The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 663 Documentary

In the July film market, three works attracted the most attention from movie fans.

They are "Chinese Partners", "Blind Detective" and "Man of Tai Chi".

Compared to Han Han's five Weibo posts a day in June, and Guo Jingming taking time out to be interviewed on his way to the venue.

The publicity for these three movies seems to be very lackluster.

The promotion of "Chinese Partners" started in May, with the main theme being to follow the rules.

It was not until mid-June that Chen Kexin took Huang Xiaoming and Tong Dawei to travel to major cities.

Lu Yuan, the most charismatic of the three protagonists, did not participate in the whole process. His absence made the play less talked about and the publicity seemed particularly Buddhist.

"Blind Detective" starring Liu Dehua is even more exaggerated.

Director Johnnie To is not doing his job properly. He doesn't care about publicity at all. Whenever he arrives in a city, he wanders into the alleys looking for delicious food.

Only Liu Dehua apologized for the poor film selection for "Fuchun Mountain" during an interview, and pleaded with fans not to let "Blind Detective" be affected by his own reasons.

The apology sparked widespread discussion.

The domestic films in July, contrary to their usual practice, did not deliberately create topics. The market was calm, with no quarrels, no verbal battles, no hype, and surprisingly harmonious.

This makes the well-informed crowd feel a little uncomfortable.

As for another Kung Fu blockbuster "Man of Tai Chi" jointly invested by China Film and Wanda.
In the box, Johnnie To expressed his incomprehension.

"What do Wanda and China Film Group think when foreigners make Chinese Kung Fu movies? Aren't there enough lessons to learn from past experiences?"

The director of "Man of Tai Chi" is Keanu Reeves, who once starred in "The Matrix". At that time, this movie started the science fiction dreams of many people.

This time, Keanu Reeves switched to become a director and made his debut film, focusing on a Chinese Kung Fu film.

As for the reason for choosing this subject, according to the other party, he fell in love with Chinese Kung Fu during the filming process in his early years. So, together with Chen Hu, the action director of "The Matrix", he spent ten years honing his skills and invested 2500 million US dollars to carefully create the Kung Fu blockbuster "Man of Tai Chi".

Lu Yuan said: "Mr. Han chose to invest because he took into account the global popularity of kung fu movies and also valued Keanu Reeves' box office appeal."

After resting for a night in Beijing, he rushed to Wuhan to meet up with Chen Kexin, Huang Xiaoming and others, and happened to meet Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai and Gao Yuanyuan at the airport.

The three of them were here to promote "Blind Detective". After meeting at the airport, Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai invited him to dinner.

Wai Ka-Fai shook his head: "Mr. Han is confused. Keanu Reeves is a Hollywood A-lister, but there are not many Chinese fans who know him. Besides, only Chinese directors can capture the essence of Chinese Kung Fu. Foreigners don't understand the connotation of Chinese Kung Fu at all."

Their introduction to Chinese Kung Fu and martial arts is nothing more than the movies of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and others. They only see the movements in martial arts movies, but cannot appreciate the profound Chinese culture behind martial arts, or their appreciation is not deep enough.

"Just like our directors shooting Western movies, which are only for show, foreigners can only make Chinese Kung Fu movies similar in form but not in spirit. Any Chinese person you pick out knows more about Kung Fu than them. It's ridiculous to expect Man of Tai Chi to make money."

In fact, it is not just a kung fu movie.

Any type of China story created by foreigners is mostly full of misunderstanding of the real situation of Chinese society.

For example, "Yellowstone Child" starring Chow Yun-fa in 08.

The story was originally set in Feng County, Shaanxi, but the director moved it to Huangshi, Hubei, which became a joke. After the film was released, Feng County sued it and the film was removed from the shelves for revisions.

"The Masked Veil" released in 06.

The film tells the story of a British couple's experiences in rural China in the 20s.

"The Painted Veil" was extremely popular that year and was the only Chinese film to make it to the Golden Globe Awards, a symbol of the Oscars.

However, the film's cumulative box office in mainland China was less than 200 million, so it is no exaggeration to say that no one was interested in it.

There are many similar examples of foreign directors trying to make Chinese films but ended up with something less than ideal.

Lu Yuan raised his glass, clinked it with the two of them, and joked, "Boss Han may have other considerations. He always has a unique vision."

"Hahaha!"

Wai Ka Fai was very happy: "I dare not say this to Mr. Han in person. I searched out of curiosity a few days ago, but I couldn't find the producer information of Fuchun Mountain on Baidu."

Johnnie To and Lu Yuan laughed along.

Over this period of time, "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" has become the ceiling of bad domestic films.

After a moment, Lu Yuan looked at Johnnie To and said, "I heard that you had a fight with the Shanghai Film Festival last month?"

The Shanghai Film Festival closed at the end of June, and Johnnie To was furious when he learned the final list of winners.

He blasted the film awards as being extremely unprofessional, not a real film festival, and disrespectful to films, and said he would never go to the Shanghai Film Festival again, never.

