Generation Z Artists

Chapter 267 Opportunity for Counterattack
It must be acknowledged that Kenneth Turan has stirred up considerable public opinion, his views are widely accepted, and many celebrities have come forward to express their appreciation.

While there's no convenient social media to like posts, film critics' articles and celebrities' personal interviews can certainly provide support.

Most importantly, Turan pointed out an extremely effective attack route—how to attack Heroes?
In the days leading up to the film's release, all the competitors, rival companies, and even stars and actors who feared Fang Xinghe's growing influence in Hollywood were anxious about "how to stop him."

The difficulty lies in the fact that they simply cannot criticize the scenes, visuals, colors, and actions of "Hero".

Zhang Yimou and Fang Xinghe, in terms of visual presentation, contributed an absolute level of dominance.

This made things difficult for all the competitors, until Turan published his article, and everyone finally found a unified point of attack—

They attacked its core consciousness.

Peter Jackson, the director of "The Lord of the Rings," quickly responded to the media's questions in an interview.

What are your thoughts on the currently popular game "Hero"?

"Grandstanding!"

There is no equivalent idiom in English, so Peter used the expression "Play to the gallery," which was almost a sarcastic remark.

He replied, "Don't compare us to 'Hero,' we're not even in the same league. Their popularity is just because they have an actor who's good at performing and knows how to entertain the masses..."

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The reporter quickly followed up, "Are you accusing Star River of deliberately trying to attract attention?"

"No, I'm not making accusations; I'm just stating the facts."

Peter wasn't intimidated by Fang Xinghe at all, but he didn't want to completely offend Fang Xinghe either, so he simply skipped over the personal issues and focused his criticism on the core of the film.

"What I mean is, 'Hero' is not a good movie at all. It doesn't deserve its current popularity. Now tell me, what kind of story does this pretentious movie actually tell?"
It was a failed assassination attempt, nothing more.

It is neither funny nor liberating, filled with irritating preaching and a strange sense of superiority.

Why did Director Zhang make a film like this?

Perhaps, as film critics have suggested, he was haunted by the idea of ​​unification and became overly obsessed with the country's past glory. He then used modern techniques to create a false illusion, attempting to tell us how great that period of history was.

But to be frank, I only felt bored—aside from the truly spectacular fight scenes in SR, the core logic of the movie was simply a disaster.

If their system and culture are truly so excellent, then why are they so poor, weak, and ignorant now?
Therefore, I don't like the ideas promoted in this movie.

Unification?
It's nothing but feudal imperial chauvinism, already rendered obsolete by modern civilization.

Jackson's blunt criticism added fuel to the fire of Turan's article, making the flames burn even brighter.

Logically, Turan and Jackson represent the "correct" side.

The concept of "unification" in later China was a very important combination of various concepts, including national, ethnic, historical, and cultural concepts.

When Chinese people mention "unification", they naturally feel proud.

The uniqueness, advancement, continuity, and self-repairing nature of Chinese civilization are all contained in this simple word, requiring no further explanation.

But at present, not only does the Western world not recognize it, even the Chinese themselves do not think that unification itself is anything remarkable.

This is a limitation of the times, and even more so a mental trap of thinking that "weakness equals backwardness".

In today's Western world, widespread wealth, development, and high welfare have led to widespread institutional pride and a sense of superiority in foreign relations.

Americans, in particular, genuinely believe in and uphold the idea of ​​democracy to the point of blind faith.

The concept of a "unified empire" is not even widely known. Apart from world historians who have a clear understanding of it, even ordinary Ivy League college students may not be able to figure out the differences in the models between Chinese civilization and the Roman Empire.

Therefore, the final subtitle in the international version caused a stir that no one could have predicted.

On the bright side, many neutral foreigners found this quite novel and began to develop an interest in learning about Chinese civilization.

On the negative side, some sensitive international cultural elites felt offended.

The former is often represented online, and American netizens are discussing a new topic—does China really not have any generational gaps?

On the three most popular forums right now, Something Awful, Fark, and Yahoo! Groups, you can see questions and answers about the ending credits of "Heroes".

"Hero is so cool! It has sparked my huge curiosity about China, not just its kung fu, but also its culture."

"Indeed mysterious and fascinating."

Has anyone been to that country? I've heard they're poor and backward.

"The economy is indeed underdeveloped, but culture is not the same as the economy."

"Guess what I found, guys? My God! They're still theoretically the same country!"

"I remember learning about it in high school history; they have a history that has lasted for over 3000 years."

"The idea of ​​'one country' is not quite right, but the idea of ​​'one civilization' is correct."

"It's the same country! For 3000 years, they've called it China!"

"The only one? Really?"

"Of course it's fake. All four ancient civilizations continue to exist, just in different ways. China is not special."

