I am a historical film director in the entertainment industry.

"The distribution of this film is no longer my responsibility."

Cheng Sheng said with a smile.

"The movie will be released as soon as possible."

"That's what the people from Xijiang said."

"Okay, I hope to see this movie in theaters soon."

"I will go back and immediately help promote it, so that people all over the country can see this touching movie."

Liu Dehua and others said.

After the screening, Cheng Sheng had the film reels given to the people from the Xijiang government.

"Director Cheng, the boss just called and asked me to inquire whether this film can be submitted to the Venice Film Festival."

"A person from Xijiang asked."

Cheng Sheng was stunned!
Taking a film to the Venice Film Festival should theoretically be acceptable, since the festival doesn't restrict film genres.

But isn't it a bit too late to go now, since the film festival starts in a few days?

The movie "Ten Red Army Soldiers Sent Off" hasn't even passed censorship yet...

and many more.

Approved!

Other films may have difficulty passing censorship; it can take at least one or two months to obtain the film's censorship approval.

However, if the Xijiang government intervenes, and given that this film promotes revolutionary spirit, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television should not block it.

Moreover, a film can pass the review process within a day.

“As long as the film passes censorship, it shouldn’t be too late to take it to the Venice Film Festival,” Cheng Sheng said.

"Thank you. The leadership wants you to lead a team to the Venice Film Festival. What do you think of this..."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'm free these few days anyway, so I'll go to the Venice Film Festival. However, I'll need your help with getting the film approved."

Cheng Sheng felt that he had a really special connection with the Venice Film Festival.

His first film, "The Great Tang Dynasty 1", was selected for the main competition of the film festival and won Best Actor, Best Newcomer and Best Film.

Then, he wrote "Buried Alive" for Ning Hao, which won the Best Screenplay Award.

Moreover, Ning Hao just took "Crazy Stone" to a film festival a couple of days ago.

Now I'm going there with a new movie.

It feels like all those awards at the Venice Film Festival are prepared for me.

"No problem, the movie will be approved tomorrow."

Seeing that Cheng Sheng had agreed, the Xijiang government officials smiled and said.

That's really true!

Having connections is an advantage.

Getting a movie approved is as easy as drinking water.

You should know that even if he asks Master Han for help, it will still take several days for the film to pass censorship.

After the meeting was over, Cheng Sheng returned to his office.

Not long after they sat down, Jiangsu Ying brought Liu Dehua in. "Brother Hua, didn't you leave?"

Cheng Sheng was quite surprised to see that it was Liu Dehua, as Liu Dehua had personally seen him off from the company just now.

"As I get older, I tend to forget things. I only remembered I needed to talk to you when I was leaving the building," Liu Dehua said with a smile.

"Jiangjiang, pour Hua Ge a cup of tea."

After Cheng Sheng finished speaking to Jiangsu Ying, he said to Liu Dehua, "Brother Hua, please sit down. May I ask what brings you here?"

After sitting down, Liu Dehua said, "I recently received a script that I found very interesting. I want to find someone to help me film it, but I have approached many directors and none of them have satisfied me. So I thought I would like to ask you, Director Cheng, if you have time to help direct it."

Cheng Sheng fell silent.

To be honest, Cheng Sheng wasn't very optimistic about the movie script that Liu Dehua had received.

According to another timeline, the movies that Andy Lau has made in recent years have basically all been bad films.

It wasn't until 2012 that he took on the role of Aunt Tao in "A Simple Life," which earned him both the Golden Horse Award and the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.

If he wasn't mistaken, the fact that Liu Dehua was in such a predicament, having sought out scripts from many directors that he wasn't satisfied with, reminded Cheng Sheng of a future science fiction film starring Liu Dehua.

Because it's only science fiction films that have a hard time finding good directors.

There are directors of all kinds in China, but directors of science fiction films are really hard to describe.

When it comes to science fiction films, what comes to mind for most Chinese people are movies like Star Wars, Artificial Intelligence, Transformers, Jurassic Park, Alien, Avatar, Gravity, and Interstellar.

But they are all Hollywood science fiction movies, while domestic science fiction movies are completely absent.

There are science fiction movies in China, but almost all of them are terrible films with cheap special effects that defy common sense, full of logical loopholes, and lacking in sensory stimulation.

Of course, there are still good science fiction films in China, such as "The Wandering Earth," which opened the door to Chinese science fiction.

"The Wandering Earth," a science fiction film released during the 19 Spring Festival holiday, achieved both box office and critical success, accumulating a total box office of 46.56 billion yuan and becoming a masterpiece in the history of Chinese cinema.

This film excels in its storyline, special effects, acting, and thematic message, producing a magnificent and inspiring domestic science fiction film with a limited budget.

Its success not only gave audiences hope for domestic science fiction films, but also injected new vitality into the development of Chinese science fiction films.

Many film critics have even defined 19 as the first year of Chinese science fiction, believing that "The Wandering Earth" ushered in a new era for Chinese science fiction films.

As the saying goes, "the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment," and the appearance of "The Fortress of Shanghai" successfully brought Chinese science fiction films back to reality.

Domestic talent clearly realizes that Chinese science fiction films still have a long way to go.

"The Fortress of Shanghai" completely flopped on its first day of release.

This basically declares that "The Fortress of Shanghai" is an epic disaster, destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame in the history of Chinese cinema, along with films like "Dream Chasing in the Entertainment Circle".

Just how bad is "The Fortress of Shanghai"? The netizens' evaluation is quite accurate.

Watching "The Fortress of Shanghai" felt like eating a cheap, low-quality fast food meal at a fancy restaurant.

Those who have read the original novel know that "The Devil's Fortress" is actually a romance novel disguised as science fiction. However, the movie tried to portray it as a hard science fiction work about humanity fighting aliens in a post-apocalyptic environment, which ultimately became a twisted mess.

The film's disjointed plot logic has rendered it beyond criticism of its scientific flaws as a science fiction film. One Douban user summarized the entire plot, noting that the sheer number of logical loopholes has turned what would have been dull moments into comedic highlights.

For example, at the end of the movie, the commander of the Shanghai cannon, facing the alien mothership covering the entire sky above Lujiazui, insists that the guidance system is broken and cannot aim accurately, because this is to bring out the climax of the deer sacrificing herself to save the earth. In the end, the cannon that cannot aim at the mothership is mysteriously able to aim at the deer, which is as small as a mosquito.

As for the special effects, although the large-scale scenes in the film have been criticized as being like a live-action version of the WeChat mini-game "Shoot the Plane," at least some effort was put into them.

After all, the film's special effects were mainly contracted out to three South Korean special effects companies. While not bad by Chinese film standards, it naturally can't compare to Hollywood A-list blockbusters. (End of Chapter)