Chapter 371: Ties to the Seaside City

"Ties to the Seaside City."

Cao Yang typed the film's title on his computer, stared at it for a while, and couldn't help but laugh to himself.

He thought with a bit of dark humor that, just based on this title, any audience member looking for a "romance" blockbuster would certainly not be disappointed.

Yes, they definitely wouldn't be disappointed.

This film title also had a history; it was the Chinese translation used in Xiangjiang for a certain film, originally titled "Manchester by the Sea," which also appeared to be a romantic movie.

Regardless of whether you went to see this film because of its English title or its Xiangjiang Chinese translation, you would absolutely be left with a "moving" and restless heart after watching it.

Since he wanted to shoot a Chinese-language film to embody "unity," this "Manchester by the Sea," with a slight adaptation, was very suitable.

Of course, this so-called suitability was specifically for film festivals, especially the Berlin International Film Festival—this kind of anti-chicken-soup film that explores human nature was very easy to win awards with.

Adaptation was actually very easy.

The male lead was set as a man from Xiangjiang who, due to his own mistake, caused a fire that inadvertently buried his young children in a sea of flames, and his wife also left him.

To escape and avoid being reminded of the past, he chose to go far away to England or Canada—these places were also the most desirable destinations for current Xiangjiang people, the "Holy Land" in many people's hearts.

Of course, Cao Yang also knew how to export cultural values.

The male lead here was a down-and-out apartment manager living a life like a walking corpse without a single ripple, having lost all confidence and hope in life, living alone in a narrow, semi-basement room.

Although he never complained about the tediousness of his work, he still received quite a bit of discrimination—old white men discriminating against other races was a common phenomenon, even though they shouted in their mouths that there should be no racial discrimination and that everyone should be equal.

Whenever there was something in this world that people desperately shouted to deny, it must definitely exist, and it must be quite serious—serious enough that they had to shout slogans about it.

Cao Yang set up a few small conflicts here; the male lead was already like this, so what was he afraid of? What else was there to fear?

Those who deliberately looked for trouble, racial discrimination, and so on—the protagonist didn't indulge any of them; he was just a person with a short temper and a rough attitude, and he had been complained about countless times.

Such a worker with low pay, who worked hard without complaint, could do anything, and held multiple jobs—even if the manager received many complaints, they wouldn't fire him.

Moreover, they would even protect him and make excuses for him.

Otherwise, they would need to hire several workers and pay several times the salary; the manager wasn't stupid.

The story actually had two narrative threads, unfolding respectively around him and his older brother.

His brother was a fishing boat owner who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and his wife was addicted to alcohol and gambling; after his brother became seriously ill, she disappeared without a trace.

His brother suddenly fell ill and passed away, leaving behind a 16-year-old son, and the will designated the male lead to be the son's guardian.

The male lead returned to Xiangjiang to handle his brother's funeral and had no choice but to live with his nephew; the two story threads converged here.

After experiencing a series of interactions with his nephew, the male lead still couldn't let go; the fear of what people would say among acquaintances here and the heavy psychological burden made him unable to regain a happy life, and he ultimately chose to leave once again.

For the male lead, the so-called "time heals all wounds" was completely ineffective; his tragedy lay in the fact that he lived forever in the shadow of the past, unable to erase the traces left behind.

Real life was cold and distant to him, yet the memories of the past were too vivid to escape.

When he choked out to his nephew, "I can't go on," the tragic meaning of the film reached its peak.

Of course, the parts about the protagonist's life and the nephew's campus life in Xiangjiang would definitely need to be adapted to fit reality; this kind of change would not affect the main plot or the theme of the story.

Whether this film could succeed mainly depended on the male lead's performance.

Therefore, Cao Yang thought secretly, could he find a big star in Xiangjiang who wasn't known for acting, and then put them through a few immersive experiences to make everyone gasp in surprise?

It would also let the Xiangjiang film circle and their media see what "actor training" was all about.

Well, if one wasn't enough, he'd add a few more.

Of course, the premise was to ensure the actor didn't truly get too deep into the role and become depressed; even if they did, he had to ensure the actor's safety.

It would be best to have a professional psychologist join the crew from the start.

Given the male lead's experience, if an actor got too deep into the role, they really might do something foolish...

Cao Yang thought about it, but that wasn't necessarily true; according to the plot, the male lead shouldn't have any intention of committing suicide—he was punishing himself, and he wanted to live in pain forever to punish himself.

Perhaps, the day he forgave himself or let go, he really might commit suicide.

But throughout the entire film, the male lead never let go or forgave himself, so even if the actor got into the role, even if they were very immersed, even if they were completely immersed, they wouldn't easily commit suicide.

Then what was there to worry about!

Add the immersive experience with confidence!

