Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 340 The Current Situation of Domestic Actors

Watch "The Promise"?
Have I seen it, or haven’t I?

Zhang Chen shook his head: "I haven't had time to watch it since I came back. Have you all watched it? What do you think?"

Huang Xiaoming smiled bitterly, and Mr. Zhou next to him was also having a hard time holding it in.

Zu Feng, on the other hand, said: "I watched it, but to be honest, I didn't understand it. Even after the show ended, I still didn't understand what the story was about."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Hao immediately extended his hand out of sympathy: "Like everyone else, I didn't understand it either, and I read it twice."

Holding hands, they are brothers in distress.

Once someone took the lead, others followed suit and took over the complaints.

"It's no exaggeration. I finished watching it and felt like I had watched it, but it also felt like I hadn't watched anything~"

"I feel the whole movie can be summed up in four words - inexplicable, inexplicable plot, inexplicable lines, inexplicable character design..."

"You're right. Xie Bi Wang acted like a psychopath in The Promise. I'll never forget the scene where he showed his thumb..."

"The one who impressed me the most was Zhang Baizhi, and that sentence - do you want to see what I'm wearing under my clothes? Damn, she's so beautiful, she's simply a whore..." Lao Cao cursed the most vigorously.

Ning Hao: "After watching it, I seriously doubted my artistic attainments because I really didn't understand it, so I bought a ticket and watched it a second time~"

"Don't doubt yourself, buddy. Didn't someone say on the Internet that if Farewell My Concubine was directed by Chen Shishi, then The Promise must have been directed by Chen Hong~"

Maybe it was because of the alcohol, everyone spoke less and less restrained, and in the end they didn't care about anything anymore.

Anyway, this is a private dinner and there is no risk of it being leaked.

Zhang Chen was listening with great interest.

can not read it?
Just don’t understand it.

Most people probably won’t understand it.

If you want to understand it, you have to wait for the later "A Murder Case Caused by a Bun" to come out, which helped everyone sort out the logic of "The Promise".

Do you want to see what I'm wearing under my clothes?

Zhang Chen just wanted to say, I saw it in a few months.

It can be said that poet Chen is now at the peak of his career.

He has always had a transcendent position in the film industry and is a Palme d'Or director. Everyone is looking forward to his first commercial film.

This is also why "The Promise" broke records as soon as it was released.

But in the end, movies are all about quality. If it’s good, it’s good; if it’s not good, it’s not good.

No matter how powerful the force is, negative comments can only be suppressed for a short period of time. It is estimated that the producers spent a lot of public relations fees on this, and in the end, the reputation of "The Promise" collapsed.

The higher people's expectations of Director Chen were before, the more disappointed they are now.

Love is deep, hate is deep~
Therefore, "The Promise" received negative reviews from everyone!
3500 million dollars to shoot this thing?
3500 million US dollars is enough to make a "Twilight" movie. The reputation of the movie is indeed not good, but at least it makes money.

"Seven Swords" also has a bad reputation and the film's structure has problems.

But there’s just one problem: The Promise has no structure at all.

Zhang Chen clearly remembers that after "The Promise", a new benchmark emerged for domestic films.

Worse than The Promise~
As bad as The Promise~
There are actually quite a few of the latter, but for the former, probably only "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" is left.

"Director Zhang, if you haven't watched it yet, please don't. The lines are so bad. You've ruined my chance to be a good person..."

Everyone laughed.

But someone immediately asked: "Why?"

"what why?"

"I mean, how could Director Chen make a masterpiece like Farewell My Concubine, but make a terrible movie like The Promise? It doesn't seem like the work of one person at all."

At this point, everyone looked at Zhang Chen, because among the people present, only Zhang Chen’s status was closest to Director Chen.

Zhang Chen shrugged: "I have heard a saying that when filming Farewell My Concubine, although he was the director, the other people in the crew were also great people. The screenwriter was Lu Wei and the original author was Li Bihua. Both of them had a lot of say, and even the male lead was not decided by Director Chen.

But later, "Farewell My Concubine" became a success, and the whole world gave all the honor to him alone. He became arrogant and began to let himself go.

And this matter must have a lot to do with the producer.

In a film crew, the director is important, and the producer is also important. When necessary, the producer should stop the director from doing something out of line, but this is obviously impossible for the crew of "The Promise". Poet Chen is the director and his wife is the producer. Isn't this a husband-and-wife shop?
In a company, the accountant is the husband and the cashier is the wife, so what kind of constraints are there?"

"I heard that this was Mrs. Chen's first time as a producer, and she seemed to have made a lot of stupid mistakes and made a lot of jokes."

"Yes, I heard about it too. I also heard that the producer, Mrs. Chen, deliberately exploited the treatment of the extras, and fierce conflicts broke out. In the end, it seemed that all the extras were fired, and 400 armed police were found to act as extras to get through..."

