Lucas' years of experience in the film and television industry are not groundless. He has seen this movie a long time ago, so from the moment he sat in the cinema, his attention was on the audience around him.
Whether the audience keeps staring at the screen intently; whether the audience contributes their laughter to the jokes in the movie; whether the audience empathizes with the tension in the plot, these are the key factors to measure a movie.
But in Lucas's view, from the beginning of this movie until now, the vast majority of the audience has been extremely focused on watching it, and they enjoy it very much. They will appreciate every joke and every plot point in the movie. With enough feedback, it can be expected that after watching this movie, the audience will definitely give it a very high evaluation, and the reputation will be very good!
Lucas’s professional eye was spot on.
The audience became even more immersed in the subsequent plot!
The great thing about this movie is that it can incorporate very interesting and advanced jokes into various situations, not only in terms of characters, plot, but also action direction.
In the film, after Master Ren died, Lin Zhengying was imprisoned by his daughter's cousin. The other party also threatened Lin Zhengying with a branding iron with the word "treacherous", laying a foreshadowing. Later, Master Ren turned into a corpse, and Qian Xiaohao finally used the talisman to temporarily He immobilized the zombie, but unexpectedly, Qian Jin's cousin came in and started a series of his saucy operations. This series of saucy operations were full of laughter, including him accidentally dropping the talisman seals many times, including his because of a series of Qian Xiaohao used the word "treacherous" to burn the word "treacherous" on his chest, which just echoed the foreshadowing he had laid before.
The most interesting thing is that in the setting of the plot, Qian Xiaohao did not deliberately want to harm the cousin of the daughter of the Ren family. It was just that when he was attacking zombies, the cousin of the daughter sat down on the sharp tip of the knife and jumped. When I got up, I accidentally received the branding blow from Qian Xiaohao. It was a complete retribution for evil.
Subsequently, the plot of Xu Guanying and the daughter of the Yam family dealing with zombies was both tense and funny at the same time. The audience was nervous, happy and extremely excited.
Then, the plot of Lin Zhengying and his apprentice Qian Xiaohao came forward to subdue the zombies, and the strong professionalism of the zombie Taoist priest was clearly demonstrated.
During this process, another apprentice, Xu Guanying, was bitten by a zombie and infected with corpse poison. The plot then split into two directions. One was helping Xu Guanying control the corpse poison, while the other was Qian Xiaohao's encounter with the female ghost again. The plot was also interspersed with The profiteer played by Wu Ma deliberately mixed 30 jins of sticky rice into the 50 jins of glutinous rice sold to Qian Xiaohao, which laid another small foreshadowing for the subsequent plot. In addition, Qian Xiaohao was controlled by the female ghost's weather. , and the subtle little design of constantly changing the situation with the female ghost.
Multi-line advancement, multiple foreshadowings, multiple baggage, multiple characters, so many elements are mixed together, but the rhythm can be handled very compactly, and it is not messy at all. This is extremely rare, and the jokes can be carried in many ways. It is diverse, not only can laughter be naturally integrated into various plots, but also many interesting laughter elements are integrated into the martial arts action. Although this is just a comedy movie without much depth, from these points, it is also It is enough to show that the staff behind this film have very deep skills.
Immediately afterwards, the plot of Lin Zhengying fighting a female ghost was also very tense and interesting. The fighting scenes were intense and interesting, and also included a lot of Taoist practices and the behavior of using magic weapons. While showing professionalism, it was also more convincing.
In the unit plot of fighting the female ghost, the female ghost was defeated by Lin Zhengying and escaped. The original beautiful courtyard suddenly turned into a depressed and dilapidated courtyard. Lin Zhengying returned with his apprentice, but one of his two apprentices was poisoned by corpse poison, and the other was killed. Confused by ghosts, Lin Zhengying could only deal with them one by one. While helping Xu Guanying control the corpse poison, he set up formations to wait for the female ghost to come to his door.
The role of the female ghost in the play is not a pure villain. On the contrary, because she is sincerely moved by Qian Xiaohao, she gives an explanation for everything she does that is acceptable to the audience, which makes her image relatively positive. After the fierce fight, Lin Zhengying did not kill the female ghost, but let Qian Xiaohao make the decision. Qian Xiaohao's approach did not disappoint the audience. He removed the restraints on the female ghost and let her go. After the female ghost escaped, , the audience at the scene also breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the crisis of the female ghost has been resolved, the real boss, the zombie transformed by Mr. Ren’s father, has not yet been resolved, so the Gao Dynasty plot at the end of the movie is a battle with this zombie boss.
At the critical moment, Lin Zhengying's junior brother who appeared at the beginning of the film once again came to the rescue with a group of zombies. This echo between the beginning and the end is also very interesting in the structure of the film. The audience was attracted to these zombies and Lin Zhengying in the eye-catching Taoist robes from the beginning. The junior brother was deeply impressed, so when they saw him appear again with zombies, everyone was particularly happy.
Next, Junior Brother Lin Zhengying controlled a group of zombies to fight with a zombie boss. The setting also exceeded the audience's expectations. They originally thought that with eight zombies against one zombie, this big boss would be killed by the same kind of people. Unexpectedly, these eight zombies fought against one zombie. The zombies plus Lin Zhengying's junior brother were equal to a big parallel import. The eight zombies only lasted one round and were defeated. It was unexpected, but it was reasonable.
