Abstract Art Award Winner

Zhou Le was quite surprised to see these Japanese actresses together, but he didn't feel any admiration. After all, they were all celebrities, and there was no need to compare who was superior or inferior. Besides, they had invited him to this meal.

He was simply surprised that he could now meet people he had only seen online before in person.

But among the group, Zhou Le felt that Satomi Ishihara and Asuka Saito were the most attractive.

One is beautiful and cute with a wifely charm, and the other is simply cute.

He suddenly understood why Xiaotian had become so popular here; the two of them were actually in the same league.

The meal went very well. Although there were some language barriers, everyone got used to the translator's voice acting as an off-screen commentary as they chatted.

In return for treating them, Zhou Le also taught them a few Chinese phrases.

The first sentence is "I love China," followed by "Hello," "Thank you," "I love you all," and so on.

As for greeting each other, it has to be "Have you eaten?"

After dinner, everyone returned to their respective hotels. The translator also told Zhou Le that the others had contacted him because they saw the LINE post from Kana Hanazawa.

Then everyone hit it off immediately, and that's how we decided on lunch for today.

After returning home at noon and resting for a while, I started putting on makeup.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will naturally include a red carpet event, and Zhou Le will be walking the red carpet with Zhao Jinmai again.

But upon arriving at the venue, Zhou Le immediately saw Li Qin looking around as soon as he got out of the car.

"I'm going to take a walk over there."

After saying hello to Guo Fan, Zhou Le went to the Captain film crew.

The others had some things to do, so they arrived later. Only Li Qin has arrived now.

"So you finally decided to come looking for me? I've been here for days, and I couldn't find you anywhere to talk to you."

Li Qin said with a hint of resentment.

"Hey, why don't you give me a call? I've been busy these past few days, and you didn't come to the screening yesterday."

"Yesterday was busy, and after I got back to the hotel I wanted to look for you, but they said you went out shopping. I wanted to look for you again this morning, but they said you went to have lunch with Kana Hanazawa and the others."

"It's just a social obligation, there's no way around it, but where are they?"

"They said they wanted to go and have a chat with Zhang Ziyi and the others. This year, Zhang Ziyi is the chairperson of the judging panel here, so they should at least go and pay their respects."

"That's really impressive. But speaking of which, we haven't been there yet. Let's go check it out sometime."

Li Qin sighed: "Sigh, I knew you were getting closer to them, like the Captain movie crew is your stepmother."

“You can get jealous over this? Honey, I’m the male lead in ‘The Wandering Earth,’ and I’m also the voice actor, producer, and investor for the male lead in ‘Ne Zha.’ I should spend more time with them. As for ‘The Captain,’ I’m just the second male lead, so I’m not of much use here. Anyway, I can’t win awards by relying on the captain.”

"Okay, okay. So, are you busy tonight?"

"Nothing much to do tonight, just going out for dinner, shall we go together?"

"I'll pass. You're all in the same production crew, but I have nothing to do with you."

"You still say you're not jealous? I already had a bit of a cold, but the smell of your jealousy made my nose clear up."

Why would I be jealous?

Seeing that Li Qin was getting a little anxious, Zhou Le stopped talking about the topic, but Li Qin was quite cute like that.

"Let's go out for dinner later then. You can get to know them and maybe there will be opportunities to work together in the future."

"Humph."

"Then it's settled. Having more friends means having more options, and it'll be good for your future career development. But how many outfits did you bring to Tokyo this time?"

Li Qin: "???"

"You just want to be lewd with me, don't you? Can't we have a proper conversation if you're not lewd?"

"What do you mean by 'sexy'? I mean, you brought several dresses. What were you thinking? There are two shows today and tomorrow. One dress probably won't be enough."

You know what you're thinking.

Li Qin turned her head away as she spoke.

At that moment, the cameras outside the venue turned around.

The two smiled and waved to the camera.

"Professor Zhou, you've come to the Tokyo International Film Festival with three films in your hands. May I ask which film you think has the highest chance of winning an award?"

A domestic reporter was also following behind the camera.

Seeing the two greet each other, he casually asked.

"Ah, I think everyone has a pretty good chance, after all, they are all excellent films exported from China. In addition, I think films like 'The Bravest,' 'Send Me to the Clouds,' and 'Under the White Clouds' are also very good. I think everyone has a chance."

Do you hope your work will win an award?

"Of course, but I think that no matter which film wins an award, it is a source of pride for Chinese cinema."

"Alright, then I wish Professor Zhou all the best in winning a prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival."

