Chapter 902: The First Surprise of *The Notebook*

Jiang Yuqian has always wanted to get a trophy with weight for acting. Friends who are familiar with her know this.

Jiang Yuqian is not the kind of genius in acting, and even because she is very beautiful, her acting skills are often ignored. Many people know this too.

She has not suffered large-scale abuse and attack because of acting, but she has not achieved the name of "acting strength school."

After all, she acted from a supporting role bit by bit.

Steady and steady.

The performance is at least qualified.

Starring in *The Golden Era* that year was a transformation on her acting path.

Later, several dramas like *Squid Game* and *Red Eye Flight* pushed her career to a peak.

But that was her peak in the commercial field.

She even once put down the obsession of being a good actor.

Or rather, the obsession of winning awards—she felt she didn't have the qualifications to say she had the obsession of wanting to be a good actor.

She covets fame and fortune, and also cares about the aura.

Letting her bury her head in the crew for a year to ponder acting and not come out, she can't do it.

This is not what she longs for.

But this does not mean she is not willing to pursue better acting skills within her ability.

Especially the people around her, no matter what personality they have and what route they take, have never given up on the tempering of acting skills.

The version of the film *Window Sill* finally edited has a big difference from what she imagined and expected.

To be honest, when she was filming this film, she once felt that this was a story of a female actor's self-awakening, recognizing the true face of that director, and finally the two of them falling out.

The content of these comments published in the media, especially some analyses of themes and character relationships, all made her feel enlightened.

That was something she hadn't thought about deeply when performing.

However, Sia Wei is indeed a very awesome director.

She doesn't need you as an actor to have a holistic understanding of your character at all. She has already made you perform what she wants on the filming set. She can sit in the machine room and process them, becoming what she finally wants.

When Jiang Yuqian saw herself throwing the script out of the window in the film and turning away without looking back, she felt relieved herself.

But at that time, she didn't feel relieved, but angry.

But that doesn't matter.

Jiang Yuqian was captured by Sia Wei with a lot of eye details in the film.

Jiang Yuqian didn't even feel that those eye details could have any special meaning when filming.

It was just that after being edited together by Sia Wei, it suddenly became coherent into a state that Jiang Yuqian herself was not familiar with.

Especially several connection points, Jiang Yuqian clearly remembered that the eye in the previous second was still performed in a state of "careless" as required on the spot, and in the next second, after an editing point, the eye became a state of "entangled, complex."

All are fragmented, state-based performances, edited together, and actually formed a high-level, rich, complex performance texture.

Jiang Yuqian even saw the limitations and safe areas of her past performances from this film.

It presented a broader performance area that she could explore.

It's just that the insider looks at the doorway.

In comparison, the shots of British male actor Johnny Haynes, who played the director, in the film are often continuous, unlike Jiang Yuqian here, where the shots are cut very quickly, almost rarely having more than three seconds of continuity.

But this doesn't matter.

In the presentation of the film, her character herself is in a relatively more "changing" state, while his character is moving towards paranoid, fanatical distortion in a seemingly calm calmness.

The impact Jiang Yuqian received was not only that this film reshaped her performance style and performance texture in a way that exceeded her imagination, but also that she clearly saw for the first time what she could further present in performance.

"So, does Sister Yuqian have hope of winning the Best Actress award this year?" Lu Yan He asked Chen Ziyan on the phone.

Chen Ziyan: "This is really not certain. She encountered a big year for actresses this year. Earlier, British actress Lier Colin was regarded as a strong contender for Best Actress at this Hexi Film Festival. Now Yuqian popped out, and she only has the strength to fight with her. Later, there is Qin Shulan from *Grandma's Legacy*. I have already watched the rough cut of this film in advance. Teacher Qin's performance is very wonderful. The North American film parties who watched the film in advance are using helping Teacher Qin lobby for the North American awards season as a rhetoric to lobby them."

Then it can only be said that Sister Yuqian's competition situation this year is really quite severe.

Encountering a big year, anyone can win the award, but for actresses who didn't win the award, it is too regrettable.

"Moreover, Yuqian has another disadvantage this year. The British male actor in *Window Sill* performed too well. *Variety* directly said that he would become a seed player for the Oscar Best Supporting Actor at the end of this year. Generally, at this time period, it is only said that he will definitely get a nomination," Chen Ziyan said. "The Hexi Film Festival is not a jury system, but a result produced by audience voting. According to the practice of the past five years, the votes of these audiences with voting qualifications will often divide their results to different films. Generally speaking, the trend of media and critical circles will affect these results, because these audiences can also see this information. The volume Jiang Yuqian received in this film is not as good as Johnny Haynes."

Lu Yan He: "Is Johnny Haynes' performance really that good?"

"Very good," Chen Ziyan said. "I watched this film, and I think *Variety* is not wrong at all. If there are no other strong opponents, Johnny Haynes can win the Oscar Best Supporting Actor next year with this film. This character itself has special symbolic significance, and he is almost a self-destructive performance. In the big screen in recent years, I haven't seen a second male actor who can present this calm, paranoid, out-of-control desire for control. To some extent, Jiang Yuqian's performance is more of an instinctive reaction stimulated by him. In many scenes, he is leading Jiang Yuqian. Judging from the competition films that have been screened at the Hexi Film Festival, the recognition he received in the critical circle can be called far ahead."

Lu Yan He thought of Quentin's *Inglourious Basterds* for no reason. Christoph Waltz, who played the male supporting role and villain in it, won not only the Best Actor at the Cannes International Film Festival but also the Oscar Best Supporting Actor with such a supporting role that did not occupy the main position.

That is also a rare villain character. Cold, arrogant, powerful aura, with a kind of calm and paranoid madness.

