There are quite a few fans who are clamoring for Ji Yan to play a super villain, but there are also fans who still miss Ji Yan's role as He Tang in "I, Nameless", which is truly their ideal woman.

"Teacher Ji, stop thinking about your villainous role. Can't you play a handsome guy instead?"

"+1, I'm a little worried that Ji has played too many villainous roles and his image has become fixed. I hope that his role in 'Black Curtain' is not a villain."

"Is this what it means to be good-looking and carefree? I want to see handsome Teacher Ji!"

Unfortunately, fans were destined to be disappointed, because soon after, the production team of "Black Curtain" released a second promotional video, which further confirmed that Ji Yan was the villain.

Although the movie didn't give away any spoilers, judging from Ji Yan's sinister eyes, if he's not the villain, then who is?

In the second promotional video, there is a shot of Ji Yan deep in thought. In the short video, this expression occupies more than 10 seconds, deep and... intimidating. His expression changes, and even a slight change in the corner of his mouth immediately highlights his emotions.

Fans have a feeling that Ji Yan seems to have completely immersed himself in the role.

But since he started acting, Ji Yan has always been like this: he has enough talent and is very willing to study acting skills and delve into his roles. After winning the Best Actor award at the Chang Kong Awards, he finished filming "Black Curtain" and went through the long tour of "Wings". But whether he was touring or filming, Ji Yan seemed to maintain his focus.

With Xi Ming as the lead actor and Qu Xiyu as the director, there's no need to worry about the quality of "The Curtain". Fans are only concerned about the box office. Although both Xi Ming and Ji Yan have a certain fan base, fans still hope that the box office will be even higher.

In their eyes, the box office of "The Vanishing Murder" of more than 1.7 billion yuan is not Ji Yan's limit at all; Ji Yan can do even better.

A video website features fan-made videos of characters previously played by Ji Yan, including Cheng Yuan, Gu Shan, and He Tang. Even clips of Ji Yan from "The Long Ballad" are included. The videos mainly tell a story of past and present lives. After the promotional video for "Black Curtain" was released, the character Li Yu was also included.

The video spread widely, and Ji Yan himself saw it.

The majority of the video comments expressed sympathy for He Tang, with fans even using terms like "my baby" and "my darling," which made Ji Yan's expression turn into "...".

He Tang is indeed very popular. Among the roles he has played, He Tang has the shortest screen time. When he was nominated for the Chang Kong Award for his role as He Tang, there were many doubts from the outside world. But slowly, He Tang has become a classic. Generally speaking, in the secondary creation of film and television content, as long as there are characters that are heartbreaking, He Tang will inevitably be one of them.

But Ji Yan can no longer portray the feeling of He Tang.

Back then, director Li Xiang chose him partly because of Ji Yan's good looks, and partly because He Tang was a very pure character. Such a character is only suitable for subtraction rather than addition, and actors with too many desires and too many skills are not suitable for playing it.

Now Ji Yan has clearly become the kind of actor who has too many desires and is too good at adding things; he can no longer portray the purity in He Tang.

...

"Black Curtain" is scheduled to be released on July 16, a Friday during the summer movie season. Among the many films released during the summer season, "Black Curtain" was the first to be scheduled. After "Black Curtain", other films also successively set their release dates.

This summer, "Black Curtain" is one of the most anticipated films. In addition to "Black Curtain", director Li Xiang's new film "Daytime Crisis" is scheduled to be released on July 9, only one week earlier than "Black Curtain". If nothing unexpected happens, the two films will inevitably compete with each other during the summer season.

The biggest film of the summer season is the fantasy film "The Hunt for Demons," which cost 500 million yuan in special effects, an absolute mega-budget investment in the domestic film market in recent years.

Aside from a few big-budget productions, the summer movie season has always been favored by comedies and youth films. Although these two types of films don't have large budgets, they often achieve big box office returns with small investments. The latter, in particular, has seen many films with investments of tens of millions of yuan yield hundreds of millions of yuan in box office revenue. As long as they gain a good reputation among students, making a fortune is not a problem.

As one of the lead actors, Ji Yan's initial promotional activities were quite conventional; he would basically retweet every piece of material released by the production team, and sometimes he would retweet Xi Ming's Weibo posts, but—

"Wow! Is this really the same diligent Ms. Ji I know?"

"With such a long tour, could you please count how many Weibo posts you've made?"

"Touching the whole world, touching the whole earth, Teacher Ji should really focus on making more movies, at least he can spend more time on Weibo. @Xie Mingxuan @Fang Yu @Lu Wei, this isn't specifically referring to Teacher Ji, but I hope all the Wings Group members who see this will also reflect on their actions."

"To everyone who's been missing since the tour, please get back to work!"

Fang Yu glanced at his own @ account and couldn't help but kick Ji Yan: "Teacher Ji, these are all for you, right?"

Ji Yan didn't even look up: "Don't blame me, it's clearly because you guys are so lazy that even the fans can't stand it anymore."

