director of the millennium

Beijing, at the entrance of Light and Shadow Times Cinema.

Liu Yifei, who had put on some disguise, took Wu Yuan's arm and walked out of the studio with him, muttering, "It's not as mysterious as they say on the Internet."

“I thought it was so pretty.”

"The sentimental plot was a bit too deliberate, especially the scene at the end where the heroine eats mangoes."

"The character design of the protagonist is a bit too pretentious and cloying."

“Although it’s not a bad movie, it shouldn’t be so popular on the Internet, right?”

Listening to Liu Yifei's complaints, Wu Yuan smiled without saying anything.

Under his influence over the years, Liu Yifei's film appreciation ability has indeed increased day by day. If it were ten years ago, she would never think that movies are "pretentious". In fact, the more "pretentious" the movie is, the more she likes it, such as "Night Peacock".
But now she is much more mature.

Today is January 2018, 1, and it is the second week since the release of "Ex-Files 11: The Final Chapter".

Wu Yuan and Liu Yifei did not attend the preview of this movie, nor did they come to the cinema to watch the movie as soon as it was released. Instead, they chose to wait until word of mouth and reviews had settled before slowly coming to the cinema to watch the movie.

In fact, rather than watching a movie, it is more about reliving the dating atmosphere of those years.

However, after watching the movie, Liu Yifei still had a lot to complain about.

The box office performance of "Ex-Files 3" is very legendary. No one had expected the result before it was released. The box office started to soar on the second day and it actually became the biggest dark horse of the Lunar New Year box office.

From the second day after the film was released, it became the most discussed film on the Internet, triggering a strong emotional resonance among netizens.

However, this film has a wide range of emotional resonance among the audience, but it is not a high-scoring work in the standard sense.

"Maybe that's a bit harsh." Wu Yuan thought about it and analyzed it with Liu Yifei: "In fact, the audience of this movie is not old-timers like us, but the vast number of young people in third- and fourth-tier cities."

"The craze for this movie started in lower-tier cities, and the word-of-mouth wave also "flowed back" from third- and fourth-tier cities to first-tier cities."

"This process lasted for a while, and finally on the second Saturday of the film's release, it achieved a single-day box office record of 2.03 million yuan."

"And this success is entirely due to the efforts of the vast number of 'small town youth'."

"Starting with 'The Pancake Man', almost all phenomenal movies in the past few years have ended up being discussed about 'small town youth'. They are the users who are sinking to the lower levels. Only when the basic volume reaches saturation and the incremental volume comes in, can the movie become a hit."

"I don't like the name the media currently uses for this group - small town youth."

"In my opinion, small town youth are the 'incremental population' of the Chinese film market. They are a new group that emerged when the market expanded to more extensive third- and fourth-tier small cities after the number of moviegoers in China's major first- and second-tier cities reached saturation."

"Most of them are young people from third- and fourth-tier cities who have just started to watch movies. Their movie-watching experience and the amount of movies they have watched are not high. Before this, the movie-watching needs of "small town youth" were "passive". They did not speak out and could not influence public opinion."

"Now, they are no longer silent and have the opportunity to show their attitude and support their favorite movies, which is a good thing." "In fact, the preferences of these new movie fans in the sinking market can be seen from the trend of blockbuster movies in the past two years."

"From Wolf Warriors 2 to Ex-Files 3, the "emotional resonance" in these movies has begun to surpass discussions about the movies themselves, becoming an important point that triggers mass consumption and forms a movie-watching trend - the recent blockbuster movies are all able to make the audience cry."

"Emotional infection is surpassing the traditional visual bombardment of audio-visual stimulation consumption." Stories that resonate will be more successful in this market. "

“Emotional genre films have the commercial potential to surpass audio-visual blockbusters.”

"To put it simply, movies that can trigger emotional resonance among moviegoers and make people cry are more likely to sell well than those that rely on special effects and visual impact."

"Maybe in our opinion, this movie is hypocritical and cloying, the story is incomplete, and it relies entirely on dialogue to drive emotions and is deliberately sensational. But it is undeniable that this movie can indeed resonate with a large number of young people in third- and fourth-tier cities. They don't need to think about these things. As long as there is a point in the movie that touches their hearts and makes them empathize, they will give it a good review."

"That's why the reputation of Ex-Files 3 started to rise in third- and fourth-tier cities, and the ratings on Douban and Maoyan were also extremely polarized, with a strong sense of division."

"Although the first 100 minutes of the film continued the cheesy old routine of the "Ex" series, the last 20 minutes told a tragic story of a final breakup. This successfully hit the audience's tear point, making everyone empathize and immediately think of their own past."

At this point, Wu Yuan glanced at Liu Yifei and said with a smile: "Perhaps it's because you have only been in love once in your life and have never had the experience of breaking up, so you can't resonate with this movie."

During that experience in the dream, Wu Yuan also resonated with some of the plots in "Ex-Files 3" when watching the movie, and there were a few moments that made him cry.

This movie is indeed not as useless as Liu Yifei said, nor is it as bad as some Douban users commented.

Perhaps this movie really has no artistic value, and even the story is very old-fashioned and the sensationalism is very deliberate, but it does cater to the current sinking market of Chinese films, and its success is well deserved.

"Tsk~" Liu Yifei rolled her eyes and patted Wu Yuan's chest in dissatisfaction: "Nonsense."

"Although I have never experienced a broken heart, I can still relate to some touching romance novels and movies. I can shed tears for the plots and stories, and feel regret for those sincere loves."

"But this movie didn't give me that feeling, I just felt awkward most of the time."

"Okay." Wu Yuan spread his hands. This topic had come to an end. A young woman like Liu Yifei who was more interested in literature and art would indeed look down on commercial romance films like "Ex-Files 3" that used forced melodrama to create sensationalism. What she liked were romance films that were natural and real, like "Love" shot by Wu Yuan back then.

"Everyone has different aesthetic tastes. It's normal that you don't like it." Wu Yuan finally concluded: "Anyway, this movie is indeed loved by a lot of fans in the sinking market, and it has created a lot of box office revenue for Light and Shadow Times. That's enough~"

"The Spring Festival is only half a month away, and the bloodier Spring Festival season is coming. By then, there should be a movie that suits your taste."

"That's right~" Liu Yifei smiled and held Wu Yuan's hand tightly.

It’s not that she doesn’t like commercial films. In fact, she loves watching them and has even made some commercial romantic comedies like “Time Travelers”. She just doesn’t feel anything for “Ex-Files 3”.

"Then let's look forward to the upcoming Spring Festival!"

"By the way, come back to my hometown with me to spend the New Year with grandma." (End of this chapter)