China Entertainment 1997

The story of the movie "Sword Rain" is not complicated.

Of course, it would not be summarized as "a murder caused by a Jie Bao", although such a summary is not wrong.

Compared with the orthodox martial arts, this movie has a bit more fantasy and weirdness, but as far as it goes, it is more of an introduction and setting, and it doesn't steal the show.

It is said that 500 years ago, after the eminent monk Rama passed away, his body was divided into two halves.

There are rumors in the world that whoever can collect the Heavenly Slaying Dragon... ahem, collect the body of Rama, can obtain the peerless magical power and dominate the martial arts world.

The killer organization Blackstone is the most active. To this end, they even went so far as to attack and kill the retired ministers of the dynasty and destroy their entire family, which is the home of the male protagonist.

Compared with the original version, here is a slight change. The original version may have highlighted the awesomeness of Black Stone, but when the chief minister of the dynasty was wiped out, the court had to frantically destroy Black Stone if it was not dead, so it was changed to retired ministers, which is not so exaggerated. .

The boss of Black Stone is called Wheel King. He is mysterious and majestic, but he is actually a low-level old eunuch in the palace.

However, although this old eunuch does not look very impressive, he is in charge of the palace's correspondence. He is also a major source of intelligence for Black Stone, and it also makes it easier for the Chakravartin King to hide his identity.

Under the King of Wheels, there are three killers in the Black Stone. One is Lei Bin, who is good at flying needles, and the other is the Color Operator, who is both skilled in magic and martial arts, and is unpredictable.

There is also Xiaoyu, who is superb in swordsmanship and is the disciple and most capable helper of Chakravartin King.

Heishi wiped out the male protagonist's entire family, and Xiaoyu personally killed the male protagonist's father. The male protagonist escaped from the sword, was reborn with a different face, and worked as a postman in the market to run errands, preparing to take revenge slowly.

The heroine who snatched the body met the eminent monk Lu Zhu on the road, and was finally influenced by him. She planned to retire from the world, but she also changed her face and was reborn, becoming a cloth seller in the capital city market.

The former enemies reunited again, but for various reasons they came together and staged an ancient version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

In the movie, Xiao Yu had absolutely no idea of ​​the true identity of the male protagonist at first. The male protagonist later broke up with the female protagonist and said that he had a purpose for a long time.

But in fact, if he really knew that he was the enemy who killed his father, the male protagonist would have taken action long ago, let alone fall in love with the female protagonist.

After that, even if he had doubts, he didn't guess in the direction of Xiaoyu. He just thought that he and he were anonymous Jianghu people. It wasn't until Heishi came to the door that he figured out the situation.

In the subsequent plot, the couple's identity was revealed for some reason, and Blackstone came to visit. After a tangled fight, Blackstone was destroyed and the couple left seriously injured.

The plot structure of Fanxing's version of "Sword Rain" is actually not much different from the original version. The only difference is that the roles of some supporting characters have been weakened.

In fact, it can be seen from the original plot that the screenwriter deliberately created a group portrait of Jianghu, with extensive descriptions of several supporting characters such as Lei Bin and Cai Shishi.

But in this way, it will easily make the whole movie look scattered, and it will crowd out the protagonist's role.

The distance between many directors and famous directors is not actually about shooting skills and plot arrangements, but about knowing how to choose and cut out the material into a 90-minute good-looking and smooth story, which is a special skill.

Leaving aside foreign countries, in China, which is a director-centered system, a good editor may not necessarily be a good director, but a good director must know how to edit.

Some extreme directors even said that the film should be shot in three parts and edited in seven parts. Although this is biased, it also shows the importance of editing.

The original "Sword Rain" suffered from poor plot arrangement and editing, and the director was greedy for too much, so the film structure seemed scattered and delayed. Coupled with the lineup and schedule, it ultimately failed.

Therefore, when Cao Xuan wanted to make "Sword Rain", he did not overturn too many plots in the script. He only cut out some supporting characters and non-important plots, concentrated on the main characters and main plot, and controlled the rhythm.

If these three points can be done well, I dare not say that the quality of the movie will double, but the viewability will definitely be greatly improved.

Night play, indoors

Zeng Li was lying on the bed with a pale face, and outside the door were the murderous Black Stones. An Zhijie and Fan Xiaopang, who played the two killers, looked at Cao Xuan playfully or coquettishly.

