Famous! Ch.152

Chapter 152: The Leading Male Protagonist

To some extent, Lu Xu’s interview lacked substantial content. However, when Mu Lang spoke, he effectively put Zhao Yifan in a tough spot.

Perhaps Zhao Yifan had genuinely tried his best, but from the perspective of the director and the Reverse City production team, his efforts were meaningless. His interpretation of the role was still off, failing to meet the crew’s expectations.

Moreover…

[Does anyone really think Zhao Yifan acted better than Lu Xu? I’m just an average moviegoer who watches films for entertainment, but to me, Zhao Yifan’s performance in Reverse City was far weaker than Lu Xu’s. Maybe I just have bad taste, but I simply can’t convince myself otherwise.]

[I feel the same… Especially in the scenes where he acted alongside Lu Xu. I wouldn’t say he acted badly, but his character just came across as weak.]

[Maybe it was necessary for the plot?]

[According to Mu Lang, Reverse City is currently in its most balanced state. I guess a lot of Zhao Yifan’s scenes were indeed cut, but anyone who has watched the film can tell that Reverse City is an intense movie, and Zhao Yifan’s performance felt somewhat bland in comparison.]

Most of those who defended Zhao Yifan were his fans. For the general audience, unless an actor’s screen time was reduced to the point of affecting the viewing experience, they didn’t really care who had more or fewer scenes.

Zhao Yifan had initially gained some sympathy as a struggling actor, but after people learned that he had NG’d a staggering 20 times, that sympathy naturally faded.

After all, Zhao Yifan still had the option of skipping Reverse City’s promotional events, whereas ordinary workers didn’t even have the right to choose.

[The lead actor can refuse to work, but everyone else still has to show up on time. That’s the reality of the production crew.]

Once their sympathy for Zhao Yifan wore off, the audience’s focus naturally shifted back to the movie itself.

No matter how much Zhao Yifan felt wronged, if his performance in the film had been stronger and more outstanding than the other actors, the audience would have naturally supported him. However, that simply wasn’t the case.

[First, he badmouthed Lu Xu, and then he underperformed on set. If I were the director, I’d have issues with him too.]

[Apparently… Reverse City originally had a different ending, but Zhao Yifan couldn’t carry the story, and since Mu Lang likes to make changes as he films, the final version ended up like this.]

The once overwhelmingly pro-Zhao Yifan public opinion had finally shifted in favor of the Reverse City production team.

For the crew, Zhao Yifan’s and Enne Entertainment’s smear campaign wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—since its release, Reverse City hadn’t attracted much attention, but in the past few days, interest in the movie had noticeably increased.

After all, at its core, the conflict between Zhao Yifan and the production team was really about his and Lu Xu’s screen time. As the debate continued, Reverse City’s plot was gradually dissected in front of the audience.

Previously, although there had been a lot of discussion around Reverse City, the audience’s perception of the film remained vague and unclear.

Despite Lu Xu’s participation and Mu Lang’s track record of well-received films, many viewers had hesitated to watch it, fearing it would be too heavy or that the ending would be overly bleak.

But now, at the very least, audiences had gained a better understanding of Reverse City’s storyline—it was simply an unconventional film where justice did not triumph over evil.

Although the protagonist, Ji Chongyang, was ultimately assimilated, the director had hinted at this outcome in the first half of the film.

Ji Chongyang was never a hero—Mu Lang had never framed him as one.

Likewise, Lu Xu delivered an extraordinary portrayal of a villain in the movie.

[Although Reverse City isn’t a story about salvation, the plot is actually really exciting!]

[Agreed! The storyline isn’t just pretending to be deep!]

[Honestly… even if you’re just watching for the actors’ looks, it’s totally worth it.]

As discussions grew, more and more movie reviews started surfacing.

Critics approached Reverse City from different angles, each focusing on distinct aspects of the film, collectively providing the audience with a well-rounded introduction to the movie.

One reviewer, in an article titled ‘How Ji Chongyang Could Have Escaped’, analyzed the key characters Ji Chongyang encountered throughout the film and examined their different roles within the gang’s hierarchy.

Even the fact that Ji Chongyang didn’t die became a topic of analysis.

[From the very beginning, Ji Chongyang was treated as nothing more than a toy for the gang’s leaders. This leads me to a bold assumption—he was likely not the first. The characters he met along the way, like Brother Cha and Brother Wei… perhaps they too had once been players in the game, only to be assimilated after reaching its final stage, just like Ji Chongyang at the end.]

[Look at Ji Chongyang’s final expression… Now, let’s rewind and examine the expressions of the characters introduced earlier in the movie. Don’t they seem eerily similar?]

[I can even imagine a possibility—the film’s villain, the final boss who took on the form of Luo Ying, may have once been a player in this twisted game. There are subtle clues throughout the film that hint at this…]

Meanwhile, film bloggers focused on portraying the dark world that Reverse City had built.

[The reason Reverse City had such a high production cost is that Mu Lang created a world entirely separate from reality. This world has its own rules, its own unique architecture and culture. The characters in the movie—one could even call them NPCs—each display fixed behavioral patterns, further reinforcing the idea that this world operates by its own logic…]

The film blogger analyzed the movie in great detail, going so far as to set aside the main characters and focus solely on the elements that transcended human presence. In his view, Reverse City seemed out of place in the current film market, yet it fully showcased Mu Lang’s ambition as a director.

In fact—one could even say that, to some extent, Reverse City held the key to breaking the monotony of today’s film industry.

