This director is vindictive.

Chapter 499 The Little Cannon's defenses have been breached! Impossible, absolutely impossible!
In his previous life, Chen Mo found it hard to believe that the initial rating for "Sunflower" was actually quite high.

Perhaps it's because the first twenty minutes were filmed quite well?

Actually, Chen Mo sometimes doesn't quite understand why Xiao Gangpao was able to make decent commercial films back then, but perhaps due to some kind of stimulus, he ended up going further and further astray.

The title of "King of Lunar New Year Films" is now a thing of the past.

You say you're making art films, but they always seem to fall short of something.

On its opening day, although April is indeed not a particularly popular month for movie releases.

But it is still a matter of timing.

After the first day's box office results were released, Xiao Gangpao was somewhat taken aback.

The box office on the first day was just over 3000 million, or 3100 million.

For a release window like April, this result is actually quite good if you just look at it alone.

After all, the slogan of "Sunflower" is that it is an art film and a realistic film.

However, everything should be considered in comparison.

Although the box office of "The Great Tang Desert" was not as high as that of Chen Mo's previous films, it still broke 100 million yuan on its opening day!

It firmly secured the top spot at the daily box office.

The key difference between the two films lies not only in box office revenue but also in critical acclaim.

"The Great Tang Dynasty in the Northern Desert" has a rating of 8.1. Although this number may decrease as the number of viewers increases, it is still undoubtedly an excellent film.

But what about "Sunflower"? After the rating was unlocked, it only scored 6.2 points!
Actually, in the previous life, this movie had a pretty high rating when it was first released. But in this life, it may have been affected by the hype surrounding Zhao Liying's refusal to act, which resulted in Chen Mo directly confronting her and causing a mess. Or it may have been affected by the fact that the premiere invited the "real-life" character to watch the movie and was criticized for "exploiting suffering".

In addition, the prior publicity attracted even more attention.

This led to a backlash.

For example, the well-known women's rights account @HerPower publicly and sharply criticized the movie and its premiere.

"Forcing victims of domestic violence to smile while watching themselves being beaten, and putting ex-convicts under the spotlight for scrutiny—this is not compassion, it is modern-day 'public shaming'!"

The most popular comment under the topic came from user @LawyerZhangTing: "The 'sworn brotherhood with Guan Yu' scene in the movie exposes the creators' misunderstanding of the essence of female mutual assistance. True female power does not need to be packaged with chivalrous loyalty!"

On the other hand, the premiere also invited special audiences to watch the film.

However, "The Great Tang Dynasty in the Northern Desert" was praised by the public.

A Weibo influencer praised him, saying, "Chen Mo really put his heart into this. I thought the premiere would be another flashy awards ceremony for young actresses, but I didn't expect it to be about an old soldier. I have to say, even if I knew he did this to promote the movie, this kind of promotion is worthy of his reputation as a marketing genius."

Using the figures of contemporary border guards to revitalize historical memory—this is the right way to approach historical themes.

"As a fan of Professor Beast, I was quite worried at first, but as it turns out, a genius is a genius. He can think of everything we can think of. 'The whole city is full of white hair, but he will never give up his sword!' If a movie with such a tragic core is overly entertaining, it will definitely make people feel uncomfortable."

I missed the premiere, but seeing the little boy salute the veterans, and then seeing the veterans salute the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Army on the big screen, instantly elevated the theme!

"The Great Tang Dynasty in the Northern Desert" was praised by official media, but in contrast, "Sunflower" was directly criticized by name.

The sixth princess really put in a lot of effort, even with "Sunflower" facing huge controversy.

The Chinese Film Report on Channel 6 highlighted the controversy surrounding the film.

We invited an associate professor of criminal psychology, who was asked about his thoughts on "Sunflower".

The other party bluntly stated: "In terms of topic selection, it deserves a nine out of ten, but in terms of presentation and content, it only deserves a three out of ten."

As a professional, the associate professor said, "When I watched 'Sunflower,' I felt a little awkward. Why? Because female strength is more about resilience than rigidity, and rigidity is more likely to break."

"The true meaning of women-themed works is to showcase the power of women in the new era."

However, after watching "Sunflower," it's easy to see that the director, in order to showcase the strength and courage of women, actually endowed them with masculine character traits.

The host asked, "For example?"

The associate professor said, "For example, the female lead, Gao Yuexiang."

He started pulling hair and fighting as soon as he entered prison, and after his release, he continued to swear constantly.

He even dared to speak rudely to the discipline staff.

This is so unrealistic, and it doesn't align with the core message of the film.

First, let's discuss why it's not authentic.

Our current prison management is actually very mature and humane.

It's not unheard of for someone to get into a fight and pull hair as soon as they enter prison, but it's certainly extremely rare!

It's rare even in men's prisons, let alone for someone to speak rudely to the guards.

