Directing Martial Arts Films in Chinese Entertainment

(Main pairing: 95, secondary pairings: 85 and 90+; you can't imagine how fun directing is; they're not after my resources, but…) They say that kung fu films died in the second decade of the new millennium. Fang Mo had just returned from a world of martial arts when he was called in at the last minute to direct a period kung fu web movie on the verge of falling apart. The male lead had just become a celebrity with legal troubles, the female lead didn't have enough time in her schedule, the second male lead was hospitalized, and the second female lead had fled. Frazzled, Fang Mo had no choice but to take over and start pulling all kinds of crazy stunts. A passerby for the female lead, an extra for the second male lead, and a shop assistant for the second female lead. What? You want to know who the male lead is? Of course it's Fang Mo himself. After all, this is the Chinese entertainment industry, where romance is a basic requirement. Once he'd finally managed to muddle through, Fang Mo planned to lay low for a while and avoid eating beef. But he never expected that a shoddily made period kung fu web movie would become an unexpected hit. He'd originally opted for a revenue-sharing deal to save on the budget, but never expected to make a fortune. That wound up angering industry veterans whose films premiered around the same time and were crushed across the board. One of them even declared that the Chinese entertainment industry was in such a state because of bad-movie directors like Fang Mo. Well, what more was there to say? He could worry about eating beef later. First, he was going to take that guy down!