445: Chapter 445, "The Lotus Lantern," is here!

...

As for the factory scene, the explosion sequence where a chain of bombs chases Big Brother, Lin Chuyan wouldn't be able to see it anyway.

The director had said that as long as it didn't involve him, they would try to wait until he wrapped up filming to reshoot, accommodating his schedule above all else.

I have to say, it's a bit of a pity.

Fortunately, the scenes that were expected to take a long time to shoot had mostly been wrapped up after just this one day.

Big Brother looked at the monitor and was very satisfied with his performance.

"Director, is this one okay?"

"It's more than okay, Big Brother. The emotions were spot on; the tears came right when you needed them."

Lin Chuyan was watching too, and he felt that Big Brother's dramatic acting was indeed severely underestimated.

But this was normal. If you are too outstanding in one aspect, the audience will only want to see content from you in that area. Furthermore, whether you like it or not, capital will always coerce you to keep developing in that direction.

If he, Lin Chuyan, didn't have this face and this status, he might have been destined to play villains forever, right?

And for a villain like in "new police story," it wouldn't even be his turn, because this character also needs to be handsome.

Eh, thinking about it, isn't this Su Su's current path?

In short, breaking through oneself? Easier said than done.

Just as he was thinking this, Big Brother cued him: "I still have to thank Nickname."

"Huh?"

"You played the bad guy really well; you pulled me into the emotions right away."

"Big Brother is too kind."

"That part where you forced me to kneel and kowtow, the tone you used—I almost couldn't help but hit you. It was truly so punchable."

"...You're too kind."

See, I told you the "professional villain" reputation was well-deserved.

...

While "new police story" was still filming, on the other side, "lotus lantern" was finally about to air.

The low-key "lotus lantern" production team also started to get to work.

Over on Weibo, the official account released the official trailer.

The "lotus lantern" crew had figured it out and stopped pretending completely; the caption was just one sentence:

[July 18th, lock onto CCTV-8, every night at 8 PM, come watch Lin Chuyan! Come watch Erlang Shen!]

CCTV-8 is the drama channel, and 8 PM is the undisputed prime time slot.

Director Lin's promise to invite Lin Chuyan to star was starting to be fulfilled one by one; CCTV really did attach great importance to this drama.

Lin Chuyan himself also took it very seriously; this was a character he loved very much, and it was also the life imprint he most wanted to leave behind in traditional culture.

He thought to himself: If... if it could really be a success, then it wouldn't have been a wasted trip, right?

Lin Chuyan reposted the Weibo early.

[This is my favorite character to date, and also the role I feel I've performed the best. Thanks to Director Lin and the "lotus lantern" crew for giving me the opportunity to portray the mythological figure Erlang Shen. Can Erlang Shen actually be the protagonist? What exactly should Erlang Shen's image be? Perhaps after watching "lotus lantern," everyone will have the answer.]

Yanzi was truly rare for using such a sincere tone to post on Weibo, and netizens were a bit unaccustomed to it for a moment.

[Did the little assistant post this?]

[The little assistant is so pretty, hugs.]

[Is it this serious?]

[To be honest, the character image of Erlang Shen... the most well-rounded one I can think of is actually the one in black myth: wukong.]

[Looking forward to Brother's new work! Go, Erlang Shen!!!]

However, there were also people questioning whether the quality of this drama was qualified to air at 8 PM.

[Airing in prime time? I looked at the cast list on Douban, and who are these other actors... I don't recognize a single one...]

[Is this a big investment? This subject matter isn't serious either, and it's already in prime time?]

[The authorities only care about traffic, right? The world is going downhill...]

But this was the fact. If you ask, it's because the male lead is Lin Chuyan, and the authorities are confident that he can carry the show.

Haters not convinced? Keep it bottled up then!

Furthermore, this was an exclusive broadcast!

No web streaming, no foreign platforms, none of that messy stuff.

It wasn't that they didn't love money, it was that they had already collected a pile of advertising fees—not only did the authorities trust him, but the advertisers trusted him too.

This is the only place, no other branches. If you want to see "lotus lantern" and Lin Chuyan for the first time, you can only come to CCTV-8.

Back to the latest trailer released by the official account.

This time, it was naturally longer than the previous teaser, but it still revolved entirely around Lin Chuyan.

In the new trailer, his Lingxi Spear Technique began to reveal the tip of the iceberg, but it was already enough to stun everyone;

There were also a few fleeting shots of his wire-fu skills, and that posture was truly eye-catching;

There were also scenes of his daily appearance after taking off his silver celestial armor; in black casual clothes, he had a unique elegance...

There were, of course, shots of other people, but very few—there was no help for it, everyone would just have to wait to see the other actors in the show, as people wouldn't recognize them in the trailer anyway... The most important thing right now was to attract people to watch, wasn't it?

In fact, this decision was also correct.

As for things like "others don't deserve to appear"... if you listen to what Haters say, then you've lost—it's a big male-lead drama, they might as well have changed the title to "The Legend of Erlang Shen," so what's there to be embarrassed about?

To put it bluntly, everyone watching "lotus lantern" was attracted by the subject matter in a small part, but most were going for Lin Chuyan; it would be the problem if they didn't do it this way.

[That's the vibe, that's the vibe. I don't know what "lotus lantern" means, but I'm just watching the Lin Chuyan version of Erlang Shen.]

[Wow, the fight scenes seem pretty good? Looking forward to it.]

[Not just that, Lin Chuyan's wire-fu is also good to look at; if you don't believe me, you can refer to the xianxia dramas of the past few years.]

[I declare that this is the most handsome Erlang Shen, bar none.]

Handsome or not, can you tell from the trailer?

Yes, but this kind of "handsome" is stripped of the story, without the plot; it's a pure display of styling. It's his makeup photos, it's spinning the spear with one hand... But this is not enough; the vitality of cultural works does not lie in these, or rather, it does not stop at these.

To see the true charm of the character, one still has to see how the story of "lotus lantern" is told.

July 18th, 7:50 PM, countless people turned on their TVs and waited in advance—watching ads was fine, the most important thing was not to miss the plot.

The most interesting thing was the age group of this batch of viewers.

A large number of young students who usually didn't like watching TV turned on their TVs one after another.

Doing homework? That doesn't exist, it's summer vacation!

This was also what Director Lin had told Lin Chuyan on the day of wrapping up filming; it had long been scheduled to air during the summer vacation slot, and the main target audience was students.

And this group of students drove other family members, and there were also a large number of elementary school students among them—this subject matter could naturally attract them.

Director Lin's idea was very bold: "journey to the west" could become the childhood memory of a generation or even several generations, shaping a hero like the Monkey King... Then why couldn't his "lotus lantern" do the same!

Why couldn't Erlang Shen become the childhood memory of a generation or even several generations? I'm not sure about other works, but in his "lotus lantern," Yang Jian was also a towering hero.

Now, the day of verification had finally arrived.

8 PM.

"lotus lantern" started airing on time!