Chapter 78: New Films and Awards

After finishing the premiere tour in the eight major cities, all that remained was to maintain exposure from time to time, whether by accepting television interviews, releasing press releases online, or having traditional print media report some news to keep the buzz alive.

During this period, Cao Yang also attended several seminars; some were national in nature, some were academic, and others were organized by associations.

Cao Yang did not know how it happened, but he suddenly became a member of the China Film Directors' Association and was invited to attend several meetings.

He remembered never having applied, nor had anyone notified him to submit an application, so how did he become a member of the Directors' Association?

Wasn't it said that the Directors' Association was not easy to join?

Then Old Situ told him that the China Film Directors' Association had elected a new leadership body at its second annual meeting in 1997.

The President, Wu Yigong, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Directing Department.

Vice President, Xie Fei, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Directing Department and is a professor there.

Vice President, Teng Wenji, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Directing Department.

Vice President, Zhang Yimou, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Cinematography Department.

Secretary-General, Zheng Dongtian, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Directing Department and is a professor there.

Secretary-General, He Qun, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Art Department.

At the third annual meeting last May, all of these people were re-elected.

Once it was explained this way, Cao Yang understood.

Originally, Cao Yang wanted to ask, "Senior brother, are you a member of the Directors' Association?"

Thinking about it, he decided against it; the Directors' Association was founded in 1993, and Old Situ was banned from directing in 1992, so he missed the timing and perhaps hadn't joined yet.

Cao Yang patted Old Situ on the shoulder and said solemnly, "Senior brother, you don't need to envy me. Don't worry, when I become the president, I will specially approve your membership."

"Get lost, get lost." Old Situ kicked out at him.

In the evening, Li Xiaoran came to find Cao Yang.

She was very busy; she had taken on many endorsements, appeared on the covers of several high-end magazines, and press releases about her were flying everywhere. She could be considered one of the most prominent actresses in the country.

The two were busy together, and the barrier from not seeing each other for a while was broken, with the distance between them shortening accordingly.

After a long while, Li Xiaoran hugged Cao Yang's arm and asked coyly, "In the days I was away, were you and her still getting along?"

"Hmm?"

Cao Yang was momentarily unaccustomed to this, his heart rate actually accelerating; he always felt Li Xiaoran was implying something.

"Did you miss me the way I missed you?"

"Ah? Yes..."

"Come with me to Xiangjiang."

"Xiangjiang?"

Mentioning this, Li Xiaoran was clearly very happy, with a hint of small pride.

She was half-lying down, her upper body raised, her inverted mountains high and large.

"You don't know yet, right? Produced by Wong Kar-wai and directed by Jeffrey Lau, the new film *Chinese Odyssey 2002*, Wong Kar-wai personally invited me to play the female lead. I've already signed the contract, and it starts filming next month."

Cao Yang thought to himself, wasn't the female lead of this movie originally Faye Wong? It seems she didn't compete against Li Xiaoran, the Berlin Best Actress winner.

"Do you want to elope with me to Xiangjiang? Shall we spend some time just the two of us there?"

Li Xiaoran shook Cao Yang's arm, biting her lower lip, her watery eyes looking as if they could speak.

The inverted peaks swayed and swayed, brushing against Cao Yang's arm from time to time.

Cao Yang took a deep breath and reminded her, "Big sister, I remember media reports from a few days ago saying this movie is being filmed in Hengdian, not Xiangjiang."

"Ah? Really? Tsk, how boring. Sleep." Li Xiaoran let go of Cao Yang's arm and turned away.

Ah? We're sleeping already?

Your white snowy mountains are making me dizzy and my heart race, and now you're just going to leave me hanging?

"Come here, you."

Cao Yang placed his hands on her waist...

On October 22, the 21st China Film Golden Rooster Awards ceremony, which was also the closing ceremony of the 10th China Film Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, was held in Mingzhou, Zhejiang Province.

There were a few interesting things about this Golden Rooster Awards.

From the beginning, all attendees were notified that in order to align with international standards, everyone had to wear formal attire, reporters included.

Men had to wear suits and ties, and women had to wear gowns, otherwise they could not enter.

Additionally, with corporate sponsorship already in place, the organizers tried to charge reporters a so-called "interview fee" under the guise that interviews could not be free, causing an uproar in public opinion. In the end, the authorities intervened urgently, which prevented a major scandal.

It always felt like an amateur operation.

The news that Cao Yang decided to attend the awards ceremony was reported, and many actresses who originally hadn't planned to attend became proactive.

