Chapter 66: 《The Promise》 Steamed Bun Incident and the Attack on Wei Jin

The production cost of *The Promise* was 300 million, making it the Chinese-language film with the highest investment cost released to date.

At the same time, as the painstaking masterpiece of Chen Shiren, the only domestic Palme d'Or-winning director, it received significant external attention.

However, within just a week of its release, its reputation completely collapsed; 90% of those who had seen the film could not suppress their desire to complain, cursing the film online in the harshest terms.

Meanwhile, reports titled "A Film Ruined Shangri-La" also began to appear extensively online.

Most of the audience only then learned that when *The Promise* was filming on location in Shangri-La, it caused irreversible damage to parts of the local natural landscape.

This was naturally the handiwork of certain people; after all, shouldn't the media report the facts? The general public has a right to know.

This report slapped the production team of *The Promise* hard in the face, causing immeasurable negative effects that the producers could not suppress despite their best efforts. The entire online public opinion was in an uproar, with a large number of netizens spontaneously boycotting the film and calling on more people not to enter theaters to watch it.

Chen Shiren and the *The Promise* production team had to publicly apologize, bear all the costs for restoring the scenic area, and pay a fine of over 900,000.

But misfortunes never come singly; not many days later, a video titled "A Blood Case Caused by a Steamed Bun" began to circulate on the internet, quickly becoming a hit across the entire web. Blogs, portals, and QQ Spaces were all reposting this video.

The video exhausted every means of mockery, stripping *The Promise* down to its underwear; even in terms of logical structure, the plot of this video was actually smoother than the film itself.

The originator, Hu Ge, also took the opportunity to enter the public eye, getting a taste of the treatment afforded to a first-generation internet celebrity.

Chen Shiren had been feeling too stifled during this period; during the promotional lottery for *Painted Skin*, he even spoke without thinking, publicly questioning the marketing hype:

" *Painted Skin* is a film without substance. Young directors should still focus on improving their own cultivation and not just engage in crooked ways."

The release of this steamed bun video caused him to break down completely; he finally uttered the classic quote, "A person cannot be shameless to this extent," and even publicly declared that he would sue the person who uploaded the video, which for a time invited mockery from netizens.

Some netizens even commented:

"At first, I watched *Painted Skin* and thought the special effects were okay but the plot was average. After watching *The Promise* and then recalling the plot of *Painted Skin*, it can simply be called a masterpiece. I bought a ticket for a second viewing to wash my eyes, and sure enough, the viewing experience was excellent."

For a time, this drove many viewers who had been poisoned by *The Promise* to flock to *Painted Skin* for a second viewing, which really allowed *Painted Skin* to usher in a small wave of recovery. Just like that, set against the backdrop of the collapse of *The Promise*'s reputation, the box office for *Painted Skin* climbed all the way up.

As of January 4th, after one month of release, the box office reached 348 million, officially ranking at the top of the domestic film box office list. The Extended Key has been officially approved, and after the holiday, it can still generate one or two million in box office daily. Surpassing *Titanic* is already a certainty, and now the media is busy predicting what the final total will be.

However, Wei Jin is no longer very concerned about these things; he is busy discussing the overseas rights of the film with overseas distributors.

Inside Han Sanping's office at China Film Group.

After seeing off the overseas distributors, Han Sanping finally wore a smile on his face. These past two weeks had truly been a mix of ice and fire, with joys and worries intertwined.

The joy is that the box office of *Painted Skin* is unstoppable, climbing step by step to become the number one domestic box office, and it is about to reclaim the top spot on the domestic film box office list; the leaders above have been heaping praise on him.

The worry is that the box office and reputation of *The Promise* have both collapsed. With a 300 million investment project, China Film Group does not know how much it will lose this time; if things go poorly, even all of this year's profits might not be enough to cover it.

"Wei Jin, it really had to be you. I didn't expect the overseas rights for *Painted Skin* could be sold for so much."

The price of the overseas rights for *Painted Skin* this time truly exceeded Han Sanping's expectations.