Let the Xiangjiang film circle and their media see how an actor not known for acting could become a Best Actor.

At this stage, mentioning male actors who could represent the Xiangjiang film circle, without a doubt, those were the "Two Zhous and One Cheng," the "Two Liangs and One Wu," plus the "Four Heavenly Kings."

That is, Zhou Runfa, Zhou Xingxing, Cheng Long, Liang Chaowei, Liang Jiahui, Wu Qihua, Liu Dehua, Zhang Xueyou, Li Ming, and Guo Fucheng.

Others, such as Gu Zai, Liu Qingyun, Zhang Jiahui, Zheng Yijian, and the "Chef Xie" heavily pushed by Xiangjiang, were still a bit lacking compared to those mentioned above.

Li Lianjie was from the mainland and could not represent Xiangjiang.

Cao Yang thought for a moment; among those recognized as representing Xiangjiang, in terms of acting, those recognized by the media and audience were Zhou Runfa, Liang Chaowei, Liang Jiahui, and Wu Qihua.

Why add Wu Qihua?

Because he followed Cao Yang; although he hadn't won Best Actor at the three major European film festivals, he had won the highest awards.

For example, in the Venice Golden Lion film "Empty House," he had an important role as the abusive husband.

For example, in the Cannes Golden Palm film "Secret Sunshine," he could be considered the male lead.

He also played the very significant role of the tycoon in "Inception," which had a global box office of over 900 million USD.

He also played the alien leader in "District 9," which won the Oscar for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

These films had the highest recognized artistic achievements, box office, and word-of-mouth; who could say Wu Qihua couldn't represent Xiangjiang? Who could say Wu Qihua had no acting skills?

He was currently recognized as the international superstar second only to Cheng Long in Xiangjiang.

These four could be temporarily removed.

Zhou Xingxing's acting was also very good; Cao Yang believed that if you set aside other factors and only discussed acting, his acting was no worse than Zhou Runfa, Liang Chaowei, or Liang Jiahui.

In terms of awards, he won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Horse Awards in 1988 for "Final Justice," and won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2002 for "Shaolin Soccer."

During this period, he had been nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards countless times.

Zhou Xingxing could also be temporarily removed.

Among the Four Heavenly Kings, the one recognized as the best actor was Zhang Xueyou; although he hadn't won Best Actor at major awards, he had long since won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards.

He also contributed many memes to later generations, which could also indirectly reflect that his acting was not bad.

Therefore, Zhang Xueyou could also be temporarily removed. Although Liu Dehua had always been criticized for his acting, if you looked only at awards, he was the one among the Four Heavenly Kings who had won the most Best Actor awards.

So far, he had two Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and one Golden Horse Award for Best Actor.

Guo Fucheng, the former "little fresh meat" and Asian Dance King—just looking at these labels, one might subjectively think his acting definitely wasn't great.

But in 2005, for "Divergence," and in 2006, for "After This Our Exile," he won Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards for two consecutive years.

To be honest, his performance in these two films was still very good, and it really made people look at him with new eyes.

Another former "little fresh meat" who swept Asia with his looks, the "Heavenly King" Li Ming—people might also subjectively think his acting was very poor.

However, he also won Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards in 2002.

The last one left was Cheng Long, who was the most famous among these people; his labels were comedy and action star, and perhaps some might think his acting wasn't great.

However, Cheng Long had also won Best Actor at the Golden Horse and Golden Rooster Awards.

It was just that his label as an action star was too strong, overshadowing his acting.

It wasn't until the 2009 film "Shinjuku Incident" came out, where Cheng Long abandoned the action scenes he was good at, that everyone discovered his acting was actually very good.

So, after Cao Yang checked the information in detail, he discovered that among these actors who could represent Xiangjiang, almost all of them had Best Actor awards under their belts.

It wasn't easy to pick a "soft persimmon."

Perhaps he could only choose those who left a fixed impression on the audience.

For example, Cheng Long with the kung fu label, or Li Ming or Guo Fucheng who started as "little fresh meat," or the "Heavenly King" Liu Dehua, whom everyone thought had average acting.

Wait and see; he still needed to combine other conditions before making a final choice.

The first thing to do now was to spread the word and see the reaction from Xiangjiang, and also temporarily put an end to the thoughts of the Xiangjiang and Wanwan capital to smear Cao Yang online as "not united."

The talk of "not being united"—if it weren't for the Olympics next year, it would have almost zero impact on Cao Yang; it was just that at this critical moment, being labeled like this was still a bit troublesome.

In "Manchester by the Sea," besides the male lead, there were three other relatively important roles: the male lead's wife, his brother, and his nephew.

The male lead's wife had very few scenes, but she was very important.