Cao Xuan's eyes were dull and he ignored all the assassins. He took out an embroidered sword from the ground and started sharpening it on the newly bought whetstone, while still teasing An Zhijie leisurely.

The two of them didn't take him seriously. In the end, An Junjie couldn't hold it anymore and threw a flying needle. Cao Xuan blocked it with his sword, and then went on a killing spree.

Some people say that Ah Sheng's sharpening of a knife is the most "angsty" part of the movie "A Rain of Swords". This is not a good comment because people have different opinions, but from a plot perspective, it is indeed the most enjoyable part.

The repressed and cowardly character in front of the male protagonist has been completely wiped out, and there is still a bit of pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger, and a slap in the face. The powerful contrast effect makes the originally thin and mysterious male protagonist stand up immediately.

Of course, the most important thing is the excitement of the fighting scenes.

The action director of the original version of "Sword Rain" was Dong Wei, who was very senior. He didn't have many exciting works at that time. The action scenes of "Painted Skin" and "Ink Attack" were not the main selling points. The most noteworthy one is Jet Li's "King of Killers".

However, "Sword Rain" opened up his reputation. The fighting scenes are elegant and elegant, full of beauty, a bit like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Fanxing's action coaching has been honed over the past few years, and his performance is no less than that of veterans Yuan Jiabao and Cheng Jiaban.

However, the action style is relatively cold and tough. The most representative "Hurricane Rescue" series is called swift and neat. Fanxing's previous martial arts masterpiece "Xiu Chun Dao" series also has a realistic style of hard bridge and hard horse.

In order to retain the selling points of the original version, Cao Xuan specially recruited Dong Wei and Zhang Lei, another star action director, to co-direct "Sword Rain". The style required smoothness, delicateness, grace and elegance.

It can be said that "Sword Rain" is an atypical star-studded action movie. It is not only a change of action director, but also for Cao Xuan, it has to be modified to adapt to a new action style.

However, Boss Cao is also an experienced actor, and his fighting scenes are as good as those of many professional action stars. Although there are some twists and turns, it is not a difficult task.

Compared with him, the filming progress of the remote filming scenes in the group was the slowest when Fan Xiaopang had a relatively poor foundation.

The climax scene took two days to set up and move around, and four days to actually shoot. In addition to the small room making it difficult to perform, there was also the fact that Fan Xiaopang himself made a lot of mistakes.

But this is within the tolerance range. After all, Fan Xiaopang has done fighting scenes before, but he is definitely different from veteran actors like Cao Xuan and An Zhijie. Compared with ordinary artists, his performance is considered good.

Although Cao Xuan is the male protagonist, he doesn't have many fighting scenes in the whole movie. This scene is the biggest climax, and he doesn't do much in the subsequent scenes.

There are no fighting scenes, only literary scenes, so the progress will definitely be much faster. Even if there is no deliberate priority on filming, two months will be enough for Cao Xuan to complete the filming.

If possible, Boss Cao is willing to spend more time with Zeng Li. After all, his purpose in filming this movie is to make Empress Xigong happy.

However, the second part of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" is about to be released. Last year, Cao Xuan did not participate in the promotion very much. He will definitely make up for it this year, so he can only leave the group to work.

Anyway, the couple spends a lot of time seeing each other, and now that their wish to film together has been fulfilled, there is no need to be bored all the time.

………

Cao Xuan left the crew of "Sword Rain" and devoted himself to the promotion of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff".

The movie is expected to be released in mainland China on August 8, and in Japan, South Korea and other places on August 12. Cao Xuan will be in China in the early stage, and will rush to Japan for two weeks to promote the film.

Let’s not talk about Japan’s rivals for now. Due to the popularity of the first part of “Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff” and its reputation as the Starry Summer King, there are basically few strong rivals in this year’s summer season in China, and most qualified movies have long been bypassed.

The Hollywood blockbuster "Transformers 2" will also be released at the end of June, "just in time" with "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff".

Looking at the entire summer season in the Mainland, the one that can be called the rival of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" is "Tou Mingzhuan", which was released at the end of July.

For director Chen Kexin, if the left hand fights the right hand, whoever wins will not be conducive to his invincibility.

For Xing Mei and Jet Li, their desire to win is still relatively strong.

