Chapter 276: Breaking the Ice

"Brother Wu, congratulations, congratulations!"

"Same joy, same joy, this time *Brotherhood of Blades* can achieve such good results, thanks to the strong support of Brother Han!"

At this time, Wu Yuchen is on the phone with Han Sanping. Thinking about the box office of *Brotherhood of Blades*, it took 22 days to break 300 million, but the remaining 60 million took nearly two months to complete.

And this process really took a lot of means. If there were no strong support from Han Sanping and the strong cooperation of various official departments, as well as the reform of the cinema system, to say something unpleasant, I don't know how much the box office of *Brotherhood of Blades* would have been hidden and stolen this time.

"Hahaha, Brother Wu, don't be humble. We are just beating gongs and drums. It still depends on your Wu Dao shooting well, and the name is loud enough. If it were someone else, even if our throats were shouted, it would be useless!"

It can be heard that Han Sanping is extremely happy at this time. For the public, this time *Brotherhood of Blades* broke the domestic box office record, shattered the mountain pressing on the head, and has great significance for the entire Chinese film market. It is a milestone moment in the history of Chinese cinema. For the private, in his Han Sanping's term, these achievements are all to be recorded in the merit book.

"Brother Wu, if you weren't shooting in the Northeast now, I would have taken the initiative to arrange a celebration banquet for you!"

Wu Yuchen smiled when he heard this. In fact, he didn't care about any celebration banquet, but this time breaking the record of *Titanic* and reclaiming the throne of Chinese film box office champion is indeed of commemorative significance. If he didn't hold one, everyone would feel that something was missing, even Han Sanping was like this.

So he said: "Brother Han, the celebration banquet will definitely be there, but I have to wait until I finish the work at hand."

Han Sanping asked with concern: "How is it? Is the new movie shooting going well?"

Wu Yuchen shot this scene from different angles and lightings for several materials, and now he wants to pick the most suitable one.

In fact, this *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* is exposing the crimes of Japan during World War II. Maybe many Japanese musicians will not take this job.

He is now editing the material shot a few days ago, a scene of two little boys playing chess across the barbed wire. This scene looks very simple, but Wu Yuchen also spent a lot of thought.

Although he now has the conditions for artificial rain, he cannot control the sky, thunder, and lightning. The sense of oppression and destruction brought by natural thunderstorms is difficult to make artificially without flaws. Fortunately, the transition between summer and autumn is a high-incidence period for thunderstorms, and the crew didn't wait too long before a thunderstorm struck.

In fact, Wu Yuchen didn't lie. The time was indeed a bit tight. In order to save some time for post-production, he was editing while shooting.

Two days later, Wu Yuchen had already returned to Beijing. After the movie was finished, a finishing banquet, and then rushed back to do post-production without stopping. In fact, his editing work for the movie was almost finished. Now the biggest piece of post-production is the soundtrack.

Of course, the two children are not really playing Go. Let them play Gomoku. Even children in concentration camps can learn Gomoku as soon as they learn it.

The last scene is not so easy to shoot. The key is not that the crew or actors have any difficulties, but the weather. Wu Yuchen needs a thunderstorm.

This time Wu Yuchen didn't shout "Pass." Although Hearing Gong Li had achieved the effect, he wanted to shoot more materials and finally pick the one he was most satisfied with to cut in.

To be honest, these two master-level figures, if it weren't for Wu Yuchen, other directors might not have such a big face to invite these two to create for the movie at the same time.

Beside her, Shu Chang hugged Hearing Gong Li tightly, but this could not stop Hearing Gong Li's sorrowful grief that was higher than one wave after another.

But Ryuichi Sakamoto is a representative of the Japanese left wing and a Japanese communist. His anti-war thought runs through his life. He admits and reflects on the crimes of Japanese aggression against China. When he passed away, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly expressed condolences for him. His experience in anti-war music creation is also what Wu Yuchen values very much.

The original version of the two played international chess, which can be directly changed to Chinese chess here. However, after consideration, Wu Yuchen still changed it to Go. The black and white contrasting pieces of Go, and the grid-like patterns on the chessboard, can leave a deeper impression in visual effects, and can also have more symbolic meanings.

