Chapter 829: Movie-watching Frenzy (September Monthly Pass Plus)

After September, only the tail end of summer is left in Yanjing.

The leaves on the roadside are still green, but they no longer have the restlessness of being burned by the scorching sun in summer.

"Life is Beautiful", which swept the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, was officially released in China at the beginning of this month. There was no decent publicity, but the movie triggered a viewing craze as soon as it was released.

Chinese people are not unfamiliar with "Life is Beautiful". The original work of the film comes from Lin Weimin's "Life is Beautiful No Matter What".

Although it is a story about foreigners during World War II, it is Lin Weimin's novel after all. It has sold more than 8 million copies in China over the years since its publication, and has a huge influence.

The adapted film won four awards at Cannes in May, and the news triggered a wave of public opinion in China.

Because of Lin Weimin, Chinese people naturally have a favorable impression of this film.

Within three days of the movie's release, it earned over 1.6 million yuan in the Yanjing area. A few days later, box office information from across the country was summarized, and the first week box office of "Life is Beautiful" reached over 33.8 million yuan.

As the movie becomes popular, word-of-mouth effect continues to grow.

Roberto Benigni, who was the screenwriter, director and leading actor, perfectly restored the plot of the novel in the film, which was absurd and humorous, and presented the audience with a classic work that brought laughter and tears.

The spread of word of mouth helped boost the movie's box office. Countless viewers who were recommended the movie by their friends went to the cinema, and within just a few days, a rare movie-watching craze was created in recent years.

41.93 million, 29.6 million...

For two consecutive weeks, the box office of "Life is Beautiful" soared, breaking the 100 million yuan mark in just three weeks, becoming another movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan in recent years after "Farewell My Concubine" and "True Lies".

Compared to the envy, jealousy and resentment that surrounded other foreign blockbusters when they achieved high box office in China, the domestic film industry has a relatively calm attitude towards the achievements of this film. After all, it has something to do with China.

In the third week of the movie's release, many pirated discs appeared on the market, and the impact of piracy has begun to emerge. The fourth week has just begun, but the box office curve will definitely not be as amazing as before.

As the influence of piracy continues to grow, the potential of the film is likely to plummet, and the box office revenue that can be achieved in the next two weeks will be limited.

Just before "Life is Beautiful" landed in the domestic market, the 53rd Venice Film Festival opened on the 28th of last month. After 10 days of competition, the festival held its closing ceremony in the early morning of September 8th, Yanjing time.

A total of 24 films were nominated for this year's film festival, and the Golden Lion Award for Best Film was finally awarded to "Michael Collins" directed by Neil Jordan. The film is set against the backdrop of the Irish Independence Movement in 1916 and tells the historical story of Michael Collins, the actual leader of the Irish Volunteer Army, who led the Irish Independence Revolution and eventually sacrificed his life for it. The film also won the Best Actor Award.

Zhang Yimou won his second Grand Jury Prize for "If You Are the One". This is his second Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival after "Raise the Red Lantern".

But at this year's film festival, the most eye-catching one was not "Michael Collins", which won two heavyweight awards, nor was it Zhang Yimou, who won the Silver Lion Award again, but a 4-year-old little actor, Victor El Kivisol.

Victor El Quivisol is the heroine of the movie "Little Lone Star". In the film, she plays a child who becomes lonely and depressed because of losing her mother.

During the judging process, Victor El Kivisol's outstanding performance in the film impressed the judges, and they boldly awarded the Best Actress Award to the 4-year-old actor.

As soon as the award results were announced, they quickly attracted the attention of major media and directly stole the limelight from the Golden Lion and Silver Lion works.

When Zhang Yimou was communicating with Lin Weimin on the phone, he could only smile bitterly when talking about this situation.

Fortunately, after winning the Silver Lion Award, the overseas copyright sales of "If You Are the One" are very good.

The film festival has ended, but Zhang Yimou and Yu Dong are still in Venice, mainly to sell the overseas rights of "If You Are the One".

