Chapter 183 Breakthrough [VIP]

Chapter Summary: Another great character has been successfully created.

The seven-day roadshow was squeezed out by Mu Zhi from a week before she took leave, during which she filmed for more than 12 hours a day.

Early on the 18th.

Mu Zhi and her group flew from Qingdao to Bincheng to meet with the creative team of the movie "Claws".

Director Hong Yan, along with lead actor Tai Feng, antagonist Jia Pengfei, and other key members of the production team, began their promotional tour in early July and have been doing so for almost half a month.

When they met up with Mu Zhi, everyone's faces were beaming with joy.

Director Hong Yan said happily, "Zhizhi has finally arrived."

Tai Feng also smiled and welcomed Mu Zhi.

Jia Pengfei: "Teacher Mu, it's so much easier for us to do roadshows now that you're here."

That's absolutely true.

Aside from the female lead, the martial arts film "Claws and Fangs" primarily portrays male characters. The female characters in the film, such as the other members of the "Shadow" team who go on missions with the female lead Xiaodie, the Empress, the orphaned daughter of the murdered governor of Liangjiang, and the women in the male lead's mansion, have very few scenes and no more than five lines of dialogue.

Mu Zhi was absent from the roadshow, and the main creative team couldn't all be men.

The production company arranged for the actress playing the second female lead to participate in the promotional tour. This actress was only making a cameo appearance and had only filmed for a week; her role was, as you can imagine, very small...

I followed the creative team on their roadshow, only to be a background figure throughout, barely uttering a single word.

It's not that the director and other actors didn't give them opportunities to speak and perform; it's that their roles were small, and there wasn't much to talk about.

The film and its creative team both need Mu Zhi's bright touch to add color.

Today, the movie "Claws" held its first stop on its promotional tour in Bincheng, at an open-air stadium, for a meet-and-greet with local media and an interactive session with fans.

Nearly 500 fans attended the event, making it the most lively meet-and-greet event the creative team has held in recent times.

In the movie "The Claws", Mu Zhi plays the role of the henchman of the Eastern Depot. Before falling in love, he is a cold-blooded and ruthless executioner who kills without blinking an eye. His appearance is mostly that of a man carrying out missions in the dark with his hair tied in a high ponytail and dressed in men's clothing.

Off-screen, in order to better fit the character and interact with fans according to the program designed by the production company, Mu Zhi dressed in a smart and dashing style for the next week of the promotional tour.

Today in Bincheng, Mu Zhi tied her shoulder-length hair into a high ponytail, the ends of which just reached the nape of her neck. She wore a fitted women's shirt, the hem of which was tucked into her blue-black jeans. The jeans were belted, which made her waist look even slimmer.

The pants were cropped at eight-tenths length, and she paired them with a pair of black ankle boots that were the perfect length.

This outfit is simple and refreshing yet exudes a capable and stylish vibe, and Mu Zhi also manages to look both heroic and handsome.

The promotional focus of the film "Claws and Teeth" is: martial arts and action scenes. Martial arts films are Hong Yan's "signature skill," and after many years, he hopes to use this film to evoke some of the audience's feelings for martial arts.

To allow moviegoers to directly experience the unique aspects of the film compared to other movies and to better promote the film's core message.

The program included a segment where the lead actors showcased their characters' moves on set, complete with props.

Mu Zhi was demonstrating a sword dance, which was actually just making a few pretty sword flourishes.

She practiced for 10 minutes every day for 4 days and managed to pick up a little bit of the level she had achieved in filming last year. Her dance moves were smooth and fluid on set, and quite impressive.

The movie fans in the audience applauded enthusiastically, accompanied by a loud "Bravo!" or two.

Mu Zhi felt like she was performing on the street, both amused and embarrassed, and she couldn't perform anything more difficult.

Interactive sessions with media and fans at the scene.

Director Hong Yan, along with actors Tai Feng and Jia Pengfei, has been touring the city for almost half a month. They are asked similar questions in each city they visit, and the group is quite experienced in promotional tours.

Upon arriving in Bincheng, with the addition of Mu Zhi, Mu Zhi's popularity and buzz naturally made her the focus of questions from the media reporters present, giving the film more topics to explore.

