Choose a day to become famous

“It’s not that negative reviews of a movie don’t do much harm to the movie, but for a movie like The Call, if you try to control reviews and suppress some negative reviews, the effect will be counterproductive, because it’s not the kind of movie that has no negative reviews.”

In Linyu's TV column, she also analyzed this matter incisively.

"For the film industry, because of the high risk of movies and the decisive role of the first-day or first-weekend box office in the life and death of the entire movie, everyone has long been afraid of bad reviews. Even though we all say that bad reviews are bad reviews and should be criticized, from the perspective of the film producers, this is definitely not the case. In fact, I think "The Call" has brought a new trend to the entire film industry, that is, audiences don't have to wait for a movie to be perfect before they are willing to go to the cinema to watch it."

"I chatted with many friends about the strengths of the movie 'The Call' and what it did right. I summarized a few points and would like to share them with you. If I am wrong, just treat me as wrong."

Lin Yu smiled and paused before continuing.

"First, the core selling point has been very clear since the film entered the audience's field of vision, and it does not take advantage of any hot spots, such as the two female protagonists who are easily associated with one of the women."

"Secondly, with Lu Yanhe as screenwriter and Jiang Yuqian as the leading actors, the film had a clear box office target from the beginning, and it was very realistic, 100 to 300 million, which was the target estimated by the film company based on the subject matter and market conditions. They controlled the cost budget around this target and were not blindly arrogant. Unlike other films that aim to hit 1 billion or 2 billion box office right from the start, they did not exaggerate their production costs, difficulty, and investment. Instead, they attracted more audiences to the cinema while keeping their expectations high. This is very rare. Now, basically all movies are promoted in the way that the movie is so good that you will lose out if you don't watch it. On the one hand, it raises the audience's expectations, but on the other hand, it often does not meet the expectations."

"Third, The Call was willing to spend money on publicity and marketing, and used stars to the best of their ability. The selling points of The Call are the subject matter and Jiang Yuqian and Lu Yanhe. Compared with many other movies, the actors in The Call are not enough. It can be said that Jiang Yuqian is basically the only actress who is carrying the film alone - if you don't count Lu Yanhe's contribution, but he is a screenwriter, not an actor. In this case, they did not ignore another actress, Wang Jing, at all. They used Jiang Yuqian and Lu Yanhe to expand the scope of publicity and increase popularity, and used Wang Jing to attract the audience's attention. As far as I know, the publicity and marketing expenses invested by the film company in Wang Jing as an actor and character are almost the same as those of Jiang Yuqian."

…

"Jiang Yuqian is getting worse as she gets older." Zhang Lan sneered, "She even let a newcomer dare to challenge her."

Hearing this, Shi Zhou smiled and said, "I told you a long time ago that she is becoming more and more humble in front of Lu Yanhe. Her current so-called momentum and popularity are all due to Lu Yanhe's performance. So look at how she licks Lu Yanhe. When Lu Yanhe stops supporting her, she will soon be out of fashion."

Zhang Lan: "Have you seen The Call?"

"Not yet." Shi Zhou shook his head. "I'm too lazy to watch it. They've made it clear that it's not a good movie. They're just trying to make a quick buck. I didn't expect that they could accidentally make the audience feel that they're sincere and be willing to watch the movie."

Zhang Lan said, "'Fake Your Death' was very popular before, and I received several romantic comedy scripts like this. Do you think I should take one?"

"Those scripts are pretty average. Do you want to take them?" Shi Zhou asked with a frown.

"The main reason is that there are no other scripts right now." Zhang Lan said, "I haven't been in a crew for a long time. Now I don't have any dramas ready to be broadcast. If I don't take any more roles, what will I do in the future?"

"I think we'd rather have nothing than something less than perfect," Shi Zhou said. "Look at the two plays you took on before, which you lowered your standards for, and the results weren't very good in the end. Instead, they held you back. With your status, fame, and popularity, even if you don't act for two years, it would be enough to maintain your current situation. Every time your career suffered a major setback, it was after you acted in a play."

Zhang Lan: “…”

Shi Zhou added: "Unless we are very sure that this play can become a hit."

"How can we say for sure? If we were all sure that a play would be a hit, there wouldn't be so many plays that failed in succession." Zhang Lan sighed, "Do you think I've been unlucky in the past two years? How about I go to the temple and find a Bodhisattva to pray to?"

Shi Zhou: "That's fine, it can get rid of bad luck."

-

On weekdays, the decline of "The Call" was a bit big, which was beyond everyone's expectations.

People in the box office analysis and audience tracking department said that the audience for this movie is very small, with viewers over 35 years old accounting for only 17%, which is very small. Therefore, the decline was very serious after the weekend.

"However, there is still hope that the total box office of "The Call" will exceed 400 million. The market has been relatively cold throughout January, and there are no competitive films that will erode the screening space of "The Call". This schedule is very friendly to small and medium-sized movies like "The Call"."

Before, whether it was "Late Spring" or "Squid Game", she actually didn't play the leading role. Although the dramas were popular and brought her a lot of attention, they did not really form a large-scale fan effect, and did not make her truly "an overnight hit."

This time, the villain she played in "The Call" who kept reversing her roles allowed her to fully display her acting skills in her comfort zone, firmly grasping the audience's attraction and making her truly famous.

This can be seen from the fact that Wang Jing suddenly received four scripts within a week - all for the leading role.

In addition to the roadshow, Wang Jing also took a day off to complete her guest appearance in "Home Alone".

This matter was specifically marketed by Linghe.

After all, it can not only promote "The Call" and maintain the popularity of the movie, but also warm up for "Home Alone".

Home Alone is a movie that demands constant attention—but with even fewer stars than The Call.

