bacchusnovels Discussion of Chapter 500, "The Three Beauties of Jinling"
Discussion of Chapter 500, "The Three Beauties of Jinling"
"Director Zhang's cinematic language remains top-notch, and the war scenes are very impressive."
But the script has major problems; the first and second halves are like two different movies.
Bale's character was written like a plot device, but Ni Ni's performance was a pleasant surprise.
"The art direction and cinematography deserve five stars; the oppressive atmosphere of the war scenes was captured perfectly."
However, the character development is too weak; apart from Yu Mo, the group portrait of the thirteen prostitutes is completely blurry, and the audience can't tell them apart at all.
"Director Zhang has too many things he wants to film."
War, humanity, women, redemption, Sino-Japanese relations, and the clash of Eastern and Western cultures—it tries to touch on every point, but fails to fully explore any of them.
If you cut 30 minutes and focus on telling two key stories, this film could easily get an 8 out of 10.
"Bale's performance was off throughout, a far cry from his Hollywood films."
It's unclear whether the issue lies with the director's guidance or with the language barrier.
Ni Ni, as a newcomer, really held her own; she has a very unique presence.
On its second day of release, the daily box office rose to 34 million.
On the third day, it reached 39 million.
The increase wasn't huge, but it was definitely good news.
By December 18th, after four days of release, the film had grossed 12 million yuan.
The major media outlets used very restrained language when reporting this figure.
Sina Entertainment's headline reads, "The Flowers of War Surpasses 100 Million Yuan in Four Days, Zhang Yimou's New Film Shows Steady Growth."
NetEase Entertainment was a bit more direct, writing, "The Flowers of War's box office performance fell short of expectations, and the pressure to recoup the 600 million yuan investment is enormous."
On December 19th, a post appeared in the film and television section of Tianya Forum titled "Zhang Weiping made such a big fuss just for this one film?"
"From mid-November until now, Zhang Weiping has gathered half of the film and television industry to form a production alliance and has been fighting a price war with the eight major cinema chains for a month."
The joint open letter and joint statement have caused chaos throughout the industry.
I thought he was holding some kind of earth-shattering weapon, but it turns out this is all?
This post is like a spark falling into a gasoline can.
The comments section scrolled through three pages in half an hour.
"The original poster said what I wanted to say."
Zhang Weiping's previous tactics, like the joint boycott and the threat of cancellation, made me think "The Flowers of War" was the next "Interstellar."
"The funniest thing is that he got a bunch of big shots to endorse him, but then he turned around and betrayed them all."
Huayi, fiber optics, sugar figurines, Xiaoma Benteng, and Rongxingda were all scammed by him.
Now he's offended the entire industry, and this is the result?
"Offending people is secondary; the key issue is that this film is definitely going to lose money."
With an investment of 600 million, the box office is only 150 million so far. Optimistically, the final box office could reach 700 million?
How much will the production company get? A little over 300 million?
"I have always been skeptical of the figure of 600 million investment."
Although "The Flowers of War" used some real sets, its production cost was at most tens of millions.
There weren't many special effects for the war scenes. Even if Bale's salary was high, 100 million RMB should be enough, right?
Where did this 600 million go?
"Indeed, judging from the finished product, it's impossible that it would have cost 600 million."
"Those in the industry know that it's standard practice for big productions to inflate their costs."
How can you fool investors if you don't exaggerate the size of the operation? How can you cover up the high salaries? How can you manipulate the books?
Zhang Weiping really overstated things this time; he didn't expect the box office to fall short.
After this comment came out, the entire discussion completely veered off course.
What started as a questioning of the film's quality and box office performance has now escalated into a questioning of New Pictures' business integrity.
On December 20, a trending topic on Weibo was "The Real Cost of The Flowers of War".
Furthermore, professionals conducted a detailed assessment of the production costs of The Flowers of War.
The costs for set design, special effects, actor salaries, etc. can be listed out one by one, with the total cost being around 200 million.
This number is far from 600 million.
The topic garnered over 200 million views within three hours, and the comment section exploded.
"The cost is 200 million, but the figure is 600 million. Is Zhang Weiping trying to launder money?"
"With a budget of 600 million, that means 400 million would be spent on marketing and distribution. Is that even possible?"
"No wonder he ended up signing that tiered revenue-sharing agreement."
The actual cost was only 200 million, and with a box office of 500 million, they can get more than 200 million, which means they've already broken even.
On December 21, "The White Storm" was released nationwide.
Lu Yang's Hong Kong-style crime thriller garnered 26% of screenings on its opening day, two percentage points lower than "The Flowers of War," but its occupancy rate was significantly higher.
The prime-time 8 PM showings at IMAX theaters in first-tier cities were completely sold out.
It grossed 38 million yuan on its opening day, 7 million yuan more than "The Flowers of War".
More importantly, it's about reputation.
It received an initial rating of 8.1 on Douban, with almost unanimous positive reviews in the comments section.
Lu Yang's handling of brotherhood was repeatedly mentioned.
Meanwhile, the classic lines "Ah Wei is already dead, you picked this idol" and "I've got Duan Kun, even Jesus can't save him, I'm telling you!" have also started to spread rapidly on the Internet and become new internet memes.