was once very famous but is now just an average hotel.
Han Zhou and Han Sisheng arrived almost at the same time.
Talking about work on the first day of the Lunar New Year was still presumptuous, so Han Zhou still brought gifts.
The gift given to Boss Chi was a jade ring, which was said to be a private collection of Master Wei, a Peking Opera master of the previous generation.
The gift given to Chen Hongjun was a commemorative item, a gold-nib fountain pen confiscated from an American military officer during the Korean War.
When the two arrived, Chen Hongjun was chatting with Boss Chi.
Chen Hongjun: "Boss Chi, I didn't expect you to come in person."
Boss Chi: "I am just an opera singer."
"To be honest, Han Zhou has a quota in his hand, a quota for the shooting of a folk movie. Let alone his polite invitation, even if he didn't show up at all and just sent an official document, I would still come here happily."
Chen Hongjun was happy: "Who can force you, Le?"
"If you don't want to come, let alone official documents, nothing will work."
Boss Chi sighed and said, "At present, Henan opera is the only one in the country that does not need subsidies and can survive by performing on its own."
"No one watches Peking Opera these days."
"If a director as great as Han Zhou shoots a Peking Opera movie, even if it doesn't make hundreds of millions at the box office, it will definitely make over 100 million, right? Of course I have to come."
Boss Chi felt that this was a good opportunity to promote Peking Opera.
But in fact, both of his thoughts were completely wrong.
First of all, it is impossible that "Farewell My Concubine" only had a box office of 100 million.
Because in the previous life, in 1994, when movie tickets in China cost four yuan each and in the United States only cost three US dollars, the domestic box office of "Farewell My Concubine" was 40 million, and the global total box office exceeded 100 million.
Generally speaking, for box office kings, the number of moviegoers is more reliable than the total box office revenue.
According to calculations, if Farewell My Concubine was released in this era, the maximum box office would be around 2.8 billion.
Of course, whether Han Zhou can make "Farewell My Concubine" a success is another matter.
The second point is that before the filming of Farewell My Concubine, it was the best era for Peking Opera. After the filming of Farewell My Concubine, Peking Opera was completely dead.
This is due to factors of the times as well as factors of Farewell My Concubine itself.
Many people remember the line in Farewell My Concubine, "Even if the Overlord has knelt down, how can Peking Opera survive?"
But this sentence can probably be understood as a smear on Peking Opera creators.
Because before that, the most popular Peking opera was the model opera. The most popular Peking opera was "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" and the most powerful stage play was "The Red Detachment of Women". At that time, mainstream European drama critics and dramatists said that the artistic value of "The Red Detachment of Women" was on par with "Swan Lake".
Of course, after the relationship between China and Europe deteriorated, they flatly denied having said such things and treated themselves as if they were talking nonsense.
In that era, Peking Opera was performed for ordinary people and for the common people.
It is for the working people to see.
However, a retro trend was born after "Farewell My Concubine".
Just like what is said in the lines, 'He sang for the reactionaries, and he sang for the landlords.'
Originally, the lines were meant to satirize Duan Xiaolou for betraying Cheng Dieyi in order to save his life.
However, this was precisely the mainstream trend in the theater world of that era.
I used to sing only for dignitaries, are you peasants worthy of listening to me?
What is your level of artistic appreciation and cultural level? Are you worthy of listening to my Peking opera?
With the changing times, the development of Peking Opera has encountered huge difficulties, and young people no longer like Peking Opera.
Between the choice of striving for a new life through innovation and retreating to the period before liberation, they chose the latter.
However, Peking Opera is not the focus of Farewell My Concubine.
It's the same thing if you replace Farewell My Concubine with The New White Snake, The Search for Si Lang, or The Execution of Su San.
It will not have any impact on the movie itself. The reason why it is still called "Farewell My Concubine" is simply because of Han Zhou's own sentiments.
The trauma of the times shown in the second half of Farewell My Concubine is just redundant and is not the key to the popularity of Farewell My Concubine at all.
When Han Zhou and Han Sisheng walked in, Boss Chi and Chen Hongjun were still chatting.
When they saw Han Sisheng, they both stood up.
"Happy New Year, Fourth Master."
Han Sisheng: "Hahaha, Happy New Year. I'm sorry to have to make you run here during the New Year."
Han Zhou stepped forward and stretched out his hands: "Hello, Mr. Chen, hello, Mr. Chi."
After a brief greeting, Han Zhou talked about the work that his movie required two people to do.
The two of them also listened carefully.
Han Zhou has a deep understanding of the movie "Farewell My Concubine".
It is said that 1994 was the most glorious year in the history of film.
