The official Weibo account for "Ghost Trail" released the trailer on time.
On the screen, layers of mist dissipate, and a red hem of clothing slowly drifts down.
A pair of hands appeared in the scene, but there was only that one pair of hands, picking up the tattered red hem of the garment that had fallen to the ground.
Just then, a blinding light shone on the camera lens, causing viewers to squint involuntarily.
Then I heard a screeching sound of brakes!
"Bang!" The sound of shattering exploded in my ears.
The scene shifts, and a person suddenly sits up in bed, eyes wide with terror, mouth agape, gasping for breath.
In the silent space, only his heavy breathing could be heard.
Fans quickly recognized that this person was Rong Yu.
Rong Yu was wearing a red round-neck pajama set, which made his skin look even whiter and brighter.
He looked around and, after figuring out where he was, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Then he picked up a glass of water from the bedside table.
At the same time, a line of text appeared on the screen: Jing Sheng, played by Rong Yu.
Rong Yu's monologue could be heard in the video: "My name is Jing Sheng, I'm 18 years old, and today is the day I'm participating in the talent show. The talent show starts at eight o'clock, and it's... eight-thirty now... Oh no! I'm going to be late!"
The scene shifts, and Rong Yu is seen running at top speed, rushing into the recording venue like a gust of wind. After handing over a series of documents to prove his identity, he learns that five minutes before he arrived, someone called his name, but since he couldn't be found, those who were later in line were allowed to go first.
Rong Yu quickly ran to the back area, and just as her gaze turned to the person on stage who was showing off their talent, the scene suddenly went dark!
When the lights came on again, the person who had been dancing had collapsed.
A scream rang out, as if tearing apart the deathly silence.
The entire screen went black, and suddenly! A white mask appeared on the screen!
A glaring crimson stain, reminiscent of blood, slowly slid down from the eye area of the mask.
The camera followed the blood-red liquid, which dripped into the darkness with a "plop".
The crimson color spread, extending to reveal two large characters—"Ghostly Traces."
Below, a line of small print appeared—
Stay tuned.
At first glance, the entire trailer seems to feature only Rong Yu as the main character, but if someone pauses for a moment, they will discover many details that were missed at first glance.
For example, when Rong Yu was running to the audition venue, she passed a man wearing a white mask, and when she entered the venue, she bumped shoulders with a man wearing silver-rimmed glasses.
The man wearing glasses is the psychologist played by Wei Hai.
When the camera focused on Rong Yu's face, and then blurred her face for a moment, a corner behind Rong Yu was clear for a brief instant.
If you zoom in on that clearer area, you'll see that the masked man removed his mask behind Rong Yu, revealing Ming Qian's face.
At this point, the three main characters have all made their appearances. The short one-and-a-half-minute trailer seems ordinary and simple, but upon closer inspection, it is filled with a sense of eeriness.
Rong Yu, the male lead, is dressed in red, whether it's his pajamas or the clothes he wears to the talent show. The clothes change, but the color remains the same.
Moreover, the male lead Rong Yu's makeup was excessively pale... Yes, pale, not the reddish-white look that comes with filters and beauty effects.
However, since the story begins with him oversleeping and about to miss a talent show, no one initially noticed the dark circles under his eyes. They simply assumed it was just his personality—he wasn't good at grooming himself, and since he was running late, he didn't have time to tidy himself up.
However, these are the anomalies that only those with microscopes can see. Viewers who only glance at it will only find the trailer unremarkable and unmemorable, not like a promotion at all, but rather like a way to discourage viewers.
So after the trailer finished airing, the comment section quickly filled up, and without exception, it was all a string of: ???
Comment 1: Is this a trailer? That's it? To be honest, this trailer isn't very engaging. I can already guess what happens next.
Comment 2: Usually, the trailers are more exciting than the movie itself, but this movie's trailer is so unremarkable. Forget it, I guess they don't have anything left to film.
Comment 3: I clicked in from the trending topics, watched for a minute and a half, and felt like I'd wasted my time.
Comment 4: This post-production is terrible. Spend more money to find a better post-production team. Learn from those variety shows; their trailers are edited much better than this.
Comment 5: A passerby clicked in, was successfully turned away, goodbye.
Comment 6: Look at the new movie "The Chase," see how brilliantly they edited the trailer. And look at this, even an elementary school student couldn't edit something like this. What is this supposed to be? Is this supposed to be a supernatural movie? Ridiculous.
If casual viewers simply found the poorly edited trailer unappealing, then Mingqian's fans were absolutely blown away after seeing it.
