director of the millennium

"I thought you were going to be nominated for Best Actor."

"Almost, but I don't care about it anymore."

"Indeed, after all, you have taken it before, so you don't have any obsession with it anymore."

Wu Yuan smiled and raised the champagne, making the classic toast gesture he made in "The Wolf of Wall Street" to Leonardo.

Unlike the beautiful boy he used to be, Leonardo now really looks like a middle-aged fat uncle.

Although he is not as fat as in the photo of him playing with water gun, Leonardo is indeed not as thin as he used to be.

Leonardo, who has reached his age, no longer cares much about his appearance, or rather, his handsome appearance is actually a hindrance to his acting career.

Ever since he won the Oscar for Best Actor for "The Revenant", in which he completely shed his idol image, he can never go back to the way he was before.

By the way, the fact that those old stubborn people in the academy discriminate against handsome actors is really an old tradition.

Fortunately, Chen Guokun is not considered a handsome guy, but for an Asian actor, at least appearance is not important to Europeans and Americans.

Thinking about it this way, Chen Guokun still has a chance to win the Best Actor award.

How sad Leonardo would be if he won this award in his first Oscar participation, or even in his first Hollywood movie!

After a while, while the crew of "Bruce Lee" was still greeting the crew of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", another crew pushed open the door of the banquet hall and walked in.

It was the "Parasite" crew that entered the scene after the "Bruce Lee" crew.

However, compared to Wu Yuan's performance that blended smoothly into the banquet, although the "Parasite" crew was the biggest favorite to win this year's Oscars, they were not so well received at the nomination luncheon.

After all, they are a group of Koreans. It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that they are second-class citizens of the United States, but 99% of Hollywood filmmakers are unlikely to pay special attention to them.

They are different from Wu Yuan, who is half of their own.

From director Bong Joon-ho to several actors in the crew, after entering the banquet hall, expressions of nervousness and anxiety appeared on their faces.

Seeing their Asian colleagues looking "out of place", Wu Yuan and Leonardo apologized, picked up a new glass of champagne, and walked towards the "Parasite" crew.

In fact, he is quite interested in Bong Joon-ho, the director of "Parasite".

This young (50 years old) Korean director can be said to be one of the few "international" level directors in Korea.

Although the title of "international" may be a bit exaggerated, it is definitely worthy of this title in the Asian field.

Long before "Parasite", his film "Okja" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes International Film Festival, and his earlier "Snowpiercer" made him the first Korean director to participate in a big Hollywood production.

The reason why he was able to make it into Hollywood is because of the Korean movie "The Host", which is very famous even in China. He directed this movie.

Before "The Host", he had another equally famous work, "Memories of Murder", which is made into commentary videos on the domestic Internet every day. It is also one of the most classic works in Korean movies.

When he filmed Memories of Murder, he was only in his early 30s, and he was definitely a talented director with great potential at a young age. Wu Yuan was naturally interested in making friends with such a director.

Mainly because Bong Joon-ho's films are mainly thrillers and suspense, which is exactly the genre that Wu Yuan is not very good at.

As a director, Wu Yuan certainly hopes to learn from Bong Joon-ho's strengths and make up for his weaknesses.

"Director Bong, and all the excellent actor friends, this is our first meeting. Do you mind chatting?" Wu Yuan walked up to Bong Joon-ho with a smile and also raised a glass of champagne in a toast.

Several actors who came with Bong Joon-ho turned to look at their director.

In Korea, a place with strict class rules, actors have absolutely no right to speak first.

"Ah, Director Wu, it's our first meeting. I'm glad to meet you too." Bong Joon-ho was stunned for a moment, but his expression adjusted immediately. He even looked a little flattered, and it was unclear whether it came from his heart or was acted out.

"I really like your movie 'Departures'. It's very warm and full of humanistic care. But you rarely make movies of this type later on." Bong Joon-ho's English is okay. Although he still has an accent, Wu Yuan can understand him without much effort.

"'Love' counts too." Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows and replied in disagreement.

Bong Joon-ho smiled and said, "Love is also great, but I like Departures a little better."

"I also really like your movie Memories of Murder. When I saw the last shot of the movie, I got goose bumps all over my body." Wu Yuan sighed.

It’s not that he is being polite. Memories of Murder is indeed a classic, and the staring shots in it are even more wonderful.

In the film, the male protagonist Park Doo-man gazes into the camera five times, each time with deep meaning.

The most shocking moment was the fifth gaze. His eyes seemed to penetrate the screen and directly locked onto the murderer. He looked at the murderer who was still on the run across the movie. It not only broke the "fourth wall" of the movie, but also became one of the unforgettable and shocking shots in film history, deeply touching the hearts of the audience.

Judging from this one shot alone, it is not an exaggeration to call Bong Joon-ho a master.

Breaking the "fourth wall" is not uncommon. Since the concept emerged in the last century, a large number of movies have tried this trick. However, the number of movies that can use this lens language well and even become film and television classics can be counted on one hand.

So far, Wu Yuan has not yet captured such an unforgettable classic scene, and I am very envious.

So even though the two are competitors for this year's Oscars, Wu Yuan still wants to have a chat with this opponent.

"This Mr. Song Kang-ho was also the leading actor in Memories of Murder, right?" Wu Yuan smiled and looked at the fierce-looking actor who was standing half a step behind Bong Joon-ho.

South Korea also has good actors. Not to mention those in the TV drama industry, at least in the film industry, there are many actors with superb acting skills, and Wu Yuan is somewhat excited to see them.

"If there is a chance, we must cooperate once." He skillfully began to promise "definitely next time".

But Song Kanghao didn't know that. He thought Wu Yuanzhen liked him and wanted to work with him to make a movie.

Wu Yuan's international status is much higher than Bong Joon-ho's, especially in this era when commercial films are popular. The box office of any internationally released film by Wu Yuan is higher than all the films Bong Joon-hao has made in his lifetime, including the Hollywood "Snowpiercer"!
Any Korean actor would be thrilled to work with such a director.

Song Kanghao, who is always calm, was no exception. He held Wu Yuan's hand with a trembling voice: "I am looking forward to it!" (End of this chapter)