Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 185 [Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils: The Childlike Grandma of Tianshan, Lee Yi-su and Gong Li’s solo exhibition]

Huo Wenxi came in a hurry and left in a hurry.

She is now addicted to entrepreneurship. Although it was Li Yishu who invested in it, Huo Wenxi has already regarded VCD as her own career.

Li Yishu naturally supported this with both hands. If she was looking for a worker, she would look for someone like Huo Wenxi, who was energetic and willing to work.

After Huo Wenxi left, Li Yishu continued filming "Nobody".

Most of the four lines have been filmed so far, and it is estimated that they will be completed in about ten days.

It was almost done by mid-July. It shouldn't have taken so long, but the weather in the mountain city was too hot and stuffy, which meant that the crew could only shoot indoor scenes during the few hours at noon, or simply not shoot and take a break.

Liu Deyi is a fat person and is very prone to heatstroke in the summer. He showed signs of this a few days ago and it took him two days to recover.

Time flies.

A few days passed in a blink of an eye, and after Jiang Qinqin finished her college entrance examination, she started to visit the crew every day.

It's so hard to get the chance to interact with Li Yishu, and without the pressure of art exams and college entrance exams, the little girl can't wait to stick to Li Yishu all day long.

Inside a warehouse.

This place has been arranged into an entertainment venue similar to the later KTV boxes, except with an extra bed.

There are three private rooms in total, all built with wooden boards. They look like normal private rooms from the inside, but from the outside, they are just huge wooden boxes.

The biggest prop cost for this play was spent on this. Including the TV, bed, lights and other scenery, it cost more than 100,000 yuan.

"Damn it, how could these people do this? They really don't respect us brothers."

"That's right, this Dao brother is not like Pao brother at all..."

Li Yishu looked at Lei Han and Liu Deyi who were filming the massage scene. Seeing that the camera was always snapping pictures, he also went around to the next room, where Ma Xianyong, played by Zhang Fengyi, was chatting with the factory director. Next door was the gangster Dao Ge in the play, who corresponded to Dao Ge in "Stone".

What we are filming now is the scene at the beginning of the movie. The three gangs gather in this dream Paris, but they don’t know each other. It is not until the end that Ma Xianyong, played by Zhang Fengyi, connects the various branches and performs the final ending drama.

"Crack!"

Seeing that the performances were good, Li Yishu also shouted, "Take a break for an hour. Let's arrange the stage management to change the props and set, and prepare for the final show."

The next step is to shoot the big ending scene. Several groups of people will gather together, including the male protagonist Ma Xianyong, the female protagonist Ma Jiaqi, the duo of stupid thieves, the gang boss Brother Dao, and the Hong Kong tycoons, all will gather in this small dream Paris.

Just as Li Yishu was directing people to change the stage curtains, Jiang Qinqin ran over and said, "Brother Yishu, Sister Gong Li is here."

Why is she here?

Li Yishu raised her eyebrows. Since her trip to Cannes, she ran back to Jinan to continue tinkering with the "Gong Li Cultural Exhibition Hall".

Originally, Li Yishu wanted to contribute some money, but was rejected by Gong Li, who said that he paid for the venue and she had to do the decoration herself.

Just as I was thinking about it, Gong Li came in from outside the warehouse holding a fan, "My God, this mountain city is really hot. Fortunately, Jinan is not that hot this summer, otherwise I can't do the decoration well."

"This is what mountain cities are like. They have been big furnaces since ancient times."

"It's quite cool in here."

"We installed several high-power air conditioners and electric fans, otherwise this warehouse would be suffocating."

After chatting for a while, Li Yishu said something to the stage manager and took the two of them to find a place to sit down. He smiled and said, "Sister Gong Li, how is your cultural exhibition hall going?"

“The final finishing touches are already being put in place.”

"Except for the interior of the original train station, which I renovated to look like an exhibition hall, I also kept the tracks at the back intact."

Gong Li grinned and said, "At the same time, I also bought a few scrapped locomotives and train carriages from the railway bureau. I plan to renovate the train carriages and build a train restaurant. The kitchen will be in the middle so that it can be passed from left to right."

"A train restaurant? That's so interesting!"

Jiang Qinqin's eyes brightened and she asked, "Sister Gong Li, when will the store open?!"

Gong Li smiled and said, "It will probably be ready by the end of August. I'll invite you to come and play when it opens."

"Yeah, I'll definitely go play then!"

Jiang Qinqin felt that the idea of ​​converting a train into a restaurant was very good. She also knew that the cultural exhibition hall was converted from a train station, and the restaurant was placed inside the train compartment, so the two were closely connected.

Li Yishu didn't expect Gong Li to come up with such an idea, but he hesitated and asked, "Are you sure anyone wants to eat in the train compartment restaurant?"

Nostalgia is not popular in China now. Green trains can be seen everywhere, and people are more willing to eat in restaurants decorated in Western style.

"There must be."