"It's going well, there are only the last scenes left, and it will be finished in a few days. But I have to rush to do post-production here, otherwise I am afraid of missing the Oscar registration time."

Zhao Jiping is the top soundtrack in China, creating more than a thousand music works, including *Yellow Earth*, *Red Sorghum*, *Farewell My Concubine*, *A Chinese Odyssey*, *Raise the Red Lantern*, *The Story of Qiu Ju*, *White Deer Plain*, *Water Margin* and other excellent film and television soundtracks, as well as symphonies, concertos, chamber music, operas, national orchestral music, dance dramas, art songs and other types of music works. The breadth of subject matter, the number of works, and the high quality are admirable.

At this time, Wu Yuchen was politely saying to these two: "I am very sorry, I was busy shooting this time, and the hospitality was not good. The creation time left for the two may not be very sufficient. I hope the two will bear with me!"

Lightning flashed across the sky. In the heavy rain, Hearing Gong Li heard Chen Baoguo's desperate "Xixi" and her breathing accelerated. A violent panting of "Hehe" came from her throat. The whole person couldn't help but soften and kneel on the ground, then hugged her son's clothes in front of the barbed wire and wailed and cried.

Han Sanping also nodded: "The celebration banquet is not urgent, it is still your new play that is important!"

On the side, it is not just one camera, one front, one side, one overhead, and the distance of each is different, recording this scene.

At this time, Wu Yuchen is receiving two top soundtrack masters invited, Zhao Jiping and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

And Ryuichi Sakamoto is a master figure who resounds through the world, creating many classic works. For the soundtrack of *The Last Emperor*, 45 pieces of music, he only used 1 week to complete, winning the Oscar for Best Soundtrack, a genius among geniuses.

"Wu Dao, you are polite. This movie of yours is this, it is speaking for our entire Chinese nation! Even if it is posted, I am willing, call at any time!" Zhao Jiping gave Wu Yuchen a thumbs up and said.

Ryuichi Sakamoto also said: "Wu Dao, please don't say that. This *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* really touched me very much. It is my honor to participate in the creation of such a work! I also hope that the anti-war thought of this film work can be seen by more people!"

Subsequently, Ryuichi Sakamoto sighed: "Even if it is not 60 years ago, war has never been far away from us humans. As long as the war has not stopped, innocent children and lives in this world will suffer tragedies every moment!"

Wu Yuchen also nodded, and then said: "Yes, and looking at the current situation, there may be a new round of war coming."

"A new round of war?" Zhao Jiping was a bit confused.

And Ryuichi Sakamoto is relatively sensitive in this regard: "Is Wu Dao talking about America?"

Wu Yuchen nodded, and then said: "I received a call yesterday. 33 top American international relations scholars published a joint letter in *The New York Times* *War with Iraq is not in the national interest*. The greater the opposition, the more it shows that the White House is brewing a big move..."

Subsequently, Wu Yuchen sighed, and then said to the two: "In the face of war, we are all small, and we are powerless about this. We can only do our best to spread the anti-war voice through art."

Both nodded in agreement.

With the concerted efforts of the two music masters, the work on the soundtrack of *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* progressed rapidly, and it took a total of ten days to complete the production of the movie soundtrack, and the effect was top-notch.

After the movie was produced, Wu Yuchen finally breathed a sigh of relief. The movie was sent to the big scissors for review, and it was the leader of the big scissors who came to receive it in person.

To be honest, for Wu Yuchen's new movie, the leader of the big scissors was mentally prepared. They heard that it was an anti-Japanese subject. Even if it shot some bloody violence, or even larger-scale shots, they planned to open one eye and close one eye. And this is Wu Yuchen, the big director, who took the shot himself. As long as there is no big problem in the ideological direction, they will not embarrass him.

After all, it is an anti-Japanese subject. Big directors generally want to dig into some depth, humanity, etc. Think about the controversy caused by *Devils on the Doorstep*...

But I never expected that after watching the movie, there was no problem at all. From beginning to end, there was not even a bloody shot, which fully reached the level of children's movies!

