I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 190 What is he planning?

"Damn it, no wonder Shen Long treated us to the premiere for free, he was actually inviting us to eat shit!"

"This movie is terrible! I want a refund. I'll say it again, this movie is terrible, terribly terrible. I'll say it again!"
"After watching 'The Mine,' I'd rather go mining! It's torture, a form of mental torture... It's neither a movie nor a documentary, so embarrassing and utterly terrible!"

"Damn it, [Xuan Shi Entertainment] really has some self-awareness. Anyone who can finish watching without cursing will eat shit in public!"

"Is the director out of his mind? He spends three minutes filming a miner scratching himself until his skin bleeds and doesn't even cut the shot! Is this a movie or a dermatology education video?"

"One minute of filming black coal, another minute of filming dark mine tunnels, and the last thirty seconds of filming an outhouse! Director, do you think the audience comes to the cinema to watch National Geographic? It's hard to believe that this is the director of 'The Reboot'!"

"The coal mine owner and minority shareholders laughed for a whole minute, I thought the projector had jammed! But then the subtitles said '[Shen Long's work]'? This thing deserves to be called a work?"

"..."

A screening room with about two hundred people.

An ordinary movie premiere.

If this were an ordinary company...

So, at most it will cause some ripples in the market, and at most it will be criticized for a few minutes.

However, this is [Xuan Shi Entertainment], a film company that has been in the spotlight since its debut and is hated by countless people.

Less than an hour after the premiere of "The Mine", the Chinese film industry was in an uproar.

On almost all mainstream movie websites on the internet, such as [Wandou Movie Network], [Movie Fans' Home], and [Movie Home], countless users and film critics flooded in within just one hour. These users rushed into the websites and unanimously launched a barrage of insults at the film "The Mine." A slight refresh of the page added hundreds more insults, rising and falling in waves, with all sorts of harsh voices, momentarily overshadowing the news that the film "Men in the Jianghu" had been shortlisted for the [Berlin International Film Festival]...

The popularity was so high that it even caused the entire [Movie House] website to crash at one point!
Amidst a chorus of criticism, the opening score for "The Mine" was an unprecedentedly low 2.1, shocking countless people!

It's worth noting that the lowest possible score on [Movie House] is 2.0. Even slightly higher scores wouldn't be as low as 2.1...

Newcomers to the game were shocked!
Even a terrible movie like "Monkey King vs. Superman 2" managed to reach a score of 6.0 after this period of preparation, while "The Mine" plummeted in an unbelievable way!

They were initially incredulous, but as one film critic after another joined in, these netizens gradually became convinced!

They saw that film critic [Sheng Nan], who had previously helped Zhou Yang's films and promoted movies like "The Haunted Village" and "The Soul of Zhao Zilong," and had 4 followers, gave this film a low score of 2.1. Furthermore, he bluntly stated that he had written a long article, filled with extremely harsh criticism: "After watching 'The Mine,' I actually miss 'Monkey King vs. Superman 2'! At least the Monkey King fighting was entertaining. This crap is pure mental pollution. The last thirty minutes made my bladder explode, not because the plot was tense, but because I was afraid of missing the 'climax'—and the climax was just a close-up of a hundred-yuan bill? The director should just crowdfund; I'll donate ten yuan to beg him to change careers!"
They saw Zhou Yang's loyal supporters, even Xie Hai, a film critic who gave "Monkey King vs. Superman 2" a high score, wrote an article titled "Shen Long, Get the fuck out of the directing circle!", the following content cursing Shen Long with the most vicious words...

The numerous online comments brought the entire "bad movie" controversy to its peak!

……

【XuanShi Entertainment】

Dong Qichang is well aware of the current situation facing [Xuanshi Entertainment]!
However, he still underestimated the level of public opinion surrounding [Xuanshi Entertainment] within the entire Chinese film industry!
Some time ago, it was mostly directors from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were furiously criticizing Zhou Yang, while mainland directors didn't say much at all!
Following the premiere of "The Mine," directors from the mainland film circle, led by Liang Xiaogang from the Beijing circle, along with Zhang Liming, a sixth-generation director, and fifth and sixth-generation directors from the Northwest circle, launched a barrage of attacks against Shen Long and Zhou Yang in just a few hours across various media outlets, newspapers, and on-site interviews. They practically wanted to place all the shame on Shen Long's shoulders...

The online discussion is generating hundreds of thousands of views!

There were insults everywhere, and even a large group of reporters surrounded the company...

It's hard to believe that this was a free screening, with only one showing and a mere two hundred viewers!
Even Dong Qichang, who was used to seeing great storms, was somewhat alarmed at this moment!

He took out his phone and dialed Zhou Yang's number!
"President Zhou, what we need to do now is stabilize public opinion! Yes, we must stabilize public opinion!"

"I suggest that all the ratings and paid comments on [Movie House] be deleted, so we can stop them from stirring up trouble!"

"Besides this, our theaters should completely remove this movie from the shelves. Let's not make any more mistakes! We won't make it either!"

