A widower's entertainment

Berlin, Berlin Film Palace.

Lin Youcheng naturally recognized the two directors, Li An and Yang Dechang. Although they had never met before, Lin Youcheng knew that these two film directors were quite influential in the history of Chinese-language films.

Clearly, Li An was also worried that Lin Youcheng wouldn't recognize him, so he introduced himself, saying, "Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet—"

Before Li An could introduce himself, Lin Youcheng said with a smile, "Director Li An, hello. I really like your film 'Eat Drink Man Woman'."

Lin Youcheng looked at Director Yang Dechang and said with a smile, "Director Yang, I also really like your movie 'A Brighter Summer Day'."

Clearly, Li An and Yang Dechang were also delighted that Lin Youcheng knew them and had seen their movies; this was undoubtedly a happy thing.

Yang Dechang said with a smile, "I didn't expect you to have seen this movie. I'm really honored. I really love the movie 'Love' that you and Hou Xiaoxian worked on. I was hoping to meet you at the Golden Horse Awards ceremony, but it's a pity you couldn't attend."

The film "Love," which Lin Youcheng and Hou Xiaoxian collaborated on, not only won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, but also won several awards at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, including the Best Original Screenplay Award. However, screenwriter Lin Youcheng did not attend the award ceremony, and Hou Xiaoxian accepted the award on his behalf.

To be honest, this isn't the first time Lin Youcheng has won an award at the Golden Horse Awards. His previous film, "Infernal Affairs," also won the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay. This proves that Lin Youcheng is highly regarded at the Golden Horse Awards ceremony. The Golden Horse Awards organizing committee even wanted to invite Lin Youcheng to be a judge, but Lin Youcheng obviously declined.

In fact, Lin Youcheng's influence in the Chinese film industry is undeniable. After all, Lin Youcheng himself is a frequent nominee for the Oscars and has considerable influence internationally, not to mention in the Taiwanese film industry.

Li An nodded and said, "I've always liked your work and hoped to have the opportunity to get to know you. I never expected to meet you at the Berlin Film Festival."

This was also Li An's true thought. Compared to Yang Dechang, Li An was undoubtedly more aware of Lin Youcheng's influence in the international film industry, especially in Hollywood. He had encountered many difficulties in his first English film, "Sense and Sensibility." He greatly admired Lin Youcheng's popularity in Hollywood.

In particular, Columbia Pictures, the company he collaborated with on "Sense and Sensibility," has always wanted to work with Lin Youcheng. It can be said that he is very clear about what Lin Youcheng's name means to those film companies in Hollywood. Of course, in addition to admiring him, he also sincerely likes Lin Youcheng's works. Not only do they have artistic film stories, but they also have highly commercial story scripts, and some even have both. How could he not admire Lin Youcheng for being so successful in the Western film industry?

"I went to see your recent movie, 'The Sixth Sense,' and it was absolutely fantastic!"

This is also what Li An admires about Lin Youcheng. Even a thriller can be written so movingly by Lin Youcheng. The shocking reversal at the end really surprised him.

Li An genuinely likes Lin Youcheng's work. This film, "The Sixth Sense," is currently very popular in the international film market, and there is no doubt that Lin Youcheng's work has been a great success. Before this, Li An had watched all of Lin Youcheng's works and liked them from the bottom of his heart.

Movies like "Love," "The Truman Show," and "Atonement" all impressed him greatly, not to mention earlier works like "The Devotion of Suspect X" and "Love Letter." He actually really wanted to collaborate with Lam Yau-shing.

Lin Youcheng smiled when he heard Li An's words. In fact, among the real Chinese filmmakers, Li An was the one he admired the most. After all, being able to gain a foothold in the Western film market in Hollywood and win the Oscar for Best Director, and more than once, was truly remarkable.

Yang Dechang nodded and said, "The movie 'The Sixth Sense' is really great."

