Chapter 687: My Hometown Lives in This Village

Liu Gongming became famous.

The kind of famous that turns purple.

Although "Charlotte Troubles" has only been in theaters for three days, his popularity has already started to skyrocket, and the index of heated discussions across the entire internet is also soaring.

If it weren't for the fact that artists under Luo Mo Studio rarely sign onto outside projects, he would likely have been flooded with film offers long ago.

You must know, in Blue Star Huaxia, it has been a long time since an excellent comedy newcomer appeared.

Moreover, if a comedy film achieves great success, it is often highly profitable.

Many comedy films do not have high overall production costs.

For the same box office, the returns a comedy film can bring are higher than many other types of films.

Liu Gongming is the type of person who can take a 60-point comedy script and perform it with 80-point humor.

For investors and directors, this kind of Actor gives people a sense of confidence from the bottom of their hearts.

And by the fourth day of "Charlotte Troubles" being in theaters, the cumulative total box office had already exceeded 1 billion.

It left both "Car King 3" and "Two Gun Kings" directly behind in the dust.

As for the Animation film "Qiongqi", it was nothing more than an Animation film that took advantage of the recent high popularity of Animation films to temporarily move up its release date to make a quick buck.

Whether it is the Drama or the special effects, it cannot compare to "Nezha".

As of now, the box office has only just broken 200 million.

Among that, over 70 million in box office was earned on the first day of release.

Because the word-of-mouth for this Animation is not good, the daily box office is plummeting.

Regarding this, Luo Mo had actually foreseen it long ago.

He opened up a new situation for the Blue Star Huaxia Animation market, but once there is profit to be made, there are plenty of people who will take the opportunity to make a quick, dirty buck.

A film like "Qiongqi" that deliberately moves up its release date is still considered decent.

Some Animation films clearly should have been polished for a while longer, but they were rushed through production and released in theaters in a shoddy state, wanting to make a big haul while the market was hot.

And don't even mention it, the vast majority of them broke even or made a small profit.

But this is not a good thing for the future development of the entire animation industry.

Audiences originally felt that national animation had risen and would support it as soon as a new film came out, but they ended up feeling like they were being fed excrement one after another.

This will make audiences more cautious when choosing films in the future.

Luo Mo is very clear that not all animation people are like Guang Shu.

"But this is also good; the Huaxia animation industry was a bit conceited after the explosive popularity of 'Nezha', one could say it was a step to the heavens."

"However, a castle in the air is, after all, a castle in the air."

"A single film can only open up the situation; it is impossible to achieve a state where one person attains the Dao and their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven."

"Letting things settle down a bit more is not necessarily a bad thing."

Time passed very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was August 7th.

During this period, Liu Shixiong gradually began to adapt to the change in his own status.

He began to gradually realize that he was already a big star.

In the past, he could still run around blindly, but now it is a bit inappropriate.

Luo Mo had asked him whether there were more people calling him Xia Luo or Liu Gongming when he ran out onto the street now.

Liu Shixiong's answer was: "There are more people calling me Xia Luo and Liu Shixiong, and far fewer calling me Liu Gongming."

The sudden fame brought Liu Shixiong quite a few troubles.

Especially when he was forced by his girlfriend to train, she would ask him some very strange and bizarre questions from a position of superiority, such as:

"Is my figure better, or is Qiu Ya's figure better?"

"On the Strange and Bizarre Competitive Spirit of Fitness Coaches."

In the past, she would think Liu Shixiong lacked stamina and that he should pay more attention to his diet and exercise more.

Now, she feels Liu Shixiong has too much stamina and suspects that he might be tired of her.

Clearly, a huge change in a man's status and position will often make his woman unable to adapt for a time, and she will become insecure.

Returning to the main topic, from the release of "Charlotte Troubles" on August 2nd until now, Luo Mo has not used too many extra promotional methods on his end.

Whether it was turning the Hot Song Chart into an advertising space for the film, or the Surprise cameo appearances by one big star after another, it was all enough to attract eyeballs.

But now that the film has been in theaters for so many days, it is time for some new tricks.

Film promotion is a protracted war.

And its impact on the box office is huge!

Luo Mo's films can always achieve great success; quality and popularity are one aspect, but solid promotion is another.

For this reason, he specifically made a phone call to Chen Luo.

These past few days, too many stars have been Shouting for this film online.

Chen Luo has remained silent throughout, maintaining an eerie silence.

This makes people feel: Has the "honeymoon period" of 【Luo Luo Da Fang】 already passed?

Friendships between stars are always very magical.

It is not hard to find that many stars will suddenly become very close, and then suddenly act like they have broken off relations.

Online, quite a few people are guessing the reason.

Some even guessed: "Maybe Chen Luo had a face reveal in the film, but after the film finished shooting, his relationship with Luo Mo became bad for unknown reasons, so Luo Mo cut him out, leaving only the voice on the phone."

