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Zhu Yilong, is he going to save domestic romance films?

After winning both the Hundred Flowers and Golden Rooster Awards for Best Actor with "Life Events", Zhu Yilong has undoubtedly secured his position as one of the top young actors in Chinese films, with both box office acclaim and good reputation.

Although he became famous for his role in the TV series "Knowing Your Destiny", Zhu Yilong has never stopped exploring the path of being an actor.

And when he returned to the summer season, Zhu Yilong made another bold move after playing a scumbag in last year's "The Vanishing Him".

On August 10, the Chinese Valentine's Day, the film "Negatives Make Positives", which he produced and starred in, started at 9 a.m. and officially premiered for one hour. Including pre-sales, it has already grossed over 22 million yuan. Maoyan predicts that the total box office will reach 189 million yuan.

Word of mouth exploded.

Someone commented in Douban's short review section, "It's been a long time since I've seen such a high-quality love movie in the cinema."

Others said, "This is my favorite love movie in the past decade. It deconstructs love, deconstructs life, and also deconstructs the movie itself."

It’s been a long time since a domestic romance film was collectively praised by the audience.

Don't forget, during the last Chinese Valentine's Day, three romance films including "Burning Winter" were released, with a total box office of just over 80 million, which is not as good as the single-day box office of "All or Nothing".

To put it bluntly, audiences have been deceived too many times by domestic romance films.

Originally, going to the cinema on a specific date with specific people was a very ritualistic thing. But one after another of the melodramatic love movies made the audiences tired.

If we want to regain our confidence in domestic love, we cannot do so by simply repeating mediocrity.

When Zhu Yilong's fantasy romance film, which has no melodrama and no third party, but is a mashup of "The Warmth of the Inner Light" + "The Instant Universe" + Wong Kar-wai's style, comes out, is it enough to save the Chinese love story whose reputation is in jeopardy?

After watching the 100-minute movie, the film also answered our three major questions about the film and the leading actor Zhu Yilong.

Now that the chess piece has been placed, I dare say: "Negatives Make Positives" may really open another door for domestic romance films.

1. Transforming into Tony Leung Chiu-wai, "transforming" into Bruce Lee, and "blue-haired" Zhu Yilong, is he going to do something so big this time?

Zhu Yilong is very different this time.

He is not the confused young man Mo Sanmei in "Life Events", nor is he the inhumane scumbag in "When She Disappears", but a directly transformed blue-haired urban social animal.

There are many characters in the movie that are eye-catching.

There is Zhu Zhu, a rich, leisurely, beautiful and radiant urban lady. One look from her is enough to make people unable to resist.

There is Jiang Qiming who plays a gentle and infatuated man. His scene of comforting a girl imitating Chaplin's style is heart-warming.

Of course, there is also the heroine Qiu Tian, ​​who plays Li Xiaole, who seems cheerful and free and easy, but she also has her own deepest loneliness: "Once people understand a person, they will hate each other..." "Without turning on the lights, we can go anywhere."

There’s even a special guest appearance by Wang Yitong who plays an alien director.

But Zhu Yilong's Huang Zhenkai, who can see aliens, is still very eye-catching, with three main characteristics:ruthlessHandsome, restrained, and exciting.

First of all, he is handsome enough.

From the moment he appeared in the movie, this man, who lived a boring, routine life but was infected by his mysterious roommate Li Xiaole (played by Qiu Tian), deeply attracted me with his blue hair.

The light on his face was half bright and half dark, coupled with his long eyelashes and warm eyes, you could feel his full emotions through the screen.

Compared to the introverted male lead, the female lead looks like a mysterious little wild cat. When the director uses close-ups to put two beautiful faces on the screen again and again, the audience cannot ignore the breathtaking beauty.

Secondly, he is quite reserved.

Zhu Yilong’s performance in the film reminded me of the restrained and affectionate Tony Leung in “Chungking Express”.

Zhu Yilong probably didn't imitate deliberately, but the similar temperament of the two films made Zhu Yilong's performance style similar to that of Tony Leung.

At the beginning of the film, Zhu Yilong's face didn't show much expression, and he had the kind of loneliness that comes from being a numb urbanite who dares not love.

When Qiu Tian's Li Xiaole appeared, more and more emotions appeared in Zhu Yilong's expression.

It was not until Li Xiaole suddenly disappeared one day that Huang Zhenkai truly realized how important she was to him. As he missed her again and again, Zhu Yilong's emotions became more and more passionate.

At the end of the film, when he saw Li Xiaole again, his disbelief at first turned into a drastic change in his eyes. Zhu Yilong's performance reminded me of Tony Leung's performance at his peak: one look seemed to speak a thousand words.

Besides, he is very exciting.

Many people noticed in the trailer that Zhu Yilong will pay tribute to a kung fu superstar in this film: Bruce Lee.

In fact, the scene in the film where the hero beats up the aliens from Galaxy Pictures is also an absolute highlight. Zhu Yilong's eyes are as sharp as torches, and his series of movements are done in one go, one punch after another. Zhu Yilong looks really handsome when practicing kung fu!

It even made me start to wonder when Zhu Yilong will make a fashion action movie? He does have the potential, and the contrast between the roles is amazing.

At the end of the film, there are a bunch of accusations from aliens: he didn't act according to the script and beat us up.

It has an even more hilarious effect.

These three attributes put together make this blue-haired urban man more complex and more charming. It is rare to see an image like Zhu Yilong on the big screen.

This sense of freshness is a powerful weapon for Zhu Yilong to break the deadlock.

2. The viewing experience is novel enough, a love story based on a radically adapted alien script, what is the producer Zhu Yilong planning?

The characters are quite innovative, but what about the story?

I have to say that as the producer, Zhu Yilong has been holding back a lot.

The film's producer and director are of great importance.

