This director is vindictive.

Chapter 209 We agreed to be evenly matched, but you pulled a huge stunt.

A head-to-head comparison of two films.

First, let's talk about the directors: Chen Mo vs. Teng Huatao.

Chen Mo is China's first director to gross over 10 billion yuan at the box office, and realistic films are his forte.

While Fujiwara Tao has many representative works in television dramas, his box office performance in movies is really nothing to brag about.

Therefore, Chen Mo wins hands down when it comes to directing!

The screenwriter for "All In" is Chen Mo and the screenwriting team from Shengshi Pictures.

Although Chen Mo is a director, he is also a screenwriter, and his name appears in the screenwriter's column for many film and television works in the past.

"Shanghai Fortress" is adapted from Jiang Nan's science fiction novel. Jiang Nan is a well-known writer, so in this respect, it can be considered an evenly matched competition.

Next are the actors. The lead actor in "Shanghai Fortress" is the popular idol, top idol Lu Han, and surprisingly, "All In" also has a popular idol this time, Zhang Yixin.

The female leads, Gao Yuanyuan and Shu Qi, are evenly matched once again.

So, in terms of the lead actors, it's a tie!
In terms of special effects, "All In" is a realistic film with little to no special effects, while "Shanghai Fortress" is a sci-fi blockbuster with impressive special effects. Judging from the trailer, the special effects are quite good, so "Shanghai Fortress" scores points in this aspect!
For a time, under the media's selective comparisons, it seemed that the two films each had their own strengths and weaknesses, resulting in a 50/50 situation.

Of course, the media also deliberately created a tragic image for Teng Huatao, after all, Chen Mo was the ultimate winner between the two in "Love is Not Blind".

Therefore, Teng Huatao has even been called "The Avenger" by some busybodies! Or, to put it another way, the "Xiao Yan" of the film industry!

After all, his previous talk about spending six years honing his skills and waiting for this one opportunity, aside from the age discrepancy, made him seem just like the protagonist of that three-year promise novel.

Moreover, it definitely takes courage to challenge the biggest boss in the film industry all by yourself!

For a time, even netizens were making all sorts of jokes, as if they were waiting for the outcome of the six-year agreement.

All Chen Mo wanted to say was, whatever makes you happy!

However, this wave of bundled promotion has been quite effective.

Even Chen Mo couldn't help but sigh, sometimes, even though they were competitors in the same time slot, they inexplicably ended up collaborating on a promotional campaign.

It certainly saved "All or Nothing" a lot of advertising costs!

Ultimately, however, we'll only know for sure once we put it to the test.

On August 8th, "All or Nothing" and "Shanghai Fortress" seemed to be going head-to-head this time.

They even held their premiere ceremonies on the same day.

Of course, in terms of star power, not to mention Teng Huatao, even in the whole country, no one can compare with Chen Mo's premiere.

After all, Chen Mo's premiere had a set program.

Many people even joked that Chen Mo's movie premiere had become an awards ceremony for young actresses in China.

The first row is always the most beautiful sight in China's entertainment industry.

Now it has evolved into a situation where, before the premiere officially begins, many media reporters and photographers run to the front to take pictures.

It just so happens that Chen Mo makes almost one film a year, so it really feels like an annual awards ceremony.

Seated in the first row were Chen Mo's close female friends, who hadn't changed much, and various young actresses from the entertainment industry.

However, somewhat surprisingly, Jing Tian, ​​Chen Mo's closest confidante and the one with whom he has a close relationship, was unexpectedly absent this year.

Although it's strange, this isn't the time to focus on that. Anyway, the group of beautiful young women sitting here are probably some of the most outstanding actresses in the entertainment industry right now. As long as their status hasn't dropped, that's enough.

This seems much more reliable than those controversial "uncrowned kings" who launch their own "top actresses" or similar titles.

In fact, judging from the comparison at the premiere, Chen Mo's side had already won completely.

