Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 858: Have the directors regressed?
Lao Mouzi repeated what he had said to Zhou Mo before to the reporters in a different format.

The reporters held up their microphones, their eyes filled with excitement.

In all these years, when has Zhang Yimou ever recognized and praised someone so seriously?

there has never been!

Zhou Mo could make Zhang Yimou thank him to such an extent, which shows that the rumors about the two of them "having conflicts" during this period are completely false, and Zhou Mo is the biggest contributor to the movie "Parasite".

After hearing what Lao Mouzi said, a few people who knew Zhou Mo well, or even those who had been lurking in Zhou Mo's fan group for many years, had a thought in their minds:

From now on, the position of the leader in the first week of the national server will probably change.

……

A moment later, Zhou Mo and his group boarded the car back to the city.

Da Tiantian looked through her phone and suddenly said with a smile: "Someone in your fan group has already 'denounced' Lao Mouzi, saying that his praise of you is too straightforward and it will easily make you arrogant in the future and stop making movies properly."

Zhou Mo burst out laughing
This response from Zhang Yimou was indeed beyond his expectations.

He originally thought that Zhang Yimou would talk more about plans for future cooperation, and these things would be best used to respond to reporters' questions.

"It's unexpected, but I'll just say it. It's actually quite nice to be praised like this by Lao Mouzi."

Da Tiantian said with a strange look on her face, "It's pretty cool? So you agree with his evaluation of being the best partner?"

"Well, what do you mean?"

Da Tiantian continued to rummage through her phone and found a chat record after a few seconds. The content of the record was exactly what Lao Mouzi said during the interview.

There was a sentence that Da Tiantian highlighted and handed it to Zhou Mo to take a look.

That's what Lao Mouzi said about his relationship with Zhou Mo:

"The time I worked with Director Zhou was the most satisfying experience I've had in making movies over the years. Sometimes I wonder if Director Zhou wasn't the director but just a producer, then we would definitely be the best team."

Zhou Mo raised his eyebrows and kept clicking his tongue.

"Old Zhang is being dishonest. What's the best partner? Shouldn't his national teacher's best partner be Zhang Weiping?"

Da Tiantian said with a smile: "Do you still feel good now?"

Zhou Mo thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's still cool. Although Lao Mouzi and Zhang Weiping had a big fight back then, they did create a lot of historical records in the entertainment industry.

He now says that I am his best partner. Although he publicly responded to the media and said that he has completely severed his relationship with Zhang Weiping, his words of praise are real, so I still have to feel good about it.”

Da Tiantian looked at Zhou Mo's slightly smug look and couldn't help shaking her head.

She mentioned the arrangements for the next period of time.

"By the way, although the award-giving thing is over, there will probably be various meetings in the future. Are you going to attend them in the next period of time? If you don't want to attend, find a reason as soon as possible, so that you don't have to find an excuse at the last minute. I can't bear to look at the excuses."

God knows what weird reasons Zhou Mo gave to avoid some meetings.

Either acute gastroenteritis or acute upper respiratory tract infection.

Anyway, in the past few years, Zhou Mo has contracted almost all the common diseases that do not affect life but do affect movement.

Zhou Mo laughed twice and quickly hugged the pillow.

"Don't worry, there won't be any last-minute cramming this time."

……

Time quickly came to the end of May.

During this period, Zhou Mo either attends various meetings or accepts interviews every day.

The commotion caused by "Parasite" was bigger than Zhou Mo had imagined.

In addition to the reports on the Sixth Princess and CCTV News, Zhou Mo and Zhang Yimou were both invited to a special interview with CCTV.

There was a topic in this interview that both Zhou Mo and Zhang Yimou were very concerned about.

The topic content is as follows:

Judging from the awards they have won, the current new generation of domestic directors (in their 30s) cannot be compared with directors of Zhang Yimou's generation.

People like Zhang Yimou, Kaizi and Jiang Wen basically won the first international award in their lives when they were in their thirties (Zhang Yimou won the Golden Bear at the age of 37, Kaizi won the Silver Leopard at Locarno at the age of 32, and Jiang Wen won the Cannes jury at the age of 37). However, among the new generation in China, people like Wen Muye, Guo Fan, Chen Sicheng... these people have not even won any international awards, let alone been nominated.

