China Entertainment 1997

The movie "Embroidered Spring Knife" is not particularly amazing, but it looks good in all aspects, and it is a movie with a relatively high overall index.

Although it's not like those classic movies that make you suck over and over again, you won't feel bored if you watch it once or twice more.

Of course, "Xiu Chun Dao" is not without its faults. For example, the characters are relatively depressing, the male protagonist is even a little unlikable, and there are also some flaws in the plot.

But this is understandable, because the original film was intended to have a tragic ending and follow the path of a literary film. Later, due to reality, the ending was changed and made into a commercial film, which made "Xiu Chun Dao" a bit awkward to watch.

Maybe it can’t be said to be awkward, because the movie talks about small people in ancient times hanging out in official circles, which was originally a struggle.

Some viewers may not feel comfortable watching it, but it is true to a certain extent, and another group of people appreciate this feeling.

I can only say that a thousand people are better off...

Although there are flaws, the overall flaws are not concealed, so Cao Xuan's version of "Xiu Chun Dao" does not have any major changes to the original version, but some modifications have also been made.

For example, in the final ending, where the male protagonist and Ding Xiu chase down the villain and confront the Qing soldiers, many people find it abrupt. This is a climactic final battle added for the sake of commercial compromise.

In fact, Cao Xuan felt that the climax scene was pretty good, especially from a business perspective, which greatly relieved the previous depression.

If it were shot according to the original director's vision——

The male protagonist tricked his brother to death, and then planned to leave with the two women. When he encountered an enemy, he did not want to take action, but planned to go his own way. The villain was afraid that he was cheating, so he came over and killed him. The two sides fought for a while, and then opened up ending.

Cao Xuan is not sure whether the artistic level of filming this way is higher, but he must know that the audience who buys tickets will curse, and the character of the male protagonist can never be saved.

Therefore, Cao Xuan still retains this extra-Guan drama, which is a bit abrupt, and adds a few small foreshadowings in the middle.

Let the audience understand that the villain and Guanwai have been hooking up for a long time, so they will run away as soon as something goes wrong to eliminate this abrupt feeling as much as possible.

Other small details are easy to talk about. The main thing is that Cao Xuan has always considered "Xiu Chun Dao 2", which is the prequel "Xiu Chun Dao: Shura Battlefield".

Although the box office and other aspects must be taken into consideration before the project is officially confirmed, the necessary preparations will be made in advance.

Unlike the original "Xiuchundao" and "Xiuchundao 2".

It’s obvious that it’s just to exploit the IP. The connection between the two movies is far-fetched. It’s not so much a prequel as it is a parallel time and space, and many details don’t match up.

The most serious thing is the timeline. In the prequel, Chongzhen ascended the throne and Wei Zhongxian was exiled three months later.

If we follow the plots of the two movies, the male protagonist Shen Lian fell deeply in love with two women and fought for them desperately in just three months, and his relationship with the two brothers Lu Jianxing could not be manifested in just three months. of.

In addition, Shen Lian's official position in the prequel was middle-level and he was very famous. In "Xiu Chun Dao", he became an unknown person, which to some extent violates the setting.

Although it is normal for this kind of series of movies to have similar settings, even many Hollywood series of movies have various flaws.

But since the "Xiuchundao" series is to be launched, and even a small film and television universe can be formed to a certain extent, the setting details still need to be done well.

Since there is a prequel, it is not impossible to have a sequel. When Shen Lian comes to Suzhou, there are also stories to film.

Even if they are popular enough, Wu Jing as Jin Yichuan and Duan Long as Ding Xiu can have extra movies or TV series.

If the ambition is even greater, Lu Jianxing and Shen Lian in the movie "Xiu Chun Dao" are both from the Jinyiwei family, which means that they can film the story of their fathers and ancestors.

What are the three major cases of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao's death in the water, and the coup of Zhu Qizhen's brothers? When Cao Xuan plays Shen Lian's ancestor Shen XX, he will take action to create a true "Xiu Chun Dao" universe.

Of course, this is just an idea. It is hard to say whether the audience will buy into the IP universe of "Xiuchundao" and how long they can buy it.

So so far, Cao Xuan has only considered that "Xiu Chun Dao 2" will leave some foreshadowing and explanations in the movie to form a connection.

For example, in "Xiu Chun Dao", the heroine played by Gao Yuanyuan is not Shen Lian's love, but the sister of the prequel heroine Hokusai.

