Chapter 737: The Great Yet Lonely Director

The movie ended, and Huo Yuan and the others were the last to leave the cinema.

After returning to the car, everyone had to drop Cao Tong off at home first.

Along the way, the four of them kept discussing this movie.

In the end, they reached a conclusion.

"Luo Mo has truly earned his money while standing tall."

From the laughter inside the cinema, they could tell that from a comedy perspective, *Let the Bullets Fly* was also above standard.

It isn't the kind of direct punchline; most of the jokes require you to react for a moment, to "let the bullets fly for a while," and only then can you help but laugh out loud.

It is precisely because of this that many of its lines and many of its gags will become increasingly popular as time passes, spawning one classic meme after another.

It's quite magical; some lines are funny even just to recite.

Setting aside the comedy aspect, the gunfights, the whistling, and the action scenes also make people feel it was filmed very well.

Plus, with three Best Actors performing together and Xu Gangsheng coming out of retirement after many years for it, the whole movie is definitely worth the price of admission.

Any supporting character you pick out is very strong in their performance.

This movie has high commercial appeal, and Huo Yuan and the others all felt the box office wouldn't be low.

In the car, they unanimously agreed that making movies to sell tickets and their own writing and publishing sometimes have similarities.

Some books, like some movies, are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

The book is great, but simply no one buys it, no one reads it.

But some so-called bestsellers are often highly controversial.

Luo Mo's first live-action movie was that kind of god-tier film, *I Am Not a Medicine God*, which was both critically acclaimed and a box office hit.

Subsequently, because of the great success of the 【Mist Theater】, he chose to film *Sheep Without a Shepherd*, which had a very novel creative angle.

On Blue Star, *Sheep Without a Shepherd* had many innovative aspects, providing many industry insiders with new ideas and teaching them many new things.

But overall, this movie's commerciality was greater than its artistry.

*Let the Bullets Fly* is different.

Huo Yuan's evaluation of it is: "It allows audiences of all levels to see something sufficiently good."

This is earning money, while still standing tall!

In their view, people who watch movies are similar to people who read books, generally divided into a few categories.

One category is the most ordinary, most common audience, which is the 【Masses】.

These people's requirement for watching a movie is very simple, yet actually not simple at all—it must be good.

There is another category, either having a bit of a literary pretension or a bit of a snobbish attitude.

They don't care as much about whether the movie is good or whether it's satisfying to watch; they want some other things on a spiritual level, and they want their pursuits to be different from the vulgar, ordinary audience.

These people gather together to form a circle, aiming for a sense of superiority within that circle.

Douban is a bit like that.

This is the 【Niche】.

There is another category, which is the audience who fancy themselves as Great Gods.

These people are often "everyone is drunk while I alone am sober," singing the opposite tune to everyone else, striving to create a gap between themselves and the literary youth and the snobs, aiming to act as pretentious as possible.

If their arguments really convince you, you will naturally feel that this person is so awesome, truly a Great God-level audience member.

Among Film Critics, there are some such people.

It's just that this type of Film Critic has been decreasing in recent years, and there are fewer and fewer of them.

Many Film Critics now just want money; if you pay me, I'll praise you, and if you don't, I'll curse you.

Of course, there is actually another category of "audience" with a more special status.

What they write is no longer called film criticism.

The things published by these media outlets with special natures naturally do not count as pure film criticism.

【Masses】, 【Niche】, 【Great God】, 【Officialdom】... most directors' ambition is just to please one of these categories.

But Luo Mo's ambition is clearly ridiculously large.

He wants all four types of people to stand up and applaud for him!

Actually, *I Am Not a Medicine God* achieved this, but it occupied the right time, the right place, and the right people.

After all, wasn't medical insurance improving at that time? So it received support and publicity from many media outlets.

As for the other three categories, it truly conquered them all.

From *Medicine God* taking the throne of the number one box office, one can see the recognition of the 【Masses】.

When that line, "【There is only one disease in the world—the poverty disease】," appeared, the 【Niche】 reached a climax, shouting that it was satisfying.

The 【Great God】 wrote that the villain in the movie was actually not wrong either; developing medicine requires a large amount of funding, and the cost of the second pill might only be a few cents, but the cost of the first pill is hundreds of millions.

After that film review, "The most terrifying thing about this movie is that no one is wrong," was written, the 【Great God】 was naturally worshipped.

From this, it can be seen that Luo Mo has actually succeeded once before.

And it was truly a peak right from his debut!

His first live-action movie was not only acclaimed by everyone, but even pushed society to develop in a better direction.