"Haha, let's not get too excited yet. I think there are many excellent people. It's not necessarily my turn to win. My purpose in coming here is to participate, but it's good to broaden my horizons."

After the reporter finished the interview, he left. Not long after, the entire crew of the film "The Captain" arrived.

But after chatting with them for a while, Zhou Le returned to the "Wandering Earth" crew because the red carpet walk was about to begin.

Actually, Wu Jing was supposed to come this time, but he had some important business to attend to back home, so he couldn't make it.

During the red carpet walk, Zhao Jinmai was poised and confident. Having learned from her previous experience, she was much less reserved this time, especially since she was surrounded by foreign faces.

After they went inside, they found their seats and sat down.

The Tokyo International Film Festival is internationally renowned and is one of the world's nine major A-list competitive film festivals.

It is divided into two sections: the main competition section is the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, also known as the Golden Kirin Award, and the other is the China Film Week.

Although everyone was invited.

However, since it is an international event, it is quite difficult to win an award here. In the main category, the Golden Kirin Award was won by a Danish film.

He also missed out on several awards afterward, until he won the Best Actor award.

When the nomination list was announced, Liu Qi, played by Zhou Le in "The Wandering Earth," appeared on the big screen.

The group remained relatively calm, as they all knew that winning an award at such a film festival was extremely difficult; a nomination was practically the limit.

As expected, the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival was ultimately announced as going to an Iranian crime film called "650 Million".

This movie tells the story of the anti-drug task force police fighting against drug traffickers. After a series of efforts, they only managed to increase the number of drug addicts from 100 million to 650 million without fundamentally solving the problem of drug overload.

"Look at these films, they're legitimate and can win awards. You can't even dream of getting into these film festivals without exposing your own scandals."

Guo Fan, who was standing next to Zhou Le, said.

"Who says it isn't?"

These days, film festivals aren't about who acts well and who wins awards anymore. It's either about who has the most money to buy more judges, or who can expose their own scandals.

Therefore, many domestic directors say they want to compete for the Oscars every year, but in the end, none of them can actually win a prestigious award.

At worst, they might win a Best Cinematography or Best Music award, which would already be quite an achievement.

When it came to the Best Artistic Contribution Award, "Ne Zha" was successfully nominated, but it was ultimately won by a film called "Under the White Clouds".

Zhou Le had never heard of this movie before, but that didn't stop him from feeling that he deserved the award.

After all, he had come all this way, and the chairman was one of his own, so he was bound to win an award. But among a host of high-grossing films, this movie, titled "Under the White Clouds," had a stronger sense of national identity. Although the film has not yet been released in China and is currently only being presented for awards, Zhou Le still gave the director a warm round of applause when he went on stage to accept the award.

As I said before, once the awards are announced, any Chinese film that wins an award is something to celebrate.

Zhou Le never expected that the film's director would mention him during his acceptance speech.

"Actually, I would also like to thank Mr. Zhou Le. Although we didn't know each other before and had no interaction, he mentioned this movie in his interview yesterday, so I am very grateful for Mr. Zhou Le's recommendation."

Zhou Le only saw it briefly at a screening, which is how he learned the name of the film.

The awards then moved on to the Best Film award in the Asian Future section, where a Chinese film called "Summer Night Rider" won the award once again.

The story is about the adventure of a minor actor playing the protagonist and his cousin outwitting car thieves on the day the countdown clock for Hong Kong's return to China was unveiled in Chengdu.

This movie was also not released, but it was still selected for the film.

Zhou Le interpreted this as support for low-budget films and art films.

After the day ended, Zhou Le took Li Qin away from the Captain film crew.

It wasn't until they returned to the hotel that evening that Zhou Le and Li Qin walked at the back, chatting about how "Joy of Life" would be received.

But just as they were about to part ways after entering the hotel, Li Qin suddenly lowered her head and whispered, "I brought Hanfu with me today."

Zhou Le's heart skipped a beat. When he looked up, Li Qin had already jogged away.

Zhou Le left the door open all night, and Li Qin arrived as expected around one o'clock.

After entering the room, she started changing her clothes, and after changing, she started putting on makeup.

"You've got pretty complete gear, even your makeup is from ancient times?"

"Of course, since it's a role-playing game, we should see it through to the end."

Why are you wearing Pinru's clothes?

"What Pinru? Who is Pinru? What are you talking about, young master?"

Seeing that Li Qin was already in character, Zhou Le stopped saying anything. While Li Qin was putting on makeup, he also put on the clothes that Li Qin had specially brought for him.

Although it's a period drama, I had already worn it many times when filming "Joy of Life," so there were no difficulties at this moment.

