The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 466 Two Movies
Okay, that's giving the Japanese a bit too much credit. Actually, it's because this is a key project, a standard large-scale Sino-foreign joint venture, and it also carries the responsibility of validating future directions.

If the quality is really bad, it's one thing to say weird and trashy things, but if the reputation is good and everyone likes it, and there are still shameless people jumping out, then don't blame others for being impolite.

In fact, Chinese media are very good at reading the room; they immediately shut their mouths at the slightest sign of trouble.

But if not, they'll jump back and forth on the baseline, then pose as if to say, "Come and hit me!"

So even though "Red Cliff" is a key project, they will still quietly take the opportunity to make their own moves, after all, they can't afford to be idle for even a day.

But such minor objections were not enough to satisfy them, so Zhang Yimou was in trouble. After "House of Flying Daggers" was released, these people had to swallow their anger again.

Who can blame them when Colombia, the investor, is so wealthy? That's the advantage of having a powerful backer. Even though Angela has spearheaded so many projects, the money she personally invested probably doesn't even amount to the few TV series Fan Bingbing invested in.

Moreover, the male and female leads of "House of Flying Daggers" are from Hong Kong and South Korea respectively, making it a model of international cooperation. Under the financial offensive, most media outlets still sang its praises.

"Andy Lau gave a brilliant performance in a revenge story."

"The savage girlfriend transforms into a ruthless female assassin."

"Chen Yongren undergoes plastic surgery to become Liu Jianming in order to avenge his father!"

As expected, the "Infernal Affairs" joke generated considerable buzz for the film, with many people going to the cinema specifically to see if Chen Yongren, who had undergone plastic surgery to resemble Lau Kin-ming, could be found out.

Others, however, were drawn to another humorous cinema that circulated online:
Xu Jiuyang did not remove the setting of King Yama stealing Rama's remains, so it is destined to be ridiculed and even attacked by many people.

What is a netizen? Or what is a netizen who is willing to express their opinions? They're basically just people who have nothing better to do!
It is precisely because they have so much leisure time that they nitpick word by word and enjoy watching the people on the other side of the screen get worked up.

Therefore, even though it's a perfectly normal thing for a powerful eunuch to want to recover something, some people still find it absurd.

In any case, the transformation of King Yama from a penniless eunuch into a powerful eunuch in charge of the Western Depot, along with the change of the setting to the mid-Ming Dynasty, improved the logic of the story considerably—at least compared to the original.

Then, because Lu Zhu's scenes were removed and the interactions between Jiang Asheng and Zeng Jing were increased, the scene where Zeng Jing first blocked the sword for Jiang Asheng in the final duel with King Zhuanlun in the temple, and then Jiang Asheng cut off his arm for Zeng Jing, and then killed King Zhuanlun, became a logical conclusion.

In addition, Lei Bin's plot and Ye Zhanqing's character design have also been adjusted. In the original version, the latter was an idiot, and a particularly innocent one at that.

At first, she was portrayed as ruthless and twisted, killing her husband's entire family on their wedding night because he was impotent, and showing no fear in the face of execution. However, she didn't have any highlights later on, and was only interested in showing off her skills. She couldn't fight or put on a show, and her only skill was seeing through Zeng Jing's pretense with her swordsmanship. Then she was quickly exposed, and she was just a clown.

Finally, he tried to bribe King Chakravartin, only to discover that the other party was a eunuch, and then mocked Rama's remains after stealing them.

It's one thing to be mocked, but when he was buried alive, he cried and begged for mercy, he really lost all face.

Xu Jiuyang, in any case, did not understand the significance of this character's existence.

Of course, you could say her existence is a form of discipline imposed on women by the rules of the martial arts world… Ah, yes, yes, yes. In short, when Xu Jiuyang reviewed the script, he redesigned her character; a madwoman is still much better than a clown.

The new version of Ye Zhanqing is still a ruthless character, ruthless to others and ruthless to herself. Her greatest wish is to find a strong man to protect her, but if the man she finds is not strong enough, she will turn against him.

Therefore, when she discovered her husband was impotent on their wedding night, she killed his entire family without hesitation; therefore, knowing that King Chakravartin was the greatest martial artist in the world, she was eager to curry favor with him; therefore, when she discovered that King Chakravartin was a eunuch, she mocked him mercilessly after vying for Rama's remains, and even after being buried alive with pressure points sealed, she still looked at him with contemptuous mockery.

This character immediately comes to life, and the arrogance he displays is in stark contrast to Zeng Jing's forbearance.

Therefore, Xu Jiuyang specifically requested Son Ye-jin to play this role.

To be honest, there are very few young actresses in China who can portray that kind of crazy yet calm demeanor—at least he didn't know that, and it's impossible to let Yan Bingyan do it, right?

They didn't want to use actresses from Hong Kong and Taiwan, so after thinking it over, they decided that since Ha Ji-won had already made a cameo appearance in "Fine Rain," it would be quite suitable to cast Son Ye-jin in "Ye Zhanqing." This cool yet manic vibe is just right for Koreans, isn't it?

In short, the revisions in various aspects have raised this work, which was originally only 60 points, to 80 points.

Especially the scene where Jiang Asheng sharpens his sword, which is a pretentious scene, is handled much better by Andy Lau than by Jung Woo-sung. He is currently at the end of his peak, and he has acted in many pretentious movies when he was young. He is just picking it up again now.

Moreover, the fight scenes were also completely redesigned.

The original version was criticized for this: Jiang Asheng had a pair of mother and child swords, but he only focused on the long sword, what about the short sword?
This version has been redesigned. Lei Bin and Ye Zhanqing became impatient after watching him finish sharpening his longsword, so they started fighting. But Jiang Asheng was not afraid at all. Not only did he quickly sharpen his shortsword during the fight, but he also casually said: "Don't rush."

So he started showing off even more, and it's said that many female fans screamed when they saw this. I wonder if a certain fan surnamed Yang will go even crazier because of this.

In short, despite the considerable criticism, this bizarre version of "House of Flying Daggers" has generally received positive reviews, and is certainly better than the other timeline.

The box office performance might be a bit worse, after all, Zhang Weiping is quite shameless when it comes to hype, and he won't let go of anything as long as it's beneficial to the box office.

Furthermore, since there's no major national project like "Red Cliff" to disrupt things in the other timeline, the box office will definitely be affected.

However, the difference is only about 20 to 30 million overall, and if Zhang Yimou really had to choose, the answer would be very clear: Angela would be much more generous.

As for "Kung Fu Hustle," which will also be released at the end of the year, there's not much to say about it. It's basically the same as the version of Xu Jiuyang from his previous life, except that the female lead has changed from Huang Shengyi to Liu Qianqian. What's more, this role hardly requires any acting skills, and there aren't even any lines.

As Stephen Chow's first film to be officially released in mainland China, and also his penultimate starring film, it still garnered a large following, leaving an exceptionally vivid impression. Even more than a decade later, some still say it is his best film.

Hmm... Putting aside the inconsistent action style, even Uncle Da wasn't involved, yet you dare to say it's the best?
Do you know how much a great supporting actor who can take on Stephen Chow's roles can enhance a film? Not to mention the scene where he races against the landlady... Xu Jiuyang heard a shocking theory in his past life: a movie can be as exaggerated as an animation, but it should never be animated. Otherwise, what should be a very good work will automatically drop a level.

(End of this chapter)