Shen Lian likes Beizhai, and the reason why he likes Beizhai is because she is the daughter of his teacher. The teacher was exterminated by the Jin Yiwei, and he played an indirect assist role in this, so he felt guilty.

So in the prequel, he tried his best to save Hokusai. Later, he was moved by Hokusai, felt ashamed and loved at the same time, and made him willing to fight for Hokusai.

After the prequel plot ended, Shen Lian wanted to find Beizhai, but he was afraid that the petty Chongzhen would silence him, so he stayed in the capital to look for her sister.

Later, I found out about Zhou Miaotong, the heroine of Jiaoshifang, and confirmed that she was Beizhai's sister. She wanted to save people, but she had no money, so she could only protect her silently.

In order to gain Zhou Miaotong's trust and help her avoid some harm, Shen Lian pretended to be in love with her.

As for why Beizhai was not mentioned, it was because of the scandal involving Chongzhen. Shen Lian would not easily reveal this secret without bringing his sister-in-law to him.

Later, he went to save people for Zhou Miaotong. On the one hand, he was afraid that Zhou Miaotong would commit suicide, but at the same time, he also thought about what happened between him and Beizhai, so he became more temperamental and wished his lovers a happy marriage.

If you explain it this way, I dare not say it is perfect, but at least it is more reasonable.

The original movie seems to have this meaning as well.

Beizhai's maiden name was Miao Xuan, and it was also his father who was exterminated by the Jinyi Guards. Later, when he was sent to prison, he jumped into a river and was rescued by people sent by Chongzhen. He was 14 years old. Zhou Miaotong also had the word "miao" in his name. He was 12 years old when his family was exterminated.

Although the film does not clarify the relationship between the two from beginning to end, it is difficult not to make people think of it.

Otherwise, no matter how you say it, there is no reasonable explanation. Shen Lian fell madly in love with two women within three months and devoted life and death to them.

Cao Daguan said that it was too outrageous, and it was not like stepping on two boats...

And if Shen Lian really loves both of them, it would be equivalent to him being a spare tire for two women in a row. This is too miserable. Cao Xuan doesn't want to play such a useless role, so Zhou Miaotong should still be his sister-in-law.

In addition, according to the plot of "Xiu Chun Dao", the relationship between the three brothers is so strong and they depend on each other for life and death. Three months is too far-fetched.

Therefore, it is assumed that the three of them have known each other for a long time, but during the prequel period, the other two brothers went out on business, which led to Shen Lian fighting alone.

At the same time, because of the events in the prequel, Shen Lian deliberately kept a low profile, so his eldest brother Lu Jianxing took the lead in everything, but in reality, he was still the main leader in the three-person small group.

At that time, these will be mentioned in "Xiu Chun Dao" and the prequel movies, and the timeline and settings will be as complete as possible.

Regarding this point, several actors actually know it well. After all, various hints in the script really make people speculate about the possibility of a prequel or sequel, and many people want to inquire about it.

Especially living characters like Duan Long and Gao Yuanyuan, but Cao Xuan didn't say much. Except for chatting with director Xu Laoguai, no one else made it clear.

Again, everything depends on the box office performance of "Xiu Chun Knife".

The failure of "Xiu Chun Knife" at the box office is equivalent to the fact that this IP is not good enough. No matter how much he talks, he will not continue to invest money.

And if the box office is strong, we can discuss whether it is a prequel, sequel or spin-off.

After Cao Xuan arrived at the set, he went home to see his parents, walked around the East and West palaces, handed over the public food, and went to the Spring Festival Gala program set to report, and then returned to the "Xiu Chun Knife" set to film.

………

Although Old Monster Xu is mostly thinking about "Seven Swords", he doesn't completely regard "Xiu Chun Dao" as his stepmother.

After all, Fanxing's production team is not just for nothing, so Old Monster Xu didn't dare to fool Cao Xuan, so he still put in some effort.

At the same time, Fanxing's exquisite service and logistics, as well as a solid script and above-average actors, also allowed Mr. Xu to slowly change his mentality.

Most directors, especially famous ones like Mr. Xu, can give a rough score to a movie during filming.

Wang Jing once said that when he watched "The Great Wall", he knew that Lao Mouzi probably knew in his heart that the movie would not work halfway through filming.

