Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 94 I Don’t Want to Be a Literary Youth

Under normal circumstances, most audiences who go to the cinema to watch a movie will more or less seek a sense of immersion.

Especially martial arts movies.

The audience often puts themselves into the protagonist's shoes, hoping that they can climb walls and avenge their enemies.

Just like the audience watched "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" to see Guo Jing's extraordinary talents, drink snake blood, increase his power, form a relationship with Huang Rong, slap Ouyang Ke in the face, and destroy Yang Kang's conspiracy.

Instead of watching Guo Jing and Huang Rong, both husband and wife, die in battle in Xiangyang City.

"The Blade of the Assassin" is similar to the latter.

The tone of the movie was set from the beginning, depressing and heavy, and the protagonists had no chance of turning things around.

If this kind of movie was an art film, it would be fine, and there are indeed some audiences who like it.

But "The Blade of the Assassin" is a pure commercial film.

The three protagonists of a commercial film were not only used as pawns from beginning to end, but also died or escaped in the end.

With this plot setting, it is impossible for the audience to feel much immersion once they enter the cinema.

If the audience doesn’t feel involved, they will be unwilling to pay?

How can you get box office revenue without spending money?
For a purely commercial film, no matter how logical the plot is or how realistic the character settings are, as long as the box office is not high, it means that the film is not a success.

In Zhou Mo's opinion, many directors have a mysterious pursuit of art.

Some important characters must die to make the audience feel sad, so as to show the theme of the movie.

Commonly known as the literary youth disease.

But the action of forces is mutual.

If the director makes the audience uncomfortable, the audience will naturally vote with their feet.

Is it uncomfortable to watch?

Then I won’t watch it.

Therefore, this kind of plot must be drastically changed.

Zhou Mo simply wrote it down with a stroke of his pen.

The tragedy in the original play is that the main characters died.

changed!

The protagonist has a twisted personality, has been plotted against many times, and is doomed to fail.

Changed it too!
However, this time he did not change Shen Lian.

Shen Lian and the other two were still small minions of the Jinyiwei, getting up early and going to bed late every day, but there was no sign of any promotion.

He changed the protagonist.

Zhou Mo’s idea is that since Shen Lian and his two companions have suffered so much, the audience will not feel involved in the story, so it would be better not to let Shen Lian be the protagonist.

Let someone else be the protagonist.

In "Blade of the Assassin", there is another character who is not in the protagonist group, but through the connection with the third brother Jin Yichuan in the protagonist group, he steals most of the limelight of the whole movie——

Ding Xiu.

Ding Xiu's name was Run Ge, and his alias was Jiaqian Jushi.

In the movie setting, he is Jin Yichuan's senior.

The two of them were both disciples of the Qi family sword school.

This sect was spontaneously formed by some members after the Qi Family Army was disbanded.

As mentioned in the previous article, Jin Yichuan's real name is Ding Xian. He obtained his current identity by killing a Jinyiwei and taking his identity.

Jin Yichuan thought he had done it perfectly.

Unexpectedly, Ding Xiu discovered the clue.

Ding Xiu chased to the capital and contacted Jin Yichuan, threatening him with his identity and asking him to hand over one hundred taels, otherwise he would tell everyone about his theft.

Ding Xiu's original intention was to force his junior fellow apprentice to leave Jinyiwei.

He was experienced and realized that the current situation in the court was like a raging fire. If one was not careful, a raging fire would be ignited. As the emperor's lackeys, the Jinyiwei were in great danger of being in it.

However, Ding Xiu was a soft-hearted person with a hard mouth. He could not say a single nice word. Whenever he opened his mouth, vicious words would pour out like knives.

Faced with his junior fellow student’s plea, “My annual salary is only 20 taels of silver, where can I get 100 taels of silver?”

Ding Xiu's answer is:

"Then you can go and sell it. There are so many high-ranking officials in the capital, I'm sure there will be some who like your style. One hundred taels, no problem."

It would be strange if Jin Yichuan could understand him with such words.

The two brothers fought a fierce battle, and Jin Yichuan retreated in defeat.

