The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 470 What did you call her again?

Xu Jiuyang still remembers a lot about the movie "The Father Trapped in Time". In terms of directing skills, there is nothing particularly outstanding. What is truly outstanding is Anthony Hopkins' acting skills, who portrays a father's journey from confusion to collapse to acceptance in a very vivid way.

In fact, the whole movie was made up of this little bit of vinegar. The director was very shrewd. Knowing that he lacked experience, he put all the possible highlights on the male lead and tried his best to highlight him.

The result was self-evident: Hopkins won another Oscar, and the director himself successfully transitioned from screenwriter to film director.

This version of "Daughter Trapped in Time" almost perfectly replicates this approach, highlighting the protagonist in a theatrical style, and even adds some embellishments, such as some suspenseful scenes.

The original version also had this aspect, where the male protagonist sometimes mistook the female nurse who took care of him for his younger daughter, sometimes for his older daughter, and sometimes for a male nurse who was unkind to him as a hostile son-in-law.

However, there isn't much information on this topic; most of it is just a brief overview, with answers given quickly, since the subject is a father suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The film "Daughter Trapped in Time" added this aspect, since Fan Bingbing's acting skills are certainly not comparable to Hopkins', and if they wanted to highlight her to a greater extent, they had to use some other methods.

To be honest, when Xu Jiuyang learned that they had increased the suspense in the script, although he didn't agree or disagree, he was still a little worried.

If it's a movie like "The Sixth Sense" or "The Others," then being suspenseful from beginning to end is no problem. But regardless of whether it's the father or the daughter trapped in time, the core theme is still how the protagonist, who has fallen ill and begun to forget the world, retains their last memories and spends time with their loved ones.

Therefore, if this balance is not properly struck, it may very well become superfluous.

But he couldn't say much. Even a fool could see that Fan Bingbing had a kind of obsessive longing for winning awards. In order to win the Best Actress award at Cannes this year, she didn't hesitate to collude with Angela, messing with both Maggie Cheung and Wong Kar-wai.

Xu Jiuyang always felt that if she didn't win the Best Actress award this year, she might set fire to the Cannes Film Festival organizing committee.

Fortunately, after watching the full version of "The Daughter Trapped in Time," he can temporarily put his worries aside. He doesn't know what those European and American film critics will think, but from his perspective, the suspenseful pacing is fine, as for Fan Bingbing's performance...

"I think it's at least up to standard," Xu Jiuyang said.

"Would it kill you to say something good?" Fan Bingbing was somewhat dissatisfied.

“Alright, Fan, just because I think it’s acceptable doesn’t mean everyone else will think so too. After all, we’re still too familiar with each other,” Xu Jiuyang said with a smile. “They might even give it 80 or 90 points.”

"Is that so?" Fan Bingbing tilted her head and hummed.

"No matter what, I'm really surprised that you've managed to do this much." Xu Jiuyang changed the subject and looked to the other side of the screening room, where screenwriter Li Xue and director Zhang Jing were talking to Angela.

The two of them have basically become standard tools for Angela and Fan Bingbing to make customized movies. It's a pity that Li Xue refuses to change her name back. Otherwise, it would be a very interesting scene if one Bingbing wrote the script and the other Bingbing starred in it.

“I really didn’t expect that she could adapt the novel into a screenplay. I remember that Sister Yuanyuan spent more than half a year polishing the words to write this idea.” Xu Jiuyang added, “Zhang Jing is the same. She showed some skill in directing ‘Falling’, but it was still mediocre overall. This time, she has improved by at least one level, which is quite unexpected.”

"That's because Angie and I have been keeping up with the progress," Fan Bingbing said smugly.

"Any follow-up?" Xu Jiuyang was a little puzzled. What direct relationship does your follow-up have with the quality of the film?

Fan Bingbing immediately coughed lightly: "It's precisely because we've been following up closely that they were able to unleash their full potential and produce this film." "You guys are that amazing?" Xu Jiuyang squinted his eyes.

"Of course! Otherwise, why would Angie and I be so determined to win an award at this year's Cannes Film Festival?" Fan Bingbing widened her eyes, as if trying to hide something.

Xu Jiuyang was even more confused, then paused for a moment, realizing what she meant: "Wait a minute, what did you call her again?"

"What do you mean, 'call her what'? Can't I call her that...?" Fan Bingbing, who had subconsciously retorted, realized what she meant and her face turned red.

But she still straightened her back and asked again, "Can't I call her that?"

This was an attempt to change the subject, but someone didn't notice at all, after all...

“Of course, Fan, of course,” Xu Jiuyang said with a smile. “After all, you two are so close.”

Fan Bingbing gritted her teeth and immediately made a move to leave, but after a couple of steps she turned back: "The script you mentioned, the one that can have both classic characters and box office success?"

"Don't worry, the novel is basically finished. Now it's just a matter of which journal Sister Yuanyuan will help me publish it in," Xu Jiuyang said confidently.

Although most of the time the two literary assistants wrote the text for him, and he mainly worked on the outline, the writing still met his requirements quite well, since it was telling the story from Gong Er's perspective.

Previously, someone was sent to talk to the Ye family to see if they could get authorization, but the Ye family disagreed. Although money could solve the problem, Xu Jiuyang was not very determined to have Ye Wen play the male lead, so the matter was dropped.

Anyway, it's going to be made into a movie in the future, and I have so many talented people around me, so telling the story from Gong Ruomei's perspective isn't a big problem.

In the original version of "The Grandmaster", Gong Er had more screen time. It wouldn't be difficult to organize the clues and adapt them into a novel. The challenge was simply to integrate the clues from Ip Man's side in a suitable way.

Zhang Shuang and Zhao Shu did a good job in this regard, at least Xu Jiuyang thought it was acceptable. However, he always felt that some of their opinions were not something they should have brought up, and he wondered if they had some expert guidance behind the scenes.

If the Ye family still doesn't agree when it's time to make the movie, it doesn't matter. The male protagonist's name has already been changed to Wen Ye in the novel, so we can just film it that way and blur the background a bit. Let's see if the Ye family dares to jump out.

"In short, I keep my word, especially after seeing today's finished product, I'm certain that Fan's acting skills are more than capable of carrying the role," Xu Jiuyang said with a smile.

This is not just a comforting remark. He was mentally prepared before coming. After all, even though Fan Bingbing was good at acting in her previous life, it was only in comparison to younger actresses, and she hadn't found her own niche.

Zhang Ziyi was able to make a comeback with the role of Gong Er because Wong Kar-wai, when directing, leaned Gong Er's personality towards Yu Jiaolong. While maintaining her stubbornness and strength, he removed the rebelliousness and added the loneliness. Combined with his own aesthetic standards, this gave her another classic role.

In her previous life, Fan Bingbing overemphasized her beauty, so she had to gain the audience's sympathy by making beautiful women suffer, even be humiliated and trampled on, in movies.

This path isn't necessarily wrong, but it's definitely not good either, because once an actress is labeled as sexy and glamorous, it becomes very difficult for her to leave an impression of acting skills in the audience's mind.

The most typical example is Monica Bellucci, who was so disgustingly abused in "Irreversible", yet no one praised her acting skills.

(End of this chapter)