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Six years ago, Wang Baoqiang, who became the director for the first time in "Big Trouble", completely nailed Douban's ultra-low score on shame support.
With a rating of 3.7, whether it's an action movie or a comedy, this rating is definitely at the bottom.
After the pain, Wang Baoqiang spent another 6 years to settle down after personally winning the Golden Broom Award.
This time he finally hit the bottom and gave the audience a satisfactory answer - "In the Octagon".
The box office exceeded 450 million on the first day of release, the Douban score has reached 76,000, and 22,000 people have given five-star praise. This achievement surpassed almost 90% of action movies and landed the commercial film "Disappearing Her".
The audience watching the roadshow sighed: Wang Baoqiang's movie is surprisingly good this time.
Wang Baoqiang was not surprised by this result, because only he knows how much money he paid for the film.
Especially after his last film was criticized and attacked by himself, Wang Baoqiang knew that he owed countless audiences a movie ticket, so he stood on the podium that year and vowed to be a qualified director.
It was also since then that he pushed off almost all variety shows, rarely appeared in public, and turned around and devoted himself to the preparation of the film.
Even his good friend Wang Xun pinched a handful of sweat for him. Investors are not optimistic, Wang Baoqiang invests alone; Without any experience, he studied like crazy.
It can be said that during the entire preparation of the film, Wang Baoqiang was in a state of zero income.
All because he considers the film to be his last stand. If successful, it means that he still has room for development; If he loses, he loses the last shred of trust of the audience.
What Wang Xun didn't expect was that Wang Baoqiang did his best to pay for all the medical expenses of the film prototype Enbo when he was in debt.
It is reported that Emboin was hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction. His family and friends were upset because of the high cost of treatment. When Wang Baoqiang heard this, he immediately expressed his willingness to wear it completely.
Although he was still heavily in debt at this time, even the money for filming was raised by bank loans.
And this matter, Wang Baoqiang did not mention to anyone, let alone use it to promote himself.
If Enbo hadn't appeared at the Chengdu Roadshow, even Wang Xun would have been kept in the dark by him. I have to say that Wang Baoqiang's character is really admirable.
"In the Octagon Cage"
Returning to the film itself, Wang Baoqiang himself admitted that the most difficult part of the preparation process was the creative part.
"In the Octagon Cage" is based on real events, and the character is based on a combat orphan in Liangshan, Sichuan.
That year, a short video article put this martial arts center called "Enbo Fighting" on the hot search. The picture of children fighting on the field stimulated the nerves of many netizens who did not know the truth.
For a while, accusations of various conspiracy theories overwhelmed boss Embo. He was originally just looking for a way out for the orphans of Liangshan, but he was powerless to defend himself in the face of Manshan's hypocritical remarks.
In the end, under the pressure of public opinion, the children were sent back to the mountains, but they did not want to leave. Only then did public opinion begin to reflect.
This very real social event was adapted into a movie, and the first problem encountered was how to fully reproduce the process of events in 120 minutes.
In this regard, Wang Baoqiang deliberately made the protagonist Xiang Tenghui more dramatic. Originally, he was a promising martial arts master, but he was in trouble because he was fueled by others, not only ruined his future, but also went to prison.
In order to make a living, Teng Hui opened a gravel yard with others after he was released from prison. By chance, he met a group of children in the mountains.
So he decided to teach them wrestling spontaneously, determined to train them to become professional athletes and let them realize their unfulfilled dreams.
And these children cherish this opportunity very much. For them, this is the threshold out of the mountain. Whether you can get tickets to big cities depends on your own competition results.
Just when everything was going well, something unexpected happened, and someone uploaded a video of the fight performance to the Internet.
Within a few days, Tenghui and the children were criticized from all sides and fell into a storm of public opinion.
Simply put, the story of the film comes from reality, and it also incorporates Wang Baoqiang's unique understanding.
The "octagonal cage", which often appears in movies, actually refers to a closed ring. Because of its shape like an octagonal shape, it is called "octagonal cage".
The reason why the film is called "In the Octagon Cage" actually has several meanings.
The first meaning is the most obvious and superficial meaning. The film tells the story of a group of children fighting, and the theme of the story is named after the venue.
The second meaning is that for several young protagonists, "in the octagon" is their life dilemma.
They are like athletes on the field, their lives are like being trapped in an octagon, and they can't find any way out but to fight.
The third meaning is only for director Wang Baoqiang. On the surface, this movie is about an orphan looking for a way out of life, but in fact it is a true portrayal of his search for a career outlet. Speaking of reality, Wang Baoqiang has also found that his playing field has become narrower and narrower over the years. Good roles and scripts are always limited. He doesn't want to be forced to wait anymore, so he can only take the initiative to choose a new direction, and the director is the person he chooses. New business.
This time, he fully learned the experience and lessons of the previous time. His preliminary investigation took a full three years.
Because the story takes place in Sichuan, he has stayed here almost all the time in the past three years, and the children in the play are all selected by him from the local area, only for one "truth".
To put it bluntly, Wang Baoqiang first entered the public through the movie "Blind Well". At that time, he was selected by the director to participate in the film because he was "real". Now he uses the same criteria to select actors for his films.
After all, finding the right actor is half the battle.
Throughout the filming process, Wang Baoqiang was also touched by the innocence of these children many times.
There is a scene where children eat buns. At that time, the two young actors were holding a whole steamed bun in their hands. Later, the staff was worried that the children would not be able to finish eating, so they suggested that they only eat half a steamed bun.
After speaking, he broke half of the steamed bun of one of the children on the spot. The other child didn't want to waste it. Seeing this, he stuffed the steamed bun into his mouth and said, "It's okay, I can finish it." ”
This scene also made Wang Baoqiang burst into tears instantly. You know, before the fire, when he did a group performance in Beijing, he ate the most steamed buns every day.
Now, seeing this little actor who is reluctant to waste food is like seeing your past self.
The children in the film experienced another world through battle, and the real-life Wang Baoqiang also completed his transformation through "In the Octagon". He even joked that if you only look at the film itself, it is difficult to guess that it is from the director.
"Live like a weed, indomitable" is the classic line of this movie, and this sentence is also a true portrayal of Wang Baoqiang's life. Now he has won not only capital, but also character.
This time he finally proved to everyone that he can be a good director.
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