Shattering the talent show script, sweeping the world film scene

As China's four major film festivals were being held one after another, Jiangxi Heng finished filming his scenes for the second season of "The Waste Land" abroad. After leaving the crew, the cast of "Mock Trial" was successfully formed, recruiting twelve actors, half of whom were Chinese and half of whom were foreign, and began a month-long script reading.

The story of "Mock Trial" is set in California, USA in the last century. If projected onto China, it would be the Republican era, when a large number of Chinese workers sailed overseas in search of work.

Coal mines, underground mines, railways—wherever the hardest work is, that's where they are.

An accident occurred, resulting in the deaths of countless Chinese people, but their families did not receive any financial compensation from foreign capitalists.

"They are Chinese, and our country's laws do not cover them."

"Sign a contract? Hahaha, can they even read? They can't even speak English fluently."

"We told them about the dangers before they went down into the mine, but these people would do anything for a little money. Our company doesn't take that kind of responsibility."

Faced with the ridicule and neglect of the capitalist class, the two Chinese workers' representatives found a local Chinese lawyer, a passionate and kind-hearted student who had studied abroad, the owner of a casino and brothel in Chinatown, and a foreign doctor who treated Chinese patients, and debated with the defendants who were composed of locals.

The judge who was invited said that such a case had never occurred before, that a jury would not come, and that it would be difficult for a formal court to open its doors to them.

Thus, the "mock court" came into being.

Despite knowing that this sham trial might not bring them any real benefit, the plaintiffs still prepared ample evidence, logical arguments, and persuasive reasoning.

Finally, after watching the mock trial, the foreign judge was willing to do something for this group of people, and California's legal system began to be patched up as a result.

In this story, Jiangxi Heng plays the role of the Chinese lawyer. At first, this lawyer did not want to get involved in this matter. He had worked hard for many years and finally got a job, a law firm, and a reputation in a small corner of California.

He knew full well that such a "lawsuit" was most likely to fail.

He also knew that if he joined them, he would inevitably offend the capitalists on the other side.

What's more, one of the lawyers sitting in the defendant's seat was his law teacher.

How could he possibly win against his own teacher?

He was a somewhat selfish lawyer, but in the end, amidst the tears of Chinese workers, he closed his eyes, sighed deeply, and stepped into the mire.

Years later, the lawyer was glad he had agreed, not because his name would be remembered in the history of California legal reform, but because he had done something he could be proud of.

He won the case, and the mock trial became a real court. As he walked out the door, his teacher called him back and said with satisfaction, "Joe, I'm so glad you've truly understood the meaning of studying law."

Almost all of the funds used to make this film went to the actors' salaries. In fact, the salaries of the eleven main characters, excluding Jiangxi Heng, were not even as high as those of top-tier domestic actors. As a result, this film had the lowest initial investment from Universe Entertainment.

"It's great that we don't need to change locations! It saves money and hassle." Lin Tang said that for this movie, he only needed to set up the camera in the room, occasionally show off his skills, and switch back and forth between characters. After shooting big movies such as "Breaking Illusion", the shooting techniques for this movie are simply child's play.

The foreign actors who worked with Jiangxi Heng were not well-known actors—at that time, well-known actors would not dare to work for a Chinese production team they had never heard of, so their pay was not high.

But the other half of the Chinese actors all had one or two representative works in China back then. The era of internet traffic will leave them on the beach. They seek opportunities to work with international directors and foreign actors, trying to win awards abroad to increase their value and qualifications.

When Lin Tang approached them, they had seen Jiangxi Heng's work and learned that he had won more than one national award. Without hesitation, they signed a contract and paid him the standard fee.

The money saved was planned to be used for film promotion in Europe and North America in six months.

[Jiang Xiheng: Filming for The Waste Land 2 has wrapped up. We've benefited greatly from these past few months, so we immediately started filming a new movie, The Moot Court, a collaboration between Chinese and foreign actors. Filming will officially begin after the Lunar New Year.]

Jiangxi Hengren, who is still abroad, posted on Weibo in China first.

Lin Tang immediately set up an official account for "Mock Trial" and claimed it together with the official account of Huanyu in the comments section.

Unexpectedly, Nie Mingzhu appeared first, occupying the top comment and asking the question on behalf of countless fans.

So what are you planning to do now?

[Jiangxi Heng: Returning to China]

As soon as the news of his return to China broke, the trending topics that were still reporting on the participants of this year's Weibo Night and Tencent Video All Star Awards were immediately pushed out of the spotlight.

The top trending topic was none other than #JiangxiHengReturnsToChina#.

[Boss, you're finally coming back QAQ Does this mean we won't be seeing any of your movies during the Lunar New Year season? Did you know that during the National Day holiday, only "The Haunted" had a rating above 9? The rest were either terrible sci-fi post-apocalyptic films or terrible slapstick comedies—none of them were any good. Am I going to have no movies to watch this Lunar New Year season?]

Jiangxi Heng has been abroad for more than half a year. Everyone knows that he is filming "The Waste Land 2" directed by Knoll, so subconsciously people feel that he will not be in any movies this Chinese New Year.

There's no such thing as a clone or disguise...

The latest news reveals that filming for "Mock Trial" will not begin until after the new year.

In this way, wouldn't Heng's presence be very low this year?

Fans comforted themselves: It's okay, it's okay. It's just that Heng was not in China for several months this year, but he still made a lot of noise. He won the Silver Camellia Award for Best Actor for "Running", and in November, "Breaking Illusion" and "Running" won the Best Film Award from Tianyin and Tianqiong respectively at the film festival.

So, of the four minor awards, apart from the Hong Kong Emerald Award, Jiangxi Heng won the Best Film Award with three different films. As for the minor Best Actor Award, he only won the Sky Award, but that doesn't matter anymore, since he has already won the major Best Actor Award twice!

Fans harmoniously accepted the "fact" that Jiangxi Heng might not appear very frequently this year, but the haters were not prepared to take it easy.

[You went abroad for a trip and came back to find you had no place there, didn't you? You couldn't even get into the Weibo Night or the Tencent Video All Star Awards. You're not as good as those who work hard and are down-to-earth. Aiming too high will only lead to failure.]

[A certain group clearly only watches movies made by the celebrities in question, yet they claim all National Day films are bad? If they think they're bad, why don't you make one yourself?]

[The news of his return to China warrants such a large-scale purchase of trending topics; how can he lack presence? I think he's the only one with a high presence in the Chinese entertainment industry!]