This director is vindictive.

Chapter 329 Chen Mo: I'll lie down, you can do whatever you want. Audience: Really? I don't believe it!

That's right, Chen Mo really did have that idea.

Since it was originally a movie they wanted to "play" with, they should have fun first and worry about the box office or the word-of-mouth. It really doesn't matter that much.

He's worth so much now that he could live off it for several lifetimes even if he retired right now!
And directing is indeed his hobby, but that doesn't mean he can't be willful.

What's the point of life if it's always the same?
Is it okay to do some impulsive things occasionally?
Besides, money can't buy my willingness!

And look, even though Chen Mo said that, did any of the other young actresses say anything?
Even if it's a work that Chen Mo does on a whim, it's still a product of Chen Mo!
With the official start of filming for "Sunny Sisters", Chen Mo was quite laid-back, thinking that as long as he had fun, that was all that mattered.

He doesn't rush the schedule; if one take isn't enough, he'll shoot it a second time. He even occasionally lets the women take turns directing.

The main message is "Have fun!"

And unsurprisingly, the content of the launch event was revealed.

Chen Mo is trending on social media again!

#ChenMo Admits New Film is a Fan-Oriented Movie# (Boiling Point)

#Chen Mo reveals his true colors during filming, not recommending watching the movie!# (Hot)

#Chen Mo: I was initially against "Sunny Sisters"!# (New)

#SunnySistersSelectionCeremonyConfirmed# (Breaking News)

Several trending topics appeared on the hot search list in an instant.

Many of our colleagues have been suffering in silence for a long time.

Chen Mo's products are always of high quality, and it can be said that they have become an industry brand to some extent.

But for those in the same industry, it's a different story.

Just as Chen Mo said, quite a few of them were left looking disheveled and embarrassed by his harsh criticisms.

They couldn't find an opportunity before, but Chen Mo's move has made them eager to take revenge.

However, to the surprise of many, the netizens' reaction was not as overwhelmingly critical of Chen Mo as they had imagined.

They're just too naive, or they simply don't understand what marketing is!

I don't understand the preferences of netizens these days!
Soon, countless netizens left comments under those trending search terms.

Director Chen: I'm coming clean, this film is a feast for those who love good-looking people! [doge emoji]

"I suggest renaming it 'Illustrated Guide to Beauties in the Chinese Entertainment Industry,' with the plot added as a bonus."

"Artistic merit? Authenticity? Chen Mo: I filmed a 'collection of worldly riches and flowers'!"

"I'm so frustrated! A school that doesn't exist in reality? Disney even has Princess Academy!"

"Just because you don't recommend I buy tickets doesn't mean I won't go! Who do you think you are? I'm going to go anyway! (doge!)"

Such comments made up the majority.

Many netizens also commented: "After watching so many heavy movies with realistic themes, it's nice to change things up. Even just to see the most beautiful woman in the entertainment industry, it's worth the price of admission!"

"No problem, Chen Mo is really spoiling his harem this time. They wanted to act, so he made it. He really is amazing. I'm going to cry. Just for this reason, I'm definitely watching this movie!"

"No wonder he can become the modern-day Wei Xiaobao. It's because women want to play the role, so he makes it. He's openly being willful and doesn't treat the audience like fools. Just for that attitude, it's only a movie ticket. I'll be willful too, so what?"

"I suggest renaming the movie 'Chen Mo and His Harem's Youthful Tale.' I'll give it five stars on Douban even though it only has a 3.9 rating!"

"I checked, the high school's admission criteria are: 1. Female 2. Beautiful 3. Someone Director Chen likes (doge)"

The actions of Yang Mi and Liu Yifei at the press conference for the start of filming also became a trending topic.

#Liu Yifei and Yang Mi team up to protect their husbands# (Trending)

A screenshot of a famous scene: Liu Yifei, her ears burning red, says, "Where can you find such a beautiful transfer student?" Yang Mi then responds with a joke from "Tiny Times".

Fans of the sweet romance are ecstatic: "'Mifei' CP is locked in! Chen Mo: Thanks for the invitation, I'm currently in the harem, just came from a hellish situation."

"The left-behind children of the Legend of Sword and Fairy series have finally found new jobs! Seeing the celestial being suddenly descend to earth and showing such protectiveness of her husband right from the start really resonated with me!"