This also made the leader of the big scissors sigh again and again: "Look at this skill! What is called the number one Chinese director? No matter how many rules and regulations are added, he can still shoot such good works! Let all other directors learn from Wu Dao, don't come to us to make trouble all day! Especially Jiang Wen!"

At the same time, the celebration banquet for *Brotherhood of Blades* has also been held.

On the stage, a long table was covered with red cloth, on which a digital ice sculpture was placed: 360000000.

In fact, after the news of *Brotherhood of Blades* breaking the record was promoted and reported, it drove another wave of box office, and a wave of people walked into the cinema to contribute to the box office. Now the total box office of *Brotherhood of Blades* has broken 370 million, but the number of this ice-breaking ceremony today is still 360000000.

Behind the ice sculpture, standing in the center are Wu Yuchen and Han Sanping, followed by Zhang Guorong, Jiang Qinqin and other leading actors.

Driven by Wu Yuchen and Han Sanping, everyone took small hammers and smashed the ice sculpture in front of them together. The cameras under the stage also recorded this scene with "click, click," and everyone's face was full of smiles.

"This movie's ice-breaking ceremony is the first time in China, right? I also tasted a fresh one with you today!" Han Sanping, who was seated, also laughed.

Wu Yuchen said with a smile: "My mind is all on the new movie, it's all arranged by President Cai!"

Cai Yinong also explained with a smile: "I think *Brotherhood of Blades* is also our first commercial blockbuster in China, and this time the significance is extraordinary, so this celebration banquet must have some ritual sense! Today, President Han and Wu Dao smashed the 3.6 billion figure together. I believe that in the future, Wu Dao's movies, and our Chinese film box office, under the leadership of President Han, will not stop at this figure!"

This word hit Han Sanping's heart, and he raised a glass and said:

"The 3.6 billion figure of *Titanic* a few years ago was simply unimaginable for our Chinese films, and it became a difficult heart disease in my heart.

No matter how well *Titanic* is shot, it is not our Chinese film. Should our Chinese films always be pressed on the head by a foreign language film?

Today, I smashed this 3.6 billion with my own hands, not only breaking a heart disease of mine, but also pushing down a mountain on the head of our Chinese-language films!

All this is inseparable from a leading figure like Wu Dao, and inseparable from excellent talents like everyone present!

I believe that with everyone here, the future of our Chinese-language films will get better and better!"

Everyone at the table cheered and raised their glasses to celebrate. After all, today is a festive day, and the atmosphere at the dinner table is also very lively. As they talked, they talked about Wu Yuchen's new movie.

Han Sanping took the initiative to tease Jiang Wen: "Jiang Wen, the people at the big scissors asked me to bring you a word, the premiere of *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* in two days, you must go and watch it!"

Jiang Wen was not annoyed, and laughed: "President Han, where do they need to say this? Wu Dao's movie, I must go and watch and learn!"

Wu Yuchen shook his head with a smile: "Forget it, even if you really learned it, you are not Jiang Wen!"

Everyone at the table laughed when they heard this.

*The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* was almost all green lights, confirmed to participate in the Oscar-campaigning movie qualification, and set the time and place for the screening, which was the Great Hall of the People.

Speaking of which, someone mentioned *Hero*. Han Sanping also leaned close to Wu Yuchen and asked in a low voice: "*Hero* will also hold a screening in Hong Kong on October 25th. Do you plan to participate, Brother Wu?"

Because of *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*, the impact of *Hero* on the Oscars can only go through the channels of Hong Kong, so the screening of this movie is also placed in Hong Kong.

Han Sanping's question was asking whether Wu Yuchen would participate in the premiere, and there was another layer of meaning in the dark, which was to test Wu Yuchen's attitude towards it. After all, the two sides had a war of words at the beginning. But to be honest, standing from Han Sanping's perspective, he naturally didn't want Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou to fall out.

Wu Yuchen naturally understood Han Sanping's mind and said with a smile: "Brother Han, don't worry, I'm fine with Brother Zhang, just a hype. But I can't go to the premiere of this movie. After the screening of *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*, I have to rush to Hollywood, it's very urgent~" ===== CHAPTER 277 =====