Huayu: Director started with art films

After spending an afternoon with Monica at the Peace Hotel, Li Yishu drove to Hongqiao Airport in the afternoon to pick up Takeshi Kitano, Ichiro Tanaka and the delegation from Toho Corporation.

Takeshi Kitano and Ichiro Tanaka both came to attend the Shanghai Film Festival and came to support Li Yishu.

The delegation of Toho Co., Ltd. mainly went to Hengdian to observe the filming of "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms".

Although there are three producers from Toho Corporation in the crew, producers are producers. For a huge investment of tens of millions of dollars, the senior executives of Toho Corporation, including shareholders, will naturally send people to the scene to take a look.

Li Yishu naturally welcomed this. Only by letting them see the shock brought by the filming of "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" can they do a better job of promoting it in Japan and even continue to increase investment in Chinese films in the future.

To be precise, it was an investment in Lee Ye-su's movie.

Li Yishu can afford the investment cost of several million or tens of millions of dollars for a commercial film, but in the current market in the mainland, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, it may not be possible to recover the cost.

Only in North America can you make money.

Art films have already reached their limit, and Li Yishu can't keep making movies in North America, so she has to find a way to attract investment and find a box office that can recoup costs or even make a profit.

Japan is the most suitable.

Today, Japan is the world's second largest voting base, second only to North America.

Toho Corporation is one of the top film companies in Japan. By seeking investment from them, we can better promote the film in Japan and increase box office expectations.

It's around five o'clock in the evening.

Huanghe Road, Taishengyuan Restaurant.

In the box on the top floor, Li Yishu warmly invited Sophie Marceau, Takeshi Kitano and others to take a seat.

There were more than a dozen people at the scene, filling the large dining table.

Manager Cui stood aside, looking at the guests at the table excitedly. She recognized several of them as big foreign stars. Combined with the identity of the famous director Li Yishu, it was not difficult to guess that these people were all here to attend the Shanghai Film Festival.

There are still two days left before the opening, but the publicity work had already begun last year. Although it has not yet reached the stage of developing a cultural and creative city, the cleaning of the city and the removal of street vendors who occupy the roads have already taken place.

Shanghai TV stations, major newspapers, and people from the street office went door to door to post flyers. As Huanghe Road is one of the most densely populated restaurant areas in Shanghai, it was definitely a focus of publicity.

The kitchen must be clean, the food must be fresh, and inferior products must not be sold as good ones, etc...

The restaurants and hotels on Huang Road had already made preparations, but they never expected that their Moss Shengyuan Restaurant would be the first to receive foreign filmmakers, and a group of foreign filmmakers personally hosted by the country's top director Li Yishu.

Li Yishu said, "Manager Cui, serve all your signature dishes, and tell the kitchen staff to make more sweet dishes. These foreigners like sweet food."

"No problem, Director Li. I'll go tell the kitchen staff right away! The food will be ready in fifteen minutes!"

Manager Cui immediately turned around and left. Before leaving, he asked two waitresses to serve him.

When they got downstairs, Manager Cui went to the kitchen to remind them in person, and asked someone to call the boss and ask him to see if he could find someone who could speak English to come and serve as a waiter.

We can't ask Director Li to act as an interpreter for everything, right?
After half an hour.

The restaurant owner specially hired a temporary worker who was fluent in foreign languages. He stood there and introduced the dishes on the table to these foreign celebrities.

Li Yishu turned the glass on the dining table, pointed at a dish on the table, and said, "Sophie, try this Shanghai-style braised pork!"

"Braised pork?"

Sophie Marceau looked at the brightly colored pieces of fat and instinctively felt a little resistant. These female stars all control their diets.

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Try it, it tastes very good. Have you ever eaten jelly? This is just like jelly, it melts in your mouth."

"Okay, I'll try it then."

Sophie hesitated and scooped a piece of braised pork with a spoon. It smelled fragrant and fresh. She hesitated for a moment, but still took a small bite. It was not as greasy as she had imagined. It was just as Li Yishu said. It started to melt in her mouth before she even took a bite.

After chewing it for a few times, he swallowed it directly. Sophie's eyes lit up immediately: "It tastes good! It really melts in my stomach."

Isabel, who was standing next to him, heard this and immediately scooped out a piece of fat with a spoon. After taking a bite, she said happily, "It's so delicious! Li, how did you make the meat so soft? It seems to melt into water when you put it in your mouth."

"Haha, I don't know about that. Ask Mary."

Li Yishu looked up at the female translator Mary.

