A widower's entertainment

Chapter 403 [The Film Industry is Booming] (Please Subscribe)
The movie "Infernal Affairs" was a huge hit in Hong Kong and was very popular. Xu Feng naturally informed Lin Youcheng of this good news and even invited Lin Youcheng to Hong Kong.

Lin Youcheng wasn't surprised by the success of "Infernal Affairs," given that the script, director, and actors were all excellent. Even though John Woo is known for his violent aesthetics, he was still able to handle a crime thriller like "Infernal Affairs" well, especially since he later directed "Face/Off."

Lin Youcheng's side didn't pay much attention to the success of "Infernal Affairs".

However, Lin Youcheng's indifference does not mean that other film and television companies and producers are indifferent, especially since Lin Youcheng, the screenwriter, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and is undoubtedly the number one screenwriter in China.

That's right, the best screenwriter, the number one screenwriter.

Although there is no absolute first place in literature, Lin Youcheng's current achievements are unmatched by any other screenwriter in China. After all, an Oscar and a screenwriting award at the Cannes Film Festival have made Lin Youcheng an internationally renowned screenwriter.

Now, naturally, many companies are coming to us.

"How to say?"

Seeing Lin Youcheng politely see the person out, Xie Shuhua couldn't help but ask, "Did they ask you to write a script again?"

Lin Youcheng nodded and said, "They want me to write a TV series script."

Xie Shuhua didn't think Lin Youcheng would refuse to write just because it was a TV drama script. After all, Lin Youcheng had written TV drama scripts before. For example, the TV drama version of "The Message" was a completely new story. There were also TV drama versions of "My Brothers and Sisters" and "Lurking". She asked, "Judging from your expression, you probably didn't agree?"

Lin Youcheng shook his head and said with a smile, "I didn't agree. I was surprised that he came here, and the price of 10,000 yuan per episode is not low."

"So many people are asking me to write scripts. I'd write any script if they offered me a price. If I took them all, I'd be exhausted."

Of course, more importantly, Lin Youcheng is not short of money now.

If this were when he was short of money back in Decheng Chunfeng Lane, he would have taken the job without hesitation and worked tirelessly through the night to write the script. But things are different now. Lin Youcheng can write whatever he wants. Of course, Lin Youcheng doesn't want his script to be filmed by unprofessional people, which would ruin the story.

Clearly, Lin Youcheng doesn't just care about money; he also cares about people.

Of course, if it's like Hollywood offering a million-dollar script fee, that's a different story. Lin Youcheng doesn't care which director a Hollywood company hires to direct the film. After all, companies like the US that are willing to spend that much money on a script are bound to take the film seriously. Given the production costs of such a film, he doesn't believe Hollywood companies would be careless. Of course, if he knows a company is unsuitable, he naturally won't consider it.

After all, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures have all had good collaborations, and some of their films were originally produced by those companies in another timeline.

Lin Youcheng had just rejected a domestic person who wanted him to write a TV drama script when other people came knocking on his door. Some of them had even gone through connections to find out where he lived and came to his door seeking cooperation. Naturally, Lin Youcheng rejected quite a few of them as well.

It's not that they're really disrespectful, it's just that so many people are looking for him.

Moreover, he can cooperate whenever he wants, or not if he doesn't. Even if they don't give him face, Lin Youcheng doesn't think it will matter, since these are the people who came to his door looking for trouble and asking for cooperation.

Of course, Lin Youcheng didn't intend to refuse any scripts. In his opinion, it would be best to export some scripts overseas, because the prices in China and abroad are really incomparable. Even if the mainland offered him, a screenwriter, a high price, it really couldn't match the price offered by Hollywood.

In addition, Lin Youcheng is not in a hurry; he doesn't need to rush to finish his manuscript.

However, after the film adaptation of the novel "The Hunt," Lin Youcheng did indeed consider writing a screenplay. Regardless of whether he wanted the screenplay to be published, he naturally needed to write one.

Although Lin Youcheng wasn't in a hurry, he wasn't idle either. Just as Lin Youcheng was writing his script, good news came from the Cannes Film Festival: Chen Aige's "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or.