Director Wen Shipei was nominated for the Cannes Golden Camera Award (First Director Award). His first film was Peng Yuyan's "Tropical Memories", which is his second feature film.

The producer is Ning Hao.

There is a sentence in the Douban review of the movie: "It's niche and crazy enough, but it seems that there is a magic potion of love that can save the world. It can break all scripts and aliens. It should be quite interesting."

In a word, the viewing experience is unprecedented in domestic romance films.

In fact, this is also the theme of "Negatives Make Positives".

First of all, the story is new enough.

The most fantastic plot of the film is that the male protagonist lives in the script given to him by the aliens from the beginning. And the female protagonist Li Xiaole can see the aliens who have been surrounding Huang Zhenkai.

So their love, from the very beginning, was a well-organized drama in the eyes of aliens.

From this, we can see that the director used a science fiction story to tell a Wong Kar-wai Chungking Express-style love story.

The story is full of all kinds of fantasy.

For example, my favorite plot is the one where the male and female protagonists enter each other’s childhood during their conversation.

The heroine's childhood was full of misery. She thought her father had special abilities, but in fact he relied on fraud and deception. One day, he suddenly disappeared without saying goodbye. She then realized that her father's superpower was to disappear suddenly. From then on, she was afraid of intimacy.

However, the male protagonist's reaction after knowing this was not to preach, but to go back to the female protagonist's childhood and accompany her through it all.

The movie is not a tired campus romance, nor is it a soft sci-fi romance that plays with "time travel", nor is it a melodramatic youth romance that will make you cry. Instead, it uses science fiction to tell a story of gain and loss in love.

From the time Huang Zhenkai met Li Xiaole to the time he lost her, he began to look for her, got to know her, truly fell in love with her, and finally met her again.

Finally, they broke away from the fate script and came together in the misaligned time and space.

Love, aliens, Galaxy Pictures, fateful scripts, urban social animals, and original families, these elements are stacked together, and the flavor of science fiction romance comes up immediately.

Especially in the second half, Huang Zhenkai traveled through the movie time and space and said to Galaxy Pictures: "When I came to this world, they asked me what script I wanted, and I told them that I just wanted to improvise."

Enjoyable.

Second, the director’s techniques are quite innovative.

Audiences who have watched "Tropical Past" know that this is not an ordinary director.

The film style of "Negatives Make Positive" reminds people of Wong Kar-wai.

The color tone, composition and editing are all very dreamy and lively. In the camera, the blue-haired Zhu Yilong is a numb worker who rushes between gray buildings during the day, and the red-haired Qiu Tian is a looming elf who shuttles through the neon city every night.

With the changes in light and dark, warm and cold tones, the time and space of the film are completely disrupted, full of mystery and fantasy, making the whole movie like a flowing audio-visual feast, just like the sweetness and fickleness of love.

Finally, the genre is unprecedented.

It is difficult to summarize the genre of "Negatives Make Positives". The film has the black humor of producer Ning Hao, the tension of love between urban men and women, wild imagination, Chaplin, aliens, many laughs and a touch of sadness. Several elements are mixed together, giving a mental state of being in a relationship.

In the end, the male protagonist uncovered the alien's script and rewrote the ending of his love with Qiu Tian, ​​but is all this real or just Huang Zhenkai's fantasy?

I can only say that the whole movie is like a glass of cocktail on the summer beach, a little tipsy, a little sweet, and a little enjoyable.

After drinking it, people also want to have a love affair that is not based on the alien script.

3. Subverting his image and making a bold attempt, this time Zhu Yilong is really going to save the domestic romance film

Zhu Yilong has always been regarded as a box office magic potion.

From "Life Events" to "The Mistake by the River" to "The Vanishing Lady", almost all of Zhu Yilong's movies have the magic that makes people go to the cinema.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just take the data from recent years.

In the summer of 2023, "She Was Missing" grossed 3.5 billion yuan at the box office.

The 2022 "Life Events" is a feature film, which achieved an extremely high box office of 1.7 billion.

Even an art film like "A Mistake by the River" still managed to gross 309 million yuan at the box office.

But this time Zhu Yilong faces new challenges.

It's not just because the box office of domestic romance films is declining, young men and women are increasingly unwilling to waste their money on a bad movie on Valentine's Day.

Moreover, even when watching a romance movie, mainstream audiences will choose a certain type of love: romantic, beautiful, funny or tear-jerking.

Otherwise, you can choose a more current and topical movie for your date.

However, "Negatives Make Positives" is a completely unconventional love film.

Audiences who like the film will be intoxicated and feel it is a wild and imaginative idea, while those who don't like it will find it pretentious and even feel uncomfortable.

To put it bluntly, audiences treat domestic films the same way modern people treat love.

We crave change and yet we fear it.

I don't want things to remain unchanged, but I'm also used to the fact that love always has to follow a routine and rules. Once the rules are broken, I'll become allergic to love.

But Zhu Yilong made "Negatives Make Positive" to tell you that love doesn't have so many logics, desires can also be very direct and beautiful, and so can movies.

What kind of romance movie do we really need?

Perhaps, what kind of love do we need: a tearful one? A sweet one?

In fact, these are just appearances of love.

Many people like Zhu Zhu's words in the movie:How can one live alone and yet not feel lonely?

The answer is: Don’t be trapped by love, but always maintain the ability to love, find it, protect it, and love him (her).

A good movie is like a love story. It would be boring if it didn't go beyond the line.

"Negatives Make Positive" wants to shoot something different, using wild imagination to get into the hearts of the audience.

I can't say if it's right for you, because everyone's love is different.

But Zhu Yilong, who dares to be different, has already embarked on another path as a Chinese male actor.

As for true love and romance films, there is actually no standard answer. Just love if you love, no matter what the script is.