Volume Two: Shadows of the Past, Chapter Eighty-Five: Word of Mouth Explosion

On the evening of May Day, Weibo was flooded with reviews of the movie *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. The content of these reviews came as a surprising shock to those who had heard of the film beforehand but hadn't yet gone to see it. This was because almost every single review they read was overwhelmingly positive.

"To be honest, this movie completely shattered my perception of action films."

"This is a true action movie—bone-crushing fights, full of passion and raw adrenaline."

"After watching *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, I want to take a moment here to say sorry to Boss Jing. It was our lack of vision before that made us actually think you couldn't direct a movie!"

"Boss Jing truly lives up to his name. No matter what field or what project he takes on, he always manages to make it exceptional."

"So now, besides singing and songwriting, Boss Jing has unlocked yet another skill: directing."

"Could this be the legendary saying: a songwriter who can't sing well isn't a good director?"

"Anyway, without saying too much more, I strongly recommend *SPL: Sha Po Lang* to everyone here. It is an action movie well worth your time. If you love action films, I guarantee that watching this will refresh your understanding of the genre."

"After watching *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, I just want to shout at the top of my lungs: Boss Jing is awesome!"

This time, the comments on Weibo were finally no longer looking down on *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. Before the film was released, countless people had looked down on it, eagerly waiting to see Chen Jing make a fool of himself. Now, an equal number of people were praising the movie and cheering for Chen Jing.

Even those who had previously been uninterested in the film and dismissed it as a piece of trash found themselves tempted to go check it out because of these reviews.

Aside from movie reviews posted by ordinary people, several professional film critics also published their own critiques. Among all these Weibo reviews, by far the most popular post was the initial review released by well-known film critic Wang Jue.

At midnight on that day, Wang Jue updated his personal Weibo homepage with a new review: Thoughts on the Numerous Films Released During the May Day Holiday.

The review read: "I have already watched every single notable movie released during this May Day holiday.

The champion for the first day's box office is out, and as expected, Marvelous Hollywood has once again seized the crown. Claiming the number one spot in opening day box office is none other than their sci-fi masterpiece, *Alien War*.

However, everyone needn't worry; the box office figures for our domestic Chinese films are also quite impressive. The best among them, naturally, is *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*, directed by the veteran director Zhang Qishan. This film has climbed to second place on the box office charts. I am not the least bit surprised that Director Zhang's movie achieved this result. After all, Director Zhang is a reliable guarantee of box office success.

Now comes the main point—let me highlight the movie that surprised me the most. That is *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, the film that sparked the most heated discussions a while ago.

As for why I want to focus on this movie, first of all, it unexpectedly achieved a very strong box office performance today, ranking fifth on the opening day charts, just behind Marvelous Hollywood's monster movie *Abyssal Devourer*. Secondly, it's because the film generated an astronomical amount of buzz recently.

Naturally, its topic-driven nature was strong. It was the first film directed by the musical talent Chen Jing, and to promote it, he even launched a Weibo campaign where liking posts won you a song. He had tens of thousands of people promoting his movie on Weibo, so there was simply no way the hype wouldn't skyrocket.

I initially thought that a movie relying purely on promotional stunts like this would undoubtedly turn out subpar in quality, and I didn't even want to watch it. But this time, reality slapped me hard across the face.

To do justice to the immense hype surrounding *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, I ultimately decided to go see it. To my astonishment, this single viewing instantly allowed me to identify the true dark horse of the May Day holiday golden week. Yes, the dark horse of this May Day holiday golden week is undoubtedly *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. As to why I say this? Listen closely as I break it down.

What defines a dark horse? It is when no one holds any expectations or hopes for it, yet it unexpectedly far outperforms all projections and delivers a shocking result. Therefore, Director Zhang Qishan's *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge* and foreign films like those from Marvelous Hollywood cannot be considered dark horses. Because everyone's expectations for these movies were already exceptionally high; even if they achieve stellar box office figures, it merely means their performance matches public expectations.

