Run, Best Actor!

"You big liar!"

After the meeting, Yang Mi naturally went to Liu Taile's room.

Oh, the two weren't exactly alone, because their respective assistants, Sun Ting and Liu Yuning, were also there.

After all, Yang Mi still has a "boyfriend" and needs to avoid suspicion.

As soon as she entered the house, Yang Mi scolded Liu Taile.

"Honey, who did I fool?"

Liu Taile looked completely innocent. "What makes you say that?"

Don't think I can't tell.

Yang Mi said with a smug look, "You, and that screenwriter Li Yi you brought, you two were obviously working together to fool Guo Jingming into agreeing to revise the script according to your ideas."

"Hey, Honey, you're so smart, you figured it out."

Liu Taile didn't bother to hide it from her and admitted it directly, "Besides, Sister Mi, you've been cooperating with us, haven't you?"

"Mainly, I also wanted the plot of this movie to be relatively logically coherent."

As she spoke, Yang Mi gave a disgusted look, "Do you know how painful it is to read those empty and meaningless narration lines?"

Although it was my own choice at first, I do have some regrets about it privately.

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuning, who had been silent, suddenly glanced at Yang Mi with surprise, seemingly not expecting her to say such a thing.

Liu Taiyue gave him a subtle glare, and Liu Yuning immediately returned an apologetic smile.

Clearly, Liu Yuning had also been influenced by the rumors circulating in the market, and thought that Yang Mi was just a popular actress.

Otherwise, aside from newcomers like them who don't have many options, how many veteran actors would choose a trashy script like "Tiny Times"?

But it seems that Yang Mi still wants to be a normal actress.

That's true, after all, she just won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress, so she has her own pursuit of acting.

Moreover, someone as shrewd as his cousin Liu Taile wouldn't be attracted to a woman who's all looks and no brains.

"Actually, the fact that Li Yi and I were able to make our plan work was thanks to Guo Jingming's lack of control over his own work."

Liu Taile said slowly.

"ah?!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuning's mouth dropped open in surprise. "No way, isn't this a movie adapted from his own novel? How could he lack control over it?"

"Because he plagiarized this story."

Yang Mi shrugged, then complained, "The plot of the first 'Tiny Times' movie is so similar to the Hollywood film 'The Devil Wears Prada'!"

As artists, it is our duty to regularly watch classic films and television shows to accumulate industry experience.

So even though Yang Mi is usually extremely busy, whenever she has free time, she either goes to the gym or watches the works of her peers in the industry to "recharge" herself.

How could Yang Mi miss out on a world-renowned film like "The Devil Wears Prada," especially one with a world-famous female lead?

In fact, she had watched the movie more than once, and when the first novel of "Tiny Times" was published, she realized the connection between the two.

Clearly, perhaps because domestic works are easily identified as "borrowing," Guo Jingming simply turned his attention to foreign works.

In the original timeline, after the release of the first "Tiny Times" film, some netizens pointed out that the protagonist Lin Xiao's work at a fashion magazine, the description of her workplace environment, and even the character "Chongguang" were highly similar to the film "The Devil Wears Prada," suggesting plagiarism.

In response, Guo Jingming stated that mentioning fashion elements in modern novels is unavoidable, and that netizens were viewing his work with prejudice.

Later, some commentators compared the "Tiny Times" series with the American TV series "Gossip Girl," arguing that the two had striking similarities in depicting the lives of wealthy second-generation students from top universities, extravagant parties, and melodramatic romantic entanglements, calling "Tiny Times" the "Chinese version of 'Gossip Girl.'"

The controversy surrounding the "Tiny Times" series is largely overshadowed by the plagiarism lawsuits filed by Guo Jingming and his associates in their early years.

As early as 2003, writer Zhuang Yu sued Guo Xiaosi for plagiarizing his work "Inside and Outside the Circle" with his novel "How Many Flowers Fall in Dreams".

In 2006, the Yanjing Higher People's Court upheld the original verdict and found Guo Xiaosi guilty of plagiarism, ordering him to pay damages and issue a public apology.

However, Guo Jingming only compensated the other party for their economic losses at the time, but refused to issue a public apology.

This incident became a major stain on his personal reputation and has long affected public opinion on his subsequent works.