Many of the top 100 classic films in global film history were released in this year.
There are "Léon: The Professional", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump", "Pulp Fiction", "Ashes of Time", "In the Sun", "The Lion King", "Interview with the Vampire", "The Mask", "Legends of the Condor Heroes" and so on.
However, the absolute champion of this year is "Farewell My Concubine".
This year, "Farewell My Concubine" swept all the top awards.
There is only one exception, and that is Oscar.
This year, there were two strange secrets in the Oscars. The first secret was that "Forrest Gump" beat "The Shawshank Redemption". The second secret was that in order to allow "Forrest Gump" to beat "The Shawshank Redemption", the Oscars simply did not select "Farewell My Concubine" for the nomination!
That’s right, if “Farewell My Concubine” was nominated, “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Forrest Gump” would have no chance.
However, there are two sides to this matter.
If Han Zhou was an American, he would also choose "Forrest Gump".
In fact, in the United States, on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest-rated movie is the super magical patriotic nonsense drama "Top Gun 2". On Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of people gave this movie a score of more than 3.5 points.
"The Shawshank Redemption" scored a pitiful 65 percent of people giving it a score above 3.5.
Many people say that there is no patriotic education in the United States and that Americans don’t make films with mainstream themes. That’s bullshit. Eighty percent of American movies are with mainstream themes and American movie fans also like them.
In other words, it is understandable that , after all, it is the United States.
However, "Forrest Gump" or "The Shawshank Redemption" can never beat "Farewell My Concubine". Once "Farewell My Concubine" is included in the selection, no matter what selection method is used, they will never win.
After all, Americans were still at the stage of saving face at that time, and had not reached the point they are at today.
So, they chose the easy way out and simply didn't allow Farewell My Concubine to be nominated.
After the Oscars, a staff member of the Farewell My Concubine crew asked Oscar insiders why "Farewell My Concubine" was not nominated.
The other party's answer was, "We thought you had won all the international awards and A-level film festival awards, so you didn't need an Oscar."
The other party's answer was so weak that they even used the subtext "The Oscars are far inferior to the Golden Globes and Cannes" to explain why "Farewell My Concubine" was not nominated for the Oscars.
Of course, on a well-known movie website called Banban, which gives one point to foreign movies and one point to domestic movies, the Chinese-language movie "Farewell My Concubine" ranks second in the history of the ratings list, which actually shows the conclusion.
In fact, with a little analysis, you can see the difference in the confidence of the three films in winning awards.
"Forrest Gump" is a fictional film that creates an imaginary period of history. It attributes some real historical events to Forrest Gump alone to showcase the American conservative party thinking of "God loves honest men."
"The Shawshank Redemption" tells the story of how a man, after being wronged, uses his intelligence to escape and redeem himself.
"Farewell My Concubine" tells the story of four different eras, from feudalism, to capitalism, to New China, and then to modern New China. It tells the story of the changes of an art in such changing times, and tells the story of a person's magnificent and miserable life in such changes.
From the perspective of the films themselves, all three films tell their themes very well, and it can almost be said that they have achieved 100% presentation.
However, when the theme is presented 100%, the theme itself has different effects on film awards.
It's like one chef made a plate of fried potatoes and another chef made Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
Both of them are top chefs, but your fried potatoes can only cost a hundred yuan, while the ingredients for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall cost more than ten thousand yuan.
Fried potato shreds to the limit is only the limit at a low difficulty level, while the limit of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall represents the limit of culinary art.
In terms of dramatic tension, the two film themes are destined to be on completely different levels.
Apart from this, Farewell My Concubine is very different from the other two films.
First of all, the theme of Forrest Gump is a mainstream theme in the United States and has been filmed by countless people.
However, the story of "The Shawshank Redemption" is not an original story. In 1960, the great director Baker filmed a movie called "The Hole". It cannot be said that the plot is exactly the same as "The Shawshank Redemption". It can only be said that "The Shawshank Redemption" paid tribute to this movie on a large scale.
And the 1979 "Escape from Alkara" is even more... If the movie is a building, "Escape from Alkara" is basically the same building with a new tenant and some pots and pans moved in.
If this happened in China and was shot by a Chinese director, you'd be lucky if you weren't accused of plagiarizing for twenty years. How could you still expect to win an award?
The theme of "Farewell My Concubine" is a first in film history.
From the perspectives of film subject matter and film pioneeringness, "Farewell My Concubine" is the king of 1994. The only film that can barely compete with "Farewell My Concubine" is "The Lion King".
So, Han Zhou is now ready to bring out "Farewell My Concubine".
Although for this era when movies are becoming increasingly petty and boring, "Farewell My Concubine" was awarded internationally and was like a powerful weapon to attack bacteria.
