Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 630, "The Wallfacer 1," is now available.

"I originally went to [Galaxy Amusement Park] to have fun, but I unexpectedly discovered a hidden gem supermarket!"

"I'm blown away by this supermarket. I thought Xinghe Group only owned film companies and amusement parks, but I didn't expect their supermarkets to be so amazing."

"If there were a supermarket like this near my home, it would be absolutely amazing."

Can you believe this is a supermarket restroom?

……

Online, two Galaxy Shopping Plazas near Galaxy Cinema suddenly became popular, and even more so than Galaxy Amusement Park.

After all, Xinghe Paradise requires tickets and can only accommodate more than 8 people per day, while Xinghe Shopping Plaza not only allows free entry and exit, but also doesn't require as much time to stroll around inside.

Therefore, when the [Galaxy Paradise] opened, there were more out-of-town tourists who had visited the Galaxy Shopping Plaza than those who had visited the amusement park.

Moreover, it's not just the two Xinghe Shopping Plazas near Xinghe Cinema; three other Xinghe Shopping Plazas located near Xinghe Residential Area have also been discovered by tourists.

The number of visitors to Xinghe Shopping Plaza nearly doubled overnight, forcing Xinghe Group's Asset Management Business Group to take it seriously. On the one hand, they temporarily transferred staff from other departments to help, and on the other hand, they quickly recruited a batch of new employees for Xinghe Shopping Plaza.

Given the current level of popularity, the operational pressure on Xinghe Shopping Plaza will only increase, not decrease. Without exploiting its staff, it will have to quickly add more manpower.

Moreover, the operation of the five Xinghe Shopping Plazas has stabilized over the years. Whether it is the training of management teams and staff, or the procurement of goods and the establishment of logistics warehousing, a relatively complete system has been formed. Now, taking advantage of this opportunity, we can open one or two more branches in other areas of Beijing.

However, just as [Galaxy Paradise] and Galaxy Shopping Plaza were generating a surge of online traffic, another piece of entertainment gossip suddenly jumped in.

On September 24th, which was supposed to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, a female celebrity unexpectedly accused a well-known actor in the "uncle circle" of "cheating" on multiple people on social media. She claimed that she had been with him as the other woman for as long as 7 years, which completely destroyed the actor's image as a good man.

This also allowed netizens to further witness the chaos within the entertainment industry.

Although the actor's company quickly issued a statement claiming it was malicious slander, the actor himself did not give a clear response to the incident.

In response, some netizens expressed their trust in the actor, given that he has created many well-known characters in the industry.

However, compared to netizens who are still in the dark, those in the industry are undoubtedly much more informed.

At least some production projects that had originally invited this "uncle" actor have begun to wait and see.

Meanwhile, some middle-aged male actors who also belong to the "uncle" category immediately began to take action and launch an attack on projects featuring older men.

However, with the rise of mobile internet, there is now far too much news in the domestic entertainment industry every day. New news breaks out almost every few days, overshadowing the old news.

Just like the incident involving actor Wu's scandal, it was quickly overshadowed by another event.

In late September 2018, shortly after the affair of actor surnamed Wu was exposed, Xinghe Group's "Douyin" company was officially listed on NASDAQ in the United States.

Although Wang Hao was unable to travel to the United States to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony for Douyin's IPO for some reason, this did not affect Douyin's IPO process.

On its first day of trading, Douyin, with the stock code "DYHW", saw its opening price soar to $45.7 per share, a 265.6% increase from its offering price of $12.5, thanks to the app's own push algorithm advantages and its leading global market share.

At the close of trading, TikTok's stock price was still $41.9, a 235.2% increase from its IPO price, pushing its market capitalization past $100 billion.

Such outstanding performance is truly amazing. Its listing not only demonstrates Douyin's strong market potential, but also provides unlimited room for imagination for the future development of the short video industry.

Meanwhile, the existence of Douyin also signifies that Xinghe Group has completed a perilous leap from a Chinese cultural enterprise to international capital.

This is far more significant to their group than the recently opened Galaxy Park.

