Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 565: Original Intention and Hot Discussion

The movie "Aftershock" was very successful in terms of box office and influence in its original time and space.

He had previously announced that he wanted to shoot a movie about the Tangshan earthquake. Although there was an element of anger in this, it was inevitable that he would learn about things related to the disaster after he had some free time.

Especially as his fame grew, many fans took the news seriously and kept asking when the movie would start.

However, what really made Liu Zhou decide to shoot the movie "Aftershock" was the inspiration he got after learning about the relevant situation.

If Tangshan had not approached him at that time, Liu Zhou would have gone to them to start the film after finishing filming "Interstellar".

To be honest, at the beginning he was planning to shoot it according to the original version of "Aftershock", but the more he learned about the disaster, the more he felt that he couldn't shoot it the same way as Feng Kuazi did.

His directing career over these years has not been in vain. He has his own ideas about movies and about directing a movie.

So from the very beginning, he wanted to shoot "Aftershock" according to his own ideas and treat it as an original movie.

Liu Zhou's initial idea for the film came from a news report about a boy who was buried for seven days in the Tangshan earthquake and was eventually rescued.

When the earthquake occurred, the boy's father was out of town. After learning about the Tangshan earthquake, the father hitchhiked all the way back to Tangshan, where he dug out the bodies of his relatives and ultimately rescued his son who was buried underground.

So the story in the movie where a little boy was buried for seven days and was rescued was not just an artistic processing of the movie, but a real event.

Of course this is not the point. The most important thing is the part about the father in the report.

The idea of ​​the storyline about Young Master Zhou in Liu Zhou's "Aftershock" came from this. He planned to use this incident as a basis to make a movie about a mother who brings her daughter back to Tangshan after the earthquake, going through many hardships, and finally rescuing her son from the ruins.

When the film was conceived, this line was used as the main plot to produce the film, similar to "The Long Flow" by Iranian film master Abbas.

This is a typical road movie, revealing human nature through the state of various people after the earthquake.

To be honest, in terms of artistry, this way of shooting is better than the current way.

But if it is shot in this way, the watchability will be much weaker, and it will become a complete art film, which will not be able to fully reproduce the tragedy of the earthquake.

Not only would Tangshan not agree to this, it would also go against Liu Zhou's original intention.

His original idea was to make it into a commercial special effects disaster blockbuster with a certain artistic quality and the ability to touch people's hearts.

Movies of this type should be seen by more people rather than just circulated in a small circle.

Historically, the biggest problem with Feng Kuzi's version of "Aftershock" was that the name of the movie was "Aftershock", and the audience thought that the movie was a panoramic reflection of the entire picture of the Tangshan earthquake.

It includes the situation in Tangshan before the earthquake, the damage the earthquake caused to the entire Tangshan, and people's rescue of the disaster area after the earthquake.

But in fact, Feng Kuzi only tells the story of a family in the Tangshan earthquake, and mainly tells the story after the earthquake, so many viewers think that this movie is a clickbait title.

If Liu Zhou had filmed the film according to that plot and named it "Aftershock", he would definitely have been criticized for using a catchy title.

So before he had figured out how to conceive and write the script, Tangshan came to him and wanted to collaborate on the filming of "Aftershock".

At that time, he had just started the "Interstellar" project and did not have much time to conceive it, so he found the well-known domestic writer and screenwriter Liu Heng to work on the script.

However, before he wrote the script, Liu Zhou also told him some of his ideas about the script.

Finally, based on Liu Heng's collection of a large amount of real information and interviews with many earthquake survivors, and after many communications with Liu Zhou, the story was expanded into three lines, showing the earthquake from different perspectives and showing different people in the earthquake.

They are still a family, but they are divided into three lines and develop independently, and finally converge on one point, which is to rescue Xiao Mingming.

This dot represents hope, and children generally also represent hope.

Liu Zhou can say this with certainty, but in terms of script, his version of Jedi is much better than Feng Kuzi's version. Coupled with his pursuit of excellence in special effects, the finished film should also be much stronger.