Although the plot in the film is Xia Luo calling Chen Luo, can't the camera switch when making a call?

You could film Xia Luo's side for a moment, and then film Chen Luo's side for a moment.

But with the release of a new song, the various speculations on the internet were directly shattered.

This song is called "People of Our Village."

The singer is naturally Chen Luo.

And he even released both a Mandarin version and a Cantonese version in one go.

As mentioned before, on Earth, after "Charlotte Troubles" was released in 2015, many people thought Andy Lau had actually sung this song, and whenever he faced interviews from reporters, Andy Lau would be bewildered.

Then later on, Andy Lau released a song called "Gong Xi Fa Cai 2016," and he actually added this segment of content into it.

Here on Blue Star, the Drama in the movie has been modified.

On Earth, this movie was purely for Evil parody; they hadn't invited Andy Lau at all, so in this phone call, there was no interaction, and no voice was played back.

But Luo Mo was actually able to invite Chen Luo.

So in the Blue Star version, there is a back-and-forth exchange, and it even created some comedic points.

As long as one isn't a fool, one can hear that Chen Luo is very resistant to the new song Xia Luo wrote for him.

But Xia Luo doesn't care at all, leaving behind the line, "That's settled then, it's this one," and then he throws his phone into the sea.

The audience in the cinema could all mentally picture Chen Luo's bewildered face.

Everyone had initially treated it as a Surprise cameo, viewing it as a major comedic point in the movie.

But who would have thought that in real life, Chen Luo actually recorded it, and even released a Mandarin version and a Cantonese version!

"This, this, this..."

"Holy crap! The movie has bled into reality!"

"Chen Luo, and you still say you don't like it?"

"Hahahaha, this is just too dreamlike, damn it!"

"In the past, I absolutely wouldn't have imagined Chen Luo would release a new song like this. Luozai, if you have dirt in Luo Mo's hands, blink your eyes!"

"Amazing! Too amazing! Isn't this just an Easter egg in reality?"

"Songs can be down-to-earth, but please don't make me laugh until I can't breathe."

Just such a very uniquely typed new song actually climbed to the top of the New Song Chart.

This left everyone in the music scene bewildered.

What the hell, can playing cards randomly really have this kind of effect?

Many people thought this was the effect of Chen Luo and Luo Mo's own popularity, plus the added popularity of the movie.

But in reality, quite a few people really did download the song and put it in their playlists.

"Taking it out to listen when I'm in a bad mood, it actually feels quite pleasant."

"Taking it out to play at a friend's gathering, the effect is explosive, the whole place is just going crazy!"

"【Luo-Luo Generous】 I knew it, but I didn't expect it to be this generous."

I have to say, Chen Luo is really giving it his all this time.

Before Luo Mo burst onto the scene, he was the King in the music scene!

He was the leading figure of an entire era, until Luo Mo Pioneering a new era.

For such a figure to come and sing such a uniquely styled song for you, to help your movie with promotion and create a buzz, can truly be said to be sparing no effort.

Some senior executives at Cilong Entertainment, as well as Music Director Yuan Hewen, didn't really agree with this matter, feeling it would have an impact on Chen Luo and lower the status of the Singer, but in the end, Chen Luo insisted on it despite the dissenting opinions.

"It's just a song, it's not that serious."

Fortunately, the silly netizens were quite willing to give Face, and many even expressed: "Doesn't this have to be on the Spring Festival Gala?"

"To this year's Spring Festival Gala director, I hope you can be sensible."

"Laughing to death, it would be best to have a duet with Liu Shixiong."

"I'm writing a petition in blood, get on the Spring Festival Gala!"

"If he really goes on the Spring Festival Gala... it's over, I've already started laughing!"

………

………

After "People of Our Village" was released, the popularity of "Charlotte Troubles" indeed soared by another notch.

New audience members were attracted to the cinemas, and some who had already seen it couldn't resist going for a second or third viewing.

What is Luozai, who just "messed around" a bit, doing now?

He is currently in Hong Kong, listening to his good friend pour out his grievances.

"Oh Luozai, with you pulling a stunt like this, how are we supposed to handle 'Two Gun Kings'?" A middle-aged man sat opposite Chen Luo and spread his hands.

His name is Hua Jiaqun, a Best Actor-level Actor from Hong Kong, and one of the leads and investors of "Two Gun Kings."

Although Chen Luo is not from Hong Kong, his Cantonese songs are very popular in Hong Kong.

Didn't Luo Mo write "Bicycle" for her recently?

He has been frequently active in the Yue Province and Hong Kong area recently.

And as everyone knows, that generation of stars in Hong Kong were all triple-threats in film, television, and music.

Therefore, although Chen Luo is a Singer, many of the Hong Kong Singers he is familiar with are also excellent Actors.