Does this mean that the overall level of domestic directors is declining as the times change? Is there a problem that each generation of directors in the domestic film industry is inferior to the previous one?

As the leader of the first week's praise in the national server, Lao Mouzi first praised Zhou Mo, saying that the latter is also a new generation director whose achievements are unique in China. If he is included, the new generation can't be said to be in decline in any way.

Lao Mouzi's answer was very clever, turning the problem of the entire new generation into Zhou Mo's problem alone.

But his answer cannot be said to be wrong, because Zhou Mo is indeed a new generation, and the youngest one among the new generation.

What Zhou Mo didn’t expect was that after Lao Mouzi’s words were posted online, netizens quickly photoshopped Lao Mouzi’s head onto a clip from the movie “Da Sheng Fa” and added a voiceover:

"You said the overall level of the new generation is not good? Then let me ask you, is Zhou Mo a human being? Is Zhou Mo a human being?"

As for Zhou Mo, he thought for a while and gave his answer.

“I actually don’t quite agree that each generation of directors is worse than the previous one, because there are many dimensions to evaluate a director, and winning awards is just one of them, but not the only one.

I admit that directors of Director Zhang's generation have indeed achieved a lot and won many awards at a young age. This is something that the new generation of directors today cannot even imagine.

But it is undeniable that in that era, if you wanted to prove your level, the only way was to win awards.

Do you want to use the box office to prove the director's level? Is it possible? The domestic market is so small, and there are only so many people who can watch movies. Even if you try your best to promote a movie, there will only be so little money in the end, which cannot be used to judge the level of a director.

The commercial film market in my country developed very late. In America, the commercial film market had already gradually matured as early as the 97s and 18s. Even if we exclude the special film "Titanic" (1, more than 8 billion US dollars), the total box office of their films in the s, including "Jurassic Park ", "Independence Day" and "Star Wars", has exceeded million.

The concept of the Lunar New Year holiday did not appear in my country's film market until 98, when director Feng directed "Party A and Party B".

As for the Spring Festival period, which became even more popular and had greater box office potential, we had to wait until 10 years later.

It can be said that in the fifteen years between 85 and 00, awards were the only dimensionality for evaluation in our country. And it was only ten years later that movie box office became a serious dimensionality for evaluating directors.

In different eras, technology, audiences, markets, and trends are all changing.

The same conditions may not be comparable in different eras.

Just like if I take the movie "Business Tycoon" for example, it has a box office of over 2 billion yuan, and everyone knows how it was made. The box office is many times higher than that of "Kung Fu" back then, but can we say that "Business Tycoon" is better than "Kung Fu"?
So if you ask me to directly say whether the overall level of directors in the past was higher than that of directors today, I have no way of making a comparison.

I can only say that the times are constantly changing. Just like ten years ago, if you said that China would one day be able to make a real hard science fiction movie, everyone would think you were joking, including the big domestic directors.

But in fact, "The Wandering Earth" was not only made, but also very well made, with a box office of more than 5 billion. Could anyone have imagined this number 30 years ago? It was impossible. For example, a movie like "Dying to Survive" is a display of contemporary issues and a relatively new content.

In addition, there is "Lost on Journey", which talks about the Spring Festival travel rush, and "Operation Red Sea", which talks about national dignity and war... The contents of these movies are all things that were not available in movies of the past era, and they can all be said to be progress and improvement.

So I think instead of comparing the levels of directors from different eras, it is better to consider what the audience needs and whether contemporary directors can meet the audience's needs.

This is what I think is the significance of the existence of the film and television industry, and it is also a necessary condition for the development of the film and television industry."

Zhou Mo's above words quickly caused a strong response on the Internet.

In just ten or so sentences, he mentioned the older generation of directors, the new generation of directors, and the audience, and did not offend anyone. He praised or supported them all.

For a moment, Zhou Mo's phone exploded again.

Everyone who called either thanked him for helping to speak out or praised him for his objectivity and comprehensiveness.

