Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 441 Lunar New Year's Day (Supplement to Yesterday's Chapter)

Shen Yan must feel awkward...

The original ending of the movie was that Cheng Dongqing donated a laboratory in Meng Xiaojun's name, the same laboratory where Meng Xiaojun had fed mice.

What's the point of this?

It's like Pan Shiyi donating $5 million to Harvard...

Oh, I don't think that's a good analogy.

But the general meaning is the same...

Logically speaking, you should have destroyed the lab!
After all, this lab has Meng Xiaojun's embarrassing past...

Furthermore… the way "American Dreams in China" handles copyright infringement is quite cunning…

Reality wasn't so dramatic; in the end, it was resolved with a loss of 1000 million...

—This set a record for the highest amount of compensation awarded by a court in an intellectual property infringement case in my country, which was in 2003!
Later, Yu Minhong first collaborated with IELTS, with IELTS co-publishing a large number of its teaching materials with New Oriental, or in other words, having New Oriental publish them domestically, while they only received copyright fees. Then ETS also approached them for cooperation...

It's actually a kind of exclusive strategic partnership, uh, also known as a comprador...

In the movie, the New Dream trio is invited to tea by foreigners. They say a lot, which can be summarized as: "So what if I pirated your textbooks? I'm rich now, can't I just pay them back?"

Have you no shame? Do you know how difficult it is for Chinese students? And you actually accuse them of plagiarism? So what if we stole your question bank? We're not planning to stay in the US anyway. You people who think stealing questions is shameful are so outdated!

It's actually a fallacy of misrepresentation...

Of course, the pace changed so quickly that no one was able to react immediately.

Anyway, "American Dreams in China" received a score of 7.9 and has a very good reputation!

As for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," they seized the opportunity of the broken golden cudgel and marketed it aggressively!

—When Sun Wukong fought with the exorcist played by Show Lo, the golden cudgel was shattered.

Actually, this is easy to explain, because this is Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", not Wu Cheng'en's "Journey to the West"!

Therefore, Pigsy is not the reincarnation of Marshal Tianpeng, Sandy is actually a fish, and the staff the monkey is holding is naturally not the magic staff that stabilizes the sea!

Oh, and there's also the point about Sun Wukong being too short and ugly...

Many people explain that this is because that's how it was written in the original work.

Then...why did it turn into a gorilla?
Is this also from the original work?
As for Sun Wukong's appearance and image, his small stature is quite accurate, but his fierce face and protruding fangs are not quite right.

If Sun Wukong were that kind of violent character, Patriarch Bodhi would not have accepted him as a disciple!
Those who practice spiritual cultivation believe that one's appearance reflects one's inner state.

Sun Wukong was merely described as having a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, resembling a monkey, rather than being a fierce and malevolent being.

If we have to say what the prototype is, it should be like this!
The Japanese monkey does resemble the monkey in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons"...

It's said that this design, including the transformation into a great ape, was inspired by Dragon Ball...

Want the Japanese benzene market?
"Shaolin Soccer" grossed 28 billion yen in Japan, which was equivalent to 2042 million US dollars at the exchange rate at the time. The DVD sold 36 copies.

Kung Fu Hustle grossed $1612 million at the Japanese box office, and DVD sales were also good…

"CJ7" had a dismal box office performance in Japan, grossing less than $1 million.

So this time, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" clearly has the goal of reclaiming lost ground...

However, the final box office was 2 million yen.

After that, he stopped thinking about the Japanese market—"The Mermaid" grossed over 30 billion yuan at the domestic box office!

30 billion... what more could you ask for?
However, there are also many critics of "American Dreams in China," accusing it of plagiarizing "The Social Network" and having distorted values...

But the impact is minimal…

After all, the pre-sales for "American Dreams in China" reached a staggering 8000 million!
……

"No need for promotional activities for now... at least spend a few days with your family, right?" Back home, Shen Yan received a call from Huang Xiaoming...

He inquired about publicity, seeming eager to get started on promotional activities.

That's understandable, considering last year's Lunar New Year film season...

Not only last year, but after "The Message", he acted in many movies, such as "Flirting Scholar 2" and "The Ruffian", including "Sacrifice", "The Guillotines" and "The Last Tycoon", which were basically neither critically acclaimed nor commercially successful.