After asking Manager Cui, Mary began to talk incessantly about the recipe of the braised pork.

After introducing all the dishes, Li Yishu asked Manager Cui and the female translator to leave, and then the group began to eat and chat.

Because the dishes chosen were all sweet, Li Yishu didn’t eat much and put down her chopsticks after taking two bites.

I looked up and was instantly happy.

They are all eating and fucking wildly!
It seems that these dishes are really suitable for this group of French, Italians, Americans and Japanese.

People in these countries don't eat spicy food much, and the dishes are mainly fresh and sweet. Even in Japan, people have the habit of eating mustard, but mustard and chili are completely different.

Kitano Takeshi noticed that Li Yishu put down his chopsticks and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Director Li, why aren't you eating?"

"I like spicy food." Li Yishu said with a smile: "These dishes are a bit sweet."

Ichiro Tanaka said, "Mr. Kitano, Supervisor Li is from Sichuan, so he must like Sichuan cuisine."

"Soga!" Kitano Takeshi nodded. "I know Sichuan cuisine, Mapo Tofu. I also really liked this dish when I was in Japan."

"Really? Are there many Sichuan restaurants in Japan?" Li Yishu became interested. He had been to Japan countless times, but had never eaten Sichuan cuisine there.

Kitano Takeshi smiled and said, "There weren't many before, but there are a lot now. There are two Sichuan restaurants in Ginza. The food is very good. When Supervisor Li goes to Japan next time, I will take him to try it and see if it is authentic Sichuan cuisine."

"Okay!" Li Yishu nodded and agreed with a smile, but she thought that the Sichuan cuisine in Japan was probably a modified product. Pure Sichuan cuisine is spicy and numb, and people there may not like it.

Sophie Marceau asked curiously: "Li, what is the Sichuan cuisine you are talking about?"

"It's food from my hometown." Li Yishu briefly explained what Sichuan cuisine is.

Nicolas Cage asked, "Is that Chinese food too?"

"Yes, there are many types of Chinese cuisine." Li Yishu smiled and said, "Just like your Italian cuisine, Italian cuisine is not only divided into northern, central, and southern, but also has island cuisine headed by Sicily."

"Lee, how did you know that?"

Nicolas Cage said happily: "I am in the United States, and people only know Italian food, but they don't know there are so many categories."

"Haha, Monica told me that."

Li Yishu looked at Monica Bellucci, and saw her smiling charmingly. "So that's how it is." Nicholas looked at Monica, then at Li Yishu, and nodded with a smile. Suddenly he remembered something, and said, "By the way, Li, will the film Face/Off start shooting next year?"

Li Yishu shook her head: "You have to ask Monica, she is the producer."

Hearing this, Monica said, "Yes, Cage. Face/Off will be filmed early next year. The crew is already preparing for it. Do you have any other work early next year?"

"No, I am now fully immersed in this movie." Nicolas Cage looked excited. He loved the script, which was full of imagination. He could already imagine what kind of surprise the movie would bring to the audience after it was released.

Sophie Marceau's eyes flickered for a few seconds, and just as she was about to speak, she heard Isabelle Adjani beside her suddenly say, "Lee, are you and Cage going to work together on a movie?"

Li Yishu smiled slightly and said, "No, a director under my company wants to work with Cage, but I wrote the script."

Ajani said, "That's great, Li. I've always wanted to work with you, but I heard that you're currently filming a Chinese movie. I wonder if you can give me a chance to audition for this movie?"

Hearing this, Sophie Marceau frowned, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately did not speak.

She has no shortage of roles to play, so there is no need for her to clash with Anjelica Hussein over a movie.

"No problem at all."

Li Yishu readily agreed, looked at Monica, and said, "Monica, ask the company to send an audition invitation to Ajani later."

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"I understand." Monica nodded. It was just an audition invitation, so there was no problem with that. As for whether or not to choose Ajani, that depended on the director's opinion.

To be honest, she is not very optimistic about Anjelica Husband's performance. It's not that her acting skills are bad, but that she is not very well-known in North America. The heroine in "Face/Off" is just a vase role, and there is no point for her acting skills to explode.

Instead of choosing Adjani, it’s better to choose Naomi Watts.

In fact, after sitting at the table, Naomi Watts didn't say a word from beginning to end, but just ate the food silently. When she heard that Anjani wanted an audition opportunity, she subconsciously looked at Li Yishu.

When Naomi Watts saw the relief in Li Yishu's eyes, she instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although she signed with CAA with a Class B contract, CAA's attitude towards her was quite average.

