This director needs to apologize

Chapter 409: Cultural Porter (Finale)

During the Spring Festival of 2017, Chen Yiming and An Xixi returned to their hometown outside the Great Wall for the second time to celebrate the New Year.

This time, Mr. and Mrs. Chen really treat Sister An as their daughter-in-law.

Dad Chen privately murmured to Chen Yiming that ever since his son entered the entertainment industry, the old couple has never thought about having grandchildren normally.

The constant chaos in the news made Chen's mother feel that instead of urging Chen Yiming to find a partner, it would be better to let him be single, so as to avoid the trouble later. Without expectations, there will naturally be no worries.

Who would have thought that Chen Yiming was really serious about dating and planning to get married? When she heard at the New Year's Eve dinner that An Xixi was going to become a director and work behind the scenes, Chen's mother felt relieved.

She even believed that there was true love in the entertainment industry.

In my hometown, it is customary not to pay New Year’s greetings on the first day of the New Year, so our family of four went out to see a movie together for the first time, and the movie we watched was "The Negotiation Expert" produced by Platinum.

Although there is a small word "Chinatown 2" on the promotional poster, Tian Li and Wang Wei's styles are completely different.

"The Usual Suspects" has a humorous light comedy style. Wang Wei's inherent wedding planning gene makes him prefer to add a little humor to harmonize the atmosphere after the excitement, and the rhythm is more in line with the preferences of ordinary audiences.

Tian Li is a graduate of an orthodox film school, and he shot "The Negotiation Expert" in a neat and well-organized manner with strong interlocking plots, which is full of drama style and is relatively more to the taste of veteran movie fans.

For example, Mr. and Mrs. Chen, who seldom go to the cinema on weekdays, said after watching the movie that the two-hour movie was too tense and they were exhausted.

This had been predicted by Platinum Films internally, but this is also a normal performance for feature films. It is abnormal for domestic films to always add some comedy elements to all the themes.

With the accelerated conversion of audiences to moviegoers, feature films of various styles will sooner or later have roughly similar market performance. "The Negotiation Expert" suffered a small loss at the box office but gained a lot in word of mouth, so it still won overall!

After the Spring Festival box office came to an end, the media hyped that Platinum's dominance was no longer there, because "Negotiation Expert" only took in more than 7 million yuan at the box office, ranking third on the schedule list.

Experts and movie fans were clamoring for Chen Yiming to come out, and media reporters were eager to find the real person to express their opinions, but it turned out that one side was too eager and Chen Yiming did not come out at all, and no one could even find him.

This disappearance lasted for more than half a year.

It was not until the end of July that Chen Yiming reappeared at the premiere of Wu Lianjing's new film.

People then discovered that Lao Wu's "Blade 2" was actually about Chen Yiming, and the word "consultant" was clearly stated in the opening subtitles.

When being interviewed, Chen Yiming was inevitably asked about the new project. He was still ambiguous and just said that he was working on it.

No one, including Wu Lianjing himself, expected that "Blade 2" could single-handedly change the history of Chinese cinema. This tough guy movie, which broke the defenses of public intellectuals, fans and literary youth, raged from the summer vacation to Christmas, and raked in nearly 60 billion yuan in box office revenue in one go.

The number of moviegoers reached 2.7 million, a record that even the prehistoric giant "Shaolin Temple" could not match.

Chen Yiming has been saying openly and secretly for several years that times have changed, but the effect is not as good as a movie like "Blade 2". It turns out that real money is more convincing.

Platinum Film Studio itself was also greatly frightened by Lao Wu's mudslide. "Her Memories" was pushed from the National Day to the Lunar New Year, and then to the Spring Festival, and was forced to continue the company's tradition.

Compared with last year's "Negotiation Expert", "Her Memories" is treated more like a real son, because the publicity and distribution channels are fully connected to the "LeXiang APP".

After three years of hard work, this small application that was created by accident has developed into a unicorn in the eyes of venture capitalists. The dividends that Ma Shaoye received from Platinum-related companies, the money he earned from his idol's fans, and the funds recovered from the sale of "Laying Academy" have basically all been invested in this bottomless pit of burning money.

The reward was that Xiao Ma Dong became one of the most advanced angel investors in China, although he only invested in one Internet company, LeXiang.

LeXiang's bald programmers were responsible for the technical breakthroughs, and Chen Yiming, the time-travel BUG, ​​helped to light the way. LeXiang rushed forward in an almost straight line, killing countless competitors until it became the industry leader with a market share of nearly 50%.