The Hua Jiaqun before him is one of the best among them.

He has won the Song King grand prize here in Hong Kong, and has also won the Best Actor grand prize.

The only regret is that he has never won Best Actor in a TV series.

At the same time, he also has a very special identity—the president of the 【Hong Kong Film Workers Association】.

On Earth, the person holding this position is Gu Zai.

This is an honor, and also a responsibility.

Once you sit in this position, you must spare no effort to promote Hong Kong films, and you must find ways to make Hong Kong films better and better.

To be honest, Hua Jiaqun really isn't the type of person who just sits in his position and does nothing.

To be precise, on Blue Star, every president of the 【Hong Kong Film Workers Association】 has almost always possessed a spirit of Dedication.

Hong Kong films have been increasingly declining in recent years; they can't even produce a few box-office hits a year, and many films lose money as soon as they are shot, so Hua Jiaqun is also very worried.

He had high hopes for "Two Gun Kings".

What's more, he is the lead Actor in this film, and he also invested 50 million himself.

Judging from the current box office results, the film's final box office should be around 1 billion.

A few days ago, the box office results were still quite good, but starting from the fourth day, it became a bit sluggish.

It is not just "Two Gun Kings" that is like this; "Car King 3" is the same.

This film is called "Two Gun Kings", but in reality, there is only one Gun King; it is just a case of split personality.

Hua Jiaqun is the one playing this patient with split personality.

If you go and ask the audience, is Hua Jiaqun's acting Ox?

They would absolutely heap praise on him, saying his performance was too Ox.

But if you ask the audience, is the film good?

Then the reply from a polite person would probably be: "That, that... anyway, the acting is very Ox!"

A more honest person would say directly: "Quite average."

At this moment, Chen Luo sat opposite Hua Jiaqun and said: "Look, I am not playing favorites; I also made a cameo in your film."

Deep down, he thought: "It's just that the cameo content wasn't as brilliant as in 'Charlotte Troubles'."

But is that my problem?

That is definitely not my problem!

Hua Jiaqun sighed, a look of envy appearing in his eyes.

"The single-day box office for 'Charlotte Troubles' today is Afraid to break 300 million," he said.

And for "Two Gun Kings", judging by the current situation, it can accumulate 300 million over a week.

Comedy films were once one of the genres Hong Kong was best at.

But nowadays, Hong Kong hasn't produced a big hit Comedy in many years.

On the contrary, many films are scolded by people, accused of wasting everyone's past nostalgia.

Upon hearing this, Chen Luo thought to himself: "Breaking 300 million in a single day, I am also a contributor!"

Of course, it is certainly not good to say this out loud to provoke Hua Jiaqun.

Hua Jiaqun sighed again and said: " 'Two Gun Kings' is actually okay; this film can still make a small profit."

"But you also know how strong the cast is for this film under my coordination."

"I feel like I can't see the future of Hong Kong films anymore."

"Do you think the young audience today, or rather the Mainland audience, doesn't like watching Hong Kong films anymore?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Luo shook his head and said: "That's not necessarily the case."

"Many classic Hong Kong films are still being watched over and over by many people," Chen Luo replied.

He looked at the worried Hua Jiaqun, and after struggling internally for a while, he finally decided to offer his suggestion to his friend: "I think you could try looking for Luo Mo."

"Hm?" Hua Jiaqun was stunned.

He didn't expect Chen Luo to offer such a suggestion, and said: "But we are Hong Kong films, Luozai."

"What of it? Hong Kong film scripts can be adapted for the Mainland, and Mainland scripts can be changed to Cantonese; these are all minor issues," Chen Luo said.

"No, you're thinking about it too simply," Hua Jiaqun felt his suggestion was somewhat amateurish.

So-called Hong Kong films aren't just about having a Mandarin version and a Cantonese version.

"Anyway, that's all I'll say," Chen Luo said.

He only knows now that not being an opponent of Luo Mo, but rather a collaborator, is truly too great.

At the same time, after Singing "People from Our Village", his relationship with Luo Mo has arguably gone a step further.

He is also willing to provide an introduction for his friend.

Hua Jiaqun lowered his head in thought, struggling internally.

"Can a person from Beijing really save Hong Kong films and awaken the Hong Kong film market?"

Hua Jiaqun felt it was very unrealistic.

"Let me think about it some more," said this president of the 【Hong Kong Film Workers Association】.

(PS: I could have posted before eight o'clock, but after thinking about it, I deleted and changed some content, so it was delayed and the update is late, sorry, sorry. I have to say, for someone without a backlog of drafts, posting an update notice is quite stressful.)

Still, per the editor's Requirement, I am posting the 【Update Notice】: This chapter was updated on August 14th at 20:46, and the next chapter will be before eight o'clock on the evening of the 15th.)

(End of this chapter)