The reason is simple: their idol only appeared for a few seconds in the trailer, which made them feel very unbalanced.
Even in the promotion of "The Ends of the Earth", Ming Qian, who was the second male lead, appeared for a certain amount of time in the trailer. But this time, he was only shown in a fleeting moment!
Feeling increasingly indignant, Mingqian's fans went directly to the official Weibo account of "Ghost Trail" and demanded that they modify the trailer, otherwise they would not buy tickets to watch the movie!
Having learned from the experience of "The Chase," Mingqian's fans were quite confident in their decision. They believed that they themselves were the main force behind the box office success, and if they used ticket sales as leverage, they could definitely get the production team to make changes according to their demands.
Initially, only a small number of Mingqian fans were making a fuss in the comments section of the official Weibo account. Later, as they rallied their friends, the number of fans gradually increased, and some even created images with direct messages such as: "Apologize to the production team! Revise the trailer! Playing tricks on fans will lead to failure!"
Upon seeing this, Director Mo almost spat out a mouthful of blood!
The entire crew is now in the same boat; they rise and fall together. It's really strange that these fans would cause such a fuss on the official Weibo account just because of a trailer.
Putting aside the fact that Mingqian is just the second male lead here, and it's normal for him to have less screen time than the male lead, even if this is a drama with two male leads, there's no need to divide the one and a half minutes into forty-five seconds, with each male lead having forty-five seconds of that time, right?
Do you think this is like lining up to share fruit? Why are you fighting over every second of the trailer?
The general public thought the trailer was bad because they found it bland and uninteresting, but Mingqian's fans felt that the trailer didn't give their idol a few extra seconds, and that it was disrespectful.
What left Director Mo speechless was that these fans had made a scene on the trending topics, but Ming Qian hadn't posted a single word on Weibo, which seemed to imply that she had tacitly approved of the fans' actions.
"What? Does he think this is promotion for our show?" Director Mo complained angrily to Yin Chengjue, "Why did we choose such a troublesome person to play this role?"
Yin Chengjue deeply agreed.
Whether in this life or the last, Mingqian's fans love to pull these bizarre stunts, hurting the enemy a hundred times while injuring themselves eight thousand. They perfectly exemplify the saying "one fan is worth ten haters."
Yin Chengjue said, "Maybe they really think they're promoting the film with these actions."
Director Mo: ? ? ?
Director Mo: "I have never made a ghost movie that needed to be negatively promoted by others!"
Yin Chengjue spread his hands: "Then you have it now."
Watching the fans clamoring that they would refuse to buy movie tickets if the trailer wasn't improved, Yin Chengjue found it hilarious. Clearly, Mingqian's fans had already made themselves the main force contributing to the box office.
It's as if without them, the movie's box office would be a disaster.
Of course, it's possible that some movies do need fans to vote for them, but those are movies starring popular celebrities with large fan bases!
Moreover, those fans wouldn't threaten to "not watch the movie if they don't add a few more seconds to their idol's trailer," because regardless of whether the trailer adds more seconds or not, their idol has already acted in the movie, and they will support their idol in some way.
Yin Chengjue was speechless at the strange accusations from the Qian Sha fans, so he simply went to Weibo and reposted the trailer for "Ghost Trail" with the caption: "During the premiere of 'Ghost Trail,' one movie ticket will be given to each person free of charge, to be redeemed with their ID card."
As soon as this Weibo post was published, the comment section was instantly filled with question marks.
Comment 1: Mr. Yin? You don't care about the opening weekend box office? Aren't you interested in making some extra cash?
Comment 2: Mr. Yin, did your account get hacked? Sending one to everyone? Everyone's already seen it, why would they go back to look at it again?
Comment 3: This isn't a grand opening sale; it's like having money to burn, investing heavily in making a movie, and then giving it away for free.
Yin Chengjue glanced at the comments section, then forwarded the third comment and replied: So, it's free, are you guys going to watch it?
Comment 3 saw that his comment had been replied to and immediately said: Look, look! Of course, if President Yin is willing to take a selfie beckoning to us, I can spend money to buy another movie ticket.
Yin Chengjue replied to comment 3: I'll have to ask my darling if he agrees to this.
Comment 3: ...
After sending this message, Yin Chengjue handed his phone to Rong Yu and said with a smile, "I think I've found a way to boost box office revenue."
Rong Yu glanced at it and frowned: "No, my brother is mine."
Yin Chengjue smiled and pinched his cheek: "Okay, then we won't take any pictures."
"Wait!" Rong Yu's eyes darted around, and she added, "It's not impossible, but you have to put my hand in!"
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