Huayu: Are you even sitting up straight? You're going to be the director?

Chapter 147 A Funeral Turned into a Joyous Event! Smith Wins!
The Forbidden Kingdom is a complete and utterly terrible movie.

Compared to Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle," this is not only a hodgepodge, but also lacks the elements of numerous "Hero" films.

It's like walking into a DVD rental store, borrowing a bunch of old Shaw Brothers movies, and then randomly mixing together Journey to the West, The Bride with White Hair, Golden Swallow, and Drunken Master to create this nonsensical movie.

This movie was purely fabricated to bring Jackie Chan and Jet Li together.

The two are clearly on the same side, yet they still have to fight each other in a nonsensical, deliberate, and unnatural way in order to meet the audience's expectations.

But in reality, Cao Zhong is not opposed to this movie.

Although this film is a fusion of Chinese and Western elements, it's plausible to say that it's a Western tribute to the East, based on the director and the story.

However, there are clearly primary and secondary elements in the story.

Jackie Chan's portrayal of the Drunken Swordsman is very well-rounded, while Jet Li played the least lovable version of Sun Wukong.

It's rotten, but it's not crooked.

In fact, Cao Zhong felt that this film was not a bad thing in terms of spreading Chinese culture, but he couldn't bring himself to praise it.

This movie is very similar to the later film "731". It's terrible, but if you have to say it's biased, then it's because it fell into many people's trap.

The plot is not particularly dramatic, and the handling of the story is far less engaging than that of "Nanjing Photo Studio," but it is actually a decent narrative film.

In order to complete the entire narrative in Unit 731, a perspective is needed to drive the narrative, so they created the protagonist's eyes.

That is, the role played by Jiang Wu.

While the narrative is weak, this film incorporates many representative cultural elements from the original work, such as the courtesan path, cherry blossom scars, and the blinking eyes of fish on sashimi... and so on.
It thoroughly and disgustingly uses elements from Japanese films that have always been praised, celebrated, envied, classic, and imbued with the pathos of life to metaphorically represent them.
He stomped hard on the blood-soaked black earth and spat out a mouthful of phlegm with great satisfaction.

The movie's tone is definitely right.

Many of the metaphors used by directors in movies are angry rebukes of the unreasonable behavior of the Japanese invaders! They are also things that the Japanese invaders cannot prove themselves.

This film has actually received some unfair reviews in later generations. Just the fact that the script was written with the full participation of Kim Sung-min, the curator of the Museum of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, shows that this film is not as distorted as it is circulating online.

Within the realm of Unit 731, this film is definitely watchable.
Moreover, it presents basic historical facts, which is enough for the struggle for discourse power and the right to interpret history!
Hollywood also has bad movies and good movies, such as "Sharknado" and "Jaws". The former, with a production cost of $500,000, created a low-budget commercial case that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" is similar to "731"—watchable, but not great.

Cao Zhong stood on the platform, and at the banquet afterwards, Zhang Liangying, Huang Xiaoming, Liu Yifei, Li Bingbing and others took turns toasting him. Cao Zhong did not exchange many pleasantries and left in a hurry.

Liu Yifei, Li Bingbing, and others asked to add Cao Zhong's contact information, and Cao Zhong gave them all his contact information.

Before leaving, Cao Zhong said to Cheng Long, "The script will be finalized soon, but we'll have to meet and discuss it in detail later."

Cheng Long was somewhat shocked and said, "Okay."

……

On April 25, "My Disqualified Daughter" finally finished its run, with its box office totaling 2.54 million yuan.

Although affected by "The Forbidden Kingdom," the box office declined significantly in the last two days, but it still remained at a position that made the industry fearful.

To be honest, Cao Zhong was also quite shocked by this achievement.
Although the number of movie screens in China is roughly the same as the number of movie screens in South Korea by 2025, the difference in spending power is significant.
The fact that this movie grossed 4.5 million won in South Korea and 2.5 million won in China is already an amazing achievement!
The Olympic bid brought them instant fame!
Moreover, it possessed a devastating power that overwhelmed even the most renowned directors, abruptly breaking through the 100 million yuan club and raising the ceiling for newcomers by a significant margin.

