A widower's entertainment

Chapter 454 [Chain Impact] (Please Subscribe)
1995 arrived just like that. The TV series "Crossing the Guandong" was still airing on TV, and the heat wave about the Zhu family was still surging in the winter. Undoubtedly, this series really allowed audiences all over the country to watch the show warmly in the winter. Of course, on New Year's Eve, they would still watch the Spring Festival Gala.

Before we knew it, it was Chinese New Year. Unlike last year, the courtyard house was filled with the joy of a new addition to the family, making it even more lively.

Father-in-law Xie Zelin and mother-in-law Zhang Aiqin naturally spent the New Year in Xinghua Hutong. With the addition of elder brother Lin Youcheng's family, it was truly a lively occasion, especially with many joyous events happening at home. Now, Lin Zhaoxi, Lin Zhaoping, and Lin Zhaoqing are all in college, and Lin Zhaoan will also be taking the college entrance exam this year. If Lin Zhaomei can get into the directing department of Yanjing Film Academy, she will be able to enter college a year early. These are all joyous events that make life better and better.

Of course, the biggest joy was the arrival of Lin Zhaoyuan.

This was the biggest joyous occasion for the courtyard house in Xinghua Hutong. Lin Zhaoyuan, Lin Youcheng's beloved daughter, was naturally his favorite. Although it wasn't exactly a matter of favoritism, she was truly a daughter born to Lin Youcheng in his old age. How could Lin Youcheng not care about this little darling?

The New Year's Eve dinner in the courtyard was also very lively, with the whole family helping out. After all, apart from Lin Zhaoyuan, the other children have all grown up. Even if they don't help with cooking, they will help bring out all kinds of dishes. The children can be said to be living better and better now and don't care about the New Year's Eve dinner at all. However, they all know very well that this is the most important day for family reunion. They all stay up together to welcome the New Year and cherish the happiness of this moment.

Of course, when children receive lucky money, they will naturally feel double the happiness at that moment.

Even before the festive atmosphere of the lively Spring Festival had faded, joyous news related to Lin Youcheng came from the United States.

With the Oscar nominations announced, it's fair to say that various indicator films had already given away some clues beforehand. Lin Youcheng's films, "Seaside City" and "Father and Son," are both formidable contenders. Even though "Forrest Gump" is a strong contender, these two films are still likely to receive nominations.

After all, both "Father and Son" and "Seaside City" are undeniably excellent films.

The Oscar nominations have been announced, and Lin Youcheng has two films for which he served as screenwriter, both of which have been nominated for Oscar awards.

"The City by the Sea" received five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, while another film, "After This Our Exile," received five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Editing.

A formidable force!
Although Lin Youcheng's "Father and Son" was not nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, "Seaside City" was nominated, marking Lin Youcheng's fourth consecutive nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

This is truly unbelievable!

If the Oscars hadn't overlooked the script of "After This Our Exile," Lin Youcheng might have had two films nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the same time. But clearly, the Oscar committee didn't allow that to happen.

Last year, Lin Youcheng was nominated for two screenplay awards at the same time, one for Best Adapted Screenplay and the other for Best Original Screenplay. Although he did not win either award, it was still a historic achievement for the Oscars.

Of course, Lin Youcheng now has two films as screenwriter nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, which is also making history.

Of course, the Hollywood media and industry insiders are well aware that the chances of either "Beach City" or "After This Our Exile" winning awards are very low. Even "Pulp Fiction," which won the Palme d'Or, doesn't have a great chance of winning Best Picture, because "Forrest Gump" is just too strong and fits the Oscar judges' choice perfectly.

Lin Youcheng was well aware of this, but it was a pity not only for "City by the Sea" and "Father and Son", but also for the classic film "The Shawshank Redemption".

Of course, the Oscars ceremony hasn't started yet; only the nominations have been announced. But this list of nominees is enough to get news media in the US reporting on it, since this is Lin Youcheng's fourth consecutive nomination for Best Original Screenplay, which is absolutely incredible.

Many media professionals even expressed regret over Lin Youcheng's film "Father and Son," believing that the film should also have been nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

However, it is clear that the Oscars will not allow Lin Youcheng's name to appear twice under the same award.

The news media in the United States will naturally report on this news. Although the chances of winning an award are slim, it will obviously depend on the film company's public relations efforts to secure one or two awards, which requires strong public relations skills.

In other words, it depends on the public relations efforts of Universal Pictures.

Universal Pictures also invited Lin Youcheng to attend the Oscars ceremony, but it was obvious that Lin Youcheng would never go. He knew very well that the biggest favorite was the incredibly righteous and beautiful Chinese dream, "Forrest Gump," especially since Universal Pictures had two films nominated at the same time, and he didn't know how they would handle the public relations.

While films like "Seaside Town" absolutely deserve awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor, it's a pity that "The Departed," which could have won the Oscar for Best Picture, ultimately went home empty-handed because it clashed with "Schindler's List."

But in reality, these things have nothing to do with Lin Youcheng, because regardless of whether he wins an award or not, the talent of Lin Youcheng, this screenwriter from the East, is beyond doubt.

It could even be said that Lin Youcheng's talent as an Eastern screenwriter has been proven once again.

This is why Hollywood film companies are so eager to collaborate with Lin Youcheng, an Eastern screenwriter. Just looking at the films written by Lin Youcheng, it's absolutely worth the frantic pursuit of collaboration by film companies and directors. After all, which other screenwriter can write such classic scripts? This film has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the fourth consecutive year.

