Huayu: Serious director, who's eavesdropping on your thoughts?

"Whoosh!"

A spotlight shone on Zhao Huaiyuan.

Within the pillar of light.

Zhao Huaiyuan took a step forward, walking step by step towards the front row.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

His footsteps were light and unhurried, and the entire room was unusually quiet, with only the sound of his footsteps on the floor remaining.

Immediately following was a surge of suppressed, low gasps of surprise, like a tidal wave.

"That's Zhao Huaiyuan? I know him, he's the guy who showed off in the first class of freshmen."

"A freshman? How is that possible? With that kind of aura, I would believe you if you said he was some worldly-wise overseas-returned director."

"My God, so handsome, and so young? He looks only seventeen or eighteen!"

..

Zhao Xiaoyu was so excited that she was trembling all over. She desperately pinched Peng Xiaohua's hand, and just as she was about to say something, the other party covered her hand and gestured towards the leaders' seat.

The two of them had just finished their act when Zhao Xiaoyu became emotional and was about to blurt out, "That's my brother! That really is my brother!" Luckily, she was stopped, or she would have been exposed.

Zhao Xiaoyu realized what was happening and nodded emphatically. Her eyes reddened with pride. Her younger brother had grown up and was truly successful!

Zhang Jian on the second floor stared wide-eyed, his mouth slightly agape. How... how could this be?

Jiang Yan was stunned, and Guo Lili was dumbfounded.

Whether they knew each other or not, everyone fell silent at that moment.

In the guest seats.

Zhang Yimou turned his head and exchanged a glance with Chen Kaige beside him. Both of them saw a hint of surprise in each other's eyes.

indeed.

Faced with the gaze of thousands of people, how many people can remain so calm and composed?

A genius!

In the front row, the head of the international judging panel, Pierre Reis, shrugged with a slight smile on his lips.

Youth often means naivety, and this is just the beginning of another farce.

Zhao Huaiyuan ignored everything around him.

He walked step by step to the front of the stage.

As he passed the mentors' table, he stopped, nodded to Tian Zhuangzhuang, and expressed his gratitude.

Tian Zhuangzhuang grinned and made a cheering gesture.

"Hello Dean, hello teachers." Zhao Huaiyuan greeted Dean Zhang Huijun and Professor Yi Zhong.

Although the film was shelved and he suffered injustice, he still chose to give the Academy ample face.

Instead of publicly proclaiming things like "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river."

He's not stupid. If he did that, it would be incredibly immature, and he'd never be able to get along with anyone again.

Zhang Huijun's tense nerves instantly relaxed.

To be honest, he was really afraid that the kid was young and impetuous and would embarrass him in front of everyone.

Seeing how sensible the other person was at that moment, the slight resentment in my heart instantly disappeared, leaving only admiration.

The prejudice that the school's senior management had against Zhao Huaiyuan was also swept away.

"Is 'The Sound Engineer' your film?" Han Sanping asked.

"Yes, Mr. Han," Zhao Huaiyuan replied calmly.

"Did you produce the film yourself?"

"I was the director, screenwriter, and editor."

"good!"

Han Sanping didn't waste any more words.

Dean Zhang waved towards the second-floor screening room, signaling for the screening to begin immediately.

At a command.

The lights in the venue were turned off, plunging the entire place into darkness.

The film begins.

There was no build-up, no long takes, and no nonsensical narration.

Only narrative.

The camera pulls back.

A beautiful figure wearing sunglasses and holding a guide cane appeared in the stairwell.

The camera zooms in for a close-up.

"Whoosh!"

The audience erupted in excitement, especially the students from the Beijing Film Academy.

"Holy crap! Is that Liu Yifei?"

"Is it really Liu Yifei from the 02 acting class? When did she film a short film?"

"Is she playing a blind person? That's quite a contrast!"

on the screen.

Liu Yifei plays a pianist who, after losing the competition, seeks more sympathy and tips.

He put on a special contact lens, pretended to be a blind sound engineer, and wandered around the city.

The stark contrast between that angelic face and voyeuristic desire...

Through the director's precise use of subjective camera angles, the scene was perfectly presented to nearly a thousand viewers.

at the same time.

Side of the guest seating area.

Chen Jinfei and Liu Xiaoli were completely taken aback.

