Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

After watching ”The Blackbird,” many people shared the same thoughts as Zhou Junhao.

This was perhaps the first thought of most viewers after watching ”The Blackbird”.

Only one sentence is on my mind—

Xiao He, are you really a cop this time? Are you really acting like a good guy catching a bad guy?

You’ve gone out of character (OOC), do you know that?

Your public image has collapsed!

That’s not how villains are!

You should be like the final villain, Du Yuebin, being caught, handcuffed, and then escorted into a police car by the police while facing the sea breeze at sunset!

So you’re saying you’re a fake wolf, and a completely good person?

Although the overall storyline of ”Black Thrush” is quite predictable and has a strong tendency to follow a formulaic pattern, it is, after all, a collaboration between two award-winning actors, Zhang Zhelin and Du Yuebin, after many years. Their acting skills are on point, and the script is unconventional, so the whole film is quite comfortable to watch from beginning to end. It has climaxes, plot twists, suspense, and tension, making it a fairly competent drama film.

With the addition of other veteran actors and cameo appearances by newcomers like Xiao He, ”Black Thrush” is generally considered one of the best Hong Kong films released in mainland China in recent years.

If you watch it with the expectation of meeting the current production standards of Hong Kong films, you’re sure to find some pleasant surprises.

but--

The plot of ”The Blackbird” has been praised for its extensive setup and build-up, so why isn’t Xiao He the villain?

Why?!

Why?

When this topic arose about the movie, and it turned out to be quite interesting, word-of-mouth for ”The Blackbird” started to pick up.

”Free online supporters” or ”fans” refers to a group of moviegoers who genuinely like and appreciate a film and spontaneously promote it online for free.

This includes not only ordinary viewers, but also bloggers who conduct reviews and then actively promote the film to their followers.

【Family, I recommend ”The Blackbird”! I personally feel it’s one of the best Hong Kong films in recent years. If you didn’t find any movies you wanted to see during the Lunar New Year season, you can give this one a try. It seems like not many people have seen it, even though it’s a really good film.】

【You should watch ”The Blackbird”! But before you watch it, whatever you do—do NOT watch any spoilers!】

【Yes, yes, although the main plot of *The Blackbird* revolves around catching the mole, and you can probably guess who the mole is just by looking at the cast list, trust me, don’t read any spoilers online, or you’ll miss out on a lot of enjoyment after watching *The Blackbird*.】

【And most importantly, Brother Xiao also has a cameo in this film! This production team seems so low-key; they didn’t even promote it.】

【I went to see it specifically for Xiao Ge, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. It lives up to the saying, ”Xiao Ge’s cameo always brings a masterpiece.” The only downside is the somewhat misleading advertising. I initially thought Xiao Ge was... well, that’s why I went to see it, but in the end, I was tricked by Xiao Ge and the crew—cough cough, that’s all I have to say, any more would be spoilers.】

【Promotional fraud? Hilarious! I even suspect the ”Blackbird” production team didn’t do any promotion at all. It feels like we haven’t even seen the trailer yet, and suddenly the movie is already officially in theaters. That’s incredibly fast.】

【It was definitely a surprise release. The pre-release promotion wasn’t up to par, and it just happened to coincide with the Spring Festival release, which is quite a pity. This film is actually quite good; if it had been released at a different time, it probably would have done much better at the box office.】

【Not necessarily. This genre doesn’t seem to be very popular right now; it’s more of a niche one. Personally, I think this work should win Zhang Zhelin or Du Yuebin another award. Their acting, along with the other actors, is phenomenal. The tension and testing between good and evil is really satisfying to watch. Xiao He’s acting is also excellent, and the ending twist was indeed unexpected. Everyone should give it a try.】

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The promotional efforts for tap water were quite extensive, attracting some passersby to stop and watch.

So ”Blackbird” was released on the Lantern Festival and received great reviews, successfully earning some box office revenue.

When the news reached Xiao He, he noticed that ”The Blackbird” had already been released on the Lantern Festival.

—This is so sudden!

”Wait a minute! Did I miss a few episodes? How come ’Blackbird’ is suddenly showing up? When did this happen?”

Hearing from Liu Rulan that the audience feedback for ”The Blackbird” was quite good and that they hoped to take advantage of the last bit of hype from the Spring Festival season to further promote the film and generate box office revenue, Xiao He was somewhat bewildered.

”Why didn’t they notify us to help with the publicity? Are they being so low-key this time?”

The main reason is that ”Time Confrontation” is still in its promotional period, and the third season of ”The Corner” is about to start filming. Xiao He has been so busy lately that he can’t pay attention to ”The Black Tortoise” at all.

Therefore, as a cameo appearance by Hsiao Ho, this film was not a particularly important promotional project, and was entirely managed by Linghui Entertainment, with Hsiao Ho simply acting as a hands-off manager.

”The Black Thrush” was also unusually low-key. It did not immediately capitalize on Xiao He’s popularity during the Chinese New Year season, nor did it heavily promote Xiao He as an important character. As a result, its pre-release traffic was not very high, and it did not attract much attention. It can almost be said that it was released without any promotion.

Aside from longtime fans who have always supported Zhang Zhelin and his team, probably only Xiao He’s fans would spend more time and effort on this film.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered that ”The Blackbird” was actually quite good.

If it had been released during a more suitable period instead of the Lantern Festival, ”Blackbird” would not have lost viewership and screen time to other films released during the Spring Festival.

”It’s mainly because of what happened last year, which affected a lot of people.” Liu Rulan shrugged. ”Most of the scenes for ’The Blackbird’ had already been filmed and were almost in post-production. Unfortunately, an important actor was replaced at the last minute, and some other supporting actors were also investigated and got involved in some trouble, so the release date was delayed until this year.”

”If your popularity hadn’t really affected ’Blackbird,’ many people probably wouldn’t even know that the movie had been released.”

It’s quite poignant at times. ”Blackbird” was an ambitious project by director Gao and his son, who wanted to further expand into the mainland market. When filming began, countless people were paying attention, and even marketing accounts were helping to promote it. However, when it was finally released, it could only be released quietly due to various reasons.

If Xiao He and his film ”Time and Space Standoff” hadn’t become a hot topic during this Spring Festival, attracting some fans to see ”Blackbird,” it’s likely that several years later, those who followed it back then would belatedly exclaim in surprise, ”Ah, it’s already been released? I was quite interested in it before, how come there was no news about it when it was released...”

”We didn’t focus on promoting this film, but the feedback after its release has been very good. Some people have even commented that this film could be one of the highest-rated films during this year’s Spring Festival.”

Apart from science fiction films, most of the films released during this year’s Spring Festival were comedies. Now, the sudden appearance of the Hong Kong crime film ”Blackbird” can be seen as filling the gap in the types of films released around this year’s Spring Festival.

Although its box office performance is currently far behind other films released during the Spring Festival season, and its overall market preferences are relatively niche and fixed, its overall reputation is quite good.

As Liu Rulan spoke, she unfolded her phone: ”For this, Director Gao of ’The Blackbird’ made a special call to thank us.”

They initially approached Xiao He out of desperation, but unexpectedly, this cameo appearance became their last lifeline.

Seeing the current situation on the internet, Gao Zhongbo couldn’t help but admire his son’s foresight in casting Xiao He in a cameo role.

Who would have thought of that?

Xiao He has once again become a major talking point at the film’s box office.