That's just too amazing!

More importantly, last year saw a series of impacts from Lin Youcheng. Following the art film *Seaside City*, his low-budget sci-fi film *Coherence* truly opened the eyes of Hollywood industry insiders—yes, it really did. Otherwise, MGM and Paramount wouldn't have invested so heavily. Crucially, after that amazing low-budget sci-fi film, the extraordinary film *After This Our Exile* once again astonished American audiences.

It's fair to say that the continuous barrage of shocks truly terrified American audiences.

However, right after the Oscar nominations were announced, MGM seemed to want to take advantage of the big news that Lin Youcheng, an Eastern screenwriter, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the fourth time, and immediately start promoting Lin Youcheng's next film, "The Butterfly Effect".

Undoubtedly, the release of the film "The Butterfly Effect" also surprised American audiences, as it is another low-budget science fiction film by Lin Youcheng after "The Night of the Comet".

Although the cost of "The Butterfly Effect" was much higher than that of "Coherence," that's because "Coherence" had an absurdly low production cost and was filmed in less than a week. The cost of "The Butterfly Effect" is also quite low, after all, it's a soft science fiction film.

But it was this soft science fiction film that once again showed American audiences the incredible imagination of Lin Youcheng, the Eastern screenwriter.

That's right, it's incredible, unbelievable imagination!
Audiences were also quite shocked by the story of "The Butterfly Effect." Although it's a film about time travel, the entire story is a completely different concept. The protagonist's repeated time travels only lead to more and more irreparable damage to the real world, just like the butterfly effect—a single action can have far-reaching consequences. Audiences never expected Lin Youcheng to write such an astonishing time-travel story.

Unlike previous time travel stories that repeatedly return to before the protagonist's birth to change the ending, this story is entirely different. However, as long as the protagonist is born, he will inevitably experience everything that follows, creating a vicious cycle. Therefore, there is only one way to end this cycle: a stillbirth.

This is truly amazing!
These discussions about some details and plot points of the film can be described as very heated, just like the film's own title, "The Butterfly Effect," which carries a very special meaning.

To American audiences, "The Butterfly Effect" is not just a science fiction film, but a film that can be interpreted and categorized in many ways. It can be a suspense film, a psychological thriller, a love story about sacrifice, or even a science fiction film that imagines time travel...

It's just too amazing and complicated!

Viewers and critics even believe that the film reveals some of the true meanings of life by depicting the confusion and helplessness in the struggle against fate, and the ultimate compromise of self-destruction.

Numerous media outlets and newspapers have reported on the unique science fiction film "The Butterfly Effect," sparking endless discussions and various opinions appearing in American newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times...

The central topic of discussion is—

The Butterfly Effect: What would you do if you had the same abilities as Ivan?

The New York Times even had a film critic praise the movie, commenting: "The world is a web, where one thing affects everything. Even if you change your own choices, you can't change others, so events won't happen as you expect. Even with the ability to go against time and change the past, a perfect life is impossible. Life always has flaws. There may be moments of perfection, or things that are perfect, but there is no such thing as perpetual perfection. What people can pursue is only dynamic balance."

"So when the male protagonist goes against time to change his life multiple times, no matter what the outcome, it will leave behind irreparable regrets. What has already happened can only be moved forward. What can be changed is the present and the future, not the past. But in order to save the girl he secretly loves, he would rather he had never been born. Then the story finally comes to a close. The flashback scenes seem to show that everything has come to fruition, but the male protagonist, who is majoring in psychology, dies. One dies in his mother's womb, and the other dies as an adult due to mental illness."

……

There has never been a story like this before, with the male protagonist so resolutely trying to eliminate himself!
However, from the audience's perspective, everything seems to be the best choice. The protagonist's childhood was marked by several tragedies, which led him to frequently travel through time after discovering his ability to change those tragedies. But for every time he changed one time, another, even more tragic, would occur. The protagonist endured countless torments, ultimately traveling back to his mother's womb and strangling himself with the umbilical cord, extinguishing the source of the tragedy.

Such a science fiction story was absolutely groundbreaking in 1995.

It's worth noting that the original "Butterfly Effect" caused a huge sensation after its release in 2004 in another timeline. Nearly ten years later, "About Time" also had a similar theme. However, Lin Youcheng's "Butterfly Effect" was released in 1995. It was an unprecedented sci-fi concept and idea. For American moviegoers, it was like a butterfly flapping its wings, causing a terrifying brainstorming session throughout North America.

Yes, this movie was incredibly impactful in 1995!

The previous discussions about science fiction films, such as "Coherence," have had a huge impact on science fiction movies. Now, Lin Youcheng and MGM have brought us such an amazing film, "The Butterfly Effect." This is truly a series of impacts that continue unabated.

Of course, or rather, Lin Youcheng's series of attacks began with his original film script, "Every Day".

It's true that every day will bring new shocks, just like Lin Youcheng's fourth consecutive nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, just like the sci-fi film "Coherence" after "Seaside City", then "After This Our Exile", and now the amazing sci-fi film "The Butterfly Effect", the shocks keep coming one after another.

No one knows when the chain reaction of impacts brought by Lin Youcheng, this butterfly flapping its wings, will finally stop.

Perhaps the butterfly effect this Eastern screenwriter has created in the US and even the world will never stop, because once a hurricane forms, new hurricanes will naturally follow in a chain reaction—that's the real chain reaction.

The Butterfly Effect!

(End of this chapter)