But there is no way. Americans today are more shameless than they were back then, and Europeans today are even more shameless than they were back then.
It's not an absolute crush, but it's just a daydream to win the award.
As long as you can take the photo, you can win the award.
The only question now is...can it be filmed?
Boss Chi gave his own suggestion: "I heard that the role of Duan Xiaolou is played by Wu Li, you will play Cheng Dieyi yourself, and Juxian is played by Zhao Ziyu?"
Han Zhou nodded.
Boss Chi: "My suggestion is that Duan Xiaolou's singing part should be performed by a professional drama actor."
"Also, your Peking Opera part..."
Han Zhou: "Boss Chi, you may not know that I haven't decided when to shoot Farewell My Concubine, but I have already told Wu Li about this."
"Wu Li turned down all the work and spent the whole year practicing singing opera."
"As for me, I have no problem singing opera."
Boss Chi thought carefully: "Movies are movies after all. If Wu Li studied opera singing for a year for this role, then... it is indeed better than being an actor in a theater. OK."
The four of us talked about this movie for a long time.
After today, Han Zhou will no longer have time to discuss his understanding of the movie in detail with the creative team.
This chat lasted from morning to night.
At around nine o'clock, Boss Chi's eyes became blurry and he kept shouting that he couldn't go on any longer, so everyone adjourned the meeting.
After the meeting, Han Zhou hurried to a movie theater on the East Third Ring Road.
By the time I found someone to get the ticket and got in, "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" had already been airing for half an hour.
Han Zhou found a seat and sat down.
An Lan, who was standing next to him, grabbed Han Zhou's hand and said, "I'm so busy this year."
On the first day of the Lunar New Year two years ago, I was in a daze in Houhai, and last year I was in a daze in Qianmen.
This year, it was a busy day at work.
Han Zhou squeezed An Lan's palm and said, "It's okay. It's normal to be busy."
Han Zhou didn't want to wait until late at night to find An Lan.
However, Han Zhou was about to go to the Yanjing garrison for military training, and he really couldn't find time.
An Lan: "Are you okay?"
Through the light from the movie screen, Han Zhou saw An Lan looking at him with her head tilted.
Han Zhou: "I'm fine, what's wrong?"
An Lan hesitated for a moment: "I read your new movie script... it's... gay?"
Han Zhou: "Cheng Dieyi is not gay, he has gender identity disorder."
This point is clearly shown in the lines, "The little nun was only 28 years old, and her hair was shaved off by her master in her prime. I am a girl, not a man..."
When Cheng Dieyi was young, he would always say "I am a man, not a woman."
Because of this sentence, I got beaten countless times.
In the end, Cheng Dieyi believes in her heart that she is a woman, not a man.
An Lan and Han Zhou were talking in low voices, and many fans around them turned around to look at them dissatisfied.
An Lan hadn't expected that the 10 o'clock show of Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World would be full on New Year's Day, so she ended up just dragging Han Zhou along with her.
The streets of Yanjing are still like winter nights in early spring.
Two people walked aimlessly.
An Lan suddenly said something stupid: "Actually, I look like Cheng Dieyi, but you don't look like Cheng Dieyi."
Han Zhou was amused: "It's just acting. If I were really like Cheng Dieyi, I would never play Cheng Dieyi."
An Lan: "I'm afraid this movie will be very... I remember a scene that I think can be changed."
Han Zhou looked back in confusion: "Which sentence?"
An Lan: "You wrote a paragraph where our army entered the city to listen to an opera. Cheng Dieyi was dissatisfied with them and thought they were not worthy of listening to an opera, so he was not prepared, which led to his voice breaking on the stage."
"I think it can be changed to, it's just an accidental sound break."
Han Zhou shook his head: "It doesn't make sense."
In fact, this passage in the previous life's version of "Farewell My Concubine" is exactly the version that An Lan wanted to change.
Han Zhou chose the version in the original book.
Why change it?
Because this paragraph doesn't make sense.
When our army entered the city, we never disturbed ordinary people. In just one night, our reputation spread far and wide.
It is absolutely impossible for Cheng Dieyi to make a mistake of breaking his voice due to fear. This was the biggest loophole and bug in the previous version of "Farewell My Concubine".
In addition, this movie is not about showing a good person, and Cheng Dieyi is not a person who understands national justice. Changing this part is simply like taking off your pants to fart.
In order to save Duan Xiaolou, Cheng Dieyi went to sing for the Sakura Army. After coming out, he said, "There is a man named Qingshan who understands opera..." Duan Xiaolou still tui him mercilessly, thinking that even if he died, he should not sing for the Sakura Army.