They subconsciously looked at Liu Yifei, who was sitting obediently to the side.

"Sissi...when...when was this taken?" Liu Xiaoli exclaimed in shock.

She was genuinely surprised because her daughter spent most of her time filming in Tianjin and only returned to school for a few days at a time.

When did he secretly film such a daring movie behind her back?

Liu Yifei had already reverted to her obedient daughter demeanor, facing the questioning gazes of her mother and godfather, as well as the surrounding whispers.

She shrank back somewhat awkwardly, lowered her head and remained silent, pretending to tidy her clothes.

On the big screen.

The cinematography is extremely sharp, the plot unfolds layer by layer, and the pace is very fast.

The fifth minute.

Liu Yifei knocked on the door of a villa.

Below the stage, Chen Jinfei looked bewildered. Wasn't this the villa he owned in Shunyi?

Liu Xiaoli was utterly shocked. It was bad enough that her precious daughter was filming behind her back, but she had even taken several boys back to her house to film while the adults were away.

Alarm bells rang in her mind, and she felt a sense of crisis, like her carefully nurtured cabbage being eaten by a pig and she was still helping the pig count its money.

You, Zhao Huaiyuan!

How dare you trick my daughter Qianqian into doing something like this! I'll settle the score with you later!

On the big screen.

The man who opened the door had a fierce look in his eyes.

"I think you've got it wrong." The man tried to close the door.

"No, it was your wife who made the reservation." Liu Yifei blocked the door with his guide cane.

The man hesitated for a moment, looked her up and down a few times, and then let her in.

She walked into the living room.

The scene cuts to an indoor setting, where a corpse lies on the ground in front of her, surrounded by blood.

The audience gasped.

She could only pretend nothing was wrong, walk to the piano, sit down, and begin tuning it.

But the next second...

The man appeared silently behind Liu Yifei, holding a nail gun with the muzzle pointed directly at the back of her snow-white neck.

She has to pretend!

We must pretend we can't see anything, right under the killer's nose!

This extreme tension, dancing on the edge of death, made the nearly one thousand audience members hold their breath.

A stark contrast.

A completely different narrative approach.

A luxurious apartment, beautiful piano music, but hidden behind it all lies a sordid reality of murder and deception; outwardly elegant, inwardly despicable.

On one side, a blind girl, pure as an angel, is playing the piano; on the other side, there are bloody corpses and a murderer lurking in the shadows behind them.

Everything that happened was incredibly shocking!

Off the court, a USC student, who had been chewing gum with an arrogant expression, suddenly sat up straight, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"High Concept..."

As an elite student nurtured by USC, he understood all too well what this shot meant.

This is textbook-level scene direction!

This kind of psychological thriller created by exploiting information asymmetry doesn't feel like something a freshman would do; it feels like something a seasoned veteran who's been working in Hollywood for years would produce!

How is that possible?

He doesn't believe it!

Pierre Reiss's relaxed demeanor vanished; he frowned, his expression unusually grave.

Han Sanping tapped the armrest lightly with his fingers, his eyes growing brighter and brighter, clearly very satisfied with the film.

Narrative! Narrative! It's still fucking narrative!

This is exactly what Chinese cinema needs most right now!

The film has ended.

The entire standard display hall fell into a state of collective silence.

This is no exaggeration. Zhao Huaiyuan still vaguely remembers the shock he felt when he first saw Hollywood blockbusters, such as Terminator and Titanic, in his previous life when he was young.

Although The Sound Engineer is a low-budget production, it's not much less stimulating in terms of sensory experience.

Followed by.

"Whoosh!"

Applause erupted and instantly filled the entire venue.

"Awesome!"

I don't know who shouted first, but then a huge cheer erupted.

The lights came on.

The host walked onto the stage with a microphone. Anyone who can host in such a setting naturally has a keen eye for detail.

He had already learned of the attitude of the leaders present.

Zhao Huaiyuan went on stage to answer questions from the main creators.

"Director Zhao, your video was excellent, and I think the audience's reaction speaks for itself. I have a few questions for you."

The host glanced at the foreigners in the audience and deliberately raised his voice.

"Okay, go ahead."

"I noticed that the film has very strong elements of commercial genre films, and just now Mr. Pierre also mentioned his views on the narrative of suffering."

