Chapter 326: Mei Lanfang and Ip Man, the smoke of war in the Lunar New Year period
Although the entertainment industry is turbulent, with the arrival of the Lunar New Year holiday, everyone has to give way.

This year's Lunar New Year holiday is also quite interesting.

Three years after The Promise, poet Chen returns to the Lunar New Year box office.

Although "The Promise" made him fall from the altar, he is still one of the four major directors in mainland China.

What's more, this time the movie "Mei Lanfang" is a genre he is familiar with, and when it was promoted, the gimmicks it created were no less than that of "Farewell My Concubine".

So this time, poet Chen came with such force that almost no one dared to underestimate him.

But there are always unexpected things. The Hong Kong film "Ip Man", which was originally promoted on a small scale, was suddenly promoted on a large scale, and was directly moved up to be released four days after "Mei Lanfang".

It didn't take long for people in the industry to understand what was going on, and the promotion of "Ip Man" was taken over by Golden Harvest Group.

This sudden change made everyone very confused.

I don’t understand why Golden Harvest suddenly attaches so much importance to the movie "Ip Man".

Are you really optimistic about the movie "Ip Man" or are you pessimistic about poet Chen?

No one knows the reason for this, but poet Chen has definitely lost face. No matter what Jiahe thinks, there will always be some people who think that Jiahe looks down on poet Chen.

There are even many people who think so. After all, no matter how you look at the movie "Ip Man", you can guess that it is a kung fu movie, and Hong Kong kung fu movies have long been out of fashion.

Golden Harvest dared to confront Poet Chen with an ordinary Hong Kong kung fu film. If you say that it is not looking down on Poet Chen, I am afraid few people will believe it.

But no matter what, with the advance release date of "Ip Man", the first highlight of this year's Lunar New Year box office has officially appeared.

Now everyone is looking forward to whether "Mei Lanfang" will restore the godhood of poet Chen, or "Ip Man" will crush the shattered godhood of poet Chen into powder again.

For a while, two biographical films became the focus of attention.

"Mei Lanfang" was the first to be screened. On December 4, the film held a grand world premiere ceremony at the Huairou China Film Digital Production Base.

There are more and more ways to premiere now, and most blockbusters don’t even bother to hold their premiere ceremonies in movie theaters.

It was first popular in gymnasiums, which are large venues and have a strong atmosphere.

Later, it was moved to the Great Hall of the People, the CPPCC Auditorium, the National Grand Theater, and even Chaoyang Park.

However, this time the premiere of "Mei Lanfang" was held in the suburb of Huairou, at the China Film Digital Production Base, which was different.

Although it was in the suburbs, the momentum was no small at all. There were large groups of fans waiting on both sides of the red carpet outside the venue, and a large number of reporters were constantly taking pictures.

At the same time, many influential filmmakers and actors in the circle also came.

Even a broken ship still has 3,000 nails. Obviously, The Promise did not squander poet Chen's reputation.

Although he was ridiculed by netizens, his status in the industry is still not low, and many people will give him face.

When poet Chen saw such a grand occasion, he felt a little proud again. He didn't know if it was because he was so angry before or because he was full of confidence again.

When asked about the competition between "Mei Lanfang" and "Ip Man", poet Chen actually said directly in front of the media reporters:
"Ip Man is no match for Mei Lanfang!"

This immediately made the reporter who was interviewing the film excited and he kept pressing the shutter.

The next day, when Liu Zhou saw the news, he couldn't help but smile.

Poet Chen is still as arrogant as ever, but he should have restrained himself a little and did not shout slogans to dethrone "The Martian" from the throne of box office champion.

Now I just look down on "Ip Man".

Moreover, Liu Zhou heard what Han Shanping told him last night, that poet Chen actually published another book for "Mei Lanfang", telling about his own mental journey and emphasizing that publishing a book is not a fast food.

It seems that poet Chen's literary and pretentious heart is always there.

To be honest, if Liu Zhou had not seen "Mei Lanfang" by poet Chen in his previous life, he would not have been very confident that "Ip Man" could compete head-on with it.

After all, the movie "Farewell My Concubine" has a very high status in mainland China.

Now the "Mei Lanfang" shot by Chen Shishi is a movie similar to "Farewell My Concubine". No one knows whether he can make another classic.

But Liu Zhou knew that poet Chen had only produced half of a classic this time.

"Mei Lanfang" is a typical story that starts high and ends low, with the climax at the very beginning, from the moment young Mei Lanfang appears to the moment Shisan Yan dies in depression after being defeated by Mei Lanfang.

The whole process is done in one go, with constant climaxes and endless wonderful lines. The setting and personality charm of the characters are first-class.

Poet Chen's aesthetic skills are fully demonstrated in this section. Whether it is the restoration of the old capital city or the setting of the environmental atmosphere that blends with the characters' emotions, it is all very clear.

Details ranging from a snuff bottle to a 20s New York theater are also perfectly displayed.

Of course, in addition to poet Chen, the performances of the actors were also outstanding, especially Wang Xueqi, who played Shisan Yan. He completely supported the "farewell to death" at the beginning and his performance was superb.

