Chapter 566: Oscar Best Actress

"Gravity's plot is very simple, and the premise isn't exactly groundbreaking either—it's just a space adventure subject.

If you put the female lead on a deserted island to survive, the story would still hold up. What makes this film so flashy is the vastness of space, and the reverence and worship of life—that adds quite a few points to it.

And this kind of subject doesn't really have spoilers, just like watching Breaking Bad—you don't need to wait for the finale to know the protagonist will die; or like Robinson Crusoe—you don't need to see the end to know the protagonist will be rescued.

Watching the opening of Gravity, you know the female lead will definitely survive, but you still feel stirred by her struggle—that's the charm of adventure-genre films.

As long as the female lead carrying the film doesn't have any issues, basically there won't be any problems.

At this point on the big screen, the plot had already entered the third segment: International Space Station Alliance 2's escape from danger.

The International Space Station has two ships, Alliance 1 and Alliance 2. The one the female lead enters here is Alliance 2, which is still docked with the International Space Station and hasn't separated.

And Alliance 1 is currently falling toward Earth, not here—it's a plot arrangement, no need to dig into it.

The audience watched with tension, and also with regret. The male lead, in order to let the female lead—whose oxygen was about to run out—board the International Space Station, chose at the critical moment to cut the tether and drift away into the distance.

Because the tether couldn't support two people, only one person could choose to sacrifice themselves.

As the male lead drifted away and disappeared into the darkness, he was still guiding the female lead into the space capsule through the walkie-talkie.

The theater audience fell silent. Seeing this point brought a heavy atmosphere—now only the female lead was left. When the male lead completely vanished, that sense of loneliness arose spontaneously.

The audience could also feel that loneliness and sympathy—a kind of sympathy for the male lead's sacrifice.

The more sentimental ones were moved to tears, with their eyes welling up. Liu Tianxian's female fans were still quite numerous.

Liu Tianxian stared fixedly at the big screen. When she was acting it back then, she didn't really feel much, because there were people all around—she just listened to the director explain the scene, tried to experience that emotion, and filmed it over and over to find the feeling.

Because she had also once been lonely and helpless, she could empathize with that feeling.

"This zero-gravity effect was shot well." Fang Hong saw on the screen the scene where Liu Tianxian, as her oxygen was about to run out, entered the space capsule, took off the Astronaut Suit, and welcomed new life like a newly grown fetus.

In this shot, her posture barely moved, but her body was suspended in mid-air—very much giving that sense of weightlessness.

The subsequent shots of the female lead drifting through the space capsule also had a very silky feel.

"This uses a large marionette-style control method to manipulate the actor's limbs to simulate movements in a weightless state.

This rig has 12 wires connected to four attachment points on the actor's body, with the other end of the wires operated by three professional puppeteers or controlled by a computer-programmed mechanical system."

Guo Fan tilted his head, explaining the principle of the simulated dynamics.

Liu Tianxian turned her head to glance at them, her ears listening to their conversation, her gaze still fixed on the big screen.

"Experience shooting this kind of space subject needs to be accumulated—next time we'll still shoot this kind of subject," Fang Hong said.

"The procedures have all been entered into the computer," Guo Fan said.

All the shooting methods and data had to be entered into the computer, so they could be used again next time.

Fang Hong nodded, paused, and said: "How's your Mojin: The Lost Legend coming along?"

"Just finished shooting it in January," Guo Fan said.

That film had started shooting around August or September of last year, filmed for about four-plus months, belonged to the Best Special Effects genre, and had locations in many places across the country.

As for their previous trip to the United States for advanced study, they came back after just one month.

"Shoot this film well. If the film is shot well and the box office is ideal, I'll put you on The Wandering Earth project—same level as this one." Fang Hong pointed at the big screen where Gravity was still playing.

"Okay, thank you, General Manager Fang." Guo Fan felt a slight surge of excitement in his heart. He'd been following the Principal for several years now, and was finally going to take on a big film.

