Entering the Chinese entertainment industry is like entering a deep sea

Chapter 835 Another Attempt at the Palme d'Or

Liu Yifei is pregnant, and her home is constantly filled with guests.

The artists from Rong Chen's group would visit the boss's wife almost every few days, bringing all sorts of gifts.

Song Qian is the one who came to visit today.

"Where's the boss?" Liu Yifei, heavily pregnant, gestured for Song Qian to sit down, and Song Qian asked.

"I went to the company. Mr. Li from CJ is here," Liu Yifei said casually.

"Is post-production of 'Parasite' finished? Is it going to be submitted to the Cannes Film Festival?" Song Qian reacted quickly, immediately thinking of Parasite.

Liu Yifei nodded and smiled, "Let's not talk about that. Just because your boss isn't here, doesn't mean you won't come to see me."

Song Qian smiled and said, "It's better that the boss isn't here, so I can have a private chat with you."

Song Qian whispered a few words in Liu Yifei's ear, and Liu Yifei smiled sweetly: "No wonder you look so radiant, you're in love! Oh, I'm so envious of you, your boyfriends are all so handsome."

Song Qian was secretly pleased, but her face showed only speechlessness: "Don't make fun of me. You have a boss, why would you care about a handsome guy!"

Liu Yifei chuckled; she truly didn't envy any handsome boyfriends.

What's the use of a handsome boyfriend? The key is that he can be relied upon.

In the entertainment industry, handsome men and beautiful women come one after another, and she's gotten tired of seeing them.

After Song Qian left, Xie Nan and Liu Yan came to visit again with their bags.

The three of them are here to deliver invitations to Bao Bei'er's wedding next month.

Liu Yifei and Li Chen naturally wouldn't go; if they did, wouldn't they be stealing the spotlight from everyone else?
Around 5 p.m., Li Chen returned from the company, but both groups of people had already left.

Liu Yifei brought up Song Qian's relationship with Li Chen, something Yang Siwei had mentioned to him before.

He doesn't care about the relationships between celebrities; as long as there are no major flaws, they can date whoever they want.

The Hong Kong Film Awards are opening next month, and Chen Kexin and Christopher Doyle visited each other that evening.

Liu Yifei is unlikely to go, but if Li Chen doesn't go either, then La La Land will only have their four-person Hong Kong group left.

The Hong Kong film industry is now in decline, whereas back then, mainland artists were desperate to get into the Hong Kong film circle.

Now, apart from Hong Kong filmmakers, almost no mainland filmmakers attend the Hong Kong Film Awards.

The artists under Rong Chen's group are even more disrespectful, refusing to walk the red carpet at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards without having any work to show for it.

The example of Zhang Ziyi from back then serves as a stark warning. It's one thing to be met with indifference after trying to curry favor, but the most humiliating thing is that a renowned international actress who was once a Zhang Yimou's leading lady was made a laughingstock by Hong Kong filmmakers, which is a disgrace to mainland filmmakers.

Given Li Chen's current status, even if you guaranteed him a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, he wouldn't care.

Although he produced several Hong Kong films, his original intention was definitely not to support Hong Kong cinema.

Coincidentally, Zhang Ziyi, who was humiliated back then, is also sending out invitations throughout the entertainment circle, planning to hold a grand 100-day celebration for her daughter next month.

Although the date wasn't chosen to be April 3rd, the sheer scale of the event made it seem like they were trying to steal the guests from the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Liu Yifei already has both the Venice Film Festival Best Actress award and the Oscar Best Actress award, so she doesn't care whether she wins the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress or not.

"If neither of us goes, won't the Hong Kong media say we look down on the Hong Kong Film Awards? Or that you're being arrogant?" Liu Yifei asked as soon as her husband saw Chen Kexin and the others off.

"So what if the Golden Rooster Awards have accused me of being arrogant all these years? As long as you have the talent, the rules are just for show," Li Chen said arrogantly.

"Look at Ali, he attends all sorts of banquets dressed in cheap clothes from Taobao! Aren't there many people criticizing him? But he just keeps wearing them."

"Did I star in 'La La Land' just to win a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor?"

Liu Yifei chuckled: "Sigh, this person might only have this one chance in their lifetime to win Best Actor, so they don't want it."

Just now, Chen Kexin and Du Kefeng meant that if Li Chen went, he would most likely win the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. Andy Lau also called Li Chen, but unfortunately, Li Chen didn't care about the worthless title of Best Actor at all.

As for Zhang Ziyi's daughter's 100-day celebration, Li Chen and Liu Yifei will definitely not attend.

Even Zhang Yimou, a teacher, isn't going; why is he going to join in the fun?

According to Yang Siwei, the Huayi Group is sending a delegation, seemingly hoping to sign Zhang Ziyi.

The news that Li Meijing and the Cannes Film Festival selection director appeared at Rongchen Pictures quickly became a trending topic and headline news in major media outlets.

Sina Entertainment Exclusive Report
"Cannes giants reunite! Frémaux and Li Meijing meet secretly with Li Chen, and RC joint venture's 'Parasite' aims for two Palme d'Or awards."

