All-rounder Artist

Chapter 246: Chapter 230: The Core of Comedy is Tragedy__1

Upon leaving the chairman’s office, 01′ Zhou immediately made a call to Lin Yuan.

“Director.”

Lin Yuan answered 01′ Zhou’s call with his usual stable demeanor.

However, 01′ Zhou could no longer maintain his usual calmness when facing Lin Yuan, even though he had long since become accustomed to Lin Yuan’s attitude.

“You…”

01 Zhou had a lot of thoughts in his mind but found himself speechless when it came to voicing them.

What could he say?

“You’ve screwed me over?”

But he himself agreed to sell the movie rights.

He couldn’t blame Lin Yuan for this whole deal, he only underestimated “Flirting Scholar” and never took this movie seriously from the beginning.

“Here’s the thing.”

He said with a bitter smile, “About the company selling you the rights, you better not go around talking about it, save me, 01′ Zhou, some face.”

Lin Yuan replied, “But isn’t it something already known amongst many in the film department?”

01′ Zhou kept his bitter smile, “I will notify the company. The performance of ‘Flirting Scholar’ is very good, the company wants to take this opportunity to do some publicity…”

“Alright.”

Lin Yuan agreed.

Lin Yuan was grateful that the company sold the movie to him. Now that “Flirting Scholar” had made money, it would not be right for him to widely publicize it and show the company lacked foresight.

Lin Yuan knew these basic matters of human relationships.

After hanging up.

01’ Zhou suddenly laughed, but this time there was a hint of…

Expectation.

Wonder how the mainstream film industry will react?

Although both fields were about making films, the web films and traditional cinema were essentially different from each other.

The former was trivial, the latter was the mainstream in the market.

But when a web film with a budget less than ten million yielded over fifty million within a week of its release, even the cinema industry could not remain indifferent—

Why make a movie?

In any industry, even those formed around so-called art, over ninety-five percent of the crowd is there for money.

It’s not meant to be sarcastic, just to illustrate that it’s not just about the small land owned by web film industry or Starlight’s belated realization…

With the release of the first week’s box office results and the brewing heat of the movie, the terrifying money-making capability of “Flirting Scholar” began to emerge.

But this is just a beginning.

For both cinemas and web films, the first week is only a start, the second week is the true explosion!

Whoosh!

When the second week ended, the viewings of “Flirting Scholar” had already exceeded thirty million!

At that point.

The popularity of this film had spread across the entire network like some big-budget cinema films—

“This film is so, so, so, so hilarious! Please pardon my excitement, but this is really the funniest film I’ve ever watched!”

“Would you believe I have already watched this film three times?”

“Xian Yu’s thinking process simply amazed me. Besides being funny, there were also some enlightening points. This film is really adept at expressing some concepts in a popular way.”

“What I want to say is…recently the cockroaches in our house have been renamed Xiao Qiang.”

“I thought it would be a costume drama, but the dialogues are extremely modern… This is a costume film with modern colors. From a contemporary perspective, Tang Bohu is definitely a rich, handsome man, while Qiuxiang is a smart and gentle woman of the new era, although she is a maid, she is talent-packed.”

“I always thought the female lead Yu Xilu was just a pretty face, but after watching ‘Flirting Scholar’, I think she… is still a pretty face, but a useful one.”

Without a doubt.

The movie was a massive hit!

With the total count of on-demand viewership on both platforms reaching thirty million in the second week, the total profits of “Flirting Scholar” have reached a terrifying one and a half billion!

Yes, terrifying!

Not to mention there has never been a web film with such popularity in the history of web films, even amongst cinema films, a film with a budget of nine million garnering such results could be considered unimaginably successful!

At this point.

The mainstream film industry of Qi Continent, and the crowd of insiders who always had their eyes on cinemas were utterly shocked by the performance of this web film—

“It made fifty million in the first week of release?”

“Oh my God, is this the same online film I remember?”

“Only a budget of nine million? That return on investment really is a little terrifying.”

“Which company’s film is this, it’s so fierce?”

“It seems to be filmed by Starlight…”

“Pfft, Starlight had high hopes for ‘Thunderstorm’ but the performance was mediocre, yet an online film is skyrocketing in popularity?”

“A mere online film is making more than cinema!”

This is a miracle of leveraging small investments for huge returns.

But this miracle did not occur in the cinema, it bloomed from the online film industry!

After the merger of Qin and Qi.

There are many movie rating websites, including online films.

The most authoritative movie rating site of Qin Qi is called “Starlight Network”.

On Starlight Network.

A professional film critic has already posted a lengthy review of “Flirting Scholar”.

The title of this review is called: [This is a revolution about comedy!]

“A few days ago, a friend recommended me to watch ‘Flirting Scholar’. I was quite surprised, because this is the first time someone has seriously recommended an online film to me. It’s not that I look down on online films, but we have to admit that the quality of online films is uneven. Limited by the budget, there often aren’t many exceptional films…”

“But I still watched this film.”