The organizing committee responded: Director Du is a representative figure in the Chinese film industry and is respected by everyone. The film festival also invited him to participate in the Shanghai Film Festival with this respect. In the future, we will continue to invite Director Du and his works to the Magic City with this respect.

"I will never go to the Shanghai Film Festival again. I'm not the only one who says this. Many of my colleagues who were present that night thought the same thing. It's just unbearable to see such a good A-class award turned into such a mess by them. They didn't intend to run it properly at all." Johnnie To said this and became angry again.

"The morale of our industry is too bad. Now all kinds of people want to come in and make money. The film industry is not an industry without barriers to entry.

Take actors for example. These people have no acting skills and don't know how to perform at all, but they are full of style. Once they come out, they look like Hollywood stars, with three people in front and four people behind them surrounding them. They have nothing but airs. Sometimes I feel ashamed for them. How can they be so embarrassed?

If movie actors continue like this, there won't be any good movies. They don't understand and don't work hard. Nowadays, young actors are all about the pay and the show. They are nothing like when Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Lau Ching Wan, and Lau Tak Wa were young. They worked hard for 16 or 17 hours a day and didn't get paid much, but they really put their heart into making movies.

There are also directors who have absolutely no directing skills and the films they shoot are worse than MVs. A PPT-style crappy film like "Tiny Times" actually won the Best Picture and Best New Director awards. It's ridiculous. I think the Shanghai Film Awards should be closed down as soon as possible and stop bringing shame to Chinese films."

"Puff!" Seeing him talking nonstop, the young actor Lu Yuan opened a bottle of Tsingtao and refilled his glass.

Originally, "See You Tomorrow" was also eligible to compete for the Best Film Award and Best New Director Award at this year's Shanghai Film Festival.

During the filming of "The Cliff", Han Han sought everyone's opinions in the group.

But he and Ning Hao agreed that it was unnecessary. It was understandable that a film of high quality would win an award. Although "See You Tomorrow" was not that bad, to be fair, it was not good enough to win an award.

If you win an award, you will be scolded. It doesn't matter if you get some topic attention.

So in the end, "See You Tomorrow" did not make the cut, and "Tiny Times" was the only one that took the blame.

This is also one of the main reasons why Guo Jingming aroused public anger in the entertainment industry. He took an award that he should not have received and his virtue is unworthy of his position.

"Gulp." Johnnie To raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

Lu Yuan advised him: "Director Du, please calm down. No one can be so perfect as a director for the first time. What matters is the result. Some people will laugh last and become great directors, while some who are not good enough will just run away halfway through."

"Boss Lu is making a lot of money again, so of course he's not angry." Johnnie To picked up some pickled lotus root and fried chicken gizzards with chopsticks, which tasted sour.

Many people were jealous of the box office of "See You Tomorrow", and many people criticized Lu Yuan, some even attacked the Star Project for being too commercial and only investing in commercial films.

Lu Yuan didn't say anything and turned his eyes to the window.

A bus happened to pass by with a poster hanging on its side. It showed three young Chinese men squatting in Times Square in the United States, with five huge words "Chinese Partners" on the top.

He retracted his gaze, changed the subject, and asked, "Are you really not going to go to the cinema this time?"

Visiting cinemas has always been a common practice in film promotion, but in the promotion of "Blind Detective", the main creators rarely went there.

Johnnie To said calmly, "If the movie only attracts audiences when it goes to theaters, what kind of movie is that? Going to theaters seems to turn movies into a business."

"The theaters just need to show the films well, and we just need to make good movies. I went to the theaters and said hello, and the dialogues were all the same, just like human tape recorders."

"I suggest you don't run away. Let the quality of the film speak for itself. After a month of release, we can sit down and discuss the play with the audience." Lu Yuan glanced at him.

Based on the success of movies such as "Out of Time" and "Lost in Thailand", movie fans have trust in him.

It is generally believed that the films starring Lu Yuan are of good quality.

Therefore, the films he stars in no longer need to deliberately create topics like before.

Users who have a desire to watch movies will become inclined to watch it as long as they see the news that "Chinese Partners" is about to be released, or see the poster of "Chinese Partners" in the cinema.

This is the same principle as building personal branding on the small screen.

So starting from last year, the movies starring him are no longer deliberately hyped, and film and television marketing has returned to content marketing.

The marketing of "New World" was an accident, and the film was reported because we were forced to do so.

But not deliberately marketing does not mean that there is no need for publicity. It should be moderate. Not publicizing or promoting a good film is irresponsible.

In Lu Yuan's opinion, Johnnie To had a very bad conscience for saying this.

Johnnie To looked at him, and his eyes dodged for a moment imperceptibly.

He has selfish motives. The leading actor of "Blind Detective" is Andy Lau, a veteran superstar in Hong Kong.

But in terms of market appeal, he is really not as good as Lu Yuan, and in terms of marketing, everyone in the industry knows that Zhang Bowen, the publicity director of Yuanfang Media, is a tough guy with great achievements.

What to do? No one should just stop promoting the product and just compete honestly on quality. He is confident in this regard.

