Can Wang Baoqiang make "The Octagonal Cage" and then be a director?


Special feature of 1905 film network A self-directed and self-directed film is being filmed. And recently went to the crew to visit classes, the film began to further break into the public’s field of vision and win the attention of more viewers.


"In the Octagonal Cage" tells the story of Teng Hui (Wang Baoqiang) who devoted his efforts to training local orphans into fighting athletes. However, with the video of fighting in the past, his life and the future of orphans are in trouble.


This is the first time that Wang Baoqiang, as a director, has focused on realistic themes, and it is also the first time that he has returned to the film industry as a director after five years.


In 2017, director Wang Baoqiang’s debut film "Make a Big Trouble in Tianzhu" won 756 million yuan at the box office, but Douban scored only 3.7. While the film itself was controversial, his directing ability was also questioned, and even some viewers directly criticized, "Wang Baoqiang is not suitable for being a director, so let’s go back to being an actor!"


But at that time, he firmly responded: "Nothing is absolute, and hard work can change everything!"



It can be seen that Wang Baoqiang never intended to give up his dream of directing. The boot of "The Octagonal Cage" means that he has started a new attempt on the road of directing.


As you can see, like Wang Baoqiang, there are not a few directors who regard failure as the mother of success. Their final direction is also different. …….

Respond to questions and start over



"The baby wants to say, who can be a director when he is born? I also walked in the voice of being said to be unfit to be an actor, but now I have recognized my identity as an actor. I think we should give you a correct guidance, and efforts can change everything! "

Wang Baoqiang once publicly acknowledged the shortcomings of "Make a scene in Tianzhu". However, there are different views from the audience that the film failed. In his mind, it is a success for a new director to be able to film the film completely in the harsh environment of India and meet the national audience smoothly.


"Bao Bao" stressed more than once that directors need strong professionalism, and promised that he would spend more time and efforts to improve the director’s ability. "You can’t be a director for the first time in your life."


In the blink of an eye, five years have passed, and the results of his efforts in these years will soon be verified in his new work "The Octagon Cage".



Like Wang Baoqiang, the director’s identity is also not favored by the public.In 2018, Bao Beier handed over the directorial debut.Fat man action team. The film broke through the National Day archives of that year and hit the painting on the same day.Shadow and unparalleledandAunt Li ChaBao Beier was full of confidence in the first film he directed, and even made a bold statement half jokingly, "Its box office should exceed 1 billion."


In the end, "Fat Action Team" grossed 260 million yuan, and became the one with the worst reputation among the above-mentioned films, with a douban score of 4.4. Later, Bao Beier commented on his director’s pursuit: "Even if only one person likes your film, it is also a driving force worth doing for him."



In 2021, his directing power was transferred to the IP adaptation, and then he directed the barrel shooting.


The film was adapted from a Korean film of the same name. Because the plot almost completely copied the original plot design, the overall quality was not satisfactory due to the lack of localized expression, which also failed to help Bao Beier complete the counterattack of the director’s reputation, and even made his criticism fall to the bottom again.


Even so, last year, at a director’s competitive variety show, everyone could still see Bao Dao’s active figure. Bao Beier does not deny the possibility of becoming a director again in the future, and he will continue to explore on the basis of this creation.



On encountering setbacks, the situation is similar to that of others. From the perspective of public evaluation, there is still room for improvement.


In the face of the audience’s doubts, Deng Chao once shed tears and explained that he was not a professional director. He had a deep love for performance and had expectations for the director.



Today, he and Yu Baimei have never stopped directing. The two directors have turned on the phone, and through this movie, they will prove themselves again.



In fact, every director will encounter the dilemma of "failure" to some extent. Most of this "failure" comes from the collapse of film word of mouth.


The so-called interlacing is like a mountain, such as the directors mentioned above. This situation is especially true for creators who are excellent in acting and guide, and become monks halfway.


Whether it’s failure at first taste, repeated defeats and wars, becoming a monk halfway, or being trained, for directors, facing setbacks, responding to doubts and then starting again is their persistence on the creative road.

Starting over doesn’t mean starting from scratch. The film quality is always the key to the director’s counterattack.


Starting over doesn’t mean starting from scratch.For directors whose works are praised and not popular, the reasons why the film is not popular need to be attributed to many aspects. For example, they are more inclined to literary films, and the original audience is relatively small, and the low box office is understandable.


As far as excellent directors of literary films are concerned, even if their works are not brilliant in commercial performance, it will not affect the public’s praise for their directing ability.


However, for commercial film directors whose works are not well-received, failure means that they will bear more pressure when creating again.


A typical example is the director of Dream Show.



Since Dream Show won Douban 2.2, the label of "Bad Film Director" has been firmly attached to him.


In a director’s competitive variety show, Zhifei Bi intended to challenge the fragments of directing classic works, but few actors were willing to cooperate with him, and he met many "obstacles" from the preparatory stage.



As a director, it is difficult for Zhifei Bi to get investment to start the creation of the second feature film.


As a zero-cost short film produced by a video editor, "Magic Kiss" is his second work for the public. Unfortunately, the reputation of the film is still low, and the Douban score is only 2.6. It can be said that Zhifei Bi’s directorial career is hard to improve.



Even if we are lucky enough to get investment to continue directing feature films, it is not a good thing for the director’s long-term development if the works handed over are still not satisfactory to the audience.


Bao Beier’s first film, The Fat Man Action Team, grossed 261 million yuan, which, to some extent, was a relatively good market achievement and won the director the opportunity to continue directing.


However, as far as his follow-up directorial work "Sunny Sisters Amoy" is concerned, it is really flattering that Bao Beier almost copied the original directing method. The box office of the film fell by more than 50% compared with the previous one, and finally failed to break through 100 million yuan. The director has an unshirkable responsibility for this, and his own directorial future has also been clouded.



The film has the nature of commodity, which needs market recognition and audience support.However, the inclusiveness of the audience is limited. If a director can’t make a good work again and again, then everyone’s filter on him will be exhausted bit by bit, which will eventually lead the director into a deeper predicament.


In fact, there are many directors in China films who have climbed out of the quagmire and successfully overcome their difficulties.For example,Wu Jing.



Before the series, Jason Wu co-directed it as early as 2008. Unfortunately, the film’s reputation was mediocre and the market was even more popular.


According to public reports, Jason Wu invested 4 million yuan out of his own pocket for Spike. As a result, the box office of the film was only 2.31 million in China and Hongkong, and 4.237 million in China. According to the share ratio, Jason Wu lost at least 1.58 million. In 2008, the loss is not a decimal.



Losing money is certainly one of the shortcomings of the film. More importantly, the works that failed to break through in word-of-mouth and market performance also brought a series of negative chain reactions to the director himself.


Jason Wu, who didn’t rapidly expand his directorial influence by "Spike", encountered many crises of confidence when preparing for the series of "Wolf Warriors": the additional investment to investors failed, the intended actors refused the script invitation, and the operation of the crew was in trouble everywhere. At that time, he had no choice but to "sell the house to save the film" and put all his eggs in one basket.


In Jason Wu’s words, once Wolf Warriors fails, he will have nothing.


Fortunately, the ending is well known. Wolf Warriors series has become one of the most popular films in China, and Jason Wu has successfully completed the counterattack and become one of the most successful directors in China.



Undoubtedly, the film quality is always the key to the director’s counterattack.


This is the best encouragement and mutual encouragement for every director who has encountered difficulties and is looking forward to a comeback!