Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 514 Influence

Li Xiaoran wore an elegant white dress, moving gently from the kitchen to the dining room and back again, the hem of her dress swaying with her movements.

After several home-style dishes were set on the table, she returned to the kitchen and carefully wiped each of the extra tableware she had taken out earlier until it shone brightly before putting it back in its place.

Stepping out of the kitchen, she turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only a small lamp above the dining table casting a faint yellow glow.

The light cast her long shadow on the wall, making her look somewhat lonely.

Looking at the dishes on the table, she tasted each one, then closed her eyes, chewed slowly, and chuckled to herself, "Not bad, not bad, this tastes really good. I knew cooking wasn't that hard."

Then, she opened her eyes, looked at the other chair placed next to her and the pair of chopsticks on the table, and the smile on her face slowly faded.

Then she took a breath, seemingly perking up again, and said to herself with a smile, "Too bad you can't have any."

After a while, Li Xiaoran pursed her lips and stared blankly at the few home-style dishes on the table.

Whenever Cao Yang returned from other places or abroad, no matter if she was in Beijing or not, no matter how busy she was, she would habitually cook a few home-style dishes, take a bite of each dish, and then take a bite for Cao Yang.

She actually felt that she was being a bit pretentious, but she couldn't help doing it all along, and she didn't know what the point of doing it was.

I didn't tell Cao Yang either.

Just like this time, she knew Cao Yang's itinerary, knew that Cao Yang had already gotten off the plane at this time, and knew that Cao Yang was likely to go to... some vixen's house!
That damn vixen!

Don't let me find out who it is.

However, she maintained her previous habit and had her assistant rent a high-end hotel with a kitchen, instead of staying in the same hotel as the film crew.

Even if you told others, they might not believe it, but her goal was simply to cook a few home-style dishes.

Even her own assistant thought she was relaxing in this way.

Cao Yang entered Li Xiaoran's house, and as he expected, Li Xiaoran was not there.

If they're not here, then they're not here.

Even though he lived alone, he still slept quite soundly at Li Xiaoran's place.

"Director Cao..."

"Director Cao..."

"Chairman Cao..."

Many airports have dedicated VIP lounges that offer a variety of conveniences, such as priority boarding, exclusive access, and dining services.

As soon as Cao Yang entered, everyone in the private lounge stood up, addressing him in all sorts of ways.

The titles used to refer to these people reveal that they include members of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, members of the China Film Association, and staff members of the Golden Rooster Awards.

Cao Yang smiled and nodded to everyone, gesturing for them to sit down.

However, no one sat down before he did.

After he sat down, the others gradually sat down as well.

These people gathered here, all waiting for him, waiting for him to go to the City of Heroes together, waiting for him to go to the venue of the Golden Rooster Awards together.

In the past, Cao Yang almost always went with just a few assistants.

But this time it's different.

This time, he went to the city of heroes, the host city of this year's Golden Rooster Awards, in his capacity as vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and director of the Golden Rooster Organizing Committee. It was a very formal trip.

Since it was an official trip, given his rank, all the necessary arrangements were certainly required, including entourage members from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the China Film Association, and the Golden Rooster Awards.

The plane landed at Changbei Airport, the city of heroes.

An imported minibus came to pick us up, along with a number of people.

Looking around, Cao Yang saw that Qi Jian, the director of the jury for this year's Golden Rooster Awards, was also on the list. However, even with his status, he could only be ranked seventh, with six people ahead of him.

In China, people are very particular about where they stand in formal settings.

After another round of pleasantries, everyone boarded a minibus and headed to the partner hotel where they would be staying.

The film festival will be held from October 14th to 17th, which means the awards ceremony is tomorrow.

By this time, almost all the celebrities and behind-the-scenes staff who were supposed to attend this year's Golden Rooster Awards had arrived.

Cao Yang met with many people in the morning and afternoon, mainly officials from the host city and members of the Golden Rooster Organizing Committee.

In the evening, many of the celebrities who had come to attend the Golden Rooster Awards, and those who were qualified to attend, began to visit one after another…

Cao Yang did nothing all day but talk to people, which he found much more tiring than making a movie.

There was no other way; this was the first Golden Rooster Awards after the reform, so it had to be "high-profile" and formal. This was just a formality, a necessary step.

If this event is successful, he won't need to be so formal for the next few events unless there are special circumstances. He can delegate the work to others and just keep an eye on it.

On the morning of the 17th, Cao Yang met with all the judges on the judging panel and chatted for a while.

His schedule was packed these past two days. He had to be interviewed by CCTV in the afternoon, hold a press conference, and deliver the opening speech for the awards ceremony... It wasn't until 5:30 p.m., when the red carpet ceremony began, that Cao Yang finally had some private time.