That paragraph fully illustrates that Cheng Dieyi only loves Duan Xiaolou and does not understand what national justice is.
The latter part was purely to show the high quality of our army. Unlike previous warlords, the Sakura Army, and the big masters in the feudal era who turned against the actors because of their broken voices, they sang a song for the two actors together.
To be honest, the movie version of "Farewell My Concubine" was a desperate attempt to win an award, and there are also traces of changing the plot to be more black.
But for Han Zhou, this is not a matter of dignity.
Han Zhou was confident that as long as he could film it, he would definitely win a prize, so there was no need to play with these things.
Moreover, even if he had to do all these to win the prize, Han Zhou would not accept the award.
Therefore, Han Zhou used many parts from the original version in his processing.
Just like that, on the streets of Yanjing, Han Zhou told An Lan what kind of person Cheng Dieyi was.
There is a huge difference between these two treatments.
In the original novel, Cheng Dieyi just looked down on our army. Later he was reported and criticized, so there was no such thing as injustice.
In the movie version, Cheng Dieyi looks very wronged.
Han Zhou believes that, indeed, those things like criticism and struggle struggle are not good things, but there is no need to write Cheng Dieyi as a good and perfect person to contrast with the bad people who engage in criticism and struggle struggle.
This kind of diode thinking is generally only possessed by public intellectuals.
In Han Zhou's version, there are no saints or absolutely good people in "Farewell My Concubine". Instead, the love, hatred and vengeance displayed are more complicated and closer to real life.
Art comes from life but is higher than life?
Bullshit, art does come from life, but it can never be higher than life, because art is just an insignificant thing in life.
In the original version of "Farewell My Concubine", Duan Xiaolou was like today's stars, a fake overlord who still understood the national justice but was afraid of death.
Juxian is the real overlord.
Cheng Dieyi is the real Yu Ji.
However, the real Yu Ji is not just a dramatic character, she is also a person, so this change alone reduces Cheng Dieyi's fairy spirit by three points, but the overall authenticity of the movie can be doubled.
Han Zhou felt that this change was very cost-effective.
…
Late at night, Han Zhou sent An Lan home and left with Liu Jianxi watching him.
After leaving, Han Zhou returned to the new world.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Yang Hong was busier than Han Zhou.
Previously, Han Zhou spent 1 billion yuan to buy a building in Yanjing, which basically consumed half of New World’s profits last year.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone in the film industry is paying attention to the Spring Festival movie season.
But no one noticed that New World quietly moved its headquarters to Yanjing.
The new building is still bustling with people.
For this industry, there is no such thing as Chinese New Year, only the Spring Festival period.
When Han Zhou returned to the company, the employees on the scene basically kept silent and stared at him.
That’s because good news needs people with status to speak for themselves.
Yang Hong pushed Liu Tiantan.
Liu Tiantan stepped forward and handed over a piece of paper.
Han Zhou glanced at it.
"Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" had a box office of 348 million on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Rival? Where did the rival come from? It doesn’t matter.
Han Zhou opened his phone and scrolled to the top trending search at the moment.
# Nezha breaks records! #
I clicked on it and saw a post from CCTV.com: "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World was a huge success on the first day of the Lunar New Year, grossing 348 million on the first day, breaking the box office record for Chinese-language animated films. It is only one step away from topping the box office chart for animated films in the Chinese market!"
A picture is listed below.
Before "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World", the highest-grossing Chinese animated film was "Northern Capital Fairy", with a box office of 190 million.
"Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" broke this record in just one day.
In the Chinese film market, the highest-grossing animated film is "Jungle League", which was imported from Hollywood, with a box office of 353 million.
Netizens were stunned by this Weibo post.
"Ah? Breaking the Chinese-language historical record in a single day? It's just this close to breaking the record for imported films? It's almost breaking all the box office records for animated films in history in just one day?"
"Fuck, why haven't I heard of this movie? Is it so popular?"
"This is a fan movie for 'Hong Huang'. Today, all the gamers went to watch it."
"Those above who don't know should stop making irresponsible comments. Nezha is not a movie for fans, it is a movie for the whole family."
"Damn, let me tell you, when Nezha transformed, he was so handsome!!!"
"To be honest, the special effects are no different from those in Hollywood movies, and the story is even better than that of Hollywood cartoons. It's a bit strange that we actually have an animated film of this level?"
"The rise of Chinese comics, the light of Chinese comics!"
That’s right, “Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World” was just one record away from breaking all the box office records for animated films in history on the first day.
But we are not fools, and the record will be broken early tomorrow morning.
Han Zhou fell into deep thought.
