During my years at China Entertainment

Chapter 796 The Award Ceremony: The Candy Man Squad's Dance Moves
The following day, the eight-day Shanghai International Film Festival finally came to a closing ceremony.

Like many international film festivals, the closing ceremony is always more dazzling than the opening ceremony.

Especially during holidays, the number of media, tourists, and fans around the red carpet is comparable to that of the three major European film events and the Oscars.

When Wei Jin arrived at the Shanghai Grand Theatre with Liu Shishi, who was dressed in her finest attire, they were greeted by a bustling and lively scene.

In addition to media reporters, many filmmakers and celebrities who had not been there before also appeared here.

For example, Huang Xiaoming, who was still filming "Legend of Lei Zhenzi", was happily holding Yang Ying's hand as they walked down the red carpet.

Speaking of which, Huang Xiaoming is really a workaholic. He hasn't even finished filming his scenes for "Legend of Lei Zhenzi" yet, and he's already taken on another project, "Xuanzang".

This film is similar in nature to Jackie Chan's "Kung Fu Yoga," both catering to the preferences of higher authorities and contributing to strengthening cultural exchanges between China and India.

Wei Jin learned of this news from Luo Jin a few days ago—the latter had also been invited to participate in the drama.

For example, Chen Shiren, who is currently filming "The Great Wall", is also frequently exchanging ideas with many filmmakers in the industry, along with Chen Hong, who is currently busy promoting "Monk Comes Down the Mountain", and his youngest son, Arthur.

It seems that poet Chen is really paving the way for the next generation.

Of course, the person with the most prestige at the scene was undoubtedly Mr. Wei himself.

Not only filmmakers and celebrities came to say hello, but even the jury members were no exception.

This year's jury president is Andrey Zvyagintsev from Russia, a world-renowned director.

His directorial debut, "Volver," won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000.

Last year's film, Leviathan, won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film earlier this year.

Unfortunately, it ran into Mr. Wei, who poured a lot of money into it, and Leviathan narrowly lost to Distinguished Citizen.

Although he lost the award, the Russian was a decent person and spoke highly of "The Distinguished Citizen".

Golden Harvest's helmsman, Shi Nansheng, is also one of the judges at this year's film festival, but on such an occasion, she and Wei Jin could not possibly discuss work.

Instead, he chatted with Liu Shishi for a bit, praising her for looking beautiful today, which made the young girl overjoyed.

Time flew by during the casual conversation, and one film crew after another stepped onto the red carpet, as did many invited guests from the industry, making the red carpet a dazzling spectacle.

Miss World Zhang Zilin, wearing a custom-made high-slit evening gown, showed off her stunningly beautiful legs;

Chen Qiaoen, wearing a beaded dress, has a petite but curvaceous figure, making her a quintessential sweet Taiwanese girl.

Zhang Xinyu, dressed in a black woven bag-shaped gown, once again leads the fashion trend after the Cannes Film Festival.

Others, such as the dashing Li Bingbing and the pregnant Zhang Ziyi, also competed for attention, exuding their full charisma.

Around 6:30, a staff member came over to remind them that it was finally Wei Jin and Liu Shishi's turn.

At this moment, Liu Shishi was quite excited, and she tightened her grip on Wei Jin's arm.

As a popular actress, this wasn't Liu Shishi's first time walking the red carpet, but it was her first time walking with Wei Jin.

In her eyes, this short red carpet, only a few dozen meters long, resembled the long corridor of their wedding.

The media and fans on both sides seemed more like guests who came to witness her happy moment. It would have been even better if there were a few flower girls scattering flowers.

Wei Jin could somewhat understand the girl's feelings. He nodded to both sides and subtly patted the girl's hand to comfort her.

Amidst thunderous cheers, the two maintained polite smiles as they walked to the end of the red carpet.
Since they were almost the final performers, Wei Jin and Liu Shishi had barely sat down after entering the venue when staff from the organizing committee approached them.

A pretty young woman bowed slightly and said respectfully, "Mr. Wei, hello, I'd like to double-check the procedures with you."

Wei Jin had attended countless award ceremonies like this, and he knew in his heart how long each segment would take.

But the young girl spoke so earnestly that he listened attentively and politely thanked her with a smile afterward.

This action, however, made the girl blush and feel somewhat flustered. After bowing, she hurriedly left.

Liu Shishi, standing to the side, was speechless. This man was like a walking hormone, effortlessly making the young girl's heart flutter.