【Xinghe Paradise】 merely filled a gap in Xinghe Group's cultural industry chain, while Douyin's successful listing in the United States means that Xinghe Group now owns a short video media platform that can cover the entire globe.

With TikTok as the final piece of the puzzle, Galaxy Group now has a solid foundation for its overseas film and television promotion and distribution, making it a force to be reckoned with and not fall behind established cultural companies like Hollywood and Disney.

After receiving funding from the US stock market, TikTok did not hold back and immediately thought about how to spend the money, directly starting to expand its business in the US market.

Meanwhile, just days after Douyin's IPO, Galaxy Pictures' new film "The Wallfacer" also leveraged Douyin's popularity overseas to extend its promotional activities abroad.

As the second major production in the third phase of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, The Wallfacer can be considered one of the main storylines of this phase. The screenwriting and planning team of Galaxy Pictures and Wang Hao discussed this plot for a long time, and the initial plan was to make it into a trilogy.

So the movie that will be released during the 2018 National Day holiday should more accurately be called "The Wallfacer 1".

Galaxy Pictures attached great importance to this film, and initially chose Zhang Yimou, known as the "national director," as the director.

Although Zhang Yimou's storytelling skills are often criticized, that is mostly due to the script. With Xinghe Pictures' ability to polish the script, they have made up for his shortcomings.

This is also a benefit that a well-developed film industry system brings to directors.

While the industrialization of film may seem to turn directors into mere tools, a well-developed film industrialization system also plays a crucial role in providing a safety net.

After all, no one in this world is perfect. Even an internationally renowned director like Wang Hao, who has achieved certain successes, wouldn't dare say that he is proficient in all aspects of film-related knowledge.

Especially with the increasing number of commercial blockbusters and the growing scale of film production, directors naturally find it increasingly difficult to control the crew.

A mature film industry system helps directors reduce the difficulty of controlling the film crew.

Not to mention directors like Zhang Yimou who are somewhat "specialized," as long as they are not particularly arrogant, they can fully unleash their potential in the film production process with the support of this film industrialization system.

"The Wallfacer 1" is a work that reached the limit of Zhang Yimou's ability.

When the movie was first released, Galaxy Pictures organized screenings for theaters, distributors, and investors in advance.

Even the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Culture received invitations to facilitate film censorship.

After watching the film, investors, distributors, theater owners, experts from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and leaders from cultural departments all gave "The Wallfacer 1" unanimous praise.

According to them, *The Wallfacer 1* possesses an epic sense of weight and realism. It's a true science fiction story based on humanities, social sciences, history, and politics, more impactful than many Hollywood futuristic sci-fi films, and far surpassing Zhang Yimou's previous work, *The Great Wall*. Even after the film was screened overseas, inviting distributors and theater owners for advance screenings, it garnered the same high praise from foreign executives as it did domestically.

"This is not only unique in the history of Chinese science fiction films, but also a unique science fiction masterpiece in the world."

Beneath the tense and thrilling plot lies the complexity of international politics; no other film has ever depicted such a grand and intricate story.

Such praise even spread to the internet, and during the film's preview screenings around the world, all the viewers who saw the film expressed great shock after watching it.

"This is a work that is completely different from the previous works in the Starship Cinematic Universe. If we really want to make a comparison, it is somewhat similar to Jackie Chan's Foreigner. Both of them have political thriller elements, but it is much grander and far beyond imagination."

"Although it has a lot of science fiction elements, to be honest, you won't care about those at all."

To be honest, this is the first time I've seen such explicit content in a Chinese film. It just goes to show that Galaxy Pictures has some talent.

"The release of The Wallfacer 1 during the National Day holiday can only be described as a perfect match. The metaphors in the film's subplot make me feel that the sequel to this film series may not be so simple."

"What a pity. This film should have been directed by Jiang Wen. Compared to Zhang Yimou, he was a much more suitable director for this movie. I can't even imagine how much more enjoyable it would have been if Jiang Wen had directed those elements."

"Upstairs, if Jiang Wen were to film this, it would all be vinegar."