Seeing that Jin Yichuan refused to leave Jinyiwei, Ding Xiu could only protect him in his own way. He first contacted Zhao Jingzhong, pretended to accept Zhao Jingzhong's request to kill Jin Yichuan, and received a bounty from him.

After getting the money, Ding Xiu not only did not carry out Zhao Jingzhong's orders, but instead killed all the other killers sent by Zhao Jingzhong.

What a touching family love.

In comparison, a certain Uchiha guy is simply born pure.

In addition, Ding Xiu discovered that there was something wrong with the clinic that his junior fellow apprentice often visited.

After investigation, it was discovered that the junior brother had developed feelings for the girl in this clinic.

However, the owner of the clinic, who is also the girl's father, disagreed.

The museum owner knew that Jin Yichuan was a member of the Imperial Guard and did not want his daughter Zhang Yan to have any contact with them, but he did not dare to openly stop him from flirting with his daughter.

So, he put a chronic poison in the medicine that Jin Yichuan often drank.

I hope to poison Jin Yichuan to death.

After Ding Xiu learned about this, he dealt with the museum owner, but did not harm Zhang Yan. Finally, after Jin Yichuan died, he placed Zhang Yan in the mansion he bought for his junior fellow apprentice.

As for the money to buy the house, of course it was cheated from Zhao Jingzhong.

A character like this, who is loyal, righteous, skilled in martial arts, but also a bit cynical, is exactly the image that countless audiences dream of.

Therefore, Zhou Mo did not hesitate to change the protagonist of the new version of "The Blade of the Assassin" to Ding Xiu.

The whole story is presented from his perspective.

Since the protagonist has changed, the heroine must naturally change as well.

The original heroine of the drama, Zhou Miaotong, was a girl from the Jiaofangsi.

She was originally the daughter of an official. When she was twelve years old, her home was searched and she was sent to the Jiaofangsi.

The one who looted her house was Shen Lian.

So there has always been a weird feeling between the two of them. Shen Lian feels more guilty towards Zhou Miaotong, while Zhou Miaotong feels more afraid of Shen Lian.

The relationship between Shen Lian and Zhou Miaotong is one of the few points in the original plot of "The Blade of the Assassin" that was complained by the audience.

It is unclear what Shen Lian’s feelings are towards Zhou Miaotong.

Anyway, Zhou Mo didn’t see it in his previous life.

Be it atonement or apology.

Maybe there's love involved.

Anyway, in the plot, Shen Lian is going to do everything he can to redeem Zhou Miaotong.

As for Zhou Miaotong, she plays no role in actively advancing the plot in the plot setting. The only outstanding thing about her is that she gives Shen Lian a chance to be a hero and save the beauty.

He had a fierce battle with Zhao Jingzhong in the Jiaofangsi.

In Zhou Mo's opinion, this kind of emotional design is a complete failure.

No matter in terms of identity or plot, there is absolutely no need for the two to have any feelings for each other.

In their previous life, the relationship between the two was also criticized by many viewers.

In the two "Blade Master" movies, the director's portrayal of emotions was not very successful.

Therefore, Zhou Mo directly changed the relationship between the two.

Add another identity to Zhou Miaotong——

spy.

She was made to belong to a mysterious organization called "Phoenix Guard", lurking in the capital, collecting information for the organization.

This time, the relationship between Zhou Miaotong and Shen Lian was purely one of exploitation.

Zhou Miaotong had some leverage over Shen Lian, so she threatened him to do a task assigned by the organization:

When Wei Zhongxian is found, spare his life.

The reason was that the organization behind Zhou Miaotong also wanted to obtain the property left behind by Wei Zhongxian.

So, they had to let Wei Zhongxian survive.

In this way, Shen Lian's choice to let Wei Zhongxian go became much more logical.

It's no longer just for money, but because someone is threatening them from behind and they have to do it.

In addition, Zhou Miaotong had another meaning behind forcing Shen Lian.

Her decision to target Shen Lian was not random, but a well-considered one.

As an intelligence organization, Phoenix Guard had long wanted to extend its hand into the Imperial Uniform Guard, a spy agency that also had personnel spread all over the country.

And Shen Lian was their attempt to infiltrate the Jinyiwei.

(End of this chapter)