Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 124 Lu Chuan is nailed to the pillar of shame
"But the internet says this movie is vulgar, unartistic, and lacks soul..."

"The movie is vulgar, has no art, and lacks soul. This is a universal phrase that can be used to describe any movie.

What is vulgarity and what is not vulgarity? What is the artistic quality of a movie? What is the soul of a movie? Who among the ordinary audience can tell clearly?

They are blatantly leading the trend by relying on their status as film critics. When film critics say so, the audience who are unaware of the truth will believe it, but they actually don't even know what these basic elements are.

Also, The Shallows is a commercial film, not an art film. Why do I need art? I don’t pursue art. I only pursue one thing - to make the audience feel good. "

As soon as he finished speaking, there was applause from below.

Zhang Chen had to stop and bow to the people around him, then continued: "And what Director Lu said, The Shallows has no practical significance, no educational significance, his own Kekexili does have educational significance, but why is the box office so low, doesn't he have any idea?
Everyone is usually very tired at work, and they just want to watch a movie to relax during their break, but you still want to let go of this and think about education. Who wants to listen to your education? I don’t want to take the postgraduate entrance examination~"

Zhang Chen said a lot in one breath, and the audience was very excited.

Li Jing and Dai Jun looked at each other and said, "Yes, yes, that's it!"
It felt like something familiar was coming back.

Li Jing then interrupted again: "We are all laymen when it comes to movies, we just watch for fun. But I think since "Kekexili" is an art film, it is understandable that the box office is not high."

Zhang Chen shook his head: "Kekexili is not an art film. Strictly speaking, it should be considered a feature film."

"drama?"

“There are actually many forms of feature films. You can make them in the style of an art film or a commercial film, but Lu Chuan chose the most unpopular pseudo-documentary format.

How should I put it? This format is very novel, and his winning of the award in Tokyo has a lot to do with it.

But the pseudo-documentary format means the storyline will be rather bland, and audiences will definitely not enjoy watching it.”

"In fact, you can tell what kind of person Lu Chuan is by looking at his works. He is very ambitious."

"Why do you say that?"

"Generally, directors either take the artistic route or the commercial route. Artistic directors aim to win awards, and if they win awards, their films can still be sold at high prices. If they don't win awards, they are nothing.

Typical examples in this regard are Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, who won the Cannes Palme d'Or and the Berlin Golden Bear, and their films sold very well.

But don’t think that art films can’t do well at the box office. Do you know how much the domestic box office of Farewell My Concubine was in 93? "

Seeing the two hosts shaking their heads, Zhang Chen finally explained: "The domestic box office is 4800 million, and the number of moviegoers is over million. Isn't that amazing?
You have to know that movie tickets in that era were only four yuan each, so 4800 million, what does that mean?"

After Zhang Chen said this, everyone held their breath.

Everyone has heard of "Farewell My Concubine", the first domestic film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes. No one expected the box office to be so terrifying.

"Let's not talk about the commercial route. Hero and House of Flying Daggers are all commercial films, including my film The Shallows."

"But Lu Chuan is different. He is both a responsible and independent person. His films are neither artistic nor commercial. They are a bit of both, but none of them are outstanding. He won the award at the Tokyo Film Festival purely because of its pseudo-documentary format..."

After hearing Zhang Chen’s analysis, the two hosts and the audience nodded subconsciously.

"But when it comes to the documentary format, I can't help but complain about it."

The two hosts were all frowning, it seems like these weren't considered complaints before?

"Does anyone know why he chose the documentary format?"

Seeing that the host and the audience all shook their heads, Zhang Chen said: "Actually, I was just guessing, because the film he plagiarized, I Love Tibetan Antelope, is a documentary." Wow~~
This is like a stone that stirs up a thousand ripples.

It has long been a consensus in the circle that "Kekexili" plagiarized Liu Aijun's "I Love Tibetan Antelope", but this news is limited to the circle.

One reason is that Lu Chuan’s father spent a lot of effort to suppress this matter, and the other is that "Kekexili" is really not very popular, and even if the matter is confirmed, the media are too lazy to report it.

No one cares at all.

So after Zhang Chen said this, people finally knew.

If Lu Chuan were here, she would definitely regret it. She didn't expect that "Kekexili" would become famous in such a shameful way.

At this point in the interview, Li Jing reminded: "Director Zhang, do you have any basis for what you said?"

"Of course, Huayi helped to deal with the plagiarism. If you don't believe me, you can ask Huayi, or ask Mr. Liu Aijun, the director of I Love Tibetan Antelope. By the way, Director Liu's I Love Tibetan Antelope is actually very well shot. If you watch it, you will find that the most beautiful part of Kekexili is almost entirely plagiarized from I Love Tibetan Antelope."

This really put Lu Chuan on the pillar of shame.

This caused the audience to dislike Lu Chuan. You can say that your prejudice against commercial films is the pride of a scholar, but your plagiarism is disgusting, and no one would bother to do such a thing.

"He is such a piece of shit, and he still has the nerve to cry in front of the media, saying that he is being targeted, saying that The Shallows gets a monopoly on screenings, while his Hoh Xil gets a pitifully low screening schedule.

When I talk about this, I want to curse. It's really a double-edged sword.

Since you chose to make a micro-documentary, you are telling everyone that you want awards over box office. In the end, you won the awards, but you complained that the cinema chain didn’t schedule the film. What? You are the cinema chain’s favorite child, so they have to spoil you? "

Zhang Chen's words left no room for maneuver and were simply scolding Lu Chuan.

Noticing the reactions from the audience, Zhang Chen said: “I see some of the audience still have doubts on their faces, probably because they don’t quite understand what I said, after all, they are not in the film industry, so let me explain it to you briefly.

To make an analogy:

Cinema chains are a bit like department stores. They need a large number of high-quality products to sell in the malls so that people will come to consume and they can make money.

The producers are the ones who produce the goods.

Generally speaking, department stores are the stronger party because there are many manufacturers producing goods, but few storefronts in department stores. Therefore, it is up to the department stores to make an assessment as to which goods can be sold in them.

In the film industry, it is a film viewing party.

Film screenings are held by producers after a film is completed and screened in theaters for evaluation.

After watching the movie, the heads of major cinema chains will have a basic judgment in their minds.

These theater managers are the best in the industry. They watch hundreds of movies every year. They can tell whether a movie is good or not and whether it will be popular just by watching it once.

"The Shallows" was given such a high screening schedule only after it received unanimous recognition from managers of various theaters at the film screening.

The same is definitely true for "Kekexili". Theater managers think that audiences will not like this movie, so they don't give it a high screening schedule.

This actually has nothing to do with revenge or targeting. It is simply the simplest way of seeking benefits and avoiding harm.

Cinemas have to make a living too. If your movie isn’t a box office hit but you still demand high screening times, isn’t that just a blatant attempt to cheat people out of their money?
So I look down on this guy a little bit. As a director, he doesn’t even understand the most basic business logic of movies. I don’t understand how he made his previous film, “Looking for the Gun.”

(End of this chapter)