To be honest, the second half of Feng Kuzi's version of "Aftershock" has a bit of the feel of a family ethics drama.

Now that he sees that the audience and leaders are so supportive of this film, Liu Zhou finally feels that his previous efforts have not been in vain.

Then he turned his head and saw that although the crew members' eyes were red, they looked very excited and were clapping hard.

When they got the script, the actors all knew that "Aftershock" would be a very good movie. The whole story is real, delicate and moving. It is a groundbreaking work for Chinese films.

So don’t think that actors are just idiots. They can also tell whether a movie is good or bad through the script.

The reason why so many well-known actors still make so many bad movies may be to repay favors, or because they have been given too much. Andy Lau and Huang Xiaoming are the most typical examples.

Of course, there is also a possibility that the ideas are no longer able to keep up with the mainstream of society, that is, they have been eliminated by the audience, like Ge You's terrible movie "The Black Panther".

There is a high possibility that he himself did not realize that this was a bad movie. After all, the comedy routines of this movie were not too outdated around the millennium, which made him think that the script was okay.

After the release of this movie, Ge You was severely criticized by the audience. Later, he was criticized by Cui Yongyuan for "Cell Phone 2", which made him somewhat discouraged and he made fewer movies gradually.

After performing a unit in "My Motherland and I", he never acted in a movie again.

So when Zhou Gongzi, Zhang Yi and others saw the script, they knew it would be a good movie. And when they watched "Aftershock" on the IMAX giant screen, they were still deeply shocked.

At this moment, they have two feelings in their hearts. One is gratitude, gratitude that they participated in this movie. The other is pride. Being able to participate in this movie is really a great honor for them.

The applause lasted for five or six minutes. As soft blue lights came on the stage, Wang Fei walked onto the stage and began to sing "Going Home", the promotional song for "Aftershock".

The movie's ending song "Heart Sutra" and promotional song "Go Home" were both sung by Wang Fei, and after knowing that it was the movie "Aftershock", Wang Fei immediately agreed to sing for free.

However, Liu Zhou did not intend to take advantage of her. The film had a sufficient budget, so he paid her according to the market price.

After a while, Wang Fei's moving voice once again infected the audience.

While Wang Fei was singing passionately, Liu Zhou brought the main creators to the backstage again.

After the song was over, the host Jingwei came on stage again:
"We have just experienced a spiritual baptism. I believe everyone's heart is heavy, but also very warm. Let's once again give a warm round of applause to the creators of this film, okay?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire sports center burst into deafening applause again.

"Next, please welcome film director Liu Zhou!" As Liu Zhou came on stage, the applause became even louder, and there were even overwhelming shouts and crazy screams, echoing over the stadium.

The audience welcomed Liu Zhou's appearance with great enthusiasm.

"Next, please welcome the film screenwriter Liu Heng!"

"Next, please welcome Liu Yifei!"

……

"Finally, please welcome Master Zhou!"

In addition to the three main actors, Dou Xiao and Hu Jun, who had relatively fewer roles, and Liu Ye, who made a guest appearance, also came to the stage.

After the main creators of the crew came on stage, Jingwei came over with a microphone and said to them:

“Faced with such an enthusiastic audience, I think you must have a lot to say. Yifei, the role you play in this movie is very different from your previous roles, and your performance is also a big breakthrough.

I think everyone likes the role you played very much, so please tell us about it first."

"Hello everyone, I'm Liu Yifei." She stepped forward and bowed. "It's a great honor for me to be able to participate in this movie. When I got the script, my first reaction was that I must be involved.

So I would also like to thank Director Liu Zhou for giving me the opportunity to join this film.

In order to play the role of Xiao Qian well, I stayed in Tangshan for more than three months in advance, visited the eyewitnesses of the earthquake that year, learned about the original story, and barely learned the Tangshan dialect.

So I am also very grateful to those who have given me selfless help in my life experience.