However, he couldn't do anything during this little bit of private time; he also had to greet some of the older generation who came to attend the film festival.

Of course, the main ones are qualified seniors.

For example, Wu Yigong, Xie Fei, Huang Shuqin, Wu Tianming, Zheng Dongtian, etc.

These are all veteran directors who have made contributions to the domestic film industry. They are all fourth-generation directors, and most of them graduated from or studied at the Beijing Film Academy.

They came here entirely to support Cao Yang and to let people know that they support Cao Yang's reforms to the Golden Rooster Awards.

Old Situ also came.

He came with Lao Tian.

In his words, he is not only Cao Yang's teacher but also a director, and he will definitely come to support the reform of the Golden Rooster Awards. He hopes that China can also have a film festival that is both authoritative and influential and dominates Asia.

To be honest, Cao Yang's reforms to the Golden Rooster Awards, especially the restrictions on judges, have inadvertently limited the "re-employment" path for many older generations. The biggest losers are these fourth-generation judges who have already retired.

This film festival attracted almost all of the most influential fourth-generation directors in China, and this support is extremely important and valuable.

Many directors from the Fifth Generation also came, especially those from the Beijing Film Academy system who were somewhat famous.

Even Zhang Yimou, who hasn't released a new film in several years, came.

Therefore, judging from this level of support alone, those who secretly hoped that the reform of this year's Golden Rooster Awards would fail are likely to be disappointed.

"I heard you're going to create... what's it called, Marvel, right? You know, the kind of movie universe adapted from comics?"

Although no films by Zhang Yimou received nominations, his trip to the film festival wasn't in vain, as he promoted his new film, "A Simple Noodle Story," at the event.

This can be considered his "comeback" film.

After walking the red carpet, he saw Cao Yang, walked over and asked him.

"I do have that idea, but it depends on whether the upcoming comic book adaptations can get off to a good start."

Cao Yang asked with a smile, "I only had a preliminary plan. How come this news spread so quickly? I don't even know what the outcome will be."

Zhang Yimou shook his head and said, "I don't know who spread the rumor, but the domestic media were buzzing about it a while ago. Some people were optimistic about it, mainly because your adaptation of 'Joker' was so successful."

However, some people were sarcastic, saying that your idea of ​​creating a cinematic universe would turn movies into TV series, ruin the films, and that you're just asking for trouble.

What Zhang Yimou didn't say was that his long-time partner Zhang Weiping was even more sarcastic, said even harsher things, and was even more gloating.

When Lao Tian and President Han were on the phone before, they mentioned it briefly, but Cao Yang was busy at the time and didn't pay much attention to the domestic reports and online comments.

Actually, he really didn't care.

No matter how negatively domestic media or online commentators view it, it won't affect Marvel's movie adaptations, so there's no need to care.

"Unlike the Joker, this Marvel Comics adaptation is basically a pure commercial film."

Cao Yang said casually.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Yimou looked at Cao Yang and said seriously, "Cao Yang, I asked around and found out that their comic book company has gone bankrupt several times, selling off almost all of their most influential characters."

But so far, apart from Spider-Man, there have been almost no successful movies; on the contrary, there have been many failures.

I have some preliminary suggestions that you can consider.

I think your greatest strength is character creation, like in "Joker" and your many award-winning films. You could choose a character who is somewhat famous but not that big, delve into their background, and create an art film similar to "Joker".

"As long as this movie succeeds, even if subsequent commercial films are poorly adapted, it won't have much of an impact on you."

After Lao Zhangzi finished speaking, he noticed that Cao Yang gave him a strange look.

As a director and cinematographer with a delicate film style, Zhang Yimou has excellent observation skills and is very perceptive.

After a moment's thought, he guessed the reason.

So he explained, "Cao Yang, you are the most influential Chinese person in the West. Whether in the field of art films or commercial films, you are a representative figure of the Chinese."

I don't want to see you end up like those Hong Kong and Taiwanese directors who went to Hollywood, failing and returning home in disgrace. I hope you can continue to succeed; you are not only a representative of the Beijing Film Academy, but also a representative of the Chinese people.

Cao Yang smiled.

He nodded solemnly and said, "Don't worry, senior brother, I will keep your words in mind. Thank you."

Zhang Yimou nodded, feeling that he had given the pointers and had done his part.

The red carpet ceremony for this year's Golden Rooster Awards was so large that it started at 5 p.m. and lasted until 7:10 p.m., making it the longest red carpet ceremony in the history of the Golden Rooster Awards.

CCTV's movie channel started broadcasting at 4 p.m. and will continue until the awards ceremony ends.

Viewers watching the broadcast on TV were truly amazed. For over two hours, they spent the entire red carpet counting stars. Almost every famous domestic celebrity could be found on the red carpet.

No film festival has ever gathered so many stars as it has today.

(End of this chapter)