Even more so because both premieres are being held simultaneously today, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai.

However, the timing was almost identical, and even the media sent representatives from both sides.

Zhou Xiaobin and Bai Yue, two old friends, were separated this time, with Bai Yue going to the premiere of "Shanghai Fortress".

So, Zhou Xiaobin's old friend this time has changed; it's Dou Qing!

The premiere program went through quickly, and then the movie began to play.

Chen Mo's version of "Going All In" is not significantly different from the original, but some adjustments have been made to the details.

To be honest, aside from the scenes at the overseas fraud park, there's very little depiction of domestic cases of telecom fraud in the original work.

Of course, this may also be related to the length of the film, but Chen Mo still felt that it was too lacking.

Moreover, even the most important plot point—the story of the rich second-generation who was scammed—was rushed through.

Here, Chen Mo made the most significant adjustments.

The original promotion claimed that it was based on tens of thousands of real fraud cases, but Chen Mo thought it was just a gimmick.

Damn it, the entire movie only has two parts related to telecom fraud!
Although it's limited by the length of the film, this is still far too perfunctory.

Of course, we can't blame the director or screenwriter. Even Chen Mo racked his brains to come up with the idea of ​​using Gu Tianzhi, a domestic protagonist who was deceived, to illustrate it.

The biggest difference in Chen Mo's character is Gu Tianzhi.

In the story, he's not a rich second-generation heir, but a white-collar worker with some assets.

They are no different from many ordinary white-collar workers in China.

The plot Chen Mo provided wasn't a gamble from the very beginning!

Instead, it started with his girlfriend and with scams involving fake orders and inflated popularity.

At first, his girlfriend was added to a QQ group, and she actually earned commissions just by following, commenting, and completing simple tasks.

After he found out about this, he immediately told his girlfriend that it was a scam.

He even predicted what his girlfriend would do next, using the excuse that QQ groups are easily banned to get these people who are greedy for cheap deals to download their software. Then he guided them step by step, from small to large orders, and later to high-paying orders, but he required them to provide bank account information and make advance payments.
That's not all. You've already been caught after downloading the app provided by the other party, and all your information has been stolen.

The outcome was exactly as he had predicted.

Meanwhile, at the fraud park, they were also training the "piglets" (illegible characters).

Tell them what kind of people they will encounter and how to deal with them.

The result? They were all correct!
It feels like I predicted your prediction.

It gave the audience at the premiere a chilling feeling.

Then it showcased various "spectacles" of telecom fraud groups, including a series of chilling "spectacles" of how they treated the people they had scammed!
The other storyline is set in China.

The arrogant Gu Tianzhi believed that telecom fraudsters always started by offering sweet words and then gradually lured people into the abyss.

But he can actually turn a sugar-coated pill into a cannon fodder! At the same time, when he receives a fraudulent call, he can talk eloquently and even ridicule the caller.

It was as if he could really manipulate this group of swindlers at will.

This feeling made many audience members at the premiere feel somewhat uneasy.

Why? Because there are quite a few people with this mentality.

Many people believe they are already familiar with and have seen through the methods and tricks of these scammers.

Just like Gu Tianzhi, he entered a gambling website through ubiquitous advertisements. At first, he was very proud and thought that the other party would definitely let him win.

Sure enough, he did win some money and even successfully withdrew it.

He was incredibly proud of himself in front of his girlfriend.

He even boasted that while others might see them as monsters, to him they were simply naive fools taking advantage of him!
Meanwhile, on the other side, the telecom fraudsters in the fraud park were training the new recruits, and they once again predicted Gu Tianzhi's prediction.

They believed that people like Gu Tianzhi were actually the most likely targets to be recruited.

After Gu Tianzhi tasted the sweetness of success, he even boasted about it everywhere, as if he really had these swindlers under his thumb.

It's as if by doing what he does, one can turn the tables and retaliate against the conman's sugar-coated words.

