Chapter 281

After getting a satisfactory answer from Spielberg, Wu Yuchen left with a smile on his face.

This time, for the Oscar push of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas," his goal was set on Best Director.

If one were to speak from the perspective of heaven, earth, and people, "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" had advantages in both heaven and people.

Heaven is the Iraq War currently brewing between Bush and the White House, which has caused anti-war sentiment in Hollywood to rise continuously. In this regard, anti-war films will undoubtedly have an advantage in this year's Oscars.

People is Wu Yuchen himself. His connections have been expanding continuously over the past two years. He has cooperation with DreamWorks and Universal because of "Pirates of the Caribbean," co-produced "Spider-Man" with Sony, filmed "The Hours" with Fox, and Warner Bros. is also negotiating the "Batman" project with him. He has made many people his stakeholders through the interests of one project after another, which will make those Hollywood studio executives with voting rights subconsciously lean toward him.

At the same time, he, Wu Yuchen, is no longer an Oscar newcomer. In the Best Director category, he has already challenged twice. Although the two failures are regrettable, they have also accumulated points for him, which will make many judges have some psychological inclination when they think of him.

The only thing "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" lacks is earth, which is that this film is a Chinese-language film, not an English film. It is basically impossible to compete for Best Picture in this day and age.

Some people might say that "The Last Emperor" won Best Picture, but please note, don't look at the fact that the actors in "The Last Emperor" are all Chinese; this is an English film, not a foreign-language film. The actors spoke English directly when acting, so this film competed for Best Picture, not Best Foreign Language Film.

In other words, unless Wu Yuchen is willing to have "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" filmed and released in English, there is no possibility of winning Best Picture. This is the default rule in Hollywood at present.

For Wu Yuchen, this is definitely unacceptable. Although he filmed this movie with a significant reason for the Oscar awards, it is even more a film dedicated to China, to represent China in making a voice internationally about the persecution suffered by invaders during the War of Resistance, and to let more people pay attention to this period of history.

At the same time, the influence of the Oscars globally has weakened quite a bit compared to its peak period. Whether it's the Best Picture for "Parasite" or Michelle Yeoh's first Oscar Best Actress, they are all signals released by the Oscars to the outside world to show the Oscars' open and inclusive posture.

"The culprit of all this is the invader who started the war, it's the Japanese! God, if I hadn't watched this film, I wouldn't have known at all that the Japanese had done such sinful things! They are not half as good as the Nazis in Germany!"

The friend was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth: "God, I'm really a bit ashamed. All my attention was on Bruno!"

In fact, compared to the commercial films Wu Yuchen filmed, Marilyn preferred Wu Yuchen's art films, such as "Love," "The Sixth Sense," "A Beautiful Mind," etc. She thought these films could touch her soul more. Well, actually, she is an American art youth.

The friend also nodded vigorously after hearing this, and then said:

But now, through this "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas," although there were no bloody scenes in the film, the whole film was telling the crimes against humanity committed by the Japanese.

On the other hand, Wu Yuchen just won the Best Picture award last year with "A Beautiful Mind." Unless the film is incomparable in all aspects this year, otherwise this year's Oscar Best Picture will basically have nothing to do with him.

Marilyn said at this time: "While you are sad for Bruno, please don't ignore Shunjun. You can't treat him differently just because he is a child in a concentration camp, and there are others in the concentration camp. They are also equally innocent~"

The first foreign-language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars in his past life was "Parasite" in 2020. At that time, the social environment and the Hollywood environment had already changed greatly, and the discourse power of ethnic minorities had risen greatly.

And this time, the word-of-mouth of Wu Yuchen's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" premiere was quite high, and many film reviews were full of praise, which naturally aroused Marilyn's desire to watch the film, dragging her friend across half the city to queue up to buy tickets to watch it in the few theaters that had preview screenings.

Marilyn and her friend walked into the theater with laughter, but when they came out, their eyes were red and swollen, and they kept wiping their tears with tissues.

The director of "The Last Emperor" is Italian, but he, Wu Yuchen, is a genuine Chinese. How could he change this film into a pure English film? Then why did he spend so much effort filming this movie?

Instead, because Japan has bowed to America for decades, her impression of Japan is more actually some games she has played and movies and TV shows she has watched. It's the cute Pikachu, it's the super plumber Mario, it's that Japanese people are rich, it's the richest country in Asia, it's the Japanese people's politeness and rigor...

Marilyn also had the same feeling in her heart. She is a new generation of American youth born in the 80s. Although she has heard of the so-called Pearl Harbor incident and knows that Japan was a war criminal country in World War II, she doesn't understand Japan's past actions at all.

Therefore, Wu Yuchen doesn't have any hope of letting a Chinese-language film win the Oscar for Best Picture now, and he aimed at the Best Director award from the beginning.

Actually, the main purpose is to attract more attention and traffic from Asians. After all, traffic represents green US dollars!

But the current Oscars are at the peak of their influence and don't need to do this at all.

Marilyn sighed: "I think this is also a deep meaning that Wu Dao wants to express. Bruno is very pitiful, but should those people in the concentration camp die? Even if Bruno is saved, then who understands their tragic fate, and who cares?"

Marilyn is a fan of Wu Yuchen, and she has been for a long time. Before Wu Yuchen entered Hollywood, she had already paid attention to Wu Yuchen from "Run Lola Run," and she confirmed that she liked his works when "Run Lola Run" was released.

"Wu Dao is really too cruel! Why can't you give the cute little angel a better ending! Bruno is so cute and so kind. I will never forget his pure and flawless eyes..." the friend cried.

