Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 400 Preview
Ali is a powerful and wealthy man, Jack Ma is a business godfather, and a national idol.

In terms of wealth, market capitalization, and social influence, even if you were tied to Li Qiutang for ten autumns, you might not be able to beat Ali and Teacher Ma.

However, just because I'm not as awesome as you doesn't mean I won't mess with you.

In the film and television industry, Qiu Tian really dares to go head-to-head with Ali.

Ah Li dared to point his finger at Li Qiutang and curse him for rushing to film "The Ghostwriter".

Even Huayi Brothers followed suit. It's true that Mr. Ma was an original investor in Huayi Brothers, but Ali's reach has clearly gone too far this time. Huayi Brothers, at the peak of its success, didn't give Ali any face. Wang Zhonglei angrily denounced "Ghostwriter": "It is extremely disrespectful and lacks basic professional ethics."

But after Ahri made that response, the higher-ups remained silent.

I'm here with an internet mindset to disrupt the traditional film and television industry, why are you trying to argue with me!
Han Chen put it so well: "Have you ever seen anyone go to a funeral home and shake hands with a corpse?"

Ali sees traditional film and television companies like Huayi Brothers and Qiutian as no different from looking at dead bodies.

The day after Li Qiutang posted on Weibo, #Mojin: The Lost Legend Delayed Startup# became a trending topic.

The trending topic stated: "At the Shanghai International Film Festival in April, the 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' crew held a press conference announcing that filming would begin in mid-to-late June. Now that the time has come, reporters have photographed the three lead actors still undergoing action training at the Huairou base, showing no intention of starting filming. The start date of 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' is suspected to have been postponed."

The most widely accepted guess among netizens regarding the reason for the delayed start of filming is that the director's salary was not agreed upon.

“Li Qiutang is the highest-paid director in the Chinese film industry, but for ‘Mojin: The Lost Legend,’ Wan Da was clearly unwilling to pay Li Qiutang. It is understood that Wan Da hoped that Li Qiutang would reduce his salary and take a share of the profits, sharing the fate of the film, but Li Qiutang was unwilling and insisted on taking a high fixed salary.”

This falls into the category of having some inside information but not conveying it clearly.

The start of filming for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" has indeed been delayed, from the initial mid-to-late June date to early July.

But it wasn't because Li Qiutang's salary hadn't been agreed upon—Li Qiutang's salary had indeed not been agreed upon yet.

This is because there are still some preparatory works that have not been completed in both Yanjing and Mongolia.

Faced with external doubts and speculations, the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" production team ignored them, saying that the delay in starting filming was just a matter of half a month or so, so what was the big deal?
Li Qiutang is still busy with the promotion of "The Invisible Guest".

She brings the main cast and crew onto TV shows, and sometimes makes solo appearances to promote the film.

Today is the last day of the Shanghai International Film Festival. The closing ceremony is in the afternoon, while the first screening of "The Invisible Guest," which is also the only advance screening during the festival, is scheduled for the morning at Hall 1 of the famous Grand Cinema in Shanghai. This 1300-seat hall has witnessed a century of changes in the history of Chinese cinema.

Tickets for the screening went on sale on the third day of the film festival. Except for 300 seats reserved for media and guests, the remaining 1000 tickets sold out in 3 minutes!

The movie starts at 9:30, which isn't a great time, but just after 8:00, moviegoers were already waiting at the theater to pick up their tickets.

It was a 1,000-seat theater, so there were too many people. Fortunately, the theater was experienced. At 8:30, they let the media in first to set up and adjust the equipment, and the audience entered in batches at 9:00.

There will be no pre-screening Q&A session today, but there will be a post-screening sharing session where the main creators will come on stage.

The hall, which could hold a thousand people, was packed with people, and even some who hadn't bought tickets managed to sneak in and sit in the aisles to watch—a behavior that, while discouraged, was tacitly permitted at the film festival.

At 9:30, the theater lights were turned off.

Ta-da! The familiar dragon logo appeared on the big screen.

The first image that catches the viewer's eye is an aerial view of Hong Kong, with the title tag: The Invisible Guest. Directed by Li Qiutang.

Xi Meijuan, with her silver hair, got out of the car... The film "The Invisible Guest" is not long, only 1 hour and 41 minutes long, but these 101 minutes are full of twists and turns.

It stirred up the emotions of all the audience members.

This was also the first time that the other main creators, apart from Li Qiutang, had seen the finished film.

"I'm filming a movie like this?" Jing Tian, ​​who was just playing a minor role, couldn't quite grasp the situation.

"I played this role?" Huang Xiaoming felt incredibly proud of himself; Li Qiutang truly was his benefactor.

Zhang Xiaobei thought to himself, "This kind of script really needs to be polished for two and a half years to be perfectly seamless."

Zhou Liming tilted his head and whispered to Zhang Xiaobei, "He's too good at filming these kinds of indoor scenes. Give him a room and a table, and he can give the audience a miraculous story."

Gu Changwei exchanged opinions with Fang Bing, the general manager of Dadi Cinema, who was sitting next to him: "Our generation of directors can't make stories like this."

Fang Bing nodded: "His rhythm is too steady. I'd like to see who will say that Li Qiutang doesn't know how to use narrative structure in the future."

The story of "The Invisible Guest" is actually not complicated; what's complicated is how Li Qiutang uses structure and editing to tell the story so brilliantly!
As soon as the main feature ended and the end credits rolled, the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause and whistles!
Lasts forever!

Those who attend film festivals are indeed more enthusiastic than the general public.

Li Qiutang and others had to go on stage early to receive the audience's cheers!

Li Qiutang, with Huang Xiaoming and Xi Meijuan on her left and Qin Lan on her right, held hands and bowed to the 1300 audience members to express their gratitude.

During the sharing session, several of the main creators said it was the first time they had seen the film, with Huang Xiaoming exclaiming in amazement, "I can't believe I made this."

Although Jing Tian only had a minor role, she still managed to get a lot of screen time on set: "The director approached me and said there was a role with no name, no lines, just a cameo, and asked if I wanted to come. I figured I had nothing else to do, so I thought I'd go."

To say that Jing Tian's performance in the few scenes in the film was particularly good, or that it reversed everyone's prejudice against her, is not entirely true, but at least it was a good attempt.

The audience was lavish in their praise, with some even saying, "This is the best suspense film I've ever seen."

However, many viewers still hadn't grasped the whole story and asked Li Qiutang for clarification on the spot, but Li Qiutang politely declined, saying, "It's pointless to talk about it now. You can wait until it's released and then watch it again."

The audience laughed.

After the screening, the test screening of "The Invisible Guest" received overwhelmingly positive reviews!

The media bluntly stated: "The Invisible Guest is absolutely the most anticipated and best-looking movie of this summer, bar none!"

"The Invisible Guest" held a preview screening this morning at the Grand Cinema in Shanghai, with a capacity of 1,000. Tickets were in high demand and the screening was a resounding success, with even the aisles packed with people. After the screening, the audience erupted in the loudest applause and cheers since the start of the film festival, leaving them thoroughly entertained!"

"As a suspense film, director Li Qiutang left the suspense until the end, refusing to answer any questions related to the case in the film, and jokingly said that if you don't understand it, you can buy more tickets and watch it a few more times."

The advance screenings of "The Invisible Guest" were a resounding success, and the production team seemed to be all that was left to do was wait for the money to roll in.

However, unnoticed by anyone, Yang Ying received a leaked video. In the video, Huang Xiaoming shielded Qin Lan behind him and reached out to stop Lu Chuan, saying, "Director Lu, don't talk nonsense."

(End of this chapter)