Chapter 502: Hello, Madman
Because of the sudden invitation, Liu Haocun naturally could not attend the afternoon activities of the training class.
The trainees who visited the underwater production center, prop workshop, dubbing studio and other facilities of Oriental Galaxy Film City were undoubtedly extremely envious.
At the same time, they were extremely grateful that they could be admitted to this artist training class. After all, it was hard to say that Liu Haocun was not influenced by the reputation of the training class as she was noticed by director Zhang Yimou.
After experiencing the role of a supporting role in the crew of "The Great Wall", Liu Haocun's whole mental outlook changed greatly when she returned to the training class.
She began to devote more energy to studying acting courses and worked very hard.
This behavior undoubtedly stimulated the students in the training class, and the whole class was filled with a high-spirited state and atmosphere.
Just as the "Spark Project" was officially on track, time came to September, the excitement and bustle of the summer season gradually ended, and the winner of the entire season finally fell on "The Fast and the Furious".
After being postponed for more than a month or nearly two months, the total box office of this movie in mainland China has reached billion Chinese yuan. As for the world, "Bad Boys" has also won a box office of million US dollars.
This is the second movie in the Galaxy Group's Galaxy Cinematic Universe series to break the $10 billion box office mark, directly crushing a number of films in the 2015 mainland summer season.
Following closely behind is "Monster Hunt", which ranked second with a box office of billion yuan, and "Charlotte's Troubles", which took in billion yuan at the mainland movie box office.
After that, the fourth place is Hollywood's "Jurassic World", with a total box office of billion in mainland China.
Then came fifth place: "The Pancake Man", with a total box office of billion.
Together with other films released, the overall market value of the Chinese film market during the three months of the summer season exceeded billion Chinese yuan, which is enough to make the 2015 summer season go down in the history of the Chinese film market.
In this fiercely competitive summer season, the top three are all Chinese films, and the box office performance of mainland films accounts for 70% of the summer season market. This has greatly boosted the confidence and made senior leaders of the entire mainland entertainment industry and related departments smile with joy.
At least from this summer, the Chinese film industry has developed to a point where you can temporarily compete with Hollywood movies. The reason why it is temporarily competing is mainly because this summer, Hollywood movies are somewhat restricted. The so-called competition is not so fair.
However, everyone in the circle, including the senior leaders, did not feel that they had won unfairly. After all, local advantages are also advantages. They are Chinese. Didn't they also not receive fair treatment when they went to Hollywood? So the eldest brother should not say the second brother.
Just as the 2015 summer season was about to come to an end amidst fierce competition, a movie from the Galaxy Cinematic Universe joined the finale.
This movie, titled "Hello, Madman", is starred by Wan Qian, who has many roles in the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe". It also tells the story of the villain Q played by Wan Qian.
It’s just that the timeline of this story is a bit early. The movie opens with the young Wan Qian and six strangers being locked up in a mental hospital together.
These six people have different identities, including a scheming and eloquent lawyer, and the talkative lawyer Xiao Naien (played by Wang Zijian) who can bring the dead back to life.
There is Ma Rui (played by Jin Zhijie), a history teacher who is eloquent, conscientious and has been sticking to his post for decades.
There is Li Zheng (played by Zhou Yiwei), a reporter who is full of justice, tall, mighty, brave and resourceful.
There is Yang Meng (played by Li Hongchen), a taxi driver with a bad temper who would rather use force than words.
There is Lily (played by Mo Xiaoqi), a sycophantic and materialistic public relations manager who is willing to sell her body in order to sign a contract; and Han Mushan (played by Liu Liangzuo), a kind-hearted pet doctor who was taken to a mental hospital on his way to celebrate his daughter's birthday.
Of course, there is also An Xi (played by Wan Qian), a literary young woman who has lost her memory and does not remember who she is.
They are trapped in this mental hospital and try to prove their mental sanity through various behaviors. However, they are regarded as "madmen" by the hospital because of the absurdity of their behavior.
In order to escape from the asylum, everyone is forced to cooperate by singing, dancing, performing group shows, and even creating chaos to attract attention.
