Chapter 769: All Set Off by Peers

For a commercial film, ratings are never the most important thing; the box office is.

Although *Tiny Times* currently only has a Douban rating of 5.0, and audience reviews are extremely polarized, its box office performance is surprisingly good.

Including the two hundred million box office sold during the pre-sale stage, the first-day box office of *Tiny Times* reached 560 million!

Even if its word-of-mouth collapses and the rating explodes, conservatively estimated, it can at least harvest a box office of nearly two billion, a result that can already enter the Chinese film box office list.

Undoubtedly, Director Ming has made a fortune this time.

However, the good results achieved by *Tiny Times* also made a group of people feel angry; they stood up and started cursing, saying directly that this is how the "good money" of Chinese films is driven out by "bad money."

If such a bad film can have so much box office, while truly good films are ignored, how can Chinese films develop?

These heartfelt words made passersby really think that these bloggers were speaking up for Chinese films.

However, flipping through their history, these people had all promoted *See You Tomorrow* and had also attacked fans who felt that film wasn't good.

*Tiny Times* is a bad film, but isn't *See You Tomorrow* one too?

The only difference between the two is that *See You Tomorrow* flopped and lost a lot of money.

While *Tiny Times* is visibly going to make a lot of money.

This kind of blatant double standard, appearing on film critics who label themselves as "rational, neutral, and objective," is truly too ridiculous.

Therefore, many passerby netizens didn't buy their evaluation at all, even saying directly that they were all paid to do things—their mouths were full of principles, but their hearts were full of business.

There were also some rational audience members who spoke up, saying:

"Although *Tiny Times* is indeed a bad film, at least it's bad with sincerity; the theme of the plot is consistent from beginning to end, which is about the sisterhood in a world of material desires. Although it's not told very well, at least it's a complete story."

"Besides that, the actors' acting, appearance, costumes, props, scenery, and even lens art are quite excellent, even exceeding many good films with ratings above 7.5."

"Perhaps overall it's still not as good as a 7.5-rated film, but giving it a passing grade isn't impossible."

"After all, it's a commercial film; do commercial films need any plot or logic?"

"How many Marvel superhero films have plots that are that bad? Has it affected them from becoming the world's highest-grossing film IPs?"

"Furthermore, compared to the bad films of recent years, isn't *Tiny Times* blowing them away?"

"To be able to achieve such a box office, I can only say it's well set off by peers!"

That's how things are; if it weren't for the fact that the bad films of recent years were so insincere, leaving audiences with no desire to pay, *Tiny Times* wouldn't have been able to sell such a high box office.

The bad films of the past at least had some merits; if it was just for fun, it could also make people watch with relish—*Tiny Times* belongs to this type.

And the bad films of today are just a pile of shit, leaving people with no desire to watch at all.

It is precisely because of the contrast that a bad film becomes less bad in the eyes of the audience, and they are even willing to spend money on it.

The situation Luo Quan imagined of the whole internet attacking *Tiny Times* did not appear.

On the contrary, when the film's popularity rose, many audiences gave it positive evaluations, and the Douban rating warmed up to 5.2.

This was indeed contrary to the picture she had imagined; she had originally thought that the director and actors of this film would be collectively scolded, but currently, netizens were mainly teasing.

Many audiences who had seen the film said that the plot was bad, but the actors were really good-looking, the props were really luxurious, and so on.

And film fans who followed the trend to watch it, after having a count in their hearts, set their expectations very low from the beginning, so after watching the film, they felt that the plot was not that bad after all.

With this back and forth, the film's word-of-mouth and Douban rating both went up.

However, at most, 6.0 is about it; any higher would be unreasonable.

"Congratulations, Gao Liang, the film's box office is a big hit, and you have another representative work."

In the living room, Luo Quan said with a full face of smiles, but her tone carried a bit of teasing.

"Sister, don't mock me."

Gao Liang looked at her helplessly: "It's already a blessing that this film can have such a high box office; I didn't expect the rating to rise either. After filming, I was already prepared to be scolded."