At this time, the West Tull Film Festival suddenly announced the list of this year's jury.

Liu Bige was among them, which attracted some attention.

After Lu Yanhe, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang completed a rehearsal for the Spring Festival Gala, the Xitul Film Festival announced a list of films that entered the main competition unit.

Among them are "Tropical Rainy Season" in which Lu Yanhe participated and "Raise the Red Lantern" which he wrote.

As Lu Yanhe's works have won numerous awards on the international stage over the past two years, after these two films were once again shortlisted for the top international film festivals, everyone is discussing not whether they can win awards, but what awards they can win.

The media wants to know:

1. Can Lu Yanhe win another Best Screenplay Award for "Raise the Red Lantern"?

2. Can Chen Bige win her third Best Actress trophy at an international film festival with this movie?

3. How could a Malaysian art film like "Tropical Rain Season" directed by a new director and without the support of a big production company be accepted by Lu Yanhe into the main competition unit? When did it become so easy to enter the main competition unit? Didn't it say in the early stage that this film could only enter the second-level unit?

4. Can a Chinese-language film win the highest award this time?

After all, Liu Bigo is on the jury of the main competition unit of the Xitul Film Festival this time.

It doesn't mean that he alone can make the final decision. He is not the chairman of the jury, it's not like that.

However, if there is a judge present, he or she can explain the cultural background and interpretation of the film in detail to the other judges. Movies are cultural products after all, and if you can understand the cultural background, you can also understand its inner content more deeply.

-

Lu Yanhe thought that "Raise the Red Lantern" was a standard award-winning film.

With the configuration of director Wang Zhong and starring Chen Bige, plus the film's performance techniques and themes, it would be hard for it not to win an award.

In fact, this movie is not that difficult for foreigners to understand, because the theme of this movie is very clear, without any cover-up. Anyone who has watched this movie will understand that this movie is about "human alienation."

As for the oppression of feudal ethics——

This is true for Chinese people. For foreigners, even if they don’t understand the oppression of feudal ethics, they can still appreciate this movie.

They don't understand feudal ethics, but they certainly understand the power structure, especially the power structure between men and women. Such story themes are also common in foreign films.

As for "Raise the Red Lantern", Lu Yanhe has always felt that the most outstanding aspect of this movie compared to other movies is its extremely rigorous structure, to the point where people can even feel the beauty of the structure.

Whether it is the frequently appearing symmetrical images along the central axis, the rhythmic sounds of hammering feet, or the lighting of the lamps, they all form a kind of ancient ritual...

It can be said that this movie is full of metaphors and allusions. The whole world has become a system in itself.

The original work won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. In China, Gong Li and He Saifei also won the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards at the Hundred Flowers Awards respectively, achieving remarkable results.

Lu Yanhe will always remember the shock he felt when he watched this movie for the first time.

At that time, he thought that this kind of movie was critical, serious, not very good to watch, but just a work of so-called high artistic value.

But one afternoon, he saw this movie on TV, so he pulled the curtains and watched it alone for a while, and as a result, he was hooked.

This movie itself is a good story. All the criticality, seriousness, and value and significance given to it by the critics are added later. From the story itself, this is a story with twists and turns, and it is impossible to know what will happen next.

Especially the change in Songlian's attitude towards Chuijiao, and her efforts to win favor before and after her marriage, which gradually twisted her into the kind of person she hated the most before.

At that moment, Lu Yanhe really felt that Zhang Yimou was able to become so famous because of his hard work.

Some directors make a living from critics, some directors make a living from audience reputation, and some directors make a living from the market's money bags, but he makes a living from them all.

-

Lu Yanhe has not yet watched Wang Zhong's "Raise the Red Lantern", but based on his understanding of Wang Zhong, he is very clear that this movie will only be more "eerie" than the original.

He is also looking forward to the film's performance at the Western Ontario Film Festival.

After so many times, this is the first time he has really put forward a film to compete for awards.

The previous "Rouge" and "Love Letter" are actually more films recognized by the audience. In terms of artistic value for mainstream awards, they are not so outstanding.

But they have also achieved some success in this world.

I just don’t know what will happen to “Raise the Red Lantern”.

Lu Yanhe sincerely hopes that this film can win a very prestigious trophy.

Don't smash it in your own hands.

Lu Yanhe couldn't stand this.

-

For the Spring Festival Gala, after Lu Yanhe and the other two participated in a round of rehearsals, because Lu Yanhe's schedule was really tight, the director team finally gave him a day off and allowed him to miss two rehearsals in the middle, as long as he could catch up with the last round.

This is really a "preferential treatment" given to Lu Yanhe by the Spring Festival Gala director team. Basically, the Spring Festival Gala director team will not give such preferential treatment to celebrity artists.

Of course, this is also because, at this point in Lu Yanhe's career, the director team still hopes to allow Lu Yanhe to stand on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.

The purpose of the Spring Festival Gala is to bring the most popular, representative, and remarkable-achieving celebrity artists of the year, especially those who have represented China and achieved remarkable achievements on the international stage, onto the stage, just like a variety show.

It would be a bit hard to understand if Lu Yanhe didn't show up.

Not to mention, this show is a three-person chorus stage.

If Lu Yanhe doesn't go, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang can't go either.

If the two of them were paired up with another person, they would definitely be criticized to death.

God knows how many fans are waiting for the annual joint performance of the three of them.

As the three of them go further and further on the path of acting, their performances as idols are becoming less and less, let alone joint performances.

After the Reuters footage of the three of them rehearsing for the last Spring Festival Gala was released, it has now attracted huge attention and expectations.

Unless there is some force majeure, it is impossible to take down their program now. (End of this chapter)