But the dean told them that only one of the seven was a real lunatic, and they could be discharged from the hospital if they found this person.
Everyone fell into mutual suspicion, and finally unanimously pointed the finger at the amnesiac An Xi (played by Wan Qian), believing that her identity was unknown and her behavior was abnormal.
In the collective vote, An Xi was eventually labeled a "madman", but the truth gradually surfaced.
It turns out that An Xi, played by Wan Qian, is indeed a "madman", a real "madman", but this mental hospital is not a mental hospital, but just a spiritual space imagined by An Xi.
She is actually a severe schizophrenic patient. The other six people in the mental hospital are all her incarnations, representing different social roles and personalities. They have been fighting in her body for a long time, leading to her mental breakdown.
In the movie, the director also used a lot of space to use the dialogues and performances between these personalities to vaguely explain the reasons for Anxi's split personality.
Her split personality was not accidental, but the result of the combined effects of her long-term repressed psychological trauma and social pressure.
The main personality, An Xi, whose name sounds like "rest", represents the most primitive self. She is fragile, sensitive and full of idealism. She has been in a state of depression for a long time due to childhood trauma and lacks a sense of security in the outside world.
It is precisely because of the major blow that the main personality cannot bear the pressure of reality that she splits out other personalities as a "psychological defense mechanism" to share the pain or cope with specific situations.
As for the other six personalities, each has its own cause and symbol.
For example, lawyer Li Zheng represents the law, but he is also hypocritical, confuses right and wrong, and is eloquent.
His existence reflects Anxi's submissive resistance under the oppression of "order" and is the rational personality that splits out when she faces legal disputes or social injustice.
However, this journalist, who also represents rationality and justice, has a paranoid background, which shows that An Xi has been hurt by the media in the past.
There is also the history teacher who represents dogmatic constraints or the need to obey authority but fills the gap of fatherly love; the veterinarian who symbolizes healing, instinct, and animality; the driver who is the most violent and angry lower-class worker; and the female public relations who disguises herself through tact, sociability, and materialism but is actually kind.
Through these personalities, we can roughly outline the past of An Xi:
A family living at the bottom of society, with a kind, good-natured father who is often oppressed. Then she and her family encounter major changes, which may be threats from official or authoritative departments. In the process, her family encounters unfair treatment and siege by the media, and seeking help from the law is of no avail.
Although the matter was resolved in the end, it also came at a price... Of course, the tragic past and the huge price were not explained in detail in "Hello, Madman", but were described from the side through the quarrels and dialogues of many conscious images.
At the end of the movie, the director of the mental hospital asked An Xi to "kill" all the personalities with her own hands in order to recover, but she was unable to do it and chose to commit suicide.
In the end, the six secondary personalities "sacrificed" themselves to save the main personality...
At least the ending of the movie is open-ended, ending with An Xi walking out of the asylum and welcoming the falling snow.
It seems to imply that although she has escaped schizophrenia, she still has to face the complexity of real society.
But in fact, this story also has the usual post-credits Easter eggs of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe.
In the easter egg of "Hello, Madman", it was a man who saved An Xi, who was dying from electric shocks and drugs, from a gloomy and cruel mental hospital.
Of course, at this time she was no longer called An Xi, because the man named Chen Ang gave her a new name Q (Queen).
To be honest, in terms of film quality, "Hello, Madman" is undoubtedly a top-notch work in the entire "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" series.
This is not to say that its special effects are outstanding, but that the entire movie, from the script concept to the story rhythm to the actors' performances, is excellent.
This can be seen from the fact that the movie received a high Douban score of after its release.
Just because a movie is of good quality doesn’t necessarily mean it will be well received by the public.
Compared with the narrative style of Galaxy Universe's previous commercial films, "Hello, Madman" is actually more like an art film with a bit of suspense.
Well... to be honest, it is actually somewhat similar to Wang Hao's first film "Buried", but it is more artistic than "Buried".
Therefore, with its unique narrative style and profound themes, "Hello, Madman" has also sparked some discussion on the Internet and among veteran movie fans.
But even with the fame of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe and the wonderful performances of several actors, the box office performance of this movie was not ideal.
