Chapter 480: Glory Night, Global Focus

After returning from France, Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin took a few days off under the pretext of jet lag and feeling unwell, then holed up at home to compose a new song. She set it to the lyrics of Lu You's *Chai Tou Feng: Red Crispy Hand*, incorporating both the original text and her own newly adapted lyrics.

The lines went: "Red crispy hand, yellow fermented wine, city full of spring colors, palace wall willows. East wind cruel, joy thin. A heart full of sorrow, years of separation. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Spring as of old, people empty and thin, tear stains soaking through the shark-silk handkerchief. Peach blossoms fall, idle pool pavilion. Mountain vows remain, brocade letters hard to entrust. Gone, gone, gone!"

When she played this song, which she had composed independently, for her friends in the industry, they were all amazed at the immense progress she had made in songwriting.

This tragic ancient-style love song was completely on par with *Moon Over the West Tower*, which she had collaborated on with Wei Ming previously. It was stunning, far surpassing *Nian Nu Jiao*, *Flowers Fall, What Can Be Done*, and *Sheng Sheng Man*, which she had composed not long ago, stimulating Tan Yonglin to start writing his own original music as well.

Only Anita Mui asked her privately, "Did you and Wei Ming have a fight? Did you break up?"

"How could that be? I've always been very talented," Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin forced a smile; she didn't want to damage Wei Ming's reputation.

"I see," Anita Mui said, thinking Mao Mao Amin's talent had exploded due to heartbreak. "Then when are you planning to release your new album? Do you want to go head-to-head with Deng Lijun?"

"Deng Lijun?"

"Yeah, she's about to release her second Cantonese album. Oh, she even announced the lead single today. Listen to this."

The new song was called *Strolling Through Life*, with lyrics by Zheng Guojiang and the original melody by Miyuki Nakajima.

After listening, Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin felt her mood lift significantly. She felt she should walk her own life path with the same calm and detached attitude as the song described.

Previously, she hadn't dared to look at news related to Wei Ming, but now she took the initiative to find the recent issues of *Ming Pao* at home.

Because Wei Ming was such a hot topic, *Ming Pao* had opened a special Cannes column, featuring articles and photos sent back from France by Luo Ashiu every day, which were quite popular with readers. New Wave directors like Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, and Tsui Hark were all following Wei Ming's trip to Cannes.

The news of Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin going to France had also leaked in this column, along with photos, which fans took as clear evidence that the two were dating.

Although there were no photos of Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin and Wei Ming together, Gong Xue felt uneasy when she saw the news that Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin had also gone to France. She didn't dare to think too much and could only write frantic letters to Zhou Hui to vent her repressed feelings.

After finishing the latest Cannes special in *Ming Pao*, Zhou Zhou Zhou Huimin realized how many days had passed; the closing ceremony of Cannes was today.

She looked out the window: "I hope you get your wish."

She still remembered that day on the beach in Cannes, when Wei Ming said: "I made this film because I want more people abroad to see a China with hope, to reshape China's new image. If it has awards to back it up, it will certainly be more conducive to the film's dissemination."

In fact, even before the closing ceremony, several European and American film companies had already sought to purchase the rights from Wei Ming. The highest bidder, 20th Century Fox, even offered 1 million USD to buy out all rights to the film outside of China.

Because there was a prior contract with the Children's Er Yingchang—where the studio paid 200,000 for domestic rights, and all overseas revenue belonged to Hong Kong DreamWorks—he was essentially trading 400,000 RMB and equivalent foreign exchange for 1 million USD, a massive profit.

But Wei Ming hadn't relented, saying he would discuss it after the awards ceremony.

He felt the chances of winning were high. Sure enough, the day before the closing ceremony, Cannes Artistic Director Gilles Jacob personally notified Wei Ming to keep his team in Cannes for the awards ceremony.

This meant his work would be winning an award, and an award meant the film's copyright value could climb another level.

Bao Tongzhi, the Deputy Director, immediately notified the comrades at the Xinhua News Agency's French branch. The original two-person reporting team instantly grew to four, and a comrade from the French Embassy accompanied them to the awards ceremony.

Winning an award at one of the three major European film festivals was a first for a Chinese live-action film—a zero-to-one breakthrough. Now it was just a matter of how the domestic side would promote and guide the narrative.

At this time, accompanying Wei Ming were the lead actor Li Baotian, Deputy Director Bao Tongzhi, the embassy counselor, as well as the representative of the Hong Kong investor, Melinda, and Wei Lingling, who had returned from Paris.

At the awards site, Wei Ming saw Andrei Tarkovsky, who was not in the best of health, but he didn't see Martin Scorsese, Ryuichi Sakamoto, or Takeshi Kitano. The competition at this year's Cannes was simply too fierce.

The main competition awards weren't presented first; the Short Film Palme d'Or was awarded first.

Wei Ming had watched a few of this year's short films and found that several were deliberately imitating the shooting and editing style of *The Witness*, but they were all clumsy imitations. The winner this time was a documentary short.

