Chapter 366: The Showdown between Young Directors
News in the entertainment industry can often cause a lot of noise, but it comes and goes quickly.

The anti-Zhou movement initiated by the Xiang family lasted for nearly a month, starting with Wang Jing's attack on Zhou Xingxing and ending with the Xiang family's silence.

For entertainment news, this is a long time to maintain the popularity.

The main reason is that this time many celebrity artists are involved, and Stephen Chow is a household name. The number of his fans and their strong fighting power are beyond everyone's expectations.

It has to be said that many artists who are also actors, whether from mainland China or Hong Kong, are more or less envious or even jealous of Stephen Chow after this incident.

They all saw it very clearly in the early stages. Facing the all-round offensive from the Xiang family, Zhou Xingxing did not take any action at all. It was completely his fans who were doing their best to protect him.

What is incredible to them is that in the face of the Xiang family’s slander and rumors, Zhou Xingxing’s fans seem to be completely unaffected and still trust and support him as always.

You should know that the Xiang family did not just invite a few Hong Kong celebrities to endorse them, they also contacted a large number of media outlets and continuously issued large-scale press releases to discredit Zhou Xingxing.

If it were someone else, the fans would have been led astray and turned against them, let alone defending them.

So which artist doesn't like fans as loyal as Zhou Xingxing? Which star doesn't want to have fans like Zhou Xingxing?

And his die-hard fans are not just a small group, but a large group.

No one knew about it before, but when something happened to Stephen Chow, all the information came to light, and they were so jealous.

They even feel that even Jackie Chan and Jet Li may not have a fan base like Stephen Chow.

But envy and jealousy aside, the reason why Stephen Chow has so many loyal fans is that his works are good and his style is unique, which can't be learned at all.

So after being jealous for a while, it’s time to work and it’s time to continue intrigue.

With Zhou Xingxing's response and the Xiang family's cessation, the sensational anti-Zhou incident finally began to die down.

Instead, the summer season is gradually becoming lively.

The traditional summer season is July and August, but with the prosperity of the mainland film market in recent years, mid-to-late June has also begun to be included in the summer season.

This summer, not only are there many Hollywood blockbusters, but there are also more than a dozen domestic films being released.

Although there are no highly anticipated blockbusters like "Red Cliff" and "Curse of the Golden Flower", there is also no shortage of big productions that attract much attention.

The most anticipated movie is of course "The Sound of Wind" produced by Golden Harvest.

This tribute film produced by Golden Harvest can be said to be carefully crafted by Golden Harvest, and it also gathers a number of popular mainland actors such as Zhou Gongzi, Fan Xiaopang, Liu Ye, and Wang Zhiwen.

Moreover, from the beginning of the project, it can be seen that Golden Harvest attaches no less importance to this film than to any big-budget movies it produces.

Due to the trust in Golden Harvest's previous reputation and the film's strong cast, "The Sound of Wind" has become the most popular domestic film in this summer.

However, "The Whistleblower" will not be released until the end of July, which is more than a month away.

Among the domestic films, apart from "The Message", the most anticipated ones are "No Man's Land" and "Jinling Jinling".

The directors of these two films, Ning Hao and Lu Chuan, are also two of the most well-known young directors in mainland China.

There is a tradition of dividing directors into generations in China. This is because along the way Chinese films have come, it has indeed been generation after generation of directors who have been blazing the trails.

Why do Chinese film directors have such a strong voice and such a high status?

The main reason is the development of Chinese films, which is mainly driven by directors.

Each of the first five generations of directors has made indelible contributions to the development of Chinese films.
At present, the first four generations of directors have retired from the stage, and the fifth generation of directors headed by Zhang Yimou and Chen Shishi are still active.

Although the sixth generation of directors are also very active, their films are relatively niche and have always been on the verge of being banned, so they have never been the mainstream of Chinese films.

If the sixth generation of directors has a clear division, then the seventh generation is more vague.

The main reason is that there are too few influential young directors emerging in too short a period of time. Only Ning Hao and Lu Chuan are capable of making outstanding contributions and are struggling to maintain the title of the seventh generation of directors.

The so-called seventh generation directors in the original time and space were only called that for a while, but were later broken along with some traditions.

