In 2016, a game theme post appeared, which unexpectedly promoted the birth of an 8-point drama.
The origin of the story began with this hot post by Zhihu:
If you were writing the plot for Assassin's Creed, where would you set it?
First of all, to introduce the background, Assassin's Creed is an Assassin theme game that can "travel" while fighting.
The game features that players can play as assassins who have traveled all over the world on missions, traveling through ancient and modern Chinese and foreign historical cities.
Under the restoration of realistic scenes, fans can feel the assassin culture at the same time, and incidentally also feel the customs and customs of various countries.
Post-80s writer Ma Boyong is also a fan of this game, and under the hot post of the game, there is a reply from Ma Boyong with great interest.
With his thousands of words of reply, the outside world followed his brushstroke imagination through the prosperous Chang'an, dreaming back to the Tang Dynasty with a great sense of picture.
Interestingly, Ma Boyong himself was inspired by this.
Subsequently, he created a novel based on this answer, which also became the prototype of the 8.6-point explosive drama "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an".
This anecdote derived from the game has now been regarded as a good story by many people.
And this year, the connection between this magical game "Assassin's Creed" and domestic film and television seems to continue.
With the release of a movie released in mid-May, many netizens in the comment area also shouted the slogan of "Chinese version of Assassin's Creed" due to factors such as painting style.
The previous "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", which was derived from Assassin's Creed, broke 8, so what about the latter movie with a similar flavor?
It is a film starring Feng Shaofeng, Hu Jun, Jin Chen, and directed by Hong Kong director Li Rengang:
"Blue-Faced Shura"
It is adapted from the novel "Thorn Bureau", which is known as China's first assassin IP, and was built by LeTV Pictures at the end of 2016 with an investment of 220 million yuan and completed the shooting the following year.
However, due to various reasons, the film was backlogged for 5 years, until this year, the network was finalized, and the title of the film was adjusted from the original "Thorn Bureau" to "Blue Face Shura".
So, why has this five-year-old sword-sharpened assassin IP backlog for so long, and what are its advantages and disadvantages compared to other similar works?
1. Three main actors
Although it chooses to land on the uneven online movie platform instead of the theater, the behind-the-scenes team of the film is definitely the standard theater configuration.
First of all, the three main actors of the main poster are Feng Shaofeng, Hu Jun and Jin Chen.
In the film, Feng Shaofeng plays the disciple of the Assassin Organization Who Left the Hate Valley, the male protagonist Qi Junyuan, who is known as the Green-faced Shuluo.
The entire plot of the film also begins with him receiving his first assassination mission and getting involved in the puzzle.
In the trailer, Feng Shaofeng's role is also quite distinctive.
Appearing in a black nightshirt, he retains the mysterious attributes of an assassin, such as torch eyes also highlight the heroism of the character.
Powerful actor Hu Jun also participated in the film.
In recent years, Hu Jun has received praise for participating in popular films and televisions such as "Changjin Lake" and "Knife Line in the Snow", and his supporting role performance has been recognized by the outside world.
In the trailer, hu Jun's domineering eyes pushing the door open show the temperament of the tyrant, and the strength of the national first-class actor is not covered.
The third protagonist is Jin Chen, who plays a female assassin in the film.
Jin Chen, who took over the scene (2017), was not out of the circle, when she had just emerged from participating in "Heartless Mage".
However, in the past few years of film backlog, Jin Chen has ushered in a period of career rise.
With the accumulation of popularity as a female protagonist in popular dramas such as "Hidden and Great", coupled with the highlight moments in variety shows such as "Sister Lang", Jin Chen gradually became one of the first-line Huadan industries.
Now, this work from 5 years ago will also open the "time machine" to take the outside world back to a younger version of the goddess's appearance.
Around the three protagonists, supplemented by a large number of senior actors in the industry, the names of this group of supporting actors can unlock countless film and television memories.
Among them, there are not only old mainland strength drama bones such as Wang Qingxiang, but also Hong Kong and Taiwan power factions such as Lu Liangwei, Wu Dairong, Gao Jie, Xu Shaoqiang, etc., who add a lot of texture to the film.
Compared with the unknown good and evil attributes of other supporting characters, the villain professional Xu Shaoqiang seems to have a "spoiler" identity in the trailer.
In the shot, when he mysteriously appears in a black cloak, under the seriousness and mystery of his eyes, the villain attribute may have been showdown.
In addition, the trailer also appears the figure of Zeng Jiang, the "Yellow Medicine Master" who has just passed away, which is also the first public "posthumous work" after the death of Mr. Zeng Lao.
2. Director
While the lineup is not low in fame, the emergence of hong Kong director Li Rengang's three words has also raised expectations from the outside world.
As a veteran filmmaker who has been in the circle for more than several years, Li Rengang has made great achievements in the field of costume action films.
He has directed many popular films such as "Jinyi Wei" and "See the Dragon Unloading Armor", and his career has been nominated for 4 nominations for the Golden Rooster & Golden Film Awards, and his directing strength has long been recognized by the industry.
From the trailer, the sharp and crisp action scenes and quaint painting style can also see the Li Rengang brand that he injected into the film with good aesthetic achievements.
Judging from the stitching of the above names and the effect of the trailer, the texture of this film is really good.
3. Enter the drama
The film is adapted from the online article IP "Thorn Bureau" written by writer Yuan Taiji, which has been crowned by many media as the first IP of Chinese assassins.
When announcing the concept message, the crew also directly followed this statement.
Combined with the information of the novel, it does deserve the statement of the first book of Chinese Assassin Culture.
