The sudden release of a Chinese-language movie at the end of December is not a noteworthy event for most North American movie fans.

In some cinemas, there is not even a poster for "The Sixth Sense".

Of course, although Zhou Yan is not well-known in North America, there is no one who knows him, and after the release of "The Flying Piano Boy", a small number of music lovers still noticed his name.

Jessica is one of them.

After watching "Flying Piano Boy", Jessica not only bought the soundtrack of the movie, but also bought Zhou Yan's two albums, "Mysterious Country" and "Piano Boy".

So when she saw Y-chou's name in the movie theater, Jessica's eyes lit up all of a sudden.

"Another movie with a Y soundtrack?"

That was Jessica's first reaction.

When Y's name appeared in the movie information, she took it for granted that Zhou Yan was the soundtrack of the movie.

As it is, the soundtrack director for "The Sixth Sense" is indeed Y.

But Jessica then discovered that things are not so simple, in addition to the soundtrack, the director and screenwriter turned out to be Y, this is a movie written, directed and dubbed by Y.

Only then did Jessica remember that Y was still a director, and the original version of "Flying Piano Boy" was directed by Y. If it weren't for seeing Y's name on the director's column, she would have even forgotten about it.

After watching the movie's message, Jessica didn't hesitate to buy two movie tickets, one for Hadison.

Recently, she and Hardison have had a much better relationship, and they often go out to watch movies together.

And now the two of them have a common hobby, that is, they like Y, and today they said okay, she will invite Hardison to watch a movie.

Originally, they planned to watch the new movie "Dumb and Dumb", but now with "The Sixth Sense", she changed her mind.

Naturally, Hadison has no problem with this, he just wants to watch a movie with Jessica, it doesn't matter what he watches, besides, he is also a fan of Y.

Although Haasson was just trying to get close to Jessica at first, as he learned more, he did like Y's music very much, especially the song "Awakening" in "Piano Boy", which he particularly liked.

After entering the theater, the two found that the attendance rate of this movie was really low, lower than when "The Flying Piano Boy" was released before, and there were a lot of vacant seats in the theater.

Although "The Flying Piano Boy" is not well-known from the director to the actors, after all, they are all European and American faces, and the audience in North America is highly accepted.

Chinese movies are different, the audience in North America is only interested in Chinese martial arts films, and the rest are either the kind of movies that are a bit curious.

"Farewell My Concubine" can have a box office of more than 5 million US dollars, on the one hand, because of the blessing of awards, and on the other hand, because the movie tells the story of homosexuality, and the topic is relatively high.

In addition, "The Wedding Banquet" is also of this category.

In recent years, the social trend can be seen from the award-winning works of the film festival, and the themes of homosexuality and women are very popular.

In fact, even Jessica doesn't have much hope for "The Sixth Sense", she mainly wants to listen to the music in it.

But just over two minutes into the movie, Jessica realized that she didn't know enough about Y before.

Y is definitely not a musician who occasionally makes movies, and the rhythm of the movie is very good, although Jessica doesn't understand the shooting techniques in the movie, but these shots in the first two minutes of the movie make her feel very comfortable.

Although there is no story happening, every shot tickles the viewer to continue looking.

Who is this woman? Why is she in the cellar?

What is the tension created by the soundtrack and the lighting?

Just the right amount of foreshadowing is wonderful for the audience, but if it is overdone, it will drain the audience's patience.

And "The Sixth Sense" did not make this mistake, and the foreshadowing did not last long, and the first conflict of the story appeared.

A naked man appeared at the home of the male and female protagonists and scolded the male protagonists.

The foreshadowing shots at the front of the movie are not only to create tension, but also to explain a lot of things.

From some of the seemingly messy but orderly shots in the front, Jessica and they learned that the male protagonist is a psychiatrist and is very famous, and he just won an award recently.

So after that man appeared, Jessica and they quickly understood that this man should be a patient before the male protagonist.

Obviously, the male protagonist's previous treatment of this patient failed, and the current scene will appear.

Later, the male protagonist was shot and fell in a pool of blood, and Jessica and Hardison looked confused.

This male protagonist died when he came up?

Or is this not the male protagonist at all?

Or is this actually a heroine?

Just when they were confused, a year later, the male protagonist appeared in the picture again.

Jessica couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and whispered, "The male protagonist is still lucky." ”

Hardison also nodded, "Lucky indeed, that shot was in the abdomen, under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to live." ”

The rest of the story is a normal development.,The male protagonist seems to want to make up for his regrets.,So he paid special attention to a case that was the same as the patient who shot him.。

The other party is a very good-looking little boy.

However, the little boy did not seem to welcome him, and when he saw him, he resisted very much.

Jessica can probably understand that this boy has a mental illness and is supposed to be very withdrawn, and he is probably very reluctant to come into contact with strangers.

And many people with mental illness are very resistant to doctors.