"Her Memories" is the first attempt at short video marketing. It takes the most conservative goddess route and aims to attract LSP audiences with the lowest conversion rate.

However, netizens' acceptance of new things is also increasing rapidly. The effect of this wave of marketing far exceeded expectations. Xiaoqi's beautiful little video broke out of LeXiang and achieved breakthroughs during the preview stage, and then became an emoticon package circulated across the country during the Spring Festival holiday, bringing the box office of "Her Memories" to new highs.

Sitting on the right cusp, even a pig can take off. Wu Lianjing traveled around China for four months and attracted new audiences to the cinema, at least half of whom fell into the pocket of "Her Memories", directly making Xiao Qi the new generation of national sister.

37 billion! Incredible box office figures, even more shocking than "Blade 2".

Chen Yiming is no longer in the world, but the legend of Chen Yiming still exists in the world.

Platinum has once again set a precedent in the industry. With the support of LeXiang short video marketing, the medium-cost feature films produced by Platinum can always achieve a higher market performance than its peers.

In May 2018, Wang Wei's assistant director Liu Muyang launched Chinatown 5 before Wang Wei. The stage was moved to Busan, South Korea. This time it was a story about a thief who outsmarted the chaebol.

Among the many Hollywood story ideas provided by Chen Yiming, Liu Muyang chose the all-star "Ocean's Eleven", which perfectly served as a link between the past and the future.

Main characters from the first two games, such as Duan Yining, continue to appear, and new characters are naturally introduced by changing the map. Together with three star vases from South Korea and Xiao Ri Zi, an international lineup that is both balanced and pleasing to the eye is built.

The villain was played by actor Shen Ming, and Uncle Ming's style never disappoints.

The box office revenue of 27 billion during the normal period set a new record for the Chinatown series and proved the infinite potential of this IP.

Five months later, during the National Day holiday, Wang Wei’s new film “A Thousand Miles Away from Home” was released. It tells the story of a Chinese couple’s survival during a civil unrest in a foreign country. It was jokingly called the civilian version of “Blade 5”. This was the first time that a Platinum director threw away his crutch named Chen Yiming and wrote and directed the film himself. The latter only listed as the planner and provided a few partial opinions.

Facts have proved that Platinum's free-range policy is indeed conducive to creativity. Wang Wei won the Special Jury Prize in his Cannes debut with "A Thousand Miles Away", and the domestic box office exceeded 3 million, achieving both good reputation and box office success.

During the 19 Spring Festival, Tian Li used the "Love Actually" provided by Chen Yiming as a blueprint and used the Ice and Snow Festival in the Ice City of Heilongjiang Province as the stage to perform a romantic comedy, "Ice City Love Story", which was an interweaving of the joys and sorrows of five couples.

It still has the flavor of a platinum-style love movie, with a touch of melancholy, timeless warmth, and a long aftertaste.

The booming film market and diverse promotional methods have enabled this film to achieve double the performance feedback compared to Xiangrui’s two previous works.

24 billion, an upper limit that was unimaginable for all previous love movies, and a result that made peers in the industry significantly raise their market expectations.

In fact, this movie is the real example of how the Platinum route has become popular. Chinatown or science fiction films are all examples that look beautiful but are actually poorly operational, and it is difficult for peers to replicate them. However, Ice City Love Story is the most familiar field for China's middle-aged directors, and the opened ceiling allows everyone to see more possibilities.

2019 was the breakout year for Platinum's feature film project. Led by Lee Joon and three former assistant directors, four medium-budget films of various genres were released throughout the year.

The performance was unsatisfactory, with the highest exceeding 10 billion and the lowest being to million, but none of them lost money.

At this time, the "inflation" in the Chinese film industry had become very serious. Twenty or three billion was no longer uncommon, and 10 billion was only considered average. Platinum's temporary high productivity naturally could not gain him the evaluation commensurate with his reputation, and it seemed like a thing of the past as he praised the high and bullied the low.

This also caused Chen Yiming, who had been hiding behind the scenes for a long time, to be picked up by the public opinion again, because all these movies were named after him.

Although he is not even listed as a screenwriter, he appears more often in the producer and planner column.

Just as Platinum Films survived 2019 amidst a barrage of criticism, Moving Mountains was released during the Spring Festival of the following year.

