"Have you heard the story of Zhou Chu getting rid of the three evils? Everyone only remembers Zhou Chu, and no one will remember who the two people Zhou Chu got rid of are. Therefore, Zhou Chu is the valuable person, and everyone will remember it. Him."
- excerpted from the lines spoken by Ethan Juan in the movie " Weeks to Eliminate Three Evils".
In the past week, there has been news that no new films have been scheduled for release in the local film market. However, there have been two high-profile films approved.
The first one is Jiang Wen's "Heroes Are Young", which is a musical drama film. This is also the time after "", Jiang Wen, who has been silent for many years, is finally coming out.
Another one is "Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant" by Shen Teng . The main creative director is Wen Muye, who created the popular film "I'm Not the God of Medicine". The original star was Xu Zheng, but for some reason it was replaced by Shen Teng. This film has the potential to be a box office hit.
has returned to mainland theaters. Last week, a fierce action movie came out. This is "The Three Evils" starring Ethan Ruan. This film has been put into production on a large scale. I believe many movie fans have already seen it. .
So, how is the quality of this video? Will it be a hit at the box office? In addition to the main film, what else are there to see around it? For these questions, Brother Fei will take you to find out.
1. Box office.
After the fifteenth day, this "year" is finally over. The popularity of the Spring Festival stalls has begun to gradually dissipate, and the market is about to return to its regular schedule.
The mainland box office rankings for the 9th week of 2024 (February 26 to March 2) are newly released. The market has sold a total of 790 million, a sharp drop of nearly 60% from the 8th week.
A total of four movies exceeded 100 million at the box office last week, namely " Article 20 ", "Flying Life 2", "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" and " Hot and Hot ".
"The Three Evils of Weekly" advanced into the top three, and the weekly box office rankings have undergone significant changes. The top three are no longer reserved for the Spring Festival.
In terms of new films, the re-released version of "Oppenheimer" and Zhang Jin's martial arts film "The Stranger" missed the top ten and became "cannon fodder" films during the schedule.
Ranked tenth is the imported film "Spider-Man: Awakening", which only took in 4.52 million at the box office in the first three days. The predicted box office is only 7.5 million. This US$80 million Hollywood superhero blockbuster will suffer a total loss. .
In order to provide a better viewing experience for "Dune 2", which will be released on March 8, we specially re-screened the first "Dune". It ranked eighth last week and the performance was quite satisfactory. This mainland re-screening can at least win some awards. 13 million.
The suspenseful comedy "The Killing" starring Jia Bing, Yu Entai and Jiang Mengjie took in 6.56 million in its first weekend, ranking sixth. The promotion and distribution work of this film was average, and there was no screening process, so there were very few films available. There are few, so the box office performance is not ideal, which is expected.
The script structure of "The Killing" is almost the same as that of "Famous". They both imitate the script of the reality show "Celebrity Detective". The producer, like the crew of "Hunting Ice", exposed the "low cost" in every aspect. "Mark of.
"The Three Evils" won the runner-up, and with Netflix's streaming resources flying all over the sky, the film's mainland box office actually showed a reversal of decline, becoming the strongest new film in the late Spring Festival period.
"Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" grossed 130 million in its first week, advancing into the top three. earned 18.11 million on its first day of release on Friday, 48.43 million on Saturday, and fell again to 48.52 million on Sunday, directly copying and counterattacking the box office trend of "Article 20".
The most outstanding thing about this film is that it dropped Jia Ling 's new film "Hot and Spicy" at the weekly box office in seconds.
As the number one seeded movie during the Spring Festival, "Hot and Spicy" encountered a lot of resistance before and after its release. The predicted box office suffered a waterloo, from the previous 4.5 billion, all the way to 3.5 billion.
Jia Ling and the Xuanfa team were criticized by word-of-mouth, calling it a "diet movie". It obviously lacked stamina. In this showdown with Ethan Ruan in "The Three Evils", they were completely at a disadvantage.
"Hot and Spicy" has a cumulative box office of 119 million in seven days last week, ranking fourth among films.
