Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 397 Tears of Joy Arise as Wishes Are Fulfilled
With all preparations complete, the crew of "The Sky of History" began their preview screenings and promotional activities in North America.

On the 5th, the Los Angeles Art Cinema held its first preview screening.

Prior to this preview screening, Harvey's team had already launched a "film supply season" targeting the "Oscar Golden Triangle," the Golden Globes, and the Academy, which involved using various methods to invite these judges to see the film.

Because of the special circumstances of "The Sky of History".

Typically, Oscar-nominated films are released in theaters on a large scale the year before, bringing their achievements, fan support, and momentum to compete for awards.

If the film is released too early, it will be shown for two extra weeks before the final vote to remind the judges and critics of its importance.

The 2014 film *Gravity* employed this strategy.

It achieved impressive box office results in its initial run in October 2013, and after receiving 10 Oscar nominations, it returned to theaters at the end of January.

From a box office perspective, the box office revenue after a nomination contributes very little to the total box office revenue, but it greatly helps to create momentum for winning the award.

However, in order to participate in the Berlin Film Festival on February 7, 2008, "History of the Sky" could not be publicly screened before the film festival and had to meet the requirements for the main competition, which was that the film could not be screened before the festival. It could only meet the Oscar requirements by having a preview screening.

But at the same time, without a large-scale theatrical release, how can we get these arrogant Western judges to pay attention to such a film?

This was Harvey's first role: using his extensive network of contacts in Hollywood, built over a decade ago, to get the film seen by the judges.

Otherwise, what's the point of voting?

Therefore, the pre-release promotion of "The Sky of History" in North America was divided into two parts: the delivery of Blu-ray DVDs and surprise screenings.

Blu-ray discs and DVDs need no further introduction. Harvey designed a small gift package that included a DVD, four large-format picture books, a handwritten letter from director Lu Kuan, and a Jinling Yunjin handkerchief, and sent it out to opinion leaders in a mass distribution.

Don't underestimate this small handicraft, the Jinling Yunjin handkerchief.

Later items such as the plastic fist from "Wreck-It Ralph" and the model bow and arrow from "Brave" that were included in packages were basically on the borderline between "gifts" and "gifts," which undoubtedly increased the judges' favor.

The surprise screening was proposed by Mr. Lu, and the strategy was modeled after the release schedule of "Zero Dark Thirty" in 2012.

When the film was released in late December 2011, it was shown in only a dozen theaters. However, it received five Oscar nominations on the day of the Oscars the following year, and was quickly shown on 3500 screens across the United States, generating a great deal of buzz.

For reference, the crew of "The Sky of History" will fly to the United States on February 17, the day after the Berlin Film Festival closes, for the North American premiere.

If it wins a major award, everyone will be happy, and it will create a viewing frenzy in North America with unstoppable momentum, warming up for the Oscars a week later.

If it doesn't generate much revenue, the movie should still be released, and then it should be shown globally in the order of first North America, then Europe, and then Asia.

Since the domestic premiere requires the entire cast and crew to attend, it can only be held after Mr. Lu and others return from the Oscars. Japan, South Korea, and Europe are all influenced by the public opinion of their American "big daddy" to some extent.

For Sky, Asia is the core market, but North America is the bellwether. Even if it costs a lot of money, they will still strive to create a good reputation to drive global box office growth.

At 7 p.m. Pacific Time, a banner was hung outside the Los Angeles Art Theatre in the Historwood neighborhood that read:

"The Unsilenced" FYC

"The Unsilenced" is the English title of the film "The Sky of History".

Meaning "those who have not been silenced," it refers to all those in the film who, with Iris Chang as the main figure, including John Rabe, Minnie Vautrin, Reverend Magee, and others, have worked to uncover the truth of history.

FYC is an abbreviation for the film season preceding the Oscars each year.

In front of the media area, Variety reporter Tim Gray was broadcasting live, with online media channels such as Mytube also participating in the broadcast.

Domestic video platforms such as Wenjie Video, Sohu, and Xinlang all participated in the live broadcast.

At most, they can see the red carpet and the atmosphere at these preview screenings; there's no need to make them exclusive.

It's movie promotion season now, and we're already scrambling to get other portals and internet websites to help promote it.

Soon, the figures of various opinion leaders appeared in the shot. Professional film critics such as Richard Corliss of Time magazine and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone arrived one after another, greeting and exchanging pleasantries with Hanks, Moore, Liu Yifei and others standing at the door.

The private screenings featured Dolby Atmos audio and bilingual subtitles specially provided for the judges. There were also translations and annotations of Chinese historical terms at each seat.

