This director needs to apologize

Chapter 223 The eyes are tired and the heart is tired

Sun Wangquan's new film is called "Jinling", and the first round of previews began as early as early December.

Starting with "Holiday" in 2009, after more than two years of development, test screenings have become a normal publicity method, and are followed by more and more movies.

Sun Wangquan's box office appeal is second to none in China. His blockbusters, like Wang Xiaogang's comedies, are types that do not require publicity to generate traffic.

Therefore, Zhang Weiping was so confident that the trial screening of "Jinling" was moved forward by ten days, and from the beginning it was a super large scale with 20 screenings in 100 cities in a single day.

On Tuesday, December 12, Chen Yiming, who had not appeared in public for a long time, appeared at the Grand Guangming Cinema in Shanghai to attend the media preview of "Jinling" in Shanghai.

When Ma Erye sent a message to Sun Wangquan, Chen Yiming had already said that he would only watch movies with Lao Sun and could accept questions from the host, but would not accept interviews from the media.

More importantly, there was Chen Yiming but no Zhang Weiping, and Lao Zhang was resolutely refused to appear.

Chen Yiming's request is reasonable and well-founded. After all, he cannot backstab his fans who are "demanding justice." You must know that Lao Zhang has not apologized to netizens for his inappropriate remarks.

Mr. Han replied after half a day and followed Chen Yiming's suggestion, so Chen Yiming's mission-style movie viewing began.

The preview screening was scheduled for 6: pm during prime time. When Chen Yiming and Sun Wangquan walked into the theater side by side, the atmosphere immediately reached its peak.

Lao Sun was very polite to Chen Yiming. Not only did he personally accompany him after the meeting, but he also pulled Chen Yiming along when he entered the venue, showing his closeness.

In fact, the two of them had been chatting awkwardly in the reception room the whole time, which was very awkward.

This is the second close contact between Chen Yiming and Sun Wangquan. The previous time was at the premiere of "The Founding of the People's Republic of China" where they nodded and said hello.

Now it was a private meeting between two people in a room, with no cameras and no interruptions, but they still had nothing to say.

After talking to each other for a long time, Sun Wangquan apologized on behalf of Zhang Weiping, but Chen Yiming responded unfavorably, and then the two of them entered an awkward state of having nothing to say.

Chen Yiming originally thought that Sun Wangquan was the one who was implicated by Zhang Weiping. He thought that he was a relatively pure filmmaker, but he met unkind people and was bound by a profit-seeking businessman to be used as a gunman.

However, the feelings after the exchange made it difficult for Chen Yiming to maintain his initial impression. It was obvious that Lao Sun was very clear about his partner's personality, but he was just too lazy to pay attention to it.

This can be seen from the casting. In his heart, Lao Sun still believes in the formula of big investment + big star = big production. Even though his previous blockbusters had a bad reputation, he still remains true to his original intention.

"Jinling" spent a salary of 100 million to choose the new Oscar winner as the male lead. Sun Wangquan frankly admitted that it was to break into overseas markets.

He swallowed the second half of the sentence and did not say it, but Chen Yiming fully understood that it was to compete for the Oscar.

Because when "Jinling" was set up to be filmed, "1951" was not there yet.

Originally, Chen Yiming was looking forward to the conversation with Sun Wangquan. Unfortunately, as much as his expectations were met, he was disappointed. The more they talked, the more Chen Yiming felt that he and he were not the same person at all.

In this regard, Chen Yiming feels that Chen Huaikai gives him a better impression. At least Chen is not hypocritical and speaks directly about what he cares about instead of using his wife, a producer, as a shield.

Regardless of the speculation, Chen Yiming gave up his thoughts on discussing technology with Sun Wangquan early. When the theater staff came into the room to greet them, Chen Yiming felt as if he had been granted amnesty.