But *SPL: Sha Po Lang* is different. The hype surrounding it was indeed massive, but the reason it was popular was because people looked down on it—many even wanted to see just how terrible the movie could be. To put it bluntly, they simply wanted to watch Chen Jing make a fool of himself. After all, given how brilliant Chen Jing already is at singing and songwriting, could he possibly be amazing at directing movies too? Back then, I certainly didn't have high hopes for his directing debut either. So when I initially wanted to see the movie, I went in with the malicious intent of watching him humiliate himself. Yet the end result was that I got slapped in the face by him. Well, at least everyone else got slapped along with me, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Joking aside, please don't hold a grudge, everyone. All joking aside, the reason I am so certain that *SPL: Sha Po Lang* is the dark horse of the May Day holiday is because this action film redefines your understanding of the action genre. Indeed, it can be said to exist as a milestone in action cinema.

Because I have never before seen fight choreography in any past action film quite like that in *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. The combat scenes in *SPL: Sha Po Lang* are authentic, thrilling, and utterly beyond description. Once you watch them, only a single thought echoes in your mind: Holy crap, that's awesome!

In particular, there is an alleyway fight sequence in the film. To avoid spoilers, I won't go into detail about how the combat scene plays out here, but anyone who has seen the movie knows that after watching that segment, you feel an irresistible urge to go pick a fight with someone yourself.

Overall, my verdict on *SPL: Sha Po Lang* is that it is unprecedented.

A rookie director, rookie actors, and a brand-new milestone for action cinema. Without a doubt, these are the exact reasons why this film has become the dark horse of the May Day box office.

Therefore, friends who love action movies can boldly go watch it. I believe that once you've finished it, you will feel exactly the same way I do.

Alright, now that I've covered this dark horse of a film, let's talk about the other blockbuster movies..."

Wang Jue's review began with sweeping praise for *SPL: Sha Po Lang*. For moviegoers who deeply enjoyed reading his critiques, his recommendation carried immense weight. This was because Wang Jue's reviews possessed an extremely high level of credibility; his past critiques had always resonated with public taste. People felt his assessments were spot-on, and he never deliberately gave forced, awkward praise to mediocre films. Most importantly, he was never blindly subservient when reviewing domestic Chinese cinema. He offered criticism, praise, and expectations alike—and his expectation, naturally, was for Chinese films to eventually surpass foreign ones. This was precisely why his reviews were so beloved by the masses.

It was also from the moment Wang Jue published his review that the word-of-mouth reputation of *SPL: Sha Po Lang* began to experience an explosive upward surge. Everyone who watched the film enthusiastically recommended it to others.

Just like that, *SPL: Sha Po Lang* transitioned from a movie that everyone looked down upon to one that everyone praised. It had to be said that this constituted a genuine, massive reversal of public opinion.

Needless to say, this dramatic turn in public sentiment was bound to be tied, to a greater or lesser extent, to Lin Xi's maneuvering.

The next morning, all the major theater chains received a compiled survey report on audience feedback for *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, alongside the glowing word-of-mouth reviews circulating online. In response, every theater chain began urgently adjusting their screening schedules, finally willing to unconditionally increase the number of screenings allocated to *SPL: Sha Po Lang*.

At the headquarters of Wanxing Cinemas, Yang Yue sat in his executive chair, frowning as he asked, "They still refuse to agree? What was their response?"

His subordinate replied with a hint of nervousness, "The other party said they are very glad our theater chain wants to increase screening allocations, but asking them to concede a larger profit margin is out of the question. Whatever the screening split was originally should remain as it is; there's no need to change terms for them."

Hearing his subordinate's report, Yang Yue's expression shifted, and he said with a gloomy scowl, "So they mean we can increase their screenings, but discussing any conditions is completely off the table, huh? Hmph, rookie directors nowadays are truly arrogant. He doesn't even want to think about the consequences of offending theater chains like ours." Yang Yue said angrily, falling silent for a moment afterward.

In truth, he knew that this time it was his own poor decision-making at fault. Earlier, the other side had approached him to negotiate, hoping to trade a slightly larger profit margin in exchange for more showtimes from his cinemas, but he had looked down on their film at the time and flat out rejected them. Who could have guessed that the movie would actually turn out to be a massive hit? This realization filled Yang Yue with exceptional anger.

What stung the most was that when he took the initiative to send someone back to reopen negotiations, the other party adopted an utterly indifferent take-it-or-leave-it attitude. How could Yang Yue, who had always been treated with politeness and deference by film directors and production companies, possibly stomach this? Even though the initial mistake was his own, he had already lowered himself to contact them first—how dared the other party treat him without basic courtesy? Did he not know that his Wanxing Cinemas was the third-largest theater chain in China?