Now, what Marilyn wants to do most is to go home and check online to see if the cute Bruno, Shunjun, and those other people in the concentration camp really existed in history.

If this is really the case, then for the cute Bruno and Shunjun, she will promote this "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" to everyone around her. This is the only thing she can do for the two little angels in her heart!

"Wu, Nicole, Jennifer, look here!"

In the camera, Wu Yuchen stood in the middle, revealing a bright smile, with Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly, two great beauties, standing on his left and right. Both women were dressed beautifully and released a charming smile toward the direction of the flash.

Half a month later, following "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas," Wu Yuchen was attending the premiere of "The Hours" with the two women. This was what he had promised the two women at the beginning, so he naturally wouldn't go back on his word.

At the premiere, many reporters also asked questions:

"Nicole, are you going to continue to challenge the Oscars this year?"

"Of course, the Oscar is the goal pursued by all actors!"

"Jennifer, who is the protagonist between you and Nicole in this film? How do you evaluate Nicole's performance?"

Jennifer Connelly smiled slightly: "Nicole performed great, but my scenes are not less than hers~"

"Wu, how do you evaluate the performance of the two?"

Facing many eyes, Wu Yuchen was also calm: "This film can be described in one sentence: three women make a play. Whether it's Nicole or Jennifer, they are all great. As for who is better, I think I can only leave this question to the Oscar judges to worry about~"

This time for "The Hours," he gave Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly the same help. He would help them apply for Best Actress, and he would also help them with public relations later. Whether they can win really depends on themselves.

"Wu, you have two films challenging the Oscars this year. May I ask which one you will focus on?"

Wu Yuchen smiled: "'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and 'The Hours' are both my works, and there is no distinction between primary and secondary. And the themes expressed by these two films are also different, and there will be different audiences. They don't have much competitive relationship~"

Actually, what Wu Yuchen said was the truth. He had already divided the two films, and the main awards to be attacked were also different. "The Hours" was aimed at Best Actress, and this was also the direction in promotion and marketing. Of course, at the current stage, no matter which film it was, they would try their best to get more nominations.

And just at this time, a voice shouted among the reporters:

"Wu Dao, regarding your 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,' a Japanese group has already protested, saying that you are uglifying the image of Japanese people. May I ask how you view this problem?"

Hearing this question, Wu Yuchen turned his head to look at that reporter. It was an Asian face, and it was possible that he himself was a Japanese-American.

Wu Yuchen smiled: "I don't think there is any controversial place in 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.' As the invading side during World War II, Japan pursued Fascism and committed unforgivable crimes against China, all of Asia, and even the whole world. This is an iron-clad historical fact!"

That man immediately said again: "But regarding the concentration camp described in your film, the Japanese side thinks this is completely fabricated and made up by you!"

Hearing this, Wu Yuchen's face became serious, and he couldn't help but say loudly:

"Fabricated? As of now, many old sites of concentration camps are still preserved on the land of China, such as the Fengtian POW camp, Lushun Prison, Weixian concentration camp in Shandong, Jinan concentration camp, Shimen concentration camp, the old site of Pingfang 731, etc. Among them, many concentration camps imprisoned not only Chinese people but also POWs from the Allied forces such as America and Russia, as well as some compatriots from all over Asia such as Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

These sites, photos, and evidence are all well-preserved, and even some old people who suffered from the concentration camps are still alive. Can this still be denied?

If Japan can still quibble about this, it proves that Japan has never reflected on its own invasion behavior back then at all!"

This series of words left that reporter speechless, his face turning blue and white. At the same time, many reporters around also recorded Wu Yuchen's words, all having thought of the news headline: "Japanese reporter denies war crimes, Wu Yuchen angrily rebukes on the spot!"

Subsequently, Wu Yuchen slowed down his tone again: "Everyone, this is the premiere of 'The Hours.' Please focus the topic on 'The Hours'."

Actually, Wu Yuchen had expected that there would be protests from Japan after "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" was released, but he didn't expect that the Japanese would be so shameless as to directly deny the existence of the concentration camp and say it was fabricated by him!

Wu Yuchen thought to himself, since the Japanese are so shameless, he won't save face for them either. After the Oscar nominations come out, he will "give the Japanese a long face"!

On the other side, at Sony Building, Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony North America, was answering a phone call:

"Obstruct 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'? Wu Yuchen? I don't suggest doing that.

Yes, I refuse. I am responsible for the performance of Sony Columbia and Sony North America. Wu is Sony's most important partner at present. Why should I fall out with him?

Just because of such a film? Do you know how much profit 'Spider-Man' has brought to our Sony? If Wu and Marvel stop 'Spider-Man,' how much money will our Sony lose?

Suit yourself, I am only responsible for the company's performance!"

After saying this, Howard Stringer hung up the phone and revealed a disdainful smile. A Sony director from Japan wanted to command him?

Although he is an American and a wage earner, he is now the boss of Sony North America, and he is very likely to become the person in charge of the entire Sony kingdom in the next two years. He also has the strong support of the current Sony Group boss, Nobuyuki Idei, behind him. Therefore, he doesn't care about the noise of others at all. He knows that his reliance is to achieve results.

Howard's mind is very clear. For a professional manager, making money is the first priority. If he can't help the company make money, everything he does is wrong. If he can help the company make money, his future will be bright!

And "Spider-Man" is the most profitable project for Sony Columbia right now. He simply doesn't allow others to ruin this money-printing machine that was finally created!