It's fortunate that the Wei and Jin dynasties didn't have mind-reading abilities, otherwise they would definitely have cried out that they were wronged. Isn't this just basic etiquette?

After the brief incident, the awards ceremony officially began, starting with speeches from leaders, followed by an opening dance performance.

It must be said that the classical dance performed by the girls from the Shanghai Theatre Academy was quite beautiful. Their figures were supple, their clothes fluttered, and it was quite pleasing to the eye.

As for ballet and the like, Mr. Wei didn't appreciate it; his attention was entirely on her white, fleshy thighs.

After a 15-minute opening performance, the host officially took the stage.

Wei Jin was not surprised that Chen Chen was on stage, but he did not expect that she would be paired with the tough guy Hu Jun.

No matter how you look at it, Steve Jobs doesn't seem to fit the image of a professional host.

However, Hu Jun, who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, has a pretty good speaking ability. His delivery of lines for several fringe awards and his collaboration with Chen Chen were quite commendable.

After a series of smaller awards, a still from a Hong Kong actress's film appeared on the LED screen; she had received the Golden Goblet Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wei Jin was not very familiar with this actress who had retired from acting for more than half a century, but judging from the stills, she was indeed a beauty of her generation, no wonder she could captivate the great writer Jin Yong.

Xia Mengren, 83, was in Hong Kong and was unable to attend in person due to health reasons. She specially recorded a video to thank the organizing committee.

At this moment, Wei Jin patted Liu Shishi's hand, got up and left his seat, heading backstage, because the next big award was about to be presented.

Backstage, the jury members were present, along with Sophie Marceau, Jackie Chan, Li Bingbing, and others who were also award presenters.

Upon meeting Wei Jin, the French Flower was very enthusiastic and took the initiative to give him a cheek kiss.

"Wei, it's nice to see you again."

"Sophie, me too."

When "Gravity" was being promoted in Europe, Wei Jin met her. However, the once globally popular French goddess had now faded away, her youth gone.

After exchanging a few polite greetings, Wei Jin then greeted Cheng Long, Li Bingbing, Shi Nansheng, and others.

Before they could exchange more than a few words, a voice came from the front: "Please welcome Brother Cheng Long and Ms. Li Bingbing to present the Golden Goblet Award for Best Actress."

"Director Wei, we'll go now, see you later."

Cheng Long, holding the sealed letter, waved to Wei Jin and the others, as did Li Bingbing.

When the two went on stage to present the awards, Shi Nansheng handed the same envelope to Wei Jin, saying, "President Wei, you and Hao Lei go together."

"Okay." Wei Jin looked at Hao Lei, who was smiling, and nodded in return.

About seven or eight minutes later, Krista Cosson, who won Best Actress for "The Midwife," finished her acceptance speech, and the voices from the front desk started again.

"Please welcome Director Wei Jin and Hao Lei to present the awards."

Wei Jin gestured to Hao Lei, and the two strode onto the stage to the accompaniment of rousing music.

"Wow, Ms. Hao Lei, you look so elegant tonight."

Hu Jun's slightly exaggerated praise drew many whistles from the audience.

However, Hao Lei was indeed very eye-catching tonight, wearing a deep V-neck, backless red dress that attracted countless eyes.

"Brother Jun, I've noticed that men and women really do have different focuses. Handsome guys like Director Wei Jin are much more attractive to me."

"Yes, Director Wei is indeed very handsome. I remember the first time I met him was during the casting for 'Brotherhood of Blades'. At that time, I wondered if he had chosen the wrong major."
However, after working with him, I realized that compared to his good looks, Director Wei's talent is even more remarkable. If he weren't a director, it would be a great loss to the film industry.”

Hu Jun's words resonated with many. If Wei Jin had made a mistake and applied to the performing arts department, where would the three European Grand Slam winners have come from?

After a few lighthearted banter, the two hosts refrained from stealing the spotlight and left the stage to Wei Jin and Hao Lei.

Because the previous awards ceremony went by so quickly, Wei Jin and Hao Lei took on part of the task of stalling for time, and started exchanging compliments on stage.

"Tonight, I am very happy to present an award with Ms. Hao Lei. She is an excellent actress."

“I am also very honored to present this award with the world’s fourth European triple crown winner, an Oscar-winning director, and Asia’s richest man.”

Hao Lei has a round face and looks quite pretty when she smiles. "But Director Wei, you know I'm so talented, yet we've never worked together before. I wonder if there will be a chance in the future?"