On the first day of its release, "Hello, Madman" only had a box office of over 10 million yuan, and fell below 10 million on the second day.
This naturally led to a further reduction in the film's screening schedule, and the total box office after one week of release ultimately failed to break 5000 million.
This result can be said to be the worst among all the theater movies shot and produced by Galaxy Pictures. After all, according to this trend, the final box office of "Hello, Madman" is unlikely to exceed 100 million Chinese yuan.
Fortunately, Galaxy Group did not regard this movie as a regular commercial film. "Hello, Crazy" had an exploratory nature from the beginning of the project.
Moreover, the cost of the entire movie was only 800 million. Even if the total box office did not exceed million, "Hello, Madman" would still be considered to have made a profit, it's just a matter of how much.
As for peers outside, they would not underestimate Galaxy Pictures just because of the mediocre performance of this movie. Even in the capital market, there was no fluctuation in the stock of Galaxy Pictures.
Although the box office was not good, it continued the absurd and speculative style of the original drama and can be regarded as a niche classic. In terms of subsequent online playback volume, it will surely achieve good results like "Buried" and "The Shallows".
Moreover, although the performance of "Hello, Madman" was not good, there was another movie "Kunlun Palace" released in the same period. With this big movie in front, everyone's impression of it was very good.
As for the movie "Kunlun Palace", it was created because of the butterfly effect caused by the time traveler Wang Hao.
The director was none other than Colonel Lu.
Because all the copyrights of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" were acquired by Wang Hao early on, it is naturally impossible for him to adapt "Ghost Blows Out the Light" into "Nine-story Demon Tower" in this life.
But this guy is also capable of making some efforts. Seeing that commercial films are very popular nowadays, he still wants to get involved.
So the well-known tomb-robbing novel "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", which is similar to "Ghost Blows Out the Light", came into his sight. After all, this subject matter is really to his liking, and he has always planned to shoot a movie involving China's secret department Bureau 749.
In this way, "The Lost Tomb" was released, and the leading actors are almost the same as the original cast of "Nine-story Demon Tower".
Then, at the end of September, the audience saw how Colonel Lu turned a suspenseful tomb-robbing novel into an optical garbage of "Fighting Aliens + Fighting Little Monsters + Legend of the White-Haired Witch + Ghost".
Yes, whether for ordinary audiences or for fans of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", this movie by Colonel Lu can be said to be a piece of garbage.
It is a wolf in sheep's clothing, with a messy plot, random piecing together, confusing logic, dragging plot, stiff character performance, and incomprehensible content throughout the film. It mixes various elements such as tomb robbing, fantasy, romance, suspense, science fiction, thriller, horror, etc., which completely shattered the halo of Colonel Lu as a famous director. Countless viewers gave this work one star or half a star rating on major platforms.
By the way, it also raised the reputation of "Hello, Madman" to a higher level and helped the box office growth of this movie.
If we only look at it from this perspective, Colonel Lu's spirit of sacrificing his own fame to help Li Qian, the director of "Hello, Madman", is worthy of praise.
Of course, although the reputation of "The Lost Tomb" collapsed, due to the good publicity and promotion work in the early stage, coupled with the book fan base of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" and Colonel Lu's own fame, the movie still had good box office in the early stage.
At least on the day of its official release on September 9, "The Lost Tomb" grossed more than 30 million yuan at the box office. Combined with the more than 8 million yuan from the previous preview, the cumulative box office of this movie has exceeded 7 million yuan.
Later, due to the arrival of the National Day period in October, the cumulative box office of this movie during the seven days of the National Day was about million yuan, but this has completely drained the potential of "The Genting Sky Palace".
In the end, the film's single-day box office plummeted to an extremely low level in a short period of time due to the influence of word of mouth, and the screening schedule naturally decreased as well, with the total box office stopping at 6 million Chinese yuan.
At the same time, Colonel Lu’s reputation among movie fans was completely overdrawn because of this movie and became a negative number.
It is foreseeable that with more and more new directors emerging, it will be difficult for film and television companies to give them the opportunity to direct commercial blockbusters in the future.
