The entire industry was very annoyed by Lu Shan’s behavior this 's nothing else. Lu Yanhe is willing to support other movies and never hesitate to recommend other movies on his social media platform. I don't know how many movies he has helped promote.
You know, with Lu Yanhe's current influence, with his recommendation, many low-budget movies that don't have enough funds for publicity and promotion will not be released quietly.
After this happened, will Lu Yanhe still be willing to recommend other movies?
A film itself is a content product. Some people like it, some people don’t. This is perfectly normal.
This also means that no matter what movie Lu Yanhe recommends, he will be criticized and questioned.
Then, to be on the safe side, will Lu Yanhe never recommend it again?
Many people in the industry denounced and rejected Lu Shan. Not to mention, Lu Shan was one of the investors of "Happy Events in the World", and his motives were questionable and despicable.
Lu Yanhe had not expected that he would receive so many calls, all asking him indirectly whether he would be willing to recommend other movies in the future.
To be honest, Lu Yanhe had already been thinking seriously about this matter and considering what to do in the future.
After all, the less you say, the fewer mistakes you make, and the less you do, the better.
But is it necessary to do this in order to “not make mistakes”?
Lu Yanhe knew that many people made this call because they were considering their future movies.
But Lu Yanhe loves this industry and sincerely hopes that it will thrive. He also doesn't want the controversy caused by a recommendation to affect his future practices.
There are usually no major films released on the Friday after May Day.
Because the market potential of the May Day films has not been fully tapped, it is difficult for new films to get screenings and it is also difficult to attract the greatest possible audience to the cinema.
At this time, some low-cost movies that do not have a large enough box office value often go to theaters during this window period and make millions of box office revenue, which makes it easier for them to sell copyrights at higher fees through other channels under the name of theater movies.
And this Friday, an art film called "The Horse" was released.
Lu Yanhe appeared again at the advance screening and expressed his thoughts on the film.
"I'm very nervous and afraid that this will cause controversy again. However, I still love movies. It doesn't matter if people don't trust me, but this is a good movie. It is especially like the stories I read in children's literature magazines when I was a child. It is real, warm and innocent." Lu Yanhe said, "I like the little actors in this film very much. I don't know where the director found them. They are very cute and touching in the movie. For the audience who want to feel the stories they read in children's literature magazines when they were young, this movie is worth going to the cinema."
"I will continue to recommend movies. I know that there will definitely be times when my recommendations will cause controversy, but I have thought about it carefully for a long time and I don't want to stop expressing my opinions just because they may cause controversy." Lu Yanhe said, "I also have to accept the fact that even if I like a movie, others don't like it, and that others don't care about what I care about. Thank you."
A lot of people at the scene began to applaud.
On Friday, the daily box office of the movie "The Walking Dead" exceeded 240 million. Including the preview, the total box office exceeded 300 million, which attracted attention in the industry.
For a low-budget movie, such box office results are certainly enough for them to celebrate.
-
"I didn't expect you to recover in such a short time. I thought it would take you some time to recover."
On the way to Hexi, Chen Siqi and Lu Yanhe laughed and teased him.
"I don't want to continue wasting time. At first, I was a little confused and couldn't figure out the right balance. Later, I thought about it and decided to forget it. I'm too lazy to dwell on it. I didn't lie and deliberately exaggerated something that wasn't good. Can I always say whatever I want? If I can't do that, there's no point in wasting time."
"Very good." Chen Siqi nodded. "I was really worried that because of this incident, you wouldn't dare to say what you wanted to say in the future."
"Why? Am I usually so fragile?"
"Because this time you are caught in a complete disaster." Chen Siqi laughed, "If it was your own movie, it would be fine, but this time you are caught in public controversy because of someone else's movie."
"Brother Qiao feels quite guilty."
"Anyone would feel guilty for asking a friend to help support the platform, and ended up causing so much trouble for the friend."
Lu Yanhe: "I feel like he won't ask me to support him anymore."
Chen Siqi: "That won't happen. In the short term, everyone needs time to digest the negative emotions brought about by this incident. It will be fine after a while."
-
Lu Yanhe thought he would be excited and nervous several days in advance when he went to Hexi this time. However, probably because of what happened with Lu Shan, his attention was completely drawn to this matter. When he arrived at the airport and prepared to fly to Hexi, he slowly got into the mood of the film festival.