Wen Xia saw it quite thoroughly and said directly: "It's normal; *Tiny Times* is bad, but that's using the standards of ten years ago. In the current Chinese film market, there aren't many commercial films better than it."

"I just feel this feeling is really strange; clearly, I made a bad film, yet I'm still praised."

Gao Liang gave a bitter smile, looking very helpless. Suddenly, he remembered something and looked at Luo Quan:

"By the way, sister, Seifert told me this morning that he took a new play called *The Wolf of Huaerjie*; he said it's a business war film. The script hasn't been received yet, but it seems quite good. Both the male and female lead positions are missing, and he asked if you are interested."

"What film?" Luo Quan was stunned for a moment.

"*The Wolf of Huaerjie*," Gao Liang repeated.

After hearing the name again, Luo Quan finally remembered, and then she shook her head: "Where would I have time to go to the US to film? You should find someone else."

"That's what I told Seifert," Gao Liang muttered, as if he had long known his sister wouldn't agree.

However, this matter really wasn't because she didn't have time; this was just an excuse to avoid showing her foresight.

*The Wolf of Huaerjie*—is that a film she and Gao Liang can act in?

This film's scale is even bigger than *Titanic*!

If she remembered correctly, *The Wolf of Huaerjie* should be the film with the most and densest profanity among all Hollywood films, and there are also quite a few nude scenes.

If the passionate scenes in *Titanic* were Jack and Rose's uncontrollable love, beautiful and romantic.

Then the passionate scenes in *The Wolf of Huaerjie* are pure desire, not mixed with anything else.

The scene that left the deepest impression on her was the female lead sitting in front of the male lead like a woman about to give birth.

The key is that the female lead was also going commando.

If she were to play this, what would happen?

The film is definitely a good film; the characters' lines are all very tense, with a kind of hysteria after being dominated by money and desire, and it has a chance to impact the Oscars.

However, not every good film is suitable for her to act in.

Just like *Titanic*, even knowing it would be remembered in film history, she still had to give it up.

Like *The Wolf of Huaerjie*, there was even less need to take it.

Gao Liang probably didn't know how outrageous this film was; if he knew, he probably wouldn't have even mentioned it.

In the afternoon, Luo Quan opened the livestream, and the fans in the room all asked her to talk about *Tiny Times*.

Although she didn't participate in this film, she at least provided an important sports car, so it could be considered a slight connection.

At the same time, fans also wanted to know what she thought of this film—whether it was a bad film or an excellent commercial film.

Luo Quan also guessed that the fans would ask her to talk about this; after all, this film was the hottest on the internet recently.

As for her opinion, it was a bit different from the mainstream: "The advantages and disadvantages of this film are very obvious. The disadvantage is clearly that the plot is not good, with too many unreasonable and taken-for-granted things. If there is a problem here, the film cannot get a high score."

"And similarly, its advantage lies in the excellent production, especially in the current film and television environment."

Fans asked curiously:

"You might as well speak more directly."

"Of course, what is considered a big environment?"

"It's here, it's here, it's my favorite 'not afraid of offending people' environment again; please start your performance."

"Everyone sit tight, Luo Bao is about to output with full force."

Seeing the fans' expectant words, Luo Quan felt a bit funny, but she continued:

"Our current environment is that more and more manufacturers are using bad films to rape everyone's aesthetics."

Not to mention the distant ones, let's talk about the casting of recent Xianxia and costume dramas; it's really that any ugly person dares to play the lead. Do you have that ability?"

"You're not acting in a serious costume drama; the full name of what you're acting in is a costume idol drama, but which of the actors' costumes and makeup can reach the word 'idol'?"

"The key is that it's like this, and they still buy trending searches to brag about how beautiful it is."

"Filming a super bad film, yet bragging about how conscientious they are—it's really shameless."

After Luo Quan finished the first stage of spraying, she took a sip of water to replenish, and then continued:

"The reason for the success of *Tiny Times* is actually very simple, because it is pure enough."

From the beginning of the film, it pasted the two words "showing off wealth" on its face, and then focused on showing off wealth and the love-hate entanglements of the four sisters to tell the story."

