Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 429 Delicate and Sweet

To secure Liu Yifei's "first appearance after marriage," Bazaar staff practically lived in Huairou.

However, Liu Yifei still refused to attend this year's charity gala.

The filming of "Mojin: The Lost Legend" has reached a critical stage, and she doesn't want to delay the crew's work because of other things.

However, Liu Yifei promised Su Mang that she would donate a sum of money to this year's event.

But in reality, Su Mang needs both donations and people, and even Liu Yifei's presence is more important than the donations.

Even though Su Mang personally called to invite her, Liu Yifei still declined to attend the charity gala, citing her busy work schedule with the film crew: "The film crew is working twelve or thirteen hours a day now, and we really don't have time to participate in events."

The matter was then dropped.

Is he acting like a diva?

No, that's not true. What Liu Yifei said is true. The crew is really busy. They use any free time to rest and train. They really don't want to go out and participate in any more activities.

"Ah, be gentle!" Former Miss Hong Kong Grace Chan complained to Liu Ye for not being gentle during their action scenes. "I'm hurt."

I wonder if she acted this way because a TVB director came to visit her on set today.

Anyway, Li Qiutang's expression was already rather unpleasant.

But now is not the time for the director to lose his temper. The assistant director spoke first. He didn't curse, but he made some sarcastic remarks. The other person was a beautiful woman, but now was not the time to be gentle with her: "That's how it is when filming action scenes."

Chen Kailin rubbed her arm: "But he hit too hard."

Liu Ye felt a little awkward and didn't know what to say.

The assistant director continued, "Some people have broken arms and legs, let's do it again. Director, let's do it one more time."

They did it again, and Chen Kailin still failed. After only a couple of moves, she blamed Liu Ye for not following the set routine, causing her to fall and scrape her skin: "Look at you!"

The assistant director was about to lose it, and Li Qiutang was about to yell at someone. He quickly stepped onto the set: "We gave you an extra month to train, how come you still got like this? This injury is nothing, it's normal. Director, let's do it again." He then ignored Chen Kailin's opinion and walked away.

Li Qiutang picked up the walkie-talkie and said to the person in the scene, "Ye Ge, you two rehearse the moves a couple more times, and we'll film when you're ready."

The TVB director sitting next to her smiled and said, "Please be lenient, Director. Grace is a newcomer and doesn't know many of the rules on set. Please forgive her." Heaven knows how much effort TVB put in to persuade Chan Kwok-fu to put a complete newcomer like Chan Hoi-lam, who had never acted before, into Li Chau-tong's crew.

Winning the Miss Hong Kong title and immediately joining Li Qiutang's film crew—which newcomer in the Hong Kong entertainment circle gets this kind of treatment?

Li Qiutang didn't expect to get it right in one take. It's normal to film a scene ten or eight times, but he can't see Chen Kailin's attitude right now.

Who are you trying to impress by acting all delicate and demure on the action set? Action scenes don't believe in that kind of act.

The action director came to the set and patiently explained the moves to the two actresses, leading them through the choreography. The action team for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" was from Hong Kong. The action director didn't know the newcomer, Grace Chan, but still spoke to her in Cantonese: "That's how filming is. If you can't handle the hardship, don't come here. You don't know how many people want your opportunity."

After spending half an hour rehearsing the moves, the action director left, and filming resumed.

Perhaps because she was criticized, and a little embarrassed, Grace Chan didn't complain afterward, and she endured the shoving and hitting without saying a word.

But her movements still didn't meet the standard.

Finally, Li Qiutang couldn't take it anymore and questioned her, "I gave you time, did you even train?"

Chen Kailin didn't dare say a word. The TVB director next to her knew that Chen Kailin was currently filming her own TVB drama and didn't have enough time to train the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" crew.

But this cannot be said; whoever says it will die.

Chen Kailin remained silent, and Li Qiutang said something harsh: "Opportunities are in your own hands. With this attitude, you won't go far on the path of acting."

But Li Qiutang didn't know that the other woman never intended to be a professional actress. She only started acting because she won the Miss Hong Kong title and naturally entered the entertainment industry. Her plan was to get married, be a good wife and mother, and become a wealthy housewife. At most, she would do some side jobs related to film and television to earn some pocket money. She didn't have a strong ambition for her career.

This should be Li Qiutang's first time filming a young Hong Kong actress, and I found that her professional attitude is really different from that of young mainland actors.

Li Qiutang didn't want to generalize, but Chen Kailin's attitude was indeed problematic.

Liu Yifei and Jing Tian are both from wealthy families, but they worked hard on set without complaint, not caring about getting bruised and battered. But this young lady is different. She doesn't want to work hard and treats acting as a hobby, like an extra. She tries to avoid being idle for even a moment. She doesn't communicate much with her colleagues on set and only speaks Cantonese and English with a few people from Hong Kong.

"Let's do it again."

That day, due to Chen Kailin's improper movements and other reasons, not a single usable clip was filmed, and Li Qiutang finished work with a gloomy face.

…………

Liu Yifei finished reading Xin Yukun's "The Coffin in the Mountain" in two days and praised it highly, saying, "It's better than 'The Invisible Guest'."

"I'm better looking than him, aren't I?"

“How much did you spend on the film? How much did he spend?” Liu Yifei said. “What kind of cast did you have? What kind of cast did he have?” There’s some truth to that.

The current problem with "The Coffin in the Mountain" is distribution. The company has already signed the contract for the film: "No theater thinks the film will make money, and even the company thinks it will definitely lose money."

From the director to the actors, they were all amateurs, using only their hair!
Selling it directly to the movie channel would be a good solution, but it's a last resort. Xin Yukun sold the film to the TV series "Autumn" hoping it would be shown in theaters, so why bother with all that effort if he just sold it directly to the movie channel?

Releasing it directly would have been a sure way to fail. The company's publicity strategy for "The Coffin in the Mountain" was to first go to film festivals, whether it was nominated or won an award, to generate buzz for "The Coffin in the Mountain" before they could get it screened in theaters.

Xin Yukun just won the Critics' Choice Award for Best New Director at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. To be honest, this award isn't very prestigious, as it's not even presented at the awards ceremony. But this fall, they're still hyping up "The Coffin in the Mountain" for its amazing performance in Venice. Ultimately, it's still a legitimate Venice Film Festival award, and not just anyone can win it.

Liu Yifei suddenly suggested: "If you don't want to film 'Mirage,' you can let Xin Yukun film it. Then you can use your name to promote 'The Coffin in the Mountain' and get theaters to take over."

Li Qiutang laughed, "You're really shrewd." Who said Liu Yifei didn't understand marketing? She saw and heard it clearly. "She really has the air of a boss's wife or a director's wife."

"Seriously," Liu Yifei said with a smile.

"Let's see. I still don't know how to work on 'Mirage'. Oh, by the way, if you don't have any filming tomorrow, bring my computer with you." Li Qiutang wouldn't let her assistant touch her computer.

"What?"

"I had an outline saved before, and I've had some ideas recently, so I'm adding some more."

"You're going to die! You're filming a movie, how can you think about anything else? You're not focused!"

"There are plenty of ideas prepared for you there."

“Okay, I’ll go back and get it first thing tomorrow morning,” Liu Yifei readily agreed.

(End of this chapter)