Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 682 Warming Up
The movie "Game Era" should more accurately be called "Game Era (Part 1)".

Yes, due to the richness of the plot and the limitation of film length, a two-hour movie cannot tell all the stories.

Therefore, "Game Era" has been divided into two parts. The current first part focuses more on introducing the story background and laying the groundwork for the plot, including the historical background of the game, the reason why the Holy Maiden of the Egyptian Church of Light went east to obtain scriptures, the changes in the situation between Western Xia, Jin and Southern Song, and the intrigue and conspiracy in the real world.

All that can be said is that it was a great success. As Xia Feng, Tony, and Daisy galloped on horseback under the setting sun, a corner of the historical picture of the Song-Jin War was being revealed. At the same time, everyone was extremely curious about the secrets hidden behind this history, the so-called combination of "Astrology" and "I Ching", and what the cheat code was.

Of course, the story of the movie doesn't end there. As is typical of the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe], there are three post-credits scenes this time.

The first Easter egg is in the "Real Illusion" scene, where Wanyan Yongzheng, the Prince of Zhao of the Jin Kingdom, who previously appeared in the Zhongdu Palace in the movie and even interacted with Xia Feng and his group, is walking in the corridor.

At the end of the corridor is a quiet little courtyard, where a middle-aged man with gray hair lives.

When King Zhao saw the old man, he bowed respectfully and then recounted what had just happened in the city, including the escape of Xia Feng and the other two.

As the elderly man with gray hair listened, his fingers moved rapidly, and his lips opened and closed silently, as if he were performing divination.

After King Zhao Wanyan Yong finished speaking, he stopped what he was doing, a slight smile appeared on his lips, and his face returned to its usual calm expression.

"Mr. Zhou, you are truly a brilliant strategist!"

King Zhao, Wanyan Yong, looked at the old man surnamed Zhou in front of him with admiration in his eyes, while the old man surnamed Zhou nodded slightly.

"It is likely that those few who escaped will take news of Wanyan Liang's southern expedition to the Song Dynasty."

What you need to do right now is to finalize the transfer to the deputy capital as soon as possible, avoid the upcoming storms, and wait for the right opportunity.

Upon hearing this, King Zhao Wanyan Yong nodded repeatedly and quickly left. As for Mr. Zhou, after King Zhao left, he put his hands behind his back and looked into the distance. The candlelight shone on his face, and in the flickering light, his weathered face remained unchanged, but his eyes instantly became full of vitality, even with a touch of charm and heroism, forming a stark contrast with his appearance.

After the first post-credits scene, the second post-credits scene shifts to reality outside the "real illusion."

It was still the game pod, but Huang Ji woke up in bed.

After waking up in bed, Huang Ji took off his helmet, looked around, sighed, shook his head, put his helmet back on, lay down again, and closed his eyes once more.

This post-credits scene is quite meaningful. Although many viewers didn't know what Huang Ji was doing, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed that when Huang Ji lay down again, the indicator light on the device next to him didn't light up.

Just as the audience was still wondering, the third post-credits scene began.

This Easter egg is quite interesting; although it's related to the "Game Era" era, it has nothing to do with the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe].

The Easter egg mainly shows the two main characters of "Detective Chinatown," Qin Feng and Tang Ren, experiencing the "Real Illusion" game. Then, when they put on the game helmets, the scene changes, and they are now wearing a suit of armor, standing on a city wall.

Where have we gotten ourselves?

Tang Ren held a long spear in his arms and looked around in confusion. The armor he wore did not show any majesty or domineering aura. Instead, it looked loose and gave off an indescribable sense of sleazy.

Qin Feng was clearly smarter and directly asked a young man standing next to them who was dressed the same way.

What the young man said made both of them widen their eyes in surprise.

"what?"

The next second, the figure of Shen Gongbao from the animated film "Nezha" appeared in front of the city wall. As he swung the Thunder Whip in his hand, in a dazzling special effects shot, fragments of the Thunder Whip tore through space, and three ferocious and terrifying huge dragon heads emerged from the spatial crack against the backdrop of flowing lava.

"Chentang Pass is flooded!"