Although "If You Are the One" is adapted from Lin Weimin's novel, it has not been published in many overseas countries, its sales volume is not high, and its readership is not deep. If it is introduced to overseas countries in the form of box office sharing, its box office performance may not be outstanding. Therefore, after careful consideration, Wenhua Films decided to choose conservative copyright sales.

During the film festival, the overseas copyright of "If You Are the One" was sold to 36 countries, earning more than 21.6 million US dollars in copyright revenue.

If this number is calculated based on the overseas box office, it would have to be at least over 100 million US dollars. For an art film telling a Chinese urban story, it is almost impossible to reach this box office in various overseas countries, so the cost-effectiveness of this deal is still very high.

After the film festival ended, Zhang Yimou stayed in Venice for less than a week. After he and Yu Dong finished the overseas copyright sales of "If You Are the One", they returned to China.

The next thing to be prepared is the release of "If You Are the One". There is still half a month before National Day. Although "Life is Beautiful" is still wreaking havoc in the market, its power will inevitably be greatly weakened by the time "If You Are the One" is released. By then, "If You Are the One" will not only not be affected by "Life is Beautiful", but will benefit from it because "Life is Beautiful" has boosted the overall enthusiasm for watching movies in the film market.

While Yu Dong was busy with the release of If You Are the One, Zhang Yimou had already put aside his newly-received honor and seamlessly joined the crew of Hero.

There are still 10 months left until July 1997, and Zhang Yimou doesn't have much time left.

In fact, we had plenty of time, the main problem was the difficulty of framing.

What is most praised about "Hero" in later generations is not the story and characters, but the beautiful scenes and use of colors.

Populus euphratica forest in EJNQ, Jiuzhaigou in the southwest, and Dunhuang Yadan National Geopark in the northern desert...

It is very difficult to complete the shooting of such a grand movie in a short period of time and capture the best time for each scenic spot.

At the beginning of the preparation, Zhang Yimou decided to shoot in groups.

As soon as the film started shooting, Group A filmed the literary scenes and Group B filmed the martial arts scenes. With two groups of people, the scale of the entire crew set a record in the domestic film industry, and everything went on in an orderly manner.

At the same time, in Hengdian, far away in Zhijiang, the most important scene in the movie - the Qin Palace is under intensive construction.

In later generations, the Qin Palace was built in Hengdian to cooperate with Cheng Kaige in filming "The Emperor and the Assassin".

At present, "The Emperor and the Assassin" has not been released yet. The Qin Palace was built by Wenhua Film and Television in contact with Hengdian Film and Television City, and the two parties decided to build it after consultation.

When Cheng Kaige makes movies, he always likes to pursue perfection in some unimportant aspects, such as the construction of the Qin Palace.

The later Qin Palace was huge, with 27 palaces. The main palace, "Four Seas Return to One Hall", was 44.8 meters high and covered an area of ​​17,169 square meters. The towering city wall, 2,289 meters long and 18 meters high, and the palace hall complemented each other, fully demonstrating the majestic momentum of the Qin Dynasty to annex the six kingdoms and unify the world.

It was complete with all kinds of supporting facilities such as markets and roads. Cheng Kaige hired a group of designers to design the blueprint of the entire Qin Palace.

Compared with Cheng Kaige, Zhang Yimou is much more practical. He only cares about the scenes that can be used in filming the movie.

This made the construction of the Qin Palace much simpler and faster than in later generations. Of course, it certainly couldn't be built as magnificently as in later generations, but it was good enough for filming movies.

Since going to Italy to attend the Venice Film Festival, the promotion of the movie "If You Are the One" has begun, and media from all over the country have often published news about the movie in this month.

After the film won the award, the public was no longer surprised that Zhang Yimou won an award overseas, but the media coverage remained the same as usual.

Taking advantage of this wave of public opinion, "If You Are the One" officially landed in theaters across the country.

In the midst of his busy schedule, Zhang Yimou also took time out to attend the premiere press conference of "If You Are the One".

