I make a thriller, it's God chasing and feeding

Chapter 423 [Director’s Cut]

"Director Lu's comeback film is expected to reach 3 billion box office, Stars and Stripes!"

"In the history of the development of domestic horror films, whose works are better, the 'veteran' director Lu Zhengyi or the 'newcomer' director Li Chuanxin?"

"Can the newcomer surpass the old one? Who is the real horror master?"

"There is a reason why none of Lu Zhengyi's films have been called bad since his debut..."

……

As a comeback work, Lu Zhengyi's work has been pushed very high during the preheating period.

No one thought he would fail.

To be precise, no one who stood with him thought he would fail.

Whether it is the director and screenwriter who are insiders or the fans who are not insiders, everyone is optimistic about and looks forward to his works.

But those who did not stand with Lu Zhengyi had other thoughts.

When you stand at a high position, it is inevitable that you will arouse the jealousy and envy of many people, which is natural.

They were all waiting to see if Lu Zhengyi could maintain that quality. If not, once it fell and broke into pieces, it would be something to watch.

Lu Zhengyi’s success is no longer something to behold; instead, it is something that is taken for granted.

But if he fails...

It would be very interesting if a director who was highly praised and called the 'God of Horror Movies' fell down and perished!
Absolutely, public discussion platforms such as Weibo, short videos, and long videos may all be paralyzed!

He, this person, or this identity, and this matter will become the nourishment for many media and operating accounts to make a fortune!
After more than ten years, who knows whether he can make a good film?
Not only does he have to make good films, Lu Zhengyi also has to surpass all the people who have emerged in the industry over the past decade or so with the quality of their films, so that people can feel that they are good and glorious.

As the 'founder of a sect', people have higher expectations of him.

Just like Bai Wei who took on the signboard of the Meilimao crew, it is not enough to just make good stuff, you have to make something better than others, and your current work has to be more stunning than your previous one!
This is no easy task.

Over the past decade or so, more and more directors have tried to make horror films in the market. Among them, there are some who can match Lu Zhengyi in quality. Among them, some of the more outstanding ones are, for example, Li Chuanxin.

During the past decade or so, Lu Zhengyi has brought joy to many people with his "Maoshan Taoist" series of films. He once changed the mainstream shooting method of horror films and brought many films combining horror and comedy to the market.

Even more, the final work "Zombie" surpassed Lu Zhengyi, earning Li Chuanxin a box office of more than 6 billion yuan and taking the top spot in the Tang Dynasty box office.

Before the film was released, in addition to praising Lu Zhengyi, many media outlets also compared him with Li Chuanxin.

It is entirely predictable that once the film is released, if the audience is not satisfied with the viewing experience, there will be some posts such as "You are still trying to make money at your old age", "You should just retire", "Why not..."

Things like that.

By then, when bloggers post videos, fans comment, and passers-by take sides, everyone will be able to get a piece of the pie and profit from this incident.

Even so, he was once very dazzling, bringing the horror thriller genre to a height never seen before in history.

But no one could have imagined that Lu Zhengyi would choose the path of emotion.

"Oh, I feel like crying after watching the movie."

"It's been more than 20 years in a flash. This life is too short."

"Anyway, thank you Director Lu for bringing me so many emotions."

"The movie is very good, better than I expected. Watching it reminded me of many things in the past."

“It didn’t feel particularly scary, but I’ll still give it full marks.”

“As a comeback work, the atmosphere is well created…”

In the comment section of the ticket purchasing platform, among the many positive reviews, there are one or two comments that "do not fit the label".

But these reviews still gave positive reviews.

Art is not like an exam, which has fixed levels.

It doesn't mean that just by understanding certain knowledge and completing certain exams, you have a certain degree of academic qualifications and will be recognized by others.

The recognition of art depends on the audience.

If the audience thinks it’s okay, then your work is good.

If the audience thinks it’s not good, then it’s a bad movie.

When a group reaches a certain number, there will definitely be different voices, that’s for sure.

Even something like money, there are people who don't like it and hate it for one reason or another.

Therefore, even for a director of such a high caliber as Lu Zhengyi, there are haters and people who are dissatisfied with him. This is inevitable.