Gong Li said confidently: "I have hired someone to reinstall the carriage. I took down all the chairs and replaced them with double and four-person tables and chairs. I also installed air conditioners and electric fans, and we have both Chinese and Western food."

Li Yishu touched his nose. He felt that it was not very reliable. Now was not the future. Unless the price was not high, no one would be willing to eat at this nostalgic green train restaurant. Seeing him like this, Gong Li could not help but see what he was thinking. She shook her head slightly and said, "I don't expect to make money from this. As long as it can be self-sufficient, it would be good to have more jobs."

Li Yishu nodded: "That's true."

"Sister Gong Li, what kind of culture does your cultural exhibition hall mainly exhibit?"

"It's quite mixed, but it's basically from Jinan. It can be considered Shandong culture."

At this point, Gong Li looked at Li Yishu and said with a smile, "Of course, there is also my and Director Li's personal film exhibition."

Gong Li specially added an extra area in the exhibition hall of the train station, the personal film exhibition of Li Yishu and Gong Li, which includes movie posters shot by the two of them in recent years, some behind-the-scenes photos including the honors they have received, etc.

Hearing this, Jiang Qinqin became even more interested: "Then I'll have to take a good look at it. Sister Gong Li, if I make a movie in the future, can you include me in it?"

"Haha, of course no problem."

Gong Li smiled cheerfully and said, "I have specially reserved a large area, thinking of adding something in the future. Qinqin, it just so happens that you will ask your brother Yishu to make some movies in the future, so I will also add a film festival for you."

"Yeah." Jiang Qinqin nodded excitedly.

"correct."

After chatting for a while, Gong Li suddenly remembered something and asked, "Yishu, there is a director in Hong Kong who wants me to act in a movie, and it's a martial arts movie."

"What martial arts movie?"

"It's adapted from Jin Yong's Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. It seems that there are two female protagonists, the other one is Miss Lin."

"Qingxia?"

"is her."

New Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils: The Childlike Grandma of Tianshan

In fact, Li Yishu also wanted to make this film, just because Gong Li and Qingxia looked so good together.

However, the plot of this movie is a bit thin, and the adaptation is a bit too much, completely following the later fantasy style.

In addition, after Lee Yi-su filmed "Sword Rain", she didn't want to make another martial arts film in the short term, so she gave up.

Unexpectedly, after many twists and turns, the director of this movie still wanted to ask Gong Li to play the role.

Li Yishu said, "Since Qingxia is also involved, I think the script shouldn't be too bad. If you have nothing to do recently, you might as well give it a try."

"I think so too."

Gong Li nodded: "Zhang Yimou has finished writing the script for To Live, but filming will not start until September or October. I don't have much to do right now, so it would be nice to work with Miss Lin."

"Has Director Zhang finished writing the script for To Live?"

At the end of last year, Zhang Yimou was preparing to shoot "To Live", but because his previous films of the same period, "Ju Dou" and "Raise the Red Lantern", did not have a very good reputation in China, many people criticized him in the newspapers.

This time they were going to shoot another contemporary theme, so rumors were bound to arise. As a result, Zhang Yimou had to postpone the filming until the beginning of this year before he negotiated the adaptation with Yu Hua. It took him more than half a year to write the script and look for locations.

Gong Li nodded: "Yes, I have finished writing it. We were originally planning to start filming this month, but the weather was too hot and not suitable for filming, so it was postponed to September or October. It just so happens that there are winter scenes in the movie."

"It looks like Director Zhang is going to win another award this time."

In Li Yishu's opinion, this movie can be regarded as the best film directed by Zhang Yimou. Even "Red Sorghum", which is hailed as a classic of a generation, did not give him the same feeling as this movie.

"We haven't even started filming yet, so it's uncertain whether we'll win an award or not."

Gong Li shook her head and said with a smile, "By the way, I forgot to congratulate you, Yishu. Farewell My Concubine won the Best Film Award at the San Francisco Chinese International Film Festival."

Li Yishu smiled bitterly and said, "It's just a small award. I heard from Amy who attended the event that there were only about 80 directors who went there, and most of them were Chinese Americans. I have never even heard of their names or works."

"I have already told Amy that I will only attend the Tokyo International Film Festival in September, the Warsaw Film Festival in Poland in November, the Golden Globe Awards in January next year, and the Blue Dragon Film Awards."

At first, Xu Suo discussed with Amy and decided to register for more than 30 film festivals or film shows, including niche film festivals in Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries.

To put it bluntly, it is actually just to sell the copyright, but who could have known that it would win the Cannes Palme d'Or and naturally no longer need these small awards.

“A small prize is still a prize.”

Gong Li smiled and said, "And I read in the newspaper that this Chinese International Film Festival is actually quite good, but it's not well-known. This time even a director like you who won the Cannes Palme d'Or attended it. I guess there will be many Chinese directors attending next year."

Li Yishu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. After all, what Gong Li said was really possible.

Other directors are taking advantage of the popularity and fame of the film festival, but in his case, it is purely the film festival taking advantage of his fame.

(End of this chapter)