Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 623 It's you again!
Congratulations to "The Great Wall" on its Oscar nomination!

Really.

The host of the gala, Jimmy Kimmel, cued Matt Damon in the audience right at the start of the show.

"He's a selfish person, everyone who's worked with him knows that. But he did something incredibly selfless, and I want to commend him. Matt could have starred in 'Manchester by the Sea.' He was the producer and had been nominated for six Oscars, including Best Actor. He could have played the lead role himself, but he gave it to his friend Casey Affleck. He gave his friend an Oscar-worthy role and went to star in a Chinese film, 'The Great Wall,' which ended up losing $80 million. Well done, idiot."

Mentioning a name is equivalent to a nomination, which isn't wrong, is it?

Congratulations to La La Land for winning Best Picture! Well deserved!

What?! A misunderstanding?

The Best Picture award went to "Moonlight," but the presenter handed in the wrong envelope?
The La La Land team had been giving their acceptance speeches for several minutes when they were told that they hadn't won Best Picture.

However, many people were dissatisfied with Moonlight winning Best Picture, believing that La La Land was the more deserving winner.

But there's no way around it, that's how awards are given out.

The awards ceremony was unsatisfactory, but the event itself was incredibly dramatic, deserving a 5-star rating. Who would have thought it would end up being such a huge blunder?

"Damn! I lost over 20,000!" The next day, Li Qiutang vaguely heard people in the crew discussing the Oscars the night before. "I bet 20,000 on 'La La Land' to win Best Picture. What a stupid Oscar."

You should be aware of this when eating spinach.

"I bought the film after the director told me that *La La Land* was sweeping the awards. When I saw *La La Land* win Best Actress and Best Director, I thought it was a sure thing." Generally speaking, Best Director's Film usually becomes Best Picture. "When the female guest announced *La La Land*, I was ecstatic, but then... sigh..."

He cursed again, calling Oscar an idiot.

Huh? You bought it because Li Qiutang told you to?
Director Li shouldn't take the blame for this.

On the first day of March, the production team of "The Butterfly Lovers" opened the set to the public at the strong request of the media.

The media is too curious about "The Butterfly Lovers".

This is Li Qiutang's first art film, and also Liu Yifei's first art film.

Since filming began in mid-November last year, no filming information has been released. Various media outlets have been calling incessantly, but they have been unable to schedule a set visit, an interview, or any coverage.

Today, the set was finally open for visits, and more than ten media outlets submitted applications to visit the production team, bringing a whole host of questions they wanted to ask.

However, the production team of "The Butterfly Lovers" still granted an exclusive interview to the Movie Channel, and only allowed the Movie Channel to visit and interview the set today, without affecting the filming that day.

"It's you again." It was the same reporter from the movie channel who had interviewed Liu Yifei twice before; the two knew each other.

"As soon as I heard you were open for set visits, I came right away."

"That's great!" Liu Yifei said with a smile.

"I mainly came to see you because it's been so long since we last met."

Liu Yifei laughed and said, "That's a bit of an overreaction to currying favor."

Liu Yifei only had time for the interview because they were currently filming Qin Hao's solo scenes on set.

"This movie has been filming for a long time." The two chatted casually outside the film set.

"Yes, it's been more than three months, but filming is almost finished," Liu Yifei revealed.

"How have you been these past few months?" "It's been quite tough." That's exactly what the reporter wanted to hear. Liu Yifei continued, "The characters and stories are all very far removed from my own life, making them difficult to understand."

"So how did you overcome this difficulty?"

"There's no other good way but to put in a lot of hard work and grind it down little by little, because not every difficulty has an optimal solution. Sometimes you just have to rely on hard work. If you can't get around the wall, the only way is to break through it bit by bit." Liu Yifei was really thinking seriously about acting.

"Did the director and fellow actors help you during the acting process?"

“Yes,” Liu Yifei said. “We exchange ideas with each other on set every day. Even when we don’t have scenes to film, we sit on the sidelines and watch, chat, put our arms around each other and work out a scene. It’s great.”

"What about the director? Will he give you special treatment?" This was the question the reporter most wanted to know.

Liu Yifei laughed and said, "I've already prepared all the special meals I needed at home."

After chatting for a while on location, the two went to the makeup studio for an exclusive interview.

The interview lasted for more than half an hour, during which Liu Yifei talked a lot about her creative insights into "The Butterfly Lovers" and her experiences that were different from her previous filming.

She specifically emphasized that although the character Zhu Xiaoyan is far removed from her own life, being far removed does not mean she cannot play the role well.

"Challenges fuel the passion and desire to create, and motivate us to delve into and understand the characters."

She also frankly admitted: "I'm not bragging, but it's a bit easier to play female warriors like Lucy and Grace. Audiences will also feel that such roles are my comfort zone. But the meaning of an actor's job is to experience the joys and sorrows of different characters. The role of Zhu Xiaoyan is very attractive to me, and I would like to play relatively more profound and complex roles."

The interview with "The Butterfly Lovers" came to an end. After the reporter packed up the equipment, he asked a personal question: "Will 'Pacific Rim 2' be released this year?"

Filming for "Global Times 2" wrapped up last March, and according to the post-production schedule, it should be released in the second half of this year. Liu Yifei hasn't received any official confirmation yet, but she knows it's close to release, so she told reporters:
"It should be in the second half of the year. A few days ago, Universal also notified me that they were adjusting the schedule for the second half of the year to make room for 'Universe 2'. The release date announcement should be out soon." Liu Yifei is also very concerned about the progress of "Universe 2".

Unfortunately, after Pacific Rim 2, there will most likely be no Pacific Rim 3. After filming the second movie, Toro told the creators at the wrap party that he was no longer interested in the Pacific Rim story and that he wanted to create his own original story.

After the interview, Liu Yifei returned to the film set to film.

The reporter ate lunch with the crew at noon and took advantage of the break time to find director Li Qiutang for a brief interview.

There has always been a view surrounding "The Butterfly Lovers" that the film was commissioned by Li Qiutang to compete for awards. He wanted the audience to see that he was not just a commercially driven film director, but also an artist with expression and thought.

Just like Feng Xiaogang these past two years.

The reporter also bluntly posed this question to Li Qiutang.

Li Qiutang said, "I've been making movies for 10 years, and no one has ever forced me to make this or that kind of film. All my films are ones I wanted to make myself. The same goes for 'The Butterfly Lovers.' I made this kind of story simply because I wanted to make it; I had ideas and desires for this kind of story."

"If you start making a movie with the mindset of 'I want this movie to make money at the box office, I want this movie to win awards,' you're bound to fail."

"Who dares to say that their film will definitely be a box office hit and win awards? Everyone is gambling."

"So the idea of ​​customizing prize-winning items is naive."

But the reporter still asked him, "Have you received any invitations from film festivals yet?" It seems he knew something about it.

"Yes, but I'll focus on filming first. I'll film as I need to, and I'll do the post-production as I need to. I won't rush to meet the film awards schedule."

"Okay, thank you for accepting our interview, director."

(End of this chapter)