Global Film Emperor

Chapter 250, "Mistaken Love," is finished.

The Golden Rooster Awards ceremony was more than ten days ago. After winning the award that night, Lu Ze had dinner with Liu Ying and the main creators of "The King of Fighters". After resting for a night, he flew directly back to Hangzhou from Xi'an.

Many netizens are already used to the news that Lu Ze won the Golden Rooster Award, and only replied with "Oh, awesome" under Lu Ze's studio's Weibo post, which seemed extremely perfunctory.

Lu Ze himself wasn't particularly obsessed with the Golden Rooster Award. Although he valued honors, he had already won the Golden Rooster once, so he wanted to set his sights on awards he hadn't won yet.

For example, the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards held this November, and... and the Cannes Film Festival, which was submitted but there's been no news yet, in May next year.

Lu Ze is very confident about the Golden Horse Awards. After all, apart from "To Live", there haven't been any blockbuster films in China this year. As a relatively fair award, Lu Ze and most people predict that he is unlikely to be nominated.

Cannes, however, is a different story. Since May of this year, Germany has produced a blockbuster film, "The Tavern of Passion," which is considered by European countries to be a strong contender for the best film at next year's Cannes Film Festival.

Moreover, it's only September now, and there are still six months until March next year. Who knows if one or two, or even three or four, excellent films will emerge? It's hard to say.

Zhuang Yu now considers "The Enchanted Tavern" his strongest competitor and is preparing to compete with it at the Cannes Film Festival. He wants to prove himself with "To Live" and try to win the awards from the three major international film festivals, which China has not won for nearly twenty years.

However, the Golden Rooster Awards are not without their criticisms online. Although "To Live" was selected for the 50th Best Film Award, Zhuang Yu, who was widely expected to win the Best Director Award, did not receive the award.

The winner was Liu Ying, who became this year's Golden Rooster Award for Best Director. Amidst Wang Zhen's extreme incomprehension and Zhuang Yu's indifferent expression, he embraced the Best Director Award.

And what could Lu Ze say?

Therefore, netizens have been calling on the organizers of the Golden Rooster Awards not to give an award that someone should have received to someone else in the name of so-called fairness, as this is unfair to Zhuang Yu.

As fans of "To Live", many people felt sorry for Zhuang Yu, who fell before the trophy because of the system. Who wouldn't feel frustrated in his situation? Some even made things worse for Zhuang Yu by mocking Liu Ying, asking him if picking up leftovers was delicious.

This quickly sparked discontent among Liu Ying's fans. Yes, *The Boxer* didn't receive the same ratings and critical acclaim as *To Live*, but *The Boxer* wasn't as bad as everyone claimed; it was still an excellent film, wasn't it? So why didn't a good film have a chance to win awards? Just because *To Live* was this year's blockbuster?
The two sides argued fiercely. Although the number of people supporting "To Live" was several times that of "The King of Fighters," the audience supporting "The King of Fighters" remained unmoved, so the topic did not lose its popularity even after more than ten days.

Lu Ze, caught in the middle, is in the most agonizing situation. It would be good for either side to win an award, and Lu Ze hopes to see both sides win. But in the current situation, Lu Ze really wishes the Best Director award would go to another production team.

Regardless of the circumstances, the Golden Rooster Awards came to an end amidst public outcry. "To Live" took the lion's share, "The Boxer" took a smaller share, and other films received a few scraps before the event concluded.

"Lighting, hurry up with the lighting here! Let's finish shooting quickly, then go to the restaurant for lunch! Hurry up! What's that clutter over there at camera number two? What's that thing? A flight case? Push it aside! We haven't even finished shooting and you're already pulling out a case to pack up the equipment? Then you're not getting any lunch today!"

The stagehand rambled on into the walkie-talkie, then hung it on his belt and quickly climbed the ladder to check the positioning of the wide-angle camera. All the staff were running around, sweating profusely, but their faces were full of smiles.

The filming of "Wrong Love" is nearing its end. Lu Ze has just finished filming. He was the second to last actor in the series, while the last scene was given to Dai Xilu.

It's almost October now, but the weather in Hangzhou is still unbearably hot. The actors frequently need to touch up their makeup to cover the glistening sweat on their foreheads, causing some minor issues for the filming schedule.

Dai Xilu came out of the dressing room at this moment. Her assistant held an umbrella for her, afraid that she would sweat and ruin her makeup. If it weren't for this makeup touch-up, this scene would probably have been filmed by now.

