At the beginning of this year, Ning Hao's film box office "The Country Teacher" exploded at the box office, achieving an astonishing box office of 3.5 billion; rookie director Guo Fan's "Seven Shells" achieved a box office of 1.8 billion; in addition, Tsui Hark's "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", Cheng Long's "Heavenly General" and other films have also achieved good results, which can be described as successes one after another. The entire industry is shouting that the box office of Chinese movies in 2015 will easily exceed 60 billion, and may even hit 70 billion.

No one expected that the cold winter would come suddenly, and since March, Chinese films have all fallen year-on-year except for a small increase in August. In the context of the rapid growth of the number of screens, the box office is stagnant, and even the negative increase is particularly dazzling.

The summer season is one of the most important schedules in the Chinese film market, and since 2012, the summer season has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 30%. In this year's summer file, the market has encountered an unprecedented low ebb, even with a box office of 1.7 billion "Monster Hunt", and a box office of 900 million big dark horse "The Return of the Great Sage", it still can't save the decline of the entire market;

For the whole of July, the box office revenue ended with 4.255 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.3%, and the total box office in August was 3.5 billion yuan, an increase of 3.4%. Compared with last year, this year's summer file can be said to have encountered a box office Waterloo. After entering September, the situation has not improved, and the Mid-Autumn Festival has a decline of nearly 16%.

Many people pinned their hopes on the National Day file, because this year's National Day file has Xu Zheng's "Hong Kong Embarrassment" and Lu Chuan's "Tomb Robbery Notes", 3 years ago, Xu Zheng achieved an astonishing box office of 1.3 billion with "Thai Embarrassment", and there is no doubt that the sequel to "Hong Kong Embarrassment" was a box office hit, and Lu Chuan's "Tomb Robbery Notes" is based on the hit, and the box office explosion is reasonable.

However, everyone was disappointed again, due to poor word-of-mouth, "Hong Kong Embarrassment" performed far less than expected, and finally achieved a box office of 1.54 billion, while Lu Chuan's "Tomb Robbery Notes" received rave reviews and only achieved a box office of 560 million. Compared with last year, the entire National Day file increased by 7.8% year-on-year, which was far lower than expected.

On November 5, Century Summit released a data that as of November 1, the box office of Chinese films in 2015 was only 39.86 billion yuan, far from the 60 billion yuan estimated by industry insiders at the beginning of the year.

By this time, no one had said anything about breaking through 60 billion, and everyone knew that it was impossible to break through 50 billion. Many people lament that "the winter of Chinese films is coming" and "the turning point of Chinese films has arrived".

Gao Jun, vice president of Century Peak, said: "The inflection point of the Chinese film market began in March this year, and it has lasted for several months now, which is a real inflection point, at the beginning of the year, there were many optimists who said that this year's box office will break 60 billion, and it may be as high as 70 billion, this prediction is out of China's current situation and its particularity." The ticket supplement stimulated the market, but it also misled the audience, thinking that a movie should be 9 yuan 9, and if it is 35 or 40 yuan, they will not watch it. Now there is no ticket supplement, the ticket price is back to its original position, and many audiences naturally do not enter the cinema. ”

Chen Changye, editor-in-chief of "One Entertainment Observation", said bluntly: "Now is what the Chinese market is, and Chinese audiences are not so eager for movies." The frenzy of the film market in the past two years is completely a bubble piled up by ticket compensation, and after the "One Step Away" incident, the ticket supplement has been greatly reduced, and the spending power of Chinese films and audiences has been quickly beaten back to its original shape. ”

In the past year or so, Zhang Ran has always felt that there is an undercurrent surging under the prosperity of Chinese films, and there is a huge crisis lurking, and now the crisis of Chinese films has begun to be revealed.

However, Zhang Ran feels that this is not necessarily a bad thing, the problem is exposed and everyone is reminded that the movie should be full of awe, making a movie requires ingenuity, not just getting an IP, a few people can cheat money by saving a game! This year, the box office and reputation of many big directors' works have suffered setbacks, and the hot money entering this industry next year will be greatly reduced, which will make creators get back on track and pay more attention to the quality of their works. Although the brakes will not be so fast, Chinese films will slowly return to rationality!

On November 9th, it was an ordinary Sunday, and the grass was green and quiet in the "Heaven's Gate" cemetery in Los Atos, California, USA. On the undulating slopes, there are tens of thousands of tombs. Unlike the Chinese cemetery style, the tombstones here are all lying flat on the ground, about a meter long and half a meter wide. On the smooth black marble tablet, a photo of the deceased is embedded and the name of the deceased is engraved.

A tombstone at the top of the hillside is surrounded by blue-purple irises, and a picture of a young woman smiling is posted on the tombstone. The tombstone bears these words: "Beloved wife and mother, writer, historian, human rights fighter." "The girl's name is Iris Chang, which translates into Chinese, and it is Zhang Chunru.

Today is Zhang Chunru's death day, and people who come to pay tribute to Zhang Chunru will offer blue-purple irises. Because Zhang Chunru is Iris in English, translated into Chinese is Iris.

Zhang Ran and Zhang Jingchu came to Zhang Chunru's tomb together with Zhang Chunru's parents and Ding Yuan, vice president of the World Association for the Protection of Historical Facts of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Zhang Ran and Zhang Jingchu came over this time, in addition to paying tribute to Zhang Chunru, but also for the purpose of inviting Zhang Chunru's parents to participate in the movie launch ceremony next month.

Zhang Ran placed the iris in his hand in front of Zhang Chunru's tombstone, bowed to Zhang Chunru, and then looked at the photo of Zhang Chunru on the tombstone, and said with a solemn expression: "Eleven years ago, when I attended your funeral, I decided to make a movie about you, and now it's time to fulfill my promise." We will inherit your will, and we will leave the rest to us, and you can rest in peace in heaven!"

