China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

After the Spring Festival, good news comes one after another.

First, "Inception" won a total of nine nominations at the 77th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Visual Effects. And because the director is Chinese, it has won awards in North America, Europe and China. Caused a huge sensation.

In fact, Jiang Heng is not the first Chinese director to receive so many Oscar nominations. The first one was Li Eucalyptus who shot "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

But because he previously made low-cost literary films, he is not that well-known to ordinary audiences.

Jiang Heng is different. Since 1997, he has made special effects blockbusters one after another, sometimes even two in a year, but he has never been recognized by important awards.

At this moment, it has been nominated for nine Oscars. The contrast between before and after is huge, it is really eye-catching.

As a result, entertainment media in North America and Europe have begun to discuss whether Jiang Heng can win the award and whether he can win the grand prize.

As for the mainland, it went directly to CCTV news and the whole country became aware of it instantly.

Directors Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaizhen, Feng Xiaogang and others felt sour after watching it.

From the cast of "The Golden Armor", Zhang Yimou, who was originally relatively silent, became even more silent after hearing the news.

He has made several blockbusters in a row in recent years, and has been criticized by the audience for not being able to tell good stories. An important reason is that he wants to cater to Western aesthetics and compete for Oscars.

As a result, the box office was not very high, the reputation in the mainland was average, and it failed to win the Oscar.

Jiang Heng only used special effects as a selling point and focused on telling a good story, and he was actually nominated for nine awards.

When he first heard the news, Lao Zhang almost had a breakdown in his Taoist heart!

Zhang Weiping, who was on the side, also had his teeth itching with envy, and hummed: "This boy is really lucky. He got it like this. He must have spent a lot of money!"

Zhang Yimou did not comment on this, thought for a while and sighed: "Let's finish filming this first!"

Zhang Weiping said: "Yes, at least we can calm down the guy named Zhou and finish filming this film. Damn it, I've never seen him so good at putting on a show. Jiang Heng can even compete with Spielberg and Cameron." You're always polite. That guy couldn't survive in Hollywood and came back to act like a Hollywood star. It's so outrageous!"

Zhang Yimou advised: "Hey, at this time, I can only endure it. If you have anything to say, we can talk about it after filming!"

Zhang Weiping nodded, with a fierce look in his eyes, "When the filming is over, let's see how I deal with him!"

If Zhang Yimou was simply "broken" when he heard that "Inception" had been nominated for nine Oscars, then Chen Kaizhen could only describe it as "collapsed."

What does it feel like? It's basically the same as when you are at your lowest, the person in your village or class who you usually look down on the most becomes prosperous, and then you know about it.

In the capital city, inside a mansion.

Chen Kaizhen was sitting on the sofa, watching "Inception" playing on the plasma TV, with an expression of disbelief on his face.

In fact, at this time, pirated CDs of "Inception" were already sold everywhere.

And because of the "Oscar nomination", it was sold out in many places.

Director Chen Kaijian originally disdained buying pirated CDs, but fortunately the "Six Princesses of CCTV" responded promptly and replayed "Inception" for several days.

Chen Kaizhen was really angry, so he sat down and read it again.

After the movie ended, he turned to Chen Hong and asked, "Do you think this movie was good?"

Chen Hong said hurriedly: "It's quite ordinary. It's just a commercial film with a bit of suspense and special effects. It really has no artistic quality!"

"Let me tell you, Americans sometimes don't have very good eyesight!"

Chen Hong quickly agreed, and Chen Kaizhen spoke impassionedly, but after finishing speaking, he felt even more uncomfortable.

Due to the collapse of both the reputation and box office of "The Promise", the originally planned "Legend of Monkey King" lost its investors.

What’s even more irritating is that not only the big productions are gone, but also the films with small and medium investments, no one comes to him to shoot them. How embarrassing is this!

Seeing that he was really depressed, Chen Hong suggested: "How about we go to the United States to stay for a while and relax! Maybe there may be some opportunities when we get there!"

Chen Kaizhen was moved when he heard this. He had gone to the United States for further study and was a visiting professor at the New York Film Academy. He would not have nothing to do there.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Okay, let's go there for a while first!"

Lao Chen didn't mention flying to the United States with his wife and children, but he said that during this period, Jiang Heng accepted many media interviews because "Inception" won nine Oscar nominations.

After finally calming down for a while, the global box office results of "Journey to the West: Pingdingshan" are also released.

635 million US dollars, far less than the 912 million US dollars of "Inception", ranking fifth in the global box office rankings in 2004.

"Inception" ranked second, behind "Shrek 2" with $928 million

The performance of "Journey to the West: Pingdingshan" in North America and Europe can only be said to be mediocre, while in East Asia and Southeast Asia, it broke previous box office records.

Especially in the mainland market, it exceeded the 800 million mark, and the final score was fixed at 813 million yuan, directly contributing to a box office success of 100 million US dollars.

In Hong Kong, despite a group of filmmakers calling for a boycott, "Journey to the West: Pingdingshan" actually achieved a box office success of 97 million Hong Kong dollars, second only to "Titanic" with 115 million Hong Kong dollars.

One more thing to say is that "Titanic" is really too strong.

The box office record set around the world has allowed latecomers to catch up for many years.

In 2008, Cape No. 7, which was released in Taiwan, was already a hit.

After 113 days of release, it took in NT$530 million at the box office, but it only ranked second in Taiwan's movie box office history, still second to Titanic.

And Journey to the West: Pingdingshan also performed well in Taiwan, taking in NT$460 million at the box office.

It can only be said that the theme of Sun Wukong is the biggest IP for Chinese people.

In the previous life, a rather badly made Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven could take in 1 billion at the box office, not to mention the well-made Journey to the West: Pingdingshan.

In Japan, Journey to the West: Pingdingshan also set off a movie-watching craze, after all, people here also like the theme of "Journey to the West".

Let's not talk about the previous eye-catching TV series of Journey to the West. The popularity of Dragon Ball also shows their love for the theme of "Journey to the West".

Not only "Journey to the West", but even "Red Cliff", which was criticized as a bad movie in China and did not do well at the box office, achieved good results when it was released in Japan.

In South Korea, "Journey to the West: Pingdingshan" also broke their box office records. This country seems to love Chinese culture more.

Some scholars even shamelessly promoted that "Journey to the West" was written by a Korean scholar when he went to the Ming Dynasty to study.

Because it was about Xuanzang's journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures, and because he went to the West to study, he named the book "Journey to the West".

Originally a very absurd and full of loopholes, the rumor was spread in a realistic way and was recognized by many Koreans.

There were even more outrageous Korean netizens who called Jiang Heng online and asked him to settle the copyright fees for the two movies "Lion Camel Ridge" and "Pingdingshan".