I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 319 This movie might be a hit!

There is no twilight on the far side of the moon. When Zhang Yu got off the mining truck for the 427th time, the calendar on the console reminded him that there were still 14 days until he could go home.

The base's lights were always a stark white. He habitually touched the photo in his pocket; the edges were already frayed, and the paper shone from being rubbed by his fingertips.

In the photo, the wife is holding her daughter in the sunlight, with the surging waves of Qingdao Zhanqiao Pier behind them.

As the DS robot slid over to hand over lunch, Zhang Yu was staring at a video projection of his daughter's third birthday.

The little girl, wearing a paper crown, blew out the candles, and a speck of cream stuck to the tip of her nose, looking like a tiny star.

He suddenly reached for the projection, his fingertips passing through the virtual candlelight, and stumbled into the control panel.

"Mr. Zhang, your [Zhengyang Almond Milk] has spilled." The [DS] robotic arm precisely caught the overturned cup.

He stared at the distorted reflection on the robot's metal shell and vaguely heard his daughter calling "Daddy".

The sound, mixed with electrical static, leaked intermittently from the broken speaker of the communicator.

Later, he found a cassette tape in a hidden compartment of the sleep pod. From the tape, his wife's gentle voice suddenly boomed in the darkness: "Niu Niu can write the character 'Yu' today. She always traces it crookedly on your name tag."

……

In the screening room.

Film critic Liu Jiasheng unconsciously softened his breathing.

This is the cruelest setting in the entire movie: in the vacuum-like, deathly silent lunar base, even the feeling of loneliness is magnified countless times.

There is no alternation of day and night, no changing of the seasons, only the endless hum of mining trucks and the cold service prompts of the [DS] robot.

Family ties seem to be the only light that can pierce through this eternal darkness.

Liu Jiasheng noticed the director's camera language: when the protagonist gazes at Earth through the porthole, the camera is always slightly out of focus, turning the blue planet into a hazy spot of light, like a warm fragment of memory that may disappear at any time.

When the daughter in the holographic projection called out "Dad," the camera suddenly zoomed in on the protagonist's convulsing Adam's apple and reddened eyes, making the almost suffocating longing tangible.

The most heartbreaking scene is a montage: the protagonist hallucinates that his daughter runs towards him but crashes into the cold bulkhead.

The scene shifts back to reality, where he is futilely embracing an old sweater printed with his daughter's doodles, while the lunch tray handed to him by the robot [DS]'s mechanical arm looks exactly like an offering on an altar.

After witnessing all this, Liu Jiasheng lowered his head.

He wrote down a line of text.

"This isn't science fiction..." Liu Jiasheng hurriedly jotted down in his notebook: "It's an anatomical experiment about loneliness, with family as the only anesthetic!"

After finishing writing, he looked up and continued watching the movie...

This film wraps "family and kinship" in hope, yet within this hope lies an even more suffocating sense of despair.

The protagonist's "three-year contract" is like a scam. Time loses its meaning on the moon, numbers on the calendar are crossed out and reappear, and fragments of memory keep flashing back but cannot be connected.

The film uses repetitive everyday scenes, such as eating microwave meals, growing plants, and watching videos, to depict the cycle of time, like a dream with no end.

What made countless viewers even more uneasy was that, as the deadline drew closer, his health began to deteriorate, becoming increasingly worse...

He began making repeated attempts to contact his family on Earth, but the signal remained "malfunctioning"...

In his quest to uncover the truth, he ventured out of the moon, only to have an accident on the lunar surface...

....................................

The minimalist, cool-toned design of the lunar base, along with the monotonous daily work (mining, exercising, watching videos), creates an eerie tranquility that seems to constantly hint that "something is wrong here, but it's hard to pinpoint what it is."

The lunar surface outside the base was shrouded in darkness, with only the beams of searchlights creating a visually oppressive sense of the unknown. [DS], ostensibly the protagonist's assistant, frequently "repairs communication equipment," prevents Zhang Yu from exploring, and even secretly erases surveillance footage. Furthermore, its emoticons (smiley face, frowning face) appear friendly, but its actions suggest it's concealing something…

Zhang Yu noticed he was aging rapidly (hair loss, vomiting blood), but theoretically, a lunar mission shouldn't cause these symptoms...

He is unable to contact his family on Earth, and the sudden appearance of his daughter "grown up" creates a contradiction in the timeline...

……

In the screening room.

Parson stared at the plot on the screen.

This is a film that uses restrained narrative, a closed environment, information asymmetry, and psychological suggestion to create a slowly pervasive sense of suspense...

"War for the Moon II" uses a cleverly crafted suspenseful atmosphere to take the audience on a journey of uncovering the truth alongside the protagonist.

Parsons was completely immersed in this film, which had a production cost of only 100 million RMB, and was amazed by the exquisite details presented in it...