She walked onto the set, gave Xiao Fengying a thumbs up, and then the script supervisor came in and announced that filming had officially begun. The camera crane started to rise and film from above.

After studying with Lu Ze for several months, and with Lu Ze teaching her seriously, even someone who's a bit slow will make some progress, not to mention that Dai Xilu already has some acting experience.

The "half-baked" stage is the stage where she improves the fastest. Lu Ze guided her to quickly get started, and now, while she can't be considered an expert in controlling ordinary emotions, she is still quite proficient.

The final scene had no lines; she simply had to take steps, with a bewildered expression, slowly walking along the prescribed route, and then, under everyone's expectant gaze, Xiao Fengying slowly reached out her hand.

"Cut! That's a wrap! Filming wrapped!" "Oh!!! It's finally done! Time for watermelon! It's freezing cold, everyone come on over! Let's finish eating before we pack up, hurry up! Brother Lu, you pick a slice."

The logistics procurement officer came over carrying several large styrofoam boxes of watermelons. He walked up to Lu Ze, who was closest to him, opened the styrofoam box, and let Lu Ze take the sweetest piece first.

It was so hot that everyone was in a hurry, so after quickly finishing the watermelon, they didn't rest and continued working until they were ready to go to the hotel for dinner.

"Brother Lu, are you going back? I'm planning to go back to the hotel first."

"Let's go back, Director Xiao. We'll be leaving now. See you in the hotel banquet hall later."

After saying goodbye to Director Xiao, Lu Ze and Ding Zhiyi got into Dai Xilu's car. They chatted a lot along the way, since they would all be going their separate ways tonight to get back to their own careers.

The two children's most frequent message to Lu Ze was that they should keep in touch and learn from him, giving him a heads-up so he wouldn't look down on them later.

The wrap party was scheduled for lunch because Dai Xilu was leaving in the afternoon to start recording her own solo album. Ding Zhiyi was in the same boat, reportedly having received a new TV series offer, and her agent had already begun negotiations.

When we arrived at the hotel's banquet hall, the venue was already set up. There were twelve tables in total, but we estimated that half a table would be left, which would be seats for four people.

About forty minutes later, Lu Ze heard a commotion coming from outside the hall. Then, the stagehands, exhausted and covered in sweat, walked in chatting and laughing. About ten minutes later, Xiao Fengying and the producer pushed a food cart into the hall, which was filled with stacks of red envelopes. The bonus distribution, which the stagehands looked forward to the most, had begun.

“Lu Ze, this is yours. You’ve worked hard these past few months, filming with me during the hottest time of the month.”

"Director Xiao, you're too kind. Don't mention how hard the work is. Thank you."

He reached out and squeezed the red envelope, which contained about 60,000 yuan. He stacked the money in three piles inside the envelope, arranged them side by side, handed them to Wang Zixuan to keep, thanked Xiao Fengying, and then returned to his seat at the main table.

The investors weren't present at the wrap party, so the three lead actors were able to eat at the main table. At Xiao Fengying's suggestion, everyone raised their glasses and drank it all in one gulp.

The toasting began. Since Lu Ze was also returning to Shanghai in the afternoon, he simply toasted everyone at the table and then focused on eating, ceasing the toasting.

Everyone knew that the three main actors had things to do later, so the production crew didn't come up to drink with Lu Ze and the others. They quietly filled their stomachs, and Lu Ze was the first to get up and say goodbye.

"I've finished eating. I have to go back to Shanghai this afternoon to discuss some things, so I'll be leaving now. You guys enjoy your meal. Director Xiao, Brother Deng, Xilu, you and Zhiyi, please be careful when you leave later. Call me if you need anything."

"Okay, then we won't see you off. Be careful on the road. It's hot today, so don't drive too fast on the highway."

"Bye-bye, Brother Lu. If I have work in Shanghai, I'll come visit you!"

After saying goodbye to everyone, Lu Ze picked up his bag, waved to all the staff, pushed open the banquet hall door amidst their farewells, and took the elevator to the basement.

The nanny van then began its return journey with the three people and the cat. Looking out the window, Lu Ze picked up his phone and called Li Shanjun.

"Hello? Mr. Li, I've finished filming here. I'll be at the company around 2 PM. Yes, see you later."

"."

(End of this chapter)