Especially Zhang Ziyi; at first, she and Zhang Yimou both said they would come, but later they said they were busy filming *Hero* and really couldn't spare the time. Zhang Yimou even wrote a letter to the organizing committee to explain the situation.

Then, hearing that Cao Yang was going to attend the awards, Zhang Ziyi changed her tune in front of the media, saying she might attend after all.

Zhang Yimou might have felt a bit embarrassed; when interviewed, he said directly that the entire crew was busy filming *Hero* and no one had time to attend the Golden Rooster Awards...

Actually, the one most hurt this time was Huo Jianqi from the 1978 Art Department of the Beijing Film Academy. News had already leaked internally that he would be given Best Director, but after Cao Yang won the Golden Lion, there was no more news.

In the end, Cao Yang won Best Director, Li Xiaoran won Best Actress, and Old Situ lost Best Cinematography.

Huo Jianqi wasn't left empty-handed, though; he won a shared Best Feature Film award, which was not bad.

One Best Director, one Best Actress—these were two very heavy awards. Cao Yang was full of anticipation as he checked the trash system.

Bah!

You only gave me 40,000 fame points for two major awards?

Are my two big awards really that worthless?

!

Extremely disappointed.

After finishing this stint, it was already November. The box office for *The Room* had long since broken 30 million, reaching a little over 34 million.

However, the box office potential had been exhausted, with only about 100,000 per day, and it was not far from being pulled from theaters.

According to the current trend, it could last another five or six days, and the box office could reach 35 million. But the problem was that many theaters had already started pulling it, and even if they hadn't, it had been moved to bad time slots.

If one didn't "operate" it, was there any way to reach 35 million?

There was indeed a legitimate way: a celebration party.

China Film Group directly held a celebration party for *The Room* breaking 35 million at the box office, and then the news was all about Li Xiaoran and Yu Feihong holding Cao Yang's arms on either side, with a large 35 million ice sculpture behind them.

Two major international actresses on the same stage—that news buzz was definitely big enough.

And then it was reflected in the box office of *The Room*, which experienced a sudden resurgence, climbing to 35 million in two days.

After that, it was up to fate.

During this time, Cao Yang had already written the new script and showed it to Old Situ.

Old Situ read it over several times; the situation was not as bad as he had thought. The satire on religion was not too serious, just touching upon it lightly without going to extremes.

The theme of the story was not about religion, but about self-awareness and redemption, mainly exploring human nature.

"The script is very good. Although it is somewhat painful and oppressive, the power of human faith is broken by the struggle and awakening of self-redemption, and the brilliance of human nature and spiritual power form a strong contrast... I didn't expect you to have started thinking about human nature already. This is very good."

Old Situ thought for a moment and continued, "With your current fame and status, this kind of script should pass censorship. However, since it involves religion, once it's filmed, it will likely be closely monitored. They will definitely be afraid that you might accidentally cross the line too much.

You need to think clearly. If it's released in the mainland, the script review will require an extra step, and approval might not be very fast; I estimate it will take at least two months or so."

"Then forget it, it's too much trouble. It's easier to set the background in Xiangjiang."

Cao Yang didn't want to delay too much time and waste it on endless censorship; it wasn't worth it.

Returning from Venice in mid-September, it had been almost two months now. It was time to accelerate the preparation of the film; it would be troublesome if he missed next year's Cannes Film Festival.

Since the background of the film was set in Xiangjiang, he would use Xiangjiang actors again.

The last collaboration with Wu Qihua went well, and his acting wasn't bad, so they could collaborate again. The role wasn't too big, but he could consider giving him the male lead role, which played a key part.

This character was less of a male lead and essentially a "simp" devoted second male lead.

The entire plot revolved around the female lead.

Regarding the female lead, he still had to consider it carefully.

Most of the scenes in this film were for the female lead, second only to Li Xiaoran's scenes in *On the Beach at Night Alone*.

This kind of film that explores and digs deep into human nature, is about a woman's self-redemption, and also carries a search for religious faith, was still very popular with European film festivals.

To be precise, this could also be considered a politically correct film; anything about women, involving the changes in a woman's inner journey, was.

As long as the actress could carry the role and had so many scenes, the probability of winning an award was very high.

So, all in all, the most critical thing was the choice of the female lead.

Gao Yuanyuan... a bit young, only twenty-three. Could she play a single mother?

He could call her over for a styling test and see.

(End of chapter)