Huayu: When the director changed his major

For the past week, Cheng Xi has been dealing with follow-up matters in New York, preparing for her return to China.

Cheng Xi first brought Xin Yukun to visit his idol, Ang Lee.

It's funny, he's never been this excited when Cheng Xi takes him to film movies.

Upon hearing that she was going to meet her idol, she expressed her gratitude to Cheng Xi in various ways.

During his most dejected period, Xin Yukun often went to the TV station to deliver meals to his wife, which led to him being jokingly referred to as "Ang Lee's arrival."

The bitterness in my heart goes without saying.

But he does indeed take Ang Lee as a role model to inspire himself, and so does his wife.

This solidified Ang Lee's position in his mind.

In 2013, the film won four awards at the 85th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score.
After Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" was a critical and commercial success in 2012, he took a break for a while.

Until this year, they started filming "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk".

Cheng Xi has seen both of these films, the former being self-explanatory.

The 3D sea fantasy visuals are breathtaking, no less impressive than Avatar, which is why it won the 85th Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Cheng Xi and her friends watched it together and found it incredibly enjoyable.

I am proud that the Chinese people have such a director.

"Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," on the other hand, was a bit of a Waterloo.

However, it also highlights Ang Lee's ambition to continuously pursue the application of technology.

He is not a director who rests on his laurels.

Unfortunately, Ang Lee's later films failed to replicate his former glory.

However, his achievement of winning three Academy Awards truly places him among the top tier of directors in the industry today, enjoying immense prestige.

Now almost everyone is very optimistic about "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," but only Cheng Xi knows that Ang Lee has entered a technical rut.

By placing too much faith in and concern for technology, we have forgotten the essential meaning of film.

Cheng Xi was introduced to Ang Lee through James Wan.

Fortunately, he had seen his own movie, "The Big Events of Life," otherwise he might not have agreed to let me bring people to visit his current military training base.

The reason for visiting the military training base is that before filming "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," Ang Lee had the actors experience real military training.

When Cheng Xi and Xin Yukun arrived at the base, they were all amazed to see the actors marching in unison, shouting slogans, skillfully handling firearms, and undergoing professional combat formation training.

Mr. Zhang, the Chinese assistant who came to greet Ang Lee at the door, was also very interested in the two young directors in front of him.

One is a top-grossing director in China, and the other is a rising director known as "Little Ang Lee".

This combination greatly interested Mr. Zhang.

"Director Li was delayed by something and will be arriving a little later. He specifically instructed me to take good care of you two."

"It's alright, we can take a look around first, and then wait for Director Li to arrive."

Cheng Xi said modestly.

"Okay, then I'll show you around first."

"For this military training, we specifically invited five instructors from the U.S. Navy SEALs and the Army Special Forces to train them."

"In order to fully immerse themselves in the role of a soldier who goes through gunfire in the movie, the actors also have to undergo 24-hour military-style management during their training."

"Including the military dormitory where we slept in bunk beds, training started at 6 a.m. and continued until 4 p.m. The actors didn't get any special treatment when it came to food; they ate the same thing for all three meals during training."

Cheng Xi and Xin Yukun listened and nodded secretly.

It's true that top directors all share the same logic.

The last time I was surprised was on the set of the National Master's drama.

When Cheng Xi was preparing to shoot her first film, "Life's Big Events," she secretly learned from Zhang Yimou's approach.

We will provide everyone with dialect and physical training in advance.

They even went to Sichuan and Chongqing to conduct a large-scale casting call, and they found Zhou Ye.

As a result, he has won numerous awards.

It opened the door to film for me.

Without this attitude, it's difficult to give your films a unique quality.

Cheng Xi has always believed that slow and steady wins the race.

More than half an hour later, Ang Lee finally arrived.

He was accompanied by his wife and a young man.

"Director Cheng, hello, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

With a shy smile, Ang Lee reached out his hand to Cheng Xi.

Cheng Xi politely extended both hands and grasped them tightly:

"Hello Director Li, hello sister-in-law, I just arrived too. This is my assistant, Xin Yukun, who is also a big fan of Director Li!" After the two sides exchanged pleasantries and introductions, they learned that the young man was his son, Li Chun.

Because he couldn't spend much time with his son due to filming, he decided to have his son participate in the filming this time.