"Idiot! There have never been any four ancient civilizations, that's all a hoax! Modern Chinese people are descendants of pandas, while the original Chinese were born from lizards, and they even claimed to have patented gunpowder! What was Nobel for then?"

When Fang Xinghe saw this sentence while observing public opinion, he suddenly felt a sense of absurdity.

It's correct that there are no four ancient civilizations. Those three fabricated ones don't deserve to be called civilizations at all. They are purely a collusion between Western scholars, politicians, and antique forgers, who blindly copy and paste them to glorify themselves.

But how are panda cubs and descendants of the dragon interpreted in this way?

Does the concept of "happy education" in this day and age already produce a large number of highly idealistic illiterates?
On the bright side, the subtitles written by Fang Xinghe and added to the international version did indeed bring a great deal of cultural popularization.

For now, he will only define this impact as popular science.

Being interested is one thing, but agreeing with it is another.

Not many people identify with Chinese civilization; only countless immature teenagers identify with Chinese Kung Fu.

This was a good start, but in Fang Xinghe's view, it wasn't enough.

Nakamura knocked on the door and walked respectfully to Brother Fang.

"Mr. Fang, we have contacted all forces willing to support us and are about to launch a counterattack on the film critics' platform. Is there anything else you need to instruct us on?"

His attitude became even more submissive and humble than before, because "Hero" was a hit in Japan.

Unlike the situation in the United States, where there are far too few screens for opening screenings, the majority of moviegoers are sports fans and those who are attracted to good looks, and the proportion of them who actually watch movies is not particularly high. In addition, due to the conservative atmosphere in the Midwest, there is a strong aversion to foreign language films, resulting in relatively low attendance rates.

Various factors led to "Hero" achieving the best performance for a foreign-language film in the United States, but it is still far from being a blockbuster.

But it's different in Japan. In Japan, Prince Fang Xinghe's first work received the highest level of treatment.

In terms of publicity, Sony didn't put in much effort at all. Too many media outlets were willing to bring their own resources to promote the product, and too many fans were eagerly anticipating its release.

Sony simply did its best to coordinate the most theaters, the best screening rooms, and the most frequent screenings, and then "Hero" naturally became a hit.

First-week box office: 15 billion yen!
That's roughly equivalent to US$1215 million, or RMB1.16 million.

What is this concept?
In contrast, last year's "Spirited Away" beat "Titanic" to hold the record for the highest-grossing film in Japanese history for 20 years, while its opening weekend box office was only 9.87 million yen!
Of course, the reason for such a stark contrast is that "Spirited Away" adopted a gradual strategy, while "Hero" had an explosive opening in Japan, so they cannot be generalized.

However, "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," which opened on a similar scale, held the previous record for the highest-grossing opening weekend, with a box office of only 11.6 billion.

It's as if "Hero" swept all records in Japan the moment it was released. The Japanese media exploded with excitement, Japanese moviegoers went into a frenzy, and the Japanese film industry experienced a frenzy of enthusiasm...

Nakamura naturally felt immense pressure to push for Prince Fang Xinghe to go to Japan for promotional activities as soon as possible.

If he can't handle this, Japanese movie fans will really riot him.

But Fang Xinghe really couldn't leave—Japan was already a mature voting bloc, and a mature voting bloc should learn to act on its own and make fewer unreasonable demands.

Fang Ge is particularly unfamiliar with the US, where everything is chaotic and he doesn't plan to go anywhere else until he's dealt with the "leeks" (victims) there.

"I don't have any specific instructions, but which is the most authoritative media outlet you can contact?"

As soon as Fang Xinghe finished speaking, Nakamura trembled with excitement.

"Mr. Fang, are you planning to retaliate personally?"

Fang Xinghe shrugged: "That's possible."

Nakamura was overjoyed and assured him, "Whatever media outlet you want to be featured in, Sony can get in touch with it! Pick whatever you like!"

"Then let's wait and see."

Fang Xinghe waved his hand, lowered his head again, and turned his gaze back to the pile of newspapers that published the opposing articles.

Turan's opening was particularly disgusting, and it hit Heroes right where it hurt.

The head of the online trolls is in a very difficult position.

He could certainly write an exceptionally sharp article to criticize Turan's narrow-mindedness and to deeply analyze the greatness of a unified civilization, but the problem is... he lacks factual evidence.

Thirty years later, China proved everything with its strength, prosperity, and advanced civilization. Every foreigner who has personally visited China has been deeply shocked and had their worldview overturned. After returning home, they immediately became enthusiastic advocates, refuting the smears by Western media.

Every economic, political, and military expert is quietly studying the secrets to China's success, leading to a broad consensus that "Chinese civilization does indeed possess certain inherent advantages."