But as the story develops, Jessica suddenly finds that the development of the story is a little beyond her expectations, she originally thought that the so-called ghosts and gods in the movie are just the little boy's delusions, but there are many details that show that the boy can really see the undead.

Is this a supernatural movie?

If this is a supernatural horror movie, Jessica thinks it is unqualified, although the movie does reveal a little horror, but it is obviously not enough, at least Jessica doesn't think it's that scary.

This is more like a warm redemption film, the male protagonist chose the little male protagonist as the treatment object because of guilt, and untied the knot in the little male protagonist's heart step by step through his sincerity.

The more she sees the end, the more Jessica can feel the warmth between the big and small male protagonists.

As the knot in the heart of the little male protagonist is opened, the movie is not only not without horror, but the light of the lens has become brighter.

Especially when she saw the conversation between the little male protagonist and her mother about the little male protagonist's grandmother, Jessica almost couldn't hold back her tears.

The misunderstanding between the mother and the grandmother for many years, because of the ability of the little male protagonist to solve, it is difficult not to be moved when I see my mother crying bitterly.

By the time the movie got here, Jessica felt that it was almost over.

should be explained, it should have been fully explained, the little man's heart was opened, and the man's heart knot was gone.

But she guessed wrong, the movie didn't end, and the camera turned to the male and female protagonists again.

When the ring in the heroine's hand fell to the ground, Jessica felt a buzz in her brain, and the whole person froze.

At this time, the most exciting soundtrack of the whole film also appeared, and the soundtrack here is also the most emotionally fluctuating in the soundtrack of this film, which directly pushes the mood to the highest point.

Jessica came to see the movie with the soundtrack, but seeing the reversal of the ending at this time, she didn't have the heart to study the music at all, because all her thoughts were on the storyline.

"The male protagonist turned out to be an undead?!"

No wonder the little male protagonist was so afraid of him at first.

No wonder every time the male protagonist appears next to the female protagonist, the female protagonist feels cold.

No wonder the female protagonist hasn't said a word to the male protagonist since.

There are too many "no wonders", many details Jessica didn't think much about it when she was watching it before, but now when she sees the reversal, these details suddenly come to mind, making the reversal here logical.

Jessica suddenly heard a member of the audience next to her say a word that began with f, and it seemed that at this time, this was the only word that could express the audience's surprise.

Hadison, who was sitting next to Jessica, actually wanted to say something dirty to express his surprise, but considering that Jessica was next to him, he couldn't help but say it.

The number of audiences in the theater is not large, but the surprises come one after another, and everyone's viewing experience is almost the same.

The reversal of the ending is too unexpected and too exciting.

Jessica has seen a lot of movies with reversed endings, but very few of them are handled so well like "The Sixth Sense".

The reversal itself is not a very difficult thing to do, but it is especially difficult to make the reversal reasonable.

In the shock of the audience, the movie began to come to an end.

While the rest of the audience discussed the plot of the movie, Jessica didn't move, because she wanted to finish the curtain call.

The song for the curtain call is very good, and there is a sense of relief when I listen to it, and after the intense baptism just now, the audience's soul has also been soothed.

She didn't move, and so did Hardison.

When the two of them were left in the theater, the screen turned, and a back figure playing the piano appeared.

The man was playing a tune that Jessica hadn't heard, and it didn't appear in the movie, and the camera slowly turned, and the face of the person playing the piano appeared in the shot.

"It's Y."

Jessica saw Zhou Yan's photo and recognized it at a glance, Zhou Yan should be one of the few Asian faces she can recognize.

Seeing Zhou Yan playing the piano, Jessica was quite happy, but she didn't expect the movie to have easter eggs, but fortunately they didn't leave, otherwise they wouldn't have seen easter eggs.

At this time, the camera was still turning, and it caught a mirror next to it.

Seeing the mirror, Jessica's eyes widened, because there was only a piano in the mirror, and Zhou Yan did not appear.

At this point, the easter eggs came to an abrupt end, and the screen went black.

Jessica couldn't help but roll her eyes, she didn't expect to be scared by Y after watching all the movies.

……

When she came out of the movie theater, Jessica was still discussing the plot of the movie with Hardison.

There are a lot of details in this movie that they can't notice once they watch it.

After some communication, they also found that they ignored a lot of things when watching the movie.

"Or, let's watch it again." Jessica suggested.

Hadison immediately agreed, "I'm okay with it, can I watch it today?" ”

Jessica smiled and shook her head, "Not today, because there is only this one today, I asked the conductor when I bought the ticket just now." If you want to see it, you have to wait until tomorrow, or this time period. ”

"Oh." Hadison was a little disappointed, and he wanted to stay with Jessica for a while, "Such a good movie, there is only one show." ”

"Although I also think this movie is very good, its schedule will definitely not be high, you can only watch one show, and there is only such a little attendance."

"Thompson definitely liked the movie, and I recommend it to him later."

"Or, call him with us tomorrow." Jessica suggested.