Director Hong Yan and others didn't mind, and even developed a little bit of a willingness to "give up".

Anyway, as long as it's good for the movie and the publicity goal is achieved, they, including Mu Zhi, don't really care about this kind of attention.

At the press conference at the end of June, the first trailer for the release date announcement was released.

In the 1 minute 30 second trailer, Mu Zhi has about 20 seconds, including a tense 10-second fight scene—the horseback fight scene that she had to do many takes...

Therefore, the questions Mu Zhi was asked inevitably revolved around the character's action scenes.

She is not someone who likes to be sentimental or play the victim. She doesn't talk about how difficult the filming process was. She just focuses on playing the role well and making the audience satisfied. She also feels that the audience doesn't need to know the behind-the-scenes stories.

When Mu Zhi answered, she briefly mentioned the injuries she sustained while filming action scenes over the past few months, saying, "It's inevitable that I'd bump into things and get some bruises." She didn't elaborate further.

Director Hong Yan, along with Tai Feng and Jia Pengfei, who were filming scenes together, offered their own suggestions.

Director Hong Yan: "Every time I explained the scene to the actors, even from a distance of one or two meters, I could smell the medicinal wine on Zhizhi's body. It never stopped, and it smelled like she had sprayed several brands."

Tai Feng: "Teacher Mu is very dedicated. No matter how tired he is from filming action scenes or when he gets injured, he never complains. He is truly admirable."

Jia Pengfei gave Mu Zhi a thumbs up: "She is very beautiful and looks delicate and fragile, but she is actually very strong. She is no less than our male actors and is particularly hardworking."

Mu Zhi also reciprocated by revealing director Hong Yan's pursuit of perfection in the directing process, Tai Feng's weight loss before joining the crew to portray the character's frailty, and the injuries sustained by Tai Feng and Jia Pengfei during filming.

Come on, let's "hurt" each other!

The media and fans at the scene were delighted to see the director and lead actors playfully teasing each other, sharing more behind-the-scenes stories from the filming...

Around 10 p.m., the day's roadshow and promotion ended.

Director Hong Yan remarked: "With Mu Zhi joining the creative team of 'Claws and Fangs,' it's like adding wings to a tiger. The morale and energy of the entire roadshow team have been boosted."

This martial arts film took five months to shoot. Everyone worked very hard, and the entire crew put in a lot of effort, hoping for a good box office and positive response.

After a few days of promotional tours, the movie "Claws" is about to be released.

Mu Zhi took a look at the movies that were also released on July 25th. There were only 4 of them. "Claws and Teeth" had a large investment, a well-known director, and many big-name actors. The movie had a strong cast and crew and was a blockbuster.

The other three films released at the same time—one a suspense film, one a romance film, and one an art film—are all predicted by movie ticketing apps to gross less than 100 million yuan, so they are not a cause for concern.

However, with such a favorable summer season, there's no such thing as a box office flop. In fact, several films are released every week, making the competition always fierce.

No strong films were released on the same day as the movie directed by Hong Yan, because some other films had bigger ambitions and scheduled their release earlier. Seven movies were released on July 18, including a war film that had already grossed over 1 billion yuan in just a few days and a suspenseful action film that grossed over 500 million yuan.

Two more movies that are highly anticipated by the industry will be released on August 8th.

With tigers in front and wolves behind, "Claws" faces considerable pressure at the box office due to being caught in a pincer movement.

Using preview screenings to generate word-of-mouth is not the best promotional strategy this time. The production company has decided to hold the premiere in Beicheng two days before the film's release.

On the morning of July 23, the main creative team of "Claws" flew back to Beicheng, and will attend the premiere together that evening.

Mu Zhi and her team were on their way back to the company from the airport.

Minmin and Muzhi discussed why the movie "Claws" was not being screened in advance.

"Sister Zhizhi, the reason why 'Claws and Fangs' didn't have a preview screening is because the box office performance of the movies released the previous week was still in the 'development' stage, right?"

With several successful films currently showing in theaters, the preview screenings of "Claws and Teeth" would significantly diminish its impact, so is it better to maintain the mystery and officially release it on the 25th?

Mu Zhi nodded, that was the main reason.