By Gravity's standard, that meant a conservative investment of 500 million—belonging to Jade Rabbit's most top-tier project.

It couldn't follow the Hollywood standard of casually throwing in hundreds of millions of US dollars—that's because their labor costs are expensive, whether it's the actors or the behind-the-scenes special effects team, labor costs are all expensive.

"No need to thank me. You've grown too—as long as you grow, you can carry the load on your own. Jade Rabbit is willing to give people opportunities," Fang Hong said.

Even if he didn't give the opportunity, as long as the films others shot could make money, in the future film capital market, there would be people willing to invest.

Letting others do it was not as good as letting him do it himself.

Hearing these words gave Guo Fan a feeling of having found a soulmate. In the current film market, only the Principal had the strength and boldness to casually greenlight special effects films costing hundreds of millions.

And he kept giving them opportunities and resources to practice.

He had also built up and trained a professional team capable of shooting big-budget special effects blockbusters.

"Thump thump!"

Just as the two were chatting, the audience's hearts suddenly accelerated, their expressions tense as they stared at the big screen.

They saw the International Space Station suddenly catch fire, flames spreading. After the alarm sounded, the female lead played by Liu Tianxian quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the fire.

The result was being knocked into the back of her head by the strong recoil, causing a brief faint. After waking up, she continued trying to extinguish the fire.

But the fire was too big. The female lead realized extinguishing it was no longer realistic, so she grabbed a fire extinguisher and quickly fled.

As she was escaping, rolling flames chased and burned behind her. The audience's adrenaline surged again, cheering the female lead on in her escape.

Fortunately she ducked into the Alliance 2 ship, temporarily escaping danger—only then did the audience breathe a sigh of relief.

"The International Space Station is too trashy—it can even catch fire in space," an audience member protested, watching with anguish.

"Exactly. If our Tiangong hadn't been hit by space debris, we wouldn't need the International Space Station at all," another audience member chimed in.

Some audience members discussed the plot, while the big screen continued playing. The female lead found the operations manual—she had to immediately learn how to undock Alliance 2 from the International Space Station, because the International Space Station was about to explode. Fortunately she pressed the right button, and the capsule successfully undocked. But unexpectedly, the connected tether line dragged Alliance 2 back, crashing into the International Space Station that was about to explode.

Inside the ship cabin, the female lead tumbled back and forth—this was the shockwave from the collision. After steadying herself, she had no choice but to put the Astronaut Suit back on and go out to untie the tether line, otherwise there was no way to escape.

When she went out, she faced another round of space debris attack.

This was another thrilling and exciting self-rescue process. The audience watched with cold sweat soaking their backs, hands clenched tight, feeling their palms sweating—it was too thrilling, anxious for the female lead.

The film's pacing was well-balanced—before the audience could even breathe a sigh of relief, there was another stretch of adventure. Not a single dull moment.

When the female lead finally managed to escape, the International Space Station exploded into pieces right before her eyes. The screen full of debris made the audience feel as if it was about to hit them—so realistic.

"Great explosion!" someone cheered.

The audience saw the female lead escape danger and thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, but the fuel of the Alliance 2 the female lead was sitting in was about to run out—which meant the female lead still faced death.

In the absolute vacuum of the universe, the female lead let out a desperate wail, pounding on the glass porthole. But no matter how high her decibel level, not a single sound could escape.

Watching the porthole begin to frost over, the female lead anxiously turned on the radio, trying to contact the ground. The one she reached on the radio was an Inuit from the Arctic Circle.

The inability to communicate turned hope into despair. The tears that flowed out floated in the weightless state.

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No hope! The female lead closed the oxygen valve and lay down, preparing to quietly wait for death.

The audience fell silent, their hearts aching along with the female lead's despair, as if they themselves were waiting for death alongside her.

"Not a bad performance, Oscar Best Actress." Fang Hong said this as he watched, turning his head.

