Chapter 216 Domineering leakage
"In the fourth year of Zhizheng [1344], the Yellow River burst its banks on a large scale, followed by drought, locust plagues, and epidemics..."
7 month 3 number.
The crew rested very early, firstly because at 8 o'clock in the evening, "Zhu Yuanzhang" starring Xu Kun would be officially broadcast on Beijing Satellite TV; secondly, because Jiang Yiyan came to visit the set.
Yes, she had just told Qin Lan that she was too busy to come, thus luring Qin Lan into her trap, and then she ran to Xu Kun to take credit for it.
At this time, a pair of adults were lying naked on the bed, chatting and watching TV series.
Be it the Iron Pot Emperor's debauchery and tyranny, or the dilapidated village being collected by cruel officials for taxes and grain and seeds, or a group of children who were so hungry that they roasted and ate the landlord's cow, none of them attracted Jiang Yiyan's attention.
Until the five or six-year-old child came running over and yelled, "Brother Chongba, it's bad, your mother is dead!"
Zhu Chongba, whose head had just been smashed by the landlord's hoe, retorted with blood all over his face: "Nonsense, my mother was fine this morning!"
The child immediately changed his words: "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe your father is dead."
Seeing this, Jiang Yiyan couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Isn't this kid's words too mean?"
Xu Kun did not answer, but straightened her head and asked her to continue looking down.
On TV, Zhu Yuanzhang hurried back home and saw that his mother had starved to death in bed, and his father's body was hanging on the beam.
As Zhu Yuanzhang slowly knelt down while holding the door, a colorful family tree emerged from the screen. Then, with a cold voice-over, the colorful portraits gradually dimmed.
After burying their parents, Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother thought about going to live with their eldest uncle. However, when they arrived at their eldest uncle's house, they found that of the thirteen people in their uncle's family, only their cousin was left.
As for Zhu Yuanzhang, his eldest sister's family and his third brother's family all died. His second sister married far away in her early years and her whereabouts are unknown, so she is probably dead as well.
After the eldest brother starved to death, the eldest sister-in-law took her nephew Lu'er [Zhu Wenzhen] back to her parents' home.
Finally, the second elder brother Zhu Chongliu and Zhu Chongba decided that if they stayed together they would only die, while if they fled separately they might have a chance to survive. So they hugged each other and cried, then each set out on their own journey to escape.
Not long after, my second brother and his family of three also died on the road.
Including his grandfather Zhu Chuyi, the entire family had a total of thirty-four people in four generations. However, under the rule of Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty, thirty of them died in just a few years, leaving only the underage Zhu Chongba and his nephew Zhu Lu'er as male descendants.
After reading this section about the family tree, Jiang Yiyan, who had not paid any attention to the TV series, was also stunned.
"Was Zhu Yuanzhang so miserable when he was a child?"
"That's how miserable he was. He started out as an orphan, born a beggar, expelled the Tartars, and restored China. That's why many people say he was the most righteous emperor in history."
This night.
Countless people have expressed similar sentiments. Many people feel that the previous scenes reflecting the tragic scenes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty are mediocre. After all, many TV dramas have shown similar scenes.
Many people were even amused by the child with honey on his lips.
It was not until the color of the family tree gradually faded with the explanation, and only four colorful portraits remained from four generations, that an unprecedented sense of sadness swept the hearts of all the audience.
This is just a simple fine brush painting, but it is more straightforward and shocking than any picture of a thousand miles of starving corpses.
The next day, this family tree sparked heated discussions both offline and online, and also kept the ratings of "Zhu Yuanzhang" high, smoothly getting through the slightly disappointing plot in the early stages.
When the show was about 20 episodes old, discussions about the plot and Xu Kun's acting skills began to increase.
It is not unusual to play the loyal and righteous Zhu Yuanzhang in his youth, but it is not something that ordinary young actors can do to portray the emperor after he ascends the throne.
At first, there were sporadic voices praising Xu Kun's acting skills on the Internet. As the plot continued to deepen, the praise gradually expanded and spread to offline media.
When Zhu Yuanzhang lost his wife and son and officially entered his old age, even major film review magazines came out to comment. Film Art published a review praising Xu Kun's Zhu Yuanzhang: He had the spirit of a hero when he was young, the spirit of an emperor when he was middle-aged, and the spirit of a tyrant when he was old, and the three spirits were integrated into one, which was natural.
