Chapter 350 Do you dare to confront
There is an article on Zhihu - How to evaluate "The Promise" directed by Chen Kaige?
It is said that the word "Wuji" suddenly popped into Director Chen's head while he was running on the treadmill.
"The Promise" is very ambitious. It is trying to build a new world, and Director Chen is really building this world.
In the world of "Wuji", there are people from the Snow Country, slaves who are "speedier than the wind", gods of war wearing flower armor, and ghost wolves who are both good and evil.
‘The Promise’ has almost everything that a magical movie needs to have.
The actors, behind the scenes, and Director Chen all use the best.
Zhang Dongjian, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Liu Ye...
In terms of actors, he has assembled some of the most popular actors from China, Japan and South Korea.
The lineup behind the scenes is also luxurious——
The photographer is Bao Dexi, the art director is Tim Yip, and the soundtrack is German composer Klaus Badet.
Klaus Bardet has scored many Hollywood films and served as the music consultant for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The soundtrack uses drums, flutes, erhu, violins and other musical instruments. Even apart from the movie, the soundtrack of "The Promise" is well worth listening to!
In terms of the picture, Director Chen put a lot of thought into it and used a lot of highly saturated colors such as red and pink, which gave the entire film a sense of unreality.
Great work was also done on the camera. When Qingcheng was imprisoned in a golden cage by Wu Huan, when Kunlun came to rescue her, he used a rope to pull Qingcheng up. This scene combined with the background music of the movie gave it a kind of The atmosphere has a bit of sad beauty.
It is obvious that Director Chen really wants to make a masterpiece, probably to repeat the glory of "Farewell My Concubine".
Unfortunately, the shortcomings of this film are as prominent as its advantages.
The logic of the story is confusing, the actors have serious accents, and the lines are ridiculous.
The latter two can be said to be minor shortcomings, but the first one is definitely a flaw.
Many viewers said they didn't understand it after watching it. Not only ordinary viewers, but also professional filmmakers couldn't understand it.
To say that "The Promise" has closed the door for Chinese costume films to go abroad is actually a bit bullying.
After all, a subject matter will always go out of style, and costume films cannot remain popular forever.
But "The Promise" did act as a catalyst. It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that it cooled down the craze for costumes.
……
The next day, the interview with Zhang Chen was also broadcast. Mrs. Chen was so angry that she cried after watching it.
I really cried~
How can the failure of "The Promise" be blamed on me?
But before Mrs. Chen could react, Xiantao Digital couldn't sit still.
The person in charge of Xiantao Digital was interviewed immediately: "We were brought in temporarily to make up the numbers, and halfway through filming, we withdrew because we were unable to communicate with the producers."
Reporter: "Oh, why did you quit?"
Xantao Digital: “Because Director Chen Kaige doesn’t understand the industrial process of special effects shooting at all, he always thinks that after shooting the footage and bringing it to us, we can make any special effects according to his requirements.
But real special effects production requires preparation in the early stage of shooting. For many pictures, when designing the lens in the early stage, we must consider how to use special effects. However, all these processes are completely absent in "The Promise". Here is the simplest example... ”
Someone from Xantao Digital talked about the scene where Manshen appeared.
Mrs. Chen plays the role of Man Shen. The setting of this role clearly refers to Greek drama. The most impressive thing is Man Shen’s upside-down hair.
What Director Chen wanted to shoot was a vacuum-like texture of floating clothes. This scene is actually somewhat similar to the scene of the priestess oracle in the 2007 "300".
Internationally, shots similar to this sense of weightlessness are basically shot in water.
This is true of "300", and the same is true of "Gravity".
In fact, it's very simple. The actors were shot in a large water tank, and then the feeling of weightlessness was simulated. Then, with the help of post-production keying and CG smoke, the feeling in the water was diluted.
But I don’t know why Director Chen doesn’t want to shoot like this. He chose to shoot in a studio and hang it up with wires.
The method was also very strange. He asked Mrs. Chen to read the lines twice as fast, and then used slow playback in post-production to achieve the effect of the clothes slowly fluttering.
For this reason, there is also a saying that "actors who do not perform well should be hung up", which is very strange.
"Furthermore, Director Chen is always self-righteous and makes all kinds of unreasonable demands. For example, he describes a scene as beautiful, elegant, and full of romance, but he cannot give any specific parameters or reference points. We are completely unable to I understand his thoughts, so I can only try to make one version. If it doesn’t fit his mind, I overturn it and start over again. There is no plan at all..."
The people from Xantao Digital talked eloquently for a long time, and the main point they elaborated was that Director Chen is very unreliable. We will not take the blame for the bad reviews of "The Promise".
Finally, he gave a solemn guarantee: "Xiantao Digital is a long-established special effects company in Hong Kong. We have handled countless projects and produced many high-quality products, such as "The Legend of Shushan", "Shaolin Football", "Kung Fu"... …
I guarantee in the name of the company that everything I said above is true. ”
It was over, and everyone was forced to swear poison.
Only then did Zhang Chen realize that he had wronged Xiantao Digital. It turned out that the special effect of being able to dig out three rooms and one living room with his toes was not made by anyone at all.
Speaking of which, these two days have been really eventful, of course, for "The Promise".
Turn on the TV and almost all channels are discussing "The Promise". The discussion is indeed high, but it has no positive effect on the box office.
Instead, a lot of black stuff came out of the discussion.
Some netizens from Yunnan shared their experiences in Xishuangbanna:
I am a staff member of the Xishuangbanna Scenic Area. The crew of "The Promise" filmed in Xishuangbanna, and we provided great convenience.
But after "The Promise" left, what we were left with was a huge mess.
Domestic garbage and construction waste are thrown everywhere, and the built scenery is not dismantled after use.
Not to mention, for the sake of art, Director Chen cut down trees and destroyed vegetation in the scenic area, causing the scenic area to take at least 3-5 years to recover.
……
My dear~
These two days have been really eye-opening.
Although Zhang Chen came from a later generation, he heard many things for the first time.
Perhaps I had heard of it in my previous life, but it was just a piece of gossip that passed my ears.
But in this life, he is a member of the circle, and these are the people and things that happen around him.
Director Chen did not copy his homework well, and the happiest person was probably Zhang Weiping.
In this way, the Zhang Yimou in his hand becomes even more valuable.
In the past two days, he has been preaching everywhere that "Steamed Buns" is a good movie, and it smoothes out the inexplicable plot of "The Promise".
Director Chen paid no attention to him. All his attention was on the overseas return of "The Promise".
His only hope now is to win the Oscars and sell overseas rights at a high price.
And returns can seriously impact all of this.
Therefore, Director Chen firmly denied the return of goods.
We only have differences with Miramax over the distribution strategy. The two parties are still in contact and there is no such thing as a return.
Brother Chen Kai wants to regain his respect by force, but Dong Jianqiang is not used to his problem.
He just said one thing: How about we invite Miramax's Harvey Weinstein to confront him and see if it is true that "The Promise" was returned...
The style of a company is influenced by the founder. Zhang Chen is irritating the sky and the earth, and Dong Jianqiang also likes to make difficult remarks from time to time~
(End of chapter)