That was an era when Western politicians were learning by doing in China, learning what they could and forcing themselves to learn what they couldn't.

America suddenly started nationalization and developing a unique form of capitalism. Who would have believed that this was proposed in 2002?!
Fang Ge's current suffering stems from this.

He knew what was right, he knew where the historical inevitability lay, and he knew how to depict that scene.

But he can't.

Firstly, no one would believe it.

Secondly, it doesn't hurt when you hit someone.

Thirdly, we should not give the enemy a complete strategic overview, lest they become more vigilant.

Which reason is more important is a matter of opinion, but Fang Xinghe really hasn't figured out how to counterattack Turan and the others.

A counterattack without factual support is worse than no counterattack at all.

Without sufficient harm, Fang Xinghe, as the commander, must remain silent.

He could only instruct Nakamura: "You all go about your business. I need to think about it some more."

"Hi Yi!"

Nakamura gave a deep bow, and the melee officially began.

In the United States, Fang Xinghe only has one media base: Washington.

Sony is nominally one of the Big Six, controlling Columbia Pictures, but it is far weak in the elite media circle and is often besieged.

Therefore, the intensity and strength of the counterattack were far from sufficient.

Even with the support of its ally DreamWorks, it is still difficult to contend with critics.

It's not because the other side has more media outlets or film critics who are better at criticizing; it's simply because the power they wield is too immense—once the overwhelming white supremacists and those with an inflated sense of institutional superiority are fully mobilized, even someone in their eighties would have to back down.

Every day, film critics who cheer for "Hero" are under tremendous pressure, being overwhelmed by the other side's "irrefutable" reasons.

Gradually, the film and television market was overtaken by the other side, and the "professional" rating of "Hero" plummeted to 3 stars, with an average score of only 3.2 out of 5.

Fang Xinghe still appears on the front page of newspaper entertainment sections, but he is becoming increasingly isolated. Many tabloid reporters no longer mention "Hero" itself when writing about his gossip.

Film critics who criticized the movie "Hero" cleverly avoided criticizing Fang Xinghe, and most of them didn't even mention him, instead focusing on mocking "that ridiculous theory of unification".

To anyone else, "Hero" seemed to be in dire straits and would soon be dropped from the top of the box office charts.

However, strange things quietly began to happen.

The release of "Hero" has not expanded, theaters remain cautious and wait-and-see, and the release date has not improved; it is still in the peripheral areas.

However, the daily box office did not plummet and collapse as its competitors had predicted.

On the contrary, daily box office revenue remained in a very stable balance, neither rising nor falling much, fluctuating between $450 million and $550 million.

Prices drop slightly on weekdays, then rebound by the weekend.

The state remains empty, while tickets to major cities like New York, Washington, and Los Angeles are hard to come by on weekends.

Not only were the competitors stunned, but even Sony was a little confused.

what happened?

When they rushed to create the latest survey plan and carefully examined the data, the results were both unexpected and reasonable—female moviegoers were quietly surpassing male moviegoers.

Peter threw down the report, slammed his hand on the table, and exclaimed, "Impossible! How could so many housewives go to see a foreign kung fu movie?!"

Yes, the latest survey shows that the average age of female viewers of "Hero" has quietly risen to 28, with the oldest female viewer being 66.

The main viewership has begun to shift subtly from teenage girls to urban white-collar workers and housewives.

That's outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

Nakamura wondered, "Do they really watch 'Hero'?"

Fang Xinghe silently flipped through the data, then suddenly ordered: "Go check the sales of the last two issues of 'Cosmopolitan' magazine, and also check how many women's publications have put a lot of effort into recommending our movie."

Nakamura suddenly realized what was happening, and Columbia's distribution department went all out.

Three hours later, the results were presented on Fang Xinghe's desk.

Currently, all four major women's magazines in the United States—Good Housekeeping, Women's Family Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour—have published articles praising Fang Xinghe's beauty and acting skills.

This is a territory that traditional blockbusters have never paid attention to; only romance films tend to allocate resources to it. Films like The Lord of the Rings, Gangs of New York, and Hero did not deliberately cultivate this territory, but they opened their doors to Fang Xinghe.

The steady stream of female viewers, who are not fans of kung fu films, helped prop up the box office of "Hero," which should have seen a significant decline.

Upon the conclusion, five major actions by companies including Global Times immediately ceased, leaving competitors in a state of panic and causing an uproar in the public sphere.

We're trying to win a war of wills with you, and you just lie there and think you can win just by looking at yourself?!

Your brother Fang is not just good-looking; he also has wisdom and literary talent.

In an instant, he realized that the opportunity to retaliate that he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

*********
These two chapters were reviewed and revised, which was very frustrating.

(End of this chapter)