Cao Yang planned to try inviting Zhang Manyu to play this role; her age was appropriate.

If she really had retired from acting, it wouldn't matter; there were plenty of Best Actresses in the country, and he could just grab one to fill the spot when the time came.

For the nephew's role, he wouldn't hold a wide-ranging casting call; there was no need.

Usually, large-scale casting calls were just gimmicks to promote the film; Cao Yang's films didn't need to do that in the country, nor did they need such gimmicks.

The male lead's nephew was a high school student, so he would just find someone with a young face among the Beijing Film Academy students; it could be considered a benefit for the students, and spreading it out would further stimulate the students' enthusiasm for applying to the Beijing Film Academy.

As for the male lead's brother, his scenes were also few; he could find a teacher from the Beijing Film Academy to make a cameo, or find an old veteran actor from Xiangjiang; the difference wasn't big.

Therefore, the most important thing at the moment was the choice of the male lead.

Because the word was spread intentionally, for a time, many people in the Xiangjiang film circle knew that Cao Yang planned to shoot an art film, which would most likely go to next year's Berlin International Film Festival.

Most importantly, the male lead had plenty of scenes, and it was said that Cao Yang also intended to find an actor around forty years old from Xiangjiang to play the male lead.

It really was a stone that stirred up a thousand waves.

The male lead of a Cao Yang film—don't look at how their media wasn't very willing to report on Cao Yang before, but for actors in the Xiangjiang film circle, this was absolutely the highest-quality resource, the director they most wanted to cooperate with, and the "high branch" they most wanted to climb.

Setting aside other factors, just look at Wu Qihua's status and influence to know...

Thinking of this, countless people were startled; everyone knew Cao Dao Yang was nostalgic and liked to use "old" people—could this role be Wu Qihua's?

Then, a reporter interviewed Wu Qihua.

Unexpectedly, Wu Qihua smiled bitterly in front of the camera and said that Cao Dao felt his image didn't quite fit the role's positioning, so he had no fate with this film.

Once this interview came out, it was truly lively.

Every actor in Xiangjiang around forty years old, regardless of their status or whether they had a contract, all secretly or openly asked friends and pulled strings to inquire about the news, wanting to know what kind of actor Cao Dao needed and if they had a chance.

The "Two Zhous and One Cheng," the "Two Liangs," plus the "Four Heavenly Kings"—these people all took action.

"Good, good, thank you, Han Zong, I'll treat you to a meal another day."

Cheng Long hung up the phone, put away the smile on his face, and sighed.

He hadn't been able to find out much news from Han Zong at China Film Group.

Han Zong only guessed that Cao Dao most likely wanted to use this film to charge for the Berlin Jin Xiong, because Cao Dao was only one Jin Xiong away from the European Grand Slam.

As for the relevant content or information about the film, Han Zong said he didn't know much either.

Han Zong's words made Cheng Long even more itchy.

A film that was going to charge for the Jin Xiong Grand Slam—the quality was absolutely guaranteed, and it was highly likely to be another classic art film.

As long as this film could win the Jin Xiong, it would absolutely be able to occupy a place in film history.

Who didn't want to occupy a place in film history and become someone who couldn't be bypassed?

Of course, this was only a part of it.

Cheng Long now knew his own situation.

The performance of "Rush Hour 3" was unsatisfactory, making him almost lose his last chance in Hollywood; "Rush Hour 4," which he originally wanted to initiate, was already indefinitely delayed.

Originally, he had accepted it and decided to focus on the mainland; anyway, he couldn't fight anymore.

Who knew that the last straw would appear without any warning—if he could connect with Cao Yang, maybe there would still be a chance in Hollywood.

Even if there was no chance in Hollywood, if he mixed with Cao Yang, he would be able to "walk flat" in the mainland film circle; wasn't that much better than trying to find a way himself?

Besides, what if this film could win a Berlin Best Actor award?

The three major European festivals—the world's film art palace; who didn't have a heart that yearned for art?

If he really starred in this film and won a Berlin Best Actor award, wouldn't that be the most perfect full stop to his "world film journey," which was almost over?

Perhaps it could also be seen as an exclamation mark.

He took out his phone, full of excitement, wanting to call Cao Yang—this was actually a very poor approach; if the other party refused, there would be no room for maneuver.

This was also the reason why he hadn't called Cao Yang directly before, but had called Han Zong instead.

Just after flipping through his contacts, he slapped his forehead and muttered to himself, "I'm really muddled."

Throwing his phone onto the sofa, Cheng Long paced back and forth with a frown.

Then he slapped his thigh and decided to go to Jingcheng to see if he could talk to Cao Dao in person.

As long as Cao Dao was willing to use him, never mind the profit sharing; even if it was a symbolic one-dollar salary, he would be willing!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 372 =====