At the end of the film, everyone fights zombies together and finally burns the zombie boss to ashes. This also echoes what Lin Zhengying said to Mr. Ren in the first half. The safest way to prevent zombies is to cremate him. Mr. Ren was still alive. He didn't agree, and in the end he lost his life, everyone wasted a lot of effort, but his father was still burned to death. This small detail is somewhat ironic.
And at the very end, the screenwriter also shakes off a burden. The zombies brought by Junior Brother Lin Zhengying to help were all burned cleanly. These eight parallel imports were burned at the beginning and at the end. In the end, he completely returned to the West, adhering to his professional ethics as a "parallel importer" and adding a bit of humor...
After this final baggage was shaken, the whole movie came to an end. Lucas looked at the performance of the audience around him and almost cheered with excitement.
What he didn't expect was that after the movie ended, someone in the theater took the lead in applauding, and there was a continuous round of applause, mixed with cheers and whistles, and the atmosphere was particularly warm.
Although this movie is very old, although the picture quality is mediocre and the special effects are extremely weak, its plot is compact and coherent, and the various plots, jokes, baggage and foreshadowing are all perfectly combined. Each character has its own characteristics, and every character is unique. Every plot was explained, and every burden was shaken. During these one hundred minutes, the audience watched it tense, exciting, interesting and engaging, allowing them to have a deeper understanding of the many aspects of the "Chinese Zombies" Characteristics and background, so the whole movie is extremely complete in the minds of the audience, and the experience is also very perfect.
After the theater ended, many viewers were still unsatisfied. They rarely watch Hong Kong movies. Unexpectedly, this movie has a fast pace, tight plot, excitement, relaxation and fun, and a full exotic flavor. It was so addictive that the audience was in twos and threes. When they left the show and went out, everyone was still exchanging some plot points in the movie. Lucas was among the crowd and listened carefully.
Some people are talking about the unique characteristics of the Chinese zombie setting. For example, zombies can only jump. For example, zombies rely on the breath exhaled by people to determine the direction of people. For example, although zombies are afraid of the talismans, magic weapons, and spells of zombie Taoists, the two sides are not It is an absolutely suppressive relationship. When encountering powerful zombies, the Taoist's spells and magical weapons will lose their effect. This is very interesting and relatively reasonable. It is not like many American supernatural legends or film and television works that are one-size-fits-all. For example, no matter how awesome a vampire is, Cutting off the head with a knife will result in sudden death, and even the strongest werewolf will die if stabbed with a silver dagger.
Some people also discussed the Taoist priest played by Lin Zhengying in the movie. This character is particularly lovable in the movie. Not only does he look like a very decent person, but also because of the "professional qualities" he showed in the movie. The most important thing is that his outlook on life is very consistent with the protagonist's setting of the movie and TV series. Although he seems to be meticulous, he knows the right and wrong very well, so after he went through a lot of hard work to subdue the female ghost, he did not The fact that he insists on killing her makes him even more flesh and blood.
Some viewers also felt sorry for the female ghost, who felt that this character was very plump and three-dimensional. She fell in love with Qian Xiaohao because of his kind-hearted incense, and then tried several times to get close to him and have sex with him, but nothing happened. Wanting to harm him, even when she saw Qian Xiaohao in danger, she desperately broke through the formation set up by Lin Zhengying to save Qian Xiaohao's life. Even when Lin Zhengying, who had been intending to kill him, was in danger behind his back, she He can also take the initiative to remind Lin Zhengying that such a character is particularly sympathetic in the eyes of North American audiences who are used to watching romantic dramas such as "The Love of Ghosts". Many viewers even hope that she can finally get together with Qian Xiaohao.
Lucas eavesdropped all the way with an excited heart. After leaving the theater, the first thing he did was to call Li Mu.
It is now two o'clock in the morning in New York time, and it is now two o'clock in the afternoon in Yanjing, which is 12 hours time difference from New York.
Li Mu was having a closed-door meeting with a group of people in Yanjing to discuss the specific plans for the film and television base. He was so focused on the meeting that he had forgotten about the premiere of "Zombie-Master" in North America. When he received a call from Lucas, he immediately I didn't want to answer the call at first, but after a moment's hesitation I paused the meeting and answered the call.
"Hello Mr. Li!" As soon as the call was connected, Lucas greeted Li Mu excitedly on the other end of the phone.
Li Mu said, "Hello Lucas, are you okay with calling me at this time?"
Lucas' voice was trembling with excitement, and he said: "Mr. Li, "Zombie-Master" just finished its premiere at midnight. The audience's response was excellent. I think the reputation of this movie will be very good after tomorrow." It’s going to be a blast, and its box office must be much higher than we expected.”
Li Mu asked him: "How much can it get?"
Lucas said: "Judging from the performance of the audience today, I think a box office of 100 million US dollars is definitely no problem, and even 150 million is not impossible, and you gave the theaters an additional 20% share. The theater chain is now waiting to see the reputation and attendance of this movie. I think tomorrow when word of mouth spreads about the movie, the theater chain will definitely continue to increase the number of films on the original basis. In this case, the overall box office will increase by another 3. 40% is not a problem at all!”
(End of chapter)