The sword points to 2 billion, "Just Defense" is about to start filming, Zhang Yimou is betting on high yield, Xu Zheng is fine

Before there were always people behind his back that Zhang Yimou made a lifetime of movies, and the total box office was not comparable to Wu Jing or Jia Ling.

Today, Zhang Yimou is no longer afraid of others chewing the root of his tongue like this, because "Manjiang Hong", directed by him and starring Shen Teng and Yi Yangqianxi, exploded at the box office by 4.544 billion, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film in Chinese film history and the highest-grossing film since he started filming.

This gave Zhang Yimou a taste of sweetness, so he repeated his old skills, and the new film "Just Defense" was about to start shooting.

So, how is this film similar to "Manjiang Red"?

What are the highlights?

Why can the 73-year-old Zhang Yimou be so prolific when he is old?

Can "Just Cause" continue to replicate the box office results of "Manjiang Red"?

With these questions, after some understanding, the author will use the following six keywords to comprehensively analyze the film, and predict that the box office will reach 2 billion, which cannot surpass the previous work.

The first key word: challenge the 2024 Spring Festival file.

The filming cycle of "Manjiang Hong" is from June 26 to August 17, 2022, which takes less than two months in total, and is finally scheduled to be released in the Spring Festival in 2023.

The film uses costume power and suspense type, using comedy elements to present this film in front of the audience, Zhang Yimou knows what the audience wants to see, so the film hit the blow and became the annual box office champion film.

The movie is that the screenwriter spent some time in the early stage, from the establishment of the project to the completion, the whole process only took half a year, rented a large yard, filmed for more than a month, after the release, the 4.5 billion box office came like this, the cost is much lower than "The Wandering Earth 2", such a box office is too good to earn.

Zhang Yimou's discovery of the Spring Festival dividend began with the small-scale war film "Sniper", which got 608 million box office in the 2022 Spring Festival file, and it is unceremoniously said that if the film is in other schedules, the box office cannot exceed 300 million.

This is the advantage of the Spring Festival file, and the box office explosion of "Manjiang Hong" once again proves this, so, in the 2024 Spring Festival file, how can Zhang Yimou give up?

"Just Defense" announced that it will start in Beijing at the end of June, with a shooting cycle of 60 days, similar to "Manjiang Hong", which is expected to be completed at the end of August, and then enter the post-editing, soundtrack, and finished film for review, publicity and finalization preparation.

The purpose is obvious, this is to challenge the 2024 Spring Festival prepared movie, such an important schedule, Zhang Yimou must come to get a piece of the pie.

The second key word: VAM protocol.

So, why is Zhang Yimou so anxious to shoot "Just Defense"? Besides, at the age of 73, ordinary filmmakers are in a state of retirement, and Director Zhang is still working intensively, why is this?

It turned out that Zhang Yimou had two wives and gave birth to an eldest daughter Zhang Mo with his ex-wife, and Zhang Mo, another director of "Sniper", is his daughter, who served as an assistant director in "The Love of Hawthorn Trees", and is 40 years old this year.

Later, Zhang Yimou was exposed to 7 children, and it was finally determined that his current wife Chen Ting gave birth to three children: Zhang Yinan, Zhang Yiding and Zhang Yijiao.

Zhang Yijiao is his youngest daughter, who is over 16 years old and underage, and was fined 7.48 million yuan for overbirth.

In addition, an insider familiar with Chen Ting once personally heard Chen Ting say that Zhang Yimou also gave birth to two daughters and a son with other women, and Chen Ting was particularly proud to sit on the right card because she won.

Of course, the three children mentioned later have not confirmed that the reason why the old Zhang Yimou works so prolificly is to leave more wealth to his children.

Relying on his position in the Chinese film industry, he signed a gambling agreement with Huanxi Pictures, the producer of "Manjiang Hong", which is actually a white wolf with empty gloves.

The director and the producer bet against each other, and the director does not need to pay a penny to obtain the right to direct a big-budget film, with the budget cost as a bargaining chip, and the theater box office as the final result.