After the release of the original "Tiny Times" movie, not only was the movie plot accused of plagiarism, but the theme song "Time Boils the Rain" was also accused of having a melody that was almost identical to the song "Windmill" by Japanese singer Hitoto Yo, which triggered a plagiarism controversy.

Although the publicity team claimed that the copyright belonged to Tianyu Media and that Guo Jingming was only responsible for writing the lyrics, the public still viewed this as a continuation of his "plagiarism" label.

It is clear that Guo Jingming's plagiarism is a common practice.

Returning to the production team meeting just now, why was Guo Jingming, the original author, director, and screenwriter, stumped by a question about the motivation of a character he created?

There is only one answer: this story is just a repackaged version of the original, so the core of the story is fragmented, the character settings are fabricated, and the whole story is completely untenable.

This author simply doesn't understand the characters he created!

The Devil Wears Prada was released in 2006, and in China it was released on February 27, 2007.

Guo Jingming then followed suit, copying the film's premise, and in November 2007, he recreated the story as "Tiny Times," which was serialized in the magazine "Zui Xiao Shuo."

Although "The Devil Wears Prada" is based on a novel, Guo Jingming chose to recreate the more influential film.

However, "Tiny Times" is a novel, and the two are vastly different in scale compared to the film.

Therefore, Guo Jingming chose to "benchmark" against the classic 1998 American TV series "Sex and the City", and brought the four New York girls to Shanghai, thus creating the so-called "Tiny Times Sisters".

That's right, not the recent "Gossip Girl," but the much older "Sex and the City."

The only question is why "Tiny Times," a universally acknowledged terrible film, has become the most memorable representative of bad films in China.

Even more than a decade later, many people still defended this terrible movie, saying that it was a very good film.

They have been particularly successful in business.

The answer to the question is actually quite simple.

Because "Tiny Times" did indeed plagiarize, and the audience who like this movie are essentially those who like the external settings of classic films and television shows like "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Sex and the City".

Of course, even if the plagiarism is proven, if people criticize him, he will still stubbornly retort that it is a successful localization adaptation in China.

But why doesn't anyone criticize "iPartment" as bad?

It's undeniable that the "iPartment" series plagiarized American sitcoms like "Friends," "How I Met Your Mother," and "The Big Bang Theory."

Many stories didn't even change the original setting, such as the episode about the cockroach rat.

But many people still love "iPartment" deeply, saying it represents their youth.

It's still thanks to the screenwriter Wang Yuan and director Wei Zheng of "iPartment" that, although they did plagiarize the skin of those American dramas, they really did a great job of adapting the core story into a Chinese local style.

Many of the stories feel like they happen to everyone, which is why they resonate with so many viewers.

Guo Jingming, on the other hand, didn't even copy properly, which led to the fundamental rottenness of "Tiny Times"!

Lin Xiao, the character he created, messes everything up, but never grows up.

And then there's Nan Xiang, who, as mentioned before, was created to embody his malice.

But even though they're both poor, compare Chen Meijia from "iPartment" to her. She's incredibly clumsy and constantly messes things up, yet she still manages to find new jobs and her life isn't so bad.

Therefore, portraying the poor as bad people reflects Guo Xiaosi's own tendency to despise the poor and love the rich, and his deep-seated malice towards the poor.

In fact, he wasn't the only one; many Chinese filmmakers have unknowingly blurred the lines between poverty and evil.

In their worldview, poor people who want to turn their lives around and succeed must do bad things.

Therefore, poor people will eventually turn bad.

On the contrary, wealthy people who initially harbor ill intentions usually realize their mistakes after experiencing the ways of the world and end up with a good outcome.

Take Chen Sicheng's "The Love Story of Yanjing" for example. Isn't Shi Xiaomeng ultimately turned bad in order to get ahead?

The male protagonist, Cheng Feng, was originally an unscrupulous rich second-generation who was good for nothing, but in the end, he was redeemed.

This is the current reality of the Chinese entertainment industry.

Poverty is the original sin.

Of course, this is not what the Chinese entertainment industry is really like.

Instead, after the reform and opening up, many film and television professionals gradually degenerated due to the large influx of film and television works from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea.

Not only have they been out of touch with the people for too long, but they also consider hard work a disgrace.

On a side note, why did the South Korean film "Parasite," a story set in East Asia, win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director in the original timeline and the future?

Because that's how Westerners imagine the East to be.