The movie "The Sixth Sense" has now been released in Europe. Yang Dechang also went to see the movie and was surprised by the twist at the end. Although it is just a story about seeing ghosts, it is really moving under Lin Youcheng's narration. Yang Dechang admires Lin Youcheng from the bottom of his heart and is also very clear about Lin Youcheng's status in the international film industry.

"There was talk before that we invited you to be a jury member at this year's Berlin Film Festival, but I heard you declined?"

Lin Youcheng smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, I came here with my daughter this time. Her short film was shortlisted for the short film category."

Lin Youcheng's words naturally surprised Li An and Yang Dechang. They then chatted with Lin Youcheng's daughter, Lin Zhaomei, and both expressed their determination to watch the short film "Destiny".

Lin Zhaomei was well aware that the two people in front of her were her seniors, and she had also read their works. However, since her father, Lin Youcheng, was talking to the two of them, she naturally kept quiet and listened.

Lin Youcheng met Li An and Yang Dechang at the Berlin Film Festival, so they naturally had a chat and even went to the hotel to have dinner together.

Li An was fine, because he was working with foreign actors this time, and no other actors were with him. As for Yang Dechang, he was accompanied by actors from the "Mahjong" crew, one of whom was the still quite young actor Zhang Zhen. Zhang Zhen was considered a veteran actor that Yang Dechang had worked with since "A Brighter Summer Day".

However, it is clear that these actors all have great respect for Lin Youcheng, because they all like his works very much and are very aware of his status in the Chinese film industry.

Since it was a film festival, Lin Youcheng, Li An, and Yang Dechang naturally talked more about movies.

Since Lin Zhaomei's short film "Destiny" was in the short film section, these two senior directors naturally had time to watch it. Obviously, they were both surprised that Lin Zhaomei, who was so young and just a freshman in college, could make such a special and novel short film as "Destiny".

It's fair to say that this short film generated some buzz at the Berlin Film Festival, though not nearly as much as a feature film. Its unique structure and storyline still sparked considerable discussion. While it's a short film, there was no "Run Lola Run" movie yet at that time, and Lin Zhaomei's 47-minute story isn't actually that short. The two endings and the cyclical structure are also quite novel.

Especially in the opening scene of Lin Zhaomei's short film "Destiny," where the female protagonist runs to school, the most astonishing aspect is the camera angle. The camera is upside down and shakes violently for a long time, perfectly capturing the instability of destiny from the very beginning. This makes the audience, who were initially engaged, lose all emotion. It's as if the audience, who were originally in the same world as the actors, silently watching everything, have now become detached and coldly observing.

This is something that Li An praised, and he couldn't help but say to Lin Zhaomei, "The camera work is very well done, especially the symbolism of the bell, and the ending is also a cycle."

Yang Dechang also shared his thoughts, saying, "Although it's a bit rough around the edges, it has its own ideas. The composition of the first ending scene, where they're producing in the field, is very good. The whole scene is very open, which makes the female protagonist's loneliness stand out even more. The later scene has a moment of silence, which is meant to suggest the female protagonist's silence in the face of fate."

When Lin Zhaomei heard Yang Dechang ask this question, she knew that he was talking about the female protagonist who, after being replaced in the college entrance examination, chose to get married and have children. She screamed in pain during childbirth in the fields, but there was a moment of silence. The sound only came back when the child cried.

That's the idea.

Lin Zhaomei added, "I also asked my sister, and she said that my mother didn't scream during childbirth to conserve her energy. Of course, it was also because the protagonist's life was replaced, and the pain was so intense that she couldn't speak."

Yang Dechang nodded. He didn't know much about Lin Youcheng's family either. Although he knew that Lin Youcheng had several children, he didn't know that Lin Youcheng's eldest daughter, Lin Zhaomei's older sister Lin Zhaoxi, was a medical student and would become an obstetrician and gynecologist. He had naturally consulted Lin Zhaoxi about some issues when filming the pregnancy and childbirth scenes in the short film.

