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Chapter 417 Journey to the West to Conquer the Demons, Filming Begins

After two days of rest, Zhou Xia went directly to Hengdian to join the filming of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

It has been more than a month since the movie started. Except for Zhou Xia, Shu Qi, and Huang Bo's leading roles, many supporting roles have already been filmed.

When Zhou Xia joined the group, except for Huang Bo, other actors had already joined the group.

Zhou Xia's first scene is the scene of Liusha River, that is, at the beginning of the movie, he goes to the small fishing village by the water to catch the fish demon.

This scene pays tribute to the "Pig Cage Walled City" in "Kung Fu". The peaceful and quiet fishing village is like a small city. Behind the harmony on the surface, various causes and effects have already been planted.

The former Drifting Monk was a kind person who rescued a child who fell into the water by the river, but was beaten to death by adult traffickers in the village, and threw his body into the river, where the fish, shrimp and water monsters in the water ate his body.

After his death, he felt unwilling, and his resentment turned into a half-fish, half-demon monster, lurking in the river to take revenge on the villagers here.

At the beginning of the movie, the little girl named Changsheng squatted on the wooden bridge, singing and playing by the river. Her father told her to stay away from the water, saying that there were monsters in the river.

The child didn't believe it, so he jumped into the river, dressed in a fishing net to pretend to be a child, and frightened the child. Unexpectedly, the child cried.

In order to coax the children, he had to perform in the river to make the children laugh.

Then, the monster appeared and devoured the man, and the whole village was frightened, and they put up notices in the market, looking for the expert who could subdue the demon.

A Taoist priest came to subdue the demons and caught a docile Gushi fish. Just when the villagers felt that their hatred had been avenged and their emotions were high, Chen Xuanzang appeared on the scene.

This is Zhou Xia's first scene.

At [-] o'clock in the morning that day, Zhou Xia arrived at the crew, but his play will be filmed in the afternoon.

After all, Zhou Xia's first scene involved many supporting actors and extras, and it was a large group scene. Although these group performances are being filmed these days, it still takes time to schedule and arrange everything.

This is also because Zhou Xia is the biggest star in this movie except Zhou Xingxing.

After all, the films he directed and acted in broke records, with a box office of 15 billion. Even Golden Horse actor Huang Bo and the famous actor Shu Qi couldn't compare with him.

What's more, he and Zhang Zhao are the producers of this movie, and Xiahua Films is the main producer of this movie.

Zhou Xia was on the crew all morning. Apart from watching Master Xing's filming with the crew, he also briefly chatted with him about how to perform in the afternoon.

The role of Chen Xuanzang he played does not require much Zhou Xingxing's comedy performance, mainly the comedy effect brought by the lines and plot.

For Zhou Xia, performing this way would be much easier.

If he was really asked to perform in the way of Zhou Xingxing, he would probably be as unacceptable as Gong Li's Qiuxiang in "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance", and he would not be able to let go.

Probably made his performance not fit the whole show.

In "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", the role of Chen Xuanzang does not need those exaggerated comedic performances. He mainly undertakes the task of advancing the story.

From the beginning when he appeared in a peaceful small fishing village, pointing out that the Taoist chief who deceived the villagers caught a fake monster, was misunderstood by the villagers, beat him, and hung him in mid-air, until the real monster appeared later, he did not complain or feel uneasy.

Relying on his personal fearlessness and sacrifice, he rescued the villagers and the baby in swaddling clothes, which touched the whole village. Everyone worked together, and finally bounced the monster to the ground and caught it.

But he has not awakened at this time, and has no ability to subdue monsters. After Miss Duan arrives, he becomes a joke.

When the villagers saw the real method of the demon-subduing man, they immediately abandoned him as a great benefactor.

This made him suspicious of himself, so he went back crying and asked his master for advice. The master said that he was not just like that, but the most important thing was to use truth, goodness and beauty to influence monsters. He was still a little bit close, and one day he would succeed.

So he was forced by his master to subdue Zhu Ganglie. During this period, he met Ms. Duan again, and the two had emotional entanglements. Later, Ms. Duan and a group of her subordinates tied him up to the cottage, put a spell on it by accident, and performed a show. A woman who hooks up with a man.

There's a bit of a joke to this episode, but he's also mostly doing dancing, sickening gags that don't need any other over-the-top comedy.

In fact, if you watch this movie carefully, you will find that in this movie, the two mainland protagonists, Bao Bao and Huang Bo, did not undertake many comedy scenes, and there is no need to perform traditional Xiangjiang comedy performances.

And many of the jokes in this movie are actually done by the supporting characters, such as Miss Duan's follower Sansha who keeps spurting blood, Mr. Void, and the old woman and maid beside him, etc.

Even Shu Qi, who plays Miss Duan, doesn't have too many comedic performances.

In general, some scenes in this movie are bloody, violent, and have a taste of a dark journey to the west, so some film critics even think that this is not a comedy at all, but a magical dark journey to the west.

But the audience doesn't think so. They see a story of Journey to the West that is completely different from the past. They are very satisfied with the bold innovation of Master Xing, and most of them are also very satisfied.

The movie box office also proves this point.

But in the eyes of more demanding audiences, and in the eyes of professional film critics, this movie can only be regarded as acceptable. Douban has just reached a score of 7 points, and this is their attitude.

Some people even said that this movie is similar to "The Great Sage of Love", trying to copy the pattern of "Big Talk" where the male dick is chased by a beautiful woman and realizes the truth, but it lacks the magic touch.

The jokes focus on Yang Di's three idiots spurting blood, other actors maliciously pretending to be ugly, kissing disgusting pig mouths, and spoofing old jokes such as Journey to the West. Tathagata slapped the villain Sun Wukong to death, Tang Seng recalled his lover at the end, clichés were rebuffed, and so on.

These are indeed true.

But the needs of the audience are different. After ten years, they finally waited for a movie by Zhou Xingxing. After watching Yile, they felt quite different. It was very enjoyable to watch, so they would feel very good and introduce it to their relatives and friends.

Zhou Xia is not a director, but just one of the leading actors and producers. If he fulfills his role well and the film achieves commercial success, then he is satisfied, and he will not mention these things to Master Xing.

No gossip.

After all, it is the summer of July, the filming crew always get up early to shoot, try to shoot as many night scenes as possible, and the afternoon filming will not start until half past four.

Otherwise, the actors would suffer from heatstroke in the high temperature, which would affect the filming time instead.

Master Xing sat behind the monitor under the parasol, watched the various departments get ready, and shouted to start, and the record was played.

Chen Xuanzang, played by Zhou Xia, has a dirty face, fluffy and messy hair, wears old and mended ordinary clothes, carries a small cloth bag, leans on a bamboo stick in one hand, and holds three hundred nursery rhymes in the other.

A group of extras are shouting revenge to a monster like a 'batfish' hanging in the air.

(End of this chapter)