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Chapter 232 Mysterious
At the beginning, there were still some small awards.

What Huang Ze didn't expect was that

Before the two awards were given out, the name of "A City of Sadness" appeared.

UNESCO Prize.

Hou Xiaoxian went up to receive the award with a smile on his face, leaving Cai Songlin to ask Huang Ze with deep concern after applauding, "What kind of award is this?"

"I heard that the higher the prize is, the less valuable it is."

“The biggest prizes are reserved for the latter.”

"Yes, you heard it right." Huang Ze nodded. "I haven't studied what kind of work this award is given to, but it can be said that it is a very small award. It can't be said that it has no effect on promoting film sales, but it can also be said to be very small."

"..."

"Your way of saying this made me so happy for nothing." Cai Songlin laughed awkwardly and wiped his sweat. "Then can we still win the award next time?"

"Didn't I tell you? The Golden Lion Award!"

Huang Ze certainly knew why Cai Songlin came here.

All rights and interests of Wanwan in "A City of Sadness" belong to him. There is actually no point for him to come here, but he still came.

There is an element of joining in the fun, but Huang Ze feels that Cai Songlin wants more to follow the path of the Big Three, and then invest in director Wanwan to impact the Big Three and make money from it.

But, this guy is stealing my food!
There are still many directors of art films in Taiwan. If he takes advantage of his proximity to the mainland and takes all the credit, what will we eat in the future?

Money is secondary. Making money from movies is not as fast as selling records myself.

But what about the name?
What about that huge fame?

Therefore, I have to pretend to be mysterious and profound, and act like I know the Big Three so well that you can't even imagine it. If you dare not give your brothers a share, you won't be able to win the prize.

After saying this, seeing that Cai Songlin wanted to laugh, Huang Ze's face turned serious, with a little disdain, "What's wrong, I said Jin Shi, Brother Cai, you still don't believe it, right?"

"Ah?" Seeing Huang Ze's expression, Cai Songlin was also confused, "Did you guess?"

"Can you guess right every time? Do you think I'm Jesus?"

Huang Ze showed an expression that said you know what I mean, stopped talking, and turned his head away.

Recall your performance just now.

Well, well acted!

Deserves a Golden Broom for Best Actor.

If "A City of Sadness" could win the Golden Lion as expected, Cai Songlin would have been dominated by his own CPU.

If something unexpected happens, you cannot get the Golden Lion.

What? You just won a UNESCO award and you still have the mood to blame me for not saying the right thing?
Isn't this normal?

There are more than a dozen judges on the stage. It's a very complicated matter. I can only say that those who understand will understand. I won't explain too much to those who don't understand. After all, it's enough for you to know it yourself. Think about it carefully. Don't ask me why. The interests involved are too great. It won't benefit you or me to explain it...

Having thought of the escape route, Huang Ze naturally continued to pretend to be confident as he watched Hou Xiaoxian, who had just finished his acceptance speech, walk down.

After he returned to his seat, Huang Ze asked him with concern, "Have you prepared your acceptance speeches for other awards?"

"Of course!" Hou Xiaoxian smiled sheepishly. "It's not hard to write a speech to accept the award. I prepared three copies just to be on the safe side."

"Wow! You have big ambitions!" Huang Ze was completely fine.

Cai Songlin, who heard the conversation between the two, glanced in Huang Ze's direction suspiciously, touched his chin subconsciously, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Could it be that Huang Ze is fooling me?

Not sure.

After all, this guy has won a Golden Lion and a Palme d'Or. I heard that he was also involved in "Red Sorghum" which won the Golden Bear. Maybe he has stepped on many people here.

"Hey, why worry about these things?" Cai Songlin shook his head slightly, "Won't we know whether it's a scam or not just by looking at the final result?"

He believed that the rumor that Huang Ze was able to guess the highest prize was probably because Huang Ze had a high level of film appreciation ability. He analyzed all the films in the main competition unit thoroughly and also analyzed the preferences of the jury members.

Plus a little bit of luck, this is the result.

Huang Ze just came to Venice yesterday. He stayed in the hotel all day and didn't go out to watch other films.

If you can guess correctly, there are only two possibilities.

First, he was extremely familiar with the area, as someone had already told him who would win the top prize.

The second thing is that this person has incredibly good luck, the kind that is blessed by luck!
“If it really is the Golden Lion Award for A City of Sadness.”

"No matter which type he is, it is very necessary to make friends with him in the future!" Cai Songlin's eyes showed awe and suspicion at the same time. He raised his head and stared at the podium, quietly waiting for the final award to be given.

Awards were presented one by one.

After a bunch of awards such as the UNICEF Award, the Horizon Award, the International Film Critics Week Award, and the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Best Actor award was a double yolk, given to the two actors of "What Time Is It Now?"

Coincidentally, the Best Actress award was also a double yolk, given to Geraldine James and Peggy Ashcroft, and the title of the film echoed the title of the actor's film, called "She Left Early".