Back then, when he was at the peak of his popularity, these black fans could be killed the moment they showed up.

Are Lu Zhengyi’s films not good?

Impossible, the quality of his films is "recognized", and anyone who dares to criticize him has been paid, and there will be people criticizing him immediately.

But things are different now. After more than ten years, the direction of the Internet may no longer be determined by Lu Zhengyi.

At least, the incident in which the Guangying family sued dozens of media outlets for writing negative articles and engaging in malicious marketing is no longer as deterrent. There are still many media outlets that dare to write and report false information for the sake of traffic and popularity.

As long as there is something wrong with Lu Zhengyi's film, they will exaggerate it and influence public opinion.

But the problem is that the main focus of his film this time is selling emotions!

And it’s the first time to sell feelings!

If you sell feelings too much, people will naturally get bored.

But if it’s the first time, the effect will definitely be different.

Time, past memories, my former self...

There are many, many reasons that will add points to their enjoyment when watching a movie.

Even many haters find it difficult to avoid this.

As long as it is a human being sitting behind a computer and operating those marketing accounts, emotions cannot be avoided.

It is difficult for people to deny their past life, after all, it is what they have experienced.

At the premiere alone, the box office of Lu Zhengyi's comeback film reached 3 billion, topping the list of domestic premiere box office in Tang Country. Almost all the theaters in major cinemas were full, even in some small counties.

It seems that the film has a chance of achieving the number one global box office position that the media expected.

On the second day of the release of "The Shooting Record of Mei Limao", the domestic box office exceeded 7.5 billion, directly taking the top spot on the domestic box office list of Tang Dynasty!

On the third day of its release, it broke the 9 billion mark!

On the fourth day of its release, it grossed over 10 billion yuan. If calculated based on the price of 30 yuan per ticket, more than 300 million people have watched Lu Zhengyi's comeback work.

On the fifth day of its release, after breaking 10 billion yuan, the box office growth data gradually slowed down.

In just half a month, the film's domestic box office has reached more than 14 billion yuan. Although the rate of increase in the data is not as fast as it was half a month ago, it still maintains a slowly rising trend.

At this time, the number of moviegoers has reached more than 400 million, nearly 500 million!
However, compared with domestic data, foreign data is rather bleak.

"You've been retired for too long, and this is a film that's mainly about feelings. Except for the domestic market, there's no response in other markets."

At this moment, Lu Zhengyi, who should have been a busy man, was sitting at the doorstep with his wife basking in the sun.

But it's normal for him to be idle.

Lu Zhengyi was usually so leisurely, and there was nothing that particularly concerned him.

But Zhang Xueming is different.

I used to be a workaholic, but now I am slowly learning to stop.

Although she said she was free, she sat there basking in the sun, but she still held her phone in her hand and followed the news from various company groups. "If we really want to compete for the world's No. 1 box office, we can only rely on the domestic market."

Zhang Xueming said helplessly, "If it weren't for..."

She paused at the tip of her tongue.

If her husband hadn't retired for so long, this first place would be a sure thing. To be exact, she should have won this honor long ago.

But he quit because of himself.

Thinking of this, she felt a little guilty.

Over the past decade, although he has led the group to do a lot of projects, whether it is development in Tang Country or going abroad, their group has developed a lot of businesses, not only limited to film and television, but also real estate, catering, e-sports...

They even opened their own cinema chain.

But in the final analysis, all of this was developed based on the honor that Lu Zhengyi brought.

And neither she nor anyone else in the group received any other honors.

They never exceeded the limit.

“It’s just a ranking.”

Lu Zhengyi had an indifferent attitude; this was not what he expected.

He was looking forward to...

"Have you really decided?"

When Zhang Xueming heard him say this, he couldn't help but turn around and ask, "Have you told the Taoist priest about this matter?"

"I'm not going to the cinema. I'm just uploading some videos on my own account. It's not normal in this era where everyone is a self-media blogger." Lu Zhengyi replied, "There should be an ending. As for those things, it doesn't matter whether you know them earlier or later."

"After so many years, they should be ready to adapt and prepare."

"I'll give it one last push so I don't fall behind the times."

Zhang Xueming paused.

"But that..."

