Chapter 60: The Epic Battle Continues; A Wild Boar Cannot Appreciate Fine Food?

The next day, the box office war continued.

After a day and a night of fermentation, *A Glorious Era*, *Comedy on the Road*, and *Flames of War* had generated preliminary feedback.

Opinions on *A Glorious Era* were polarized: those who liked it praised it to the heavens, while those who disliked it loudly condemned it as garbage.

*Comedy on the Road* also faced harsh reviews.

In comparison, *Flames of War* fared the best, relatively speaking. At least its story was complete, Tsai Wenlan's acting was solid, and despite her age, she still fought fiercely in the action sequences.

However, the genre of *Flames of War* destined it for critical acclaim rather than commercial success. Perhaps the era of veteran martial arts stars had truly passed.

---

In a cinema.

The screening of *A Glorious Era* had just ended.

Among the surging crowd, two audience members were chatting.

"What did you think of the movie?"

"To be honest, I didn't quite get it. I was totally clueless. I had no idea how he suddenly built a company, nor how he became the chairman of the chamber of commerce. I know the director wanted to give me a thrilling rush during those scenes, but I just couldn't feel it."

"Are you trying to say it felt like scratching an itch through the boot?"

"Yes, exactly! Scratching an itch through the boot. My feeling was that I just couldn't connect with the character. All I saw was him acting arrogant. Besides, the second half felt entirely like a bookkeeping ledger—one moment it's a corporate warfare film, the next it's a gangster movie, and then it suddenly turns into a cop-and-robber flick."

"That's pretty much how I felt. To be honest, halfway through, I knew it was over. I came to see this movie specifically for Lu Zhuofeng, but I didn't expect it to be quite so lousy."

"We've been conned."

Netizens mainly criticized *A Glorious Era* for a few key reasons:

First, the plot was far too stuffed. Because it depicted the events of the 1980s and 1990s, combined with an excessive amount of corporate warfare, the massive influx of information was extremely overwhelming for anyone unfamiliar with the historical background. The consequence of trying to pack too much in was that the film wanted to say everything, yet ended up explaining nothing clearly.

Second, the film's pacing was deeply problematic. The story itself was quite good, and the rise of the prototype character was genuinely inspiring. However, Lu Zhuofeng chopped a very fine story into a million jagged pieces.

As a result, the protagonist's rise to prominence felt scattered, and the corporate warfare pressure from enemies fizzled out completely, starting strong but ending with a whimper.

Moreover, Lu Zhuofeng went wild showing off his technical skills in this film, employing all sorts of cross-cutting timelines. Many viewers walked out with their heads spinning, unable to tell which event happened first and which came later.

Consequently, there were occasional moments meant to thrill, but they felt hollow; there were serious moments, but the movie itself didn't seem to know whether it should be taken seriously.

Third, because the plot was so fragmented, the characters turned out extremely thin. Lu Zhuofeng could only resort to adding romance and familial bonds in an attempt to flesh out their personalities. The problem, however, was that these additions made the narrative even more scattered. A closer look revealed that the pacing of the romantic subplots clashed entirely with the main storyline; every time the movie shifted to a romance scene, the information density plummeted drastically.

Furthermore, much of the information dropped in various places throughout the film—moments when you assumed a subtle foreshadowing was at play—ultimately went completely unused later on.

Of course, the movie did have its brilliant moments.

First was the personal charm of the male lead—or rather, the charisma of the lead actor—which threaded the main plot together.

Second was the cinematography, set design, and cinematic texture.

Because Lu Zhuofeng had lived through the 1980s and 1990s, filmmaking with that era as the background wasn't just his comfort zone; it was his absolute domain!

Through his lens, he vividly recreated the collective upward momentum of the society in Tianxia during the eighties and nineties, accurately restoring the authentic style and features of that era. Waves of moviegoers praised its realism.

Yet, all these elements were merely secondary. No matter how exquisite the cinematic language or how realistic the set design, if the information conveyed was invalid, it was all just superficial window dressing. If a movie failed to deliver an engaging, satisfying experience, everything else was utterly useless!

Acting was the same way! Acting existed to serve the plot, not the other way around.

---

On Douban, a certain thread featured a film critic going to bat for Lu Zhuofeng.

*"A Glorious Era* Ripped Apart as Garbage? The Cold Joke of 2021!"*

"Let's talk about four New Year cold jokes: *Long-Flowing Streams* has been released for a month and still doesn't dare open its Douban rating; the heavily altered and padded *Law-Enforcing Demon Jack* somehow managed a high score of 7.7 on Douban; Master Gong's three-year historical masterpiece *We Stand on the Frontline* suffered a rating collapse and was branded as a fake, grandiose piece of trash; yet *A Glorious Era*, the best film of the year, is being bombarded with one-star ratings by audiences!"

"If you want to sum up this chaotic phenomenon in the film and television industry with one sentence, it is the degradation of creative soil and audience aesthetic standards!"