Sun Honglei, the handsome actor, also did a great job in portraying Qiu Rubai. His performance was full of explosiveness and he also handled some delicate emotions very well.

Although Li Ming's performance cannot be called perfect, it can still be rated 7 points.

The opening and even the first half of "Mei Lanfang" were amazing, and completely stirred the audience's emotions. Everyone not only looked forward to the wonderful plot later, but also couldn't help but marvel that poet Chen might really be able to reshape his godhood.

But no one expected that the following plot not only did not have anything more exciting, but the quality kept declining, making people even feel dull and boring.

What’s even more maddening is that this movie is a full two and a half hours long. I wonder what poet Chen was thinking.

A biographical film actually drags on for so long.

Watching the whole movie gives people the feeling of seeing a person’s back. The back looks perfect, but when you get closer and look at the front, the appearance is just ordinary.

But it’s okay to be mediocre, at least it’s not ugly. But the previous back view gave people too high expectations, so the disappointment afterwards will be magnified several times.

In fact, this also reflects Chen Shishi's poor control over the entire film.

If the beginning can get 9 points and the first half can get 8 points, then the second half can barely get a passing score of 6 points.

These two halves really give people the feeling that they were shot by two directors.

However, after all, it was the first shot of the Lunar New Year period, and poet Chen was also a very popular figure, so the release of "Mei Lanfang" also attracted widespread attention.

Overall, "Mei Lanfang" is actually quite good, but the beginning is too amazing, and the end gives people a feeling of being anticlimactic.

But the press release certainly did not write it this way. Many media and film critics seized on the opening of "Mei Lanfang" and praised it highly.

The most frequently mentioned sentence was that the opening paragraph reminded them of the poet Chen who filmed "Farewell My Concubine".

Perhaps these press releases worked, or perhaps everyone still had high hopes for poet Chen, but in the end, "Mei Lanfang" grossed 13 million on the first day.

This result is already very good, especially for a biographical film.

Even though some blockbusters can earn tens of millions on the first day, they are a minority after all. Nowadays, there are actually not many movies that can earn over tens of millions on the first day.

After the first day, it earned 17 million on the second day and 15 million on the third day. In the first three days, it grossed a total of 45 million at the box office.

At this time, the reputation of "Mei Lanfang" also spread completely.

This time the word of mouth is definitely much better than after the release of "The Promise".

Although some people are still criticizing it, the most criticized thing is the overall rhythm of the movie, which is a bit too boring in the later part.

However, the opening did surprise everyone. Overall, "Mei Lanfang" is a work above the passing line, and on Douban, everyone also gave it a score of 7.1.

In any case, this production of "Mei Lanfang" helped poet Chen regain some of his reputation.

On December 8, the fourth day after the release of "Mei Lanfang", "Ip Man" also officially began to be released in major domestic theaters.

As a movie that had caused a lot of controversy with "Mei Lanfang", "Ip Man", which had not been paid much attention to before, also attracted a lot of attention.

To be honest, the reason why "Ip Man" is so popular now is thanks to poet Chen.

Although Golden Harvest wanted "Ip Man" to compete with "Mei Lanfang" for box office revenue, it never thought of bundling them together for hype.

However, poet Chen might have too much self-esteem or be too sensitive. He always felt that the fact that "Ip Man" was released almost at the same time as "Mei Lanfang" was a bit offensive to him.

Therefore, when poet Chen was promoting the film, he would always intentionally or unintentionally make some insults to "Ip Man".

Media reporters are definitely interested in such news, so they always mention "Ip Man" when interviewing poet Chen later.

With more reports, the popularity of "Ip Man" gradually increased.

The distribution department of Golden Harvest was a little confused at the time. I hadn’t even tried my best, so how come the publicity effect came out?

Later they discovered that, without their knowledge, "Ip Man" and "Mei Lanfang" had been bundled together for marketing, and the effect was surprisingly good.

The publicity and promotion staff of Golden Harvest were eager to visit poet Chen to thank him properly for making it so easy for them to exceed their KPI.

With the full release of "Ip Man", everyone is looking forward to the movie's box office performance, wanting to see who will win in the competition between it and "Mei Lanfang".

On December 8, "Mei Lanfang" once again earned 12 million at the box office, while "Ip Man" earned 15 million on the first day.

In terms of first day results, "Ip Man" was slightly better.

However, this has little to do with the quality of the film, but mainly reflects the strength gap between the two film distribution companies.

The subsequent results will be a competition of the quality of the film.

On December 9, "Mei Lanfang" earned 13 million at the box office, and the results seemed to have reversed. However, "Ip Man" earned 18 million on the second day of its release.

On December 10, the single-day box office of "Mei Lanfang" fell below 10 million, earning only over 8 million, while "Ip Man" earned 23 million on its third day of release.

"Ip Man" earned 56 million in box office revenue in its first three days.

At this time, "Mei Lanfang" had already shown signs of decline, while the reputation of "Ip Man" began to explode, showing the momentum of being a big seller.

(End of this chapter)