Now, in front of the entire school and so many senior figures, what are your thoughts on these viewpoints as the director?

This is a very pointed question, directly bringing the previous conflict to the forefront.

The entire room fell silent instantly, and everyone looked at Zhao Huaiyuan, wanting to see how he would respond.

offstage.

An American student suddenly stood up, very excited:

"You liar! You're lying!..."

Zhao Huaiyuan interrupted him, "Please speak Mandarin on our turf!"

The American students had no choice but to switch to broken Chinese:

"You clumsy liar, this is impossible! Such sophisticated scene direction, such textbook-level seamless editing, could never have been done by a freshman. You're lying! There must be a sophisticated team behind this, maybe even a Hollywood-level ghostwriter!"

Faced with the doubts, Zhao Huaiyuan smiled calmly.

"I refuse to answer this stupid question. Please sit down."

The American student was stunned. He opened his mouth, angrily swung his fist in the air to express his dissatisfaction, but in the end he could only sit down.

Pierre Reiss could no longer remain seated; he still spoke in that sarcastic tone:

"The technique is indeed very skillful, but this is just a toy imitating Hollywood. You have completely deviated from the sense of pain in your Chinese films and have not shown the originality that you should have. I'm sorry, I cannot give an award to this soulless film."

"Pristine? Soul?" Zhao Huaiyuan's eyes suddenly sharpened.

"Mr. Pierre, is what you mean by 'soul' simply those Eastern wonders that appeal to the Western sense of the exotic?"

"Mr. Pierre, if I may ask, why is it that in the various selection events held in your West, the winning Chinese works always sound the same?"

You'll reward anyone who exposes poverty!

You applaud anything that depicts ignorance!

You hailed anyone who showed us our flaws as an art master!

It's like you're promoting squinty eyes as a sign of sophistication on the runway while using blonde, blue-eyed beauties in Hollywood blockbusters.

This kind of double standard, if I may be so bold, is utterly hypocritical.

The entire room fell into a deathly silence, and Pierre's expression changed drastically.

Zhao Huaiyuan stepped forward, his voice powerful and resonant throughout the venue:

"You don't really like those works; you're just using this aesthetic of ugliness to satisfy your stereotypes about the East!"

You want to use these trophies to tell the world, look, they are still backward, barbaric, and need our help.

You keep industry, logic, and modernity for yourselves, while imposing backwardness, ignorance, and curiosity on us.

This isn't artistic standard, this is hegemony!

"If you don't act ugly, you can't win an award; if you don't play the victim, you have no soul..."

Zhao Huaiyuan took a deep breath, his voice suddenly rising in pitch, his imposing manner carrying throughout every corner of the venue:

"Then, I'd rather not accept this award!"

Wow!

A commotion erupted in the audience, with many clenching their fists, feeling their blood boil and their scalps tingle.

These words resonated with countless Chinese people who had long suppressed their feelings!

That was so satisfying!

Zhao Huaiyuan surveyed the entire audience, his gaze sweeping across everyone, and uttered a bold statement:

"Today, The Sound Engineer is just the beginning. I want to tell the world that Chinese cinema refuses to be defined! Chinese cinema is not without its sword!"

In this era, Chinese cinema is invincible!

Quiet.

After a deathly silence.

"good!!"

A loud shout shattered the silence.

Han Sanping slapped his thigh, his face flushed with excitement, and led the others to stand up and applaud.

"Well said! With me, we are invincible! This is the backbone that Chinese cinema should have, this is the confidence that Chinese filmmakers should possess! If all Chinese filmmakers were like this, how dare Hollywood!"

Then, like a domino effect, it all started.

Zhang Yimou exclaimed, "The younger generation is truly formidable!" He then stood up and applauded.

Celebrity alumni such as Xu Jinglei and Huang Lei stood up, and the nearly one thousand audience members below the stage erupted in cheers.

"Zhao Huaiyuan is awesome! Chinese cinema is awesome!"

The applause was thunderous and lasted for a long time.

Amidst the clamor, Zhao Huaiyuan stood under the spotlight, becoming the sole focus of the entire event.

Sitting in the audience, Liu Yifei looked at the radiant young man on the stage.

"I knew it..." A slight smile played on her lips, her voice drowned out by the cheers, "I knew you could do it."