After waiting for a long time, investing 3 billion, can this piece be a god in a battle?
Time Contributor | Fumi Minamino
Cult movie gluttony.
It is no exaggeration to say that "The First Part of Fengshen " is not only the largest Chinese-language film this year, but also the largest project in the history of Chinese films.
"The First Part of Fengsheng"
From the start of development in 2014 to the official release on July 20, the film has gone through nine years.
Although the release date has been changed again and again due to the epidemic, fans' expectations for "The First Part of Fengshen " have been quite high.
Among them, there is both curiosity about the Chinese film "heavy industry" and interest in mythological war costume films.
Why is the "Feng Shen" trilogy pinned on so much hope? At the box office, can it really be a god in a fight?
Everything from new
After announcing the summer vacation on June 6, the official release of "The First Part of Fengshen " has successively released several trailers.
Among them, there are both those with the theme of "the present world of the list of gods", as well as those with the theme of "chaos in the world" and "proton expedition".
Judging from these trailer pictures alone, although this film is adapted from a classical novel, it shows quite different creative ideas in terms of core plot and character image.
For example, Fei Xiang's King Shun has a strong physique and has the courage of ten thousand husbands.
He either appears in a shirtless upper body with a sense of muscle, or he is dressed in golden armor and crisscrosses the battlefield, which is different from the "King of Silk" in past film and television dramas, most of whom are odious and pot-bellied dull images.
Look at Ji Fa, played by Yu Shi, who was the "proton" of King Feng when he appeared, and even opposed his father Ji Chang under the ideological control of King Shu.
Perhaps it can be boldly predicted that the character of Ji Fa will be the protagonist of the entire series, experiencing a confusion of identity and thus a journey to find self-worth.
Not only that, but the shaping of images such as Mo Qilin, Lei Zhenzi and Gluttony is also very different from usual.
Lei Zhenzi's face is more hideous, and the two wings are not wings, but have become flesh wings; The gluttonous body seems to be inlaid with thunder pattern jade, which is unique.
It is not difficult to see from these changes that "The First Part of Fengshen " focuses on novelty and creativity. This is also true in the cast.
Although there are famous movie stars such as Fei Xiang, Huang Bo, Yuan Quan, and Li Xuejian, new faces are adopted for some key roles.
Naran, who plays Daji, has not appeared in any film and television dramas except for the heroine in Jay Chou's "Confession Balloon" MV, she has Mongolian and Russian ancestry, and is a proper newcomer.
Of course, the most noteworthy thing is the "Proton Brigade" boy who has a heavy role in the film.
The actors who played these aristocratic hostages were carefully selected by the casting team from the global Chinese community in February 2017, and the primary selection size reached 15,000 people.
The reason why director Wu Ershan uses a large number of newcomers is to save costs and avoid conflicts with the actor schedule in the long shooting cycle.
The second is to better shape the character image, in the closed, long-term actor training, to achieve the so-called primitive sense and masculine charm.
Chinese film heavy industry
Although the establishment of the Chinese-language film industry system has caused heated discussions due to the "The Wandering Earth" series and "Assassination of a Novelist" in previous years, the production of the "Fengsheng" trilogy is undoubtedly more powerful.
The first investment cost of the series is as high as 3 billion yuan, although in terms of a single film budget, it is comparable to Zhang Yimou's blockbuster film "The Great Wall".
But the difference is that the "Fengshen " trilogy is not filmed one after another, but like the "Lord of the Rings" series, it adopts a "back-to-back" centralized filming mode. This is the first of its kind in Chinese films.
The reason for this method is actually cost savings.
For a project such as "Fengshen "Fengsheng", which has a coherent plot, a long cycle and a huge investment, using a conventional production process actually costs more money.
Therefore, from the beginning, director Wu Ershan discussed with producer Jiang Zhiqiang to ask Barry Osborne, the producer of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, for advice.
The producer first set up a scene in Qingdao's Oriental Film Capital, and planned in advance by means of animation preview on a large scale.
That is, before the official start of shooting, let the special effects team make animation according to the director's intention, so that the prop team, art team, lighting team and actors can understand the next shooting effect and prepare in advance.
Not only that, a large number of production coordination meetings and daily rehearsals have also become the winning weapon of the "Fengsheng" team, allowing the actors to gradually optimize on-site scheduling and reduce shooting errors in the daily costumes, costumes, and camera positioning rehearsals.