On its opening day, "American Dreams in China" received nearly 30,000 screenings from theaters, and the attendance rate was extremely high.

Moreover, he has a good reputation, with many people praising Huang Xiaoming.

So he rushed to do publicity...

However, Shen Yan plans to start promoting the product after the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

Spend some time with your family!
"If you want to do interviews or anything like that, you can arrange it yourself..."

"Today's box office should be around 1.2 million... That's what the theaters told me, so it's definitely accurate!"

"Yes, Happy New Year, Brother Xiaoming..."

After hanging up the phone, Shen Yan was speechless...

As for what?
It's just a blockbuster movie!

Even when filming "The Big Shot," Shen Yan wasn't this excited.

By the way, they're at the airport, heading to Hainan for a few days—it's too cold in Beijing!
"Brother, are Xiaoming and Deng Chao really at odds?"

“…A little.” Shen Yan nodded: “In the early days, when they were both at Huayi, there was competition for resources…”

As is well known, Deng Chao was originally slated to be the protagonist of "The Deer and the Cauldron", but was ultimately played by Huang Xiaoming; similarly, the protagonist of "Flirting Scholar" was also originally Deng Chao, but was later replaced by Huang Xiaoming.
Actually, the same goes for "Painted Skin." Initially, it was said that Takeshi Kaneshiro and Huang Xiaoming would star, but of course, Takeshi Kaneshiro withdrew…

Later, Sun Li joined the cast, and Huang Xiaoming's role was changed to Deng Chao!

Oh, these marketing accounts' revelations are orchestrated by Yang Siwei—a hit movie must have a backstory. Besides the movie itself and Shen Yan, the only other cards "American Dreams in China" can play are Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao!

"It's trending on social media!"

"What's the matter?"

Shen Yan quickly checked his phone, and sure enough… there were trending topics: 'Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao are at odds!' and 'Brother Xiaoming acted well!'

Two trending topics…

And of course, there's also the trending topic, "Japanese aesthetics in 'Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons'!"

Without a doubt, this is the trump card.

Let's directly compare the image of the Monkey King from the 93 Japanese version of "Journey to the West"!
A lot of people are criticizing him for not understanding "Journey to the West" and for making bad films!

Whether he understands it or not doesn't matter, as long as his screenings decrease.

Shen Li then said, "Hey, brother, everyone's been talking about who acted the best in 'American Dreams in China,' what do you think?"

“…They’re all pretty much the same,” Shen Yan thought for a moment, then said, “I’ll post it on Weibo!”

"American Dreams in China was released today, and I went to see it too. There were quite a lot of people, so the box office should be pretty good today... Many netizens have messaged me privately asking, 'Who do you think gave the best performance among the three of them?' From my perspective, the reason I cast these three people was because I believed they could definitely do it!"

"Many people mock Xiao Ming's acting skills, saying that he 'often shows a meaningful but meaningless smile...' In fact, Xiao Ming was able to act opposite Director Chen Ming in 'The Emperor of Han Dynasty' and not be at a disadvantage... I've discovered a very magical thing about Xiao Ming: the stronger the actor he's acting opposite, the more powerful his acting becomes... Conversely, he doesn't perform well against weaker actors, like Kakashi Hatake, it's a 50/50 match. During the filming of 'American Dreams in China,' especially in the scene where they part ways, his anger was genuine, and his pain and loss were all conveyed in his wailing, with a restrained yet surging emotion, and a sense of感慨 about the passing years..."

"Brother Chao has always been excellent. He's an absolutely gifted actor. In his debut work, 'The Young Emperor,' he acted alongside three veteran actors: Pan Hong, He Saifei, and Li Jianyi. He held his own completely; his talent was overflowing... It's a pity he's a mainland actor; otherwise, he would have won every Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Award by now... Let's put it this way: among all the actors born in the 1980s across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, not a single one dares to say that their acting skills surpass Deng Chao's..."

"He portrayed the character Meng Xiaojun very successfully!"

"Brother Dawei is also very good. To put it bluntly, in 'The Founding of a Republic,' one line and one expression completely overshadowed another actor..."

"In my opinion, the three of them are evenly matched... In addition, I suggest that next year's Golden Rooster Awards should award them a triple prize, with one from Beijing Film Academy, one from the Central Academy of Drama, and one from Shanghai Theatre Academy!"

(End of this chapter)