"Cut it out, you're teasing me again, aren't you." Liu Tianxian knew this man was definitely teasing her.

Her acting still couldn't carry Oscar Best Actress level.

"Indeed, you've improved quite a lot. If I'd known you'd improve this much, I should have made this film a co-production back then. What a shame, missing out on an Oscar Best Actress." Fang Hong said, looking regretful.

"Hehehe."

Liu Tianxian was amused into laughing, patted this man's arm, and said with a hand covering her mouth: "It's all your fault, I could have won an Oscar, and I missed out."

"My fault, my fault, I underestimated you." Fang Hong pretended to blame himself.

The Oscars are a local awards ceremony; it's just that their stars are famous worldwide, and their films are global blockbusters, which has propped the awards ceremony up to a very high position with enormous global influence.

After all, with a global audience backing it and international superstars watching, its influence is closely tied to Hollywood.

Winning an Oscar is definitely a higher honor than the European Big Three, because the Oscars have a commercial flavor—it's just that in terms of fame, it belongs to global influence.

Moreover, it balances art and commerce, and sometimes art has to make way for commerce.

It's just that you're not an art-film star, and non-art films can also win awards. The European Big Three follow a purely artistic route, which actually doesn't suit Liu Tianxian's temperament.

Liu Tianxian has more of a commercial flavor, with less of an artistic air, because she herself has a fashion attribute.

A fashion attribute can't carry the weight of artistic depth.

"Let it go this time, but be more careful next time, okay? Letting the world lose an Oscar Best Actress would be your sin." Liu Tianxian rested her hand on his shoulder, leaned close to his ear, and spoke playfully and cutely.

The two were just joking—winning an Oscar requires not only a convincing film and convincing acting, but also money for PR and pulling strings to campaign for votes.

If you're not in that circle, it's hard to say you can win.

The Oscar selection has long been criticized as: a money game. This is also why independent and low-budget productions can't compete.

Big Hero 6 had Universal helping run things.

"Yes, yes, yes." Fang Hong nodded and laughed.

The two chatted as the film continued playing. Just as the female lead felt despair and waited for death, a Chinese call suddenly came through the radio.

"This is the Space Administration."

The radio hadn't been turned off earlier. Hearing that familiar Chinese, the female lead was startled, hope rising infinitely in her heart. She opened her eyes and immediately sat up again, making contact with the ground.

In the original, this was the female lead imagining the male lead coming to encourage her to survive—too fantastical.

Here it was changed: the radio made contact with the ground Space Administration, which encouraged her to keep living.

"Don't give up, don't abandon. Face difficulties with constant optimism, keep a clear head, and a calm mindset to save yourself. Behind you stand 1.4 billion Chinese people, and we're all at home waiting for you to come back."

Here, the audience watched the female lead kindle hope from despair, saw the motherland encouraging her to live on, and while feeling proud, some viewers were already crying.

Emotion and patriotism spread.

The female lead, too, reignited her fighting spirit amid those words of encouragement. She reopened the oxygen valve, picked up that survival manual—all in English—and began studying the soft-landing manual ignition procedure.

Following the steps in the manual, the female lead successfully pressed the button, completed the capsule dry separation, then entered the manual program and flew toward International Space Station Alliance 1.

Seeing the escape capsule approaching International Space Station Alliance 1 like a cannonball, the audience all breathed a sigh of relief.

International Space Station Alliance 1 was falling toward Earth. Seeing the capsule getting closer and closer to International Space Station Alliance 1, the female lead gripped the valve, closed her eyes, and said: "Let's go home!"

Having said that, she didn't hesitate. She put on her Astronaut Suit, pressed the valve, and launched herself out.

Seeing the female lead tumbling and spinning in space, the audience silently cheered her on. Fortunately, she used a fire extinguisher to stabilize herself and flew toward International Space Station Alliance 1.

After many twists and turns, she successfully entered International Space Station Alliance 1.

(End of chapter)