2. Movie review.
"Chou Chu Kills Three Evils" is an action film produced locally in Taiwan, China. The screenwriter and director is Hong Kong's Huang Jingfu. The cast includes Ethan Ethan, Yuan Fuhua, Chen Yiwen, Wang Jing, Xie Qiongnuan, Li Liren, etc. The summary of the plot of
is as follows:
Chen Guilin (played by Ethan Juan), who has committed many crimes, has been hiding for four years. After his grandmother passed away, he learned that he had lung cancer and would die soon.
In order to atone for his sins, he threw a wild rice cup in front of Emperor Guan Sheng, and the nine hexagrams asked him to surrender.
So, he went to the local police station the next day. Due to the busy surrender business, he discovered during the queue that he was only ranked third on the wanted list.
A great idea flashed out. If he surrendered, he might as well do something spectacular. Within a limited time, found the first two public enemies and got rid of them, so that everyone could remember him.
It was too late, but it was too late, and the plan was implemented immediately...
The turning point for Chen Guilin was after the doctor told him that he had cancer, and he wanted future generations to remember him, so he made the move to "eliminate the three evils every week" .
The film is divided into two parts. The first half is essentially a black gang film. In order to find the No. 2 figure, Chen Guilin seems to "incarnate" into a detective, from observation, to understanding, to being singled out by the other party, to chasing, The fight was completed in one go.
's action scenes are comparable to Ma Dongxi's "Crime City" and Xie Miao's "Northeast Police Story". Just follow the word "cool", it is punchy, tense and exciting, and has an excellent viewing experience.
The second half is the showdown between Chen Guilin and the number one character. The previous fierce style suddenly turned into black humor, which made the audience think.
He came to a mysterious and holy place. Under the careful care of His Holiness, he slowly transitioned from feeling uneasy to feeling comfortable. He even suspected that his condition was getting better day by day.
There, he felt very safe, and even buried the tools to deal with the big boss with his own hands. However, all of this was a scam. After waking up from the dream, Chen Guilin tore apart the Venerable's disguise and used a hearty and carrying... The battle of irony and joy ends this absurd journey.
In the end, the doctor came to visit the prisoner and told him that he did not have cancer. The truth was revealed. One evil destroyed two evils. After the white lie was exposed, Chen Guilin shed tears of regret.
At this point, the viewer must be thinking, if he had known that he was not terminally ill, would he still have done the "Three Evils Every Week"? This extends to philosophical topics: Is the heart of an evil person evil or good?
The English translation of "Eliminating the Three Evils Every Week" is the pig, the snake, and the pigeon, which exactly corresponds to greed, anger, and ignorance.
Three animal symbols appear in the film.
One is the piggy watch left by Chen Guilin's grandma. The "pig" in it represents obsession, indicating that Chen Guilin is ignorant and does not distinguish between good and evil. Good and evil are all in one thought.
The second animal is a snake. The number two character, Xu Weiqiang, has a snake-shaped tattoo on his hand. "Snake" represents anger, which refers to a thought that makes others angry if they do not do things according to one's own ideas or wishes.
In the video, Xu Weiqiang brutally bullied his stepdaughter and became furious. The bad behavior was very thorough, which perfectly confirmed his hatred.
The second animal is a dove. The tattoo on the back of the number one character Lin Luhe is the wings of a dove. "Dove" represents greed, which refers to the psychological state or desire of greed.
On the surface, Lin Luhe is docile and easy-going, but in fact, he is extremely greedy in what he does. He uses "scams" to find the weaknesses of others, control their lives, and deceive them into taking possession of their external possessions.
"Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" follows the values of punishing evil and promoting good, and good and evil will end, and gives evil people a chance for redemption. The quality of the film is very high, and it is worth visiting the theaters.
Brother Fei’s personal rating is four stars, 8.3 points!
3. Periphery.
The peripherals of "Zhou Chu Eliminate Three Evils" are actually very good. I have summarized the following points for reference only.
One: Allusion "Three evils can be eliminated every week".
Zhou Chu's historical background is the Three Kingdoms period. His father Zhou Li was the governor of Poyang in Soochow. He played an important role in the "Battle of Shiting" between Cao Wei and Soochow.
Zhou Li passed away very early. His son Zhou Chu, when he was a boy, "liked to run around in the fields and hunt, but did not cultivate fine practices." In our current words, he was idle and made trouble everywhere, which was disgusted by his neighbors.