Zhang Jingchu clasped her hands together and said: "We will do our best to make this movie and fulfill your wishes." ”

Zhang Chunru's parents still remember the first time they met Zhang Ran, when Zhang Ran was only twenty-six or seventeen years old, very young. But they all know Zhang Ran, because Zhang Ran, along with Yao Ming and Zhang Chunru, is known as the three most eye-catching Chinese young people in the United States. At that time, after they heard that Zhang Ran was going to make a movie about Zhang Chunru's deeds, they stopped Zhang Ran and talked to Zhang Ran about the movie.

In the next eleven years, Zhang Ran always kept in touch with them, and always showed them the scripts he wrote and asked for their opinions. They watched the film script change from Zhang Chunru's personal biography to a work that travels back and forth between different time and space, connecting three people and three books.

Zhang Chunru's parents are very satisfied with this movie script, and the current script not only describes how Zhang Chunru completed "Nanjing Massacre" under pressure, but also fulfilled Zhang Chunru's wish to bring the Nanjing Massacre to the big screen. Zhang Ran is the best director of this era, and he has been preparing for this film for eleven years. They believe that Zhang Ran will make this film to a world-class level, similar to "Schindler's List", so that the world will know about the atrocities of the Japanese army in Nanjing in 1937.

Zhang Chunru's parents are also very satisfied with Zhang Jingchu, and Zhang Jingru's makeup photos look like Zhang Chunru's twin sisters, really very similar. This morning, when they really saw Zhang Jingchu, they were even more taken aback, Zhang Jingchu's accent, tone of voice, and intonation were exactly the same as Zhang Chunru. The eyes of the two old men were red, as if they had seen their daughters come back to life.

The two old men have watched Zhang Jingchu's movies and watched her interviews, and know that Zhang Jingchu didn't speak like this before, and her current accent is specially practiced to play Zhang Chunru well. They were very moved, to be able to practice to such a vivid level, Zhang Jingchu must have spent a lot of effort. They believe that with such an actor and such a director, it is impossible for the film not to be successful!

Zhang Chunru's father, Zhang Shaojin, did not speak, but mourned silently. Zhang Chunru's mother, Zhang Yingying, had tears in her eyes and said softly: "Chunru, the movie will start next month, your father and I believe that this will be a world-class work, and your last wish will be fulfilled!

The World Federation for the Protection of the Historical Facts of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression has been working to clarify the truth and announce the atrocities of the Japanese army to the world. As a good friend, Ding Yuan brought Zhang Chunru good news: "Chunru, just last month, UNESCO announced on its official website the latest list of projects selected for the Memory of the World Register in 2015, and the Nanjing Massacre Archives were on the list. The successful application of the "Nanjing Massacre Archive" to the World Heritage List shows that the history of the Nanjing Massacre has become a world consensus and a memory of all mankind, and this is not only the most powerful safeguard for world peace, but also a consolation to the compatriots killed in the Nanjing Massacre, and more importantly, a respect for history! However, the right wing of Dongying is still rampant, and we will continue to fight!"

Everyone mourned in silence at Zhang Chunru's tomb for a long time, praying for Zhang Chunru's rest in peace, and then drove away.

After saying goodbye to Zhang Chunru's parents, Zhang Jingchu flew back to China, while Zhang Ran stayed in the United States to conduct a final survey of the filming location.

There are a lot of locations in the drama "Angel of Justice", in addition to the scenes set up in China, there are also things like Zhang Chunru going to the Yale University Library to look for materials, and all kinds of encounters after Rabe returned to Germany, all of which involve exterior locations, and there is no way to set up scenes, so they can only be filmed on the spot. In order to shoot these shots, the crew needed to find quite a few exterior locations.

After the owner of the location knew that Zhang Ran was going to make a movie, most of them readily agreed. But Zhang Ran still had to go to every place in person, and determine whether it was suitable for filming according to the situation on the scene, how to shoot at that time, and how to set up the camera. Otherwise, when it's time to shoot in real life, you find that the location is not suitable for filming, and then things will be troublesome.

After going through the locations in the United States and Germany and making sure that all aspects were fine, Zhang Ran returned to China to make final preparations for the filming of the movie.

Although there is still more than half a month before the official start of the movie, the work of the crew has been carried out in all directions, especially the selection of extras, which began in early November. I encountered this problem when filming "Scorching Sun", the extras did not have ancient appearances, unlike people in the Republic of China era, and finally Zhang Ran asked all to be re-elected.

This time, the casting director of the crew learned the lesson of the last time, everyone held a stack of photos of the Republic of China, what the soldiers were like, what the people were like, and what the students were like, all according to the faces on the photos, and finally 1,500 people were selected. Some casting directors lamented that it took more effort to select extras this time than the selection of the leading actors in other movies.

These extras are carefully selected, the crew has signed a contract with each of them, the salary is settled on a monthly basis, 5000 per month, and they will be on the scene when there is a play, and they can do their own things when there is no play, which is similar to the actors in the group.

On the afternoon of November 27, Zhang Ran received a call from Ning Hao as soon as he got from the hotel on the set. On the phone, Ning Hao said angrily: "Chinese movies are messed up by Xu Yuanxiang and others, and now Chinese films are already facing a cold winter, and he is still talking nonsense there! I am really unwilling not to kill Chinese films! Mr. Zhang, you have to stand up and say a few words!"

Zhang Ran was confused by Ning Hao's words: "Who is Xu Yuanxiang, what did he say, what is going on?"