Huayu: Starting with Hijacking from "The Story of a Noble Family"

After filming the Yongkang storyline, Xu Heng and Liu Yifei followed the crew to Peach Blossom Island, which was not far away, where they would film scenes such as Swallow's Nest.

After asking Xu Heng, Liu Yifei told Yang Rui that Xu Heng didn't have a girlfriend, and Yang Rui then told Jiang Xin.

At first, Jiang Xin was quite happy.

Xu Heng is handsome, witty, and very composed, so it's normal for her to have her own ideas.

Moreover, she has always been decisive and ready to put her ideas into action.

However, Xu Heng had already played the male lead in two major dramas and was much more famous than her. She was also half a year older than Xu Heng, which is why she hesitated.

But she soon discovered that Xu Heng had no romantic feelings for her at all.

She hinted at it several times, but Xu Heng not only didn't react, he also started to intentionally keep his distance from her, leaving her no chance to make things clear.

After several attempts, she had no choice but to give up...

And so, we spent 10 days filming on Peach Blossom Island.

In addition to filming the early episodes of Yanziwu, they also filmed the later episodes of Wang Yuyan and Murong Fu's formal farewell, as well as some romantic scenes after Duan Yu and Wang Yuyan got together.

Watching Xu Heng and Liu Yifei stroll together by the lake, everyone around them had only one feeling.

That is, the "divine couple" Duan Yu and Wang Yuyan from the novel have actually appeared in reality, and the revised version of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" has not yet been officially released.

Jiang Xin finally gave up...

After filming the scenes on Peach Blossom Island, the entire crew traveled to Dali.

In Dali, they will film scenes of the Grand Assembly of Immortals, the selection of a prince consort in Western Xia, the imperial palace, and the grand wedding.

These sets were specially built for filming "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils". The first phase of the project was completed last month and is called the Tianlong Babu Film and Television City.

On December 5th, the crew officially started filming in Dali, initially shooting scenes at the Dali Royal Palace, Zhennan Prince's Mansion, and Wuliang Mountain, which took about 20 days to film.

On December 26th, after filming wrapped, the production team held a large-scale media conference in Dali.

Xu Heng and Liu Yifei attended the press conference together and gave an interview to reporters.

The press conference is over, and the crew will have a day off today.

In the evening, Xu Heng, Liu Yifei, and Liu Xiaoli went to a movie theater in Dali to watch a movie.

Last Friday, Zhang Yimou's highly anticipated film "Hero" was finally released. On its opening day, it grossed nearly 12 million yuan in mainland China, and in the first three days, it grossed 40 million yuan.

This is still an incomplete statistic; the actual box office may be even higher. It has undoubtedly broken various mainland box office records, including opening day box office and single day box office records.

The movie has been showing for 6 days now, and today is the 7th day.

Excluding today's box office, "Hero" has already grossed over 6500 million yuan in mainland China.

Especially on Tuesday, Christmas Eve, the film "Hero" achieved an astonishing 1700 million yuan in box office revenue in mainland China, setting a new record for the highest single-day box office in mainland China!

As an actress and film school student, Liu Yifei definitely had to see this movie.

In the past few days, I've seen and heard comments about this movie everywhere—on TV, online, and in real life—some praising it, some criticizing it.

"Hero's bold exploration of visual language has provided new aesthetic possibilities for Chinese films. The combination of color, composition, and action scenes presents a unique artistic conception of Eastern aesthetics." — People's Daily

"Zhang Yimou used five main colors—red, blue, white, black, and green—to construct the entire film, pushing the visual expressiveness of martial arts films to an unprecedented height. Every frame was meticulously designed, possessing a strong sense of form and symbolism." —Beijing Youth Daily

"Hero is not a traditional martial arts film; it is more like a visual and philosophical experiment. Color becomes the narrative, scenes become emotions, and artistic conception transcends plot." — Sanlian Life Weekly

"Hero is a milestone in the Chinese film industry. The scenes, cinematography, art direction, and soundtrack have all been upgraded, and for the first time, it has the visual and technical standards of a Hollywood A-list production." — A famous film critic.

"Zhang Yimou is bold and decisive, willing to take big risks, spend big money, and use all-star actors, which has raised the industrial standard of Chinese films by a large margin. He has paved this way, which is no easy feat, and I admire him." — A famous film director surnamed Feng.

"The visuals are stunning, but the story is weak and powerless. The theme is grand but empty, the characters are like symbols, the lines are like slogans, and the audience frequently bursts into laughter. Form overwhelms content, aesthetics triumph, and narrative fails." — China News Network

"The three stories cycle endlessly, with a fancy structure but a thin core. After watching them, you only remember the colors, not the characters; you only remember the scenes, not the emotions." — Beijing News

"I don't like 'Hero.' It portrays Qin Shi Huang, a tyrant, as a hero, deceiving the audience, exonerating the tyrant, disrespecting history and life, and is absurd." — A famous martial arts novelist surnamed Cha.

"I don't like 'Hero.' The film is empty, and its theme is problematic. I don't agree with the values ​​of sacrificing the individual for the collective and defending authoritarianism." — A famous film director surnamed Chen.

"Grand but impractical, pretentious and empty. No matter how gorgeous the visuals are, they can't hide the pale ideas and lifeless characters." — A famous writer and screenwriter surnamed Wang.

"..."

"..."

As they left the movie theater, Liu Yifei couldn't help but ask, "Xu Heng, what did you think of the movie?"

"If viewed as a domestic commercial film, it is certainly acceptable; if viewed as the first domestic commercial blockbuster, it can be considered excellent; if viewed as an ordinary commercial film, it can only be considered passable at best; and if compared with those Hollywood commercial blockbusters, it can only be said that there is still a lot of room for improvement."

Xu Heng didn't think much of it and gave his evaluation directly.

He had naturally seen this movie in his previous life, and in his opinion, its evaluation was fairly fair.

"cut!"

Liu Yifei rolled her eyes at him; sure enough, he was still as arrogant as ever.

This is a film by Zhang Yimou, who has won numerous awards at home and abroad, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and has also been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

It would be no exaggeration to say that Zhang Yimou is the top director in mainland China today.

Not to mention that "Hero" also features many superstars and big-name actors such as Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Daoming, and Donnie Yen.

The box office is about to break 1 million, but in Xu Heng's opinion, this movie barely qualifies as excellent, as if he is better at making movies than Zhang Yimou and these superstars!