Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 328 The First Victim in Mainland China

The various news about "Black Peony" is still spreading, which makes people vaguely recall the days when "Hero" was vying for the Oscars many years ago.

Li An's appearance on the mainland naturally attracted a flurry of interviews.

Around noon, the winter sun in Beijing shone through the thin clouds, making it feel slightly warm.

A film forum is being held at the China Film Archive, and Li An has been invited to attend as a special guest to talk with the audience and media.

As soon as he sat down, the cameras and microphones in the front row quietly went off.

After a few pleasantries from the host, before the formal proceedings even began, a reporter eagerly raised his hand, his voice blunt:

"Director Li, you won Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' What are your thoughts on 'Black Peony' being nominated for four Oscars this time? Especially in the Best Foreign Language Film category, what do you think its chances of winning are?"

The atmosphere in the room froze.

Many of the guests here are professors from the Beijing Film Academy, so they are naturally very interested in the Oscar bid for "Black Peony." If we're talking about analysis, no one here is more familiar with the Hollywood system than Li An.

Li An remained expressionless despite the stares he was receiving. He had long known that being here would inevitably lead to questions about this matter, just like when he was vying for the Oscars with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

"From the perspective of the film itself, 'Black Peony' is indeed quite competitive in the category of foreign language films."

Its narrative style is unique, using the shell of psychological thriller but layering it with themes of traditional opera, female repression, and strong Eastern visual symbols. This combination is truly one of a kind among this year's nominated works.

Li paused, carefully choosing his words: "At the same time, the film's directing is very mature, the overall pacing is not exaggerated, and it has a restrained dramatic feel. But whether it can ultimately win an award, I think, depends on two things: first, the competition, and second, whether it can maintain its presence in Hollywood."

"So what are your thoughts on the two core awards, Best Director and Best Actress?"

At this point, Li An also shook his head with a smile: "I can't say for sure about that."

It's actually quite difficult for non-English language films to win other core awards, because 90% of the Oscar voters are English-speaking industry professionals, and watching subtitled films naturally creates a psychological barrier.

In addition, foreign language films lack the support of Hollywood's publicity system, making it difficult to conduct extensive public relations with actors, directors, and scripts. As a result, foreign language films are often "arranged" to be included in exclusive awards, creating an "internal diversion" effect.

I didn't win Best Director for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon back then either.

Many guests in the audience nodded in agreement. Professionals have studied the difficulty level, as this type of challenge has not appeared very often in history, and each instance is indeed a masterpiece.

This response also made it to the homepage of the culture section of several major portal websites that afternoon.
[Li An responds to "Black Peony"'s Oscar bid: Structural challenges remain for foreign language films entering major awards]

Is it difficult for non-English language films to win director awards? Li An frankly admits: Judges naturally bring their familiar language into the judging process.

[Li's Note: With 90% of judges being English-speaking majors, it's difficult to fairly evaluate subtitled films; Chinese-language films still face structural challenges in their bid for core awards.]

【.】

Li An's interview sparked a flurry of analysis and reports from analysts on various forums, and Hollywood entered the final stage of its awards season.

Meanwhile, the box office of "CJ7" opened, exceeding 12 million yuan, close to that of "Assembly" on its opening day, causing a stir in the industry.

Since "Assembly" garnered 240 million yuan at the box office, if "CJ7" maintains this momentum, wouldn't it be another contender for 200 million yuan at the box office?

Many people recalled Wu Chen's box office prediction of around 200 million a few days ago, and sighed with regret.

"Wu Chen really has a good eye."

"China Film Group made a fortune again, but I heard the Xiang family is starting to gossip about Stephen Chow again!"

"."

While the industry was still analyzing the Oscar nomination probability of "Black Peony" and the box office of "CJ7", a set of pictures appeared in the picture posting section of the "Hong Kong Discussion Forum" on Golden Network.

At first, people thought it was a photoshopped image, but the continuous stream of images over two days, especially the incredibly realistic blush on the face, quickly went viral nationwide. The Hong Kong victim didn't immediately come forward, but the first mainland victim did.

Beijing Film Studio, the crew of the film "Mei Lanfang".

When Chen Kaige saw the names mentioned in today's news, he suddenly felt dizzy and fell to the ground without even sitting up straight.

"Old Chen! Old Chen!"

"Director Chen!"

"Quick, help Director Chen up!"

Upon seeing this, the crew was thrown into chaos. Chen Hong even carelessly threw the documents on the ground and rushed over. Everyone helped Chen Kaige stand up straight.

"Let's call 120. Director Chen was in the hospital recently, and I don't think his body can take it," someone shouted.

Zhang Ziyi and Li Ming exchanged a glance and hurried over as well.

The news quickly reached China Film Group, and the secretary hurriedly reported it to Han Sanping.

"What? You said Director Chen fainted on set?" Han Sanping was stunned. There had been too much good news lately, and he didn't react at first.

"How is the situation now?"

"Producer Chen said there are no problems for the time being. Director Chen probably just hasn't figured it out yet," the secretary explained.

This wasn't the first time Chen Kaige had fainted on set. In December, he nearly had a heart attack and was hospitalized because of the high likelihood of filming going overtime, the need to reshoot a scene multiple times, and the fact that the scene was not to his liking.

"Which hospital is it? I'll come over there."

Han Sanping thought about it and decided to go and visit her. He also figured Mei Baojiu would be there too, and they would probably have to discuss some of Zhong Xintong's scenes.

The news of Han Sanping's crew "fainting" and being hospitalized spread quickly, after all, there were many media outlets stationed outside the Beijing Film Studio, and the news spread like wildfire.

"It can't be that bad, Director Chen," Ning Hao said incredulously over the phone. "The scenes involved can simply be deleted and reshot. Natural disasters and man-made calamities are unavoidable. It's not like Director Chen is short of investment."

"Perhaps 'Mei Lanfang' is very important to Director Chen."

"Now I see why. He almost had a heart attack a while ago, and now he's doing it again."

After Wu Chen mentioned it, Ning Hao seemed to understand that Chen Kaige probably had high hopes for "Mei Lanfang".

He spent almost his entire life on set, and even the slightest disturbance consumed a lot of his energy, not to mention anything that might affect the quality of the film.

"The Hong Kong entertainment industry will be unable to recover for several years now."

Wu Chen smiled upon hearing this and didn't say anything more.

Hong Kong hasn't recovered in just a few years, has it?
This has cost a generation its life.

After reminiscing, Ning Hao suddenly changed the subject: "By the way, do you have any more resources? Send them to me in a package later."

"what?"

"Your sister-in-law deleted everything from my computer this morning."

"."

(End of this chapter)