Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 438 Domestic Filming Completed

Liu Yifei stopped starring in youth films because after filming "The Beauty Inside" and "Architecture 101," she felt that youth films were not interesting. Compared to wearing beautiful clothes and having a dreamy romance with a beautiful partner, she preferred to be involved in action films. Being competitive, she simply preferred to make action films.

With the popularity of youth films in the past two years, countless production teams wanted to hire her, including some who offered exorbitant fees, but Liu Yifei was not interested in any of them.

After "The Beauty Inside" and "Architecture 101", Liu Yifei doesn't seem to have acted in any more romance films.

Liu Yifei's face is undeniably captivating in romance films.

But she still didn't act in any more romance films, not because she rejected them, but as if it were a natural selection by the market.

It must be acknowledged that in the Chinese film industry, purely romantic films do not sell well.

Youth films have the added appeal of nostalgia and can gross 300 to 500 million yuan, but romance films are really hard to sell.

Mainland audiences prefer films with strong emotions and high excitement. Romance films are often critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. It's a miracle that "The Beauty Inside" grossed over 100 million yuan. That was Liu Yifei at 23 years old, at the peak of her beauty.

To put it bluntly, that face alone is worth 80 million.

The failure of "For Love or Money" certainly had this factor in it, but the key reason was that it was not entertaining.

This drama is certainly not lacking in handsome men and beautiful women, but director Gao Xixi's understanding of love stories is really unpredictable.

Why did he choose to make a film about this story?
That's so outdated.

The story is clichéd, and the techniques are unoriginal. He lacks the ability to make a melodramatic story stand out, not even slightly.

Without Liu Yifei, Shu Chang and Tang Yan's "For Love or Money" only grossed over 7 million yuan on its opening day and 23 million yuan over its opening weekend. Media predicted that the final box office would not exceed 100 million yuan.

Li Qiutang commented in hindsight: "Fortunately, it was a low-budget romance film, so even if it was a disaster, it wouldn't have much of an impact on their transition to the big screen."

They can only make low-budget films now. Big productions still won't cast Shu Chang and Tang Yan, or rather, among all actresses born in the 85s, only Liu Yifei has landed leading roles in big productions.

"The stories of 'The Beauty Inside' and 'Architecture 101' are quite melodramatic if you look at them separately, but the screenwriters cleverly gave 'The Beauty Inside' a twisted lover storyline and split 'Architecture 101' into two storylines: one about middle-aged people and the other about young people. This makes it much more appealing."

"If it were you, how would you film it?" Liu Yifei asked Li Qiutang in return.

Li Qiutang was taken aback, then laughed and said, "You know, I can't film romance scenes." This shortcoming of Li Qiutang has been a source of amusement for many movie fans. In all his films, the romantic relationships between men and women are just embellishments, and he never focuses on depicting love between men and women.

However, he portrayed Li Ningyu and Gu Xiaomeng in such an ambiguous way in "The Message" that it almost failed to pass censorship.

He added, "I haven't read 'For Love or Money,' neither the movie nor the novel. What am I supposed to say?"

Liu Yifei's mind seemed to be working in a strange way. One minute she was talking about her best friend's movie "For Love or Money" not doing well, and the next minute she was blaming her husband: "Look at director Jiang Wen, he directs movies and even acts with his wife. What about you? Apart from a cameo at the end of 'Beauty Inside,' you never acted with me again, just to avoid other actors kissing me."

Li Qiutang was dumbfounded. Jiang Wen was not only the best director, but also the best actor. What could Li Qiutang possibly compare to?
"No, you're thinking way too fast. I'm a director, why would I act?" He only does cameo roles for fun, he never thought of starring like Jiang Wen. "Jia Zhangke didn't act either, did he?"

But Liu Yifei didn't care and insisted that Li Qiutang agree to act in a play together with her in the future.

There was no pressure in making such a blank check, and Li Qiutang agreed without even thinking about it.

"Ideally, it should be a love story."

"it is good."

"Talking about married life."

"Wouldn't a video of a married couple's intimate moments pass censorship?"

Liu Yifei didn't react for a moment, then punched Li Qiutang lightly: "What are you thinking! I was talking about married life and family life."

Li Qiutang said, "If I find you a script like 'A Thousand Arrows Piercing the Heart,' could you act it out?" Liu Yifei replied, "If there really was a script like 'A Thousand Arrows Piercing the Heart,' I'd rather give up 'World War II' than not act in it." She's really obsessed with it.

"What's with that expression?" Liu Yifei noticed the change in Li Qiutang's expression. "Don't you believe I can pull it off? My acting has improved a lot."

Without giving Li Qiutang a chance to explain, she straddled him, holding a pillow and threatening, "Speak!"

"say what?"

"They said I'm a good actor."

"I'm a good actor."

"What's so great about your acting skills? Me."

“I’m talking about myself,” Li Qiutang teased her intentionally.

Liu Yifei threw a pillow at herself: "I'm your wife."

"Your wife is a really good actress."

"I don't have a wife, you're my wife!"

"I'm talking about your wife!" Li Qiutang kept talking.

"You bastard!" He threw another pillow at her.

Li Qiutang held her in his arms and lightly kissed her lips: "You really want people to say you're a good actress, huh?"

"I don't care, get out of my way."

But Li Qiutang hugged her even tighter and laughed, "You don't know how to tease me." She pecked her again, "One day I'll make you the Best Actress and make everyone envious of you."

Although she knew that Li Qiutang was just trying to coax her, Liu Yifei was still very happy and let him go.

"Go wash up first."

Li Qiutang gave an ambiguous smile and walked away.

"Hey, how do I compare to Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi?"

"Tsk, why are you asking this? Asking too many questions is a disease." Li Qiutang refused to answer and gave her a pair of smelly socks in return.

At 9:21 p.m. on November 16, Li Qiutang announced that all domestic scenes for "Mojin: The Lost Legend" had been completed by the pool left by the crew of "The Crossing" at the film and television base!
The underwater scene took the four actors three days to film. In mid-November in Yanjing, the weather was already very cold, and the four actors were shivering from the cold.

"One month on the grasslands, three months in the studio, everyone has worked hard. Tomorrow is the wrap party, let's have a good drink." The wrap party for the entire film "Mojin: The Lost Legend" will be held in Toronto, but 90% of the brothers in China will not go to Toronto. For them, "Mojin: The Lost Legend" is already finished.

Ten minutes after Li Qiutang announced the end of filming, Liu Yifei posted a photo on Weibo of herself wrapped in a blanket, sitting on the set warming herself by a small heater, announcing the end of filming: "Four months of filming in China, see you in Toronto next week."

The news spread quickly.

"The highly anticipated film 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' finished filming its domestic scenes tonight. According to the female lead Liu Yifei's Weibo post, the crew will travel to Toronto next week to film the remaining scenes. 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' is slated for release during the Lunar New Year holiday next year, and may compete with director Lu Chuan's 'Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe'."

"Mojin: The Lost Legend has wrapped filming in China, while the crew of Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe is still filming in Hengdian World Studios." The media is already hyping up the two films as a rivalry.

The next morning, while Li Qiutang was catching up on sleep with his sweet and soft wife in his arms, Lu Chuan, who was filming in Hengdian, was already on his way to the studio.

He saw the news that Li Qiutang had finished filming and thought to himself, "Competing on the same stage? The 749 I filmed is based on my real experience, while yours is all fiction. Why should you compete with me?"

(End of this chapter)