"Is it possible for "Love Letter" to win an award this time?" Chen Siqi asked curiously.
She really wanted to know.
Because Lu Yanhe is relatively familiar with all major film festivals, every time Lu Yanhe analyzes whether a film can win an award, he combines the film festival's award-giving tastes in recent years with the characteristics of the film itself.
Every time Chen Siqi listens to Lu Yanhe talk about these things, she will update her understanding of the film industry.
The film industry is not static; it is changing all the time.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "More than half of the films nominated for the main competition unit of this year's Jose-La Roche Film Festival are directed by new directors, and we are still not very clear about the situation of their films. We can only analyze the situation of "Love Letter" itself. Its depth and artistry are still a little shallow, which is an objective fact - the film itself is not designed in this direction. The acting awards are basically not competitive. In terms of performance space and role, only Sister Bi Ge has a hope to win the award, but it is just hope. This is not one of her best performances. The two roles in the movie do not provide her with too much difficult performance space. Moreover, she just won the Best Actress award for "Rouge Button", and people will not vote for her for this award in the short term."
Chen Siqi nodded.
"So according to what you said, there's a chance that Love Letter might not win the award?"
Lu Yanhe nodded.
"It may or may not win an award, it depends on the specific situation. I still place more hope on the media's evaluation and audience's reputation for the performance of Love Letter," he said. "I think the biggest advantage of Love Letter is that it is good to watch."
"If everyone thinks it's beautiful, why don't they give it an award?"
"It's one thing to like a work, and it's another thing to give an award to it." Lu Yanhe said, "In fact, it's the same for us. We may like a work very much, but we all think that this is because it resonates with my own experience. But when we have to choose who should receive the award, we can't help but consider one thing: is it good enough? Does it deserve this award? Sometimes, we will choose a more correct one than what we like."
Chen Siqi suddenly realized.
She understood what Lu Yanhe meant.
This is the same as the manuscripts accepted in the magazine "Jump Up". In fact, the editorial team likes some works very much, but everyone also clearly knows that when it comes to literary quality and seriousness, another work is more profound. When they need to recommend some works to apply for literary awards, they will also give up the ones they really like and recommend those novels that they may not like so much but are more literary.
The establishment of awards means that they are not run according to personal preferences. It is just that in many cases, personal preferences will affect the judgment of value.
Chen Siqi: "I don't know how Liu Bige's "Fake Death" is, I haven't even seen the movie yet."
"I am also looking forward to it. In fact, Liu Bige is a type of director that I like very much." Lu Yanhe said, "He will not use the obvious boundaries between commercial films and art films to restrict his creation, but will handle any subject matter and genre into his own style."
Lu Yanhe feels that Liu Bige is just like Quentin, Wong Kar-wai and Park Chan-wook, whose personal style always far outweighs the subject matter and genre. Whether it is the story, the characters or the genre, they are just the clay in their hands, and the works they mold are always themselves.
Lu Yanhe felt this when he was filming "Late Spring" with Liu Bige.
If you say that he is a director who doesn't care about the rhythm and the appearance of the story, that's nonsense. The story of "Late Spring" is essentially a bloody and cruel story of youth. But do you want to say that he made a bloody youth film? No one would think so after watching this movie. In his movies, the focus is not the bloody story, but the anxiety, anxiety, struggle and the most subtle emotions of everyone in the bloody story.
This makes "Late Spring" a completely different film from other youth-themed movies.
So, although "Can't Even Fake My Death" seems to be a very commercial romantic comedy at first glance, it is definitely not a routine and formulaic romantic comedy.
Otherwise, it would not have been shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Jose-La-Señora Film Festival.
This is just like Johnnie To’s films were also frequent guests at the three major European film festivals.
He made purely commercial films, but he put his own name on all of them, taking his personal style to the extreme, which is also a form of expression.
-
When Lu Yanhe came to Hexi again, he was welcomed by many media and fans who came to pick him up at the airport as soon as he got off the plane.
Chen Siqi deliberately kept a distance from him.
In front of the camera, they never show their affection.
Because there were so many people at the scene, Lu Yanhe was delayed for a while and got on the bus fifteen minutes later than expected.