However, observant people had already noticed that the first name listed as producer and editor of this film was Cao Zhong.

This is a film submitted for the Oscars, but in terms of script, overall direction, and even the final tone, it is a film by Cao Zhong.

The success of the Olympic bid itself bears the imprint of Cao Zhong's countless contributions.

The banner at the Beijing Film Academy is up again. "Warmest congratulations to our school's director Cao Zhong (screenwriter) and director Shen Ao (director) for achieving the highest box office results since 2008 with 'My Disqualified Daughter'!"

"Warmest congratulations to Director Shen Ao for achieving the third-best box office record at Beijing Film Academy with his directorial debut."

Originally a banner hanging at the Beijing Film Academy, when the news reached Chen Kaige's ears, he almost had a heart attack.

This third-best box office performance doesn't mention Chen Kaige's name at all, but every word of it is a slap in the face to him.

Because he became fourth.

Wang Xiaoshuai was also in great distress. He went to see his teacher Zheng Dongtian, but Zheng Dongtian said that he had already reported it to the principal, who was clearly not taking sides.

He also went to Tian Zhuangzhuang for help, but Tian Zhuangzhuang kept smiling and said that it was hot and he should drink more cool water.

It's obvious they're not planning to help Wang Xiaoshuai.

Zheng Dongtian was frantic. He pointed at Tian Zhuangzhuang's nose and cursed, saying that if they ceded five cities today, they would cede ten more tomorrow, and then they could have a peaceful night's sleep. He looked around and saw that the Qin army was already there. However, the land of the feudal lords was limited, but the desires of the tyrannical Qin were insatiable. The more they were given, the more aggressively they were invaded.

Tian Zhuangzhuang was slapped in the face, and his face turned a little green.

Finally, he said timidly, "You must understand that I cannot do it. If I am used as a pawn by you, my 'Wu Qingyuan' might also be dragged out and beaten by Cao Zhong."

Zheng Dongtian was saddened upon hearing this.

Wu Qingyuan, the Go master and Showa Go Saint, was a Chinese man who was naturalized by Japan and even had a biographical film made about him. If Cao Zhong really brings him up to attack, he will have a hard time responding.

"What should I do?"

Zheng Dongtian asked a question, then slumped into his office chair, speechless.

Tian Zhuangzhuang smiled, but didn't say anything.

If he knew what to do, he would have done it last year. Wang Xiaoshuai himself doesn't have the answer, so what can outsiders do?
Let's talk about art?
Why is all your art fucking rubbish? Can anyone answer that?

……

Commissioner Smith's office.

“Mr. Gustavo, in the past two weeks or so, we have received thousands of posts every day attacking the content and narrative techniques of the film submitted for the Olympic bid. We have achieved great results, and I have seen many negative reviews of the film.”

Gustavo's eyes were filled with a gloomy and uncertain look.

He looked at everyone and said softly, "Do you all think I'm stupid? This movie's final box office is so high, how am I supposed to report it? We won?"

"Of course we won, the media is on our side. Those people have been attacking the film's narrative of fatherly love, and I've seen many people say that the film's success is purely due to marketing."

“And marketing, of course, is deceptive, Mr. Gustavo,” the secretary murmured. “That’s the answer the higher-ups most want to see.”

"So, back when you were working for Smith, this is how you fooled me?" Gustavo's eyes were fierce as he said in a vicious voice, "You've always done this, turning a tragedy into a celebration?!"

"No, these are two different perspectives. In the media, we've been winning, and that's enough. Mr. Gustavo, if we didn't, you'd probably be implicated as well."

Bang.

Gustavo slammed his fist on the table. He was a high-ranking official in the Celestial Empire, a squid. Why would he worry about those pointless entanglements?

But the thought that this was an Olympic year suddenly made Gustavo break out in a cold sweat.

He remained silent for a long while, then said, "Let's report it as is..."

(End of this chapter)