Let him experience some hardship and learn from the crew ahead of time.

This situation is actually very common in the entertainment industry, and there are a lot of celebrity offspring.

For example, the older generation of celebrities such as Chen Peisi, Chen Kaige, Song Dandan, Zhang Guoli, and Hu Jun, as well as later celebrities like Li Xiaolu, and those born in the 95s and 00s who are second- or third-generation stars.

However, the older generation still diligently studied their profession and carried the banner of the entertainment industry.

From now on, celebrity offspring will simply rely on their parents' fame, making money just by appearing on set or variety shows.

Their business skills are not mediocre, but they are practically nonexistent.

The only ones who were disgusted were the audience.

No wonder that later on, more and more film and television works went unnoticed.

One lump is too much.

Cheng Xi found it amusing to think about the later chaos in the entertainment industry and the increasingly disappointing second-generation rich kids.

However, the Li Chun in front of him seemed to have inherited his father's personality, appearing kind and focused, and occasionally wearing a shy smile.

When Xin Yukun saw Ang Lee, he completely lost his usual composure.

When Ang Lee asked Hsin Yu-kun which of his works he liked the most.

Xin Yukun couldn't wait to start his story from "Pushing Hands" and continue all the way to this film, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk".

That deep respect was impossible to conceal.

Cheng Xi, who was standing next to him, felt a little envious.

Ang Lee and his family were all smiles when they saw a Chinese director praising him so highly.

After all, who likes someone who genuinely respects them?
As Ang Lee talked, he also revealed his tech geek side:
"Speaking of 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk,' I used the latest and most challenging technology to shoot a film at 120 frames per second, in 4K resolution, and with a 3D effect. The entire process used Sony's latest F65 camera, which is eight times clearer than regular 2K film."

Cheng Xi was listening attentively, but since it was their first meeting, she didn't feel comfortable offering her opinion.

Xin Yukun was a huge fan throughout.

Because Ang Lee was busy with his film, and the group spent nearly two hours chatting and touring the base, Cheng Xi felt it was inconvenient to disturb them any further.

When I communicated with his assistant, I was only given one hour of his schedule.

However, because he was late and his little fanboy was speaking so sweetly beside him, Ang Lee didn't mention the time.

But Cheng Xi can't be so ignorant.

He then politely bid farewell and extended a warm invitation to Ang Lee to visit Yenching in the future, promising to treat him well.

On the way back, Xin Yukun seemed to still be immersed in the excitement of meeting his idol.

Cheng Xi found his behavior amusing.

It's true that men can't stand seeing their idols, even more so than women.

"Yukun, what do you think of Director Li's new movie?"

When Xin Yukun heard his boss ask about this, he suddenly felt a jolt.

He might be a big fan of Ang Lee, but at the same time, he understands his boss better.

The way the boss asked the question and his tone reminded him of the movies Cheng Xi had asked him about before, which he had high expectations for but were actually box office disasters.

He blinked nervously and asked:

"Boss, you...you don't think this movie has any potential?"

"I wouldn't say I'm pessimistic, but I feel that Director Li is too immersed in his own world. Maybe I'm not at that level yet. After all, he's already past the stage of pursuing box office success and hopes to create something of his own."

Although Cheng Xi said this, it could be considered criticism if placed in the context of commenting on domestic directors.

I never expected the boss to be so bold; this is a three-time Academy Award winner!

You dare to raise objections to this!
Xin Yukun: "Boss, this is Director Li! A three-time Oscar winner."

Before Xin Yukun could finish speaking, Cheng Xi interrupted him:
"Don't even mention three sessions, ten sessions won't work. The audience is very realistic. If it's not good, they won't watch it, regardless of who you are."

"Forget it, let's not talk about this. Maybe I misjudged this movie."

After saying this, Cheng Xi closed her eyes to rest in the car and stopped talking.

Xin Yukun was left wavering between supporting his idol and his boss.

However, this also made Xin Yukun start to reflect on himself, wondering if he was too much of an idol.

After all, the boss has never made a mistake in his judgment.

So, is it the boss who's more capable, or is it their idol who's better?

We'll only know the truth when the movie is released.

I'll definitely be the first one to go to the theater and see how it turns out. (End of Chapter)