Chapter 287: Reviews, Release Date, and Preparations for the Premiere

When a film or TV drama adapts its source material too heavily, it always carries risk.

Take Chen Chen Jiashang's "The Four Great Constables."

Five days into its release, the box office surged to 103 million — a very happy occasion.

But at the same time, online viewers' reviews had split into two extremes.

"A rare martial-arts film — endlessly innovative on the basis of the original. Director Chen's imagination is simply boundless, and the action scenes are great!"

"Similar in style to 'Flying Swords of Dragon Gate,' but with its own flavor. Both are quality works. Looking forward to a sequel…"

"Zhao Zhao Liying, in her big-screen debut, performed well — worth acknowledging."

……

"'The Four Great Constables' looks lively on the surface, but it's hard to convince. It's completely lost the 'core' of the original and turned into Gu Long-style fare."

"Turning Wushang into a woman and making her the central character is the biggest betrayal of the source material. Off-putting. I'd suggest people not go to the theater…"

"Zhao Zhao Liying, a nobody of an actress, lands the female lead of a franchise film in one step! Is this what they call a resource-backed pick? The entertainment industry really is unreasonable."

……

Curses and praise coexisting — that's what a normal film's review section looks like.

It's just that for "The Four Great Constables," the polarization is a bit too severe.

Around this time, two other films — "Caught in the Web" and "Tai Chi Zero" — also hit theaters.

In terms of influence, "Tai Chi Zero" was the least conspicuous, since the other two films both had famous directors and big-name casts.

"A big-name director has one built-in advantage: even after disappointing audiences time and again, he can still make them walk into the theater again with expectations."

Director Lu Yang said, legs crossed, sitting in front of the computer, his tone lightly teasing.

"You might as well name Director Chen Chen Kaige directly. Still, his 'Caught in the Web' this time is genuinely well-made — no strong start and weak finish."

Lin Nan walked out from the tea corner and picked up Director Lu Yang's thread.

"I'm just summarizing — did I say anything wrong?" Director Lu Yang laughed and spread his hands.

"Not wrong. That really is the advantage of a big-name director — the audience's favoritism."

Lin Nan nodded and admitted it. He had that advantage too, and so far had kept it well.

Although every time a small portion of viewers nitpicked his films, it didn't affect the overall picture.

As for critics? Long ago, he'd stopped paying attention to that money-hungry lot.

…………

The team from Tianggong Color had already headed to Hengdian with Chen Chen Jiashang and the others.

Enlight Media posted a Weibo update: "'The Four Great Constables 2' officially started filming today in Hengdian. Looking forward to the first film's box office successfully breaking past 200 million…"

No press conference, no set visits in the early stage — "The Four Great Constables 2" just started shooting quietly like that.

On Shanhai Media's side, the number of collaboration invitations had grown again — acting offers, ads, endorsements, commercial events…

The extra ones were all for Zhao Zhao Liying. After all, when you counted the female leads of hundred-million box-office films, there weren't that many.

In Yue Jun's words: "This young lady is on the right track now. As long as she doesn't slip up later and just keeps at it steadily, she'll be A-list — it's only a matter of time."

…………

Lin Nan had just hung up with Tom when he got another call — this one from Beijing Film Academy, about the matter Director Tian Tian Zhuangzhuang had mentioned.

The school hoped to have a face-to-face talk with Lin Nan — the lobbying intent was unmistakable.

After thinking for a long time, Lin Nan finally decided to take Director Tian Tian Zhuangzhuang's advice.

"I'm honored to receive the invitation from my alma mater, but I don't think the time is right yet… If there's still a chance in a few years, I'd be willing to come back…"

The person from the school handling the contact was quite understanding of Lin Nan's so-so answer and said he'd pass it along to the school leadership.

……

"Not the right time? A few years?"

"Yes, that's what Lin Nan said. It didn't sound like a brush-off — Director Tian must have done some groundwork."

"Mm, alright, let's note it down for now. As long as he's loosened up, that's fine…"

…………

It was the release of "Caught in the Web" and "Tai Chi Zero" that posed a real threat to "The Four Great Constables," whose daily box office dropped to around 10 million.

The former's opening-day box office came in at 14.5 million. Online reviews were almost all positive.

"After all these years, Director Chen Chen Kaige has finally made a film that doesn't fall apart in the second half."

"The storyline is clear, multi-threaded narrative without confusion, the pacing flows smoothly through setup, development, turn and resolution — 'Caught in the Web' is pretty good!

But as for that talk of the box office target surpassing 'The Fault in Our Stars' — let's just pretend we never heard it, haha…"

"It's amazing — I actually saw Director Feng Feng Xiaogang's style in this film. Why is that?"

"'Caught in the Web' is about cyberbullying, which inevitably makes one wonder:

Is Director Chen making a complaint and settling a personal score about his own experience of being 'cyberbullied' after 'The Promise' was released back then?"

"To the poster above — 'The Promise' had it coming!"

…………

Overall, "Caught in the Web" had done quite a bit to repair some of the negative reputation Chen Chen Kaige had accumulated over the years.

Unlike "Caught in the Web" and "The Four Great Constables," "Tai Chi Zero" was having a rough time.

Not long after the morning screenings ended, negative reviews were already popping up online.

"Was this hackneyed, utterly unoriginal script written with one's toes? And there are actually directors willing to shoot it?"

"Ten minutes in and you can guess the rest of the plot. Sure enough, the treasure-hunting is just a gimmick — the male and female leads will inevitably end up in a love story that drags them through life and death!"

"I can't believe the martial-arts director is Yuan Kui. The fight scenes in the film don't have that bone-jarring impact. Instead, plenty of Yang Mi and Zhao Zhao Wenzhuo's combat shots look like dancing, acting cute, and playing adorable!!"