The production company is confident in the quality of the film, but it also needs to choose the right time.

Other films are currently showing and enjoying box office success. Holding a preview screening at this time would not be as effective for promotion. Furthermore, if the preview screening performs poorly, cinemas may lose confidence and reduce screenings instead, resulting in more harm than good.

That evening, the movie "Claws" held its premiere at the largest cinema in the northern part of the city.

There was a red carpet appearance segment, and the main guests invited to support the film were directors Hong Yan, Tai Feng, and Mu Zhi's friends in the industry.

As the media reporters watched their "friends," all big names in the industry, walk down the red carpet, their camera shutters clicked rapidly.

Logically speaking, since Hong Yan is a director, the friends he invited should also be directors.

Hong Yan looked at the list of people who had been invited and agreed to attend the premiere that Mu Zhi had given him: Xu Kuan and Tang Yan. No wonder Tang Yan said he was busy when he invited him; it turned out he had agreed to attend Mu Zhi's invitation first.

He had no choice but to quietly change his approach and invite actors he had worked with before.

So during the red carpet event, Tang Yan and Xu Kuan both mentioned that they were invited by Mu Zhi to watch the movie, and of course, they also mentioned their expectations for Hong Yan's martial arts film.

The media reporters were secretly astonished: if Director Wan Zhou hadn't been busy filming, Mu Zhi probably could have been invited too.

Mu Zhi is now undoubtedly the most sought-after actress in the film industry, having worked with almost all the well-known directors, and it seems that the collaborations have all been very pleasant.

With the addition of other big-name celebrities, tonight's premiere red carpet was comparable to a movie night hosted by a social media platform, with many big names in the industry invited.

The premiere was held in only a few theaters, and the invited friends were scattered throughout the theaters.

Director Hong Yan, along with lead actors Tai Feng, Mu Zhi, and Jia Pengfei, went into each theater one by one to interact with moviegoers.

The sharp-eyed host spotted the directors and celebrities sitting in the theater and called on them to comment on the film and share their thoughts after watching it.

From the director and actors to the action scenes, everything is praiseworthy.

The purpose of holding the premiere was to leverage the fame of the friends in the industry invited to give the movie a final boost in popularity and buzz before its release.

Although it can't compare to the large-scale promotion and distribution of preview screenings in more than a dozen cities across the country, the reviews from many friends in the industry, the audience in a few theaters, and the few film reviews that came out after the premiere can still help spread the word about the film.

On July 24th, the creative team spent a day doing promotional tours in Beicheng, visiting 7 cinemas.

The promotional tour finally ended the night before the film's release.

Minmin excitedly reported: "Sister Zhizhi, with Director Hong, you, and the appeal of Actor Tai, 'Claws and Teeth' will get nearly 30% of the screenings tomorrow. The cinemas seem to have high hopes for 'Claws and Teeth'?"

Mu Zhi asked, "What about pre-sales?"

"There is 70 million."

Minmin said regretfully, "However, the box office performance will definitely not be as good as 'Escape from the Game' which grossed 4 billion. Movie ticketing apps predict that 'Claws' will only gross around 1.5 billion in the end."

Mu Zhi: "The competition in this year's summer movie season is quite fierce, with many films being released."

The war films and suspenseful action films released the previous week all performed well at the box office. Under such competition, it is quite good that the martial arts film can achieve a pre-sale of 70 million yuan.

Although audiences are nostalgic for classic martial arts films, those classic martial arts films did not perform well at the box office when they were first released.

Martial arts films have been in decline for a long time; in recent years, you can hardly see any martial arts films in theaters.

Whether audiences will still accept this subject matter and the story of "The Claws" remains to be seen.

We'll have to see how the film performs at the box office and how audience reviews go after its release tomorrow.

The movie "Claws" was released on July 25th.

Mu Zhi and her team took an early morning flight from Beicheng to Qindao and returned to the film crew without stopping.

My 7-day leave has ended.

Mu Zhi was notified on set this afternoon, and her scenes were rehearsed.

After going through security at Beicheng International Airport, it was time to board, but Mu Zhi and the others did not go into the VIP waiting room.

