I didn't want to be an actor

Chapter 489 Release (23)

Although Shen Liang was very confident.

But there is definitely tension...

It is true that the epidemic has had a huge impact on the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies!
Judging from several movies released in July, the market capacity of the film market in the early stages of recovery is extremely limited.

There are only two possibilities for "Raging Fire": either become cannon fodder or ignite the audience's desire to watch the movie.

The reason why Shen Liang agreed to release the film on August 8th is because he is sure that after a period of sluggishness in the overall film market, there will definitely be a film that will warm up the market again, and this film is bound to benefit from the "revenge viewing" brought about by the hungry market.

Not every film can enjoy this bonus. After a cold period of as short as two weeks or as long as one or two months, it is usually the highly commercial films that are most likely to trigger revenge viewing.

"Raging Fire" meets this requirement!

Often this kind of movie needs to be accompanied by strong marketing...

However, due to objective factors, most offline marketing activities have been cancelled.

There is only so much Shen Liang can do...

In addition to live broadcast!

"I didn't want to take on 'Raging Fire' at first... I always felt that Hong Kong-style police and gangster films were boring... Almost all of its formats have been filmed. In recent years, only films like 'Wushuang', 'Overheard' series, 'Cold War' and 'Shock Wave' have been able to create something new within the existing framework, so they can be considered excellent."

"When I take on a movie, I'd rather it be a bad movie than a boring one!"

"For an actor, boredom is a terrible thing because it will drain your patience for acting..."

"Hong Kong-style police and gangster films have been pretty much the same over the past two years, and they're all boring!"

"But after I read the script of 'Raging Fire', especially when director Benny Chan told me 'Donnie Yen and his action design are the lower limit of this play, and your performance is the upper limit of the whole play!', I was stimulated!"

"I feel that my performance was pretty good. This play can be included in my masterpiece..."

"You'll know when you go and see it tomorrow. At least you'll feel it's worth the money you paid for it!"

“…I also wrote a song called “Confrontation”. To be precise, I composed the music, but someone else wrote the lyrics. After all, it’s a Cantonese song…”

“I’ll sing it once…”

"~Parallel worlds have no meaning. When they overlap, a storm comes. They each had their own destiny, but when they collide, they all perish together~"

"My Cantonese is not very standard, you just have to make do with what you hear..."

"This year... after filming Lotus Tower, I should have two weeks of rest. I will try to release an EP, an album... It's too difficult. I have only written three songs so far, "Echoes of Dusk", "If the Moon Has Not Come" and one "Light"..."

"Let me sing the operatic part of "Light"... ahem..."

After clearing his throat, Shen Liang started singing, "Don't listen to the sound of leaves being blown by the wind in the forest, I will live my life in a raincoat and mist. I will finally have a conversation in Changyin Pavilion. Six hundred years is just a grain of sand in the vast ocean, just a dream~"

"Bringing goods... There will be a special show for Hongxing Erke and Jeanswest next week... I am wearing Jeanswest casual wear now, and the price of a set is less than 200 yuan..."

“I don’t need high-end luxury endorsements, I’m past the stage of high-end luxury endorsements!

My current idea is to use my influence to promote domestic products... and the prices are affordable, so everyone can afford them... At least most of my fans can afford the things I endorse..."

"Okay... I'm going to sleep now. The first day box office of "Raging Fire" depends on you guys!"

……

Most of Shen Liang’s fans are male fans…

And most of them are born after 95, which is the absolute main force in the film market. This is also one of the reasons why every one of his movies can be a big hit...

Of course, fans cannot support a market cap of over 500 million. The main reason is that Shen Liang has already formed an IP effect - any performance starring Shen Liang must be a masterpiece!

Although Shen Liang has never publicly mentioned this concept, and his team has never marketed it, after several dramas, this impression has become deeply rooted...

"Time Raiders", "The Wandering Earth", "The Evil", "A Sun" and "A Bouquet of Love" are all works that have achieved both good reputation and box office success.

Especially the last two, "A Sun", a purely literary film, actually achieved a box office revenue of over 15 billion, and "A Bouquet of Love", a low-budget romance film, also sold over 16 billion!
The appeal is unprecedented.

With the release of "Raging Fire", a bunch of film critics and marketing accounts have work to do.

I've been resting for half a year!
……

Hong Kong police and gangster films began to formally establish their characteristics since the 1980s: the ambiguity and opposition between good and evil, fierce gun battles and hand-to-hand combat, and the identity of the environment.

The most fascinating thing is of course the fierce gunfights and hand-to-hand combat!
How to show the intensity of a gunfight?
Racing plus explosives!
Here come the problems, too many!

In every racing scene, Hong Kong movies already have a mature shooting system, a set of regular camera scripts, how to arrange the camera positions, how to handle the sound, the positions of explosions and actor scheduling...

These have long become an industrial system, so the elements of car racing, gun fights, and explosions can be said to be the most adept at traditional Hong Kong police and gangster films.

This is also one of the reasons why traditional Hong Kong police and gangster films are becoming obsolete. Now when it comes to Hong Kong police and gangster films, the three most clichéd elements are car racing, bombs and gun fights. To be honest, the audience would rather watch hand-to-hand combat.

Another part of Hong Kong police and gangster films took a different approach. Instead of relying on action scenes, they changed the traditional police and gangster films by shaping the characters and the Hong Kong environment.

Johnnie To and Dante Lam have done this before, in "Election", "PTU", "Witness", "The Informer"...

But these kinds of movies... usually don't do well at the box office...

The box office of Johnnie To's masterpiece "Hillbilly" is less than one-tenth of "Hillbilly"!

In the end, it was back to the path of undercover + drugs + brotherhood...

This is what many film critics are worried about...

However, "Raging Fire" obviously does not take this approach!

"Raging Fire" is very Benny Chan, very traditional and very pure. It follows the most traditional good-evil confrontation route of police and gangster films, but the real focus is on the corruption of the police station. That is, the Hong Kong police station plays the role of both good and evil, and the relationship between Shen Liang and Zhen Zidan is more of a rendering of brotherhood.

The focus is on Qiu Gangao, played by Shen Liang, a torn, anxious, rational, angry, and chaotic villain.

Qiu Gangao has the gloomy, madness and strong tragic background of Heath Ledger's Joker.

A righteous person, after being alienated, will create chaos and become an absolute rebel.

As a result, the screen was filled with wanton anger.

His revenge is very direct. It is not for money or power. His revenge is directed at the people and systems that have disappointed him.

It is the product of the gathering, accumulation and bursting of anger.

Throughout the entire film, Qiu Gangao's motives are presented in a blatant manner in a high-density narrative that can be described as crazy.

Even at the last moment, he did not regret it.

This movie has many flaws, even many obvious logical bugs, but it is really enjoyable to watch!

(End of this chapter)