"On March 21, 2016, a closed-door meeting, regarded by the industry as the 'Cannes Summit', was held at Rongchen Pictures' Beijing headquarters, Jinxiu Mingzuan."

"Reporters witnessed Thierry Frémaux, the Cannes Film Festival's selection director, and Lee Mi-kyung, vice president of South Korea's CJ Entertainment Group, arriving one after the other and holding a lengthy meeting with Lee Chen, the head of Rongchen Pictures."

"The core of the three-party secret meeting was the dark comedy thriller 'Parasite,' directed by Li Chen and produced by RC Entertainment, a joint venture between Rongchen Pictures and CJ Entertainment. This meeting was not an ordinary prelude to the 'Cannes Film Festival.'"

"It's more like an accomplished 'protégé' director, along with his business allies, launching another major assault on the highest honor, the Palme d'Or."

"Unlike the tense atmosphere when a new director seeks recognition, the atmosphere at the meeting that afternoon was much more relaxed."

“Frémaux was an old acquaintance of Li Chen’s. They had a close personal relationship since “Shoplifters” won the Cannes Film Festival eleven years ago. After the meeting, Li Chen saw the two off with a smile.”

"Fremo even said 'The movie is very good' to the reporter in Chinese before leaving, leaving a lot of room for imagination."

"If Parasite wins its second Palme d'Or, it will solidify Li Chen's historical status as a world-class film master."

"Although Rongchen Pictures and CJ Entertainment have remained silent on the matter, the eyes of movie fans around the world are already burning with anticipation for the Mediterranean coast in May, awaiting a possible historic coronation."

As soon as news of "Parasite" broke, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige also became trending topics.

Although Jia Zhangke and Wang Quan'an also have Golden Lion and Golden Bear awards.

But there are only three internationally recognized directors: Li Chen, Zhang Yimou, and Chen Kaige.

Jiang Wen is a level below. Section Chief Jia and Bald Wang have awards, but their influence is not on the same level as that of a poet, let alone Li Chen and Zhang Yimou.

"If Leonardo DiCaprio wins another Palme d'Or, he'll be the world's first director to win three Palme d'Ors, a director with two Palme d'Ors. He'll surpass Zhang Yimou in both awards and box office!"

"The poet is even more aggrieved than Tao Jingying! His bold statement eleven years ago: to open up a new world of cinema. Now it has long been forgotten in the long river of history."

"The poet is busy building the city. What's there to complain about? The 3 billion yuan Tang City is already taking shape! They've even done the landscaping! 20,000 saplings have already grown strong."

"Money really can buy anything! Three billion!"

“You can question my ability to write scripts, but you can’t question my tireless efforts to promote urbanization! After all, this isn’t the first time I’ve built skyscrapers from scratch.”

"The Legend of the Demon Cat is my painstakingly crafted comeback film, Director Chen. Just you wait and see!"

"A great attempt or a tragic failure? It's another fantasy story. Two generations of Palme d'Or winners, one ascended to the top in 2005, while the other fell from grace. Was it fate or a cruel joke?"

"Director Chen's work this time is not original. The first screenwriter of 'Legend of the Demon Cat' is Wang Huiling, the screenwriter of 'Lust, Caution' and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'!" The internet is divided into two factions: those who support Li and those who support Chen, but there are too few people who support Chen Kaige.

Chen Hong was so angry that she got angry, and Chen Kaige almost lost his composure.

Neither Li Chen nor Chen Kaige responded; the two sides had already fallen out over "The Taoist Priest".

At the Xiangyang Tangcheng Film and Television Base, both Chen Kaige and Chen Hong looked unwell.

The staff all walked around the two of them.

"I should have advised them to properly manage these bastards at the meeting!" Chen Kaige said with a gloomy face. Chen Hong, who was standing next to him, knew exactly who the bastards he was referring to were.

The couple both believed that Li Chen was behind it all. Prejudice in people's hearts is a mountain, and the fact that the Taoist priest failed to come down from the mountain in time made their hatred for Li Chen reach an extreme level.

Even though he's not in Beijing, Li Chen made it to the trending topics and he was even attacked by these online trolls.

"Sigh, what can we do? Evil people like him will always be punished by other evil people! Let's see how long he can keep laughing." Chen Hong now loathed Li Chen to the extreme.

The couple who disgusted them back then, Chen Kexin and her husband, actually won the Golden Lion Award and even appeared on the Oscars.

On the other side, Li Chen and Liu Yifei, a married couple, also talked about this matter.

“From the moment I won the Palme d'Or, it was destined that I would become estranged from Chen Kaige sooner or later. If the Palme d'Or is not the only one, then my status will be greatly reduced.”

Liu Yifei knew that the comments online had nothing to do with her husband, so she nodded and said, "That's true. If I hadn't married you, I might be arguing with some '85 Flowers' right now. It seems that Tangtang and Yang Mi have broken up."

Li Chen glanced at his wife in surprise, then patted her round face and laughed, "You've actually come to your senses?"

"Now you're feeling smug, isn't that what you wanted to hear?" Liu Yifei said with a light snort, pushing her husband's large hand away.