Upon arriving at Qingdao Airport, Mu Zhi immediately took a nap as soon as she got in the car, so that she would be well-rested and ready to start filming on set.

Throughout the journey, none of the staff dared to disturb Mu Zhi's rest.

Once on set, Mu Zhi had to prepare for her scenes. During the waiting time, she would either read the script or close her eyes to rest.

She had just finished her seven-day roadshow and got up early this morning to rush to the airport. She couldn't sleep on the plane and then drove all the way to the film set. She was inevitably a little tired and had a headache.

I didn't even have time to pay attention to the movie "Claws".

Minmin would filter relevant news from the internet every day and promptly report it to Muzhi, but only after observing Muzhi's expression. Seeing that Muzhi was busy, she didn't mention it.

After finishing work at 9 p.m., Mu Zhi was so tired that she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Ji Binghe probably knew that Mu Zhi was busy and tired today, so she didn't call.

That night, Mu Zhi went to bed early to rest.

I slept well all night.

The next morning.

After getting up and washing up, Mu Zhi felt refreshed.

While Mu Zhi and her team were having breakfast, Minmin, who had been holding back for a day and a night, couldn't wait to tell them about the box office performance of "Claws" on its opening day.

"The box office yesterday was 110 million!"

"The box office should be even higher over the weekend."

Upon hearing this, Mu Zhi felt that the movie ticketing app's predicted target of 1.5 billion yuan was achievable, and there was room for further growth.

There's still some time before we leave.

While eating a croissant, Mu Zhi scrolled through her phone, checking netizens' reviews of "Claws and Fangs".

“Every man has a martial arts dream in his heart! I had forgotten what the last martial arts movie I saw in the cinema was. Watching ‘The Claw’ made me rediscover my feelings for martial arts movies.”

"Hong Yan is still the same Hong Yan. The fight scenes in 'Claws and Teeth' brought back memories of classic martial arts films. The fights between masters were authentic, and the speed was dazzling. If you lost focus for a moment, you would miss the excitement. There were no slow motions or flashes. It was the real taste of martial arts."

"I went to see the action scenes, and the movie had many fight scenes of all sizes, which were filmed in a very stylish way. It was very enjoyable to watch and worth the ticket price. The only downside was the story. There were too many court scenes and it lacked the feel of a martial arts world."

"The action scenes, sets, costumes, and props in this movie are all top-notch, and the actors delivered many fantastic action sequences, especially Mu Zhi. It's surprising how powerful and nuanced a female actress can be in action scenes without any martial arts background. I'll definitely watch it again sometime."

"After watching 'The Claws,' I thought a lot. The image of a man on horseback, wandering the world with a sword, helping those in need and making friends all over the world, is ultimately gone from us."

The male protagonist is tightly bound by the court and temples, by power and status, unable to love even when he has the chance... Thinking about this movie, it's likely that Hong Yan will never be able to make martial arts films again. Where is the next Hong Yan? A sigh.

......

Mu Zhi discovered that many viewers' comments were not limited to "The Claws". After watching the movie, they had many feelings. They watched a martial arts story, but also looked at other things through the martial arts story. It was either a sentiment or a longing for the past.

Minmin: "Sister Zhizhi, congratulations on successfully creating another great character."

"This isn't just commercial hype; I genuinely think you acted very well. It's a new role that's different from the ones you've played before, without any repetition."

There are many action scenes in "The Claws," which weren't difficult for actors like Tai and Jia, who have a lot of experience and are men, but your character's action scenes still stood out from the crowd. Your skills were truly impressive, and your male attire was incredibly handsome.

Mu Zhi immediately caught the information in Minmin's words: "You went to see a movie?"

"...Sister Zhizhi, you can see through everything. Xiaoling and I couldn't resist and went to see the midnight showing last night."

Mu Zhi also wanted to go, but she had a lot of filming to do next and couldn't find the time.

Let's put watching the movie aside for now.

On the way to the film set.

During the 10-minute drive to the film set, Mu Zhi went online to read netizens' comments about the role she played.

As Minmin said, Mu Zhi's character in the movie was quite outstanding and received a lot of praise.

Netizens mainly praised Mu Zhi's male attire in the movie, saying she was dashing and heroic; when she dressed as a woman, she was delicate, beautiful, and charming, as well as stunningly gorgeous, as she became the beauty beside the male lead.