The former "Jinling, Jinling" just had a wave of success, and even gave up Lu Tailang as the focus of cultivation, and suffered a big loss.

Although Lu Tailang is the first person responsible, to say that Boss Tan has no opinion of Fanxing and Cao Xuan is to think of him as too kind.

Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents.

Cao Xuan contributed a lot to the failure of "Jinling, Jinling". Boss Qin secretly thought that he had not missed greeting him, and he had already gone crazy with hatred.

And the current "Certificate of Investment" is a key project of Xingmei, and with Cao Xuan running into it, Boss Qin must have something in mind.

Li Lianjie's idea is simpler. In recent years, Cao Xuan has been very popular in China and has hardly lost the box office battle. He even entered Hollywood.

In the eyes of the outside world, Cheng Long and Li Lianjie have become old favorites who have been eliminated. Cao Xuan, who is at the height of his power, is the one who carries the weight of Chinese films.

Li Lianjie, who prides himself on his qualifications and achievements, must be somewhat dissatisfied.

Lian Po is old, can he still make a living?

He wants to prove that even though he is older, he is not someone who can be manipulated by others.

In addition to him, Liu Tianwang also had some similar thoughts. Of course, he knew that he was not comparable to Cao Xuan, but it was hard to say with Li Lianjie.

This is also the confidence of Boss Tan and others in "The Famous Film", Li Lianjie + Liu Tianwang + Kim Sung Oh + Xu Cainv, the lineup is definitely luxurious enough, especially the first two people, the gimmicks are not inferior to the previous "The King of Kung Fu".

Coupled with the famous director Chen Kexin directing and many backbone assistants, even if "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" has the accumulation of previous works, they still believe that they have the ability to fight.

Not only them, but also outside media and movie fans see it this way.

Although they are more optimistic about "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff", the advantages of "Tou Ming Zhuan" are hard to ignore.

Although many people are clamoring that Li Lianjie has passed away, as of 2009, the other party and Cheng Long are still one of the biggest and most grossing Chinese superstars.

In order to defeat "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff", the crew of "The Legend of the Legend" also spent a lot of money, not to mention the huge publicity expenses, and the several leading actors also worked hard.

Li Lianjie has been interviewed by many programs, and even made an exception to participate in entertainment programs, appearing as an important guest on "Tian Tian Shang Shang".

Liu Tianwang is even more powerful. He even ignored the king's appearance and parachuted into the "Super Girl" competition with Xu Cainv to serve as judges in order to promote "The Certificate of Appreciation".

You know, even in the "Stars of Tomorrow" finals that year, it was Cao Xuan himself who brought Wang Fei, Cheng Long and others to appear together, and it was not a loss to have Liu Tianwang accompany him.

Compared with "Star of Tomorrow", the guest content of "Super Girl" is obviously several levels behind.

Although Ai Dajin, Dong Lu, Wu Qixian, Shunzi and others have their own achievements, they are obviously on a different level from Cao Xuan and others, and their influence and popularity are even more incomparable.

Liu Tianwang's participation in "Super Girl" this time is not embarrassing, but it still exceeded many people's expectations, which also shows the pressure "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" put on him.

Unlike "Star of Tomorrow", which has Cao Xuan's huge network and is prone to superstars, Liu Tianwang is considered to be the biggest star in "Super Girl", which really surprised the program team and created a lot of hype.

Although "Super Girl" is not as good as every year, its influence is far inferior to "The Voice of China" at the beginning of the year.

But after all, after several years of accumulation, the lower limit is still very high. In the absence of other popular variety shows, it is considered the most popular show this summer, otherwise Liu Tianwang would not deign to participate.

Also because of Liu Tianwang, Cao Xuan took a special look at this program.

To be honest, compared to the previous sessions, there are really not many people who know or have any impressions. There is only one Yu Kewei who he has picked up, and the other is the extremely controversial Zeng Yike.

I don’t know if Li Yuchun in the first season tasted the benefits. The "Super Girl" program team and the audience consciously favored some neutral styles.

Starting from the second season, there have been related neutral players in every session, and the results have been pretty good, so much so that it has caused a backlash, and a large number of viewers have supported the normal-style players in protest.

During this period, Zeng Yike, who was called Brother Zeng by many, naturally bore the brunt and was disliked by many people.