Talking about the difficulties of filming and production, director Wu Ershan: "The difficulties it encountered and our methods of solving problems should be pioneering, and may be able to provide some experience and help to other film crews in China."
According to scene art director Zhang Cheng: "Out of more than 120 scenes, there should be more than 100 single buildings. ”
The audience will see unimaginable ancient cities in the movie, Chaoga City with strong industry, commerce and military, Xiqi City with simple peace and agricultural development, and Jizhou City with tribal characteristics in alpine areas, showing the style characteristics of different regions and civilization development.
Of all the scenes built in "The First Part of Feng Shen", the regulations of the Longde Hall are the highest.
The setting of the Longde Hall took four and a half months to build, and at its peak, about 200 clay, wood and stone carving masters entered the venue at the same time.
Director Wu Ershan hopes that in "The First Part of Fengshen ", the audience will feel a strong and character-filled aesthetic experience, feel Chinese their own classic aesthetics, and the form of combining fantasy movies.
Why Urshan?
Although compared with the film and television adaptation of "Journey to the West", "Fengshen List" is much less, but it is really impressive to review and sort out the relevant film and television works of the latter.
People have the impression that the earliest adaptation of "Fengshen List" is probably the 1989 "Fengshen List".
Because of the terrifying atmosphere and amazing scale, this legendary drama suddenly stopped broadcasting after five episodes on TV and disappeared.
However, just a year later, the drama "Feng Shen List" starring Fu Yiwei and Lan Tianye began to be a hit, and the super high ratings made it a classic for a generation.
When many people choose the best Daji actor in film history, Fu Yiwei often ranks in the top three.
But it was not until 2001 that the TVB version of "Fengshen List" attracted attention again.
Although the production is slightly rough and the plot can be called a magic change, it is good that the character shaping is relatively successful, and the characters are full of emotions, especially Wen Bixia's Daji, in addition to being charming, there is also a sense of pity.
Since then, the mainland has filmed a series of "Fengshen List" film and television dramas.
Among them, there are "Fengming Qishan" starring Fan Bingbing and Ma Jingtao in 2006, "Wuwang Fa Lun of the Fengshen List" starring Lin Xinru and Huang Weide in 2009, and "Romance of Fengshen List" starring Luo Jin and Wang Likun in 2019, the quality is uneven.
Especially in 2016, the blockbuster "The Legend of Fengshen "Legend of Fengshen starring a number of big-name stars" attracted a lot of scolding.
On the contrary, in the field of animated films, "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends", "Jiang Ziya" and "New God List: Nezha Reborn", "New God List: Yang Jian" have set off a lot of discussion, and the color stripe house and chasing light animation have also led the "rise of national comics".
But the live-action film and television works, until Wu Ershan took over the baton and announced the direction of the "Fengsheng" trilogy, did fans take a reassuring pill.
Why is Wuershan in charge of the tube and how to operate a huge project?
All this has to start with the "Knife Laughter" in his early years.
At that time, although Ursun was popular in the advertising industry and won the International Film Critics Association Award at the Busan International Film Festival for his small-budget art film "Soap Opera", he was blank in the field of commercial films.
In 2010, an absurd martial arts film "Knife Laughter" that cost less than 8 million yuan made the then 38-year-old Wu Ershan famous, and even appeared in the international film industry.
In the later stages of the production of "Knife Laughter", Twentieth Century Fox took a fancy to Wuershan's wild imagination, so it joined the investment and was responsible for the overseas distribution of the film.
In this way, a pioneering filmmaker, like riding on a rocket, goes further and further on the road of commercial blockbusters.
"Painted Skin 2" won 700 million at the box office, becoming the box office champion in Chinese film history at that time; "Finding the Dragon" finally grossed 1.68 billion and was recognized as the best tomb robbery movie.
Wuershan can create box office successes in succession, which is not only related to his fine control of costs, but also closely related to the creativity he shows in mythological and fantasy genre films.
He knows how to present the magnificence of traditional culture under the premise of genre fusion, and reflect his insights into the major topics of human nature and love in a rich aesthetic style.
Can "The First Part of Fengshen " reproduce the reputation of "Dragon Hunting"? And will it create a new box office miracle?
Let's wait and see.