Following Sun Wangquan all the way into the movie theater, Chen Yiming implemented the principle of only wearing his ears but not his mouth. After sitting down, he smiled the whole time and did his best to please others.

After all, it was Sun Wangquan's blockbuster. Not only all the media from the Magic City were present, but also many media from the surrounding cities of the Magic City as well as the Imperial Capital and Suicheng City came all the way.

However, not many of the film's main creators attended. Apart from director Sun Wangquan, only the heroine and the new Quan girl Ning Ning came with her.

After a brief opening remarks, the theater turned off the lights and started playing the movie. "Jinling" is said to be about the Anti-Japanese War, but it is actually adapted from a novel, which means it is not entirely true history.

However, Chen Yiming noticed that there was no label at the beginning of the film that the film was purely fictional.

The plot of the movie is not too complicated. During the Anti-Japanese War, a certain city was surrounded. A group of prostitutes and female students were surrounded in a church. The Hollywood actor played the priest of the church.

In the early days, the army asked female students to accompany them to drink. At this time, prostitutes stepped forward and died generously on behalf of the female students.

The war scenes in the first half are quite satisfactory, and the female group portrait scenes in the second half are beautiful, with the texture of oil paintings and church scenes, and the atmosphere of compassion and compassion is perfectly accentuated.

It is the story itself that makes Chen Yiming unable to complain.

The national disaster in the movie that was unforgettable for the Chinese people was turned into a pure background. The real stage of the story is actually a church that has never belonged to the Chinese people from ancient times to the present.

The prostitutes who were supposed to be infamous are in the movie holy, glamorous, and noble, and their swaying cheongsam skirts represent the old-era style of Jinling and even China.

Elements that truly reflect China's spirit of resistance, such as wounded soldiers, have never been the core of the story.

Church, priest, and cheongsam, these are the three most eye-catching visual symbols extracted by Chen Yiming from the movie.

It was difficult for Chen Yiming to convince himself that "Jinling" was a movie made for Chinese people. If he were Sun Wangquan, he would frankly admit that this movie was made for foreigners.

Unfortunately, Chen Yiming feels that both Sun Wangquan, who is looking for awards, and Zhang Weiping, who is looking for box office, will be disappointed.

Foreigners don't care about China's national crisis seventy or eighty years ago. The cheongsam on the girl is very beautiful, but it is difficult for foreigners to distinguish the people wearing cheongsam. Thirteen people are obviously too many, and people are face-blind.

Audiences in China, such as Chen Yiming, can only feel aggrieved after watching the movie.

In front of and behind Chen Yiming, reporters and ordinary viewers were sobbing and crying, but he just wanted to sneer.

Putting aside the uncomfortable theme of the movie, the narrative rhythm also made Chen Yiming feel depressed.

This is not a problem with Sun Wangquan's technique, but simply because the theme is limited and the clues are difficult to lay out.

In the extreme environment of the national crisis, the relationship between the characters was greatly simplified and turned into a single life and death.

If you are caught, you die, if you are not caught, you live. There is no in-between state. The characters in the film have only one dramatic mission, which is to survive.

The two-and-a-half-hour movie has only one rhythm: die first, then die, sooner or later. Watching the whole process is very tiring, both for the eyes and the heart.

Obviously, Hollywood movie stars can become a variable in it, leading to themes and subplots other than life and death, and breaking out of the established rhythm and atmosphere.

However, halfway through the movie, the money-seeking gangster was suddenly inspired by the Lord to activate the bloodline of a saint, transformed into a real priest and died a generous death.

Wang Defa!

And in this extreme situation involving life and death, everyone in the movie is actually a saint who sacrifices himself for others. The complex human nature is all holy and glorious.

If separated from the background of the national crisis, Chen Yiming can naturally be evaluated as "fake at first glance".

It's a pity that "Jinling", like "The Great Earthquake", has a gold medal of immunity from national pain. Chen Yiming can't curse and can only keep his mouth shut.

(End of this chapter)