From the dynamic camerawork to Chen Jianfeng's nuanced performance and the immersive atmosphere created by each prop, everything demonstrates the painstaking efforts of the creative team!
What impressed Parsons most about the film was its narrative structure, which kept him in sync with the protagonist's cognitive pace throughout!
Before the truth of the accident was revealed, he, like the protagonist, was trapped in a "vague unease," suspecting that the protagonist might suffer from schizophrenia and vaguely sensing that there was a corporate conspiracy behind it.

As the plot reached a crucial turning point... When the protagonist woke up after the accident and discovered that there was another "self" in the base, Parsons felt his breathing become heavy!
The director amplifies this sense of unease through slow camera movements and prolonged periods of silent eye contact.

What's even more chilling is what happens next: the two "Zhang Yu" not only can recite the same poems, but also share completely identical family memories, and even have the exact same physiological reaction to "the Blue Mountain brand pancakes made by his wife".

This high degree of synchronization in memory pushes the eeriness to its peak, making all viewers hold their breath and wonder: which one is the real "Zhang Yu"?
........................

Liu Jiasheng stared intently at the screen, forgetting all about writing a film review.

This film lacks amazing special effects, the crude and sloppy acting that screams "fight!", and all the stylistic elements of previous films...

He subconsciously glanced at the movie information.

Screenwriter: Zhou Yang!
Director: Shen Long!
Starring: Chen Jianfeng.

Photographer: Xu Yunyi.

Props maker: Liu Fang!

Music by Shen Hu!
……

Upon seeing these familiar names, Liu Jiasheng's pupils contracted!
Every key member of this film's creative team is a core member of [Xuan Shi Entertainment], a veteran who followed Chu Zui and Zhou Yang to build their empire!
Over the past two years, as the films produced by [Xuan Shi Entertainment] have become increasingly popular, these veterans have gradually become indispensable figures within the Zhou Yang Group, achieving remarkable success in their respective fields. It's rare for a film to bring them all together and have them personally direct a movie...

And this movie, "The War of the Moon," with an investment of only 100 million RMB, has actually achieved this!
this moment!
Liu Jiasheng suddenly realized how much importance the entire [Xuan Shi Entertainment] system placed on this film!
When Liu Jiasheng looked up again, he suddenly felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration!
And this movie certainly did just that!

Moreover, it brought everyone a cinematic feast filled with loneliness, extreme intensity, and cruelty!
In the movie, the "three-year contract" is like a scam, and time loses its meaning on the moon. Numbers on the calendar are crossed out and reappear, and fragments of memory flash back but cannot be connected.

In the film, when the protagonist discovers he is a clone, his loneliness escalates into an existential crisis. Even his "self" is a fabricated memory implanted in him; true loneliness lies in his inability to trust his past...

Everything that was believed to be true was overturned and turned into falsehood...

In the movie, the wife's smile in the holographic video was so familiar, but when the protagonist's fingers passed through the holographic projection, they only touched nothingness.

He suddenly realized that this longing didn't belong to him—it belonged to another Zhang Yu, the previous Zhang Yu, or an even earlier Zhang Yu…

And I am just a cog in the assembly line...

When the two protagonists meet, the film reveals the cruelest kind of loneliness: even loneliness is copied.

The two protagonists look at each other through the glass, as if looking in a mirror, or examining a stranger to themselves: they share memories, habits, and even love for their families, but they must face the battle of "who is real".

……

Zhou Yang's script, Shen Long's direction, Chen Jianfeng's amazing acting in playing two roles, Xu Yunyi's highly infectious cinematic language, Liu Fang's exquisite film set design, and Shen Hu's soundtrack all combined to push "Moon Wars 2" to the ultimate cinematic experience.

The film continues to play, and in the eyes of film critic Liu Jiasheng, the topic of "cloning" is gradually pushed to a higher philosophical level...

....................................

5 PM on May 19th.

【Tianyu】

Sitting in his office, Deng Baichuan silently watched the data and ratings for "Star Wars" on the internet, but his emotions gradually sank to the bottom, and he became dazed.

This highly anticipated film only received a score of around 7.5 on the opening day of [Movie House], with nearly 3000 viewers participating in the rating.

While this rating isn't terrible, it's far below expectations and quite disappointing...

While websites outside Zhou Yang's network, such as [Wandou Movie Network] and [Movie Fans' Home], have slightly higher ratings, they only fluctuate around 8.0.

If we exclude the paid online commentators and mindless praise from theaters, the actual audience reviews generally reveal a sense of "some disappointment".

"At least, this movie won't be a box office flop..."

"..."

Looking at the movie's attendance statistics, Deng Baichuan felt somewhat relieved.

At least, this movie won't do too badly at the box office...

Surely we can't let Zhou Yang's low-budget film, which only cost 100 million yuan to make, squeeze out our box office market?

"Ha," Deng Baichuan shook his head self-deprecatingly, "Am I just scared of Zhou Yang? How could I have such an absurd idea?"

Just then, the office door was suddenly pushed open.

Xu Haibo rushed in, his face contorted in a panic, his voice trembling: "President Deng! Something terrible has happened! 'Moon Wars 2' might be a smash hit!"

"???"

(End of this chapter)