This film is Zhang Yimou's first foray into urban themes, and it is adapted from Lin Weimin's novel. It features many big names, and even the guest appearances are by people of the level of Ge You and Zhao Benshan, so it naturally attracted much attention from the media.

At the beginning of the press conference, reporters focused on Lin Weimin, Ge You and Zhao Benshan who were not present.

"Today is the press conference for 'If You Are the One'. The main actors are here. Ge You and Zhao Benshan are just guest stars. They are also very busy with work recently. Teacher Lin is in a meeting right now. He should come if he is free."

Zhang Yimou explained a few words and resolved the issue.

Afterwards, reporters continued to ask questions enthusiastically, especially about the style and scale of the film.

A female reporter asked Qu Ying: "Do the scenes in the movie between you and Jiang Wen have a bit of a ** and ** flavor? As a supermodel and actress, what do you think of **?"

As soon as these words were spoken, there was an uproar at the scene.

This question is not only bold, but also quite aggressive.

Zhang Yimou was uneasy after hearing this, and Qu Ying's face was filled with shame and anger. Jiang Wen was indignant and was about to stand up and argue with the reporter, but was stopped by Li Baotian who whispered, "Don't get excited. They just want to find a topic. Don't fall for it."

After a while, Zhang Yimou realized that the situation was a bit awkward and had to come forward to answer the question.

"Movies are based on life, so it's normal for some scenes to have passionate scenes, but as for the erotic scenes, we are not open to that extent yet."

Seeing the director speak, the reporters at the scene became even more excited, and the female reporter followed up with a series of tricky questions.

Several actors looked unhappy and said nothing in response to reporters' questions.

This was a tough time for Zhang Yimou. He kept drinking mineral water when being asked questions. He had never been as nervous as he was now when he attended film festivals abroad and faced many foreign media cameras.

When the reporter asked: "Your latest movie "Hero" is said to be highly similar to "Qin Song" produced by Xi'an Film Studio. "Qin Song" will be released next month. I would like to ask, how did you write the script of this movie? Did you draw on "Qin Song"? "

Zhang Yimou has always been known for his good temper, but he still couldn't hold it together when faced with the reporter's questions. The reporter almost pointed at his nose and said he plagiarized "The Emperor's Avatar".

Zhang Yimou's face turned pale and he said nothing. The atmosphere at the scene fell into a stalemate.

At this moment, Lin Weimin walked into the venue accompanied by Yu Dong.

He had not originally planned to attend the press conference today, but Yu Dongfei said that the film was adapted from his original novel, so he had to show up.

Lin Weimin had no choice but to run over right after the meeting.

When he came to the stage, he saw that the atmosphere was not right, so he asked, "What's going on?"

Zhang Yimou was a kind person and his face looked grim, but he didn't say anything. Jiang Wen, on the other hand, was like a primary school student who had just been beaten up and saw his parents coming to support him. He leaned over to Lin Weimin's ear and whispered something.

After hearing the whole story, Lin Weimin nodded in understanding, and Jiang Wen then sat back in his seat contentedly.

"Hello, hello!" Lin Weimin tried the microphone, and then, under the gaze of many reporters present, he pointed at the female reporter who had just asked the question and said, "Comrades from your TV station should stop being so gossipy, especially female reporters who always ask such vulgar questions. What kind of interest are you trying to lead the audience to?

It's a legitimate TV station after all, how come you're acting like a third-rate tabloid in Hong Kong? Is this what your local propaganda department requires of you?"

In the 1990s, the domestic news media sector was in chaos. In particular, after some places absorbed bad habits from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places, they began to use any means to attract attention in public opinion propaganda.

Attracting attention and profiting from others' misfortune are not habits that only emerged after the rise of self-media in later generations. Some media at this time used these things without any bottom line.

Lin Weimin's words were blunt and without giving any face, which made the female reporter's face turn pale. There was also a burst of whispers in the press conference.

(End of this chapter)