The big screen went completely dark at this point. Obviously, this last post-credits scene should be related to the animated film "Ne Zha 2: The Demon Child Conquers the Dragon King" that Galaxy Pictures will release during the Spring Festival.

Although this Easter egg doesn't quite fit into the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe], the idea is still quite novel.

Another novel film is "Game Era".

The word "novel" appears most frequently in film reviews by viewers and critics after watching the movie.

[I never imagined I could see a film in China that so successfully combines ancient Chinese history with virtual gaming!]

[China's "Matrix" and "Sword Art Online"—virtual online game worlds—this is perhaps a subject never before explored in Chinese cinema.]

It takes young directors like Wang Hao to grasp the preferences of young audiences and handle this new subject matter.

I don't know what those old Deng films have been making all these years; there's nothing new at all.

[Virtual games combined with period martial arts—this kind of theme was previously only seen in online novels, but now it's finally being brought to the big screen by our own directors. Putting everything else aside, just for this kind of innovation, it deserves our support.]

[In the domestic film industry, Director Wang truly holds a significant position, having pioneered countless new film genres.]

……

Similar compliments are countless online.

Although there were some negative comments, such as the fact that the movie was split into two parts, which affected the viewing experience, or that the plot was too old-fashioned and ordinary, or that the actors' performances were not outstanding, and so on.

However, none of this could stop the film "Game Era" from becoming the box office champion during this National Day holiday due to its novel format and Wang Hao's fame.

Following its phenomenal opening day box office of 6.4 million yuan, "Game Era" also garnered box office revenues of 4.7 million, 4.2 million, and 3.9 million yuan on its second, third, and fourth days, respectively.

During the seven-day National Day holiday, "Game Era" grossed a total of 24.1 billion yuan at the box office.

Although this box office performance is not outstanding among Wang Hao's previous works, it is still quite remarkable considering the current special circumstances.

Moreover, during the seven-day National Day holiday, the total box office was only 39.5 billion yuan, meaning that "Game Era" alone accounted for 61% of the total, a truly remarkable achievement. It can be said that it single-handedly overshadowed all other films, contributing significantly to the recovery of the film market and bringing the 2020 National Day box office close to the 2019 record high. This made a substantial contribution to pushing the annual box office to over 10 billion yuan and also greatly boosted the previously sluggish cinemas.

Of course, there are other good movies in the same release window.

For example, "My People, My Homeland," which also chose to be released during the National Day holiday, also had a remarkable box office performance. After its release, the film remained in second place for six consecutive days in terms of daily box office, occupancy rate, average number of people per screening, and number of screenings.

On October 13, the 13th day of its release, "My People, My Homeland" finally broke through 22 billion yuan in total box office revenue, catching up with "Game Era" which had been released 6 days earlier.

However, the film market's enthusiasm did not continue after the release of "Game Era".

The popularity of "Game Era" has given many industry peers confidence, showing them that the market is recovering.

But if we prepare to enter the market now, we'll have to wait until next year's Spring Festival to schedule screenings.

So after "Game Era" grossed 44.7 billion yuan during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, the domestic film market began to cool down again in November due to the limited number of blockbuster films.

During this period, major films included "The Sacrifice," "Caught in the Storm," "Children of the Sea," "Balloon," and "Escape from the End of the World."

Among them, only "The Sacrifice" is somewhat famous, with a cast including Zhang Yi, Wu Jing, Deng Chao, and other currently popular middle-aged male stars.

But the film ultimately grossed 11.27 billion yuan at the box office.

As December arrives, the domestic film market welcomes the release of more than 40 films, including major domestic and international films such as Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back, Monster Hunter, The Invisible Man, The Rescue, Wonder Woman 1984, Shock Wave 2, The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, and The Fox Spirit Scholar.

In the first week of November alone, 14 films were released, giving audiences more viewing options and also reflecting how difficult the previous film and television downturn had been for these production companies.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have rushed to release the film so soon, without even considering the release date, when the situation had just started to improve.

After all, just a little later is the Spring Festival film season.

Of course, some films choose to release early in December, perhaps to avoid the more competitive Spring Festival season.