But soon, his mindset began to change, and he started frequently visiting websites set up by telecom fraud groups.

Then he started losing money, and he immediately stopped.

But the movie tells the audience that once you get hooked on this stuff, it's like a bone-deep infection.

He began to gradually sink into the abyss.

The con artist who connected with him was the female lead in the movie, a female model played by Gao Yuanyuan. In order to meet her sales targets, she followed the training of the telecom fraud group and arranged this big scam for Gu Tianzhi, leading him step by step into the abyss.

Soon, this man, blinded by greed, completely changed.

He started borrowing money everywhere, then began selling his house, threatening to kill himself to blackmail his parents.

He eventually jumped from a high place, ending his life.

And this was just one of Liang Anna's clients.

Sexy dealers are dealing cards online!

In order to meet their performance targets and avoid punishment, these deceived "piglet" had to go to great lengths to find one Gu Tianzhi after another.

Once successful, the telecom fraud group would use this as leverage to tell them that they had become accomplices and that even if they escaped or returned, they would not escape legal punishment.

And they themselves actually got to where they are today step by step in the same way!
Lu Bingkun, played by Wang Chuanjun, a telecom fraud boss, often uses various methods to brainwash the group of "piglet" who have been deceived.

It can be said that Chen Mo's version is even more chilling than the original.

What's even more terrifying is how horrifying this group is; once you fall into such a place, it's almost impossible to escape.

It can truly be said that one wrong step can lead to eternal regret!

But Pan Sheng was not willing to give up.

He has been looking for an opportunity.

The subsequent plot is not much different from the original.

The post-credits scene shows Pan Sheng, played by Zhang Yixin, being rescued. Because of this experience and his identity as a programmer, he makes his own suggestions, which indirectly pushes the government to launch an anti-fraud app!

After the movie ended, there was a long silence in the audience, followed by thunderous applause.

Chen Mo is quite satisfied with his version of the storyline.

Although it doesn't fully demonstrate all the methods used by telecom fraudsters, that's impossible anyway.

But at least from the perspective of the movie's plot, he believed that he had done his best in every aspect.

For example, he made significant changes to the character Gu Tianzhi. In the original version, he was inexplicably deceived, with only the result and no process. In his version, he added more details about the process.

This enriched the character's personality.

These inspirations actually come from real-life cases.

Because there are indeed quite a few people like Gu Tianzhi who were initially very arrogant and thought they could swallow the sugar coating and fire back at the cannonballs.

In reality, many people have the same mentality, but little do they know that once you take the first step, you've already fallen into their trap.

Chen Mo's main goal through this film is to expose the tactics of telecommunications and online fraud, as well as the methods of overseas telecommunications fraud groups.

On the other hand, the film also aims to tell the audience not to take chances when dealing with telecom fraudsters.

The best way is not to take that step and not to be greedy for small gains.

Especially gambling—never touch it!
In fact, at first, Chen Mo had considered whether to let Gu Tianzhi successfully escape from the telecom fraud group's scam, but in reality, he became addicted to gambling because of it, which ultimately ruined his life.

However, it wasn't changed in the end, mainly because the theme of this movie is always anti-fraud.

Among the cases that Chen Mo visited and collected, there really were such people.

Although she wasn't successfully scammed, she developed a gambling addiction as a result!
"It's terrifying to think about! This movie is very imaginative!" Zhou Xiaobin exclaimed.

"Indeed, on the one hand, it showcases the various violent spectacles in the telecom fraud park, which are awe-inspiring and terrifying. On the other hand, it connects the training content of the telecom fraud group with the reactions of people who have been scammed in China, which is chilling!"
"Although I don't know if it's really like that in reality, it's very convincing!" Dou Qing agreed.

"What are your thoughts after watching this movie? Do you think it will help in combating fraud?" Dou Qing asked with a smile.