He has a lot of work to do in the first week of his visit to the Jose-La-Ciel Film Festival, and his schedule is tight. For example, today, he has to rush to the hotel to get ready, and in the evening, he and Chen Siqi will have dinner with the editor-in-chief of Jose-La-Ciel Film magazine.
Moreover, because there are several Chinese films shortlisted for the Jose-La-Malaysia Film Festival, there are many Chinese media coming to Jose-La-Malaysia this time. So they all naturally hope to be able to make an appointment with Lu Yanhe. If none of the Chinese media can make an appointment with Lu Yanhe, and cannot get an interview or filming opportunity, then they can't even hold their heads up among their peers. This also made Lu Yanhe have to cooperate with various media and do some related publicity.
In fact, many big-name stars nowadays are reluctant to give interviews during film festivals.
One reason is that the schedule is very tight, and the other is that everyone increasingly feels that the atmosphere of the film festival has changed a lot.
In the past, film festivals were places where everyone could sit together and talk about movies, but now they have become a star show and a publicity channel with a lot of exposure.
The bigger the actor, the more they need to protect their image. When the environment is not good enough, they would rather choose not to accept interviews than be asked unprofessional questions.
It is no longer just an isolated phenomenon for journalists to ask questions like "How do you maintain your current figure?" at a professional film festival.
When Wang Biao arranged an interview for Lu Yanhe, he had to do a background check on the interviewer.
See how they usually interview other actors.
It’s a lot of work, but if we don’t do this, we can’t control the quality of the interview.
Fortunately, Wang Biao had the help of the "Jump Up" film version team. They knew very well which media and journalists were genuine and professional.
Wang Biao actually has a list in his hand, which contains the names of media outlets and media professionals who can be trusted at work.
This list is updated in real time by everyone.
There is a huge database behind it as supporting material.
When Lu Yanhe knew that Wang Biao had this list, he said with a smile: "Usually, all the major media give scores to our artists. In the future, I will gather a group of artists to give scores to you media and media people."
Chen Siqi said at the time: “Maybe we can do one at the end of every year in the future.”
Later, Chen Siqi took Xin Zixing to figure it out, and no one knew how they were doing.
-
“It is said that the overall quality of the films in the main competition unit this time is quite high.”
In the evening, Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi had dinner with Evan Gardi, the executive editor of "Joseph Films", and Evan told them a little about the situation of this session.
"Especially The Long Rainy Season directed by Vietnamese director Song Muqing, Paradise directed by American director Lubyan Murray, and Bob Cole directed by British director Reinaldo Marcus. These three films received high praise when they were screened in advance internally." Evan said, "Of course, your Love Letter also received high praise. Wu Yang said it was the best movie about secret love in the past decade."
Wu Yang is the artistic director of the Jose-La Roche Film Festival.
Lu Yanhe nodded. "The selection of films for the Jose-Cebu International Film Festival has always focused on whether the film itself is good. I actually love watching movies at the Jose-Cebu International Film Festival. This time, I am finally not filming on the set, so I can watch a few movies in my spare time. It's a pity that I haven't been able to get tickets for several movies yet."
Evan said, "What movie do you want to see? Tell me and I'll get you tickets."
As the executive editor of "Joseph Film" magazine, he certainly has no shortage of resources in this area.
"Really? That's great, thank you." Lu Yanhe thanked.
The last time Lu Yanhe came to Jose, he met Evan Gardi, and the two of them established contact. They occasionally exchanged emails and talked about movies.
Evan Gardi himself is a fan of Lu Yanhe.
As the executive editor of "Joseph Films", Evan Gardi naturally has close ties with people in the film industry.
However, he has always told Lu Yanhe that he hopes Lu Yanhe can make more substantial films. Especially after the success of "The Mist", he was one of the few people who sent Lu Yanhe an email to remind him that as an actor, he should be wary of becoming a genre actor in the eyes of others.
"I'm so glad that you've come back with another film so soon after The Mist was released," Evan Gardi said. "I was worried that you would get lost in the success of commercial films and want to be a star instead of an actor."
Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "In fact, being a star is also my job, but I put my identity as an actor in the front position. Acting is my priority. But if I were not a star, I would not have the opportunity to be a director and make a movie like "Love Letter"."