But there is no way, manpower and material resources have been invested, I can only bite the bullet and shoot down, and can't lose the project in my hands.

In the same way, there are almost no shortcomings in terms of service, script, plot and actors, so the director will naturally have confidence in the movie.

Of course, the director's impression here often has a certain filter. For example, "Dream Showbiz" was considered by everyone to be a bad movie, but Director Bi thought it was shot particularly well.

Not to mention Director Chen, a filter maniac who can add countless auras to his movies out of thin air. The reason why the audience thinks it is bad is because ordinary people are not on the same level as him.

But it's also possible that he's a tough talker, which is also a common problem among many directors. Even if they know that they overturned and made a bad movie, they will still use various excuses to make up for it, or they just won't admit it.

There are reasons for this from the director himself, but also from the investors behind it or other reasons.

There are too few directors like Wang Jing who readily admit that the films he makes are bad.

Therefore, whether the director's estimation of the quality of the movie is accurate or not mainly depends on whether the director is rational or not. If the perspective is objective and rational, then the approximate range is still reasonable.

Old Monster Xu is not a fool. Even if he doesn't react for a moment, there is still a shrewd wife named Shi Nan by his side.

This woman and Mr. Xu are a well-known husband and wife team. She is also the only woman among the famous Seven Weirds of Xiangjiang Xinyi City. She is known as the housekeeper of Xinyi City.

Mr. Shi is a top producer in Hong Kong. If Mr. Xu has his current achievements, she has half of the credit. In the past two years, she has been poached to Media Asia as a senior executive.

No matter in terms of ability, brains, or professional vision, Boy Shi is even better than Old Monster Xu.

When Mr. Xu was hesitant about taking on "Xiu Chun Dao", it was Mr. Shi who persuaded him to agree, and he also packaged the production work of "Seven Swords" to get a few months' schedule for Mr. Xu.

The reason for this is that on the one hand, Mr. Shi is optimistic about the script, and on the other hand, he wants to have a good relationship with Cao Xuan, the new mainland boss.

Later, when Mr. Xu was filming "Embroidered Spring Knife", Mr. Shi also came to visit the crew twice. After seeing the situation of the crew, he quietly tried to persuade Mr. Xu.

"Sir, please take it easy on "Seven Swords". I think this movie has a lot of future. You have to make it well. It's better to have both sides."

Xu's previous "Shu Mountain" made him not very popular among many movie bosses, so he is eager to release another movie that can make him turn around.

Originally, he pinned his hopes on "Seven Swords", but after listening to what his wife said, he felt that "Xiu Chun Dao" also had a high chance of helping him.

So since then, Mr. Xu temporarily put down "Seven Swords" and became more and more attentive to the movie "Xiu Chun Dao".

As a representative director of martial arts movies, if he does not fail in other aspects and Xu Laoguai himself goes all out, the shooting quality of "Xiuchungdao" is extremely guaranteed.

Cao Xuan was able to feel the ability of this famous director after just two days of joining the team. The scenes, movements, and performances all have precise requirements. The filming was smooth and the effect was good.

So after a few days, Cao Xuan's attitude towards Old Monster Xu was obviously much gentler and closer.

The reason is naturally not difficult to understand. Fanxing has always been short of film directors. It is quite tempting for Cao Xuan to establish a long-term cooperation with a famous director like Xu Laoguai, who has relatively stable productions.

Old Monster Xu was still holding his own, but boy Shi was very knowledgeable.

For the couple, the advantages of joining a large mainland company outweigh the disadvantages. Even if they do not cooperate for a long time, a good relationship will make it easier to attract investment.

Cao Xuan met Mr. Shi once and felt that this woman was not simple. She was indeed a rare and virtuous wife. Unfortunately, Mr. Xu was too ambitious and ended up getting divorced.

Of course, Cao Xuan is not qualified to criticize other people, and he doesn't care about other people's private lives. He is more concerned about how to bring benefits to himself.

………

Indoors, the flames of the fire danced gently. Cao Xuan, dressed in ancient cotton clothes and with a scarf on his head, was sitting in the room.

Gao Yuanyuan was wearing cool underwear with an expressionless face. He looked at Cao Xuan and greeted him proactively.

"Come and sleep on the bed."

Cao Xuan lowered his eyelids slightly, not looking at Gao Yuanyuan, and said in a clear voice: "I will go back to the Yamen in a while, you can go to sleep."