Li Chen laughed heartily: "That's how it is in every circle. Unless you're high above and have no competition, even if you don't want to compete or fight, your fans won't agree."

Li Chen had done what he was supposed to do with "The Taoist Priest," and he didn't regret turning against Chen Kaige, Cheng Long, and others.

It's truly laughable that these people don't look for problems within themselves.

If Chen Kaige and his wife truly had backbone, they wouldn't have accepted Cheng Long's investment for "The Legend of the Demon Cat".

The latest episode of "Ace vs Ace" has aired, and netizens finally understand why Meng Ziyi only sang one line in the theme song of "Ode to Joy".

In the latest episode of "Ace vs Ace", Meng Ziyi sang "There's Always Happiness Waiting for You" in its entirety on stage. As a result, netizens were collectively taken aback.

On the trending topics, I saw the hashtag #awful# for the first time, and hashtags like #MengZiyiIsNotLipSinging# and #MengZiyi# quickly rose to the top of the trending topics.

Netizens flocked to comment and criticize.

"I'd rather meet a jerk than listen to Sister Meng sing!"

"Sister Meng is so cute. This is the first time I've seen an artist sing a song with such a serious expression."

"If Sister Meng were to enter the music scene, she would crush all those rappers."

"Even though I've listened to 'Happiness Is Always Waiting for You' many times, I still can't tell that Sister Meng is singing the same song!"

Surprisingly, although Sister Meng's voice was frightening, she gained 52 followers overnight.

The next morning, Meng Ziyi opened her eyes wide, rubbed them, and thought she was seeing things.

I checked again, and it's true, I did gain 52 followers.

This made Meng Ziyi extremely excited.

Ignoring the teasing comments on WeChat, he quickly sent a WeChat message to Liu Yifei.

"Sis, I've made up my mind! I'm going to pursue my singing career to the very end! Please tell my boss I'm sorry! I gained 52 followers overnight—even professional singers didn't gain followers as fast as me!"

Liu Yifei laughed until her stomach hurt, then showed the WeChat message to her husband.

Li Chen wasn't surprised at all; throughout history, only Sister Meng could leave Xue Zhiqian completely bewildered.

Meanwhile, Yang Siwei also received invitations from six variety shows for Meng Ziyi.

Yang Siwei was dumbfounded. In all her years as a manager, she had seen people become famous with just one song.

But this is the first time she's seen someone become famous for being #awful#.

"Boss, it looks like Sister Meng has found her own path."

Yang Siwei laughed and said, "When the boss asked me to sign her, I thought that apart from being pretty and a bit shameless, this girl didn't seem to have any other highlights. We don't lack pretty faces."

"Now it seems that the boss had a keen eye after all. Sister Meng has really opened a new world for me. This works too!"

The topic of Meng Ziyi remained popular for two days after she started singing, and everyone thought that such a strange thing would be over once the hype died down.

Who knew that from then on, whenever Sister Meng appeared on a variety show, the production team would ask her to ruin a classic song.

The strangest thing is that the original singers don't mind Sister Meng ruining their original works, because most of the songs Sister Meng sang have become popular again.

China Economic Net reported

"A shell company valued at 8 million?"

"Tangde Film & Television announced last week that it plans to acquire 51% of the shares of Wuxi Aimeishen Film & Television Culture by Fan Bingbing in cash. The news caused an uproar in the market."

"Aimeishen, which was established less than a year ago, has a registered capital of only 300 million yuan. It is such a shell company, but Tangde Film and Television announced that its valuation is no less than 7 million yuan. The market estimates that its final valuation may reach more than 8.5 million yuan."

"Based on Tangde Film & Television's announcement, the valuation of Aimeishen in this acquisition will not be less than 7 million yuan, while most financial institutions estimate it will exceed 10 billion yuan. This move has prompted many shareholders to leave comments: 'Fan Bingbing is here to steal money from shareholders.'"

Fan Bingbing was quite wronged. Compared to Princess Huanzhu, her role as Jin Suo was nothing.

Moreover, Fan Bingbing's commercial value is undeniable. In Li Chen's view, Fan Bingbing's Aimeishen is far more valuable than Feng Xiaogang's Japanese Mela.

If Fan Bingbing hadn't been caught later, Tang De would probably have already recouped his investment.

The two shareholders of Tangde Film & Television are none other than Huanzhu Gege and Jin Suo, it's just that Huanzhu Gege is keeping a low profile.

Backed by the powerful investor Huang Ama, his public relations skills are more than ten times better than Fan Bingbing's, fooling his brainless fans and shareholders.

Li Chen called Yang Siwei and said only four words: "Almost done."

Yang Siwei simply replied with two words: "Understood."

On April Fool's Day, April 1st, the topic that sparked the trending searches was the two lead actors of the new film "Without Your Love" based on "Princess Pearl": one Japanese and the other a Taiwanese who dared not openly say "I am Chinese."

On the set of "Without Your Love," filming has been underway for twenty days, and everything is progressing smoothly.

Zhao's assistant frantically grabbed his phone and found Zhao: "Something's happened, Mr. Zhao."

(End of this chapter)