There's also a lot of profanity. If this weren't a realistic film, it could be considered artistic exaggeration, but in reality, it is a realistic film.

It seems that the director subconsciously believed that female prisoners who committed crimes were like this. In the film, they were directly labeled as foul-mouthed!

This is a very bad label in itself! The same goes for the second female lead, who is black.

Having become accustomed to a life of petty theft, they developed incorrect values ​​and were also severely lacking in love.

But the most shocking portrayal of her was actually just the sign language of vulgar language.

He went to prison and gestured to his fellow inmates, calling them idiots.

After being released, he said he would rather beg for food than steal, which actually turned him from stealing into lying.

When they argue, they resort to vulgar sign language, as if this would highlight their lack of manners, but in reality, it only makes them look more undignified.

The character is portrayed as poor, unable to afford clothes, and careless about his appearance by wearing so-called casual and almost revealing shorts and suspenders.

It completely fails to capture the most fundamental characteristics of women.

However, this expert's assessment is relatively objective.

When asked whether the film exploited women, the teacher directly denied it.

"However, the character logic in 'Sunflower' has obvious flaws."

"Let's talk about the character Gao Yuexiang."

She went astray in her desperate attempt to raise money for her daughter, even resorting to prostitution.

At the same time, he is very loyal to his friends, which is a good character setting.

However, we will find that Gao Yuexiang's series of actions are all contradictory.

After receiving education during her imprisonment, when asked to undergo a body search, she showed absolutely no legal awareness and directly removed her top for others to see.

"When one person's salary is missing."

For just 300 yuan, Gao Yuexiang was willing to go to extremes and even seduce the liquor store owner.

The black woman appeared just in time and used violence against the liquor store owner.

After being rescued, Gao Yuexiang actually had a big argument with Hei Mei.

This is all illogical.

After this episode of "Chinese Film Report" aired.

Many netizens left comments and likes below, expressing that they deeply sympathized with the sentiment.

"I was wondering why something felt off when I was watching it? Especially the part about the constant swearing, it just felt so unreal. After reading the associate professor's explanation, I realized, yes, that's labeling!"

"In fact, people who have just been released from prison, especially those with children, are very afraid of doing something illegal. But in the movie, there is none of that. In fact, it gives the impression that they want to go back to prison!"

"If the goal is to write about their rebirth after being released from prison, rising from the ashes, finding new jobs, and starting anew, why write about them returning to that kind of profession? I don't understand! I really don't understand. You know, that kind of profession is borderline and very easy to run into problems. Doesn't she understand that?"

"It feels like they're labeling these people again, as if they can't do anything else after being released from prison except this kind of work!"

I'm just puzzled. It's true that many jobs discriminate based on background, but in reality, many other jobs don't care about such things. For example, delivering food is fine, right? Or setting up a street stall would be great, right? Why choose these kinds of jobs? Well, maybe it's just for the sake of the movie plot!

Feng Dagang stared at the glaring box office figures on the computer screen, crushing his cigarette butt into the overflowing ashtray.

The 31 million views for "Sunflower" on its opening day pales in comparison to the over 100 million views achieved by "Great Tang Desert".

What made his temples throb even more was the trending topics list—#ChenMoVeteranSalutesGodhood# was at the top of the list, while #SunflowerConsumesSuffering# was followed by a bright red "Explosive" word.

"These bastards don't know anything!"

He smashed the teacup, shards splashing onto his assistant's trouser leg.

The assistant shrank back and handed over a tablet: "Director Feng, Channel 6 just broadcast an expert critique."

Every word spoken by the associate professor of criminal psychology on the screen was like a knife:
"Women's strength lies in resilience, not rigidity."

"Labeling female prisoners is creative laziness."

The most fatal flaw is the last sentence: "Real prison management is definitely not like this!"—this statement is practically accusing him of making things up behind closed doors.

"No, how could they do this? The movie has just been released. What expert, what associate professor? Does she understand movies? Does she understand artistic creation? This is a movie, not a documentary!" Little Cannon was truly on the verge of losing his composure.

Xu Fan could only comfort him, "Alright, the main thing now is what to do next? If this continues, the theaters will definitely have to adjust the screening schedule tomorrow!"

Only they know what's going on. After all, "Sunflower" and "The Great Tang Desert" had similar screening schedules, but their box office numbers differed by several times, so you can imagine how low their occupancy rates were.

The cinemas certainly won't let this happen, so allocating more screenings to movies with higher occupancy rates is an inevitable choice.

“Immediately contact our partner media outlets and use the headline ‘Sunflower Encounters Capital Attack: Who Is Afraid of Real Women’s Suffering?’” Feng Dagang said after thinking for a moment.

Xu Fan's eyes lit up.

It must be said that this move is indeed very suitable for the current situation.

(End of this chapter)