Gao Yuanyuan stepped forward and said with a bit of sarcasm and curiosity: "You are really interesting. You come to Nuanxiang Pavilion and spend money but don't go to bed. You are the only one in the capital."

Cao Xuan didn't reply. He looked at Gao Yuanyuan's face as if he was reminiscing, but he immediately stood up and sat aside.

"I'll just sit here."

After a while, Cao Xuan clenched his fists when he heard the other guests at the door clamoring to sleep with Zhou Miaotong, but when he thought of something, he let go instantly and said in a deep voice.

"Wait a little longer. When I save enough money, I can redeem you."

Gao Yuanyuan smiled, with a bit of self-mockery on his face: "My Mr. Shen, how much of your salary can you redeem me with? Besides, this is the Jiaofang Department, and no one can get out without the permission of the Criminal Department."

Cao Xuan was silent and looked up at her: "I will find a way."

After that, he made an excuse, took the knife and left. Before leaving, he quietly taught the noisy guest a lesson.

"Card."

Old Monster Xu yelled, and Gao Yuanyuan immediately threw herself at the stove to warm herself up. The assistant gave her a military coat to put on.

Although the temperature in the room was controlled so that it was not particularly low, she was wearing too cool clothes and she still couldn't help but feel cold after the scene.

Cao Xuan's clothes were reasonably cold-proof. He rubbed his hands and went directly to the monitor to see the finished product. He discussed it with Old Monster Xu from time to time.

Because the script has been changed, the heroine has changed from a lover to a sister-in-law, and many actions, lines, and various behavioral logics need to be solved.

Shen Lian, played by Cao Xuan, not only has to hide the character in the play within the play, but also let the audience notice that something is wrong and ponder it. The size of this must be carefully figured out.

In addition, Gao Yuanyuan's acting skills also gave Cao Xuan a headache. Although it was improved compared to before, it was still not up to the point of playing the role.

Fortunately, despite his good looks, Mr. Xu is famous for taking pictures of women.

In the scene just now, Gao Yuanyuan's acting skills aside, she is indeed pretty enough. Her every frown and smile are charming and charming, with a bit of resentful temperament.

Cao Xuan felt that even though the character Zhou Miaotong was not very likable and had few scenes, she could still impress Gao Yuanyuan with her face and outfit.

Similarly, Cao Xuan also saw the shots of Liu Yan that he had taken before. She was quite refreshing like the girl next door, but her figure was domineering, which resulted in a sense of pure and lustful beauty.

It's a pity for Mr. Xu. He feels that Liu Yan is more suitable for a sexier look, which can highlight her advantages.

However, considering the background of her role as Zhang Yan, she had no choice but to give up.

The following play is between Gao Yuanyuan and Yan Gongzi. The actor Cao Xuan happens to know Jin Dong, who they met once before when they were in the graduation drama of Class 96 of Chinese Opera.

The role of Mr. Yan had few roles, and several male artists in the company had schedules and couldn't be moved. Cao Xuan asked the producer to find him at will, but in the end, he was hired out of nowhere.

After all, he is from a major, and has also practiced in dramas for a period of time. His professional skills are good, and his appearance is also good. Cao Xuan naturally has no reason to refuse.

Someone in Fanxing wanted to sign him, but Cao Xuan stopped him, not that he had any objections to Jin Dong.

Mainly because of his main role, he is a little bit in conflict with Yan Kuan and Jiao Enjun, who signed to Fanxing not long ago. At the same time, Cao Xuan also knows Ren Quan and Chen Kun who are similar, and Hu Ge can sometimes support him, so there is no need to sign another one. Actors of the same type,

On the contrary, Duan Long took advantage of the cooperation with "Xiu Chun Dao" to finalize a contract with Fanxing and officially became Fanxing's contracted artist.

In fact, Cao Xuan had wanted to sign Duan Long for a long time, but Duan Long was a little awkward and felt that if he joined Fanxing, the friendship between him and Cao Xuan would deteriorate.

This time, after being persuaded by others, I felt that it was too pretentious to dwell on this, and it was a betrayal of Cao Xuan's good intentions, so I officially joined Fanxing.

After taking a look at the scene between the two, Cao Xuan saw that Cao Xuan was going to be together for a while, so he went to the dressing room to change clothes and make-up, while not forgetting to answer a phone call.