Seeing his boss's gloomy face, the subordinate hesitated for a moment before blurting out, "Boss, should we still go ahead and increase the screenings for *SPL: Sha Po Lang*?"

Faced with his employee's question, Yang Yue sneered coldly, "Increase screenings? Why on earth would we increase screenings? Since they refuse to agree to my terms, why should I bother giving their movie more showtimes?

Just because the movie unexpectedly became a brief internet sensation, does he really think he's the box office champion of the month? Does he seriously think his film is the only one the public enjoys? Utterly ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. If I don't increase screenings for his film, and allocate them to other movies instead, will the money I earn be any less than what his would make?

Send out the notice: pull *SPL: Sha Po Lang* from our theaters immediately starting today. None of our cinemas will screen this movie anymore, and all time slots previously scheduled for it are to be replaced with Marvelous Hollywood's film."

Although the subordinate felt that his boss's arrangement was somewhat unwise, he didn't dare voice any objections. From his perspective, a theater business had no reason to turn its back on easy money.

Especially since their own side had been the ones to make outrageous demands first; it was completely normal for the other party to reject such unreasonable terms.

However, he certainly didn't dare utter such thoughts to his boss, so he simply muttered a submissive acknowledgment and retreated to carry out the orders.

Once his subordinate had left, Yang Yue muttered viciously to himself, "Since you refuse to give me any face, don't blame me for what comes next. I'll make sure you learn the consequences of doing this!"

Thus, with the exception of cinemas under the Wanxing Cinemas banner, all other theater chains began purposefully increasing their screening allocations for *SPL: Sha Po Lang*.

Driven by the increased showtimes and the continuous fermentation of positive word-of-mouth, the box office earnings of *SPL: Sha Po Lang* began to experience a rapid explosion. Following the box office statistics for the second day of the May Day holiday, *SPL: Sha Po Lang* surged past the monster movie *Abyssal Devourer*—which had grossed over sixty-two million—with a staggering daily box office of over seventy-six million. It climbed into fourth place on the monthly box office charts, sitting mere six million shy of the third-place animated film, *Cute Elves*, which grossed over eighty-two million. Overtaking that film to claim the third spot on the monthly charts was clearly only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the top two films at the box office, *Alien War* and *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*, had also unleashed their terrifying box office harvesting capabilities. Holding firmly onto the number one spot was still Marvelous Hollywood's *Alien War*, which successfully shattered the hundred-million barrier in a mere two days, soaring past one hundred and fifty million in box office revenue. The sheer magnitude of this figure could only be described as terrifying.

As for Zhang Qishan's *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*, although it also broke the hundred-million mark within two days, trailing closely behind *Alien War* with over one hundred and ten million, anyone could clearly see that a definitive gap had already opened up between the two films.

This phenomenon was entirely par for the course. Within the Chinese film market, the most ruthless box office harvesters remained foreign movies. This was a harsh reality that many Chinese filmmakers felt profoundly pessimistic about, yet had no choice but to accept. After all, when it came to producing commercial blockbusters, the domestic Chinese film industry truly lagged behind Marvelous Hollywood.

Right after the complete box office figures for the second day were released, Chen Jing took to Weibo late at night to launch another round of promotions. However, this time, what he promoted was no longer his own film *SPL: Sha Po Lang*, but rather Zhang Qishan's *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*.

"I strongly recommend Director Zhang Qishan's movie *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*. This is also the first film I ever acted in, so I hope everyone will give it plenty of support.

To celebrate, I'm running another event with you all here. For every five hundred million achieved in box office revenue by *Bloody Battle at Ancient Ridge*, I will randomly draw one lucky viewer from all the audiences who contributed to the film's box office, and gift them an original song written by me. Full ownership rights to this song will belong entirely to this viewer. You can sell it, sing it yourself, or give it away as a gift—whatever you choose.

There is no upper limit to this campaign. Everyone is warmly welcome to come support Director Zhang's movie!"

The moment Chen Jing's promotional Weibo post was published, it instantly sparked another massive frenzy among the public!