On January 25, Wu Yue paid out of his own pocket and produced and starred in the costume action movie "Blocking the Horse and Grabbing the Sword" on the online platform, which was originally intended to take advantage of the current martial arts boom and become a blockbuster. However, the cold box office data gave the creative team a slap in the face - only 19 on the first day40,000, which is a big difference compared with the works of the same period such as Xie Miao and An Zhijie, can be described as bleak.
Such a box office level is too shabby for any film, let alone a big production created by a powerful actor like Wu Yue. The reason for this is not only the current highly competitive film market, but more importantly, there are some problems worth reflecting on in the work itself.
I have to admit that in the film and television industry, Wu Yue's popularity has always been limited.
He was born in a standard academic class, graduated from the ** Drama Academy, and later became a national martial arts champion, which can be described as both civil and military. But if you really want to count his masterpieces that impress the audience, there are very few.
The 47-year-old Wu Yue's most memorable and good reputation in word-of-mouth is probably the villain "Di Yun" in "Liancheng Jue". Due to the low popularity of the original work, the social influence of this work has always been limited, and it is difficult to promote the name Wu Yue to the public.
Looking at his works in recent years, whether it is an anti-Japanese war drama or a remake of a masterpiece, whether it is a TV or an online movie, the ratings are generally not high, and the reputation is mediocre, and there is no one who can be passed down as a masterpiece of his acting skills.
Therefore, when "Blocking the Horse and Grabbing the Sword" boasted that it would "learn from Wu Jing" and engage in a "new martial arts movie universe", many viewers would first respond: "Who is Wu Yue?" This dooms the film to be unlikely to perform well at the box office.
What is unacceptable is that in this movie, which is known as "starring Wu Yue", Wu Yue's appearance time is only 10 minutes.
As soon as the movie opened, Yang Ye played by Wu Yue died on the battlefield, and then the focus of the whole play completely shifted to the two sisters. The real male and female protagonists, one is a comedian and the other is a dancer, and neither of them is too well-known.
Such a plot setting is undoubtedly consuming Wu Yue's popularity, but it does not give him enough time to perform. The audience said, "I bought Wu Yue's tickets, but he only ran a cutscene", and expressed strong dissatisfaction with such a "pit" plot.
If the hero and heroine were clearly identified at the beginning, instead of marketing in Wu Yue's name, maybe the plot itself would be passable. But it was clear that Wu Yue relied on Wu Yue to support the scene during the promotion, but in the end he gave such an arrangement to the audience, no wonder the box office was so bleak.
In fact, Wu Yue wants to "learn from Wu Jing" and direct and act in a martial arts action blockbuster, which is a little "unrealistic" in itself.
After all, Wu Jing's success is not accidental, his years of martial arts skills and his experience in the film and television industry have allowed him to achieve today's achievements.
Although Wu Yue is also a martial arts star, his experience and ability as a director and screenwriter are still far behind. Therefore, this kind of thinking of his is a bit too quick to achieve quick results, and he may put himself in a predicament from which he cannot extricate himself.
In today's film and television industry, there are only a handful of action actors who can really become box office superstars. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Pig Killing Knife, and then Wu Jing, are these well-known big names that can make the audience really pay for the venue. The rest of the second-tier actors like Xie Miao and An Zhijie, even if there are works released, word-of-mouth and box office are fluctuating and difficult.
And Wu Yue's situation is obviously inferior to these predecessors and peers. He just relied on a niche "Liancheng Jue", not to mention that he had too high a reputation. With this foundation alone, it is still a little difficult to directly impact the box office giant.
Although the box office and word-of-mouth performance of "Blocking the Horse and Snatching the Knife" are not good, this does not mean that Wu Yue's acting skills are not good.
In fact, Wu Yue's acting skills are commendable in many ways. He once cooperated with Wu Zhenyu in the program "China in the Classics" to perform the fragment of "Brother Break", and the superb acting skills of the two showed the relationship between Sun Wu and Wu Zixu to the fullest, which can be described as a textbook-level performance.
But in "Blocking the Horse and Grabbing the Knife", Wu Yue's acting skills were not fully displayed. This is mainly because the whole movie relies too much on Wu Yue's star halo packaging and fancy gimmick publicity, resulting in the audience losing interest in the movie itself and unable to focus on Wu Yue's performance.
In fact, Wu Yue graduated from the Performance Department of ** Drama Academy and has solid basic skills. He renders the characters through his perceptual understanding of them, and if he is given enough time to perform, he will surely impress the audience. But in "Blocking the Horse and Grabbing the Knife", Wu Yue's appearance time was only 10 minutes, and he couldn't give full play to his acting talent at all.
Therefore, I look forward to Wu Yue's more opportunities to perform himself in his works in the future, especially those roles that pay attention to character portrayal and emotional expression. I believe that with his acting skills, the audience will be able to see his enthusiasm and dedication to acting.