As it turns out, Zhuang Hongyi is not only a ruthless capitalist, but also a successful director.
As everyone gradually returned to work at the end of the month and the spring season ended, "The Thieves 2" continued the miracle of the first film, firmly holding the top spot with a box office of 3.8 billion yuan.
According to big data predictions, its final box office will be around 4.7 billion yuan.
Xiao He, upon hearing this news, was secretly astonished.
The box office potential of the Spring Festival film season is always astonishing, which explains why directors always want to squeeze into the Spring Festival period. For example, Zhuang Hongyi, after joining the Spring Festival film battle a few times, decisively launched the world view of the master thief and began to dominate the Spring Festival film market with the "Master Thief Alliance" series.
This truly makes one marvel once again at Zhuang Hongyi's foresight.
However, "The Phantom Thieves" wasn't exactly Xiao He's major work, and as a cameo role, the high box office success didn't belong to him. Therefore, Xiao He didn't continue to focus on it, because more important work awaited him—
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First, let's go back to the Spring Festival holiday period.
With "The Thieves 2" still showing in theaters, Xiao He didn't need to do much, so he focused most of his attention on the upcoming audition for "The Emperor's Ambition".
"The legendary Emperor Qin Zhuo ascended the throne through military achievements, wielded absolute power, conquered all directions, and ruthlessly annexed the entire realm. His merits and demerits are left for posterity to judge—"
The middle-aged storyteller slammed his gavel on the table, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° and the speakers behind him suddenly began to ring out the clanging sounds of traditional opera gongs and drums in unison with his action.
As the camera shifted, a young man in armor appeared on stage. He had one hand holding a corner of his robe and the other on his hip. His face was painted with a dignified and domineering expression, and his eyes were bright and piercing as he looked down at the camera.
"With my army, I will conquer a thousand mountain passes; with my sword, I will point to a city ten thousand miles away."
"Clang clang clang, clang clang clang—"
The young man changed his posture, and his black robe, under the changing lights, revealed a dazzling golden light, as if alluding to destiny and the overall situation being settled.
"Smack—"
The gavel rang out again.
"It's a pity that heaven is jealous of talent; his ambitions were left unfulfilled. The young emperor was born in a chaotic era, but perished in a prosperous age..."
Xiao He sat at home watching several highly-rated historical commentary videos on Bilibili, lost in deep thought.
Emperor Chen is undoubtedly a favorite subject of study for many history bloggers and experts. Because his historical records are relatively complete and the historical period he lived in is particularly important to later generations, the public has a relatively detailed understanding of him. Even those Chinese people who are not very educated have heard of his name and know his deeds.
Can we uncover any unique personality traits from such historical figures?
Xiao He frowned, feeling that this matter would probably be very difficult.
Most of the auditionees were identified through similar means, such as feature videos, historical records, and evaluations by later generations.
Historical figures like Emperor Chen are so prominent that historians in this field could dedicate many episodes to studying and analyzing his personality, his past, his governing philosophy, his military strategies, and so on. His overall image has been largely established over the long course of history.
Even if the production team of "The Imperial Empire" makes some artistic embellishments to the future plot, beautifying the characters or changing and improving some content, the basic character personalities should be pretty much the same as the historical prototypes.
In that case, it would be quite difficult for him to win the director's favor by understanding the same character, just like he did with his previous film, "No Bait".
Ultimately, the public's perception is the more appealing choice.
If that's the case, how should he gain the upper hand?
"Have some fruit."
Just as Xiao He was lost in thought, his mother placed the washed fruit in front of him and sat down next to him.
The television in front of me was still playing the history blogger's further analysis and explanation of one of Emperor Chen's battles.
After watching for a while, Xiao's mother asked, "The audition that Xiao Liu mentioned after the holiday, is it an audition for Emperor Chen?"
Xiao He pulled himself out of his thoughts and nodded: "Yes, but I'm also having some troubles now."
“This character is too famous, and it is precisely because of this fame that everyone is on the same starting line.” Xiao He said with some helplessness, “I haven’t found a good angle to overtake yet.”
At that moment, the video in front of them suddenly changed to a young general standing on the stage with his hands behind his back, looking unrestrained and exuding the heroic spirit of someone who had been through many battles.
At that time, he was first a general, and then an emperor.
After that, he became an emperor and then a general.
The change in his status and position also serves as a testament to his journey towards becoming a "lonely figure".
I don't know where the blogger found this video clip, but the young man's stage performance was exceptionally good, and he brought the image of the young general to life.
Xiao He glanced at the young general, his gaze fleeting across his face before returning to his mother, his eyes filled with anticipation: "Teacher Bai, do you have any better suggestions?"
Xiao's mother's surname is Bai. She is called "Teacher Bai" at school and often outside. The identity of a teacher, who educates and nurtures people, seems to have been completely integrated into her soul. Sometimes, when her family members ask for her opinion or have a serious discussion about issues, they also like to call her "Teacher Bai".
After some thought, Xiao's mother quickly offered Xiao He a new perspective: "I think it's not that important whether you're agonizing over the script or Emperor Chen himself. Your acting skills are enough to support the image that the public imagines. After all, the charm that Emperor Chen gives you is more about the character himself than the charm that you give him."
Although the words were a bit awkward to say, Xiao He sat up straight, a glint of light in his eyes.
"Such historical dramas carry a certain political mission, so perhaps the ideas of the leader who sent them down—that is, your current director—are more important than the script itself."
After a moment of contemplation, Xiao's mother sorted out her thoughts and continued, "Although I don't understand your casting requirements, I can roughly understand what the leaders are thinking."
"In this casting process, they might not necessarily think highly of you because of your unique insights and unconventional acting style. On the contrary, if you choose to take an unconventional path, it might actually provoke the director's dislike. For them, choosing the safest and most authentic person is enough. Any extra opinions or insights will only cause problems. Besides, you can't guarantee that your ideas will convince the relevant historians in the production team, so you might as well focus on some details that add value."
What they want is stability, not novelty, even if doing so might make things rigid and boring.
Instead of focusing on those aspects, Xiao He would be better off studying some basic things—such as temperament, demeanor, ancient etiquette, classical skills, and tone of voice.
When you can't find any way to get ahead by any means in terms of acting skills, script understanding, character portrayal, etc., it's better to go back to basics and focus on the details!
To give a simple example: an actor who exudes classical charm in every gesture, who could transform into a refined scholar with a change of clothes, versus an actor who looks like a modern person, speaks loudly and speaks in a slouching manner, and stands unsteadily—which one would the director choose?
They'll definitely just pick up existing examples from the ancients!
Do you really want to make things difficult for yourself by adopting the practices of the ancients?