If the box office wins, the director can obtain a large amount of box office wealth, and if he loses and does not reach the required box office, he will face sky-high compensation.

Previously, Feng Xiaogang and Huayi Brothers had engaged in such an agreement, Feng Xiaogang established Dongyang Meira Pictures, Huayi Brothers used 70% of the capital 1.05 billion to acquire this shell company, and Feng Xiaogang as a director got the directing right of "Fang Hua".

In the end, the film's national box office hit, Feng Xiaogang began to speak amazingly, and set up a project to prepare for the shooting of "Hand 2", the following things, everyone knows, Cui Yongyuan strongly resisted, a certain ice was investigated, and the movie was also in a state of failure.

In desperation, Feng Xiaogang filmed a romantic literary film "Only Yun Knows", the box office hit the street was expected, and finally Feng Xiaogang failed to gamble and lost 160 million to the Huayi brothers, which came to an end.

There is also the famous Hong Kong comedy star Stephen Chow, who also signed a gambling agreement with Shanghai New Culture Company, and the producer bought the equity of Stephen Chow Company at a price of more than 40%.

Stephen Chow is required to earn a net profit of 1.04 billion yuan over a four-year period from 2016 to 2020, and if the VAM agreement fails, Stephen Chow will repurchase his own shares and make up for the shortfall.

Deng Chao and Lin Yun's "Mermaid" reached 3.3 billion at the box office, but the box office of "Journey to the West" and "The New King of Comedy" did not take off, and in the end, Stephen Chow's gamble failed, and he had to mortgage 1.1 billion mansions in Hong Kong for repayment.

Zhang Yimou's gamble this time is the same, he obtained 150 million shares of Huanxi Media and 100 million cash signing, in exchange for three film resources in the next 6 years, "Manjiang Red" box office success, proving that he has the strength to complete this gamble.

Zhang Yimou's "Legitimate Defense" is the second film under the gambling treaty, and Zhang Yimou must be produced in a short time, released and achieve a high box office.

The third key word: legitimate defense.

The title "Just Defense" is a specific legal term and is interpreted as follows:

In our reality, we have encountered many similar cases and triggered huge discussions, such as the Kunshan Yu Haiming case, the Tangshan beating incident, and this year's May Day high-speed rail bear child parents beating case, etc., all of which have triggered discussions on "legitimate defense".

The film project information shows the plot of the film:

Two legal workers turned an intentional injury case into a legitimate defense and the suspect's innocence.

This movie is similar to Huang Zihua's "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", which is a domestic legal theme film.

Very typical reality films, and then look at the male and female protagonists as Xu Zheng and Ma Li, this time Zhang Yimou wants to interpret this serious theme film in a comedy way.

Like the previous "Manjiang Red", using comedy and suspense will surely reap miraculous results.

The fourth key word: Xu Zheng is fine.

Zhang Yimou did not attend the Huabiao Award this time, but Xu Zheng attended with a high profile, and many of his films were shortlisted for the Huabiao Award, including "Me and My Motherland", "I Am Not the God of Medicine", "Me and My Fathers" and "Love Myth".

Xu Zheng is dressed in a suit and leather shoes, radiant, and has a completely different performance from the previous appearance of pot-bellied, and just before the Huabiao Awards, the case of Xu Zheng and his wife Tao Hong involved in Zhang Ting and his wife has never stopped.

Just before the broadcast of "Youth Travel 4", many victims reported Xu Zheng with their identity verification names and boycotted his participation in any variety shows.

There was also a rumor about the divorce of Xu Zheng and Tao Hong, and he also said that he was ready to transfer 820 million personal assets abroad to be frozen, and Xu Zheng clarified the rumor through his circle of friends.

Xu Zheng, who appeared at the Huabiao Awards, followed several crews on the red carpet and was interviewed on the spot, and it was obvious that Xu Zheng had handled the things between him and Zhang Ting and his wife perfectly.

It can be confirmed from another aspect: Xu Zheng is fine!