Zhou Mo had no choice but to turn off his cell phone.

Just before the customs, another phone call came in, the content was very simple:
“Don’t forget to check out The Simulcast.”

Zhou Mo quickly agreed, and at around seven o'clock in the evening, he and Da Tiantian sat in front of the TV waiting for the broadcast.

Not long after, the interview with Zhou Mo was indeed mentioned on the "News Broadcast".

Da Tiantian was quite happy at first, but as she watched, she frowned and her fingers slowly reached towards Zhou Mo's waist.

"No, I said you want to discuss movies, so why did you mention "Business Tycoon"? Everyone knows how it was filmed. Who are you being sarcastic about?"

Zhou Mo grinned, "It was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue! Time was tight at the time, and I didn't have time to think about it before I said "Business Tycoon"."

"Can't you just say Chen Sicheng's Chinatown? I don't think his movies are that funny. They can't even be compared to Kung Fu."

"You're right, but the first person that came to my mind was you. I didn't know who Chen Sicheng was, and I couldn't remember him at all."

Da Tiantian was almost laughed out of anger by Zhou Mo.

"So, I have to thank you more?"

"You're welcome." Zhou Mo raised his head.

Da Tiantian said nothing and just kept twirling her fingers.

"Hiss... Gently, gently, I'm wrong, really wrong."

……

June.

The traffic of "Parasite" finally subsided a little, and Zhou Mo had some time to start editing the movie.

The release date of "Warcraft" is currently January next year.

Now that I have more free time, I should edit the movie as soon as possible to avoid being too late later.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Zhou Mo let go of the mouse he had been holding for the whole afternoon and stretched his body.

According to the current progress, "World of Warcraft" will definitely be completed before the filming of the "Three Kingdoms" series begins.

At this time, the phone rang.

Zhou Mo glanced at the caller ID, turned off the computer and walked out of the house.

On the roadside, a car was already waiting.

It’s Tang Yan’s car.

Tang Yan opened the car door and was on the phone. When she saw Zhou Mo coming in, she made a gesture to him to be quiet, and then continued talking to the person on the other end of the phone.

"Tangtang, you must meet with Zhou Mo in the next few days. Ask him to contact the Magnolia Awards again. This is related to your evaluation for the Magnolia Awards. You must be cautious, careful, and careful."

"Okay, I'm trying to contact him now, but his phone is busy and I don't know who he's talking to. I'll call him back later."

"Well, don't be busy with other things these days. I'll help you take care of the company. I'll also help you push other things. After you discuss it with Zhou Mo, please contact me in time."

"No problem, don't worry."

After hanging up the phone, Tang Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhou Mo listened to the entire call. Seeing her relieved look, he couldn't help but joked, "Why, with your current status, Miss Tangtang, do you still need a plan to take a few days off?"

Tang Yan rolled her eyes at Zhou Mo and started joking as well.

"I'm different from you, a double gold medalist at Cannes. I'm just an ordinary little star. I can't do whatever I want, and I don't have that much talent. I can only work hard to avoid being left behind by the big group one day."

Zhou Mo smiled and asked, "How many days of free time do you think you can get this time?"

Tang Yan raised a finger happily.

"A week?"

"No, guess again?"

"Ten days?"

"Still wrong."

"Then I can't guess."

"I'll be resting until the Magnolia Awards." Tang Yan wiggled her fingers, feeling proud of herself for using Zhou Mo as an excuse to ask for leave. "My only job during this period is to work on the Magnolia Awards. According to my plan, as long as I discuss it with you two days before the Magnolia Awards and give you a definite answer when I return, I can completely relax the rest of the time."

Zhou Mo clapped his hands in cooperation: "Okay, okay, you are worthy of being the smart Lady Sugar."

Tang Yan immediately hit Zhou Mo.

"You say it again?!"

Zhou Mo was stunned for a moment, then he reacted, clasped his hands together and apologized repeatedly.

"I'm sorry, I forgot this sentence has a special meaning for Lady Sugar. I'm extremely sorry. There will definitely not be a next time."

Tang Yan clenched his fist again.

"You still say?"

(End of this chapter)