Reborn, my online friend is the real me.

Lionsgate acted faster than Su Yu had anticipated. Casey was probably swayed by Su Yu's offer of "Lionsgate not investing money but only taking a cut"; no, what swayed him was the script for "Buried Alive".

Casey later told Su Yu that the night he finished reading "Buried," he sat in his study and smoked half a pack of cigarettes, with only one thought running through his mind: How did this kid come up with that?

One person, one coffin, one cell phone, ninety minutes.

No need for sets, special effects, extras, or even complicated lighting setups.

With a budget of two million US dollars, Lionsgate contributed 30%, and Su Yu covered the rest himself. Lionsgate had calculated that even if the film flopped at the box office, they could still recoup their costs by selling the TV and DVD rights.

On the night the photographer was hired, Su Yu met Donnie in his hotel room.

Donnie was thinner than Su Yu had imagined, with sunken cheeks, prominent cheekbones, and deep-set eyes.

His first words to Su Yu were, "You're the director who won the Golden Bear at nineteen?"

Su Yu nodded, and Donnie looked him up and down. "You look younger than forty."

Downey's way of speaking suited this person well. The two chatted for a while, and Downey said that the Hollywood media was not optimistic about his role in "Iron Man," Marvel was still raising money, and his salary was only $50.

David sat down next to him and pushed the script of "Buried Alive" in front of Donnie. Su Yu leaned back in his chair and watched Donnie open the script.

He read quickly, his eyes scanning the pages; soon after, Donnie closed the script and looked up at Su Yu.

"This role, is it just me? From beginning to end? Staying in a coffin for ninety minutes?"

"Yes, you're all alone. A coffin, a cell phone, and ninety minutes."

Donnie leaned back in his chair, his Adam's apple bobbing, then he looked down at Su Yu, the curve of his lips a mixture of a smile and self-mockery: "I'll take it, no matter the price."

Su Yu picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. "Three hundred thousand US dollars."

Donnie paused for a moment, then spread his hands, smiled at Su Yu, and said, "Three hundred thousand US dollars is enough for me to pay two years' rent."

Su Yu pulled another script from his briefcase; the title was "The Lone Agent."

"Tony, here's this too; take a look." Donnie took it and flipped through it, pausing for a long time on each page this time. When he saw the description of the action scene, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Downey closed the script and placed it on top of "Buried Alive," the two scripts stacked together; his gaze towards Su Yu was serious.

"I've also taken this script. The male lead is a retired special agent, a down-on-his-luck middle-aged man, and a withdrawn and reclusive person, which perfectly matches my age."

He glanced down at himself, the self-mockery growing stronger than before: "Look at myself now, don't I look like it?"

Su Yu looked at him; Donnie was telling the truth. He was in that state right now, a melancholic wanderer, full of stories, like someone who had been punched countless times by the world but hadn't fallen yet.

"The salary for 'The Man from Nowhere' is one million US dollars." Su Yu stated the number confidently, and Donnie nodded without any hesitation.

Su Yu added that he promised to continue filming after he finished "Iron Man".

Su Yu knew that even a million dollars wouldn't be enough to secure a cameo role for him when "Iron Man" became a huge hit next year, so giving him more now was a way to befriend this person.

......

On December 12, 2006, filming for "Buried Alive" began quietly.

Su Yu stood at the door, watching the staff move the prop coffin.

The prop master worked overtime for several days in a row to wait for this coffin.

Su Yu squatted down next to the coffin and tapped the wooden board with his finger. It was solid and made a dull sound. He asked the prop master to thin the board a little, because he was afraid that if it was too thick, the sound of the tapping would not be recorded.

Downey changed into his costume: a white shirt, black trousers, and an old watch on his wrist.

He stood beside the coffin, glanced down at the dark space, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

Su Yu walked up to him and handed him the Nokia phone—a prop phone.

Su Yu looked into Downey's eyes through the vents in the cover and smirked: "If you lock it up, I'll make a documentary about you, 'Iron Man Trapped in a Coffin'."

Donnie paused for a moment, then laughed, swore, and gave a thumbs up.

Su Yu stood up and stepped back behind the monitor. Thomas, the cameraman, was already in position, the camera mounted on the slide rail, the lens aimed at Donnie's face through the gap in the coffin lid.

Lighting technician Lao Chen dimmed an LED light to its lowest setting, casting a cool white light on the inner wall of the coffin.

Everything was ready, and the shed fell silent, so quiet that you could hear the hissing of the lamp filaments heating up.

Su Yu said into the walkie-talkie, "Quiet, recording begins."

Downey closed his eyes in the coffin, took a deep breath, and opened them. The slight trembling of his lips wasn't acting; the temperature in the Los Angeles studio in January was no more than ten degrees Celsius.

Su Yu looked at Donnie's face on the screen. He had never seen that expression of confusion, fear, despair, and yet a hint of resentment in any movie.

That was Donnie's own thing, something he earned by trading away his lows over the past few years.

Su Yu took a deep breath and shouted two words: "Begin."

.....

When not filming, Su Yu's biggest pastime is browsing domestic entertainment news.

It's not that he cares too much about gossip, it's just that the film set was too boring.

The photography studio was converted from an old warehouse, and the soundproofing cotton trapped all the sound inside, like an upside-down pot.

Downey lay in the coffin, the lighting technician was adjusting the lights, the sound engineer was adjusting the levels, everyone was busy with their own things, only Su Yu sat behind the monitor feeling idle, because Downey's acting didn't need his guidance.

The movie "Curse of the Golden Flower" is currently showing in China, and news notifications keep popping up on my computer; there's no escaping them.

The box office was high, so high that it left all other films released at the same time far behind.

But as for word-of-mouth, Su Yu's lips slowly curled into a smile as he scrolled through the pages.

"The whole city is full of big-breasted girls..." He read the comment aloud, not very loudly, but Thomas next to him heard it, took off his headphones and asked him what it was.

"All you do is chrysanthemums and breasts. Is this how you fight a war? Are you going to siege a city by mowing down people? Where are your weapons? No wonder you can't win!" Su Yu muttered another comment.

The plausibility of the plot of "Curse of the Golden Flower" has been seriously questioned. The media used the term "three bad movies" to describe "The Promise", "The Banquet" and "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Su Yu laughed out loud when he saw the word, but then felt a little sad.

Three big directors, three big productions, so much money spent, so many stars hired, and in the end, netizens summed it up in just three words.

Zhang Yimou was coerced by Zhang Weiping. Su Yu knew this from his previous life, and now, seeing the analytical articles in the news, he felt that the writers of those articles remembered it even better than he did from his previous life.

Su Yu put down his computer and looked at Donnie's face on the monitor. Suddenly, he felt that making movies was quite interesting.

Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat—this saying applies equally to the film industry.