Xu Zheng, who is fine, can show his strength, and this time he cooperates with director Zhang Yimou, which is full of highlights, hoping to create a second medicine god.

The fifth key word: Ma Li and Gao Ye.

Ma Li, as the happy twist master, is second only to Shen Teng in terms of box office gold absorption ability, and over the years, most of the films starring Ma Li have basically exploded at the box office.

In the first half of this year, there were two movies in which Ma Li participated, one was "Keep You Safe" with Dapeng, and the other was May 1st Show, starring Qiao Shan and Fan Chengcheng "Life Road is Not Familiar".

The box office of the two films far exceeded expectations, and "Life is Unfamiliar" exploded by more than 1 billion.

With Ma Li, it is equivalent to a certain guarantee at the box office, plus the male protagonist played by Xu Zheng, the quality of the movie does not have to worry.

The other heroine is set as Takah.

The hottest actress in the first half of this year is Gao Ye, "Crazy" made it popular overnight, it can be said that she is the biggest winner of this drama, although not as popular as Zhang Songwen, but she got the most wealth and status.

After the explosion of "Crazy", Gao Ye received endorsements and received soft hands, and there were more famous foreign brands, such as Maserati and so on.

More importantly, in the major ceremonies, her personal seat rose directly from the previous fifth row to the second, or even the first row, and this Cannes Film Festival was invited by the brand to attend in full costume.

This time "Legitimate Defense" and Zhang Yimou cooperate, his personal status will be raised to a level again, and he can directly be on a par with well-known movie stars in the country.

The sixth key word: Liu Yaowen.

Zhang Yimou is changing, and the speed of this change is still very fast, and the previous "Mou Girl" has been changed to "Mo Boy".

As we all know, Zhang Yimou's new movies always like to use an unknown actress, with a movie, make it popular half of the sky, everyone affectionately calls it "Mou Girl".

Over the years, he has become popular with Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Dongyu and Liu Haocun. Every rookie actor, after his work, can shine, and some even become popular in Hollywood.

This is the power of Zhang Yimou, but since "Sniper", he seems to have changed his thinking and directly held up the "Mo Boy", so that Chen Yongsheng is known to the world.

This time, "Just Defense" also came to the opposite way, young actor Liu Yaowen was selected by him, what kind of role will be played in this movie, we don't know yet, but there will definitely be a very important scene.

Liu Yaowen was born in 2005, 18 years old this year, participated in various talent shows, no main works came out, and there is a big capital behind this male star.

Liu Yaowen joined Beijing Times Fengjun Culture and Art Company in 2016 and became a member of its TF family. In 2017, he began to participate in various performance activities frequently, in our words, it is small fresh meat, and even traffic stars are not counted.

In 2022, he appeared in Jackie Chan's "Infinite Beyond Class" reality show, but most of the audience did not know, this time Zhang Yimou chose Liu Yaowen, and his personal star path got a qualitative leap.

Perhaps this was the first turning point in Liu Yaowen's life.

To sum up, except for Zhang Yimou, the main creator of "Legitimate Defense" is not as powerful as "Manjiang Hong", because the first actor of "Manjiang Hong" is Shen Teng, and the domestic box office celebrity ranks second, second only to Wu Jing.

Secondly, the young actor enabled Yi Yangqianxi, whose personal acting skills and traffic appeal are among the top in China, in addition, there are powerful actors such as Zhang Yi, Yue Yunpeng, and Lei Jiayin, so this has created a high box office of 4.5 billion.

"Just Defense" with the joining of Xu Zheng, Ma Li and Gao Ye, the degree of expectation is much lower than "Manjiang Hong", besides, this is a realistic legal film, whether the audience can contribute to the box office, it depends on the word-of-mouth situation after the release.

Therefore, Brother Brown predicts that the first target is 2 billion, will this upcoming filming of "Just Defense" be your dish?

I hope that Zhang Yimou, a former art film master, will not be held hostage by the gambling agreement and continue to create works that the audience will love to see, after all, you may be left in China to be able to balance business and artistic achievements!