Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 592 Heavenly Banquet

To say that the three members of the Heavenly Banquet are more talented than their mainland counterparts would be pure nonsense, but the resources they receive are things that their mainland counterparts can't even dream of.

Ruan Jingtian was the first to be promoted, and for this, he was awarded a Golden Horse Award for Best Actor. The award citation at the time said: "His performance is different from that of male actors in idol dramas, and it is a great breakthrough." Please, this is for Best Actor, not Best Newcomer.

He probably didn't expect to win the award, so when he went up to accept it, he looked completely bewildered and after a long pause, he managed to say, "Oh."

Therefore, he is also known as the worst actor to win the Golden Horse Award.

But Taiwan Capital didn't expect that the Golden Horse Awards would not only fail to make Ruan Jingtian famous, but would actually ruin him.

Since then, Ruan Jingtian has not used the Golden Horse Award to break into the mainland market—giving him the Golden Horse Award was obviously intended to encourage him to expand into the larger and more lucrative mainland market.

After that, he mostly took on small and medium-sized productions from Taiwan.

In contrast, Mark Chao has had a much smoother career; in fact, it could be said that Mark Chao is arguably the Taiwanese actor who has had the best career development in mainland China.

Look at the resources he got in mainland China: "Caught in the Web," directed by Chen Kaige, where he also dated Gao Yuanyuan; "So Young," Zhao Yanzi's directorial debut, which grossed 7 million; "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon," directed by Tsui Hark, where he took over from Andy Lau, and he's also playing Detective Dee in the already greenlit "Four Heavenly Kings"; and "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe," a fantasy epic.

Regardless of the film's box office performance or critical reception, in terms of resource level, which of these films wasn't a top-tier production in the Chinese entertainment industry when it was first conceived? Mainland young and middle-aged male actors would be thrilled to even get one of these roles.

Mark Chao is undoubtedly the chosen male lead.

The last one, Eddie Peng, took a different path. He went from Taiwan to Hong Kong, became the godfather of Sammo Hung, and garnered several Best Newcomer and Best Actor nominations in Hong Kong and Taiwan before entering the mainland.

The films "Cold War", "Unbeatable", "To the Fore" and "Cold War 2" have certainly boosted his resume.

After entering the mainland, he began to cultivate a persona of a handsome man and a hard-working persona.

Countless colleagues and fans say he's handsome, repeatedly emphasizing this and trying to equate Eddie Peng with handsome men, just like when people in the Chinese entertainment industry mention terms like "fairy goddess" or "fairy sister," the first person they think of is Liu Yifei.

He emphasized his hard work, saying that for every film he made, he would specifically learn a new skill, including but not limited to sign language, racing bicycles, free fighting, dolphin training, and so on.

It must be admitted that before "Operation Mekong" this year, Eddie Peng's momentum was indeed not as strong as Mark Chao's, but it is believed that he will have further development in mainland China after this year.

Li Qiutang has no prejudice against Hong Kong and Taiwanese actors, or rather, he hasn't reached the point of prejudice yet, because mainland actors are enough for him. He really doesn't consider Hong Kong and Taiwanese actors much. Other productions of his company may use some Hong Kong and Taiwanese actors, and he doesn't interfere.

Because it had never been considered before, Li Qiutang believed he could still give an objective evaluation of the group of actors.

There's nothing to say about the boss using resources to support the Heavenly Banquet. If a boss is willing to throw resources at it, why not take it?
Despite not being a very good actor, she still gets a lot of resources, and they're all high-quality ones. Well, there's nothing you can do about it; the entertainment industry has never been a place that only values ​​talent.

Or rather, they haven't yet reached the point where they can succeed without a boss's support, simply by relying on their own names.

Marketing? Everyone does marketing, there's nothing to say about it.

However, Li Qiutang personally dislikes the idea of ​​hard-working marketing. In this industry, who doesn't work hard? Who isn't desperately trying to climb the ladder? Who isn't afraid of fading into obscurity?
Liu Yifei, who doesn't need to compete for any resources and has her own company and husband who manages everything, is also very hardworking. She joins the crew several months in advance to train for filming, enduring falls and bruises. After filming a movie, she goes home covered in injuries.

Huang Xiaoming spent months grappling with the elements in the desert to prepare for his role as Xuanzang. Wasn't he putting in the effort? From director Li Qiutang's perspective, actors should learn the skills required for a role when conditions permit, and this is nothing to boast about.

For a swimming scene to be filmed, the actors must be able to swim.

From God's perspective, the decline of the Heavenly Banquet in the following years was related to their stagnant business capabilities over the years, as well as the rise of the middle generation in mainland China squeezing their market. Of course, the tension in cross-strait relations was also an important reason.

“What do you think of Eddie?” Li Qiutang didn’t expect Lin Chaoxian to recommend Eddie Peng on the spot. “You saw Eddie’s performance in Mekong River. He played a soldier and he was very good at it.”

Lin Chaoxian didn't know Li Qiutang beforehand, so it wasn't appropriate for him to recommend an actress on their first meeting. However, "Operation Mekong" was a huge success, and Lin Chaoxian made a lot of money for Qiutang and gained some face, so saying a few more words wouldn't hurt.

To reiterate, Li Qiutang has no prejudice against the actor himself and believes that Eddie Peng is genuinely hardworking, but he chooses to act impartially: "No problem, I can put your resume in, and we will notify you to come for an audition later."

Even with his star power, Eddie Peng wouldn't dare to act arrogantly in front of Li Qiutang. It was already incredibly rare for a director like him to give him an audition and give him serious consideration; that was exactly what he was after on this trip. Before they came, neither he nor Lin Chaoxian had expected to win over Li Qiutang and secure the role after just one meeting.

But he couldn't help but ask, "Director, what kind of role will I be auditioning for?"

"There's nothing wrong with saying this," Li Qiutang said. "The rescue team leader, the second male lead."

Lin Chaoxian asked one more question: "What kind of role is the male lead?"

Li Qiutang knew exactly what he was planning, and immediately said, "The male lead is a teenager."

After some casual conversation, Li Qiutang expressed her approval of the achievements of "Operation Mekong" and Eddie Peng's performance in it.

"You also worked hard on that evacuation case later on," Li Qiutang said to Lin Chaoxian. "If you encounter any difficulties, just tell our company, and we'll help you solve them."

The Mekong River case was negotiated by Bernard, so Bernard naturally took the lead. The evacuation case was won by Chen Zhixi from the Navy, so Qiu Tian naturally took the lead. However, the director team used Lin Chaoxian, who was deeply associated with Bernard.

Lin Chaoxian also said, "Being able to cooperate with the largest film company in the country, I also want to see how far we can go."

“I’m really looking forward to this movie.” He added, “If you had come a month earlier, I could have introduced you to Wu Jing. He was filming in Huairou last month.”

"Is he filming 'Wolf Warrior 2'?"

"Yes, you should be able to communicate very well."

When talking about acting, Li Qiutang said to Eddie Peng, "Your accent will be a big problem. You know your Taiwanese accent is quite strong, right?"

"I know, I'm also trying to study hard."

Since that's what they've said, Li Qiutang didn't say anything more.

Finally, Li Qiutang accepted Peng Yuyan's resume. Because she had other things to do, she asked her assistant to see the two of them out.

(End of this chapter)