Although director Hou Xiaoxian had already won the first Palme d'Or for a Chinese-language film before this, it is still quite a sensation that "Farewell My Concubine" has become the first mainland Chinese film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It can be said that the entire mainland film industry is very excited right now.

Before this, there was also good news from the Berlin Film Festival: Xie Fei's film "Woman Sesame Oil Maker" won the Golden Bear Award. Although it wasn't the first Golden Bear Award for mainland China, it was still quite amazing news. In addition, screenwriter Lin Youcheng had previously won an Oscar, making history. All of this excited domestic filmmakers, who believed that this was the best era for film and the most beautiful spring.

Of course, in a sense, this is indeed the case now, and there is no doubt that countless domestic directors yearn for and look forward to such a spring.

Li Shaohong also said with envy, "Congratulations to Aige! It's really amazing that 'Farewell My Concubine' won the Palme d'Or."

Lin Youcheng smiled and nodded when he heard Li Shaohong's words. He felt it was good, at least Chen Aige's "Farewell My Concubine" hadn't lost the Palme d'Or. This movie definitely deserved a Palme d'Or.

Lin Youcheng knew that Li Shaohong was also very envious of Chen Aige winning the award, so he couldn't help but ask, "When do you plan to submit the film 'The Reader' to the film festival?"

Li Shaohong has finished filming the movie "The Reader" and is currently in post-production editing. If filming hadn't ended, Li Shaohong wouldn't have had time to come to Xinghua Hutong to chat with Lin Youcheng about Chen Aige winning the award.

Because Li Shaohong attached great importance to the film "The Reader" and hoped to win an award for it, she naturally put her heart into every aspect. It's worth noting that after initially approaching Lin Youcheng, Li Shaohong also spent a long time working with Jiang Wen to secure the film rights to "The Reader." Naturally, she treated it with utmost care. Later, she had to find actors, especially child actors, which took a long time to find a suitable fifteen-year-old, Zhou Jian, to play the young Jiang Xia in "The Reader." The adult Jiang Xia role was given to Pu Cunxin.

Lin Youcheng did not interfere with director Li Shaohong's casting. Although he did not recall actor Zhou Jian, since Li Shaohong thought the young man was suitable, then so be it. As for the adult Jiang Xia, who would be played by Pu Cunxin, Lin Youcheng would naturally have no objection, after all, Pu Cunxin's acting skills were quite good.

As for the female lead in "The Reader," there are no changes; it is still played by Pan Hong.

"I plan to submit it for review after post-production is complete. If there is enough time, I will submit it to the Venice Film Festival. If there is not enough time, I will submit it to the Berlin Film Festival next year."

Li Shaohong was naturally thinking about the three major film festivals, not any other film festivals. Moreover, it was still early, and she had plenty of time to properly edit the film.

Lin Youcheng nodded upon hearing Li Shaohong's words. He naturally hoped that Li Shaohong's film, "The Reader," could win awards at the three major film festivals. In his opinion, the Berlin Film Festival next year might be more suitable for "The Reader," since the Berlin Film Festival itself is a combination of art and politics. It should be noted that the Berlin International Film Festival was founded in 1951 and has long been committed to revealing political and social realities.

As one of the three major international film festivals in Europe, the Berlin Film Festival inevitably carried a strong political color due to the political background at the time. Of course, despite this, it has developed rapidly in recent years and has long been one of the highest halls of film art. Of course, it still has a certain degree of political influence.

Even if Lin Youcheng didn't say it, Li Shaohong was naturally aware of this. The story of the film "The Reader" is about war and humanity, so it is naturally suitable for the Berlin Film Festival.

Of course, this is not absolute; the most important thing is the choice of the judges on the jury that year.

Director Xie Fei's film "Woman Sesame Oil Maker" won the Golden Bear Award, but it also won a major award for exposing the abnormal marriages of rural women. In fact, this was the reason why Director Xie Fei initially made this film, because the female protagonist embodied something the director wanted to see: the distortion and revival of humanity.