The North American rights were taken directly by Summit Entertainment with an offer of 8 million USD; the Japanese and Korean rights were also sold for 3 million USD; over a dozen European distributors bought them for a total of 5 million USD, and other Southeast Asian countries totaled 1 million USD, bringing the total overseas rights to 17 million USD.

For the producers, the returns on this film were truly substantial. Manager Han has recently been pondering how to firmly tie Wei Jin to the China Film Group ship; he has collaborated with Wei Jin three times so far, and every time it has been a massive profit.

Han Sanping has a premonition that Wei Jin cannot bring China Film Group into every project.

The facts are indeed so; for projects under 30 million, Wei Jin basically does not seek external financing, and the various partner companies have a tacit understanding of this and will not be insatiable. "Manager Han, I didn't expect it either; it might be the influence brought by breaking the box office record."

Wei Jin, however, looked calm; money and such things do not have much meaning to him.

"By the way, are there any big projects this year? You are still young, don't slack off."

Han Sanping wore a look of earnest advice, speaking as if Wei Jin were not seeking progress.

"We'll see, I haven't decided yet."

Wei Jin was somewhat perfunctory; in fact, this year's project had already been decided, and Wei Jin intended to continue aiming for awards.

"By the way, how about we start a big production on a historical theme? How about *Three Kingdoms*? You direct it."

Seeing that Wei Jin had no plans for his next project, Han Sanping set his sights on his identity as a director.

"*Three Kingdoms*? Forget it, I'm not very interested in historical themes; I didn't even pass history myself."

Wei Jin was startled inwardly; let's hope the performance of *Painted Skin* didn't make Han Sanping overconfident—another big production? This is likely a huge pit.

"Besides, I only direct my own scripts. Manager Han, you had better invite someone more capable."

Seeing that Han Sanping still wanted to persuade him, Wei Jin hurriedly made excuses about having things to do and ran away from the China Film Building in a rush. Wei Jin got into Liu Yan's car; as for hiring a driver or something, isn't a beautiful driver pleasant?

Liu Yan used to be an on-location host and had to run around to various sites, so she also learned to drive, but as for female drivers, you have to understand.

The two arrived at the 501 residential compound; Wei Jin had an appointment to meet with Gao Yuanyuan, as *Time-Space Cohabitation* was set to start filming after the New Year.

After parking the car, they hadn't walked two steps when they saw four big men walking toward them from a distance, their hands behind their backs, not knowing what they were holding.

At this moment, Wei Jin already felt something was wrong and pulled Liu Yan behind him. He saw the four men rushing over quickly, waving things similar to baseball bats in their hands. Seeing this scene, Liu Yan was panicked and flustered, hurriedly retreating and taking out her phone to call the police.

Wei Jin, however, could not retreat; Liu Yan was behind him, and the four men had also formed a semi-encirclement around him.

However, Wei Jin was actually feeling eager to try at this moment. With his body modified to this point, he didn't even know how strong he was himself. Although he had not undergone systematic training, Wei Jin believed that his anti-strike ability, reaction speed, and physical coordination had all reached a height that an ordinary person could not reach.

Just as Liu Yan finished the police call and turned her head, she saw the four men already lying on the ground, while her boss stood to the side with a relaxed expression, occasionally kicking the big men lying on the ground.

When the police officers from the local station arrived at the scene, they saw the person who had called the police claiming to be attacked calmly smoking, while the attackers were lying on the ground wailing. The officers were immediately stunned.

By the time the two finished their statements, it was already evening. The matter had been disclosed by the media, causing a strong social reaction.

"Silver Bear Director attacked in broad daylight; public security under the feet of the Emperor is worrying."

"Box office record holder attacked, perhaps due to jealousy from peers."

"Young director fights four alone, subdues thugs with a pair of iron fists."

"."

For a time, a storm sweeping through Beijing was about to arrive. The new book is on the shelves; I implore all book friends to reward me with a subscription and a collection. Thank you all!

(End of chapter)