Actors, writers, even film critics and hosts can switch careers to become directors, which greatly lowers the threshold for becoming a director.

And the film academy did not produce a new batch of influential directors, so there was no division into generations of directors.

Even the so-called seventh generation of directors is no longer mentioned, and Chinese directors are only classified up to the sixth generation.

But in this life, there is a more special existence, that is Liu Zhou.

If counted by age, he could also be considered a seventh-generation director.

Even if Liu Zhou is really classified as the seventh generation of directors, this seventh generation of directors may really take shape and will not be as vague as it is now.

However, although Liu Zhou is young, no one would compare him with young directors. There is simply no comparison.

If we divide them by the time of debut, he can also be considered a sixth-generation director. After all, he and Jia Zhang, the leading figure of the sixth-generation directors, debuted at about the same time.

However, Liu Zhou's style is very different from that of the sixth-generation directors, and their box office results are also very different, so not many people classify them as the sixth generation.

At the same time, it is generally recognized that Liu Zhou's influence can be compared with that of the fifth generation directors.

Nowadays, whenever Liu Zhou is mentioned, he is compared with Zhang Yimou, Chen Shishi, Feng Kuzi and others.

However, the outside world will certainly not classify Liu Zhou as one of the fifth generation directors, after all, the age difference is too big.

So Liu Zhou has become like Jiang Wen, a director who does not belong to any generation but is a director of his own.

If we exclude Liu Zhou, the most outstanding young directors would be Ning Hao and Lu Chuan.

Both of them debuted at about the same time, but their development paths were different.

Lu Chuan is a typical child of a film family, and has had a smooth journey.

After graduating from the directing department of Beijing Film Academy in 1998, he successfully joined China Film Group.

Then at the age of 27, he became the screenwriter of the TV series "Black Hole". After the broadcast of "Black Hole", it became a big hit and Lu Chuan instantly became famous in the circle.

Then at the age of 30, he began directing his first film, "Looking for a Gun".

Han Shanping is the producer of this film, and Jiang Wen is the leading actor, so the cast is fully loaded.

If it weren't for the drama queen Jiang Wen who was banned from directing and caused some trouble, everything would be perfect. But despite this, "Looking for the Gun" was well received after its release, and most of the honors were awarded to Lu Chuan.

Since then, Lu Chuan has officially emerged in the circle.

Later, perhaps in order to prove himself, Lu Chuan got rid of Jiang Wen and brought out another film "Kekexili".

This movie had a greater influence. Although it was later accused of plagiarism, at that time, "Kekexili" had a very good reputation.

In order to shoot the movie "Kekexili", Lu Chuan led the team deep into the glacier plateau and indeed suffered a lot.

At the same time, this film has indeed played a great role in promoting the protection of Tibetan antelopes.

Therefore, Lu Chuan also became completely famous, and her path to fame was steady and step-by-step.

After becoming famous, Lu Chuan couldn't help but start to become a little arrogant.

Perhaps ordinary topics could no longer satisfy him, so Lu Chuan actually set his sights on the heavy event of the Nanjing Massacre.

In fact, when Lu Chuan expressed his intention to shoot a movie on this subject, not only his father but many others advised him to wait.

He should wait until he is more experienced and mature before shooting a movie with such a heavy subject. He may not be able to grasp it now.

After all, even someone as powerful as Spielberg wouldn't dare to easily try to make a movie that reflects the suffering of the Jews.

Spielberg had the script of "Schindler's List" in his hands as early as the 1980s, but he waited for a full ten years and only started filming in the 1990s when he was sure of it.

Because this type of movie is not just a movie, it also has extremely important and special meaning.

However, the young and energetic Lu Chuan ignored other people's opinions and suggestions, and insisted on making a unique film that reflected the Nanjing Massacre.

According to what he said during the promotion, it took him five years of hard work to make this "Jinling Jinling"!
But to be honest, although some people have doubts about Lu Chuan's current abilities, the outside world is still very supportive of him making a movie on this subject.

There are too few Chinese films on this subject, and there is not a single film that has any influence worldwide.

And how many films have Jews made about concentration camps and the Holocaust?
Similar films are released almost every year.