(End of this chapter)
Because of the sudden invitation, Liu Haocun naturally could not attend the afternoon activities of the training class.
The trainees who visited the underwater production center, prop workshop, dubbing studio and other facilities of Oriental Galaxy Film City were undoubtedly extremely envious.
At the same time, they were extremely grateful that they could be admitted to this artist training class. After all, it was hard to say that Liu Haocun was not influenced by the reputation of the training class as she was noticed by director Zhang Yimou.
After experiencing the role of a supporting role in the crew of "The Great Wall", Liu Haocun's whole mental outlook changed greatly when she returned to the training class.
She began to devote more energy to studying acting courses and worked very hard.
This behavior undoubtedly stimulated the students in the training class, and the whole class was filled with a high-spirited state and atmosphere.
Just as the "Spark Project" was officially on track, time came to September, the excitement and bustle of the summer season gradually ended, and the winner of the entire season finally fell on "The Fast and the Furious".
After being postponed for more than a month or nearly two months, the total box office of this movie in mainland China has reached billion Chinese yuan. As for the world, "Bad Boys" has also won a box office of million US dollars.
This is the second movie in the Galaxy Group's Galaxy Cinematic Universe series to break the $10 billion box office mark, directly crushing a number of films in the 2015 mainland summer season.
Following closely behind is "Monster Hunt", which ranked second with a box office of billion yuan, and "Charlotte's Troubles", which took in billion yuan at the mainland movie box office.
After that, the fourth place is Hollywood's "Jurassic World", with a total box office of billion in mainland China.
Then came fifth place: "The Pancake Man", with a total box office of billion.
Together with other films released, the overall market value of the Chinese film market during the three months of the summer season exceeded billion Chinese yuan, which is enough to make the 2015 summer season go down in the history of the Chinese film market.
In this fiercely competitive summer season, the top three are all Chinese films, and the box office performance of mainland films accounts for 70% of the summer season market. This has greatly boosted the confidence and made senior leaders of the entire mainland entertainment industry and related departments smile with joy.
At least from this summer, the Chinese film industry has developed to a point where you can temporarily compete with Hollywood movies. The reason why it is temporarily competing is mainly because this summer, Hollywood movies are somewhat restricted. The so-called competition is not so fair.
However, everyone in the circle, including the senior leaders, did not feel that they had won unfairly. After all, local advantages are also advantages. They are Chinese. Didn't they also not receive fair treatment when they went to Hollywood? So the eldest brother should not say the second brother.
Just as the 2015 summer season was about to come to an end amidst fierce competition, a movie from the Galaxy Cinematic Universe joined the finale.
This movie, titled "Hello, Madman", is starred by Wan Qian, who has many roles in the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe". It also tells the story of the villain Q played by Wan Qian.
It’s just that the timeline of this story is a bit early. The movie opens with the young Wan Qian and six strangers being locked up in a mental hospital together.
These six people have different identities, including a scheming and eloquent lawyer, and the talkative lawyer Xiao Naien (played by Wang Zijian) who can bring the dead back to life.
There is Ma Rui (played by Jin Zhijie), a history teacher who is eloquent, conscientious and has been sticking to his post for decades.
There is Li Zheng (played by Zhou Yiwei), a reporter who is full of justice, tall, mighty, brave and resourceful.
There is Yang Meng (played by Li Hongchen), a taxi driver with a bad temper who would rather use force than words.
There is Lily (played by Mo Xiaoqi), a sycophantic and materialistic public relations manager who is willing to sell her body in order to sign a contract; and Han Mushan (played by Liu Liangzuo), a kind-hearted pet doctor who was taken to a mental hospital on his way to celebrate his daughter's birthday.
Of course, there is also An Xi (played by Wan Qian), a literary young woman who has lost her memory and does not remember who she is.
They are trapped in this mental hospital and try to prove their mental sanity through various behaviors. However, they are regarded as "madmen" by the hospital because of the absurdity of their behavior.
In order to escape from the asylum, everyone is forced to cooperate by singing, dancing, performing group shows, and even creating chaos to attract attention.