Talking about gossip, everyone suddenly became less sleepy and started to contribute the gossip they had heard.

"I heard that the overseas distributor of The Promise changed its mind. Miramax initially watched the trailer of The Promise and thought it was good, so it booked $2000 million.

But after watching the finished film, they broke the contract and didn’t even want the deposit.” “I heard that The Promise seemed to have found another distributor, but the distributor didn’t dare to release it on a large scale and only screened a small number of films. The box office of The Promise in North America didn’t seem to exceed $100 million.”

“What I’m most afraid of is that if The Promise doesn’t sell well, it will affect our Painted Skin next year…”

The person who spoke was Dong Jianqiang.

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

“No…I don’t think so…”

Chen Xi still wanted to be tough, but as he spoke, even he himself began to feel a little nervous.

The same magical theme, the same costume blockbuster...

Really not necessarily.

"Okay, relax, it's not that serious..."

At times like this, it is still Zhang Chen who has to speak up.

In fact, he was also nervous because the original emptiness was indeed like this.

The door to the exit of the costume blockbuster that Zhang Yimou opened with his own hands was closed again by poet Chen with his own hands.

Strictly speaking, the first person to shoot a costume blockbuster was not Zhang Yimou, but Ang Lee.

Zhang Yimou decided to make a costume blockbuster after watching Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

But Lee is an American and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not considered a Chinese film, so Hero can become a landmark masterpiece.

In fact, there is another saying in later generations that "House of Flying Daggers", "The Promise" and "The Banquet" are known as the perfect trifecta, which successfully made people all over the world completely lose interest in Chinese costume blockbusters.

It seems to be true. I watched pirated versions of "House of Flying Daggers" and "The Promise". By the time I watched "The Banquet", I was too lazy to even watch the pirated version.

You know it's not good just by listening to the name. Even the trailer reveals a strong literary and artistic quality, which makes people lose the desire to watch the movie.

Zhang Chen knew that after “The Promise”, the road for domestic costume blockbusters to go overseas has become extremely difficult. He even considered whether to shelve the “Painted Skin” project.

But we have been preparing for such a long time, and it was only with the help of Jing Tian's great power that it was passed. It is such a pity to suddenly give up now.

The atmosphere became relaxed again after the director assured that the "Painted Skin" project would not be affected.

“How to distribute the film is something that we producers need to worry about. You are actors, and the only thing you need to do is to act well and give 100% of your ability to interpret your role well.

After "The Promise", the craze for costume films will definitely cool down, but this is also an opportunity, an opportunity for you to rush to the world.

When I was first considering the cast for the film Painted Skin, many people suggested that I use more artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan, saying that they have box office appeal.

They have shitty box office appeal.

I don't believe this evil.

My previous films, with an all-mainland cast, did pretty well at the box office.

The male lead of Taken is Liang Jiahui, but he was not chosen because of his box office appeal. Do you understand? "

Seeing everyone nod, Zhang Chen continued: "To be honest, some of our domestic film and television companies, including China Film, are a bit superstitious about this and think that only Hong Kong and Taiwan stars can take the lead.

Actresses are better off, because of the CEPA agreement, they still have some opportunities. The male actors of your generation are really miserable, they are suppressed in various ways, and the notices are all derogatory and slanderous...

Say you guys are rustic~
Say your acting skills are not good~
You can't afford a big production.
I feel upset every time I see this kind of report.

Why can’t mainland artists support the box office? Who said that mainland artists can’t appear in big productions?
Pure nonsense!

You may not know this yet, but there is actually an established practice among Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers, which is to work together to suppress mainland artistes.

If you don’t believe me, just go and see. In any big production led by Hong Kong and Taiwan, no matter how big a star from the mainland is, he or she can only play supporting roles.

If you are a first-tier star from mainland China, they will specifically use you as a supporting role for third-tier stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan. When the movie is released, the audience will subconsciously think that the third-tier star is higher in status than you.

After one or two dramas, his status will be higher than yours.

This is called lifting!
Xiao Ming should know something about this, right? "

Among these people, Huang Xiaoming should be the one who has the most exposure to Hong Kong and Taiwan capital. He nodded in agreement.

As for Miss Zhou, before "Painted Skin", she could only be considered an artistic star. Her acting skills were impeccable, but no one could guarantee whether she could carry the box office.

It wasn't until "Painted Skin" that her status was stabilized.

"So I have been promoting our mainland actors. You also need to strive to do your best and show your abilities. I will be responsible for leaving them speechless at the box office, and you will be responsible for leaving them speechless with your acting skills. Can you do it?"

Zhang Chen also drank some wine, and as the conversation came to this point, he became a little emotional.

"can!"

This time everyone was surprisingly serious, no longer as frivolous as before.

Everyone has a voice in their heart: We are no worse than them.
……

It’s the last day, please vote for me
(End of this chapter)