As the first Spring Festival film season after the special circumstances, many industry insiders speculate that the pent-up desire of audiences to watch movies, which has been suppressed over the past year, may finally explode.

Therefore, there are quite a few movies choosing to be released in 2021, making the competition extremely fierce. In December alone, several blockbusters announced their release dates for the 2021 Spring Festival.

First up is the fantasy suspense film "A Writer's Odyssey," invested by Xinghe Pictures, directed by Lu Yang, produced by Zhang Yang, and starring Lei Jiayin, Yang Mi, Dong Zijian, Yu Hewei, Guo Jingfei, Tong Liya, Dong Jie, and others. It is adapted from Shuang Xuetao's novel of the same name.

In the trailer, two worlds intertwine within a grand framework: a boy wandering through the forest, a warrior in armor, a candle dragon lantern soaring into the sky... a mysterious otherworld is revealed one by one.

In the real world, a down-on-his-luck father embarks on a journey to assassinate a novelist in search of his daughter.

From the subject matter and the actors to the special effects produced by Starlight Fantasy, it is all highly anticipated.

Then there's the comedy film "Hi, Mom," which is Jia Ling's directorial debut, starring and featuring a host of comedians including Shen Teng and Zhang Xiaofei.

The film's story is based on Jia Ling's personal experience and is a work she dedicated to her mother.

The original sketch touched countless viewers and has hundreds of millions of views across the internet, and is hailed as "Jia Ling's masterpiece in the world of sketch comedy".

This skit story has now been adapted into a movie, telling the story of a daughter, played by Jia Ling, who travels back to her mother's youth and touches upon her young parents and their dreams.

The appearance of the "ace" combination of Shen Teng and Jia Ling has significantly increased the intensity of the competition in this Spring Festival film season.

In addition to these two blockbusters, the most anticipated film is the animated movie "Ne Zha 2: The Demon Child Conquers the Dragon King".

This animated film, directed by Jiaozi, grossed 26 billion yuan when its predecessor was released, breaking the box office record for domestic animated films and being hailed as the hope for the rise of Chinese animated films.

Now, after six years of development, Jiaozi brings "Ne Zha 2" to the Spring Festival season. The little Ne Zha with smoky makeup and a bad temper is still attracting a lot of attention.

Currently, these three films are the brightest stars of the 2021 Spring Festival film season.

As for the less popular ones, there's the movie "The Yin-Yang Master," adapted from the game "Onmyoji," produced by Chen Kuo-fu and Chang Chia-lu, directed by Li Wei-ran, and starring Chen Kun, Zhou Xun, and William Chan.

It tells the story of Seimei, an Onmyoji who travels between the human and demon realms, who causes a great disaster and falls into crisis after making a contract with a group of demons.

Because the film's style is heavily influenced by Japanese elements and it's an adaptation of a game, its actual reception after the trailer was released wasn't particularly outstanding.

There's also the movie "Endgame," a comedy-crime film directed by Rao Xiaozhi, starring Andy Lau, Xiao Yang, and Wan Qian.

The story mainly revolves around Zhou Quan, a cold-blooded killer, and Chen Xiaomeng, a down-on-her-luck extra, who accidentally swap identities, leading to a series of humorous and unexpected events.

It seemed alright at first glance, but since it was adapted from the Japanese film "Key of Life," it was essentially a recycled foreign film, so it didn't make much of a splash after its release date was set.

There are other shows like "The Fortune Diary" and "Boonie Bears," but I won't go into detail about those.

Anyway, there are seven or eight movies being released during this Spring Festival season, and the pre-release publicity alone has already created a buzz.

However, there is still some time before the Spring Festival film season, and before that, everyone still has to be busy with year-end work issues.

Fortunately, due to the special circumstances, Xinghe Group chose to keep everything simple this year and did not hold any annual meeting activities with large gatherings of people.

Similar to Xinghe Group, most other companies have also made this choice. Without tedious parties and dinners, and without the need to organize rehearsals, many employees feel very relaxed and satisfied.

However, at the end of December 2020, a shocking scandal broke out in the entertainment industry, which began to spread on the Internet and sparked heated discussions.

(End of this chapter)