But the dean told them that only one of the seven was a real lunatic, and they could be discharged from the hospital if they found this person.
Everyone fell into mutual suspicion, and finally unanimously pointed the finger at the amnesiac An Xi (played by Wan Qian), believing that her identity was unknown and her behavior was abnormal.
In the collective vote, An Xi was eventually labeled a "madman", but the truth gradually surfaced.
It turns out that An Xi, played by Wan Qian, is indeed a "madman", a real "madman", but this mental hospital is not a mental hospital, but just a spiritual space imagined by An Xi.
She is actually a severe schizophrenic patient. The other six people in the mental hospital are all her incarnations, representing different social roles and personalities. They have been fighting in her body for a long time, leading to her mental breakdown.
In the movie, the director also used a lot of space to use the dialogues and performances between these personalities to vaguely explain the reasons for Anxi's split personality.
Her split personality was not accidental, but the result of the combined effects of her long-term repressed psychological trauma and social pressure.
The main personality, An Xi, whose name sounds like "rest", represents the most primitive self. She is fragile, sensitive and full of idealism. She has been in a state of depression for a long time due to childhood trauma and lacks a sense of security in the outside world.
It is precisely because of the major blow that the main personality cannot bear the pressure of reality that she splits out other personalities as a "psychological defense mechanism" to share the pain or cope with specific situations.
As for the other six personalities, each has its own cause and symbol.
For example, lawyer Li Zheng represents the law, but he is also hypocritical, confuses right and wrong, and is eloquent.
His existence reflects Anxi's submissive resistance under the oppression of "order" and is the rational personality that splits out when she faces legal disputes or social injustice.
However, this journalist, who also represents rationality and justice, has a paranoid background, which shows that An Xi has been hurt by the media in the past.
There is also the history teacher who represents dogmatic constraints or the need to obey authority but fills the gap of fatherly love; the veterinarian who symbolizes healing, instinct, and animality; the driver who is the most violent and angry lower-class worker; and the female public relations who disguises herself through tact, sociability, and materialism but is actually kind.
Through these personalities, we can roughly outline the past of An Xi:
A family living at the bottom of society, with a kind, good-natured father who is often oppressed. Then she and her family encounter major changes, which may be threats from official or authoritative departments. In the process, her family encounters unfair treatment and siege by the media, and seeking help from the law is of no avail.
Although the matter was resolved in the end, it also came at a price... Of course, the tragic past and the huge price were not explained in detail in "Hello, Madman", but were described from the side through the quarrels and dialogues of many conscious images.
At the end of the movie, the director of the mental hospital asked An Xi to "kill" all the personalities with her own hands in order to recover, but she was unable to do it and chose to commit suicide.
In the end, the six secondary personalities "sacrificed" themselves to save the main personality...
At least the ending of the movie is open-ended, ending with An Xi walking out of the asylum and welcoming the falling snow.
It seems to imply that although she has escaped schizophrenia, she still has to face the complexity of real society.
But in fact, this story also has the usual post-credits Easter eggs of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe.
In the easter egg of "Hello, Madman", it was a man who saved An Xi, who was dying from electric shocks and drugs, from a gloomy and cruel mental hospital.
Of course, at this time she was no longer called An Xi, because the man named Chen Ang gave her a new name Q (Queen).
To be honest, in terms of film quality, "Hello, Madman" is undoubtedly a top-notch work in the entire "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" series.
This is not to say that its special effects are outstanding, but that the entire movie, from the script concept to the story rhythm to the actors' performances, is excellent.
This can be seen from the fact that the movie received a high Douban score of after its release.
Just because a movie is of good quality doesn’t necessarily mean it will be well received by the public.
Compared with the narrative style of Galaxy Universe's previous commercial films, "Hello, Madman" is actually more like an art film with a bit of suspense.
Well... to be honest, it is actually somewhat similar to Wang Hao's first film "Buried", but it is more artistic than "Buried".
Therefore, with its unique narrative style and profound themes, "Hello, Madman" has also sparked some discussion on the Internet and among veteran movie fans.
But even with the fame of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe and the wonderful performances of several actors, the box office performance of this movie was not ideal.