Li An listened to Lin Zhaomei's words and smiled. He really thought Lin Zhaomei was very creative. The handling of the camera and the composition of the film made the whole short film quite wonderful. No wonder it was shortlisted for the short film section of the Berlin Film Festival. He said with a smile, "Zhaomei, your short film is really well made. The story is handled very well."

"This was also a suggestion my dad gave me. He said that since it's fate, two different lives could unfold, making it more conflict-filled."

This is the truth. Lin Zhaomei is well aware that although she wrote the script at the beginning, the two life stories were indeed suggested to her by her father, Lin Youcheng. Her father also revised the script for her later, and there is no doubt that this idea will make the conflict even better.

Li An had naturally heard from Lin Zhaomei that the college entrance exam cheating incident was true. In his opinion, such a plot was easy to understand. After all, there would be exams no matter where you were. If someone else took the exam for you, it was as if your original life had been stolen, and your entire destiny had been changed.

Such a story is inherently dramatic, not to mention that it now involves two different lives unfolding together. In the end, the girl runs back to school, while the protagonist of the other life is a teacher, as if a tragic fate is being reenacted. This cyclical structure adds to the irony and melancholy, like an inescapable cage of fate, from which it is unknown when it will truly be broken.

"What's that actress's name?"

Zhou Xun.

Lin Zhaomei then mentioned Zhou Xun, the female lead in the short film, to Li An. Undoubtedly, Zhou Xun's performance in the short film "Destiny" was quite brilliant, which Li An noticed and even felt that the actress was very talented. Otherwise, Li An would not have specifically asked Lin Zhaomei about Zhou Xun.

Of course, Li An and Yang Dechang gave some affirmation to Lin Zhaomei's short film, but they also put forward their own thoughts, which were not criticisms, but a kind of discussion.

After all, this was Lin Zhaomei's first attempt at making the short film "Destiny," so as Yang Dechang said, there were bound to be some awkward parts. However, overall, the structure and plot of the short film were quite brilliant.

Just as the films were playing and generating a lot of buzz at the film festival, news spread that Lin Youcheng, the screenwriter from the East, was coming to the Berlin Film Festival. Many media personnel at the festival were quite excited. They hadn't expected that Lin Youcheng, who had been invited to be a jury member, would still come to the Berlin Film Festival after declining the invitation. It was truly unexpected and a pleasant surprise.

Media professionals naturally hoped to interview Lin Youcheng, the mysterious screenwriter from the East. As a screenwriting master with such brilliant works, even though Lin Youcheng did not bring any film works this time, Lin Youcheng himself was enough to excite the entire media and newspapers.

Besides this news, other news naturally emerged: Lin Youcheng came to the Berlin Film Festival because of his daughter, whose short film "Destiny" was shortlisted for the short film section. As a result, more attention will naturally be focused on Lin Zhaomei's short film.

This has brought Lin Zhaomei more attention, because she is Lin Youcheng's daughter.

Lin Youcheng, the screenwriter from the East, rarely travels abroad, mainly because of his daughter. In addition, the short film "Destiny" is very exciting, which naturally attracts many overseas distribution companies to want to buy the overseas distribution rights of "Destiny". Undoubtedly, this is also a good thing for Lin Zhaomei, because it means that she will be able to recoup her father's investment and make a profit.

Compared to the excitement of film media professionals, film companies will undoubtedly be even more thrilled.

Columbia Pictures, in particular, was undoubtedly trying to reach out to Lin Youcheng through Li An, as the production company behind "Sense and Sensibility," since Lin Youcheng was communicating with Li An. They also wanted to seek cooperation.

Li An was naturally aware of Columbia Pictures' intentions, and he himself also hoped to collaborate with Lin Youcheng.

After all, who wouldn't want to cooperate with Lin Youcheng?

This person is a Chinese-language screenwriter who has won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and has been nominated for the award four times, possibly even five times. (End of Chapter)