"It's hard to say right now. Maybe I'll have a chance when I make art films again."

"Oh? I'll remember that! Ladies and gentlemen, please bear witness!"

"Filming isn't urgent, but our male actors are probably getting impatient. How about we present the awards first?"

As Wei Jin spoke, he opened the letter and read aloud in a calm tone: "The winner of the Golden Goblet Award for Best Actor at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival is..."

At this point, Wei Jin handed the envelope to Hao Lei. She glanced at it, her expression suddenly becoming quite interesting, but she still forced herself to continue reading.

"Deng Chao, Duan Yihong, and Guo Tao, Congratulations on 'The Dead End'!"

Although three eggs were drawn, the applause at the scene was still enthusiastic, perhaps because some people were also looking for a spectacle.

It has to be said, the organizers really know how to have fun, actually having Hao Lei present an award to her ex-boyfriend!
As the three filed onto the stage, the atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

Hao Lei presented awards to Duan Yihong and Guo Tao, and gave them hugs, but skipped Deng Chao in the middle.

Seeing Deng Chao's extremely embarrassed expression, Wei Jin had no choice but to step forward and help him out of the predicament.

Congratulations on winning another Best Actor award!

"Thank you, Mr. Wei."

Next, the three gave their acceptance speeches, while Wei Jin and Hao Lei left the stage and returned to their seats.

The subsequent awards ceremony had nothing to do with the Wei and Jin dynasties; it was all just a spectacle.

But he had to admit that the Shanghai Film Festival was still maintaining its so-called "respectability" as always.

Apart from the Best Director award, which was awarded to Cao Baoping as expected, the Jury Grand Prize and the Best Film award were all won by foreigners.

To be honest, in the past, Wei Jin could somewhat understand the organizing committee's good intentions, since they needed foreign film crews to fill the seats.

However, with the growing strength of China and the increasing prosperity of the Chinese-language market, the Shanghai Film Festival has the confidence to make some changes.

Unfortunately, most people's mindset has not changed.

The Shanghai Film Festival has a long way to go if it wants to regain its prominence.
Perhaps due to the higher-ups' advocacy of thrift and frugality, the film festival organizers did not arrange a banquet.

But this actually made Wei Jin feel much more relaxed, so he invited Chen Zhiming, Ning Hao, Xu Laoguai, Lu Yang, Cao Baoping and others to have a late-night snack together.

I had planned to bring Liu Shishi along, since she hadn't eaten for seven or eight hours.

Unexpectedly, the girl said she wasn't interested and went straight back to Tomson Riviera.

Wei and Jin did not insist on this.

For actresses, late-night snacks are really high in calories, and being with a bunch of men makes it normal to feel uncomfortable.

Wei Jin had no idea that the girl's reluctance to eat a late-night snack was a pretense; her true intention was to prepare a surprise for him.

More than an hour later, when Wei Jin returned to Tomson Riviera, he saw that Liu Shishi and Jin Chen had changed into dance costumes.

"Are they going to dance?"

"Weren't you watching quite intently just now? Jin Chen and I also rehearse dances regularly. Would you like to give us your feedback?"

"of course."

Wei Jin readily accepted the suggestion and sat down on the sofa with an air of authority, while Liu Shishi and Jin Chen danced gracefully to the music.

The semi-transparent gauze dance costume perfectly highlighted Liu Shishi's graceful figure, making her incredibly charming!

Moreover, through the light in the living room, Wei Jin could clearly see the wonderfully beautiful, vacuum-like scenery beneath, which made him feel hot all over.

As for Jin Chen, well, her chest is too small, not very attractive, but her legs are long enough, and her waist-to-hip ratio is great.

Most importantly, the expression on his face was quite sassy!

The song wasn't long, but Boss Wei couldn't resist the urge and joined their dance group.

He definitely couldn't jump; he only learned tango from Meng Ziyi. What kind of classical dance could he possibly dance?

But Boss Wei could flit from one hot body to another like a butterfly flitting among flowers, freely touching and manipulating the two bodies.

And you know what? Sometimes, the ambiguity of certain situations can be more exciting than being completely naked.

During this process, Liu Shishi and Jin Chen were not idle either, and they would occasionally dance together to break free from the constraints of the Wei and Jin dynasties.

Unbeknownst to them, Boss Wei's clothes became less and less, until they became a form of human art. Jin Chen seized the opportunity, pushed him down on the sofa, and ate him in one bite.

~~~
(End of this chapter)