"That's right." Evan Gardi nodded, "However, you haven't acted in many movies. I didn't expect you to go back to acting in sitcoms."
"There will be some movie shooting plans next," said Lu Yanhe.
"I heard that you are going to film Huang Tianlin's movie soon?"
"Yes."
"His movies are good." Evan nodded in approval. "Oh, I met with Rubian Murray, the director of Paradise, yesterday. He told me that he had just watched River of Silence and he was quite impressed by you and wanted to meet you."
Rubian Mouret's "Paradise" is not only one of the most anticipated films in the main competition unit this time, he himself has long been one of the author-type directors renowned at major film festivals around the world. His previous works have been regular guests at international film festivals, although he has not won any major awards so far.
Lu Yanhe said: "If I have the chance to meet him later, I will take the initiative to get to know him."
"The current streaming media has a huge impact on the entire industry." Evan said, "I didn't expect that even a director like Lubyan would watch "The River of Silence" on streaming media. This makes me pessimistic about the future of movie theaters."
Lu Yanhe: "The world is changing all the time. If movie theaters really disappear one day, none of us can stop it. But before that happens, we can all try to prevent it from happening. Indeed, I personally prefer to watch movies in movie theaters. The big screen and stereo surround sound are completely different from watching on a computer. So, let's work hard to make some movies that can attract audiences to the theater."
“I like what you said,” Evan said.
He raised his glass.
"Then let us work together to ensure that cinemas do not disappear in our time."
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi raised their glasses together and clinked them lightly.
The goblet made a clear trembling sound in the night sky.
-
On the day of the opening ceremony, Chen Bige could not make it to the opening ceremony because her work in China had not yet been completed, and Zhang Ruozhi could not come because he was preparing for an exam. Lu Yanhe and Wan Xin and Li Songfan, two veteran actors who had many roles in the film, walked on the red carpet together.
The crew of "Love Letter" itself has attracted a lot of attention because of Lu Yanhe.
This time, Chen Siqi also walked the red carpet with Lu Yanhe. The rare scene of them walking the red carpet hand in hand was of course the focus of all major media and cameras.
Since the big hit of "The Mist", overseas media have not seen much of Lu Yanhe. Now Lu Yanhe has finally appeared, and this appearance must be well filmed.
Artistic director Wu Yang stood at the end of the red carpet to welcome every guest.
When Lu Yanhe and the others came over, Wu Yang took several steps forward to greet them.
This time, Lu Yanhe arrived before the opening ceremony and attended the opening ceremony with great respect, which made Wu Yang feel very comfortable. After all, Lu Yanhe could have come a few days later.
In fact, many big-name actors are like this. They will only reserve about three to four days for the film festival, and will leave as soon as their own film screenings are over.
Just like Chen Bige, she has a job in China, so it is impossible for her to come here so early like Lu Yanhe.
After entering the Cinema Palace, Lu Yanhe found that he knew more people.
Whether it is people from the film company or creators of the film content.
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi were busy greeting and chatting with people from all walks of life. They would chat with those who were more familiar with them, such as their recent situation and how long they would stay in Hexi. Some people would organize gatherings or parties and send invitations to Lu Yanhe and his friends. Lu Yanhe would usually ask them to send a formal copy to his email address so that he could confirm the itinerary and time arrangement later.
Although he had "Love Letter" to participate in the competition, Lu Yanhe's mentality was more like meeting a group of old and new friends at the Hexi Film Festival. Lu Yanhe didn't actually manage the specific work connection. It was Song Jiang and Wan Qingqing who contacted the official film festival as Linghe Films. He was particularly relaxed and enjoyed getting to know a group of friends in such an occasion.
Lu Yanhe had previously talked to Chen Siqi about this change in himself.
Chen Siqi said: "When you first went to the film festival, no one knew you. You were an intruder. No matter what other people's attitude was, you were more or less reserved and uneasy as a guest. Now your situation has changed. Everyone knows you and likes you. You feel at home here. In addition, you have the need to get to know everyone. When these two factors are combined, your mentality has changed."
Hit the nail on the head.
Lu Yanhe nodded seriously to show his agreement.
-
It's a new day.
Sorry. (End of this chapter)