If we had many movies like "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist" that show the crimes of one person to the whole world, would they still dare to tamper with history and stir up trouble internationally?
Therefore, the outside world is still very much looking forward to Lu Chuan's "Jinling Jinling".

As for Liu Zhou, he also thinks that more movies of this type should be made. It doesn’t matter if you make it badly, as long as you don’t insult the audience’s IQ like the anti-Japanese drama.

To be honest, even if Liu Zhou and Lu Chuan had nothing in common, or even looked down on him as a person, they would still support his movie.

But Liu Zhou, who had watched "Jinling Jinling" in his previous life, would have wanted to report him if it weren't for his current status.

Lu Chuan now has a very good reputation. He is not only an excellent young director, but also an absolute public intellectual. He calls himself an opinion leader and often talks about it online.

Although public intellectuals and opinion leaders have become infamous in later generations, they are definitely highly respected and admired roles now.

The reason why public intellectuals have such a great influence at this time is because many people believe what they say.

However, some time ago, Lu Chuan met a tough guy, Han Han, who also became famous at a young age and was also young and frivolous, and didn't care about his identity at all.

But what’s a bit funny is that Lu Chuan couldn’t even win the scolding, and in the end his father, the so-called famous writer, personally came out to confront Han Han.

But even though the father and son joined forces, they didn't get much advantage from Han Han.

After all, this is just a minor matter, so the impact on Lu Chuan is extremely limited and does not affect his status as a public intellectual and opinion leader at all.

Compared to Lu Chuan who has been smooth sailing and likes to call himself an intellectual on the Internet to make himself known, Ning Hao is at the other extreme. Apart from promoting movies, he hardly shows up.

If Lu Chuan is the son of a wealthy family with abundant resources, then Ning Hao is the son of a commoner who has worked hard all the way and made a name for himself with his talent.

Especially in the original time and space, Ning Hao had a very hard time filming the movie in the early stages, and many of them were shot with DV.

Unlike Lu Chuan, he has never considered anything other than filming, such as investment and equipment.

However, in this life, Ning Hao was luckier. He met Liu Zhou, who chose him as the photographer of "The Tuner". Then he joined Golden Harvest and received key training.

So Ning Hao's journey has actually been quite smooth.

But compared to Lu Chuan who became famous through word of mouth of the movies and then had many media and big names to promote her, Ning Hao paved a way to fame for himself through his unique black comedy and the box office.

Although Ning Hao’s success is inseparable from the help of Jiahe, the most important reason is Ning Hao’s own outstanding talent.

A movie like "Crazy Stone" and "Crazy Racing" made Ning Hao famous and successful, and also accumulated a large number of fans.

To be honest, Ning Hao is definitely more famous than Lu Chuan.

After all, this is an era of commercialization of the film industry. Unless you win one of the three major European films, your success will still be judged by the box office.

In terms of box office, Lu Chuan's performance is not even a fraction of Ning Hao's.

So now, two years later, Ning Hao has brought another new film "No Man's Land", which has attracted much attention before it was released.

What's more, I heard that the movie "No Man's Land" failed to pass the review last year and was almost banned, which aroused everyone's curiosity even more.

As luck would have it, the new films of two of the most anticipated young directors are released at almost the same time, and a head-on confrontation is about to begin.

Ning Hao's "No Man's Land" was released on June 16, while "Jinling Jinling" was released on June 21, only five days apart.

The outside world likes to watch this kind of head-on confrontation the most.

Every time this happened, it was always very exciting.

Now it is the turn of the younger generation to compete, and the atmosphere seems to be even more tense. After all, the two are equally famous and are often compared by the outside world.

Regardless of who wins or loses this time, it may not be possible to make a final conclusion about the comparison between the two, but the impact is definitely significant.

Is there anything more impressive than being defeated head-on?

Whoever loses will definitely leave the audience with the impression that he is inferior to others. If you want to reverse this impression, you must defeat the opponent head-on.

However, a head-on confrontation is something that only happens occasionally, so let alone the arrogant Lu Chuan, even Ning Hao, who dislikes disputes, was also holding his breath.

(End of this chapter)