Chapter 24: A Bit Difficult to Handle

Several big bosses left, and only Hou Keming, who also served as the head of the Youth Film Studio, stayed behind.

"Cao Yang, what are your thoughts? Do you want the Youth Film Studio to distribute it alone, or do you want to unite with China Film Group to distribute it?"

Hou Keming, as the vice president of the academy, spoke to Cao Yang in a tone of discussion, without any airs.

"We are all our own people, so I'll just say it directly; the Youth Film Studio has limited funds after all, and the channels are just like that; if distributed alone, it's impossible to invest too much in copies at once, unlike China Film Group, which is rich and powerful. With the rampant piracy now, even if the attendance rate is good, before the second batch of copies can be put in, piracy can cover the market."

Cao Yang thought for a moment and made the decision directly, "Then unite with China Film Group to distribute it."

In the current domestic market, it's useless even if the film's word-of-mouth is good; there is too much piracy, and it's simply not suitable for long-term screening; the bulk of the box office is concentrated in the first ten days or so.

Great directors and great stars bring their own word-of-mouth and hotspots; they can attract audiences into the cinema in the first few days, and the box office is generally not too bad.

So directors nowadays tend to invite big stars — as long as the box office is okay for the first few days, who cares about the word-of-mouth.

This phenomenon will last for a long time.

Coming out of the office and on the way back to the Directing Department, Cao Yang also saw a banner.

"Congratulate our school's Director Cao Yang for winning great results at the Berlin International Film Festival and returning with honors."

The school's formation is a bit big; he also saw a big red banner at the school gate; he didn't expect there to be one inside the school too; it's not a Golden Bear, there's no need to make such a big fuss.

Next time there is an opportunity to go to the podium of the three major European film festivals, I must do more advertising for the school; nothing else, this is the consciousness of being a student of the Beijing Film Academy.

Arriving at Old Situ's office, seeing that he was still looking at the script he gave him this morning, Cao Yang didn't disturb him, first filled Old Situ's thermos with water, and then sat on the sofa waiting.

Inadvertently, he saw more than a dozen bound documents on the desk and flipped through them casually; they were all scripts.

Old Situ put down the script in his hand, lit a cigarette, took a puff, and smiled, "I don't know where that group of kids heard the news, knowing that you handed the script to me first, and thought it was me recommending it to the school, and the Youth Film Studio invested in you."

He took another puff and continued, "Look, more than a dozen students wrote scripts and handed them to me. At first, I was still a bit interested, picked one... which can be considered the best among these, called the person over to ask, hey! They haven't learned to walk yet, and one by one they are wild with imagination."

What could Cao Yang say? He could only smile and remain silent.

Old Situ put out the cigarette, patted the script on the table, and said, "The concept is very clever, and it's a script that speaks for women, which is very favored by film festivals in Europe. Looking at this, I thought of a film called 'Vive L'Amour' from Taiwan, which has a similar entry point, but the core is completely different."

He drank some water, and Old Situ continued, "The male and female leads have almost no lines, which requires a high demand for the actors' acting skills. Regarding the artistic aspect of the film, I am not very good at it, and it's definitely not as good as Old Xie, so I can't give you useful suggestions."

"However, regarding censorship, this script might be a bit troublesome."

Cao Yang had thought of this long ago, and he also knew where the problem lay, "Are you talking about the bridge segments in the script about bribing police officers?"

"That's right, this isn't just a bribery issue, there's also torture and forced confession, and there's also beating people in prison; the key is that these people didn't receive legal punishment, and legal punishment is the point — just being beaten by the protagonist, this definitely won't work."

"I thought of all these, so I hinted that these are all the heroine's imagination, including the male lead, they are all imagined by the heroine because she has been abused by her husband for many years and her spirit is on the verge of collapse."

"The bribery, torture, and beating inside are all happening to the male lead, so they don't exist, they are all fake; this still won't work?" Old Situ lit another cigarette, took a puff, and then said, "In my experience, it's very difficult. You can't think of the audience's understanding too highly; those things that need to be understood through the details and scrutiny of the film, the audience may not be able to understand, and they may not necessarily scrutinize a film carefully."

"So their first impression is, wow, the police officer was bribed, there was torture and forced confession, the prison guard beat someone...... this is the problem."

Cao Yang thought for a moment; Old Situ is also right; you can't expect everyone to dig deep into the details of the film, and you can't expect everyone to understand your ideas; sometimes there is still a big gap between people.

He just wanted to try whether it was possible to pass censorship after blurring the male lead; it seems he thought too simply.

This film is translated as "Empty Room", which is actually not accurate.

I don't know what happened, but the earliest translation was even more outrageous, called "Empty Room Seduction", and those who didn't know would think it was a small movie.

The original name is "3-Iron"; 3-Iron is the model of a golf club, a type of iron, which is a golf club that is used less often; it is longer than an ordinary club, and the tilt angle when hitting the ball is lower, making it difficult to aim and get the ball into the hole.

But even so, many people still buy this club and put it in the golf bag to collect dust.

This name perfectly fits the plot; whether it is the appearance or the metaphor, it is incomparably fitting.

On the surface, the male lead sneaks into those temporarily vacant rooms countless times, and there are several times he uses a golf club to hit people; it is this club he uses.

!

The metaphor is that the golf ball symbolizes violence in the film.

Cao Yang wanted to add a few blurred details to let those audiences who dig deep into the film associate that the heroine is unable to resist under domestic violence, so she imagines a person who can save herself.

The heroine is often abused by her husband, and her spirit is on the verge of collapse; the predicament and oppression make her long for freedom and dignity, so the seemingly "free and unrestrained" male lead appears.

Just because it might be difficult to pass censorship, Cao Yang tried to change it, virtualizing the male lead; he didn't expect Teacher Situ to think it was still very difficult to pass censorship.

Actually, wanting to pass censorship is also very simple; just change the place where things happen, either abroad or in Hong Kong, and it will be easy to pass censorship.

But if you go to Hong Kong to shoot, it is very troublesome at the current stage; all staff and actors must apply for work visas, even shooting equipment must apply for an "import permit", and also apply to law enforcement departments for permission or approval for shooting in public places.

These all take time; Cao Yang wants to go to the Venice Film Festival in September, and he can't afford the time.

Old Situ saw Cao Yang not speaking, afraid that he would not think it through, just like the Fifth Generation, harboring resentment against the censorship system, so he began to enlighten him.

"Although the censorship system is sometimes biased and criticized, it cannot be denied that, apart from big principles, it is a good barrier for preventing cultural infiltration and establishing the values of young people in some aspects. You are still young now, maybe you don't feel it deeply or don't take it for granted, but you will understand it slowly in the future."

Cao Yang nodded and said with a smile, "It's okay, teacher, you don't have to worry, I can understand. Actually, I have a solution long ago; I will consider it again to see which plan is better."

Leaving Old Situ's office, Cao Yang looked up at the big sun in the sky and whispered to himself, "Go find Old Tian and ask; he has experience in being a banned director; see if he has any good suggestions."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 25 =====