Lu Yan He of course hopes that Jiang Yuqian can realize her dream and win the award.

However, winning an award is really about time, place, and people.

So far, the performances in *Late Spring* and *Three Mountains*, which he has been discussed the most in the international film scene, have not won him any acting trophies internationally.

*Mist 2*, which nominated him for an Oscar acting award for the second time, is a performance that cannot be ranked in his acting career—

However, the result of the fact is that it brought a nomination to Lu Yan He under the time, place, and people at that time.

Lu Yan He currently feels that his masterpiece in acting, *Storm Calmer No. 1*, disappeared in the second half of the awards season because of recommending Wen Shengming.

*Love Letter*, which was attracted by two dazzling actresses in the year of release, has had several shots of him in the film spread widely on the Internet as time passed, which is called Lu Yan He's "God Face Period."

However, an actor must have awards.

Without awards, there is always a bit of a straight back, as if inferior to others.

With awards, you can say "awards are a fart" like Lu Yan He, and you can say "winning an award is a matter of time, place, and people, and it doesn't determine that it is my best performance."

In any case, the film *Window Sill* is a good thing, finally bringing serious attention to Jiang Yuqian from the critical circle.

If the previous *Love is Not Blind* let everyone see that Jiang Yuqian can have some complex expressions outside of the vase, then *Window Sill* is like a crystal raw stone, cut into more than 100 cross-sections, letting her see the complexity and depth she can present herself.

Lu Yan He sent a message to Jiang Yuqian, saying: Sister Yuqian, congratulations! Your performance has finally been seen and recognized by everyone.

Jiang Yuqian replied: That is not my credit, Sia Wei's lens is too good at capturing. However, Yan He, the biggest harvest this film brought me is that I finally know where the gap is between my past performance and a performance with texture. When you watch this film later, help me analyze it too, I saw a new direction.

Lu Yan He didn't expect Jiang Yuqian to say this, so he immediately replied okay.

Two days later, *Grandma's Legacy* was screened at the Hexi Film Festival.

Qin Shulan and Zhang Ruozhi attended the red carpet together.

After the screening, the trend of media and comments changed completely.

The candidate with the highest voice for Best Actress at this Hexi Film Festival became Qin Shulan.

"At this year's Hexi Film Festival main competition unit, the competition between actresses is definitely the biggest highlight. Compared with Johnny Haynes' far-ahead voice, the performances contributed by actresses are comparable to a big battle."

"British actress Lier Colin was nominated for Oscar Best Supporting Actress for the British film *Sunshine Clarity* when she was fourteen. As a child star who grew up under everyone's attention, she has focused on art film creation over the years and is a frequent visitor to international film festivals. This time, after she and *Show Love* came to the film festival, she did not leave after attending the premiere and promotional work of *Show Love* like ordinary actors, but stayed in Jiangguang, showing great confidence in winning the award."

"Chinese actress Jiang Yuqian has been loved by global audiences since she became popular globally with *Squid Game*, and then with a series of works such as *Doomsday*, *Red Eye Flight*, and *Love is Not Blind*. She is one of the Chinese actors with the highest international visibility. However, her past screen images are not known for acting skills. Her beauty, figure, and fashion degree are the focus of everyone's discussion. This time *Window Sill* almost re-dismantled and shaped her. The screen performance she contributed surprised everyone."

"Malaysian actress Qin Shulan just became a dark horse in the Oscar Best Supporting Actress nomination list for *Tropical Rain* not long ago. This year, she and *Love Letter* heroine Zhang Ruozhi brought a moving *Grandma's Legacy*. Several scenes of her in the film can absolutely be called the greatest performance in the world. Especially near the end of the film, she lay on the bed, her turbid eyeballs looking at the ceiling helplessly, her eyeballs trembling slightly, and finally a few tears completely covered her turbid eyeballs, and she opened her mouth to roar silently. I can't wait to see her on the podium. This Malaysian actress who is a late bloomer for global audiences is absolutely worth knowing by more people."

For the past two days, Lu Yan He has been paying attention to the reports of the Hexi Film Festival.

Especially in the aspect of Best Actress.

Although he knows that no matter how much he looks at it, it is useless. Whether it is the media or the critical circle, their opinions are not 100% consistent with the results.

Even many times they are diametrically opposed.

He still couldn't help but look.

The news that *The Notebook* held its global premiere in Hexi finally shifted everyone's attention to the battle of actresses at the Hexi Film Festival a little bit.

This Hollywood romance film produced and written by Lu Yan He, except for him, the director and leads all arrived in Jiangguang to attend the film festival and participate in the premiere ceremony of this film.

And at the premiere of *The Notebook*, Jiang Yuqian, Qin Shulan, and Lier Colin, the three biggest seed players for Best Actress this year, all appeared.

All came to stand for this film.

This is a very moving and touching film story.

However, when the film started, it was in a nursing home.

Appearing on the screen was a pair of old people.

First confused for two seconds, then, screams erupted in the audience.

"Claire Taylor and Grien Rivan!"

After these two names were shouted out, everyone reacted one after another.

These two people who appeared on the screen were top actors who were popular all over the world twenty or thirty years ago.

An American male actor, a British female actor.

Both have more than forty years of light and shadow career, winning awards until they are soft, and the classic works under their names are not single digits.

After the two retired, they have not appeared publicly for nearly twenty years.

This is also why many people didn't recognize them at first.

The whole audience was excited.

Including the media.

Two global superstars appeared on the big screen again after twenty years!

There was no promotion in advance!

Obviously, it was waiting for an opportunity like the Hexi Film Festival to expose this matter! ===== CHAPTER 903 =====