director of the millennium

Is Zhang Yimou’s new version of “The Great Wall” good?

Wu Yuan, who has already seen the finished film on Light and Shadow Times, thinks it is quite good.

As a commercial blockbuster, it is definitely qualified and deserves the word "blockbuster" more than "Man Jiang Hong".

It is also more to the taste of Chinese movie fans than the version produced in collaboration with Legendary Pictures.

Apart from anything else, just the fact that the main story was changed from a group of mercenary foreigners who came from Rome to steal gunpowder being inspired by the Chinese army guarding the Great Wall and in turn leading them to fight against the Taotie army to protect humanity is enough to give Wu Yuan a thumbs up.

It wouldn't work to shoot a movie like this in China, even if the leading actor is Matt Damon. Only Japanese and Koreans can accept this!

For Chinese people, watching the original version of "The Great Wall" always gives them an indescribable weird feeling, which feels very uncomfortable.

Even if we just remove these foreigners and don't change other parts, the film "The Great Wall" will be more pleasing to Chinese movie fans.

It’s not that all Chinese movie fans are extreme racists, it’s just that this is a story that takes place on Chinese land, but with a few foreigners playing the leading roles. This kind of drama is indeed difficult for Chinese movie fans to adapt to.

Just like North American audiences are unlikely to accept a commercial blockbuster in which a superhero from China saves the world.

They can accept watching a story that takes place in China and in which the Chinese save the world because it is a "foreign story."

Similarly, Chinese movie fans can also accept watching stories like "Iron Man" about an American superhero saving America and even the world, because the story background originally takes place abroad.

But the whole story is set in China, but a few foreigners, even mercenaries who stole gunpowder, were moved and inspired in various ways, and then stayed to save China despite the danger to their lives. That would be really weird!

This time, without Legendary Pictures' interference, Zhang Yimou studied the script from beginning to end himself and made "The Great Wall", which has the authentic Chinese flavor.

The story begins with a grand battle to defend the Great Wall. The Great Wall, which is comparable to the Transformers in the original movie, has been preserved and has become the focus of the opening scene.

The Great Wall Corps guarding the Great Wall relied on this very "steampunk" Great Wall fortress. After a dazzling and exciting battle, they protected the Great Wall and wiped out the invading monster army.

Then, several protagonists appeared one after another, explaining the background of the story and introducing the magical world of the movie.

It turns out that China in this world has always been threatened by a monster called Taotie that feeds on humans. Every year, Taotie organizes his monsters to attack the Great Wall, trying to break into the human world and grab blood for food.

The purpose of the human army building the Great Wall is also to resist the invasion of monsters.

Humans have relied on the Great Wall to fight against the Taotie for thousands of years. Every sixty years, the Taotie will come for a big fight. Not only is the scale of the exotic beasts several times larger than in ordinary years, but the Taotie will also fight personally! In the last year of the big fight, a pass on the Great Wall was breached, resulting in nearly one million people in Shangjun being plundered by the Taotie and becoming blood food.

Next year will be the year of the great war that occurs once every sixty years. The Great Wall Corps is facing a very serious crisis. The soldiers of the Great Wall Corps who experienced the last great war have almost all died long ago. The current Great Wall Corps is a new generation, and none of them have experienced such a major crisis.

In the middle of the film, some stories about the great war sixty years ago are interspersed. The marshal of this generation of the Great Wall Corps (played by Liu Dehua) is the grandson of the marshal of the previous generation. Because they have been in the army for three generations, the court is very wary of them, fearing that the Great Wall Corps will become the marshal's private army and in turn overthrow the royal rule.

The main plot of the story revolves around how the Great Wall Corps tries every possible means to strengthen its defense, train elite soldiers, and improve the lethality of the Great Wall fortress, and finally prepare for this once-in-sixty-years war.

At the same time, the protagonist Liu Dehua has to withstand the pressure from the court and all kinds of open and covert attacks from the court dignitaries. The pressure from the front and the rear is enormous.

In the end, the Great Wall Corps withstood the pressure of internal and external troubles. After an extremely tragic battle, with countless touching sacrifices, and even the death of the marshal, they finally defended the Great Wall and welcomed the dawn.

The story is actually very simple, and it is also a classic Hollywood commercial movie routine. It is nothing more than that mankind is facing the crisis of extinction, and then a certain person or a certain team stands up and ultimately protects the world.

There are at least 80 movies with this kind of routine in Hollywood, but this routine is still enduring and still works!
Even in mainland China, this routine can still be considered fresh, because before this, China did not have many commercial blockbusters about saving the world. Most Chinese commercial blockbusters usually chose to adapt myths and legends.

For example, "Havoc in Heaven", "The Monkey King 3: The Legend Begins", and "The Demon King: Conquering the Demons".

"The Great Wall" is indeed China's first "world-saving" movie. Since December, there have been large-scale promotions for "The Great Wall" online and offline, from posters to trailers to various short videos, almost filling the Internet.

Guangying Times was also willing to spend money on publicity, spending a full 1 million yuan on promotion and marketing, and even encouraged many big Vs in the film industry to cheer for it.

At least the gimmick of "China's first doomsday crisis movie" was hyped up, and it even took advantage of the popularity of "Pacific Rim".

After all, in a sense, the story of "The Great Wall" is similar to that of "Pacific Rim". Both of them build "high walls" to resist the great crisis of human extinction such as monster invasion.

The only difference is that the setting of Pacific Rim is modern times, while the setting of The Great Wall is ancient times.

The monsters in "Pacific Rim" come from the sea, and the monsters in "The Great Wall" come from the land.

The monsters in "Pacific Rim" come one by one or two, while in "The Great Wall" a large army of monsters comes at once.

All I can say is that although Legendary Pictures did not intervene, there is indeed the shadow of Legendary Pictures everywhere in the making of "The Great Wall", but it is just the shadow of a monster movie. Light and Shadow Era can openly promote itself as a monster movie, and no one stipulates that only Legendary Pictures can make monster movies!
Taotie is a monster from China's own "Classic of Mountains and Seas". In terms of its origin, isn't it much earlier than Godzilla, Mothra and others?
Doomsday crisis + monsters, Guangying Times seized on these two points and promoted it vigorously on the Internet, and it really quickly made "The Great Wall" a well-known movie.

Coupled with Zhang Yimou’s own popularity and the hype of his first special effects blockbuster, it can be said that "The Great Wall" has become the focus of attention from all parties before it was released, and the elements couldn’t be more complete!
It was also in such a heated atmosphere that just after New Year’s Eve, when the general public had not yet come to terms with the complaints of the Spring Festival Gala, “The Great Wall” was released on a large scale on the first day of the New Year along with five other equally popular movies!
On the day of its release, The Great Wall took up 16.8% of the screenings, making it the most popular film of all! (End of this chapter)