Next was the Caméra d'Or, also known as the Best First Feature Award, aimed at the main competition and the Un Certain Regard section. Last year, Wei Ming had won this award at Venice for his short film *The Witness* as an exception; this year at Cannes, the award was his again.

"Congratulations to China!"

Bao Tongzhi was so excited he almost stood up. Although this award had already been won in Venice last year, this was a feature film—could it be the same as a short film? And *The Witness* was mostly considered a Hong Kong film.

Even if this were the only award for the night, this Deputy Director would have something to report back.

Next was the FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics. The winners were Old Tarkovsky's *Nostalghia* and...

"The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class, congratulations!"

Wei Ming hadn't expected to have to stand up again right after sitting down. Upon returning, he said to Director Bao, "If there are more awards below, you go up."

The next award was the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury—the name alone told them it had nothing to do with them. The winner was again Andrei Tarkovsky's *Nostalghia*; this film was very well-received at Cannes this year.

The Technical Grand Prize presented shortly after went to the Spanish musical *Carmen*, whose dance choreography and scenes were highly spectacular.

Finally, the Best Artistic Contribution Award was presented: "The winners are the Spanish film *Carmen* and the Chinese film *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class*."

One for dance, one for music—they complemented each other perfectly.

Director Bao was very excited, but having agreed to let him go up to receive the award, he backed out, pushing Wei Ming up instead and telling the Xinhua comrades to hurry and take pictures—they had already taken three.

This Best Artistic Contribution Award was largely due to the music in *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class*, especially that final *suona* performance, which had truly opened the ears of foreign audiences.

Wei Ming briefly introduced the *suona*, which everyone was curious about, during his acceptance speech.

"Actually, the *suona* was introduced to China from Persia. After a thousand years of evolution, it has become what it is today and has become a uniquely Chinese instrument. Traditional Chinese weddings, funerals, births, and deaths are inseparable from it. If there is a chance to perform on stage later, I would be happy to play a piece for everyone."

The film's premiere made Wei Ming realize that the *suona* music in the film was very attractive to foreigners, so he had his cousin buy one in Paris and bring it over.

Looking at the three different trophies and certificates in Wei Ming's hands, Bao Tongzhi, the embassy counselor, and the others couldn't hide the smiles on their faces. With these three awards, Wei Ming could be directly canonized in the domestic film industry; it was enough for the media to brag about for three days and three nights without repeating themselves, and it was a merit that the Film Bureau could write about extensively.

The Un Certain Regard awards had already been presented yesterday; now it was time to enter the official main competition awards segment, with jury members taking turns to present the awards.

First was the Best Screenplay Award, which went to French director Robert Bresson's *L'Argent*.

This 80-year-old director trembled as he went on stage to receive the award. Born in 1901, he could almost be said to have witnessed the development of cinema from silent to sound, from black and white to color, and from a French-centered to an American-centered industry.

French jury member and cinematography master Henri Alekan had very much wanted to fight for a bigger award for this living fossil of French cinema, as this might be the last film he ever made.

Unfortunately, the quality of the works this year was too strong. *Carmen* and *Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence*, which had high hopes earlier, failed to make the final winner's list, and jury president William Styron didn't care for this film, so it only ended up with this minor award. This was also a major point of contention during the judging phase.

Although Henri Alekan was only a cinematographer, he was the oldest member of the jury and the cinematographer of *Beauty and the Beast*, *Roman Holiday*, and *Anna Karenina*. His status in the industry was extremely high, so even the great Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk didn't dare to clash head-on with him.

Next was the Jury Prize. This award wasn't a permanent fixture either; it was usually the product of a compromise insisted upon by a certain jury member—a consolation prize, so to speak.

The winner was Indian master director Mrinal Sen's *Kharij*. He was also one of the initiators of the Indian New Wave movement. Because of his communist leanings, the Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk insisted on winning this award for him.

However, Sergei wanted too much; he both wanted India's Mrinal Sen to win an award and wanted his own country's Andrei Tarkovsky not to win one. This was another major point of contention among the Cannes jury this year.

After two appetizers, it was time for the acting awards. First was Best Actor. Wei Ming glanced at Li Baotian.

After learning that there was an award to be won, Wei Ming's lowest expectation for this Cannes was to fight for a Cannes Best Actor for Old Li, and this expectation was very reasonable.

Although he was not yet 40 and this was only the second film he had shot, the most brilliant segments of the entire film were his, and he was the character with the most screen time and the most complete narrative arc.

However, when he heard it wasn't Li Baotian, Wei Ming couldn't help but feel a secret joy, because *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class* couldn't win Best Actress, so they would be getting a more significant award.

Although he is not yet 40 years old, and this is only the second film he has directed, the most magnificent part of the whole film is his, and he is also the character with the most scenes and the most complete character context.

However, when hearing it wasn't Li Baotian, Wei Ming still inevitably had some secret joy, because *Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class* couldn't win Best Actress, so they would get a more important award.