Run, Best Actor!

November slowly arrived.

The shockwaves from the establishment of Tianyi Entertainment to the film and television industry have yet to subside.

On this day, many people began to pay attention to Youku.com.

Nothing more than today is the release date of the short film "The Thinker in a Wheelchair"!

Starting in mid-September, The Thinker released its first related trailer on Youku.com, which was actually the mockumentary "Life After the Race," informing the public that Liu Taile, an athlete, had crossed over and become an actor.

Then at the end of September, the official trailer for "The Thinker" was released, which was a clip of "The Thinker" accompanied by the "Chopstick Brothers'" cover of "The Brightest Star Under the Night Sky".

Then in mid-October, the second trailer for "The Thinker" was released, accompanied by "Galaxy Wandering" sung by Liu Taile.

This trailer reveals more content from the short film, specifically the scenes involving Zhang Yong and Li Gan tricking Wang Xiang.

The clips were quite funny, and the song was also quite nice. It was surprising that Liu Taile could actually sing.

I just don't understand what the theme of this short film is, and what it has to do with "Galaxy" or anything like that.

Then, on October 26, five days before the short film was released, the final trailer was released.

The documentary revealed Wang Xiang's past profession and the accident that left him disabled. It also announced that the full episode would be officially released on Youku.com at 10:00 AM on November 1st.

It was only then that netizens realized that the director and screenwriter of this short film were not the "Chopstick Brothers," but rather that the two of them were just actors.

The director of this short film is Guo Fan, and the screenwriter is Gong Ge'er. They previously directed a theatrical film called "Li Xianji's Adventures," which starred Xiao Fangzi.

It's surprising that a director who has made theatrical films would also make short films, and even collaborate with "Chopstick Brothers" and Liu Tai-le.

I don't know why.

Oh, what's even more astonishing is that Liu Taile is the executive producer and producer of this short film, and the production company is either Youku or his company, Jiale Media.

The fact that the athlete who had the accident at the Olympics actually filmed this short film at the end of August shows that he had indeed planned to cross over into this field.

I wonder how good this short film is?

Is the other party's foray into a new field just a game?

The answers will all be revealed in this upcoming short film.

So on November 1st, Youku.com specially organized an online live broadcast of "The Thinker in a Wheelchair" premiere on Youku.com, inviting the main creators of "The Thinker" to participate.

Liu Taile, Guo Fan, Gong Geer, Xiao Yang, Wang Taili, and Liu Yuning participated.

The host is Wang Cong, a contracted host with Youku.com.

This host, known in the entertainment industry as "Brother Cong," rose to fame last year for his guest appearance on "Xiaoshuo." In the past year or so, he has hosted several Youku self-produced programs, including "Youku Entertainment" and "Youku Celebrity Forum."

She is loved by many netizens for her down-to-earth hosting style and her very friendly smile.

"Welcome everyone to the live stream premiere of 'The Thinker in a Wheelchair,' I'm Wang Cong!"

At the start of the program, Wang Cong flashed his signature smile at the camera: "Today, I will be watching 'The Thinker in a Wheelchair' with the creators of 'The Thinker,' and they will share some interesting stories from the filming process."

First, let's welcome the creative team behind "The Thinker"—

Film director Guo Fan, screenwriter Gong Ge'er

The lead actors, Xiao Yang and Wang Taili, are also old friends of our Youku.com.

Liu Yuning, the singer of "The Wallfacer," the theme song for the film "The Thinker,"

Also present is Liu Taile, a film producer, distributor, and lead actor, and an internationally renowned athlete! Welcome everyone!

Each time she introduced someone, the cameraman would cut to that person, who would then wave to the camera.

When Liu Taile was finally introduced, the live stream chat exploded with comments, with a bunch of people spamming titles like "Taile," "Brother Le," and "Le Gang Leader."

Fortunately, Youku.com's bullet comments have now been changed to half-screen mode. If it were the previous full-screen mode, the characters would probably be completely obscured from the screen.

"There's still half an hour until the short film goes live. While we wait, why don't you all share some of the unique highlights of this film?"

Wang Cong suggested, "Let Director Guo go first. We know that Director Guo previously directed the theatrical film 'The Adventures of Li Xianji,' so why did you choose to direct this online short film this time?"

"I mainly wanted to give it a try."

Guo Fan began to speak slowly and deliberately, "Since the movie is about to be released online, I won't keep you in suspense any longer."

I'm sure many of you were wondering what the theme of our movie is.

There were two trailers before, which were essentially music videos for two songs: "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" and "Wandering in the Milky Way".

With stars and the Milky Way all around, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

"Well……"

Wang Cong thought for a moment, then hesitated and said, "I might think of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' a science fiction film. After all, stars and galaxies are too much of a science fiction theme... But, how could that be?"

As she spoke, she smiled shyly, as if she felt that her thoughts were too far-fetched.

But Guo Fan gave her a thumbs up in admiration, "That's right, you're absolutely right, it's a science fiction film! Our film, 'The Thinker in a Wheelchair,' is indeed a science fiction film."

"ah?!"

Wang Cong was taken aback. "A sci-fi film? A short movie! Really?!"

"Of course it's true."

Liu Taile laughed and said, "Director Guo has always been very interested in science fiction films, and I also wanted to try something different, so I asked Brother Gong to write a script with science fiction elements."

However, we were worried that if we made a theatrical film directly, people might not be able to accept it all at once, so we made a short film first and broadcast it on online video platforms.

On the one hand, it fulfills our dream of making a science fiction movie;

On the other hand, as Director Guo said, it's also about making a bold attempt to see how well the public accepts this subject matter.

"OMG!"

Wang Cong couldn't help but cover her mouth with her small hand, "This is really too crazy!"

Please forgive me for saying this, but it's truly unbelievable that a science fiction film would be made in mainland China.

"Don't even mention you, we were also incredibly shocked when we first found out the truth."

Xiao Yang suddenly interjected, "I really didn't expect a short film to be so big. Do you know how much this production ultimately cost?"

How many?

Wang Cong asked inquisitively.

"The total is over 1.9 million, nearly 2 million."

Guo Fan replied, "Most of it was spent on special effects. It only took about 1.2 million for a five or six-minute scene."

The other scenes, added together, only cost 700,000 yuan. Special effects for sci-fi films in China are truly expensive these days!

He spoke with emotion, and the live stream chat was flooded with comments like crazy.

"A domestically produced sci-fi short film?!", "Are you kidding me?", "Spending nearly two million to make a short film? Are you crazy?", "This is insane!"...