In addition to the fact that Nicole Kidman relied on her superstar husband to suppress her in the company, the main reason was that Naomi Watts did not cooperate with the company and refused to act as a bridge between CAA and Arts Media.

This also resulted in Naomi Watts not being able to get a decent role in almost a year at CAA, even though "Chicago" was a hit in North America in April and her fame soared.

But perhaps because of previous events, CAA chose supporting roles for Naomi Watts, and the pay was not high.

Naomi naturally disagreed with this. She had finally gotten the role of the female lead, and a blockbuster movie at that. If she continued to take these supporting roles, how would she improve her status in the future?

Naomi Watts hasn't taken on any acting gigs in the past six months. It's not that no film crews have approached her, but mainly because there are no suitable roles. The investment costs of these films are not high, and the directors and actors are not well-known.

If she were to film these dramas, she would simply be wasting her hard-earned fame, so she is extremely strict in selecting films.

It is for this reason that Naomi Watts is full of expectations for the movie "Face/Off", which was written by Lee Yi-su. Although she plays a vacant female lead, the production cost is as high as 4000 million US dollars!
With such a big production and the cooperation with Columbia Pictures, the film can be said to have a bright future. I wonder how many female stars are vying for the role of the heroine.

This time, Naomi Watts came to China to attend the Shanghai Film Festival, specifically to find Li Yishu, hoping to get his nod.

Around 9pm.

After taking everyone on a tour of the Bund, Li Yishu sent them back to the Peace Hotel.

During this period, the Bund has undergone significant changes. Countless tall tents have been built, stretching across the entire Bund, with hundreds of them in total.

The reason for setting up so many tents is to screen the participating films during the upcoming film festival.

At present, Shanghai does not have a super-large building like the Cannes Film Palace, and the number of registrations and exhibitors for this year's Shanghai Film Festival is far higher than the expected number, and no suitable venue can be found temporarily.

The organizers discussed with the relevant departments and decided to set up a tent on the Bund as a cinema.

Although it looks simple, the Bund has nice scenery and it is convenient for citizens to come and enjoy and buy tickets to watch foreign films, so it has been unanimously recognized.

However, in terms of safety, control must be strengthened.

After returning to the Peace Hotel, Sophie Marceau and others went back to their rooms to rest.

Monica was exhausted after sitting on a plane for more than ten hours, having a big fight with Li Yishu at noon, and strolling around the Bund in the evening. After talking to Li Yishu for a few words, she hurried back to her room to take a shower and go to bed.

After coming out of Monica's room, Lee Yi-seo went to Naomi Wo's room downstairs.

Fortunately, there is no surveillance now, otherwise it would be difficult for Li Yishu to go downstairs.

Time passes little by little.

In the blink of an eye, it is October 10th, the day of the opening ceremony of the 28nd Shanghai International Film Festival.

Early in the morning.

The road in front of Shanghai Film City has been blocked.

A large number of cars used to transport people blocked the road in front of the cinema entrance.

Fortunately, with the help of traffic police, the situation was quickly restored.

This was not the first time that Li Yishu came to Shanghai Film City. In his previous life, he had come here to attend the Shanghai Film Festival. However, that was more than ten years later. The current decoration style still felt a bit old-fashioned to him.

He first went backstage, met with the organizers and leaders, and began to communicate with everyone about the upcoming opening ceremony.

As the chairman of this year's jury, Lee Yi-shu naturally had to go on stage to give a speech. Moreover, a large number of filmmakers who came to the scene came just for him, Lee Yi-shu, so he had to go on stage to give a speech.

It's almost nine o'clock in the morning.

The previous host has already given his opening remarks.

Backstage.

A leader of the Shanghai Film Festival asked, "Yishu, are you ready?"

"Well, I'm ready." Li Yishu smiled and picked up the manuscript in her hand: "I even wrote a special manuscript!"

"Haha, that's rigorous enough. OK, OK." The leader nodded with a smile and asked, "Director Xie really doesn't have time to attend?"

"Really not. Boss, you know that my movie has such a huge investment. If I come to the film festival and Director Xie comes again, we have to stop production. If we delay for one day, we will lose not only money, but also the project planning of the entire crew."

"That's a shame."

The leader shook his head and said, "Director Xie is the initiator. It's a pity that he can't come to such a grand event like this year's Shanghai Film Festival."

Hearing this, Li Yishu smiled but said nothing. If he were Xie Jin, he would definitely not come. (End of this chapter)