A joint work of Emperor Circle and Magic Circle, with an investment of 500 million (not an exaggeration) and four years to make, this is China's first science fiction blockbuster, and it ultimately lived up to its title and expectations that overflowed from the poster.

54 billion box office, dominating the Spring Festival period!
It's true that the profit is not as much as "Blade 2", but it's better to make a sequel to this IP.

The first part of "Moving Mountains" only tells the story of two days and one night before the collapse of the earth. At the end of the movie, the Everest had not even been ignited and set off, and countless craters were left in front and behind.

At least the little broken ball in the previous life had the original book to refer to. All the settings of "Moving Mountains" are in Luo Xiao's folder. Want to make a fan work? No problem, just go to the movie and take screenshots frame by frame.

So much so that half a year later, when the setting art book of "Moving Mountains" was published, it directly topped the bestseller list.

Thanks to the tireless digging of various media, the behind-the-scenes story of "Moving Mountains" was gradually pieced together, and Chen Yiming finally surfaced.

In order to keep his investment share in the sequel, Big Wang simply swallowed his own pride. He was a stepping stone for Luo Xiao on one side and a pawn for Chen Yiming on the other. He talked about the negotiation process between Yu Fu and Da Zhuang over and over again in front of the media. It was so full of ups and downs, but there was only one central idea, that Luo Xiao was strong, San Ye was tough, and Chen Yiming was strong and tough.

The birth of "Moving Mountains" is forcibly wrapped in a layer of legendary color, and is filled with the relish of a wise horse meeting a discerning horse breeder in adversity.

This also introduced a lot of fans to Luo Xiao and Chen Yiming, especially Chen Yiming, who lived up to his nickname of the movie Midas Touch, and there was even a joke that whoever he glared at would get pregnant.

This trend reached its peak after the release of Ancisi's directorial debut, "Alice in Wonderland". As the name suggests, the movie adapted the classic fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland", but in fact it is a gender-reversed version of "Jumanji".

An Xixi gave up directing and acting in the film, and the heroine was played by the younger generation national sister Xiao Qi, and the background of the film was set in the current imperial capital.

The protagonist Ellie was a native of the imperial capital born in the 6s. When she was years old, she was stranded in a foreign world because of the strange compass in her family's warehouse. It was more than years later when she returned.

The different flow of time in the two worlds makes the returning Ellie still look like she is in her early twenties, and her experience of growing up in another world as a child makes her incompatible with the modern emperor.

The other three companions in the compass game vaguely correspond to the three companions in "The Wizard of Oz", the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion.

The flying chess in the original work has been transformed into an unstoppable cooperative game here. Three partners appear one after another and form the protagonist group halfway through the movie. Their opponents are alien creatures summoned into the world by the compass.

The adventure came to an end with the resolution of the crisis. Ellie regained her identity and sense of responsibility as a Chinese, and once again gained long-lost family affection. The three companions, each with their own problems, opened their frozen hearts and regained persistence, courage and empathy.

For Chinese audiences, "Ally in Wonderland" is the first fantasy adventure film set in a modern Chinese city. The sense of immersion and special effects alone are worth the price of the ticket.

More than a dozen alien creatures designed based on the Classic of Mountains and Seas make people realize another possible reproduction of Chinese classical mythology. Through Ellie's journey in the new imperial capital, the film brings to the table the "collapse of rituals and music" brought about by China's drastic social changes in the past 40 years, and gives the film a strong humanistic color in addition to being an adventure film.

Directed by An Xixi and written by Chen Yiming, this couple who just came to light worked hard and soared all the way to break the record of "Blade 2", ranking fifth on the global box office list with 65 billion Huayuan in China and 6 million Nut Coins overseas.

For the first time, a Chinese film appeared in the TOP 10 of the global box office list.

He directly promoted his wife from a novice director to the throne of the world's number one female director. This is the power of Chen Yiming.

What makes Chen Yiming even more gratified is the good prospects of the industry without the epidemic, excessive marketing, or plagiarism. With Platinum Films setting the pace for the industry and movie fans, Chinese films in this time and space still show a different development trajectory compared to the past.

After all, when it comes to adaptation and localization, who can be better than the producer Chen Da, who has lived two lives? And who can be more productive than the screenwriter Chen Da, who has a lot of stories in his mind?
In response to the persistent flattery from the public and fans, Chen Yiming, who has truly retired, just wants to respond silently.

There is no need to worship me. I am just a carrier of culture.

(End of this chapter)