Reborn in the Chinese Entertainment Industry: You're a Director, But You're a Casanova?

Early morning, Berlin Film Festival, main venue, printing room.

A dozen or so German university student volunteers are working through the night to type and print 5000 questionnaires assigned by Goebel.

Niu Yuehua, accompanied by his translator Xia, carrying hot hamburgers, sausages, and black coffee, pushed open the door to the printing room.

In foreign countries, the most effective way to deal with cheap labor that stays up all night is not by preaching, but by carbohydrates and caffeine.

Unlike the villains who acted furtively, Niu Yuehua openly revealed his identity as the most controversial director, and then smiled as he personally distributed the hot food to the tired German university students.

Young people who haven't experienced the harsh realities of society tend to be less wary and more benevolent towards those who are struggling to make ends meet despite hunger.

A college student with a very stereotypical image, whose name happens to be Hans, pushed aside his hamburger coffee and looked at him warily.

"Director Niu, these questionnaires Mr. Gopper sent out are to investigate your film. What are you doing here?"

Niu Yuehua picked up a newly printed questionnaire with only one question:

Do you think "Wu's Life" is a bad movie that's all pretentious and contrived?

whether?

Niu Yuehua sighed deeply, his eyes filled with disappointment and heartache over the academic misconduct.

"Hans, I came here because I respect the meticulousness of you Germans."

"But this questionnaire is an insult to social statistics; it is heavily biased and contains so-called leading questions."

"If the data obtained from this questionnaire is used, it will not only ruin my film, but also ruin Mr. Gopper's academic reputation for life."

The naive German university students were stunned by these righteous words. With their clear yet foolish eyes blinking, they lowered their guard under the enchanting influence of the enchanting voice and began to humbly ask this Eastern director who was knowledgeable in statistics for advice.

Niu Yuehua patted the bag, stopping the students who were printing, and then held up the isolated question in his hand.

"An authoritative questionnaire must be like a funnel, first establishing the respondents' moral bottom line and values."

He wrote down the first question on a piece of paper, while Xia, the translator, simultaneously wrote down the German on another piece of paper.

Question 1: Are you worried about the ubiquitous authoritarian surveillance in modern capitalist society?

European liberals and intellectuals are extremely averse to surveillance, so they would definitely choose yes for this question.

Question 2: Do you think that working-class people are severely objectified and exploited in industrialized modern society, and have their voices deprived?

This question is designed to evoke the moral compassion of the respondents, and the correct answer must be yes.

Question 3: Do you think that the loneliness and class barriers among modern people cannot be communicated through language?

It caters to the "depressed culture" and existentialism of Western intellectuals, so the answer to this question would definitely be yes.

As Hans and his companions ate their sausage burgers, they nodded vigorously, finding the sociological questions raised by the Eastern director to be profoundly insightful.

They're college students after all, easily taken advantage of...

Niu Yuehua felt that he had laid enough groundwork and wrote down the fourth transitional question.

Do you agree that truly profound avant-garde art should strip away ornate and empty rhetoric and return to the most primal expression of physical space?

The first three "yes" statements have already crowned the interviewee with the high praise of a profound intellectual.

If they choose no to answer this question, they will appear superficial, so they will definitely choose yes.

See the picture poorly.

Finally, the fifth question: In summary, do you think that the silent short film "WU My Life," which fully meets the above characteristics, is a profound masterpiece that reflects social pain points?

There is a consistency bias in people's minds. When a respondent answers "yes" four times in a row, representing justice, profundity, compassion, and vanity, his brain has been hijacked by the inertia of his thinking.

So if he chooses "no" for the last question, it would be equivalent to overturning all his previous moral stances and admitting that he is a cold-blooded and shallow illiterate.

These self-proclaimed highbrow film festival attendees would rather die than appear uncultured.

Hans was moved to tears when he saw the perfect and logically profound questionnaire. He immediately decided to discard the original version and reprint the perfect academic questionnaire revised by Niu Yuehua.

Cheap hamburgers, sausages, and coffee were exchanged for 5000 doses of logical poison.

The following afternoon, at the headquarters of Berliner Welt, in Gopper's office.

"The results of the 5000 questionnaires distributed in the square are in," the assistant rushed into the office with the report. "Mr. Gopper, this is incredible."

Goppel pushed up his glasses, ready to admire the results of his exposing the scam.

Overconfident, he didn't notice his assistant's expression and tone, so when he looked down at the statistics...

92.34% of respondents firmly believed that "Out of My Heart" was a masterpiece, and some viewers even wrote lengthy praise letters on the back of the questionnaire, denouncing the indifference of capitalism.

Gopper was stunned. He quickly grabbed a questionnaire and started reading it.

As a seasoned film critic, he only glanced at it before discovering that the five seemingly independent questions were actually interconnected and contained a vicious logical trap.

Gopper was trembling with anger. He took off his glasses, placed them on the table, and told his assistant to leave.

After his assistant closed the door, he began to scream hysterically in the office.

"Those scum who are getting in our way" (traitors, good-for-nothings), "They're all disloyal," "I've come to HEB province" (I'm all on my own).

He knew he had lost; he had been tricked by that Eastern kid. And he had been humiliated mercilessly, pinned to the ground and thoroughly disgraced using the very data statistics he trusted most.

Even more fatally, he couldn't raise any questions, since it was an investigation he had personally spearheaded, and the questions he had prepared were highly leading.

If he abandons the results of this investigation now, he will be contradicting himself and ruining his reputation for life.

He could only watch helplessly as this pile of garbage reached the top.

A vast and pure emotion, mixed with resentment, the collapse of faith, and self-doubt, surged forth. Niu Yuehua, who was standing on the street buying souvenirs several blocks away, smiled with satisfaction at the breach of the defenses of the top intellectual.

On the third day, Berliner Welt published a stunning poll on its front page, revealing a 92.34% approval rating from its audience.

They even thoughtfully selected praise from enthusiastic bystanders, intending to subtly undermine this young Asian actor. Coupled with the news of the extras crying during the first day's screenings, this short film became a sensation at the Berlin Film Festival.

All European media outlets are jumping on the bandwagon, reporting on this short film that profoundly exposes the cannibalistic nature of evil capitalism in the East.

……

In the basement, Niu Yuehua was packing his luggage.

Although the media is giving it a lot of publicity, this time it's a bit too much. What if Harden gets too defensive and starts a fight with me? Even a rabbit will bite when cornered.

Suddenly, the phones inside the hostel corridor started ringing incessantly.

Xia, the translator, ran to answer the phone, and after listening to just two sentences, her expression instantly turned strange.

He put down the microphone, his whole body trembling violently, and scrambled into Niu Yuehua's room.

"Director Niu! Director Niu!" Xiao Li was so excited that he almost bumped into the door.

"It was a call from the Berlin Film Festival organizing committee."

Huang Bo and Wang Baoqiang jumped up in fright, "Did they find out we hired extras and altered the questionnaires? Are the police coming to arrest us?"