This year's summer movie season is as lively as ever, and this is the first time that a film starring Ji Yan has participated in such a competitive period.

Ji Yan didn't feel any pressure, after all, with Xi Ming there, the two of them shared the burden of the box office's success or failure. In fact, upon closer examination, Xi Ming actually bore more of the burden than he did.

Time flies, and summer is here in the blink of an eye. City A was particularly cold last winter and particularly hot this summer. Since the end of June, several movies have been showing in succession.

At the end of June, the final promotional video for "The Curtain" was revealed, along with... the singer of the theme song.

In the final promotional video, Ji Yan's character, Li Yu, still has plenty of screen time, but compared to the previous two promotional videos, the dark aura surrounding the character seems to have diminished slightly.

In the film, Li Yu and Gu Chao work together seamlessly. Li Yu is handsome and dashing, while Gu Chao has a carefree and irresponsible side. However, what puzzles moviegoers is that even in such scenes, the background shown in the film is still as dark as ink.

Are they all seemingly innocent but actually cunning, or are they all inherently wicked?

"Please release it already! Stop keeping me in suspense!"

The singer of the theme song, Ji Yan, was known to the audience from the beginning, but movie fans were unaware. When the name "Blue" appeared at the end of the promotional video, accompanied by 30 seconds of the theme song, movie fans went wild!

"What an incredible lineup! Two Best Actor winners from the Chang Kong Film Awards + 'Blue' singing the theme song + Qu Xiyu's action film, is 'Black Curtain' already aiming for the summer box office champion?"

"It seems that the crew of 'The Curtain' is really not short of money, they were able to hire Da Ning and his group."

"Ahem, I feel that it might not be because of the 'Black Curtain' crew, but perhaps Da Ning came just because he saw Teacher Ji's name?"

"oh……"

"Ah, is this what brotherhood is?"

In short, audiences' expectations for "Black Curtain" have reached their peak. Although years of experience with the summer movie season have shown that a dark horse often emerges during this period, and the most anticipated film usually does not achieve the best box office results, audiences do not care about these things.

Even director Li Xiang called Ji Yan and joked with him on the phone, saying, "Please be gentle with me."

Ji Yan smiled and replied, "Director Li, you should say that to Director Qu."

Li Xiang's new film "Daylight Crisis" is currently showing in theaters. It is a disaster film with a somewhat heavy subject matter. Ji Yan went to see the film in theaters with Xi Ming because "Daylight Crisis" plans to collaborate with "Black Curtain" in terms of promotion. After "Black Curtain" is released, the "Daylight Crisis" crew will also help with the promotion.

Objectively speaking, Daybreak is a high-quality disaster film. Disaster is the main theme, and it also incorporates some science fiction elements. It tells the story of humanity saving itself when the sun is unable to provide light energy to the Earth.

While watching the movie in the theater, only two words came to Ji Yan's mind—shocking.

Whether it's the scene where sunlight is about to disappear and the world is plunged into darkness, or the sacrifices made by ordinary people to save themselves and the world, there are both magnificent special effects and touching details.

Since their collaboration on "I, Nameless," Ji Yan had seen media reports saying that Li Xiang was considering retirement. However, after watching "Daylight Crisis," Ji Yan felt that director Li Xiang could easily continue making films for another 50 years.

Li Xiang: "Even the donkeys in the production team are not this bad."

In director Li Xiang's eyes, Ji Yan had become a ruthless and exploitative figure.

The week after the release of "Daylight Crisis", "The Black Curtain" was also officially released to audiences.

Because of its large investment, "Black Curtain" was released on a large scale. On its opening day, Friday, a day of fierce competition, "Black Curtain" secured a full 39.6% of the screenings, which is enough to prove the confidence that theaters have in the film.

Released at the same time as "Black Curtain" were the youth film "Letter to the Rainy Season", the suspense film "Terror Valley", the comedy film "Gugugu" and the animated film "Big Head Panda". The latter is a children's special film. These kinds of films often do not need many screenings, but they have a fixed audience and their box office performance is usually relatively stable.

As one of the lead actors, Ji Yan attended the film's premiere in City A.

The premiere was not large-scale because Qu Xiyu is not the kind of director who likes to be high-profile. She did not invite any celebrities or influencers in the industry. The premiere consisted of the main creators of the film "Black Curtain", film critics, and professional media reporters. A number of audience tickets were also made available, but not many.

Ji Yan spotted his teacher, Ning, at a glance.

The other person also seemed somewhat alone backstage, but this was entirely his own doing—when others greeted him, he maintained a very calm expression, and after a while, there was no one else around him.

"Teacher Ning!" Ji Yan waved to him.

In that instant, truly just an instant, Ji Yan could clearly see that before he called out to the other person, their eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at their surroundings. But the moment he called out their name, their eyes lit up.

The next moment, Ning Wei quickened her pace and walked towards him.

Ji Yan then disregarded the people around him, feeling that Ning Wei had become a source of light in his eyes at this moment, and Ji Yan also strode towards her.

He now has a better understanding of what it feels like to be cared about.