When it came to the Silver Lion Award for Best Film, Huang Ze was speechless. He gave double yolks to "Memories of the Yellow House" and "Sen no Rikyu: The Legacy of Honkakubo".

The latter is a Japanese director named Xiong Bingqi.

Huang Ze had a deep impression of him. In China, one of his works was very famous, called "Homesickness", which told the story of how large numbers of poor girls from Neon were forced to be sold to Southeast Asia to engage in special service work from the end of the shogunate to the beginning of the Showa era.

Huang Ze still remembers the last scene of the film. They all turned their backs to the neon lights and slept in the ground. "Homesickness" did not want to look back at the hometown.

Watching the two directors walk down, Huang Ze took a deep breath and his heartbeat quickened.

The main event is coming.

Whether this guy can finish pretending completely today and completely scare Cai Songlin depends on this last round!

The award presenter on the stage also knew that this final award was the biggest one, so he did everything slowly, smiling at the camera while doing it in slow motion.

"The winner of the Golden Lion Award at the 46th Venice Film Festival is A City of Sadness!"

"Congratulations, Hou!"

The applause of "pa pa pa" rang out like thunder and was given to Hou Xiaoxian.

Hou Xiaoxian looked at Huang Ze in disbelief, "Mr. Huang, you actually got it right."

"Haha, it's so accurate." Huang Ze laughed and hugged Hou Xiaoxian.

"Thank you for investing in my movie." Hou Xiaoxian recalled that day two years ago. Thinking about it now, it feels like a dream. The other party agreed to an investment of NT$30 million all at once.

To be able to achieve such a result today is indeed a good story.

"You're welcome. There's no need to thank me. We're all filmmakers."

"Old Cai, stand up and congratulate me!" After the hug, Huang Ze called Cai Songlin.

"Oh!" Cai Songlin was in a daze. When he heard Huang Ze calling him, he stood up and hugged him, said something like congratulations, then sat back in his seat and continued to be in a daze.

He couldn't help but be dazed. At this moment, the shock in Cai Songlin's heart was even stronger than that of Golden Lion Award winner Hou Xiaoxian.

Since he came to the Venice Film Festival, he knew everything that everyone probably knew.

If he remembered correctly, the judges were not allowed to have contact with anyone involved in the competition.

Then the problem is coming.

How did Huang Ze do it?
Even if he didn't do anything and "A City of Sadness" was of good quality, how did he know in advance that it would win the Golden Lion?

Moreover, Cai Songlin is engaged in the film and television industry in Taiwan. The water is so deep. He doesn't believe that there is no water in Venice. Venice is the water city. Just based on its reputation, there can't be no lack of water.

So, "A City of Sadness" really didn't work?

"Silk!"

Cai Songlin took a breath of cold air.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that Huang Ze is unfathomable. I must make friends with him in the future!

"It seems that if you want to get a movie into the top three in the future, it's better to bring Huang Ze along and give him a share, so that we can make the pie bigger together."

"Old Cai, what are you looking forward to?" Huang Ze, who was applauding, looked back at Cai Songlin and saw that his eyes were full of anticipation, so he asked.

"I wonder how much box office this "A City of Sadness" can sell as our first three major trophies."

"Why don't you try your best to boost the box office of The Last Emperor?"

"Don't joke with me, that's impossible!" Cai Songlin smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Taekwondo costs 1.17 billion Taiwan dollars!"

"That was the first Taekwondo movie to have a box office of over 100 million yuan over there."

"If we convert it to Taiwan, multiply it by ten, and then convert it to US dollars, the box office will be 10 million US dollars."

"If you give it to me, the profit will be enough to wake me up in my dreams in the middle of the night."

"By the way, Mr. Huang, how much is your copy of God of Gamblers?"

"Let's not talk about this for now. Director Hou is going to give his acceptance speech." Huang Ze took the opportunity to change the subject and ignore Cai Songlin.

Taekwondo's first movie to gross over 100 million yuan was "The Last Emperor".

But the second one is "God of Gamblers".

If the film was sold to him at 30% of the Hong Kong box office, Huang Ze would suffer a huge loss.

But if we divide the profits based on the box office revenue, with the industries controlled by Cai Songlin and all the cinemas owned by him, they would probably be even more ruthless than Hollywood in accounting.

Eventually you still have to sell it directly for money. If you let it dry for a while, it would be great if you can make a few million more.

Nodding secretly, Huang Ze's eyes fell on Hou Xiaoxian on the stage.

He was seen holding the golden lion, with a smile on his fierce face. "I am very surprised to receive this award. Thank you to the judges of the jury."

"In addition, I would like to express my special thanks to Director Huang Ze."

"After watching his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I went to his company to find him even though I had never met him before. We had a good chat about the movie and then talked about my new script."

"After reading it, he gave me a lot of suggestions for revision."

“And then he gave most of the investment.”

“That’s how A City of Sadness came about.”

"Director Huang, thank you!"

After nodding towards Huang Ze, Hou Xiaoxian began to thank the actors and crew members.

(End of this chapter)