……

Relying on Yang Mi's massive fan base and the earlier publicity, "Big Wu Dang" reported a Day 1 box office of 9.45 million.

But one has to say, the film's word-of-mouth has already shown signs of collapse.

"A lot of netizens are saying about her — she picked up the sesame but dropped the watermelon."

Liu Liu Yifei leaned against Lin Nan's chest, pointing at the post on the computer screen as she spoke.

Lin Nan also wore a helpless expression. "It'll do her good to remember."

The netizens weren't wrong — during that period, Ceng Jia had arranged several films for Yang Mi, with both "Big Wu Dang" and "Caught in the Web" prominently featured in the lineup.

Everyone in the circle knows the final result: after a phone call between Chen Hong and Lin Nan, Yang Mi was swapped out of the "Caught in the Web" crew.

Looking at it now, isn't that exactly picking up the sesame and dropping the watermelon?

Given Chen Chen Kaige's status and treatment, "Caught in the Web" was bound to be nominated for some film festival awards later on.

…………

The news that "Iron Man 3" was going to hold casting in the mainland had started to heat up.

Even though the studio said it was only a supporting role, a large number of A-list male and female actors still flocked to it eagerly.

Dubbed "Little Zhang Zhang Ziyi," Li Li Bingbing, Fan Li Bingbing, and others rushed in one after another, generating the most buzz; even Lu Zheng was sniffing around for news about Miss Jing Tian.

Everyone automatically ruled out Liu Liu Yifei, because in foreign-language films, even Liu Liu Yifei's worst supporting role was in "Inception."

It is said that back then, "Pacific Rim" was only given to Brilliant Pictures after she rejected it. So how could she possibly be interested in a small supporting role in "Iron Man 3"?

…………

With the summer slate heating up, low- and mid-budget domestic films began releasing one after another.

But the most eye-catching were still "The Four" and "Caught in the Web."

The former's daily box office held steady at eight or nine million, with the next target being 150 million.

Meanwhile, "Caught in the Web"'s box office, after its opening weekend of three days, had reached 42 million.

Chen Chen Kaige's bold claim a few days ago about surpassing "Star Luck"'s box office had already been treated as empty talk and a joke.

"Lin Dao, should I have someone send out the invitations for 'Bad Genius's' premiere?"

Yue Jun greeted Lin Nan — this premiere was on a relatively large scale.

"Mm, send them out. By the way, what's the box office on Yang Mi's film?" Lin Nan looked up.

"Three days, 20.6 million. The daily drop is steep — it's already down to three million. At this rate of decline, I estimate it won't pass 40 million in the end."

Yue Jun gave his own forecast; this film had hit Yang Mi a bit hard.

Fortunately though, the foundation built up earlier by "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" and "Painted Skin 2" was thick enough, and there was still a large base of TV drama fans supporting her — no real damage done.

……

Just as Lin Nan and Yue Jun were talking, Xue Xue Xiaolu arrived.

"Mission accomplished — I've brought you the finished cut of 'Finding Mr. Right.'"

Xue Xue Xiaolu walked into Lin Nan's office with a smile; she had gone to Skywork Color first and chatted with Director Lu Yang for a while before coming over.

"Sister Xue, sit."

"Director Xue."

Xue Xue Xiaolu hadn't come just to deliver the finished cut — there was also the matter of the release schedule.

"When does Sister Xue want to release it?" Lin Nan asked.

"February or March next year, I suppose. I see your company has three films lined up in the second half of the year, so mine won't crash the party."

Before coming, Xue Xue Xiaolu had already thought it over repeatedly — early next year was best.

"How about Valentine's Day?" Yue Jun suddenly suggested.

Lin Nan nodded, speaking in unison with Xue Xue Xiaolu: "That timing is good — it really fits the film!"

"Then Valentine's Day it is. Shall we go take a look at the finished cut now?" Lin Nan stood up and invited.

"Sure."

……

Over at Skywork Color, even Director Lu Yang had put down what he was doing and gathered around to watch.

How to put it about this "Finding Mr. Right"?

It's not like "Love Is Not Blind" — although the audience might also skew female, this film leans a bit more toward women.

The point is: no matter how "loose" a woman was before, she can ultimately find a decent man who will take her in, offering tolerance and pampering.

If you really pick it apart, the values might be a bit off, but it's a commercial film, so those issues aren't really issues — after all, women's spending power ranks first!

…………

Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama and other schools held grand graduation ceremonies, with undergraduates and graduate students together.

Quite a few media outlets went to the scene to report on it.

Lin Nan posted on Weibo: "Congratulations to Director Guo Fan on graduating with his master's degree — officially back in the ranks. Get ready to work!"

For a time, plenty of actors and artists in the circle reposted, liked, and left congratulatory comments, tagging Guo Fan.

Even Zhao Zhao Yanzi, who attended the same graduation ceremony and was also an outstanding graduate but had no connection whatsoever, took the initiative to show goodwill.

Guo Fan was quick on the uptake, and immediately posted his graduation photo, saying:

"The working life officially begins. Lin Dao, this boss of ours, is pretty good!"

…………

The premiere invitations for "Bad Genius," as planned, began going out to the companies, filmmakers, and actors/artists already designated within the circle — quite a stir.

At this point, Wang Wang Changtian appeared quite composed, because "The Four" and "Bad Genius" would hardly clash at the box office.

After all, by the time the latter released, "The Four" would basically be wrapping up its run.

But on Chen Chen Kaige's side, things were a bit less calm.

"Bad Genius" is definitely going to have an impact on "Search." The two films' theatrical runs overlap by a full ten days!

(End of chapter)