"Perhaps this story is not wonderful, but it is complete enough, and the story's decorations are exquisite enough, so so many people go to watch it."

"Everyone think about it, in the domestic film and television circle now, how many films like this with normal visuals, props, and actors' aesthetics are left?"

"This is its advantage."

However, unexpectedly, Luo Quan's words immediately aroused the questioning of some people in the livestream room:

"You call this normal aesthetics?"

"Worshiping money can't be considered normal aesthetics, right? It feels like the values are not very correct."

"Luo Bao, what you said is not quite right."

At first, Luo Quan was quite confused when she saw the barrage reaction, but she soon figured it out.

But it was useless for her to figure it out; she had to explain it clearly, so she said seriously: "Is there any law that stipulates that the theme of a film cannot promote money worship?"

"Everyone needs to know that film is fictional; it is expressing everything in the story through the lens. As for what it expresses, as long as it is not anti-human or criminal content, there is no problem."

"As adults, we must have our own judgment."

"Like *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*, is it filmed to promote everyone to be a Texas butcher?"

"And *The Silence of the Lambs* that I filmed myself, is the main theme to let everyone be a cannibal?"

"This is just a story; how to understand it is the audience's business. As for whether the story can be told well, that is what the director should do."

"Director Ming, as a director, certainly didn't tell the story well, but one cannot directly attack the values because of this point; after all, there are many films abroad that talk about criminals getting away with it."

"But such values have also produced many classic good films."

"Of course, here, such a situation is definitely not allowed; it can only be said that the national conditions are different, but it is not said that films cannot worship money."

"So those who attack the film's values, don't use this to talk about things anymore."

"After all, the debauchery and extravagance in your eyes might just be the daily life of some people in reality?"

This last sentence of Luo Quan can be said to be the finishing touch.

Many attack points on the internet about *Tiny Times* are about the outrageous scenes of showing off wealth, which makes people feel that the city in the story is the same as in capitalist countries.

And this sentence of Luo Quan also directly pointed out that the luxury you see is not worth mentioning compared to true luxury.

In the past, Luo Quan also felt that the plot in *Tiny Times* was outrageous; how could anyone be like in the film, getting allergies just by going to a backward area.

But after seeing more people and things in reality, she realized that many shots in this film were recording reality; there are really such outrageous people in reality, and the number is not small.

As for the lives of the rich, if Gao Liang hadn't provided guidance and corrections, and let Director Ming continue to use the standards of more than ten years ago, it would indeed be a joke.

But at that time, netizens probably wouldn't say this film worships money, but would laugh at Director Ming for not even knowing how to dream, and even the imagined luxury is so full of local flavor.

And the current *Tiny Times* is at least in line with international standards in showing off wealth.

It's just that although Gao Liang was born rich, he only enjoyed some conventional luxury treatment.

As for true debauchery and extravagance, Luo Quan knows of a Lolita Island abroad.

There are similar things in China, and they are also very famous when mentioned, that is, the Haitiansheng feast.

It's just that in recent years, it is said that it has transformed into a large-scale commercial exchange meeting, but whether they continue to hold parties privately is unknown.

In short, the tricks that rich people can play are unimaginable to ordinary people; *Tiny Times* was still filmed conservatively.

But such words definitely cannot be fully spoken during a livestream; this is truly "those who understand, understand; those who don't, it's useless to say."

And this time talking about the film, Luo Quan seemed to have talked a lot and praised *Tiny Times*.

But in fact, fans can hear that Luo Quan is scolding those bad film manufacturers in China.

If we really talk about why the domestic film and television environment is so bad, these bad film manufacturers have to take the biggest blame.

Their works are full of big screens, which is the real "bad money driving out good money."

However, with capital in the present age and traffic rampant, Chinese film and television have long passed that golden period of development; wanting to reverse the current situation is already difficult.

Just like the Chinese music scene, this is not something one person can save; at most, it is to raise the upper limit of this industry higher. ===== CHAPTER 770 =====