Actor: My Entertainment Era

Chapter 636 Summer Season

The first and only Palme d'Or in Chinese has gilded the career of Director Kai Ge. With this trophy alone, Director Kai Ge can leave his name in the history of Chinese film.

Someone said something very vicious but somewhat reasonable: "If Director Kai Ge dies after filming Farewell My Concubine, he will be the undisputed number one Chinese director."

If you watch "Yellow Earth", director Kai Ge's debut film, I believe many people will agree that the director of this film is a genius.

Although many professionals criticized the lens language of "Yellow Earth" for being Japanese-style, who among the directors of his generation was not influenced by Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi?

Innovation in lens language almost came to a standstill 40 years ago, and this is the case all over the world.

There is no shame in paying tribute to or using the techniques of our predecessors. It depends on whether the director knows how to use them and how effective they are.

Chen Kaige, who was 32 years old at the time, was undoubtedly successful, and "Yellow Earth" indeed brought a new look to the Chinese film industry.

Zhang Yuanjun, a generation of filmmakers who was born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s, and started studying film at the beginning of the century, has naturally studied Chen Kaige's films and will naturally respect him.

However, precisely because Chen Kaige's works have been throughout their film study career, Zhang Yuanjun really can't figure out what went wrong and made Chen Kaige what he is now.

But Zhang Yuanjun still has expectations for this director who has made the best movies in China, and hopes that he can once again shock the film industry.

Director Kai Ge is only 63 years old this year, which is when a director has the strongest creative desire and the most mature thinking.

Because Chen Kaige’s values ​​​​have changed before and after the movie!
It seems that after entering the new century, Chen Kaige himself no longer believes in his previous film value system.

In "Yellow Earth", Chen Kaige is full of love for this land and sympathy and compassion for the people on this land. However, looking at Chen Kaige's films after entering the new century, it is really hard to imagine that " The director of "The Promise" is also the director of "Yellow Earth" and "Farewell My Concubine".

It can even be said that, except for Wang Jiawei, there is still no Chinese director who can compare with Chen Kaige in terms of film "artistic" - he knows what is beautiful in the camera and knows how to express this beauty.

However, this "Taoist Descends from the Mountain"...

At that time, he won the Palme d'Or for the Chinese film industry. It was inevitable and understandable that he would be inflated. After Zhang Yuanjun was crowned emperor with three gold medals, he also felt that he was the best in the world.

However, Chen Kaige's sensitivity to art and the artistic sense revealed in his films are still worthy of praise.

He once praised Zhang Yuanjun's performance in person: "Well, listen to the thunder in silence, the actor and the character become one. You have reached the stage of acting. We will discuss it more in the future and have the opportunity to work together."

Declining directorial skills and waning creative energy do not seem sufficient to explain this change.

But what about after the expansion?
Judging from the limited contacts between Zhang Yuanjun and Chen Kaige, Chen Kaige is definitely not the kind of arrogant director.

Zhang Yuanjun doesn't quite believe the theory that his level declined after "Farewell My Concubine" because of the expansion of director Kai Ge and the disintegration of the defiant team.

There must be this reason, but the main reason should still be the director himself.

He is humble, courteous, and generous in praising the achievements and contributions of others, and he remains sensitive to movies.

Zhang Yuanjun took the time to watch it. It's a half-good movie, but this movie is very ambitious.

Of course, Zhang Yuanjun spoke so for Chen Kaige not because the other party praised him.

But Chen Kaige used his artistry in the wrong place after the new century.

The theme of the movie is stated at the very beginning: "Anyone who resorts to any means is not a hero, but a true hero is one who does not change his original intention."

But the subject was too big and too mysterious to be photographed.

Chen Kaige's original intention for this story should be that the little Taoist priest went down the mountain and experienced the prosperity and then "remained true to his original intention", and finally settled on relief and enlightenment. But Chen Kaige chose a very lazy one, or in other words, he found that the story couldn't be contained in the end, so he chose a simple and crude method to clarify the main point - asking Elder Rusong to "reason" and inserting a lot of narration.

This gives the audience a feeling of "I can't shoot it anymore, so I'll just tell you."

As a result, the movie was stable for more than half of the time. When the audience thought that the familiar director Kai Ge was back, he suddenly gave the audience a slap in the face.

Silly!

Why does it end like this? !
It is very similar to the previous movie "Search". The audience thought that the director was going to film a story about cyber violence, but it turned out that what Chen Kaige wanted to film was love, or the love between Shen Liushu and Mo Xiaoyu.

The last breath didn't come out, it was all gone.

Zhang Yuanjun walked out of the cinema slightly disappointed.

It seems they are right, Chen Kaige is only suitable to be a director, not a screenwriter.

Moreover, there must be a strong producer and supervisor to suppress Chen Kaige and let him make movies honestly.

Sister Chen Hong, it’s not good.

However, "The Taoist Comes Down the Mountain" grossed 4300 million on the first day and 4 million in the first four days of the weekend, still creating the best results for director Chen Kaige in recent years, and also ignited the summer movie.

This summer’s film schedule is very interesting. Although many people criticize the "Tiny Times" series, they have to admit that this movie is really profitable!

The finale of the "Tiny Times" series, "Tiny Times 4: The End of the Soul," follows "The Taoist Comes Down the Mountain" and will be released a week later.

It's the beginning of July, when summer movies are just beginning to be scheduled like this. There will be more blockbusters in the future, so there won't be such a long window.

The meaning is obvious. "The Taoist Comes Down the Mountain" is a work by a major director. Give the director a week to harvest the box office and generate enthusiasm for the summer season, and then completely detonate the schedule with "Tiny Times 4", which is destined to be a hit.

Moreover, the day after this year's "Tiny Times 4" was released, He Jiong's "Gardenia Blooms" was released.

This film is very popular among the outside world!

He Jiong's national popularity is very high, and "Gardenia Blooms" is his most popular song. The name of the movie has a very obvious meaning - film it for fans!

"Gardenia Blooms" is another youth film!

He Jiong + "Gardenia Blooms" + youth film, these three elements combined together, just think about it, it can make money!
There is also an animated movie released on the same day as "Gardenia Blooms" called "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage".

Domestic animated films have been weak for a long time. Every year they call for the rise of Chinese comics, but every year they disappoint the audience.

But this film is different. "The Return of the Great Sage" debuted as the opening film at last month's summer promotion conference and won applause and cheers from almost all attendees.

However, there was almost no publicity for "The Return of the Great Sage". The crew was too poor. In addition to showing a few shows in advance to win praise from industry insiders, many viewers did not know that there was such an animated film in the summer until the movie was about to be released. .

Even less than 10% of the movie's previews were released before its release.

No matter what the theater managers have seen it, no matter what it is, no one will schedule it for an animated movie.

Just because it's good doesn't mean it's bound to be a hit. Sandwiched between "Tiny Times 4" and "Gardenia Blooms", how can theater managers believe that a Journey to the West animated film can make money?

(End of this chapter)