The Film Handbook compared it with CCTV's opening drama of the year, "The Emperor Wu of Han", and believed that "Han" started strong but ended weak, becoming more and more dragged out and tedious as the show progressed; whereas "Zhu" was on the rise all the way, and became more and more heroic as the show progressed.
"Global Screen" stated more bluntly: Xu Kun, born in the 80s, defeated Chen Baoguo, born in the 50s. Even Huang Xiaoming, who is also famous for interpreting the life of an emperor, pales in comparison to Zhu Yuanzhang played by Xu Kun.
"Watching Movies" lamented: Xu Kun's performance in the last few episodes of "Zhu Yuanzhang" was like being possessed by the soul of a man in his fifties or sixties.
On July 7, the deputy director of Beijing Satellite TV called Xu Kun to report the good news, saying that the average viewership was 27%, and the finale even had a viewership of , breaking the highest record of Beijing Satellite TV in recent years.
Although there is still a big gap compared with the of CCTV's opening drama of the year "The Emperor of Han Wu", considering the parity of the two platforms and the other party's super luxurious cast, the of "Zhu Yuanzhang" is obviously more valuable.
As of the end of July, based on the average ratings, "Zhu Yuanzhang" is temporarily ranked fifth. The top four are "The Emperor of Han Wu", "Home with Kids", "The Inspector General of the Song Dynasty" and "The World's Number One".
According to past experience, there will be two or three blockbuster movies in the remaining four months, but no matter what, "Zhu Yuanzhang" will still occupy a place in the top ten.
This is undoubtedly a step up from "Heroes of Heavenly Sword".
Moreover, the reason why "Heavenly Sword" became so popular was inseparable from the strategy of strongly integrating it with "The Chinese Paladin" - by the way, because Tangren focused on local TV stations, "The Chinese Paladin" was still very popular in 05, while "Heavenly Sword" was far behind in this regard.
The promotion of "Zhu Yuanzhang" was very disciplined and there was no trickery involved. The reason why it continued to be so popular was entirely due to the "family tree chart" in the early stages, and purely due to Xu Kun's acting skills in the later stages.
In late July, a GIF of Xu Kun brushing away thorns was widely circulated with the words "kingly and domineering spirit". Later, as it was spread, it interacted with the Always commercial and was changed to look domineering.
This word was originally created by Deyun Club in 03, but after August 05, it became an exclusive adjective for Xu Kun.
This is just like the origin of "Believe in Brother Chun and you will have eternal life", which changed from Chen Xiaochun to Li Yuchun, which shows how popular Xu is this summer.
Many media and online forums believe that Xu Kun's acting skills are fully qualified to be ranked among the top four young actors, and they are arguing over who he should replace.
However, if we put aside the acting skills and only calculate the ratings, even the best drama in the first half of this year, "The Emperor of Han Wu", is far inferior to the famous works of the four young actors.
After all, ratings have been declining year by year. The era when a drama like "My Fair Princess" occupied half of the market is long gone.
During the period when the TV series was popular, Lao Baigan also benefited greatly from it.
Although the performance of "Heavenly Sword" last year was not bad, its offline discussion was far less than that of "Zhu Yuanzhang". What's more, the former mainly attracted young people, while the latter has a large number of middle-aged fans.
As we all know, middle-aged people are the main force of liquor consumption.
So the leaders of the winery were both happy and regretful. They were afraid that their refusal to invest in "The Boss" would offend Xu Kun. With only a few episodes left to air, they hurriedly sent a vice president to Beijing to sign an advertising endorsement contract with Xu Kun.
The scenes of people throwing money at others in TV dramas are fake, but the scenes of people throwing money at others in the winery are real.
The advertising fee was one million, and the endorsement fee was three million for two years. The money was directly deposited into Xu Kun’s account after he signed the contract. In just a cup of tea, Xu Kun’s total assets exceeded the seven million mark.
It is said that all actors want to be famous. As long as they become famous, money will come like the wind.
However, this time, Hushubao dare not ask Xu Kun to shoot the advertisement again. A "domineering leak" has pitted them badly, and even the official had to come out to refute the rumor:
What is leaking is Mr. Xu's arrogance, and it has nothing to do with our sanitary napkins.
7 month 28 number.
The very next day after the deputy director of Beijing Taiwan personally called to congratulate Xu Kun, Wang Zhonglei also rushed to the crew in the name of visiting the set.
[PS: The ratings you can find online are too confusing, and different statistical methods contradict each other. Just take a look at the rankings and don't take them too seriously.]
(End of this chapter)
