Scriptwriter reveals secret of blockbuster Full River Red

A scene in Full River Red. Full River Red, the highest-grossing blockbuster during Spring Festival, was once planned to be filmed in one continuous shot throughout its 150-minute duration, revealed scriptwriter Chen Yu during a recent seminar held at Beijing's China Film Archive. Chen Yu, scriptwriter of director Zhang Yimou's Full River Red, speaks at a seminar held in Beijing's China Film Archive. However, during the preparation, Zhang and his fellow creators realized that filming the entire 150-minute duration in one continuous shot would result in the loss of the nuances of the actors' performances, said Chen. Despite later abandoning the original plan of filming the movie in one continuous shot, the script was revised 19 times to ensure a fast-paced narration and feature a lot of twists, an effort to maintain the suspense and keep the audience engaged, according to Chen and Jiang Yuxia, vice-president of Huanxi Media Group.