"Lost in Russia" abandoned the theaters and chose to broadcast online, which caused controversy. Xu Zheng responded for the first time

During the Spring Festival this year, Lost in Russia, directed and acted by Xu Zheng, was broadcast for free on the ByteDance APP. Cinema chains and film critics were discussing the move of abandoning the cinemas and choosing to broadcast it for free online. Some people thought it was inappropriate, arguing that it violated industry rules and damaged the interests of cinema chains.

Recently, Xu Zheng talked about this in an interview, saying that this move would not change the entire film industry, nor would it bring down the cinema chain. He also mentioned his regrets after the online broadcast of "Lost in Russia".

Xu Zheng said: "First of all, the release of Lost in Russia is only a decision for this movie. It is impossible to change the film industry or bring down the cinemas. This is a special method that only emerged in a special period. From a larger perspective, you can't do something so unorthodox and reverse the operation. I alone cannot play such a big role in the decision. I am just a creator. Secondly, even if this was our joint decision at the beginning, the ultimate core is to let the audience see the movie and let the audience benefit from it."

After the online broadcast of Lost in Russia, Xu Zheng also talked about his regrets: "Movies themselves have a threshold. You will recommend it to everyone if you like it, and it will eventually attract its own audience. But after the online broadcast, everyone was talking about it. It happened to be during the Chinese New Year, and many people were watching it on their mobile phones while cooking, and they couldn't focus on the emotions that the movie wanted to express."

After Lost in Russia, Xu Zheng directed the "Last Lesson" unit of My Hometown and Me, starring Fan Wei, Zhang Yi, Han Haolin, etc. In addition, he also plans to make a collection of short films with the epidemic as the background, which will use a simple way to present the simple emotions of the little people.