Different from the same genre, "The Assassin's Bureau" has a deeper portrayal of the assassin's life and stands on a more macroscopic perspective.
The IP takes the assassin as the absolute protagonist and presents a very strict and characteristic assassin organization system.
In the novel, the Assassin Order is divided into three main factions:
Three inch lotus, easy water, away from the valley of hate
The three factions have very different styles, the Three Inch Lotus is an assassin organization composed of women, and the red killing intent representing blood is revealed under the red face.
Yi Shui is also a dead soldier organization with the analogy of "Jing Ke Thorn Qin", regardless of whether it is right or wrong, it is their paranoia to just practice the covenant with death.
The valley of hatred where the protagonist is located is a relatively principled faction, they will carry out assassinations with justice and justice, refuse to kill old and weak women and children, and swear to kill the great treachery and the great evil.
In the trailer, the male protagonist played by Feng Shaofeng explains the definition of organization in one sentence:
To leave hate is to get the people of the world away from hatred (by assassination).
In addition to a wide variety of genre shaping, the IP also presents a variety of dark weapons and its use methods.
For example, the male protagonist Qi Junyuan's Shuluo hand, which is a prosthetic leg he installed after the severed limb of his right hand.
Behind this pair of acquired iron hands, there are hidden all kinds of hidden weapons, which may catch others off guard at any time.
And Qin Shengsheng, played by the heroine Jin Chen, disguises weapons in daily life.
The piano in her hand contained a murderous weapon, and even her mouth had a flying soul needle that hurt people's lives.
The black and white impermanence, played by Xu Shaoqiang and Xiu Qing, shows an unpredictable assassination style.
Between the characters ghostly dancing the soul umbrella, the bayonet hidden under the mask brushes and brushes out, which can be described as invincible.
In addition, the appearance of strange dark weapons, including reincarnation armor and flip wings, will also unlock the mystery of the assassin's assassination in the outside world, bringing eye-opening visual enjoyment.
Judging from the degree of reduction of the trailer to the novel, the plot factor is also the second highlight of "Blue-faced Shura".
Let's talk about the hidden dangers that the film can't ignore, that is, the reason for its potential backlog of 5 years.
4. Regrets
Despite the 220 million investment at the beginning, from the perspective of the process, the film has the risk of not keeping up with the ambition.
When the IP was preparing, director Li Rengang and the behind-the-scenes LeTV Pictures originally had great ambitions for the film.
They recruited and recruited Feng Shaofeng, Hu Jun and others under the condition of 220 million yuan of investment in the film version, and also launched various derivative plans.
This includes promoting the development of the drama version, and the drama version with 120 million yuan investment has also invited Hou Yong and other old drama bones to participate in the filming.
But when the IP was launched in a two-line movie/TV series manner, which made many fans and fans rub their hands excitedly, the story came to an abrupt end...
Since the mid-2017 film version was completed, the IP news of "Thorn Bureau" has almost "sunk into the sea".
Not only have they been unsubstantiated for many years, but even director Li Rengang's social account has not been updated for many years since 2017...
Combined with some timeline information, the outside world interprets an intriguing version of the "silence" of the "Assassination Bureau" IP.
Quite simply, there is no money.
In May 2017, the film version of "Thorn Game" officially began filming.
However, 2 months after the start-up, its behind-the-scenes shareholder LeEco exposed a financial crisis, and the shares held by the controlling shareholder Jia Yueting were all frozen.
Although the incident occurred after the filming of the film version began, under the inevitable influence of LeTV Pictures by the parent company, the post-production and publicity of the film was bound to be affected by some.
The problem of the capital chain is also considered by many people to be the mystery of the disappearance of "Thorn Bureau" for five years.
5. A few final words
Today, compared with the ambition of 5 years ago, the attitude of this film reborn under the name of "Blue Face Shura" 5 years later has been much lowered.
In the past, they invested 220 million yuan instead of choosing to take the theater line to return the capital, but landed on the network cloud platform and launched it on May 13 with a paid method.
Considering that the market cake in the field of online movies is not very large, the box office of the highest-paid film (non-paid) in the past three years is only 58.62 million, and it is difficult for the box office of "Blue Face Shuluo" to break through 100 million.
Even counting the movie that opened the paid version, Wang Jing's main IP "Yitian Slaughter dragon" network big (online payment) is also estimated to be about 150 million box office, which is obviously difficult to make up for the "appetite" of the 220 million investment of "Blue Face Shuluo".
After choosing an online platform, perhaps it was the squeezed 5 years of grinding ambition, and the film's publicity and later stage seemed to have taken the lying flat route.
This IP with a huge worldview and the need for a theatrical version of the ip was eventually reduced to a 60-minute film version, and it is doubtful how many facts can be told in an hour.
And its film version of the official micro is even more neglected, and the fans are still only in the early 500s...
The hasty launch of the network platform makes people feel that the film is in a hurry to unwind.
I have to say that from the texture of the film lineup and the assassin IP laying out, "Blue Face Shura" gives us a lot of expectations.
Judging from the decision of the film to not take the theater line and take the online platform for 5 years, it seems that the filmmakers' confidence in the film is seriously insufficient, which also makes people doubt the actual presentation effect and post-production of the film.
But in any case, in a few days, this movie that smashed 200 million yuan just to create "China's first assassin IP" will land online.
People may lie, but the movie itself doesn't lie.
On May 13th, we will unveil the mystery that has been hidden behind this green-faced Shura for 5 years.
Look at whether the 5 years of time are hiding the full helplessness of "pearl dust", or the false lie of covering "defective unloading".
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