However, her biggest controversy is not her unisex dressing, but her poor singing skills and her unique sheep voice, which has even become a buzzword, disgusting many people.

But then again, although her singing skills are terrible, Zeng Yike has good creative ability, which is why she can make it to the end.

Some people think that her singing skills are not as good as those of a primary school student and that she cannot be a singer at all. It would be a shame for her to be promoted.

Some people also think that Zeng Yike's musical talent is very high, his singing skills are poor but he can practice them, and his creative ability is extremely rare, so he should be tolerated.

Not only the audience, but also the judges were extremely divided because she made a lot of noise and even slapped the table to sneer at each other.

Of course, it is not ruled out that there is a script in it.

But no matter what, the controversy surrounding Zeng Yike made her the most out-of-the-ring contestant in this year's "Super Girl", even second only to Li Yuchun in the first season in terms of influence.

As far as Cao Xuan is concerned, he still quite agrees with Zeng Yike's creative talent.

His masterpiece "Leo", people who don't like it can't listen to it at all, but those who like it think it's good and unique, and Cao Xuan is the latter.

But what he likes is the revised version. The singing at the competition is indeed too bad to be heard.

If he were a judge, from a competitive perspective, he would not give her high scores...

Liu Tianwang had the same idea as Cao Xuan, and gave sympathy points, but not high scores. Instead, Xu Cainu praised her talent, and then gave her great support, and then helped her opponent advance.

Both men's actions caused controversy afterwards, but there is no doubt that the purpose of publicity was achieved.

At the end of July, "The Legend" was released two years later than the original time and space. On the first day, it took in 25 million box office, which is a strong momentum.

The performance that followed was not bad, with an average box office of more than 20 million per day, and it successfully exceeded 100 million in just five days.

Boss Qin was so happy that snot bubbles almost came out of his nose.

To be honest, the quality of "The Movie" is not bad. The shortcoming is that the style is depressing and unflattering. The box office performance of the original version is not bad either. It was over 200 million in the mainland, and the total box office was a little over 300 million.

Taking into account the cost, this movie definitely lost money, but the name stood out.

Again, it doesn’t matter if a movie loses money in many cases. There are ways to make money back elsewhere.

Of course, you can't lose too much, otherwise there will be no fools outside, and it will also be a big test for the company's capital.

"The Lottery" is a clear example. The loss was not much, but the name was very famous. Later, Star America went public, and this movie is still an important resume.

Compared with the original time and space, the theater market in 2009 was more prosperous than in 2007, with a larger box office base. Coupled with the publicity and hype, "The Movie" achieved better results than the original version.

But this is not all good news. For example, if you move to 2009, you will encounter the second part of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff".

Therefore, even if "The Movie" grossed 135 million at the box office in its first week, the outside world is still cautiously watching.

Some film critics even directly said that victory is to survive "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff", but if it cannot survive, "The Letter of Merit" will have a difficult life.

Under much attention, the second part of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" will be released on August 8.

Several of the main creators of the "Sign of a Prosecution" crew also secretly booked a spot and prepared to inquire about the enemy's situation.

Li Lianjie and Liu Tianwang looked solemn, Xu Cainv was ambitious, and only Jincheng Wulue didn't care.

Needless to say, the first two people wanted to fight with Cao Xuan.

Xu Cainv's development has been mediocre in the past two years. She has lost her title of blog queen, and has been deprived of her luck as one of the four most beautiful women. She cannot bundle it for marketing.

She is said to be a popular star, but in fact, although she is not outdated at the moment, she has long been distanced by the Four Dans. The only thing she can do now is her identity as a female director.

But this status may not be worth much, and being serious is also a bit of a gimmick. If you say it is valuable, that’s all.

In fact, it might not be a different path for Xu Cainv to be her own director. After all, actresses have a short shelf life, but directors can work for a lifetime and still have a transcendent status.

But she couldn't bear the aura of stardom. She came to act from time to time, competing for resources with many big and small flowers. However, her development was not satisfactory, and she would inevitably be ridiculed.

Xu Cainv was the first among those big flowers to become popular.

When she became famous with "Carry Love to the End", except for Zhao, everyone else was "nobody". The international chapter had just emerged, Mr. Zhou was not famous, Hu Jing had not officially debuted at that time, and Shuang Bing was also It’s all a stage of trial and error.