Of course, Chen Mo's remarks have certainly sparked considerable controversy.

Supporters:
Netizens jokingly called Chen Mo "realistic," believing that his candid attitude became a marketing highlight.

"Director Chen has really mastered the 'fan-oriented' approach! What plot do you need when beautiful women are having a meeting? My eyes are already booked IMAX tickets!"

"Lowering expectations for the plot in advance while raising expectations for the star-studded cast—this marketing genius is giving us a live demonstration!"

"Going against the grain, this is the Chen Mo I know. The key is that his attitude is so upright. It's much better than those bad movies where the director brags about everything and doesn't allow netizens to comment, right?"

"Chen Mo is real! He's much better than some directors who just hype up 'artistic dreams.' At least he doesn't cheat people out of their money."

"More than 20 top celebrities in one frame, just watching them is worth the price of admission! I suggest releasing a 4K close-up version."

Critics:
Film critics have condemned the "decline of cinematic art" and questioned whether Chen Mo has eroded the audience's trust.

"A new level of decadence in the film industry! Is Chen Mo's reputation ruined?"

"Sunny Sisters" becomes "Sunny Wives Group," fans of the original novel are furious: Give us back our ordinary youth!

"From 'Dying to Survive' to 'Selecting Concubines,' capital has finally torn off its last fig leaf." #BoycottUnrealisticYouthFilms#
This has also sparked a series of controversies within the industry.

When a director was asked by a reporter about Chen Mo's "Sunny Sisters" incident,

A veteran director said, "If this film is a box office success, it will be a tragedy for the film industry."

A new generation director said, "I envy Director Chen's extravagant capital, but I dare not use investors' money to create dreams."

"Chen Mo is using his money to wreak havoc! We're struggling to cast actors, and he's just throwing a beauty pageant around?"

"I can't learn that, I can't learn that... Half of this film's budget was probably spent on the actresses' salaries, right? (Image: Lemon)"

Compared to these controversies, the celebrities' fans were spreading the news with great joy.

Fan groups of various female celebrities controlled the comments and promoted their idols, turning the press conference into a "battleground of beauty":
Liu Yifei's self-praise is surprisingly adorable! The "Fairy Sister" (Liu Yifei's nickname) has finally caught on to the joke! #PrincessSissi'sRebelliousPhase#

"Yang Mi's fried chicken and peace sign emoji is dominating the charts! When it comes to the foodie persona, I only admire Yang Mi~"

"Fan Binbin stole crayfish to act out my story! Did my sister steal crayfish? She stole my heart!!!"

"What? I don't need to buy a ticket to see it? Are you trying to teach me how to do things?"

This surge in popularity has far exceeded expectations, leaving many people bewildered; this world is truly surreal.

Some directors, in order to promote their films, exaggerate to the extreme, comparing them to various classics and saying things like they surpass the classics.

The feedback was minimal.

But what about Chen Mo? He directly revealed his secret, even asking everyone not to buy tickets to watch, and as a result, he received countless praises.

According to data from several platforms, Chen Mo's self-disclosure at the start of filming has sparked heated discussions and generated a huge amount of traffic, with over 5 billion views and over 1 billion discussions on platforms such as Weibo and Douyin!
Chen Mo's unintentional act unexpectedly sparked a phenomenal wave of trending topics.

In fact, Chen Mo's unconventional publicity campaign has been hailed as another classic case by many people in the "publicity and marketing" industry!

Before the hype had even died down, a professional "marketing case analyst" on Weibo provided a comprehensive analysis of the event. The headline read: "High-level players often make their entrance as prey!"

"While everyone was shocked that Chen Mo would use such a self-destructive method to promote the movie, they all overlooked his identity as a marketing genius."

The reason why Chen Mo's unconventional approach achieved unexpected results is that he accurately grasped the three core logics of the current entertainment market and created a phenomenal topic through contrast marketing!
While the industry generally uses rhetoric such as "artistic sentiment" and "youthful resonance" to package commercial films, Chen Mo directly tore off the disguise and admitted that the film was "fan-oriented" in nature.

This "self-exposure" actually diminished the audience's desire to criticize and even resonated with them—netizens joked, "Chen Mo: I'm coming clean, this film is just for those who love good looks," which reflects the recognition of the "unpretentious" attitude.

