This director is so innocent.

Late at night, in a courtyard house.

Su Jin went to the study and took out a script from the safe.

The cover reads "The Coffin in the Heart".

Below it is a line of smaller text: "When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

The film "The Coffin in the Mountain" was released on October 16, 2015, and its box office was not high, only 1056.1 million yuan.

The reason for the low rating is that it's a product with no big production, no stars, and no big director.

Its cost was very low, only 170 million, and the shooting period was also very short, less than a month - 26 days.

There were no big stars, let alone any celebrities; they were all actors from the theater troupe.

The director is also a newcomer named Qi Yukun, who has no prior works.

But even under these conditions, "The Coffin in the Mountain" became the highest-rated film of 2015, with no film on any major platform scoring below nine points.

It was later flooded with negative reviews, but its Douban rating has remained stable at 8.8.

It's worth noting that in the same year, there was also "Coming Home," starring Zhang Yimou, his former lover Gong Li, and Chen Daoming, which only received a score of 8.1.

Besides its high ratings, "The Coffin in the Mountain" is also considered by netizens to be one of the best dark comedy crime thrillers in Chinese film history.

Even more impressively, "The Coffin in the Mountain" won numerous awards at Chinese film festivals, and Qi Yukun himself won the Best New Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.

The original title of "The Coffin" was "The Coffin".

However, the film was rejected during the review process because the film title cannot contain words like "funeral" or "coffin" according to policy.

As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. This instruction to change the film's title actually enhanced the film's suspense and made it more approachable to the audience.

The story of "The Coffin in the Mountain" is a bit complicated and requires a little thought.

Its narrative structure is the same as that of "Crazy Stone", both of which employ a non-linear narrative structure.

"Stone" revolves around diamonds, while "The Coffin in the Mountain" revolves around a corpse.

Simply put, the village chief's son and his girlfriend were having a late-night date when a group of thugs who had returned home to escape debts discovered them.

He used this to blackmail the village chief's son, demanding 10,000 yuan, or he would report him and prevent his father from becoming the village chief.

The two then got into an argument, and during the scuffle, the thug fell to the ground, hit his head on a rock, and died.

The two hurriedly covered the body with bellflower stems and ran away, but this scene was witnessed by the village chief, who was drinking and went to relieve himself in the grove.

The village chief, out of love for his son, burned the body. The next day, he took the secretary for a stroll, pretending to have accidentally discovered the body, and the story unfolds from there.

There are seven main characters.

Village Chief Xiao Weiguo: Incorruptible, with strong Party spirit, numerous honors, a strong personality, and a doting father.

Xiao Zongyao, the village chief's son: A rebellious youth who dislikes constraints and has a free spirit.

Huang Huan, a girl from the village: A rural girl who is vain but not bad at heart. She is the girlfriend of Xiao Zongyao, the village chief's son, and is determined to marry into the village chief's family.

Liqin, the village beauty: A married woman who does not uphold traditional wifely virtues, has an affair with her old lover Wang Baoshan. Unable to bear the domestic violence from her husband Chen Zili, she harbors murderous thoughts.

Wang Baoshan, the village beauty's lover: He has a virtuous wife who is pregnant, and he is a lecherous man who has an affair with the village beauty, Liqin. He has very low moral standards.

Chen Zili, the husband of the village beauty: a domestic abuser, a cripple, the richest man in the village, kept a mistress, and lost his life at the bottom of a cliff.

Da Zhuang, the village beauty's simp: The shop owner, a big simp, secretly in love with the village beauty Li Qin, an honest man.

White Tiger the Scoundrel: An unemployed vagrant who loves gambling; the cause of all the events.

To sum it all up in one sentence:

The script is solid, the budget is low, and the filming difficulty is not high, making it very suitable for a novice like him.

By the way, "The Coffin in the Mountain" is based on a true story.

In the early 1990s, a charred body was found in a village in Henan Province. Due to the underdeveloped communication at the time, several families claimed that the body was their child.

This coffin changed hands three times in just a few days.

……

The next day, in the morning.

Su Jin arrived at the company, called Huang Jiaqiang into her office, and explained the situation regarding "The Coffin in the Mountain".

Tell him to call his previous partners and see if anyone is willing to work on a film project.

These days, many TV drama production companies want to get into movies.

Companies like Hairun, Dongyang Qingyu, and Xinbaoyuan have all been involved in the film industry.

However, he failed in all of them, and then lost interest in movies and focused on making TV series.

Of course, they don't have any expectations for the movie right now.

The cost of "The Coffin in the Mountain" was not high.

Filming took place in the countryside, with no special effects, no costumes, no cars; the only major expense was the actors' salaries.

If you don't hire big names, three million should be enough.

If you hire a few slightly big-name celebrities, five million is enough to have a great time.

Around 10 a.m., Ning Hao and Du Jie arrived at Jianmu Media.

Su Jin offered them the finest Longjing tea, but the two of them were like cattle chewing on peony tea, completely lacking any appreciation for its flavor.

After chatting for a while, Su Jin heard Ning Hao say, "I've been drinking this tea for ages. What do you want from us? Just say it."

He received a call from that bastard Su Jin late last night, saying she needed to see him and asked him to bring Du Jie to her company, claiming it was for a good reason.

But after they arrived, they just kept drinking tea and chatting, and never talked about anything serious.

"Yes! Su Jin, with our relationship, just say what's wrong. Even if you're short of money, Haozi can lend you some," Du Jie chimed in, patting his chest to assure her.

Upon hearing this, Ning Hao couldn't sit still any longer and shouted, "Why should I be the one borrowing money! Why don't you lend it to me?"

"I have no money!" Du Jie spread his hands, answering with an innocent yet self-righteous expression.

"Get out, get out..." Ning Hao waved his hand speechlessly, signaling Du Jie to shut up.

Su Jin couldn't help but laugh as she watched her two friends bickering and joking with each other.

He asked Ning Hao, "Have you finished filming 'Miracle World'?"

"Filming is finished; we just wrapped up last week."

"Can I borrow Du Jie's things?"

"What are you going to do?"

"Making movies! What else could we be doing!"

"..." Ning Hao was a little confused. What did he just hear? Su Jin was going to make a movie?

He knew Su Jin wanted to be a director; last year, he used the promise of directing to trick Su Jin into working on "Stone".

I never expected it to happen so quickly; he just graduated!

All I can say is that money talks.

Du Jie was also a little confused and a little envious, envious of Su Jin's wealth, which allowed her to spend money recklessly.

Making this movie will cost at least three or four million. If it fails, think of all the high-quality tea we'll lose!

"Do you have the script? Let me take a look," Ning Hao said.

He decided to give Su Jin a good review, and if the script wasn't good enough, he would advise him to give up the idea and try again later.

Being a director is no easy task. Look at him; he got there step by step.

I gained experience working as an assistant director on projects like "Thursday, Wednesday," "Incense," and "Green Grass."

But judging from Su Jin's appearance, she clearly intends to achieve instant success, which will definitely cost at least several million.