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

Chapter 545 Backstage at the Spring Festival Gala (44)

At the promotional event, the producers of "The Monkey King" touted their star-studded cast: "We have Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-fat, Aaron Kwok... Give us more screenings, and we'll definitely win!"

The producers of "From Vegas to Macau" stated: "Director Wang Jing and Zhou Rufa, and it's still a gambling film, so we can't possibly lose! Besides, Chinese people always play a few rounds of cards during the Spring Festival, so 'Watch "From Vegas to Macau," and you'll win every time you gamble in 2014'... Our promotional slogan is the most fitting for the occasion!"

When it was Shen Yan's turn, he didn't stand on ceremony: "When speaking in this setting, everyone will say they are the box office champion, but it's nothing more than self-praise. In the end, it still depends on the film itself!"

"To be honest, among everyone here, although I am the youngest, I have never lost to any film released in the same period since I started directing. Also, I am very good at making films based on the Journey to the West theme. Last year's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons grossed 10 billion yuan!"

"First of all, I don't think that Donnie Yen + Chow Yun-fat + Aaron Kwok would be harder to fight than Stephen Chow!"

"Secondly, the combination of director Wang Jing and Chow Yun-fat in their previous film, 'The Last Tycoon,' was a massive flop of over 100 million yuan..."

"To put it bluntly, you can talk before you can beat the 'Where Are We Going, Dad?' movie! You think you can beat me? What makes you think you can? You can't even compete in terms of screenings or pre-sales... Do you think you can compete with me on word-of-mouth?"

"Forget it, arguing is pointless. Let's see what the movie is all about. We'll talk again in three days after the movie is released!"

Shen Yan showed no mercy, immediately unleashing his ultimate move and launching a barrage of taunts…

It's the Spring Festival season, every inch of the market is fiercely contested. If Shen Yan doesn't unleash his ultimate move, what will he be waiting for?
……

"The Spring Festival film season is already the biggest film season, contributing a large proportion of the annual box office and generating considerable profits. Last year, the total box office for the seven-day Spring Festival film season exceeded 14 billion yuan. Based on market growth, this year it should reach 2 billion yuan!"

"I really don't understand where many Hong Kong filmmakers get the courage to drastically adapt classic works?"

"Havoc in Heaven, what a great story! Why did they have to change it to a demon realm and a celestial realm... They're just insane!"

After the presentation, Shen Yan was about to leave when he was stopped by reporters, so he said a few words.

Mainly targeting "Havoc in Heaven"!
"The only explanation is that the special effects template was used from the West... Since there's no way to appeal to Eastern aesthetics, they made up a story about a demon war against the immortals, then gave it the name 'Havoc in Heaven,' piggybacking on the IP of Journey to the West..."

"Besides the cost, the main problem with creating special effects templates is the long production cycle. The special effects template for 'The Martian' took eight months to create... I don't think Hong Kong films have that kind of patience!"

"Duckweed... has a short production cycle?"

"When making movies, everyone wants to do it quickly, efficiently, and cheaply, but that's actually contradictory. You have to prioritize something and make sacrifices. So, which should you prioritize? Which should you sacrifice?"
"More"—you have to ensure sufficient runtime, and you also have enough footage to edit for that runtime; there's no room for compromise. "Fast"—we want it released during the Spring Festival; speed is essential. "Good"—need I say more? Would we enjoy making something bad and then contradicting ourselves? So in the end, we had to sacrifice "saving"... The production cost of "Duckweed" is a solid 8000 million!

"For example, at the peak of filming, we used nine cameras, while normally we use four sets of cameras! In post-production, we were also editing while filming, including the sound team being on set, and the music composition was also progressing in sync with the editing... For color grading, we directly used three special effects companies, one company specializing in color grading, and the other two rendering simultaneously... In half a month, after the color grading was completed, the post-production rendering was also completed simultaneously, and it was submitted for inspection and approved on the same day!"

"...I didn't initially plan to be in such a rush, but after looking at the movies scheduled for release, I felt there was no reason to miss the Spring Festival season!"

"There has always been a gap between Hong Kong filmmakers and mainland audiences; they don't really care about things that mainland audiences can relate to... But everyone knows that the mainland market is the foundation of the Chinese-language film market..."

I once read an analysis: A teenager would take two cents and sneak into a video arcade. There were long wooden benches, a 32-inch 360P color TV, and the Hong Kong movies inside were about robbing gold shops, selling heroin, brotherhood, undercover cops investigating a gangster's wife cheating on him, and occasionally a few clips of actresses like Amy Yip and Veronica Yip...

A man in his forties went to the cinema with a few dozen dollars. He sat on a single, movable leather sofa in front of a giant 8K screen that was over ten meters long. The Hong Kong movies inside were still about robbing gold shops, selling heroin, brotherhood, and cops going undercover to find their wives cheating on them. They didn't even show their breasts anymore!

It's not that I want to see nausea. The subtext behind this is: I know this movie is bad, but that's all I can do. Please don't be angry, I'll just show you a couple of nausea to make you laugh.

The underlying message of Hong Kong films these days is: So what if my films are bad? You viewers only deserve to watch films like this!

"...Ouch, my elbow! Ouch, my elbow pad! Ouch, my herniated disc! Ouch, none of it hurts!"

"Auntie, let's not use the process of elimination at this point. Since it doesn't hurt, let's try to see if you can still walk."

"You can walk, but you're following the schedule!"

On stage, rehearsals for "To Help or Not to Help" were underway, and Shen Yan, bored, came over to take a look...

To be honest, in the first few years after Happy Twist first appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, they did create some pretty good skits. "To Help or Not to Help," "Catering to Their Tastes," and even the later "Going Through the Motions" were all quite good, with a touch of satire...

"To Help or Not to Help" is indeed a good film. The elderly woman who falls and gets injured seems helpless, but she is actually quite assertive.

In this story, good people are vulnerable, truth is vulnerable, justice is vulnerable…

The problem was ultimately resolved because a police officer happened to provide evidence, and then the elderly man remembered what had happened…

In reality, there would most likely be no witnesses, and then law enforcement would mediate, with the person who helped paying compensation to settle the matter!
It's likely that Shen Teng also wants to take a more realistic approach...

But this is the Spring Festival Gala!
So, through a deus ex machina, a police officer provided testimony, and the elderly man who was hit happened to recall what had happened…

Ultimately, it had a happy ending.

"If we don't help someone who has fallen, won't people's hearts fall too? And if people's hearts fall, we won't be able to lift them up even if we want to!"

"it is good!"

Several staff members in the audience applauded, and Shen Yan was a little confused... This thing is worth applauding?

Isn't this just empty slogans?

After Shen Teng, Mary, and Du Xiaoyu finished their performance, the comedy sketch directors gave a few comments…

This year's director for language-based films is Zhao Benshan!
Uncle Benshan didn't hold back; he sincerely recommends it.

In the beginning, "To Help or Not to Help" was about Spider-Man saving people!
The premise is that the young man chooses to leave because he is worried about being scammed, and then transforms into Spider-Man to save the old lady.

Zhao Benshan helped clarify things, concluding that the extortion claim couldn't stand. After all, it was the Lunar New Year, and they didn't want to upset the audience. The main storyline was changed to Shen Teng fighting back against the old lady's attempt to extort money, resulting in the old lady learning a profound lesson as the ending…

"How does it feel?"

"Not bad... My 'The Nameless Man' comes before 'To Help or Not to Help'..."

"Aren't we going to sing revolutionary songs this year?"

"The Nameless Man was actually quite popular..."

(End of this chapter)