While other directors are still touting themselves as "respecting the art of film," Chen Mo's "willful theory" seems genuine and endearing.

The fact that a "declaration of giving up" can trend on social media shows that audiences are already suffering from PTSD from fake marketing. Chen Mo, at least, is uniquely genuine.

What's the current state of the Chinese entertainment industry? Directors who take filmmaking seriously starve, while those who dare to say, "I make bad movies," achieve financial freedom. This is true magical realism!
Let's take a look at the specific operation and the content of the movie.

Is "Sunny Sisters" really as bad as Chen Mo herself admitted?
The answer is no! This film has been the focus of public attention from the very beginning.

However, precisely because of this, a problem arises: this is a remake, and the director is Chen Mo, which naturally leads the public to have high expectations and demands for this film.

Therefore, Chen Mo subtly lowered these excessively high expectations and demands through this method.

By positioning the film as a "feast for the eyes," Chen Mo cleverly shifted the criteria for evaluation.

When the media questioned the "authenticity" and "artistic merit," he directly used the analogy of "Marvel-style assembly" to shift the focus of discussion from "film quality" to "entertainment experience."

Audience expectations have been reset: instead of agonizing over the plot's plausibility, viewers are more interested in the rarity of seeing over 20 top stars together. This "open-ended" approach leaves critics with no point of attack—as one netizen put it: "Disney Princess Academy isn't realistic either, so who cares?"

As a renowned marketing genius and master in the industry, Chen Mo can be said to have a deep understanding of the communication rules in the era of traffic:
First, there's the star matrix effect: bringing together top female celebrities in the Chinese entertainment industry naturally triggers fans from various groups to control comments and promote the products, forming a "fan battle-style dissemination."

For example, topics such as Liu Yifei's "self-praise" contrasting cuteness and Yang Mi's foodie persona are all secondary creations by fans.

Secondly, controversy translates into traffic: deliberately creating controversial tags such as "selection ceremony for imperial concubines" and "floating youth film" actually stimulated public participation in discussions. Industry criticism and netizens' use of memes counteracted each other, further amplifying the impact.

Application of reverse psychology: The statement "not recommended to watch the movie" stimulates the contrarian psychology, and the proportion of netizens' joking comments "I insist on watching it" is as high as 72% (data from public opinion monitoring), perfectly achieving the dissemination effect of "prohibition is temptation".

It can be said that in this wave, Chen Mo's "lying flat declaration" has concretized market rules and sparked a discussion about the essence of film.

Furthermore, it perfectly avoided the controversy surrounding the female gaze, because the all-beautiful-actress setting is often easily criticized as "objectification." However, the theme of "Sunny" is not love, and the actresses' active use of memes mitigated some of the criticism.

Therefore, this campaign was truly groundbreaking; this marketing case is absolutely worth studying by our peers!

"So, everything this blogger said is true?" Liu Yifei asked Chen Mo with a somewhat bewildered astonishment.

Yang Mi chuckled and teased, "Little Qi, you just haven't spent enough time with our master. I dare say, he didn't think that much about it before!"

Liu Yifei had heard a lot of teasing from everyone lately and had gotten used to this nickname. However, she still didn't quite believe Yang Mi's words, so she looked at Chen Mo with a questioning gaze.

Chen Mo shrugged and said, "I don't know either!"

No problem, he genuinely didn't know, nor did he expect, that his "declaration of giving up" would trigger such a violent chain reaction.

To be fair, part of the reason behind his declaration of giving up was indeed to lower the public's "demands" and "expectations" for this movie!
But after reading that marketing case study blogger's analysis, he thought, "Am I really that amazing? How come I didn't know?"
What's even more surreal is that, following the release of that analysis post, many other people quickly began analyzing this "classic anti-routine marketing case"!
The key point is that the facts are undeniable. Even though many people think Chen Mo got lucky by sheer luck, the results are undeniably amazing.

The top ten trending topics are still dominated by movie-related topics.

#Chen Mo's Textbook of Lying Flat Marketing# (Breaking News)

#A Record of Industry Directors Breaking Down in Their Tandem# (Boiling Point)

#SunnySistersProfitBeforeFilming# (New)

It's true that the film is profitable even before it's been shot. "Sunny Sisters" is Chen Mo's new film, and it also features so many female stars.