Hadison waved his hand repeatedly, "He seems to have a date tomorrow, so let him come and see for himself later." ”

Just kidding, he didn't want that Thompson guy to ruin his one-on-one meeting with Jessica.

……

The North American premiere of "The Sixth Sense" was not ideal, with only $270,000 in its opening weekend and an average of $90,000 per day.

Even if this movie has a small number of films, this box office figure is very pitiful.

According to this first-weekend result, the final box office of "The Sixth Sense" is probably between $500,000 and $1.2 million, which is far from the 5.22 million result of "Farewell My Concubine".

The domestic media has been paying close attention to the box office of "The Sixth Sense" in North America, and they are all concerned about whether Zhou Yan can create another miracle, and the film's performance in Neon is really good.

As soon as the box office of the movie came out on the first weekend, several domestic media outlets got the news.

The media eats traffic rice, praising a person is fast, stepping on a person is faster, the box office of "The Sixth Sense" is poor, and the decline will come immediately.

[Not adapting to the water and soil, are cross-border directors praised too high? ] 】

[Genius director encounters Waterloo, Hollywood is Longtan Tiger's Den? ] 】

[500,000 in the first weekend, the neon box office became a fig leaf for Zhou Yan. 】

These news of stepping on people are all normal, and some of them are more ruthless.

[Dong Shi imitated Western films, but in the end they were not recognized by the West. 】

A news item in "Movie Perspective" directly criticized Zhou Yan's film for deliberately imitating the West, abusing techniques, and having no core content, but in the end it was backlashed and not recognized by the West, which is very ridiculous.

Zhou Yan didn't pay attention to these news that stepped on him, but when he went to Yanjing Studio, Han Sanping specially showed him this news.

"Don't you think this sounds familiar?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Do you think this article was written by Xie Fei?" ”

"That shouldn't be enough, but I suspect it probably has something to do with Xie Fei, some of the reports are even Xie Fei's original words at the meeting, how can there be such a coincidence."

"So, it's very likely to have something to do with the people who were there that day."

"It's a possibility." Han Sanping sighed, "I thought that the box office of "The Sixth Sense" in North America might not be too good, but I didn't expect it to be so bad. You were too glamorous before, and there must be people who didn't like you, but whether it's movies or records, you sell well, and those who don't like you can't find a chance to step on you. Well, now that they have this box office data, they finally have a loophole. ”

Zhou Yan actually understands that when so many media come to step on him, someone must be behind him, and there may be more than one party.

In a circle, friends are always the minority, and opponents are the majority.

In the past two years, Zhou Yan has stolen the limelight from many people, and the interests of these people have been affected, so they automatically stand on the opposite side of Zhou Yan.

However, Zhou Yan didn't care too much, these ghosts and charms could only give him a little disgust at most, and there was no way to defeat him at all.

No matter how much they step on it, they can't change the fact that "The Sixth Sense" makes money, even if "The Sixth Sense" doesn't have a dime at the box office in North America, it can't hurt him and Tomson half a point.

And this incident also made him see the faces of some media.

Some media outlets who often asked him for interviews also joined the "Reverse Week" army this time.

At the same time, adversity sees the truth, and this time some media still came out to support Zhou Yan.

For example, Yanjing TV said a lot of good things to Zhou Yan in the report, and Sun Qin also specially called him to ask him not to take those criticisms to heart.

Needless to say, "Yangtze Evening News", although Zhou Yu has left the "Yangtze Evening News", they still stand up to help Zhou Yan speak.

Zhou Yan himself didn't pay attention to the news, but Zhang Youan recorded it to these media one by one.

"What does Xie Fei have to do with me?" Zhou Yan was a little curious.

Han Sanping groaned, "I probably know something, it should have something to do with whether you joined the Film Directors Guild." Because of this, many people in the association have opinions about you. Xie Fei is the vice president, and it is normal for him to react. ”

"That's it?"

Han Sanping said with a smile, "Isn't that enough?" I didn't know that they offered you to join the association, but you refused. Your action, for them, is tantamount to telling them that you are a stranger. If you, the director who rejected the association, can still get along, then what authority can their association have in the industry in the future? In the future, other directors will follow suit and refuse to join the association, so the association will not be able to continue. ”

Zhou Yan also knew that his refusal to join the Film Directors Guild might make those in the association have opinions, but he didn't expect the other party to react so much.

Seeing that Zhou Yan was silent, Han Sanping squinted and smiled, "If you want to ease the relationship with them, I can help you mediate." ”

Zhou Yan waved his hand and said very simply, "No, now I don't want to join the Naraush Association." ”

Hearing Zhou Yan say this, Han Sanping laughed, "I knew you would say this, and you probably wouldn't take these people to heart." I didn't say anything about the mediation, but if you want to take revenge on them, I won't come forward. ”

Zhou Yan shrugged, "I don't want to put too much energy into this yet, now I have enough things at hand to keep me busy." (End of chapter)