The film "The Sky of History" has a runtime of 150 minutes, which is determined by the narrative requirements of the subject matter, award preferences, and the target audience.

For fans of the director and actors, feature films are definitely a plentiful and satisfying treat.

But it's a real ordeal for the judges who have to watch a ton of films before the Oscars every year; the quality of the films determines their patience.

If it were a Blu-ray disc, there would undoubtedly be judges who skipped around while watching.

But at today's live screening, whether they were genuinely engaged or just pretending to like it, the judges who received small gifts and favors had to watch the whole thing without worry.

At the beginning of the film, Liu Yifei stands in the shadows of the side door of the theater, just like Lu Kuan before her, her fingers unconsciously stroking the tassels of her wool shawl.

She hid herself here so that, like him, she could easily observe the expressions and demeanor of the viewers and assess their overall acceptance and engagement.

The dragon emblem flashes across the screen, and the film begins.

Film critics, Hollywood directors, actors, and film journalists at the scene were quickly immersed in the flow of history.

Liu Yifei nervously gripped her phone; she had just sent Boss Lu a message about the opening of a video.

The light spots on the screen flickered on her face, reflecting a pair of eyes intently watching the audience's movements.

After a dozen minutes of setup and opening, the audience visibly became engaged, their expressions, movements, and emotions rising and falling with the plot.

The elderly Jewish professor from USC in the first row suddenly straightened his back when Rabe pulled out his Red Cross armband, his silver hair trembling slightly in the darkness.

When Tom Hanks read out "Nanking ist nicht Auschwitz" in German, the old man gripped the armrest of his chair tightly, his knuckles turning white.
There were also gasps coming from the back row.

Liu Yifei turned her head and saw three Asian international students holding hands tightly. The boy in the hoodie bit his lower lip and his face turned red.

When Andy Lau, who played the commander of the Nanjing Garrison on screen, said, "We can't save everyone," the girl suddenly buried her face in her companion's shoulder, her ponytail swaying gently with her sobs.

Even at the very end of the film, in a single, masterful take by Liu, the Hollywood Reporter reporter in the middle row, who was originally sketching in his notebook with his legs crossed, froze in front of the shot of Iris Chang opening the threatening package.

The phone slipped and hit the carpet with a dull thud, but he didn't even notice.

On the big screen, when Liu Yifei imitated Iris Chang's physiological reaction to swallowing fear, the medicine bottle rolled off her trembling fingers.

The reporter suddenly raised her hand to cover her mouth, as if to stifle a sob that was about to escape her lips.

What made Liu Yifei most anxious and nervous was the AMPAS judge in the front row, a former Oscar president known for his harshness.

AMPAS, or Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is the core mechanism for selecting the Academy Awards.

At the beginning, he sat with his arms crossed, a critical smirk playing on his lips. But when the camera showed the Yale Divinity School library, his gold-rimmed glasses suddenly reflected light.

Liu Yifei counted the number of times he adjusted his sitting posture:

The first time was when Hanks was giving a monologue, and the second time was when she screamed in Chinese, "This is not a number, it is life."

The third time... It was in a long shot where Rabe and Iris Chang were gazing at each other from a distance, when the old man suddenly took off his glasses, took out a handkerchief, and wiped his face heavily.

The moment the screen went dark, the entire theater seemed to be paused.

Liu Yifei's fingernails dug into her palms until the first round of applause erupted from the judges' panel, followed by a tsunami of applause.

Someone stood up and shouted "Bravo!", and from the back came a tearful "Thank you for telling this story."

The Variety reporter who had arrogantly declared upon entering that this film could never compare to Schindler's List was now clapping wildly.

His pen got tangled in the camera strap, but he didn't bother to untangle it.

Liu Yifei's eyes also welled up with tears. After sending a message to Boss Lu, she went on stage to thank the audience.

The first preview screening concluded successfully.

The entire crew, including Harvey, and the entire public relations team were excited to see this film:

The elderly Jewish professor saw a historical resonance, the journalist offered professional recognition, and the tears shed by the Asian audience stemmed from a sense of identity.

To a certain extent, through the arrangement of an international cast and reasonable scriptwriting and editing, Lu Kuan successfully transformed a history that was unfamiliar and ignored by Westerners into a cultural product that viewers of different ethnicities and ages could empathize with.

This is a capability that only directors with an international perspective and artistic genius possess.

On January 5th, at the Los Angeles Arts Theatre, there will be a private screening for prominent Hollywood film critics, judges, and media reporters; on January 8th, at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, there will be an academic screening hosted by Iris Chang for history faculty and students and scholars of World War II studies.