"The bright moonlight shines before my bed, I wonder if it is frost on the ground. I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, I lower my head and think of my hometown."

Zhou Le was bored while waiting, so he began to recite poetry.

"What a fine poem! Young master, you have truly remarkable literary talent."

"That's quite a fine piece of writing. Wait for me to recite another one for you."

"Goose, goose, goose, with its curved neck singing to the sky."

"This one is even better."

"That's wonderful? Then take a look at this poem: 'Hoeing the fields at noon.'"

After reading it aloud, Li Qin had already come to Zhou Le's side: "Who is the one who hoes the fields?"

Zhou Le smiled and said, "Of course it is me."

"Then who is me?"

“Of course it’s you, young lady.”

The two then lay down on the tatami mats and began to discuss literature.

As they discussed, Zhou Le suddenly became inspired to write a poem: "I stop my carriage to admire the maple forest at dusk, as a line of white egrets soars into the blue sky."

"Alright, alright, I know you have talent for writing."

But Zhou Le felt that since he had already put on this outfit, wouldn't it be a waste not to compose a poem?
"Then I won't carry you on my back."

What should I carry?

“You recite a poem called ‘Ode to the Goose’.”

"If you want to carry it, just carry it."

But after a dozen seconds, she said, "My dear sister, you can't just keep reciting the first line. You've recited it over and over again so many times. Why don't you keep reciting the next line?"

"Ugh, it's because you wouldn't let me carry it."

"I didn't shut you up."

The two of them spent the whole night reciting poems.

The next day was the start of the Chinese Film Week, so everyone was looking forward to this event. Li Qin didn't bring up the matter of Zhou Le not coming to see her again, since they had studied all night and their literary skills had greatly improved.

That very morning, Dumpling invited Zhou Le over.

"Teacher Zhou, when they asked me to submit my film, they suggested that I submit the Best Children's Story Film Award. But I didn't want to define 'Ne Zha' as a film only for children, so I submitted the Most Popular Film Award and the Best Work Award. One is higher and the other is lower, so I'll at least aim for one."

"It's fine. Children's movies are really unnecessary. We're not 'Boonie Bears'."

"But Professor Zhou, do you have any inside information?"

"No," Zhou Le said.

The two chatted inside for a while when suddenly a staff member knocked on the door.

"Teacher Zhou, Teacher Zhang Ziyi would like to ask you to come over. She has an interview that requires your cooperation along with Teacher Chen Feiyu and Teacher Guo Fan."

"Okay, shall we go now? But I haven't packed yet."

"It's nothing, just a simple interview, it will start in about half an hour."

"Okay, I'll get ready."

As Zhou Le returned to her room, she contacted Guo Fan briefly, then quickly applied some face cream and put on the wig she had been wearing for the past few days.

Finally, we arrived at the interview site that had already been set up.

There wasn't much to talk about with Chen Feiyu; they simply nodded and smiled before taking their seats.

Sitting in the middle were Zhang Ziyi and Guo Fan. Guo Fan was next to Zhou Le, while Zhang Ziyi was next to Chen Feiyu.

The interview began quickly and was generally quite relaxed.

The hosts are a man and a woman.

The previous discussion mostly revolved around Zhang Ziyi.

Whether it was because Zhang Ziyi's smiling answer earlier gave the female reporter the wrong impression or something else, when the conversation turned to Zhang Ziyi's international influence, the female reporter suddenly blurted out "International Zhang".

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ziyi's face immediately darkened.

The male reporter standing nearby was terrified and quickly changed the subject, asking Chen Feiyu a few questions before turning the conversation to Zhou Le.

The female reporter hadn't quite caught on yet, but when the conversation turned to Zhou Le, she asked him a few more questions.

"Professor Zhou, which film do you most hope will win an award?"

If it weren't for what happened before, Zhou Le would have given the same answer he gave outside the venue yesterday, but it's clear that the female reporter was extremely unprofessional.

He actually used his ultimate skill right up to Zhang Ziyi's face.

As a journalist, that's what you can say.

Let alone a small-time reporter like you, even if Cheng Long came, she wouldn't say that to his face, okay?
So Zhou Le said directly, "Madam reporter, I think you are very unprofessional. The purpose of our participation in the Tokyo Film Festival is to export excellent works overseas and let more countries know about us, not for us to fight to the death among ourselves. I hope everyone can win an award, not based on my personal preferences and who I hope will win the trophy. If you don't know how to ask questions, you can have your colleague do it."

Furthermore, your questions made me feel somewhat uncomfortable, and some of your wording was simply absurd. As a journalist, you are utterly incompetent. (End of Chapter)