The film's protagonist comes from a poor family. When she was seven, her hometown suffered a disaster, and her father, to ensure the family's survival, sold her to a cripple as a child bride. She toiled like a slave in her husband's household for six years. Later, she ran to Xianghun Lake behind the house, intending to drown herself, but her mother-in-law stopped her in time, advising her: "Just bear with it, it will pass." Who would have thought that this endurance would last for twenty years, enduring countless hardships, and ultimately, for the sake of her mentally challenged son, she would become the executioner who ruined another young girl's life.

However, what's interesting about the later part of the film is that it doesn't simply portray the girl as a victim, nor does it purely showcase the ugly side of the protagonist's humanity. Instead, it analyzes the complexities of both characters' personalities in a more comprehensive and three-dimensional way. Otherwise, the protagonist wouldn't have been able to empathize and understand from a fellow woman's perspective. That's why she utters that unexpected yet absolutely moving line at the end—

Huanhuan, you should divorce Dunzi. Life is too long. Find someone suitable later, and I'll prepare a dowry for you.

Clearly, even such stories are highly distorted and complex in their depiction of human nature.

Li Shaohong looked at Lin Youcheng, remembered something, and said, "Zhuangzhuang, he plans to send his film 'The Blue Kite' to the Tokyo International Film Festival. Actually, I also told him to try out the three major film festivals."

Lin Youcheng raised an eyebrow when he heard Li Shaohong mention Zhuangzhuang's "The Blue Kite".

He certainly knew that Li Shaohong and Zhuangzhuang were classmates, and he must also know that Zhuangzhuang's film "The Blue Kite" was very famous.

However, he is more famous for the things behind the movies.

However, it is clear that Li Shaohong was unaware that because the film "The Blue Kite" dealt with a special period, director Zhuang Zhuang was later punished with a 10-year ban on making films. Although it won the Grand Prize at the 1993 Tokyo International Film Festival, the entire Chinese film delegation withdrew from the Tokyo International Film Festival in protest. During the following ten years, director Tian did not direct any films.

To be honest, after the script was completed, this film, as a co-production, needed to be reviewed. The reviewers suggested that the director revise the parts involving political issues. Director Tian rewrote all the names and the story, and the script was approved. However, during filming, he still shot the original script. Because the film's content did not match the submitted script, the film failed to pass censorship.

Later that year, around the end of the year, someone reported that Tian Zhuangzhuang had illegally submitted his film "The Blue Kite" to an overseas film festival. At that time, higher authorities, through the Film Bureau, inquired with the Yanjing Film Studio about this matter and discovered that the studio was completely unaware of the submission, even though a copy of the film had already arrived in Japan. This violated not only domestic film censorship regulations but also foreign affairs procedures. Although at that time, higher authorities directly contacted Director Tian to understand the situation, explaining that he had made a copy of "The Blue Kite" footage and taken it to Japan for post-production editing, and that it was Japan that submitted the film to the film festival, this naturally prohibited Director Tian from continuing to make films.

Thinking of this, Lin Youcheng couldn't help but say, "The film must be reviewed before it enters the competition."

Li Shaohong nodded and said, "I know that."

Do you know, does your classmate know?

Lin Youcheng thought about reminding Li Shaohong, but he also knew that Director Tian couldn't possibly be unaware of such a thing. It was just that he had taken a risk. You can't persuade someone who is courting death with kind words. Director Tian couldn't possibly be unaware of this matter, and there must have been someone around him who had told him about the possible consequences. He just thought it was no big deal.

Directors like Li Shaohong actually knew this better than he did.

Lin Youcheng naturally didn't say much, only saying, "If you fail the review and then go to participate in the competition, the higher-ups might not agree, and they might even ban you from making movies again."

Li Shaohong smiled and said, "There will definitely be no problem with our film."

Seeing that Li Shaohong didn't seem to care, Lin Youcheng naturally didn't say anything more. The domestic film industry is so hot right now, with everyone winning awards. Even if Director Tian doesn't come along, someone else will come along to cool things down.

(End of this chapter)