Dear Brother Kai, your latest attempt does not seem to have come to fruition, and the huge investment of one billion yuan following "The Legend of the Demon Cat" has failed to make a profit, resulting in the previous investment almost being lost.
This time, Director Chen, you seem to have brought it with you when you returned after a lapse of six years"Specially designed for capital digging pits"Unique labels.
The meticulously crafted "Volunteers" series took up to four years, including three years of meticulous preparation and one year of rigorous shooting, with a total investment of nearly 2 billion yuan. The producer, China Film Group, has high expectations for this masterpiece directed by Chen Kaige, and its attention exceeds that of "The Wandering Earth 2", aiming to surpass the glory of "Changjin Lake", and aim at a box office of more than 10 billion yuan.
The publicity strategy of "Heroes Attack" made a big mistake. On the sensitive anniversary, the official Weibo actually released a deliberately sarcastic clown poster, imitating the Japanese flag, plus"The Volunteers attacked"directly ignited the anger of the public, and the atmosphere was extremely embarrassing.
Unique propaganda techniques ("Creative offensive"encountered Director Chen's eagerness to pursue a green card, and the premiere of the film met with a cold spot. Despite its excellent release conditions, "Rock Solid" won a staggering two-fold victory at the first-day box office.
Following the announcement of the Douban score, the deleted version of "Solid as a Rock" appeared fragmented, while the plot of "Predecessor 4" was overfilled and the evaluation was miserable. In comparison, "Volunteers" won with about 73 high score praise, proud of the crowd, dominating the battlefield of word-of-mouth.
Despite its word-of-mouth, "Volunteers" did not spark a spontaneous craze in the market. As the holiday draws to a close, "Rock Solid" is far ahead at the box office, while "Volunteers" is facing a strong challenge from small-budget romance films.
At present, it seems that it is almost more difficult for the film to achieve the box office goal of 10 billion than to ascend to the sky, and even the basic return of 1.5 billion is extremely difficult, and even breaking through the 500 million mark is also facing huge challenges.
Chen Kaige's epic masterpiece seems to have heralded its glory to accompany "The Volunteers"."Bloody flutter"And the curtain ends. This visual feast is reminiscent of the challenges that the summer season will face with "Fengshen" and director Wu Ershan.
Similar to Chen Kaige, Wu Ershan is also a director who dares to throw, from "Painted Skin 2" to "Looking for the Dragon" to "Fengshen", every step of his way is a heavyweight blockbuster, and the investment amount is rising step by step, showing his ambition.
After years of careful construction, the total investment in the "Fengshen" trilogy is as high as three billion, but in the initial publicity stage, due to"Nine-Tailed Fox poster controversy"with"Heavyweight stars are absent"It was once questioned as an attempt to cover up"Huge investment in bad movies", which has been widely questioned and criticized by netizens.
Although the two masterpieces have suffered a similar downturn in terms of promotion, the two directors with a heavy industry style have their own backgrounds, and although they have common circumstances, their fates are different.
Different from Chen Kaige's persistence, the unique charm of director Wu Ershan lies in his reversal magic. Whether it is the praise of "Painted Skin 2", or the box office and word-of-mouth harvest of "Looking for the Dragon", even "Fengshen 1" has moved forward with tenacity in the midst of ups and downs, and has made a profit with an astonishing box office performance of 2.6 billion, which confirms his extraordinary achievements.
Through Wu Ershan's experience, we can have a deep insight into Director Chen's persistence and challenges in creating large-scale commercial films, and the mystery of failing to win despite repeated attempts.
Some of Chen Kaige's works, as Li Chengru said, are gorgeous and dazzling on the outside, but the inner substance is slightly empty, like a flashy shell of gold and jade, but the inside lacks depth and substance.
Friends who have experienced "Fengshen 1" will notice that this film is not a pursuit of luxurious special effects scenes, all visual elements are cleverly integrated into the plot and character depth, the special effects design is natural and smooth, the real-life shooting of the drama and the actors' personal fights (whether it is hand-to-hand combat or hard-hitting), the director's shooting technique avoids showing off technology, but closely fits the character's ability and environmental interaction, real and powerful.
Wuershan devotes himself to deep excavation"Chronicle of the Shang and Zhou dynasties"with"Legend of the Gods"The essence of storytelling and the art of performance have created a visual spectacle that has never been seen before, subverting convention"Gods"The anticipation of the story.
Looking at Chen Kaige's works, whether it is "The Legend of the Demon Cat" or "Changjin Lake", it seems that they tend to favor gorgeous visual presentation rather than deep connotation.
"The Legend of the Demon Cat" presents a visual feast with excellent picture art, but the storytelling fails to penetrate into the hearts of the people, the character creation seems a little casual, and the excavation of the historical background needs to be improved.
The Volunteer Army is now overly keen on technical shows, frequently using dizzying camera changes and elaborate bombing image processing, from all angles such as overhead, head-up to close-up, but this does not enhance the visual enjoyment, more like a deliberate pursuit of showmanship within the budget allows.
Cool special effects are proliferated, but the delicate carving of the story and characters is neglected, and the plot is disorganized, unable to highlight the core, and reduces the solemn theme of war to superficial entertainment.
In the face of those bizarre settings that transcend common sense, lack of deep emotional resonance, and casual sensationalism is difficult to touch people's hearts; A misreading of the historical background has led to a flawed character setting, a group of high-profile leading actors who appear chaotic due to the inappropriate handling of relationships, and the acting performance is regrettable.
Dear investors, maybe it's time to show your discernment, for those like Chen Kaige, whose works are of mediocre quality, vain, and repeatedly defeated"Obsolete faction"Director, we need to reassess their value.