The preview screening was hosted by Professor Michael Berenbaum, the historical advisor for Schindler's List, a key founder of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the United States, a top scholar funded by Jews, and who has dedicated his life to the study of the history of concentration camps such as Auschwitz and the history of Jewish persecution.

Jews have always known that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and they never hesitate to spend money on such things.

Using Michael Berenbaum's influence to promote a film on the same theme was a clever tactic by Harvey, leveraging his Jewish identity.

On January 10th, the film crew visited Chicago, where Liu Yifei had previously studied, and held a community screening at the Chicago Symphony Center, primarily targeting the local Asian community and international students.

. . .

Upon receiving positive and favorable news from the front lines of North American media, Mr. Lu, who was immersed in the Olympic cause all day, was also in high spirits.

The prelude awards won in North America will warm up the Berlin Film Festival and boost the chances of winning the Golden Bear on February 17. Once the film crew wins awards in Berlin, it will also give a boost to the Oscars on February 24.

Of course, this is the ideal situation.

While the preview screenings and promotions in North America were in full swing, the domestic promotional and pre-launch process also quickly followed.

First, there is the power from the government.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Film Bureau jointly endorsed the film, including it in the "National Memory Project" list of recommended "major historical film and television works," and issued a joint document with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education to support it.

Next, the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre organized an expert seminar, inviting the family of Iris Chang and the descendants of John Rabe and Minnie Vautrin to participate via video link, and released the "White Paper on Historical Research by the Creative Team" to promote the film.

This was also supported by the local government of Nanjing.

There are also behind-the-scenes documentaries of "The Sky of History" broadcast on CCTV-6 Movie Channel, such as Liu Yifei experiencing life, Hanks' weight loss documentary, Moore learning Chinese, etc.

Meanwhile, in sync with the North American preview screenings, the promotional campaign in mainland China was also in full swing.

However, this time, Wenjie adopted a different pre-launch publicity model—the theme song promotion.

Zhang Liangying's rendition of "As You Wish" will be released at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beiping (Beijing) as the film's theme song.

Objectively speaking, with the award-winning actors and actresses and his top girlfriend all in North America for preview screenings and promotions, he was left all alone in Beiping, and could only use this kind of opening to generate buzz.

Although it was a simple production, it still featured Hong Kong superstars Anita Mui and Andy Lau, who made cameo appearances.

The latter did not travel to North America with the crew due to the promotional schedule for "The Warlords," but will travel to Berlin with the cast and crew for filming.

Seeing that film critics and media in North America had already begun singing the praises of the film, professional film and entertainment media in mainland China could no longer sit still. On the evening of January 18, they gathered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts to welcome the first wave of promotion for this historical epic in mainland China.

In the history of Chinese films, the earliest instance of officially promoting a film through a theme song release event can be traced back to "Farewell My Concubine" in 1993.

A press conference was held in Hong Kong for "When Love Has Become the Past," a song composed by Jonathan Lee and sung by Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, and Gong Li. This marked the first time that the theme song singers and the film's main cast appeared together on screen.

Then came Wang Fei singing the theme song of the same name for "Hero" at the Great Hall of the People in 2002, Zhang Liangying singing the theme song of the same name for "The Promise" in 2005, and Jay Chou singing "Chrysanthemum Terrace" for "Curse of the Golden Flower" in 2006.

This kind of movie promotion model is already commonplace.

At 7 p.m., the ceremony for the release of the theme song of the National Centre for the Performing Arts began.

First, Mr. Lu spoke: "Thank you all for coming and supporting us, especially the leaders of our Wenhua Department and the professors of the Yenching University History Association."

"Today, we stand here not only for a song or a movie, but also to let history be heard and memories be passed on."

"The song 'As You Wish' is the breath of 'The Sky of History' and a testament to Nanjing's transformation from wounds to rebirth."

“We made this film not to repeat the pain, but to prove that when art confronts history, it can be a knife or a medicine.”

The young director paused and said with emotion, "This song is our medicine. May our country be safe and sound, and may the living never forget. Now, please enjoy 'As You Wish' performed by Liangying."

Mr. Lu's heartfelt speech resonated with many in the audience; everyone knew about the twists and turns this film had encountered since its inception.

The denigration of Taro and his son's collusion with the right wing, the obstacles encountered while filming in different parts of the world, including Xiao Liu being severely harassed and suffering from dissociative aphasia.

The lights in the National Centre for the Performing Arts suddenly dimmed, and Zhang Liangying appeared in a plain dress, with the accompanying music video "As You Wish" playing on the large screen in the background.

