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 comments section.
[Front row photo opportunity!]
[So handsome 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 me get on my knees and beg—]
[Bro, tell me 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 frame by frame 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 filmed the same challenge video, come check it out!]
The funniest part was Pu Rong, who left a string of question marks in the comments section after Xiao He posted his video.
[Pu Rong: ?????? Looking damn cool?]
Soon after, Pu Rong also filmed 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 same background music as Xiao He, but instead of cutting meat, Pu Rong drew his sword and performed various elegant sword flourishes.
When the music reached its climax, a shower of petals poured into the frame from off-camera. Pu Rong's sword swept horizontally in a swift motion, and the video frame 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 costume 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 members 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 meteor hammer—this actor was also found by Pu Rong and was originally a weightlifter. His video showed him first lifting what appeared to be an extremely heavy barbell, then putting it down and single-handedly swinging a large iron ball toward the camera.
However, because he didn't control his strength properly, the camera lens actually got smashed in the end.
The actor even @mentioned Director Lin Yipeng in the comments, 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 armed combat?]
[Hahaha, I think it's quite criminal.]
[??? Such a sharp question, how did you come up with that?]
[This won't do—everyone in domestic entertainment is supposed to be mediocre, how come you guys came prepared? Then I definitely have to strongly support "Thief Catcher"!]
[Highly recommending "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 me and my parents to watch the same 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 some 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 lamentable.]
[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 environment 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 camera angles—impossible to achieve the same effects as in the old days.]
[In recent years, with capital involvement, 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—come 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—come join our organic promotion army!]
Following these viral videos, Douyin sparked a wave of imitation trends.
Some imitated this editing style. For example, a pet blogger filmed themselves being bullied, then raised their hand to signal, where a fierce and handsome giant dog leaped across the screen in slow motion, using the dog's body to "slice through" the frame. Behind the dog, the blogger showed a proud and pleasantly surprised expression.
There were many similar videos like this, even spreading to areas like anime cosplay. Beyond this, people gradually began studying Xiao He's Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique frame by frame, 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 tremendous heat to "Thief Catcher," spreading from Douyin to other social media 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.