"Mr. Zhou, remaking the movie is a long shot. Even if we can finish it in three days, we still need to get it approved!"

"Yes, Mr. Zhou, my personal suggestion is to handle this quietly. I'll go and appease the theater owners there. With your influence, it shouldn't have too much of an impact on the company! Luckily, it wasn't a movie you directed... there's still room for maneuver!"

"..."

Having weathered many storms, Dong Qichang quickly came up with the optimal solution and immediately shared his plan with Zhou Yang!

however……

Zhou Yang on the other end of the phone laughed!

He said something that shocked him!
"Don't suppress public opinion! Absolutely don't suppress it, let it rise as high as possible!"

"But Mr. Zhou..."

"Sometimes, the heat of praise is far less than the heat of criticism! If the fire isn't hot enough, add some more. Contact the film critics we've been in touch with before, and tell them—no, I'll contact them myself—to criticize 'The Mine' as much as possible, to criticize us. Speak your mind! Don't hold back!"

"Mr. Zhou, are you... are you crazy?"

"Any kind of buzz, I want it!"

"But the confidence of our partner cinema chains..." "If we're going to do it, let's do it big, Mr. Dong, go for it!"

"..."

On the other end of the phone, Zhou Yang's voice shocked Dong Qichang!

He seemed to see a madman who only craved attention!
It once made him a little scared!
Immediately afterwards...

He subconsciously opened [Movie House]...

After calming down, an even more shocking thought suddenly came to his mind!

[Movie Home] The criticism of "The Mine" came earliest and came all at once, as if someone had been preparing for it beforehand!

Even more shockingly, when he stumbled upon the first post criticizing "The Mine," he discovered something!

That is……

The premiere of the movie "The Mine" just ended, and even the fastest film critics haven't finished writing their reviews yet, a bunch of netizens have already started criticizing "The Mine," and they all seem to know the plot in advance!
Only 200 people watched the premiere...

More than 200 accounts started cursing after the premiere. Did they all conjure up computers to curse immediately after watching the movie?
Could it be President Zhou...?

To confirm his idea, he immediately contacted Yang Bo, the owner of [Movie House]!

Yang Bo initially hesitated and didn't say anything, but then, as if he had received a phone call, he smiled bitterly and told me about some things that happened yesterday!
Upon hearing this, Dong Qichang's pupils constricted sharply!

He had a look on his face as if he'd seen a ghost!
"Mr. Zhou!"

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

....................................

"President Xu, Zhou Yang has created such a big situation, shouldn't we step in?"

"Now, everyone is ganging up on them!"

Shouldn't we add fuel to the fire?

"..."

12 noon!
In just over two hours, four of the five major companies in China have authorized their media outlets to launch a fierce attack on Zhou Yang's "The Mine"!

Strangely enough, Tianyu Media, which has a long history of conflict with Zhou Yang, remained remarkably calm at this moment…

Apart from some directors taking it upon themselves to criticize Zhou Yang, the public relations and media departments remained remarkably quiet.

【Tianyu】

in the office.

The assistant handed Xu Haichang a set of data!
Dong Qichang, however, did not smile. Instead, he calmly suppressed the data.

"Can't you tell the situation is very strange?"

"What's so strange?"

"The movie 'The Mine' was suddenly released without any prior announcement, which is strange in itself. More importantly, because of the sudden release of 'The Mine,' I can guarantee that the source of the film could not have been leaked or stolen beforehand! But look at these comments... In fact, it's not just [Movie House], but also [Pea House] and [Movie Fan House]. The movie just ended, and these netizens started criticizing it. Don't you think it's too fast?"

The assistant was slightly taken aback.
"Why would Zhou Yang suddenly release such a terrible movie at this time? And! It's right when Li Zhengtao from Tianyu Media was nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival..."

"..."

"Don't they know the situation their company is facing right now? Don't they know the huge impact this movie will have after its release? Also, I know Dong Qichang. He has a very sharp eye for film censorship. He would never allow a bad movie to be released at this time!"

"..."

"What's even stranger is that I just contacted a friend in the review department. Although they didn't explicitly say anything, I overheard them saying that there are actually two versions of the script for 'The Mine'. One is Shen Long's version, and the other is Zhou Yang's version. The latter was already filed last October, and Zhou Yang's version even got a fast track approval... Why would there be two scripts for the same movie? Is he out of his mind?"

"..."

Under the sunlight, Xu Haibo appeared remarkably calm: "The information I just received is that the IP addresses of the first group of netizens who started criticizing 'The Mine' are very similar. In fact, it's highly likely that Zhou Yang himself started this whole thing! Do you believe that Zhou Yang would suddenly and inexplicably release a terrible movie and then hype up how awful it is?"

The assistant listened in disbelief: "Then he..."

"He's probably plotting something! I remember the Hong Kong Film Awards are about to start, right? This guy wouldn't..."

It's as if I've thought of something!
Xu Haibo was startled!
(End of this chapter)