Zhou Chu knew that the villagers did not want to see him and wanted to change his ways, so he asked the village elders if there was any way to make them happy. They said: "The three evils are harmful to the world, so get rid of them quickly!"
Zhou Chu understood When he arrived at Nanshan, there was a white-fronted tiger, and there was a dragon under the long bridge. They were two evils. He went into the mountain and shot the white-fronted tiger. Then he entered the water and fought with the dragon. The battle lasted for three days and three nights, but he could not decide the winner.
The neighbors thought that Zhou Chu had died in the battle with tigers and dragons, and that the "three evils" had been eliminated, so they all drank and talked happily. Zhou Chu returned to his hometown and found that his fellow villagers were celebrating his death.
He finally understood how much his neighbors hated him, so he worked hard, determined to study, and corrected his evil ways.
"Zhou Chu eliminates three evils" comes from "Book of Jin: Biography of Zhou Chu" and "Shishuo Xinyu". The release of this film has also made this allusion well known. Chinese classical history and culture are broad and profound and worth exploring.
At present, the Peking Opera still retains the repertoire "Away with Three Pests".
Second: Scale and cropping.
When "The Three Evils" was announced, the issue of scale was highlighted. Fans who have watched the Netflix version should know that there are many inappropriate scenes in this movie, and no special treatment was done when it was screened before. After feedback from someone at
, they requested that part of the screen be cropped and enlarged. This caused the problem of the hard drive of the release version not being delivered in time. Therefore, on the first day of release, many places did not schedule films, and the box office did not pick up.
This extends to the issue of film classification in China. This film is rated pg15 in Taiwan. People under the age of 15 are not allowed to enter the theater to watch it. However, we do not have a classification. If you have previously screened it, parents can watch it if they bring their children. This is definitely No way.
Including Lin Chaoxian's "Operation Red Sea", children can also enter theaters at will. China's film classification system can no longer delay.
No. 3: Chen Guilin’s prototype is Liu Huanrong.
The male protagonist in this movie is not a fictional character, but a real person. He is Liu Huanrong, a well-known local felon. He was born in 1957 and was executed in 1993.
Liu Huanrong has committed many major crimes, most of which were gang wars, and has killed several bosses. Therefore, he is both good and evil, and is very suitable as a typical figure of "Zhou Chu eliminates the three evils".
Part 4: Execution process.
The video finally introduces in detail the process of Chen Guilin's execution. There are many domestic movies that have this scene at the end.
Deng Chao 's "Heart of the Burning Sun", the character he played was executed throughout the entire process. Deng Chao's performance was very delicate. Through micro-expressions and subtle body movements, the character's final struggle and powerlessness were vividly displayed, making people unable to help but feel... Shocked by his performance.
It can be said that this plot is the pinnacle of Deng Chao's acting skills.
Louis Koo's "Drug War" also has a similar plot. Louis Koo used his superb acting skills to perfectly embody the character's inner fear, despair and unwillingness. The performance was very real and natural.
Daniel Wu's " ", in the executed scenes, Daniel Wu portrayed Zhang Falcon's inner world and emotional changes very well, especially the changes in his eyes, the twitching of the corners of his mouth, etc.
Ethan Ruan also has such a plot in "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils". I wonder who is better?
Fifth: Intersect with the second unit drama in " Chinatown Detective 2".
In the popular drama "Detective Chinatown 2", which Chen Sicheng participated in the writing and investment, there is a "meditation team" in the second unit. His Holiness and his men also use the same method to control people's hearts.
intersects with the story in "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils". While watching the drama, I had the urge to ask Chen Guilin to help me get rid of these people. I wonder if you all have the same idea?
4. Conclusion.
Even though this film has been released on streaming media, the box office has still exploded, which shows that people are still willing to go to theaters for good movies.
It is worth mentioning that the fact that this film passed censorship is definitely a great progress for Chinese films.
In addition, during the Spring Festival period, mainland theaters made a huge box office of 10 billion. We hope that the motherland will complete its great rejuvenation as soon as possible and let Baodao Films share the tens of billions market during the Spring Festival period.
Do you think "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" is good to watch?