"There definitely are. It gave me goosebumps just watching it. The plot of the film is also very cleverly arranged. To be honest, it is indeed difficult for a movie to contain too many cases, but it cleverly uses character design to showcase multiple cases."

"For example, there are common online shopping scams, phone scams, online gambling scams, and recruitment scams. Each of these cases is something we often hear about and experience in real life," Zhou Xiaobin remarked.

“Yes! There are police propaganda banners hanging in our community every day, but people still get scammed every now and then! In fact, many of the people who get scammed have the same mentality as Gu Tianzhi! They think they are smarter and more cunning than these scammers!” Dou Qing nodded and said.

At the premiere of Chen Mo's "All or Nothing," the audience was abuzz with discussion after watching the film, comparing the plot, characters, and roles to real-life situations.

Although the final box office and word-of-mouth results for the film have not yet been released, Chen Mo knew from watching and listening to the feedback from the audience that the film was performing well!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Bai Yue, who had initially held some expectations for the sci-fi blockbuster "Shanghai Fortress," which was touted as another domestic sci-fi masterpiece following "The Wandering Earth," was disappointed after watching the film.

Everyone was confused.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
Even though he lowered his expectations for the movie repeatedly during the viewing process, he still felt terrible after watching it.

He was even somewhat speechless.

Because it truly embodies all the flaws of domestic science fiction films.

It must have been tough on the director; six years of painstaking work, and this is all he managed to produce?
The domineering CEO falls in love with me?
A sci-fi version of Country Love Story?
Even if it's the end of the world, can the male protagonist still take a vacation?

In Bai Yue's opinion, the biggest problem with this movie really has nothing to do with the actors.

Even if the acting is bad, or even nonexistent, it's still acceptable if the plot is decent.

But the biggest problem is that the movie's plot is so bad that he can't even begin to criticize it.

Then he received a call from Zhou Xiaobin.

"How's it going on your end?" Bai Yue asked.

"Unsurprisingly, it's quite good. Even with some flaws, the merits outweigh the flaws. It's a good film, maintaining Chen Mo's consistent high standards. How about you? How's it going over there?" Zhou Xiaobin said with a smile, clearly in a good mood.

But Bai Yue said weakly, "Do you know how I spent these two hours? I kept telling myself to lower my standards, lower my standards, lower my standards, but I really couldn't lower them any further, and I still couldn't meet my absolute minimum standard!"

Simply put, this director spent six years honing his craft, and he created a sci-fi version of the domineering CEO falling in love with me!
"The Wandering Earth" gave me hope for Chinese science fiction films, but this director Teng spent six years honing his craft and directly extinguished that hard-won hope!

"I can't take it anymore, I have to go buy a ticket and watch 'All or Nothing' to cleanse my eyes!"

After hanging up the phone, Bai Yue decisively bought a movie ticket for "All or Nothing".

On the other side, Zhou Xiaobin was somewhat bewildered.

Although he had expected it, he was still completely bewildered by Bai Yue's complaints.

No, is it really that bad?

Then he decisively bought a ticket to see it, and after watching it, he finally understood Bai Yue's feelings.

Because he truly regretted it; he shouldn't have been curious!
That evening, both "All In" and "Shanghai Fortress" had their ratings released simultaneously.

The result, however, left many people, especially the media that had previously fueled the flames, reported that the two films were evenly matched, and claimed that Teng Huatao had spent six years honing his craft just to prove that he was no less capable than Chen Mo, somewhat dumbfounded.

They had considered that there would be a gap, but they never imagined that the gap would be so outrageous.

The press releases that were originally prepared to continue the feud between the two films were all scrapped.

Does this even need a comparison?
Although the rating of "All for the Winner" is not as exaggerated as that of "Dying to Survive" back then, the initial rating is still 8.0!
But what about "Shanghai Fortress"? What happened to the promised evenly matched contest? The initial rating was way off!
3.2 points!
Good heavens, this is incredible! How can they possibly promote this together?

Concubines can't do it!

(End of this chapter)