As the prelude begins, a quote from Iris Chang's book "The Nanjing Massacre" appears on the screen with white text on a black background: "Those who forget history are destined to repeat it."

Next, DJI's drone lens swept across the morning light over the Zifeng Tower in modern Nanjing, then slowly moved down to show the cruise ships and people doing morning exercises along the Qinhuai River.

At the same time, the modern cityscape of Nanjing turned into black and white, taking the audience into Nanjing in 1937.

Zhang Liangying's clear voice emerges: "You are the long road, the light in the thick fog of the mountains."

The music video shows Iris Chang, played by Liu Yifei, reading Minnie Vautrin's Diary at the Hoover Institution, her fingers lightly touching the yellowed pages;

On the other side of the split screen, in 1937, at Ginling College, Minnie Vautrin and her female students stand at the school gate, facing the menacing threat of the Japanese invaders.

This single scene alone has drawn everyone present into that unbearable period of history.

"I am a child, walking in your eyes."

In the black and white images of historical footage:

A boy of about five or six years old was huddled in a corner of Ginling College.

His cotton-padded coat was torn, revealing blackened cotton fibers, and his fingers were ulcerated from frostbite, yet he still clutched a copy of the Three Character Classic soaked in blood.

The camera zoomed in on his eyes, his pupils dilated with extreme terror, reflecting the image of the Japanese soldier's leather boots crushing the school's plaque.

Suddenly, the child in the music video stares directly at the camera, as if looking through time and space at the audience in the present. A tear rolls down his face covered in soot, as if he is crying out.

At the same time, a drone swooped down from the top of Zijin Mountain and flew over the playground of Xuanwu Lake Primary School.

More than seventy children in bright yellow school uniforms are raising the flag, their red scarves fluttering like dancing flames in the morning breeze.

The camera focused on a round-faced boy in the front row. He was about five or six years old and was standing on tiptoe to tie his classmate's shoelaces. Rice grains were stuck to his chubby cheeks.

When the national anthem played, he suddenly looked up and smiled brightly, the light in his eyes almost piercing the screen.

The music video on the big screen featured an extremely stunning scene—

A chubby, round-faced boy with rice grains stuck to his lips wore an incredibly bright smile;
The young child in 1937 stared at the screen with a look of terror on his face, as if he were looking at the muzzle of the Japanese devils' guns.

The sight of trembling children during the massacre, their vacant and terrified eyes due to malnutrition, contrasted with the vibrant and energetic children of modern Nanjing, who are like the rising sun, brought tears to the eyes of the guests and reporters present!

Jingwei, the movie channel host who was in charge of the event today, could no longer hold back her tears and covered her mouth, choking back sobs beside the big screen.

Her emotions, the emotions of the guests who were already silently shedding tears, and the emotions of the reporters were all contagious. Before Zhang Liangying even started singing the chorus, faint sobs could be heard in the audience.

Accompanied by Jane Zhang's beautiful and melodious singing, the tear-jerking scenes in the music video continue:
A boy in 1937 reaches out to grab a falling page from his textbook; a boy in 2007 raises his arm to release a paper airplane.
Hungry and cold little hands dug through the ruins to find moldy rice grains, while chubby fingers in the sunlight pinched freshly baked custard buns from the canteen.
At the end of the black-and-white scene, the boy looks back one last time as he is being carried onto the refugee boat, and in the color scene, his "reincarnation" is jumping and leaping into his parents' arms.

When the images of the two boys finally high-fived each other in the music video, Jane Zhang's voice trailed off, coinciding with the sound of a peace bell.

Suddenly, one of the girls burst into tears, and it spread like a plague, filling the audience with sobs.

Lu Kuan observed the emotions and expressions of the audience with satisfaction:
CCTV reporter Wang Zhi suddenly took off his glasses and wiped them;
The Kyodo News reporter in the back row quickly took notes with his head down;
A foreign student wearing a "Jinling Memories" T-shirt covered his mouth, sobs leaking through his fingers.

Zhang Liangying's performance was coming to an end:
I will also see the world you have never seen
Write poems you haven’t written yet

The moon in the sky, the thoughts in my heart

you will always be by my side
I promise you, a lifetime of purity.

Like your youthful face...

Music is another language of history.

As Zhang Liangying finished singing, the end credits and visuals appeared—

In the winter of 1937, Ginling College took in 1362 children, with less than 30% surviving.
In 2007, there were 790 kindergartens in Nanjing.

Starting with Director Tong and Han Shanping, the entire audience stood up, applauded enthusiastically, and burst into tears!

(End of this chapter)