"Hey, Brother Ma, I'm sorry, I was just filming."

"Shareholders' meeting? I won't go. I can't leave here. Someone will attend in the sun."

"Well, I know about the blog. You can contact me when the time comes. Artists from Fanxing will be fully stationed. I will also find some friends to say hello. Remember to authenticate as soon as possible."

"Haha, if you and your sister-in-law come to the capital during the Chinese New Year, I'll treat you to a treat."

"..."

Cao Xuan hung up the phone and let the makeup artist do his makeup, but his thoughts gradually drifted away.

As early as last year, Cao Xuan had talked with Xiao Ma about foreign blogs and felt that they could definitely get in touch with QQ.

After consideration, Xiao Ma Ge appointed others to go abroad for investigation and research. With the support of Cao Xuan, he overcame some objections and launched two projects, Penguin Blog and QQ Personal Space, within Penguin, officially reaching out to the blogging field. Claws.

The former is aimed at mass information + elite celebrities + self-expression, and is a more orthodox blog website.

The latter QQ personal space is aimed at socializing with QQ friends to deepen user activity and social attributes.

There is a difference between the two, and they are different portals, one account, two platforms, but at the same time they can communicate with each other and attract traffic to each other.

The information or logs published by users can be oriented to blogs and personal spaces at the same time, or they can be published on a single platform to the public or QQ friends.

This not only ensures the privacy of the small circle, but also enjoys the convenience and prosperity of the entire online social world.

Before that, blogging had been tepid in China. It was not until the outbreak of the certain Zimei incident in August this year that blogging came out of the circle for the first time.

Major portals also started to take action to establish projects, but by this time it was already too late, and Penguin took the lead.

On January 1, 2004, Penguin Blog and QQ Personal Space will be launched at the same time.

By then, Cao Xuan will lead a group of celebrities to officially enter the site and open personal blog accounts. QQ space will also launch celebrity accounts to attract netizens to the site with the influence of many celebrities.

Coupled with Penguin's already huge user base, the time difference of half a year to one year is enough for several Sina portals to follow Penguin's butt and eat dust.

Now that the blog and personal space have been prepared and will be launched on January 1 next year, Xiao Ma specifically called Cao Xuan to ask for his help.

Cao Xuan, who owns nearly half of Penguin's shares, will naturally not refuse. He also thinks that having a blog business will not help Penguin's listing next year.

What made him think more is that if Penguin does not go astray in the future, under his reminder, the blog and even Weibo will most likely become the leader in the same field.

Penguin, which was originally a giant, now has Weibo social business, can it still be considered an ordinary company that can be replaced at any time?

Cao Xuan thought about it for a while and realized that he himself was quite stubborn, but Xiao Ma did not try to give in at all. When the two evil spirits come together, they are called a well-behaved and sensible person.

It's not like Jack Ma, who dances around every day, it would be strange if he doesn't get beaten...

Ordinary Cao Tianwang!

An ordinary family guy!

With the addition of an ordinary company penguin, Cao Xuan doubted that the word "ordinary" would be misused in the future.

………

On December 13, the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards were held in Nanshi

Registration for the Golden Horse Awards is open on September 1 this year. Related released or unreleased films can register according to the rules.

"When Men Fall in Love" will be released in July and meets the registration requirements. Once the registration opened, I signed up to participate. The shortlist was announced in early November.

Cao Xuan was shortlisted for [Best Actor] and [Best Newcomer].

Hu Jing was shortlisted for [Best Newcomer].

The movie "When Men Love" was nominated for [Best Picture] [Best Original Film Music] [Best Original Film Song].

There are six nominations in total, which seems like a lot, but except for [Best Picture] and Cao Xuan [Best Actor], the other awards are not good, especially [Best Newcomer] Cao Xuan and Hu Jing. To "kill each other".

And with "Infernal Affairs", whether it is the best actor or the "Best Picture", Cao Xuan and "When a Man Loves" are destined to run together.

In addition, the filming of "Embroidered Spring Knife" was busy, so Cao Xuan did not leave. Hu Jing, who was filming "The Two of Us", had time during her schedule, so she went to support her as the film's heroine and producer.

After all, six nominations were given, and Cao Xuan was nominated for Best Actor for his debut film, so he couldn't be denied any face.

One of the four beauties, who is also suspected of being the proprietress of Fanxing, came over in person, which was a way to save both parties' dignity...