Two or three days after its release, Reverse City’s box office performance was still far from astonishing. Strangely, though, it maintained a steady number around 80 million yuan. While it hadn’t surpassed the 100-million mark, it also hadn’t experienced drastic fluctuations. After three days, its cumulative box office revenue had reached 250 million yuan.

With the added push from film reviews and word-of-mouth from those who had already seen it, something unexpected happened on Monday, the fourth day after release—the movie’s daily box office saw a small rebound, climbing to 120 million yuan.

Reverse City was an unconventional drama infused with elements that seemed obscure at first glance. Even critics like Wang Ying, who had attended the premiere, believed that Reverse City had strong potential for awards recognition but would struggle to break through at the box office.

Moreover, there had been rumors of on-set conflicts between Zhao Yifan and Lu Xu during filming, and right after the movie’s release, Zhao Yifan had publicly stirred up trouble. These factors all worked against the movie’s commercial success.

And yet—the 120-million-yuan box office figure on the charts was real.

[Lu Xu’s box office numbers really seem to follow a logic that’s hard to grasp.]

[This box office trend… is truly bizarre.]

[…Forget it, whatever. On the day of Reverse City’s premiere, the X-ticketing platform predicted a total box office of 500 million yuan, which was much lower than Sanzu River. But now, they’ve been adjusting their projections every single day. I bet even the platform is confused at this point.]

[This is hilarious. With just 80 million on the first day, of course the platform couldn’t predict anything higher. But who would’ve thought that in three days, it would surpass half of that prediction? Now it’s been four days, and it’s already closing in on 500 million.]

Fans collectively referred to these inexplicable box office trends as “Lu Xu’s Metaphysics.”

…

After Reverse City was released, Lu Xu attended every roadshow event held near the set of Fearless Life. Once filming wrapped up for the day, as long as he didn’t have night scenes, he would immediately head to a theater. Sometimes, he wouldn’t finish until the middle of the night, only to resume shooting early the next morning.

The media attributed the movie’s unexpected box office growth to Lu Xu’s promotional efforts, and he accepted the credit without hesitation.

Zhao Yifan, on the other hand, participated in a few Reverse City events afterward, but his expression always seemed reluctant and unwilling.

Lu Xu occasionally wondered if Zhao Yifan secretly didn’t want Reverse City to do well at the box office.

To his doubts, Xu Wen simply responded, “This is just the beginning. Give it some time and see.”

As it turned out, Xu Wen’s prediction was even more accurate than Lu Xu had expected.

Because Reverse City’s box office was growing at a pace far beyond industry expectations—faster and more inexplicable than anyone had anticipated.

After the film’s daily revenue hit 120 million, major ticketing platforms promptly revised their box office forecasts. The most conservative platform raised its projection for Reverse City to 800 million, while the highest estimate reached 1.2 billion.

Judging purely by Reverse City’s content, such projections were reasonable.

However, after the day Reverse City broke the 100-million mark, something even more unexpected happened—the following day, its box office still held steady at 120 million.

In the film industry, Tuesdays were notoriously poor for box office performance. And yet, Reverse City managed to pull off an astonishing result.

A major ticketing platform analyzed the audience demographics of Reverse City and found that 70% of its viewers were under 30 years old.

What was even more surprising was the way these young viewers described the film. The most frequently used word in their reviews was “trendy.”

The setting was considered trendy—so much so that both the world-building and the game mechanics didn’t seem like they came from an old-school director like Mu Lang.

As for the slightly less-than-perfect ending, it was well within the younger audience’s acceptable range and even became a topic of discussion.

By that Tuesday, five days after release, Reverse City’s total box office had reached 490 million yuan, just a step away from crossing the 500 million mark.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the movie continued to deliver impressive numbers. Then, after the production team released a series of spin-off shorts, the box office officially broke the 700 million threshold.

That Friday, new films were scheduled for release. However, despite the competition, Reverse City maintained an average daily revenue of around 80 million in its second week.

With no other choice, major ticketing platforms had to revise their projections once again—1 billion was obviously too low, and even 1.5 billion… might still be too conservative.

Some film critics commented, [Lu Xu’s box office numbers may not be as shocking as 3 or 4 billion, but they remain steady and solid. With a production budget of 320 million, Reverse City still has room for profit growth.]

Xu Wen’s prediction was confirmed on the day Reverse City officially crossed the 1-billion mark.

On that same day, multiple marketing accounts flooded social media with a unified narrative—Reverse City, directed by Mu Lang and starring Zhao Yifan, had exceeded all box office expectations…

Seeing this, Zhao Yifan finally started acknowledging Reverse City on his Weibo account.

When Zhao Yifan suddenly began frequently sharing behind-the-scenes clips from the official film account, the social media manager was momentarily stunned. They immediately reported the situation to Mu Lang.

Mu Lang: “…”

The director was speechless.

During an interview, Zhao Yifan graciously stated that although there had been conflicts between him and the production team, as the lead actor, he felt proud of Reverse City’s box office success.

Yes—despite not participating in promotions, not being valued by director Mu Lang, and not getting along with his co-star Lu Xu, none of that changed the fact that Reverse City’s achievements included him.

No matter what, he was the male lead of Reverse City.

If the movie had flopped and failed to cross 1 billion, he would have pretended he had never starred in it.

At 500 million, he could still act indifferent, though his stance had already begun to shift.

At 800 million, he could acknowledge that the film’s success was partly due to him.

And if it surpassed 1 billion—then he was undeniably the true lead of the film.

Besides, Reverse City’s box office was clearly going to keep rising beyond 1 billion.

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