Han Zhou initially thought that without the foundation of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back", the box office of "Nezha" might not reach the level of its predecessor.
But at present, its own publicity seems to be more important than the foundation of "The Return of the Great Sage".
If "Nezha" reaches the box office level of its previous life, wouldn't it... become the top-grossing film in Chinese box office history?
The top of the list is an animated film? This doesn't seem real.
It can't be that... Nezha has become this world's version of Wolf Warrior 2? !
But if you think about it carefully, this seems to be better than "Wolf Warrior 2". At least when they spend money to hire internet trolls to criticize the real people, they can't criticize the animation. How can they criticize it?
Is Black Nezha's Hun Tian Ling red instead of blue?
Or is Black Nezha’s Qiankun Circle like a U-shaped lock?
This seems pretty good, right?
While Han Zhou was thinking, none of the senior executives of film companies and film distribution companies across the country could sleep.
How come...anime has such explosive power?
This is unscientific!
How can anime be more attractive than real people? Is this the only country in the world that has this problem?
What's going on?
Han Zhou probably knew what was going on, and Han Sisheng also knew that some of the film company executives had already thought of it.
The film market has actually exploded over the past year, but so far, no movie has been able to drain the box office and consume the enthusiasm of casual moviegoers.
So, during the Chinese New Year, the box office market was too big and a huge flood broke out at this time.
And "Nezha" caught up with this benefit.
The rise of anything domestically produced is a very important thing for the country and can attract a lot of support.
Many people say that "Wolf Warrior 2" is lucky.
Actually, that’s not true.
In which year and month did the United States and Europe not slander China?
At what time period is everyone’s patriotic enthusiasm not aroused?
In fact, "Wolf Warrior 2" is bound to be a hit whenever it is released, because it is the first real 3D commercial blockbuster in China.
"Nezha" became the world's first Chinese 3D commercial blockbuster.
Even if it's an anime, it's going to be a hit!
It is just like the two explosive opportunities for the rise of domestic animation and domestic commercial blockbusters in the previous life. In this world, the order is reversed.
On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Han Zhou stayed in the company for half a day and went to see Wang Xiya in the afternoon.
Every year during the Spring Festival, I play alone with An Lan. This year, Wang Xiya’s Tianle didn’t have a movie during the Spring Festival, so I was just free.
As for Han Zhou, after calculating the result, he no longer cared much about the box office.
The two went to the Ocean Park together for a day. Although Han Zhou wore a hat, sunglasses and mask the whole time, Wang Xiya was still very happy.
In the evening, a piece of news that shocked the entertainment industry came out again.
"Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" grossed 400 million yuan on the second day of the Chinese New Year, becoming the first movie in the country's history to break the 400 million yuan box office in a single day!
Last year, "Kung Fu" earned less than 200 million in a single day!
This year, "Nezha" made 750 million in two days!
The price continued to surge the next day because game fans were afraid that the movie was a rip-off.
As a result, the people around me who were playing games were all discussing how good the movie was, so I rushed out.
Next, it’s about attracting passers-by moviegoers. This Spring Festival time slot has actually been eaten up.
However, the daily box office can only be counted after a specific day.
Everyone knows that there are no other movies during this Spring Festival, and other movies are just to make up the numbers!
"This box office is... horrible!"
“Are you serious? The box office is so horrible?”
"This box office... even topped the global single-day box office list, three times more than the second place!"
Players in North America are even more anxious.
Holy shit, Nezha has topped the global box office charts, and they’re not letting us see it!!!
Because of the massive protests from players, Twitter, and social media, many non-gamers noticed one thing.
A Chinese movie topped the single-day box office charts, with a single-day box office of nearly 70 million US dollars.
Are Chinese films so awesome?
Even if no one promoted it, everyone soon knew that the screenwriter of "Nezha" was Han Zhou.
Sanpao was so miserable. He finally got his fame back, but all his reputation was taken away by Han Zhou.
However, in the country, Liu Tiantan became famous overnight.
Countless reporters rushed to interview him.
A large number of stories, including inspirational stories and past history, were dug out.
Liu Tiantan's unkempt appearance has dominated the Chinese news pages in the past few days.
Han Zhou was also happy and relaxed without being disturbed.
He came to the Yanjing garrison alone and silently.
Under the red flag, Han Zhou took the oath, and then joined the training system of the reconnaissance company of the Yanjing garrison force through special procedures.
In the past six months, Han Zhou had to train in the military camp from Monday to Friday. As a real man, he was exposed to the sun every day.
On weekends, I would leave the barracks and go to the set to play the role of Cheng Dieyi or Yu Ji.
This feeling is a bit subtle.