Unfortunately, Lu Yuan was too lazy to pay attention to him.

After Lu Yuan joined forces with Chen Kexin and others, they only did three days of promotion.

They then returned to Beijing together to prepare for the movie premiere.

When Zhang Bowen and Guangxian’s publicity team were making plans, they first made changes to the publicity positioning.

The previous positioning of "business war film" was changed to "youth nostalgia film", and the target audience is young groups and college students.

It was decided that the premiere of "Chinese Partners" would be held at the Meng Minwei Concert Hall at Tsinghua University.

Noon on September 7th.

Zhou Yaoyao and Zhou Qi skipped back to the community, and Lu Yuan followed behind.

He had just got off the plane and returned home. After having lunch, he was planning to take a nap, but the two naughty kids were clamoring for ice cream, and their chattering was annoying.

Lu Jia is worried that the two children can't control their appetite and get sick, so she doesn't store too much food in the refrigerator and always buys and eats it right away.

Zhou Yaoyao didn't dare to discuss it with her mother, so she teamed up with her brother to pester her uncle.

Calling them uncle long and uncle short, pinching their shoulders, playing the victim, and even bringing up Liu Shishi. Lu Yuan was filled with kindness and took the two of them into the supermarket.

It rained in the morning and Liu's father went downstairs to throw away the garbage and happened to run into the three people.

Seeing that he lowered his head and focused on his phone, Lu Yuan approached and reminded him: "Hey, uncle, be careful. If Shishi and Auntie see us, we'll have to tell them."

"Ah?" Father Liu raised his head and looked towards his balcony. After confirming that no one was there, he maintained his face as a father-in-law and waved his hand nonchalantly: "It's okay!"

Lu Yuan was not surprised and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"PPS has recently updated a lot of documentaries. I picked one that was recommended by the system and I was fascinated by it."

"Documentary?"

"Yeah, you don't know?"

Lu Yuan shook his head. Although PPS did not rush to buy the copyrights of hit TV series, it had purchased a lot of copyrights of other types of films and had been steadily progressing, including documentaries.

"What's that?"

"Peng Gaofeng has been searching for his son for three years." Liu's father replied, and seeing his curiosity, he began to give a brief introduction.

Peng Gaofeng is a veteran. Since his son went missing in 2008, he has given up his business, sold all his property, and devoted all his energy to finding his son over the long three years. He has traveled across most of China and even to Southeast Asia.

All conceivable methods have been implemented, but all efforts seem to have fallen on deaf ears, with no results.

It was not until 2010 that, with the help of a reporter, the search focus was shifted to the Internet. Help requests were posted on multiple platforms, and many volunteers and netizens were actively contacted and interacted with in the hope of obtaining useful clues.

On the eve of the 2011 Spring Festival, a college student from Jiangsu was browsing the Internet when he came across a photo of a child who looked strikingly similar to Peng Gaofeng's son.

He took immediate action and contacted Peng Gaofeng as soon as possible.

Then, a miracle happened and father and son were reunited.

Father Liu sighed: "There are too many cases of trafficking in China. Peng Gaofeng is undoubtedly lucky. There are also many parents who have lost their children. They have been looking for them for more than ten years, their hair has turned white, but there is still no news."

Lu Yuan nodded and was about to say something when Zhou Yaoyao's voice suddenly came.

"uncle!"

Lu Yuan looked in the direction of the voice and saw his nephew climbing out of the puddle, holding the ice cream tightly in his hand. Yaoyao was standing beside him, wanting to reach out but feeling reluctant.

Zhou Qi first looked at the dripping clothes, then raised his head and said fearfully: "Uncle, will mom beat me?"

It's not you, it's the two of us. Lu Yuan's head was full of confusion, and he imagined the scene where the old woman was cursing and accusing him of not keeping a close eye on Qiqi.

"Take him upstairs to change his clothes, so he doesn't catch a cold."

Father Liu urged with a smile, and said, "Qiqi, change your clothes and come to my house. There is ice cream in the refrigerator."

"Okay!" Zhou Qi smiled with dimples.

"What's good? Let's talk about it first if we can survive."

Lu Yuan sighed resignedly and simply twisted Zhou Qi's shirt.

Under everyone's puzzled gaze, he slapped the water stains in his hand onto his clothes, and then led the two people upstairs.

"Boom boom boom!"

The door opened and Lu Jia stood at the entrance, his expression beginning to change visibly.

Lu Yuan took the lead and angrily pushed his nephew into her arms: "I can't take care of this child. He is too disobedient. I told him not to play in the water, but he insisted on playing. I tried to stop him and he got me all wet. Look at my clothes."

He pointed at his wet shirt, trying hard to clear himself of responsibility and prove that he was watching carefully, but Zhou Qi was disobedient and couldn't keep an eye on him.

Rather than having both of them get scolded, it’s better for the nephew to bear it alone!

Zhou Qi turned his head and looked at his uncle blankly, as if something was wrong.

Before he could turn his head again, he felt a pain in his ear and his old mother took action.

"Snapped!"

(End of this chapter)