Of course, the most important thing is to thank everyone for liking this movie. Hearing your applause makes me feel that my previous efforts have not been in vain. Thank you everyone. "

Then other actors in the crew also expressed their feelings and expressed their gratitude to the audience. Looking at the actors on the stage, the audience remembered their wonderful performances in the movie, so the applause became even more enthusiastic and continuous.

After the rest of the crew finished their stories, Liu Zhou took the microphone and said with a smile, amid everyone's anticipation:

"When the leaders of Tangshan asked me to make a film about the earthquake, I was flattered, but also felt a great sense of responsibility.

Because this is not just a movie, it has important significance for everyone here, all the people of Tangshan and the city of Tangshan.

However, I think there should be such a movie in China, not only to commemorate the earthquake, but also to let more people know about the excellent quality of perseverance of the people of Tangshan.

Because the earthquake did not knock you down, but made you stronger. From the ruins, you built a modern city.

So I felt a lot of pressure when I took on this movie. Aftershock is not just a movie for me, but also an assignment.

So today I am here to hand in my homework to all the teachers. I am very nervous right now, so I want to ask everyone, teachers, is this homework of mine acceptable or not? "

The audience responded loudly amid applause and laughter:
"Hit! Hit it!"

Hearing the loud response from the audience, Liu Zhou's face broke into a happy smile and he bowed deeply to the audience again.

With Liu Zhou and others stepping down from the stage, the global premiere of "Aftershock" officially ended.

However, the audience in the venue seemed reluctant to leave. It took the host Jingwei several calls for them to slowly stand up and walk towards the exit.

For Liu Zhou and others, the end of the premiere is just the beginning.

Tangshan arranged a banquet. After all, in addition to the main creators of the film, many leaders and bosses of film and television companies also came, and they also wanted to do their best to play the role of host.

At the banquet, Liu Zhou also received a lot of praise, but he also knew that he shouldn't be too happy before the box office results were released.

So after the banquet, Liu Zhou and the main creative team rushed back to Beijing overnight. There will be a premiere in Beijing tomorrow afternoon, and a large number of media and film people will be invited to this premiere to build momentum for the film.

This premiere in Tangshan is specially prepared for Tangshan audiences and the city of Tangshan.

Although the media was not invited to the Tangshan premiere, local official media and Beihe Province official media were allowed to enter, after all, many leaders attended.

So they had first-hand information about the premiere.

As a highly anticipated movie, and under the pressure of "Transformers 3", "Aftershock" is even more anticipated.

So of course the movie premiere also attracts a lot of media.

But there was no way out. No other media was allowed to enter the premiere. Although it was very unwilling, there was nothing we could do because this was specially arranged by Liu Zhou. Even Sina.com was not allowed to participate.

However, there are solutions for the media. Since they cannot get first-hand information, they can get second-hand information.

The media industry is complex. The local media in Tangshan and Beihe may be tolerant of private media, but it is difficult for them to refuse to share information with some official media with which they have good relations, especially some large official media.

Once the major official media outlets got the information, it wasn't long before the four major portals and other internet media outlets with strong connections also learned about it.

Therefore, before Liu Zhou and others returned to Beijing, some information about the Tangshan premiere had already circulated in the media circles.

The Internet media acted the fastest. Before dawn, they had already edited the news and posted it online.

There are still a lot of night owls on the Internet. As the news was released, "The Tangshan Earthquake" immediately caused heated discussions online.

In particular, some Tangshan netizens who attended the premiere were very active online.

"Thank you Director Liu Zhou for showing us the tragedy at that time. It was very warm and touching. You can watch this movie at least twice. The first time you go by yourself, you can cry your heart out, and then you can take your whole family to watch it again!"

"I was so moved to tears while watching a movie. The last time I cried was 20 years ago when it was "Mom, Love Me Again", and this time it was "Aftershock". Director Liu is really amazing!"

"looking forward to!"

……

(End of this chapter)