The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 318 A More Professional Assistant?

Unfortunately, because of its low budget, The Dark Side did not have a premiere before Hero.

Oh, Angela also invested in "Heroes"? Oh, never mind then.

However, "The Dark Side" has been quite popular, and since September, there has been ongoing discussion about it in both traditional media and online.

Traditional media outlets tend to focus on the film's accolades, foreign praise, and its status as a model of Sino-US co-productions, believing that it would be a disservice to such excellent material not to give it a shout-out.

The online community was much more radical. Xu Jiuyang saw a post that said "The Dark Side" was far superior to things like "Xiao Wu" and "Suzhou River," completely outclassing them in terms of theme, color, lighting, and shooting techniques.

Xu Jiuyang strongly suspected that this was Angela's online army, because the way they stirred up trouble and argued was too familiar. They immediately labeled the sixth generation and tried to please Europeans and Americans who like to appreciate ugliness and the bizarre by filming the dark side of China.

When someone questioned the poster with the argument that "the dark side is there, does it cease to exist just because you don't film it?", the poster retorted, "Are there any films that showcase China's rapid development and win major awards?"
When someone countered by saying, "The Dark Side only won Best Director and Best Newcomer awards," the poster replied, "Just tell me whether it won awards or not."

When some people tried to divide the public by pointing out that "the director of 'The Dark Side' is American," the poster retorted that an American like him could see the development trend in China better than so-called sixth-generation directors.

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. The key issue is that no matter how the dissenting people argue, the poster simply doesn't engage and keeps repeating the three sentences above like a broken record, acting like someone who's been beaten by a monkey.

The key point is that this tactic is indeed very effective. As mentioned before, film festivals may sound prestigious, but only the Big Three can be considered high-class—although that prestige has been declining.

Among the three major awards, only those with "gold" in their names—the Golden Lion, Golden Bear, and Golden Palm—along with the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, are considered prestigious enough. If we really want to add more, we can also add Best Director.

Other awards, whether they are jury prizes or jury grand prizes, are just like dividing pork among themselves; at most, one piece of pork is slightly better than another.

Therefore, none of the sixth-generation directors are currently any good—in fact, there was "Beijing Bicycle" which could have been a contender, having at least won the Silver Bear at Berlin, the Grand Jury Prize.

Unfortunately, perhaps because Gao Yuanyuan took the route of a beautiful writer, Wang's film was not only delayed for a year before completion, but also failed to win the jury prize.

However, even if it remains similar to the previous life, it is still of little use. At most, it will only change from a weakling with a combat power of only 5 to a weakling with a combat power of only 10.

In any case, it's perfectly normal for a Hollywood director to come to the mainland and direct a film that not only avoids portraying the domestic situation as extremely dark, but also shows the humanity of ordinary people from an equal perspective, completely outshining those so-called sixth-generation directors.

Although this argument was used by online trolls before the film was officially released, it undoubtedly aroused the curiosity of many netizens, especially the point that "foreign directors are more able to face the development of the domestic market than the sixth installment".

Clearly, this self-serving tactic is not something many online trolls would use at this point in time.

After all, those who can access the internet now are mostly people with some wealth, and the issues they discuss are far less sharp than they would be more than ten years later. Even a ridiculous novel like "Dragon Curse" might be discussed with great seriousness. Naturally, they are no match for this kind of dimensional reduction attack.

However, even though Angela hired online trolls, Xu Jiuyang was still not optimistic about the box office performance of "The Dark Side".

Feng Xiaogang's "Big Shot's Funeral" was released at the end of last year and sold for almost half a year, but the box office was only 4300 million yuan.

Although "The Dark Side" does a good job of creating a suspenseful atmosphere, suspense films are a niche genre, so a box office of 2000 million would be quite good.

"There's nothing we can do. It will take at least ten years for the market to take off..." Xu Jiuyang sighed as he browsed online information on his laptop.

And then... that was it. Although Fan Bingbing and the others wanted to create something new in the entertainment industry, oops, I mean something new order, what did it have to do with me?

To this day, he still has little interest in being an actor or a star, and still holds the obsession of making a few or a dozen small fortunes before settling down—at least that's what he thinks.

Therefore, when necessary, we can offer suggestions and find alternative resources. Besides, given the current situation in China, the upper limit of box office revenue is actually directly proportional to the number of cinemas.

"Okay, I'll remember this. I can suggest to Fan Bingbing and the others that they set up their own cinema chain later." Thinking this, Xu Jiuyang tensed up, shivered a few times, and then let out a long sigh.

"Boss, remember to rate it!"

"Yeah, yeah, the boss forgot about it last time."

Zhang Shuang and Zhao Shu, who had climbed out and stood up, wiped their mouths and chattered away, taking out fake oil-based pens and lifting their skirts at the same time.

They were always so energetic, whether they were eating or not. If it weren't for certain considerations, Xu Jiuyang would have wanted to take the final step directly.

"You haven't forgotten this time, have you?" he said after giving the scores.

The two girls giggled as they looked at each other's marks before asking, "Boss, are we going to choose a girl tonight?"

"I'm not going to flip through any more pages. I'll rest tonight," Xu Jiuyang shook his head.

"Isn't this a bit much? There are so many people in the crew these days. There are older ones like Gan Baobao, Qin Hongmian, and Kang Min, and younger ones like Mu Wanqing and A Zhu. They all really need a boss," Zhang Shuang teased.

"Alright," Xu Jiuyang glared at her, "Stop gossiping outside."

“No, boss,” Zhao Shu quickly explained, “Wenqi was just telling the truth.”

Xu Jiuyang raised an eyebrow. His previous words seemed like a warning, but they were just putting on an act. As the literary twins that Sister Yuanyuan had specially sent to South Korea to be trained by Yunxin, they were still very obedient and kept their mouths shut.

But now, some are egging on, others are interrupting, as if they're trying to overturn the heavens. Could it be... what a load of rubbish.

“Let’s wait until next year,” he said. “After all, you’re Yuanyuan’s people, so we should consult her on how to make arrangements.”

"Oh..." Zhang Shuang and Zhao Shu both deflated and then went into the bathroom to clean up.

They really don't miss any opportunity to tempt him to take the final step. But then again, it seems I also need a professional, long-term assistant by my side.

When he returned to Beijing for the "Red Cliff" project, Jin Qiaoqiao called him. He casually mentioned his location, and she immediately invited him to come over.

"Come on, come on, I've missed you so much."

"Good brother, please, let me see your sister."

"Don't be so cruel, little brother Jiuyang."

Her gentleness, her ingratiation, her humble manner made it impossible for Xu Jiuyang to refuse. In the end, he could only hint that he would come out to play if Chen Zihan and Jiang Qinqin were also there.

Two days later, Jin Qiaoqiao called: We've all gathered together, when are you coming?

Well, he's already said it, so he can't go back on his word, right?
Such incidents will only increase in the future, and Xu Jiuyang can't possibly think about sleeping with someone all the time, so... probably... maybe... it would be better to have an assistant who specializes in handling these kinds of things.

(End of this chapter)