The first and only Palme d'Or in Chinese language has gilded the career of director Kaige, and with this trophy alone, director Kaige can leave a name in the history of Chinese film.

Someone once said something very vicious, but it seems to have some truth: "If Director Kaige dies after filming "Farewell My Concubine", then he will be the undisputed No. 1 Chinese director." ”

If you go to see director Kaige's debut film "Yellow Earth", I believe many people will agree that the director of this film is a genius.

Although many professionals criticize the lens language of "Yellow Earth" as Japanese, who of his generation has not been influenced by Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi?

Innovation in the language of the lens almost came to a standstill 40 years ago, as the world does.

There is no shame in paying tribute to or following the skills of predecessors, it depends on whether the director will use them and how effective they are.

The 32-year-old Chen Kaige was undoubtedly successful, and "Yellow Earth" did bring a new look to the Chinese film industry.

Zhang Yuanjun, who was born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s, and began to study film at the beginning of the century, is a filmmaker of this generation, and naturally has studied Chen Kaige's films, and naturally respects him.

However, it is precisely because Chen Kaige's works run through their film study career that Zhang Yuanjun really can't understand what went wrong and will make Chen Kaige what he is now.

In "Yellow Earth", Chen Kaige is full of love for this land and sympathy and compassion for the people of this land, but looking at Chen Kaige's films after entering the new century, it is really hard for you to imagine that the director of "Wuji" is also the director of "Yellow Earth" and "Farewell My Concubine".

The decline in the level of directors and the weakening of creative energy do not seem to be enough to explain this change.

Because Chen Kaige's values before and after the movie have changed!

It seems that after entering the new century, Chen Kaige himself doesn't believe in his previous film value system.

However, Chen Kaige's sensitivity to art, as well as the artistic sense revealed in his films, are still commendable.

It can even be said that except for Wang Jiawei, in terms of the "artistry" of the movie, there is still no Chinese director who can compare to Chen Kaige - he knows what is beautiful in the camera, and he also knows how to express this beauty.

But Chen Kaige used his artistry in the wrong place after the new century.

Zhang Yuanjun doesn't really believe that after "Farewell My Concubine", because of the expansion of director Kaige and the collapse of the team that no one in his eyes, his level has declined.

There must be this reason, but the main reason should be the director himself.

At that time, winning the Palme d'Or in the Chinese film industry, the expansion was inevitable and understandable, and after Zhang Yuanjun was crowned emperor with three golds, he also felt that he was the first in the world.

But what about after the expansion?

Judging from the limited contact between Zhang Yuanjun and Chen Kaige, Chen Kaige is definitely not the kind of director who has no one in his eyes.

He is humble, courteous, and does not hesitate to praise the achievements and contributions of others, and he remains sensitive to cinema.

He once praised Zhang Yuanjun's performance in person: "Okay, listen to the thunder in a silent place, the actor and the role are one, perform this matter, you have reached the realm." We will have a lot of discussions in the future and have the opportunity to work together. ”

Of course, Zhang Yuanjun spoke for Chen Kaige like this, not because the other party praised him.

But Zhang Yuanjun still has expectations for the director who has made the best movies in China, and expects him to shake the film industry again.

Director Kaige is only 63 years old this year, and it is the time when a director has the strongest desire to create and the most mature thinking.

However, this "Taoist Priest Descending the Mountain" ......

Zhang Yuanjun took the time to watch it, half of it is a good movie, this movie is very ambitious.

The theme of the movie is pointed out at the beginning with the old way: "Unscrupulous means are not heroes, and true heroes do not change their original intentions".

But this theme is too big and mysterious, and it is very difficult to shoot.

Chen Kaige's original intention for this story should be that the little Taoist priest went down the mountain to experience prosperity and then "did not change his original intention", and finally settled on relief and enlightenment.

But Chen Kaige chose a very lazy one, or in other words, he found that the story could not be contained in the end, so he chose a simple and crude method to point out the main idea - let Elder Rusong "reason", and insert a lot of narration.

This creates a feeling of "I can't shoot it, I'll tell you directly" to the audience.

As a result, the movie stabilized for more than half of the time, and the audience thought that when the familiar Kaige director came back, he suddenly gave the audience a dull stick.

Silly!

Why end up like this?!

is very similar to the previous "Search", the audience thought that the director was going to shoot a story of online violence, but it turned out that Chen Kaige wanted to shoot love, or the love between Shen Liushu and Mo Xiaoyu.

In the end, I didn't mention it, and I let it out.

Zhang Yuanjun walked out of the cinema with a little disappointment.

It seems that what they said is right, Chen Kaige is only suitable for being a director, not a screenwriter.

And there must be a strong producer and producer to suppress Chen Kaige and let him make films honestly.

Sister Chen Hong, not very good.

However, the 43 million on the first day of "Taoist Priest Descending the Mountain" and the 234 million on the first weekend of 4 days still created the best results of director Chen Kaige in recent years, and also ignited the summer file.

This year's summer schedule is very interesting. Although many people spray the "Little Times" series, I have to admit that this film is really selling money!

And the finale of the "Small Times" series, "Small Times 4: The End of the Soul", is followed by "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain" and will be released a week later.

At the beginning of July, the summer file was able to schedule films like this at the beginning, and there were more blockbusters later, so there was no such a long window period.

The meaning is obvious, "Taoist Goes Down the Mountain" is a work of the director, give a week to harvest the box office for the director and bring up the popularity of the summer file, and then take a "Small Times 4" that is destined to be a big hit to completely detonate the schedule.

Moreover, the second day after the release of "Small Times 4" this year, it was He Jiong's "Gardenia Blooming".

This film is very favored by the outside world!

He Jiong's national popularity is very high, and "Gardenia Blossom" is his most popular song, and the movie uses this name, which has a very obvious meaning - shoot it for fans!

"Gardenia Blossom" is another youth film!

He Jiong + "Gardenia Blossom" + youth film, these three elements are combined together, think about it can be sold for money!

There is also an animated movie released on the same day as "Gardenia Bloom", called "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage".

Domestic animated films have been weak for a long time, and they shout the rise of Guoman every year, but they disappoint the audience every year.

But this film is different, "The Return of the Great Sage" debuted as the opening film at last month's summer file promotion meeting, winning applause and cheers from almost all the attendees.

But there is almost no publicity for "The Return of the Great Sage", the crew is too poor, except for showing a few shows to the industry in advance to win praise, many viewers don't know that there is such an animated movie in the summer until the movie is about to be released.

The pre-release of the film is not even 10% pre-release.

The theater managers have seen it, and after watching it, they say it's good, but no one will give it to an animated movie.

Looking good doesn't mean it will be a hit, sandwiched between "Small Times 4" and "Gardenia Blossom", how can theater managers believe that a Journey to the West animated movie can sell money?

(End of chapter)