"In this entire era of aesthetic degradation and entertainment-to-the-point-of-death, Master Gong's *We Stand on the Frontline* and Director Lu Zhuofeng's *A Glorious Era* are undoubtedly dimensionality-reducing strikes against the chaos of the market."

"Therefore, the controversies surrounding *We Stand on the Frontline* and *A Glorious Era* are not hard to understand. After all, wild boars cannot appreciate fine rice bran; accustomed to poor things due to aesthetic degradation, they find their palates clashing the moment they taste something good."

*"A Glorious Era*, directed by Lu Zhuofeng and starring Wang Chao and Chi Xue, is definitively the Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing of 2021!"*

"So, whether you have watched it or not, friends, you must patiently read through my five exclusive viewing guides below. They will undoubtedly elevate your viewing experience and efficiently assist your comprehension."

"......"

This was an active film critic on Douban whose handle was Xiang Yusheng. His personal bio read: *Wild Film Critic ? Screenwriter ? Writer ? Follow Xiang Yusheng, watch movies without wasting money. Business inquiries: Hxxxxxxx2 (please specify your intent).*

As soon as he published the post, it quickly drew a massive crowd.

Most people despised his stance and opposed him.

"Aside from *Long-Flowing Streams* being a joke in its own right, you're talking total bullshit with the other three. ...Did you seriously call an 8.6 rating for *We Stand on the Frontline* a 'rating collapse'? It's completely normal for some people not to like it and for negative voices to exist. How on earth did that turn into a rating collapse in your mouth? Don't fish for traffic like a hack. If *A Glorious Era* isn't good, it's just not good; you don't need to drag *We Stand on the Frontline* down with it just to salvage Lu Zhuofeng's dignity."

"The only wild boar here is you. On what grounds is *A Glorious Era* the Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing of 2021? *A Glorious Era* isn't even qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as *We Stand on the Frontline*! One is exquisitely packaged with chocolate inside, while the other takes a piece of chocolate, messes it up with random edits and seasonings, and ends up serving something that tastes like crap."

"Who do you think you are? What the masses happily enjoy is what's good. Fancying yourself part of the upper crust?"

"The plot is a piece of crap, the editing is a piece of crap, the soundtrack is a piece of crap, and even the lines are a piece of crap!"

"Wild boars can't appreciate fine bran. But I'm a human being. I eat regular meals, and you eat your 'fine' bran. No matter how fine bran is, it's still bran. The two don't conflict."

"(⊙o⊙) Wow, fucking brilliant! The high rating of *Law-Enforcing Demon Jack* is artificially inflated because the audience is incompetent, but when people give *A Glorious Era* low stars and the rating drops, it's *still* because the audience is incompetent? Your logic is invincible!"

"So desperate for attention as a self-media creator? Negative traffic is traffic too."

"Exactly, giving *A Glorious Era* a one-star review is still being too generous."

"Who the hell are you to lecture the audience? If I have to read a few books and study the background history *before* going to the cinema, then what the hell am I even going to the theater for? A film director's job is to tell the story clearly within the runtime of the movie. If they can't tell it clearly and instead pressure the audience to go read up on the real-life prototypes or the original novel, that is dereliction of duty on the director's part!"

"Spot on! You filmmakers never make any mistakes—it's always us stinky bumpkins who just don't understand your lofty art!"

"Don't assume ordinary people don't know quality!"

"If the OP thinks *A Glorious Era* is so damn awesome, you can damn well tell us *why* it's awesome from a screenwriter's perspective, instead of starting off by bragging about how great the screenwriter, director, actors, and investors are. Do those things prove the movie is good? What kind of logic is that?"

However, some users also stood by the poster.

"You guys are mentally retarded. It's already been explained so clearly. Do you need someone to teach you the basic ABCs from kindergarten? Just because you're mentally retarded, does that mean university lectures have to start from kindergarten too???"

"It's true. Film markets both domestic and international are heading downhill these days. *A Glorious Era* is the only movie in a long time that made my eyes light up. Most are just mediocre. I can only say Lu Zhuofeng truly lives up to his name."

*"A Glorious Era* is one of the few domestic films that depicts the chaos of the reform and opening-up era. It just shows that Douban users skew too young nowadays; a lot of kids simply don't understand."

"With a larger population, you get a larger pool of low-tier people. Perfectly normal."

"Indeed, the audience is just incompetent."

"The problem is, I thought it was good too. It had depth. How many people didn't even watch it before spamming low ratings?"

Soon, the comment section descended into a chaotic shouting match.

This post rapidly went viral, becoming the top-trending thread under the *A Glorious Era* forum. More and more people joined the melee, arguing fiercely into the dark of night.

---

Lu Zhuofeng sat in his spacious office, his expression as dark as gathering storm clouds.

Each glaring negative review pierced his heart like a cold arrow, filling him with a tangled mixture of fury and annoyance.

"A bunch of rabble! What do they know?!"

"My film is art! True art! Every single frame, every single shot is art!"

At that moment, a staff member rushed in, speaking with frantic urgency:

"Director Lu, you need to come take a look. The box office trajectory for *No More Bets* is looking a bit off."

Lu Zhuofeng: "?"