Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore Chapter 97: The Bandit Catcher Goes Viral in Promotion

That evening, Xiao He's short video went viral explosively, reaching over ten million views and a million likes within just a few hours, becoming the top trending topic on Douyin that day.

A massive wave of fans flooded into the comnts section.

[Front row photo opportunity!]

[So handso I'm crawling around on the floor!]

[Brother Xiao, I absolutely love your Mu Ze and Shen Jue characters, looking forward to your next projects!]

[Teacher Xiao, are you guys filming a second season? I really love Shen Jue and Jiang Rushu aaaaaah!]

[Agreed, agreed, request original cast for season two! Request original cast for season two! Don't make get on my knees and beg—]

[Bro, tell honestly, how did you practice this knife technique? How many people did you have to practice on to get this proficient?]

[Let's be real, I watched this knife technique fra by fra just now—it's genuine skill, not special effects or post-production editing. Those bones were truly cleaned by Xiao He's knife, this is legit amazing.]

[Hahaha, this is too ridiculous—the official account even started a 'Let's All Learn Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique' video challenge. They're actually trying to get us all involved, hahaha—]

[I also fild the sa challenge video, co check it out!]

The funniest part was Pu Rong, who left a string of question marks in the comnts section after Xiao He posted his video.

[Pu Rong: ?????? Looking this damn cool?]

Soon after, Pu Rong also fild a video.

In the video, Pu Rong dressed even more casually—just an old man's undershirt and shorts—gripping the long sword he used while filming as Jiang Rushu. He used the sa background music as Xiao He, but instead of cutting at, Pu Rong drew his sword and perford various elegant sword flourishes.

When the music reached its climax, a shower of petals poured into the fra from off-cara. Pu Rong's sword swept horizontally in a swift motion, and the video fra once again split apart following the sharp blade's path. Two perfectly sliced petals slowly descended onto the sword blade in slow motion, while reflected in the silver-glinting sword behind them were Jiang Rushu's eyes, filled with unrestrained laughter, exactly like his character's first appearance in the film.

As expected, Pu Rong's video also went viral.

Even though neither of them did any costu changes, just that one close-up shot of the eyes was enough to make people instantly recognize their characters. This direct demonstration of acting skill left an especially deep impression.

What's more, both videos contained genuine substance—Xiao He's Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique and Pu Rong's sword skills were both their characters' signature abilities in "Thief Catcher," and simultaneously represented their actual real-life skills, which made people admire them even more.

After Pu Rong, other cast mbers of "Thief Catcher" successively uploaded videos. While their video quality wasn't as eye-catching as Xiao He and Pu Rong's, they still attracted many casual viewers. Particularly notable was an actor who played a thief catcher wielding a teor hamr—this actor was also found by Pu Rong and was originally a weightlifter. His video showed him first lifting what appeared to be an extrely heavy barbell, then putting it down and single-handedly swinging a large iron ball toward the cara.

However, because he didn't control his strength properly, the cara lens actually got smashed in the end.

The actor even @ntioned Director Lin Yipeng in the comnts, sincerely asking if his phone counted as promotional work injury.

While netizens were laughing hysterically, they only cared about one question—

[Wait, what? Brothers, you all have real skills?]

[I was just grinning foolishly before, but you're all actually genuine experts?]

[Oh no, you guys are for real? I thought you were just acting!]

[Good question—does this movie count as evidence of them engaging in ard combat?]

[Hahaha, I think it's quite criminal.]

[??? Such a sharp question, how did you co up with that?]

[This won't do—everyone in dostic entertainnt is supposed to be diocre, how co you guys ca prepared? Then I definitely have to strongly support "Thief Catcher"!]

[Highly recomnding "Thief Catcher"! Everyone must go watch it! I think Thief Catcher might be the best movie I've seen this year—even theatrical releases can't compare!]

[Agreed! Such authentic fight scenes are really rare these days. It's unusual for and my parents to watch the sa movie together, and we both gave it high ratings.]

[I think it's such a pity this movie didn't get a theatrical release. While the plot has so imperfections, they don't overshadow the virtues. I can even declare that the fight scenes are the best in the past decade. Martial arts films have been declining in recent years—who would have thought that over twenty years ago, wuxia films were at their peak, but now they've almost all been relegated to online streaming? We hardly ever see such excellent works in theaters anymore, it's really quite lantable.]

[True, you simply can't find such fluid and smooth fight scenes in the market nowadays. I even got fired up watching the later parts—felt like my long-dormant dream of being a martial hero has been reawakened! I've decided to send my roommate to martial arts training tomorrow.]

[Wait? What about you, person above?]

[Mainly because the overall environnt is too terrible now. If actors get even slightly injured, their fans will attack the director and production team relentlessly. Even when filming fight scenes, it's all stunt doubles and cara angles—impossible to achieve the sa effects as in the old days.]

[In recent years, with capital involvent, both actors and directors have collectively slacked off. Directors prefer filming romance content—simple and easy. Actors can't handle real fight scenes either—being able to do a few flips and spin around on wires already qualifies them as models of professionalism. Just who is enabling this behavior?]

[Alright, alright, no more arguing—co watch "Thief Catcher"! Pu Rong started as a child star, excelling in both acting and fight scenes. The other actors are equally impressive. If you like strong versus strong confrontations, you're in for a treat—co join our organic promotion army!]

Following these viral videos, Douyin sparked a wave of imitation trends.

So imitated this editing style. For example, a pet blogger fild themselves being bullied, then raised their hand to signal, where a fierce and handso giant dog leaped across the screen in slow motion, using the dog's body to "slice through" the fra. Behind the dog, the blogger showed a proud and pleasantly surprised expression.

There were many similar videos like this, even spreading to areas like ani cosplay. Beyond this, people gradually began studying Xiao He's Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique fra by fra, attempting to make it into a challenge, but almost all ended in failure. One blogger refused to believe it was impossible and persistently tried to learn and imitate, only to twist their wrist while swinging the knife, resulting in a hairline fracture—both hilarious and pitiful.

All these videos carried tags like #ThiefCatcherChallenge and #BoneCleavingKnifeChallenge, invisibly bringing trendous heat to "Thief Catcher," spreading from Douyin to other social dia platforms. The scale of this promotion even far exceeded that of other theatrically released films.

As this popularity grew, more and more people went to Penguin Video to see what kind of charm "Thief Catcher" possessed.

Once they stepped in, they couldn't get out.