It's still a modern drama, although it has elements of period drama, but the product placement is perfectly fine.

Therefore, it has long been sought after by various brands.

They're not stupid. Damn it, they've already generated so much buzz before filming even started. The brands are the most pragmatic.

They don't care about the artistic merit of a film; as long as it's popular, they're willing to invest.

As a result, the movie had already made a profit from product placement before filming even began.

For a time, many netizens jokingly said: "Your grandpa is still your grandpa. You actually believed him when he said he would give you a chance to get revenge?"
"Speaking of which, has everyone forgotten that Chen Mo started out acting in idol dramas? He's just doing what he used to do. Do you really think he lacks confidence?"

However, Chen Mo did tell the truth before: he initially refused to participate in this film.

Because the chaotic scenes he had anticipated on set were happening almost every day.

However, Chen Mo is quite serious about filming.

For example, the costumes, makeup, and props are all very meticulous. The costumes, makeup, and props for the youth version of the storyline alone have undergone multiple iterations.

Especially when it comes to props with a strong sense of the era, Chen Mo's team can be said to have truly achieved perfection.

I review the footage every day to find things that "shouldn't be there"!
The outside world's disturbances did not interfere with the filming of this drama.

After finishing work, Chen Mo sat alone in front of the monitor to review the footage. The scenes of the actresses laughing and joking were exceptionally vivid, completely unlike what he had claimed to be a "perfunctory work."

Of course, "a perfunctory work" is just a figure of speech; it's just that the plot and characters are indeed a little "unrealistic."

But Chen Mo is still very serious about making movies.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated. It was a text message from Yang Mi: [Stop pretending to be deep. We're having a hot pot party on the rooftop, and we need someone to help us with the hot pot.]

Upon arriving on the rooftop, the steam from the rooftop hotpot wafted in the night breeze. Yang Mi tapped the rim of her bowl with her chopsticks, urging, "Why isn't the food coming yet, you guys?" She was wearing a denim jacket today, and her hair still had a 00s-style hair clip from the film set stuck to the ends, making her look like a rebellious girl straight out of a script.

As Chen Mo carried the marbled beef over, he noticed Liu Yifei secretly shoveling cilantro into Jing Tian's bowl. The instant their fingertips touched, the fairy-like beauty recoiled as if electrocuted, her ears flushing a familiar blush!

"Director Chen, do you want to explain?"

Fan Binbin suddenly pulled out his phone, and the screen was playing today's trending video: a film scholar angrily criticized "Sunny Sisters" for "using capital to trample on film art".

Zhang Yuqi chuckled: "This person said last time that Marvel was trash culture in the film industry!"

She casually poured Chen Mo a glass of iced beer, and fine water droplets immediately condensed on the glass.

As Chen Mo took the wine glass, his fingertips inadvertently brushed against Zhang Yuqi's hand. The woman raised an eyebrow at him, then suddenly teased him with a line from the script: "Teacher Lin once said, 'Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.'"

The tiger woman's drawn-out, drawn-out voice caused everyone to burst into laughter.

The hot pot broth was bubbling away. Chen Mo looked at the group of laughing and joking women and couldn't help but think about many things. Perhaps this was the greatest takeaway from the movie.

Yang Mi suddenly poked the back of his hand with chopsticks dipped in sesame paste: "What are you spacing out for? If you don't eat soon, all the meat will be gone!"

"Yang Mi, are you blind? His bowl is already overflowing, how can he be afraid the meat will all be snatched away?" Zhang Yuqi said rudely.

When Chen Mo came to his senses, he found that his bowl was piled high with slices of cooked meat. Jing Tian was secretly pushing the last piece of tripe toward him, her mouth bulging like a pufferfish.

"Hahaha!" The crowd started joking around again.

The night breeze swept across the costumes drying on the rooftop, causing the school uniforms printed with "Sunshine Middle School" to sway in the wind.

Chen Mo suddenly felt that perhaps movies should never be confined to the labels of "art" or "commercial." Just like the ingredients bubbling in the pot right now, the flavors of life are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty.

Chen Mo tilted his head back and drank the wine in his glass in one gulp.

As he gazed at the stunningly beautiful women, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he suddenly understood the online joke: "This movie doesn't need any plot. Just seeing them standing together is enough to make it the most expensive coming-of-age film."

(End of this chapter)