On the first day of its release, "Hello, Madman" only had a box office of over 10 million yuan, and fell below 10 million on the second day.
This naturally led to a further reduction in the film's screening schedule, and the total box office after one week of release ultimately failed to break 5000 million.
This result can be said to be the worst among all the theater movies shot and produced by Galaxy Pictures. After all, according to this trend, the final box office of "Hello, Madman" is unlikely to exceed 100 million Chinese yuan.
Fortunately, Galaxy Group did not regard this movie as a regular commercial film. "Hello, Crazy" had an exploratory nature from the beginning of the project.
Moreover, the cost of the entire movie was only 800 million. Even if the total box office did not exceed million, "Hello, Madman" would still be considered to have made a profit, it's just a matter of how much.
As for peers outside, they would not underestimate Galaxy Pictures just because of the mediocre performance of this movie. Even in the capital market, there was no fluctuation in the stock of Galaxy Pictures.
Although the box office was not good, it continued the absurd and speculative style of the original drama and can be regarded as a niche classic. In terms of subsequent online playback volume, it will surely achieve good results like "Buried" and "The Shallows".
Moreover, although the performance of "Hello, Madman" was not good, there was another movie "Kunlun Palace" released in the same period. With this big movie in front, everyone's impression of it was very good.
As for the movie "Kunlun Palace", it was created because of the butterfly effect caused by the time traveler Wang Hao.
The director was none other than Colonel Lu.
Because all the copyrights of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" were acquired by Wang Hao early on, it is naturally impossible for him to adapt "Ghost Blows Out the Light" into "Nine-story Demon Tower" in this life.
But this guy is also capable of making some efforts. Seeing that commercial films are very popular nowadays, he still wants to get involved.
So the well-known tomb-robbing novel "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", which is similar to "Ghost Blows Out the Light", came into his sight. After all, this subject matter is really to his liking, and he has always planned to shoot a movie involving China's secret department Bureau 749.
In this way, "The Lost Tomb" was released, and the leading actors are almost the same as the original cast of "Nine-story Demon Tower".
Then, at the end of September, the audience saw how Colonel Lu turned a suspenseful tomb-robbing novel into an optical garbage of "Fighting Aliens + Fighting Little Monsters + Legend of the White-Haired Witch + Ghost".
Yes, whether for ordinary audiences or for fans of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", this movie by Colonel Lu can be said to be a piece of garbage.
It is a wolf in sheep's clothing, with a messy plot, random piecing together, confusing logic, dragging plot, stiff character performance, and incomprehensible content throughout the film. It mixes various elements such as tomb robbing, fantasy, romance, suspense, science fiction, thriller, horror, etc., which completely shattered the halo of Colonel Lu as a famous director. Countless viewers gave this work one star or half a star rating on major platforms.
By the way, it also raised the reputation of "Hello, Madman" to a higher level and helped the box office growth of this movie.
If we only look at it from this perspective, Colonel Lu's spirit of sacrificing his own fame to help Li Qian, the director of "Hello, Madman", is worthy of praise.
Of course, although the reputation of "The Lost Tomb" collapsed, due to the good publicity and promotion work in the early stage, coupled with the book fan base of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" and Colonel Lu's own fame, the movie still had good box office in the early stage.
At least on the day of its official release on September 9, "The Lost Tomb" grossed more than 30 million yuan at the box office. Combined with the more than 8 million yuan from the previous preview, the cumulative box office of this movie has exceeded 7 million yuan.
Later, due to the arrival of the National Day period in October, the cumulative box office of this movie during the seven days of the National Day was about million yuan, but this has completely drained the potential of "The Genting Sky Palace".
In the end, the film's single-day box office plummeted to an extremely low level in a short period of time due to the influence of word of mouth, and the screening schedule naturally decreased as well, with the total box office stopping at 6 million Chinese yuan.
At the same time, Colonel Lu’s reputation among movie fans was completely overdrawn because of this movie and became a negative number.
It is foreseeable that with more and more new directors emerging, it will be difficult for film and television companies to give them the opportunity to direct commercial blockbusters in the future.
(End of this chapter)
