Chapter 65: Shi Ningwei

Shi Ningwei is a blogger for a film review blog.

In 2005, the internet era was just beginning to flourish; there was no Weibo, no Maoyan, and Douban was merely a personal website. However, the seedlings of the internet age had already sprouted, and the blogs launched by major portals represented a massive breakthrough for the traditional media industry.

Since their launch at the end of 2004, the number of blog users had skyrocketed. By July 2005, statistics showed that one-third of internet users had become users of various blogs.

Shi Ningwei had been invited to join Sina Blogs over a month ago. Before this, he was already a moderately famous film critic who had published articles in major domestic film magazines.

In particular, a film review he wrote titled "House of Flying Daggers, Who Did It Ambush?" published in Huaxia Film in July 2004, had greatly increased Shi Ningwei's fame. When Sina launched its blog platform this year, the film section, like the travel section, was one of the areas Sina focused on promoting. Shi Ningwei thus entered their field of vision, and after receiving a signing fee, he began posting his film reviews on his personal Sina blog.

When news of the award for "The Mute's House" arrived from Germany, Shi Ningwei paid close attention to it. Hearing that "The Mute" had a chance at a domestic release, he was initially skeptical, but to his surprise, the situation took a turn, and the film actually made it onto domestic theater screens. Later, when it was announced that "The Mute's House" would hold its premiere at the Chengtian Cinema in Rongcheng, Shi Ningwei specifically had a friend get him a ticket and flew from Yuedong to Xichuan the day before the screening.

The purpose of this trip for Shi Ningwei was primarily for Chen Nuo. Because he was very interested in Chen Nuo—or rather, in the entire entertainment industry, there was no one who wasn't interested in him.

Shi Ningwei still remembered that night at the Berlin Film Festival; the speed at which messages popped up in the dozen or so QQ groups he was in was like fish splashing in a pond. From film critics to agents and executives at various entertainment, music, and film companies, everyone was asking one question—

Who is Chen Nuo?

Although the director Zhang Yi was also an unfamiliar name, as soon as the news of the award came, people immediately claimed to have heard of this person. He was a graduate student at the Beijing Film Academy who had found some money a few years ago to shoot a low-budget film, which ultimately flopped. No one expected him to make such a comeback this time.

But what about Chen Nuo? At the very beginning, one could say there wasn't a single person who knew him.

The only information available consisted of rumors or hearsay that had leaked out from unknown sources.

Speaking of these rumors, they were quite exaggerated. The first one was that this Chen Nuo was a retired old teacher from the Beijing Film Academy, coaxed out of retirement by Zhang Yi to shoot the only film of his life, only to hit the mark on his first try.

Many people actually believed this, but after the posters for "The Mute" began to circulate, this rumor immediately vanished without a trace.

After all, anyone with eyes could see that this Chen Nuo was very young, perhaps 40 or even 45 years away from retirement.

Thus, new rumors were born: this Chen Nuo was a sophomore at the Film Academy who was already quite famous at school and had even been linked to Liu Yifei in gossip. Immediately, people from the Film Academy came out to debunk this, saying there was absolutely no such person at the Film Academy. However, this person had come to take the Film Academy entrance exams this year, had been interviewed by the Jingcheng Station, and had actually placed first in the Film Academy's professional exams this year.

Consequently, some resourceful netizens managed to get their hands on that clip of Chen Nuo being interviewed by the Jingcheng Station reporter from some unknown channel. Shi Ningwei watched it and then spat a mouthful of water onto his keyboard, nearly ruining his 9,999-yuan ASUS laptop. The first impression Chen Nuo left on him was exactly as he appeared in the interview—young, handsome, and full of personality.

Next, Shi Ningwei sat in front of the TV and watched the character interview broadcast on Channel 6, not missing a single second. Thus, he added a line to the Chen Nuo database in his mind: "a newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger."

At this point, he was quite interested in this young man.

However, a new piece of news arrived that left Shi Ningwei extremely disappointed.

Because this young man had actually gone off to act in a TV series!? Looking at the notices and character stills released by the "Return of the Condor Heroes" production team, Shi Ningwei was truly furious.

Even if the investment in "Return of the Condor Heroes" was huge and it was popular in society, it was still just a TV series. For a dignified Berlin Film Festival Best Actor to go and act in this kind of martial arts serial, if that wasn't self-degradation, what was? Was the country so big that he really couldn't find another movie to shoot? Or was he really so poor that he had to scramble for this little bit of trash money?

Besides, wasn't the college entrance exam coming up? Could he really squeeze in time to shoot a series?

This Chen Nuo was either stupid himself or had bad people around him. Therefore, for this premiere, Shi Ningwei pulled many strings to get a media ticket, just to be prepared to ask in person what exactly this young man was thinking.

When Shi Ningwei arrived at the scene, he realized that there must be quite a few people with the same thoughts as him. Out of the hundreds of seats, only a small fraction seemed to be genuine audience members; the others had come with different motives, each holding pens and notebooks, and a small number, like him, even carried DSLR cameras.

The seat Shi Ningwei's friend got for him was excellent, right in the middle of the third row. Except for him, this area was filled with official media invited by the production company; there wasn't a single other freelance writer like him.

When Chen Nuo took the stage, he also picked up his camera and started shooting, just like the reporters from the newspapers and TV stations. This was a feature of Shi Ningwei's film reviews and could be considered a full utilization of the advantages of the internet platform; his reviews were illustrated with pictures and text, unlike newspapers and magazines, which were mostly text.

For the leads of other films, one could usually find many photos online, but for someone like Chen Nuo, he had to do it himself.

Once he had taken enough photos and the host and the creative team had finished their promotional speeches about fighting and such, it was time for the media Q&A.

Shi Ningwei raised his hand from the very first round. He knew the first few rounds were reserved for pre-arranged media questions, but he persisted in raising his hand, just wanting to leave an impression on the host from the start.

Sure enough, when the pre-arranged rounds of media questions were over, the host called on him.

"The friend in the blue shirt, yes, the one in the middle of the third row. May I ask which media outlet you are from, and what is your question?"

Shi Ningwei stood up with the microphone and said: "I am a film critic from Sina.com, my screen name is 'Shi Shi Qiu Shi' (Seeking Truth from Facts). My question is for Chen Nuo. Why, after winning the Berlin Best Actor award, did you go to shoot 'Return of the Condor Heroes'? Don't you think this is a waste of your acting talent? May I ask if you did it to make money or to become famous? Was it something you wanted to do yourself, or did someone else tell you to do it? You once said in an interview that your goal is Hollywood and to win an Oscar for Best Actor. Do you think shooting a Jin Yong serial can win you an Oscar? I've finished my question, thank you."

(End of chapter)