The contrast between the men's and women's clothing is striking.

Hong Yan is very good at filming actors in his martial arts films, and he can bring out the unique soul and spirit of each actor's character. Under his lens, he showed a side of Mu Zhi that was different from his previous works. In particular, Mu Zhi's action scenes and the scene of her dying from serious injuries left a deep impression on the audience.

Many video editors who watched "The Claws" exclaimed that they're waiting for the movie to be released on video platforms so they can edit together Mu Zhi's many stunning scenes, as it would be excellent material for period drama videos...

However, Mu Zhi's portrayal of the character "Xiao Die" has sparked some controversial discussions.

In the past, Mu Zhi has mostly played career-oriented female leads.

Xiao Die was originally a cold-blooded assassin with superb martial arts skills and no emotions. In the process of deliberately getting close to the male protagonist to kill him, she fell in love with him and was used by him. In the end, after realizing her righteousness, she was killed by the villain while trying to save the male protagonist.

In the early stages, this character served as a killing tool for the head of the Eastern Depot, killing many people and being very evil. Some viewers found his strong fighting skills and evil appealing. However, after the female lead fell in love with the male lead, they felt that the character's love-obsessed nature was cliché, and later he even became a mere accessory to the male lead, weakening his character.

Netizens said they could only admire her looks, and also liked Xiaodie's male attire and action scenes.

The audience's controversy over the character's personality or their feelings of regret demonstrate that the actor's portrayal of the character is vivid and allows the audience to empathize with the character.

Mu Zhi's portrayal of "Xiao Die" this time is different from any of her previous roles, bringing a fresh feeling to the audience and fans.

As actors portray more and more roles, it's easy for them to "repeat" their previous roles. Mu Zhi's breakthrough is truly remarkable.

Tai Feng, whose role also received positive reviews from the audience.

Tai Feng's character this time doesn't have many action scenes. He mostly appears as a sickly person in front of others. On the surface, he is glamorous and gentle, but in secret, he plays power games. His act of using the female lead's feelings to his advantage is a bit despicable. The character is quite vivid.

It also showed the audience that Tai Feng can play not only "rough men" and "tough guys", but also other sides of himself.

Minmin remembered something and teased, "Sister Zhizhi, you were supposed to attract a lot of CP fans this time you teamed up with Teacher Tai for the second time. But then, your relationship rumors with the boss went viral recently, and the #pleasingtotheeye# CP is too deeply rooted in people's hearts."

Of course, real-life couples are much more appealing than on-screen couples.

Mu Zhi and Tai Feng don't interact much offline. The two movies they co-starred in both of their roles as a couple ended badly, so shipping them as a couple is pointless.

Minmin thought to herself: I guess Mu Zhi's future on-screen couples will be hard to beat with He Zhiyue's.

Of course, this is all on the premise that Mu Zhi and He Zhiyue actually end up together.

August 10th.

The movie "Claws" grossed over 1.5 billion yuan in 17 days, achieving its predicted target.

A wave of new films were released on the 8th. After the screenings of "Claws" were affected and dropped, they slowly rebounded thanks to the film's good word-of-mouth.

Movie ticketing apps have raised their box office prediction for "Claws" to 2 billion.

There's still about two weeks of summer vacation left.

Mu Zhi felt that breaking 2 billion should be no problem, and maybe with some effort, she could even reach 2.5 billion.

Ji Binghe called Mu Zhi to reveal: "The production team of 'Claws and Teeth' is going to hold a celebration banquet..."

It seems the film has already turned a profit, and the production company is very satisfied with the box office results.

Although the final box office was estimated to be about half that of "Escape from the Game," "Claws" had a smaller budget and less marketing expenditure than "Escape from the Game," so this box office result is indeed quite impressive.

One week later.

In mid-August, "Claws" was still showing in theaters.

Mu Zhi received a call from director Tang Yan, informing her that she needed to do voice-over work for the film "Safe Evacuation".

[Author's Note]

Congratulations, Zhizhi! Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 20221016 23:57:29 and 20221017 23:56:42!

Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Ye Zhirou (1 bottle);

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!