“At the beginning, I didn’t hold too many expectations, I was merely curious as to why a friend, who is usually so selective, would highly recommend an online film. But after watching this film, I was ashamed of my ignorance and prejudice.”

“I’m not trying to hype it up, I genuinely believe that ‘Flirting Scholar’ is a revolution about comedy!”

“There’s no doubt that this film is classified as a comedy, but even comedies should be differentiated. We are familiar with styles such as black humor, physical comedy, and linguistic comedy, but this is the first time I’ve seen a comedy using gratuitous humor…”

“Gratuitous represents a Qi Continent dialect, meaning a little ridiculous but reasonable. I learned this word from a netizen in Qi Continent. I believe that this word is the most apt description, ‘Flirting Scholar’ is a gratuitous comedy!”

“In reality, we know there wouldn’t be a situation where everyone suddenly breaks into song during a conversation…No one would think of using a person as a brush for painting… No one would die for comparison of hardships…”

“But in ‘Flirting Scholar’, there are many scenes that seemingly make no sense or are absurdly hilarious, yet we can’t help but laugh till our stomachs hurt.” “This is gratuitous!”

“This is a brand new comedic device that every comedian, comedy scriptwriter, and even directors should study.”

“A calm persona suddenly behaving absurdly, seven-day life-insurance disperser, advertisements in the middle of a dialogue. If scenes like this occurred in a regular film, I might scold the director and scriptwriter one by one. However, when it appears in a gratuitous comedy film, I would only applaud and laugh till I choked…”

“This is a period piece, yet I see an ingenious postmodern deconstruction!”

“I can boldly predict that in the future, many comedies can consider this direction for development. Comedies can not only conform to old models but also adapt the pattern of ‘Flirting Scholar’. I believe the audience will love it!”

“Lastly, I want to mention Xian Yu.”

“It’s hard to imagine that the scriptwriter of ‘Flirting Scholar’ is a composer and a very excellent one at that. I’m a semi-fan of Xian Yu, I’ve listened to his songs and I have a deep admiration for his talent. However, I didn’t expect that he also has screenwriting talent. You have to know that this film doesn’t just contain comedic elements, but also poetic and cultural ones. I am sure that all the poetry in this film was originally composed by the scriptwriter because I searched the entire internet and could not find any of the same lines…”

“Others laugh at me being mad, I laugh at others not seeing through.”

“I started to think that perhaps Tang Bohu is a projection of Xian Yu’s inner self. ‘Flirting Scholar’ might not only be a comedy but also carries a tragic core. For instance, at the end of the film that many might have overlooked, Aquarius invited Tang Bohu to play Pai Gow on the day she marries Tang Bohu. So, who really is the Aquarius that Tang Bohu likes? Is it the Aquarius he imagines or is it the ordinary woman in front of him who’s just like his previous wives…”

This analysis may not be comprehensive.

But the content indeed cuts through some features of ‘Flirting Scholar’, and it also provokes thought among audiences who have watched this film.

Therefore, as soon as this film review was published, it quickly sparked numerous discussions among netizens.

“I also want to say, the ending of the movie felt a bit ironic. I don’t know if the screenwriter only wanted to create humor, or was there a deeper meaning?”

“If you look at how Aquarius treats Tang Bohu, it’s more accurate to say she admires Tang Bohu’s talent rather than likes him. She developed such strong infatuation before even meeting him, isn’t that similar to current star-chasing culture?”

“The film critic is right, to view the movie as more than a pure comedy is the right mindset. The scene where they compare hardships is funny, but if you think about it, doesn’t that segment remind you of a talent show scenario? The contestants try to sell their hardships to gain sympathy from the audience, but it seems like they are not here to showcase their talent, but to show how strong they are.”

“Tang Bohu couldn’t stand being at home so he messed around with the Four Scholars of Jiangnan outside. So, logically these friends should be Tang Bohu’s true friends, right? But then a plotline immediately overturns this view – Zhu Zhishan asked Tang Bohu for a painting to pay off his debt.”

“Think about it carefully.”

“The martial arts scholar painted a picture of Sister Pomegranate, all the house servants said it looked good, then after saying that they threw up. It’s simultaneously funny and sad.”

“Damn, hearing what you said, I even started to question whether I’ve watched this movie.”

“What does ‘thinly thinking is horrifying’ mean?”

“I’m sorry, I was too busy laughing.”

“So, is ‘Flirting Scholar’ actually a tragedy?”

“We all received nine years of compulsory education, but why are you so outstanding that you were able to find so much detail in a comedy?”

The netizens were shocked. Many people even specially re-watched ‘Flirting Scholar’ due to the discussions.

As a result, upon rewatching…

Even more movie details were found!