I actually think Director Zhang did a great job. At least the veteran artist was willing to learn, and the subplots in the film were quite subtle, not overshadowing the main plot, but rather enhancing the overall depth.

Amidst a chorus of positive reviews and the anticipation of moviegoers both at home and abroad, "The Wallfacer 1" was officially released on October 1, 2018.

In Tokyo, Japan, Satomi Ishihara, dressed up and made up, walks alone into a movie theater with a giant screen.

As one of the few Japanese actresses currently developing her career in China, she naturally had to watch "The Wallfacer," especially since her rival, Masami Nagasawa, was playing the lead role in this big-budget production, which she couldn't afford to ignore.

In cinemas, just like Satomi Ishihara, there were quite a few viewers who chose to watch "The Wallfacer." During its simultaneous global release, the occupancy rate for each screening was around 70%.

Not many of the viewers were drawn by the fame of director Zhang Yimou.

Although he claims to be an internationally renowned director, he doesn't have many commercially influential films worldwide. If you really want to count them, you have to go back to "Hero" many years ago, which is already a work from the previous era.

The main reason why these Japanese viewers chose to go to the cinema to see "The Wallfacer 1" is that most of them are fans of the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe].

Over the years, many of the works from the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] have been quite popular in the Japanese market.

Movies like Inception, The Witch, Detective Chinatown, Taken, Unnatural, and Distortion have achieved considerable box office success in the Japanese market.

The large screening room of the movie theater was soon filled with Japanese people, and after a series of advertisements, the movie started.

[Associated Press report: On the 29th of this month, at 18 p.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. National Strategic Missile Defense (NMD) system successfully conducted a test exercise to destroy sophons that were unfolding in low dimensions in near-Earth orbit.]

This is the third experiment conducted by the (NMD) system in space since the "cosmic scintillation" event...

The opening of "The Wallfacer 1" features a news broadcast on television as background noise.

The content of this news undoubtedly provides a time anchor, allowing viewers familiar with the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe] and those who have seen related films to understand that "The Wallfacer 1" is a story that follows "The Three-Body Problem 1".

On the television, news about the American (NMD) system continued, but everyone's attention gradually focused on the bar on the other side as the movie camera panned across the screen.

This is a bar. Although humanity seems to be facing an alien threat, the world is still full of bright lights and people who enjoy life to the fullest.

Next to the bar counter, a familiar figure was chatting with a beautiful woman with a voluptuous figure.

It's Chen Kun!
No, in this movie he should be Luo Ji!

At this moment, he wore a cynical smile, acting like a playboy, and occasionally made his female friend, played by Tang Yan, laugh out loud.

However, just as the two of them were chatting, a commotion came from outside the bar.

"Resolutely resist escapism!"

"Fairness! Impartiality! Transparency!"

"Defend the right of all human beings to survive!"

……

Affected, Luo Ji looked up at the bar window and saw that at the street corner not far away, there were already two or three pedestrians holding signs and approaching the street. It was foreseeable that more people would follow.

"Honey, I think we should go somewhere new."

Luo Ji's slightly furrowed brows relaxed, and he extended an invitation to Tang Yan.

The two walked out of the bar together, passing several small round tables along the way. Most of the people around the tables had serious expressions, and snippets of conversation from them were heard by the movie theater's speakers.

"The public ownership of technology is definitely bullshit; they're dreaming!"

"I think it's premature to conclude that we're in a period of wartime economic transformation right now; it will only cause panic."

"By the way, can you still withdraw all the money from your bank account?"

"The company has reportedly taken on a huge project, even bigger than the Yarlung Tsangpo River hydropower station project, and the project site is near the equatorial reference point."

The background noise of conversation gradually faded, and as Luo Ji and his companion pushed open the glass door of the bar, the clamor of protesters holding signs in the distance gradually became clearer.

Luo Ji, holding his female companion's hand, subconsciously walked away from the crowd, but he didn't notice a soda can under his feet and tripped over it.

Then came a loud bang, which startled Luo Ji, who was trying to maintain his balance, so much so that he fell to the ground.

boom!
(End of this chapter)