Therefore, the ambition of *Let the Bullets Fly* is to tell everyone—this is not a coincidence.

I could do it before.

I can do it now too!

The 【Masses】 have always had a very high level of recognition for Luo Mo.

None of his movie box office performances have flopped.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year; although the single-day box office data for *Let the Bullets Fly* hasn't come out yet, when Huo Yuan and the others were watching the movie, the cinema could be said to be packed.

Many plot points are just satisfying to watch; the parts that should be thrilling are simply thrilling to the core.

Although the ending feels a bit melancholy and makes one sigh, amidst the impassioned background music, with Zhang Muzhi covered in dust, riding a high-headed horse in pursuit of that train, can you say this scene isn't stirring, this scene isn't cool?

Speaking of 【Niche】, at first they definitely must have felt this film was too commercial.

But, what about later?

"【Stand up and earn the money!】"

"【Fairness, fairness, and still fucking fairness!】"

"【Stand up! No kneeling allowed!】"

Just by this point, they were already fulfilled.

The plot segment where Liuzi takes the powder already left them completely satisfied, feeling it really was a fucking masterpiece!

And an audience member like Huo Yuan, who is even more Ox than a 【Great God】, upon hearing that line, "【Without you, it is very important to me】," also felt his whole body go numb, felt his brain was about to explode, and was incredibly excited.

When the car was about to reach Cao Tong's house, Huo Yuan suddenly came up with a very magical metaphor.

"Do you guys feel that this film is Luo Mo firing shots at all the audience members?"

Once these words were spoken, Yao Yu was the first to react, saying: "Your metaphor is quite interesting."

Yes, the entire film is like firing shots at the audience.

When Zhang Mazi said that line, "Let the bullets fly for a while," Luo Mo's gun had already been fired.

Some audience members, upon seeing the white horse break free, the train overturned, the master and the madam kidnapped, and the assumption of the County Magistrate position, had already been hit by the bullets.

You say you weren't?

No worries, let the bullets fly for a while longer.

After the county office trial, firing shots into the sky and shouting that kneeling is not allowed, some people were hit by the bullets.

You say you still weren't?

No worries, let the bullets fly for a while longer.

Perhaps when the whole film ends, there are still people who haven't been hit.

Actually, that's fine too.

Because this film, which reflects reality, has its bullets traveling through reality as well.

It's very strange; some people don't understand this film, and after reading many film reviews and analyses, they still don't feel it's that impressive.

But after they experience something, they might suddenly understand.

At this very moment, in another Cinema in Beijing, three special audience members who pride themselves on being 【Great God-level】 walked out of the Cinema.

They are all expert judges for the 【Fan Hua Award】.

After Luo Mo openly fell out with the 【Fan Hua Award】, they naturally wouldn't be so kind as to come and contribute to the box office of *Let the Bullets Fly*.

They just wanted to come and see, then ponder and deliberate, if there was anything they could bash, preferably standing from a high vantage point, looking down from above to bash Luo Mo's new film.

It's the New Year, let's disgust him properly!

But after watching it, it's not that they couldn't find things to bash.

After all, no work is perfect.

But these three expert judges, although their level is not even close to Huo Yuan and the others, could still see many things in the film.

"This film is terrifying!"

"The most terrifying thing is that it was actually allowed to be screened!"

The three of them actually had a sentence in their hearts, but they really couldn't bring themselves to say it.

——"This year's Fan Hua Award is going to be a bit difficult to handle."

They don't yet know to what level this film's word-of-mouth, box office, and influence will reach.

After all, this is only the First Day of release.

But they could already imagine a scene.

That is, when the 【Fan Hua Award】 announces some major awards, the barrage will be crazily flooded.

For example, for 【Best Director Award】, the barrage will be overwhelmingly—"Luo Mo."

For 【Annual Best Film Award】, it might be overwhelmingly—"*Let the Bullets Fly*."

But this young man, and this film, would absolutely disdain participating in the selection!

"This year will still be very troublesome," they said in their hearts.

If Luo Mo knew their psychological activities, he would definitely say very considerately in their ears:

"It's okay, no need to worry too much, it will be like this every year from now on."

……….

……….

The first day of the Lunar New Year, nightfall.

The literary world of Huaxia had a massive earthquake.

The reason is very simple: Huo Yuan led his football team to the cinema in the afternoon to watch *Let the Bullets Fly*.

The four of them all publicly voiced their opinions on some social platforms, highly praising this film!

This is a very terrifying thing!

If it were just praise, it would only cause an earthquake in the literary world, not a massive earthquake.

The point is, they didn't just praise it simply; they praised it to the high heavens!