However, times have changed now, and if one of these people is chosen at random over the past few years, her fame and achievements will be higher than hers. It would be strange if Xu Cainv has no idea in her mind.

In fact, the heroine of "Tou Mingzhuan" was originally chosen by Gao Yuanyuan, who was hooking up with Xingmei at the time. Later, she was robbed for some reason.

For this reason, the cooperation between Xingmei and Gao Yuanyuan almost fell through. Boss Qin spent a long time and used several resources to stabilize the person.

And Xu Cainv also regarded "The Letter of Investment" as her own capital to turn around. The box office in the first week exceeded 100 million, which made her even more elated. She shouted in front of the media that she was not afraid of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" and was confident that she could win it.

What she originally wanted to say at that time was to catch up with "Painted Skin", but she thought it was too difficult and didn't say anything.

Compared with the above three people who have their own ambitions, Jincheng's five masters cannot compete with Cao Xuan, and they have no grievances and grudges with the big flowers. Naturally, they cannot be said to be very positive. Of course, he himself also hopes that "The Certificate of Voting" will succeed.

After all, the higher the box office of the movie, the greater the fame and influence he will gain, and the higher his future salary will be.

At the beginning of the movie, the book continues the first part of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff". The coalition forces of Sun and Liu fought against Cao's army and won.

However, the combat effectiveness of Cao's navy was beyond Zhou Yu's expectations, and he began to make plans to remove the general of Cao's navy.

On the other hand, due to the shortage of bows and arrows, and also out of temptation, Zhuge Liang opened a copy of Zhuge Liang's Cao Chuan Borrowing Arrows.

The plot is very coherent, and the most important thing is the planning purposes of all parties, which are clearly stated using various narrative expression techniques, which greatly facilitates the audience's understanding.

Don’t underestimate this point. Some historical costumes are especially good at riddles. Many viewers’ understanding ability is not that high. Moreover, because the movie is short, sometimes there is no time to think, so some plots are swallowed up in a hurry.

If it can be explained simply and clearly without being verbose, it can enhance the audience's viewing experience.

The rhythm of the movie is very clear. Putting aside some temptations between the two camps, Cao Chuan borrowed arrows to solve the shortage of bows and arrows. Later, Jiang Gan stole the book and counterattacked to defeat the general of Cao Ying's navy, causing Cao's army to suffer.

After that, they will discuss the decisive battle strategy, determine the fire attack and implement the bitter plan to gain Cao Cao's trust.

When Zhuge Liang learned about the sky, Zhou Yu understood the advantages of Jiangdong wind and land. The two deduced the period when the east wind appeared, and the final decisive battle began.

There is no need for Sun Shangxiang to dress up as a woman and play football, and there is no need for Xiao Qiao to go into Cao Cao's camp to quarrel with Cao Cao or join the army. There is no need for women to take risks.

The collision of intelligence and strategy between heroes is so exciting that even if you know the plot, you can't take your eyes away.

The final battle cost hundreds of millions to shoot, and the scene is extremely grand, with fire, fighting, charging, and escape, no less than those of those Hollywood super war blockbusters.

Sitting in front of the cinema screen, Liu Tianwang and others felt the shock and even confusion.

Is this a shot that can be shot in a domestic movie?

What followed was tremendous pressure. If the two films were comparable in terms of literary and drama, then the scenes of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" completely crushed "The Letter of Merit".

Compared with the battle between the Changmao Army and the final battle of Chibi, which they were proud of, the gap was like the gold content of the two historical events.

The decisive battle that affected the general trend of the world VS A battalion of Qing Dynasty officers and soldiers defeated a group of peasant rebels

There is really no comparison, and it also allowed them to understand why Chen Kexin looked so calm when filming this scene, and her feelings had already seen the world.

"Trouble..."

Li Lianjie uttered a sentence. The other three did not speak, but the expressions on their faces clearly thought the same as him.

There are completely two levels of scenes and dramas, which are even better than literary dramas. What's more, "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff" also has the super IP bonus of Three Kingdoms, so how can they compete.

The four of them returned to the hotel in silence. They didn't sleep well all night. The next day, they learned the first-day box office data of "Three Kingdoms·Red Cliff"——

34.69 million!

Cao Xuan once again broke the first-day box office record for Chinese-language films!