Lu Zhengyi hadn't finished speaking yet, "It should be the world after we all left."

……

"Director Lu shook you."

Bai Weijia,
Bai Wei, who was pouring Chinese medicine out of the casserole, heard the phone ringing next to him. He hesitated, drank the medicine in his hand in one gulp, and turned on the screen.

Since the film was released, he has been staring at the box office data every day. He was so excited that he had difficulty sleeping and even got a little irritated.

If you just have a normal bad temper, you don't need to take Chinese medicine. But as you get older, you have a lot of health problems, big and small. Once the temper flares up, it affects other diseases, which becomes a serious problem.

"This is the last thing I'm going to teach you on behalf of Lao Zhang."

However, when Bai Wei turned on his phone, he saw this message.

What does this mean and what does it teach me?
He was a little puzzled.

But soon, the phone beeped, 'The blogger you follow has posted a new update.'

There was an additional Weibo message in the notification bar of the mobile phone.

Bai Wei clicked on it in confusion, only to see that Director Lu's Weibo had reposted a new update, which was from another long video platform, and attached the copy "Meilimao's real-life director's special edited version."

What do you mean?
He clicked on the video with some doubts and jumped to another platform to play it.

Wasn’t the filming record of Mei Limao edited by Director Lu himself?
"First!"

"What does a director's cut mean? Is there anything that won't pass muster in theaters?"

“I’ve seen the movie version, but I want to watch it a billion times more!”

“It was actually posted by the official account of Guangying Media, not a private account. Is this to attract more traffic?”

"Selling feelings again?"

Various comments appeared in the video.

Although Bai Wei was the first one to click on the video, and even the person involved reminded him in advance, he was still beaten to it by someone else.

Are those people living on Director Lu’s Weibo?
Ignoring the content of the barrage, Bai Wei continued reading.

"Brother Kang, what are you recording?"

A familiar yet strange voice came from the phone.

Bai Wei's eyes widened. That was his own voice.

To be exact, it was my younger self.

In recent years, as a director, I have been yelling at people on the set day and night. As time goes by, hoarseness has become the norm. I almost forgot what it felt like when my throat was not blocked.

And compared to now, my tone back then was full of vitality.

No, this picture.

The lens looked a bit old, and the picture effect was far less clear than today. In addition, the hand holding the lens was shaking, as if the recording was very casual.

"I'll try the camera. You said Director Lu could make any other movie, but he chose to make a horror movie."

“But forget it, the purpose was to catch up with Director Lu.”

"I just hope that when the time comes, Director Lu will return home to inherit the family business and bring us old officials back with him."

The place the camera is facing seems to be a wasteland.

Wei Kang's voice kept ringing, but no one answered.

"Keep your voice down, you're still recording!"

Bai Wei heard his own voice again and couldn't help but smile.

"It's okay. I'm in control of the camera position until the end of the shoot. I can just delete it then."

Wei Kang's voice continued to be heard.

Bai Wei himself almost forgot that they had ever had such a conversation.

Who would have thought that after the filming was over, under the intimidation of teacher Liang Meijuan, all of them obediently handed in their filming equipment, and they didn't even dare to delete them, let alone save, forward, or upload them to the cloud disk.

"Look, that seems to be the heroine this time."

As Wei Kang spoke, the camera suddenly turned and focused on the long-haired woman sitting in the corner in the distance.

Suddenly, the screen was filled with comments like '!'

Even Bai Wei couldn't help but shrink back. Although a long time had passed and she had a good relationship with everyone afterwards, that time could not make people forget the coldness of that guy.

It's not like the coldness of winter, but more like the feeling of blood stasis, where even though you are covered with a quilt and holding a hot water bottle, your hands and feet are still cold.

"If these things were released earlier, not only would we have the world's No. 1 box office data, we would have even been able to get the No. 1 box office data in the past 100 years."

Bai Wei muttered, what is there to teach this.

That's all. When Lu Zhengyi said he wanted to shoot behind-the-scenes footage, he had already thought of it and even mentioned it. Why should he put up something that was already there?

At the time, the crew members explained that if those things in the behind-the-scenes footage were released, it would cause chaos in the world.

Now? It's still released!
(End of this chapter)