In reality, even if the entire cast of the movie were replaced with Europeans and Americans, it wouldn't feel out of place at all.

Because that core is not Eastern!

That movie is a typical example of blurring the lines between poverty and evil.

The poor family in the story is actually a bad guy.

Even those at the bottom of society spend their days figuring out how to cheat and swindle, rather than trying to turn their lives around through hard work and honest means.

The ending is even more classic, because the protagonist's father suffers a mental breakdown after seeing the rich people look down on them, and even kills them in a fit of rage.

They've been reduced to being parasites on others, yet they still can't stand being looked down upon.

Poverty is not the original sin; having impure thoughts is.

Guo Jingming also shares this mentality.

Looking at himself and his various works, what is reflected is his values ​​that have long been distorted.

Normally speaking, the script is the foundation of a play!

It is the logical foundation of the entire story. The script helps the director find the story and helps the actors find the characters. In drama studies, a qualified film or television drama must go through at least three stages of creation.

Screenwriting, the first script;

Director, second script;

The actors, the third presentation.

Could it be placed in the "Tiny Times" series?

The screenwriters were unqualified even at the most basic level, and going back further, the original novels weren't very good either.

What's even more disastrous is that the original author is also the screenwriter and director of the film...

It would be a miracle if an actor could perform well in such a disastrous situation!

Normally, a good actor can save a bad script.

But that would require a script with a rating of 40 or 50, and good actors like Nicolas Cage and Jin Shijie, to pull a mediocre bad movie up to the passing grade of 60.

However, the current "Tiny Times" production team does not meet either of these conditions.

The first movie script was at most a 40-point script;

The second part was canceled outright, and to be fair, neither part even reached a score of 20.

As for the current cast, veteran actor Wang Lin is passable, and Liu Taile considers himself to be equally good.

Unfortunately, neither of them were the core actors in this film series.

The core of the "Tiny Times" series is still the four "Tiny Times Sisters".

So, the key to making the "Tiny Times" series a surgical upgrade and improving the film lies in making the roles of these four characters stand out.

Today's crew meeting saw Liu Taile, Li Yi, and Yang Mi, who voluntarily joined midway through the production, work together seamlessly to persuade Guo Jingming to drastically change the character of Nan Xiang.

The original "good girl" gradually turned evil, revealing her true nature, which was originally innocent but was actually cunning.

Because Guo Jingming harbored deep-seated malice towards this character, it was the easiest role to change.

For the three characters that followed, each adaptation was a tough battle.

After all, Guo Jingming isn't stupid.

If I move one more thing, I expect that will make him realize what's happening.

Guo Jingming is not a qualified director, so people like him care most about their absolute leadership position on set.

Even as a representative of the investors and a film producer, Chai Zhiping, the "godmother of Taiwanese idol dramas," could not challenge his directorial position in his production team.

Therefore, it is crucial to prevent him from feeling that he has lost "control" over his work.

"So, Xiao Le, what's your original plan for next? Whose scenes are you going to change?"

Yang Mi asked curiously, "Lin Xiao, or Gu Li?"

"Why couldn't it be Tang Wanru?"

Liu Taile smiled and asked in return.

"Come on, don't give me that!"

Yang Mi raised her finger and pointed at him twice, "Compared to Lin Xiao and Guo Caijie, Tang Wanru's scenes actually have little impact on the main plot of the movie."

That role is more like a tradition in Taiwanese idol dramas, where there must be someone in a group who acts as the clown.

and……"

As she spoke, Yang Mi's lips curled into a sly smile, making her look like a little fox. "Actually, Lin Xiao and Gu Li's scenes are two sides of the same coin. If you change one of them, the other's scenes will also be changed accordingly. So, what you want to change next is Gu Li's scenes, right?"

"My dearest friend, Sister Honey, truly understands me."

Liu Taile looked at Yang Mi with admiration and said slowly, "That's right, that's it. Our next target is Gu Li."

After all, the character I play is Gu Yuan, and my on-screen partner in the movie is Gu Li.

As mentioned earlier, although Lin Xiao is the female lead in the "Tiny Times" series, the most outstanding character is Gu Li.

Even though this character is also a lunatic.

Like Guo Jingming himself, he is still a snob and a rich person at heart.

Don't mention that she's been helping the other three sisters solve their problems.

That's only on the surface.

Because, in essence, all those problems were caused by Gu Li!