The lyrics of a song, "Farewell," were praised to the skies.

You must know, in the current literary world, any poet or lyricist whose work could receive such high praise from all four of them would immediately rise to fame.

Of course, although Luo Mo is not in the literary world, he has indeed left behind many legends in the literary world.

Regarding his lyrics being so Ox, many people are actually already a bit used to it.

However, is this movie really that legendary?

In the literary world, many people are already calling on friends and companions.

"Shall we go take a look?"

"We definitely have to watch it!"

Many people feel that not only do they want to watch it, but they also want to learn from these four teachers, write something after watching it, and join in the fun.

Hehe, it can also be considered an elegant activity for the New Year!

This left those Film Critics in the film industry who had never received money from Luo Mo Studio completely dumbfounded.

Some money-grubbing Film Critics were extremely dissatisfied with Luo Mo's behavior of never coming to "top up."

They felt that they were capable of adding flowers to the brocade for a movie.

But if you don't need us like this, we won't write for you for free either.

If the writing fee isn't given, even if I write, it will be words of abuse.

Facts have proven—we really don't need you.

Laughing to death, can you compare to what these "amateur film critics" can write?

Can your writing be as good as this batch of "amateur goods" in the literary world?

If we're talking about adding flowers to the brocade, do you have the influence of Huo Yuan, Yao Yu, and the others?

——Like it or not, don't write!

And the four big shots in the literary world, the things they wrote, the angles were different.

Cao Tong wrote the shortest one, just one line of text.

"A lonely and great protagonist, a lonely and great director."

Many ordinary audience members only felt that Zhang Mazi was very lonely after seeing the end.

Cao Tong is different; he felt it long ago.

The first time Zhang Mazi took Master Tang to distribute money, he put a mask of a cylinder on the master and asked him: "Is it satisfying?"

Master Tang smiled and said: "Satisfying!"

The second time they distributed money, he asked the master: "Are you going or not? We are going to distribute money."

Master Tang's reply was: "Wasting things, not going!"

Many people join in so-called noble causes just to experience it, just to get a kick out of it.

Therefore, he had long guessed that the ending should be lonely.

Things were as he expected.

In his view, Luo Mo is also a typical lonely person in the entertainment industry.

He seems a bit different from the vast majority of stars.

So he hopes that Luo Mo can stand up and earn money, and he is also willing to publicly praise Let the Bullets Fly.

Originally, the first-day pre-sale results for Let the Bullets Fly were already very terrifying, reaching 140 million directly.

This means that before the movie was even released, everyone bought tickets in advance, and it had already reached 140 million in box office.

And after being suddenly tossed about by the four literary big shots, many people also joined the ranks of buying tickets in advance.

The night gradually deepened.

Luo Mo was waiting at home.

He was waiting for the first-day box office of Let the Bullets Fly on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

"Looking at the screening volume, Let the Bullets Fly is higher than Hello Mr. Billionaire," he said in his heart.

These two movies are the two with the highest screening rates in this year's Spring Festival slot.

But after all, the former was directed by him personally, and the director of the latter is Wang Rong, so the screening rate of Let the Bullets Fly was 6.3% higher than Hello Mr. Billionaire.

When the box office data was freshly released, Luo Mo looked at it and revealed a satisfied smile.

——491 million!

An extremely terrifying number.

Let the Bullets Fly directly refreshed the current single-day box office record of the Huaxia film market!

Luo Mo once again created a box office miracle!

As for the subsequent box office of this movie, it depends on the feedback from the market and its word-of-mouth.

And this movie, as a box office Myth on Earth that year, and as one of the highest-rated Chinese-language films on Earth, Luo Mo naturally does not need to worry about its word-of-mouth.

After finishing looking at the box office of Let the Bullets Fly, he glanced downward.

Hello Mr. Billionaire was naturally in second place.

Its single-day box office on the first day of the Lunar New Year was also as high as 388 million!

In the film industry, everyone just felt that Luo Mo had made a fortune!

The first-day box office of the two movies added together had already reached 879 million.

However, compared to the great momentum of Let the Bullets Fly, which triggered a major earthquake in the literary world, the side of Hello Mr. Billionaire was not so imposing.

To be precise, when most audience members recommended this movie to people around them, it was as if they were describing a supernatural event.

"I laughed my head off."

"Everyone in the entire Cinema was looking for their heads on the floor."

"Can't stop laughing, really can't stop laughing."

"Laozi is going to laugh to death here today!"

Many people who were recommended to watch it couldn't help but start to wonder.

"What kind of movie is this, making people feel so miserable during the New Year?"

(End of chapter)