Global Film Emperor

Chapter 176 The Movie Begins

When he entered the venue, the audience was already full. Reporters were taking pictures with their cameras, and some of them had their flashes on, which were a little dazzling. Lu Ze squinted and bowed to the guests in the audience.

His seat was next to the screenwriter. In fact, Lu Ze didn't interact with the screenwriter much, and he hadn't seen him yesterday. After pulling out his chair and sitting down, the two smiled and nodded at each other without saying a word.

Then actresses Tang Juan and Xu Lu entered, and everyone was present. Xue Liyong seems to be preparing for his championship defense and cannot attend. Coach Song directly declined Liu Ying's invitation.

For him, attending a premiere and being photographed like a monkey is probably less enjoyable than beating up boxers at the Golden Tiger Boxing Gym.

Once everyone had arrived, the press conference officially began. Everyone sat up straight with serious expressions, and the reporters took out their recording tools and started taking notes.

"Welcome to the premiere of the film, The King of Fighters. On behalf of all the staff of The King of Fighters, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you all."

Today's premiere was open to the public, meaning tickets were sold to the general public, although only a few tickets were available, just over two hundred people. After hearing the emcee's words, they gave a very respectful pat on the back.

The emcee didn't say much, and directly handed the microphone to the producer, who was also the biggest investor. This CEO surnamed Chen was someone Lu Ze was meeting for the first time. Anyway, he spoke slowly and had to read from a script, which made the listeners sleepy. He had a very bossy demeanor.

After President Chen finished speaking, the microphone was handed to Liu Ying. It was clear that Liu Ying had a lot to say. Although he looked a bit like a bully, the atmosphere suddenly became warmer.

They got up from their seats, went to the large screen in the center of the stage, picked up the microphone and put it to their mouths.

"Hello everyone, I am Liu Ying, the director of 'The Boxer'. I am very happy to bring my twelfth film here today and share it with you."

The applause from the audience lasted for a long time, which was the best reward for Liu Ying. He was honored that he had not made a bad movie in all these years. The reputation he had built up over the years was enough to win the audience's applause for so long without them even having seen the work.

"This year marks my twentieth year in the film industry. I just remembered. Anyway, let's get back to the main topic. Filming officially started in July 2018 and wrapped up at the end of November, which was almost five months. Thinking about it, it really went by quickly. But we also have to thank our male lead. It was thanks to Lu Ze's condition that we were able to finish filming so quickly."

Liu Ying pointed at Lu Ze and couldn't help but praise him. Indeed, without Lu Ze, he expected to be fighting for survival during the National Day holiday.

Of course, even if Lu Ze is in top form, it's impossible to speed up the release of "The King of Fighters" by five months. However, if it's released in October, there will be plenty of time, and the film will be free in August and September.

The release date was very tight during the May Day holiday. It was only thanks to Liu Ying that two-thirds of the editors at Qingguo Studio worked overtime and stayed up all night that the film could have been released on May Day.

Lu Ze stood up, smiled and waved his hand, indicating that he didn't deserve the praise, but he wasn't too serious. It was as if he was joking with Liu Ying, expressing that he respected Liu Ying very much, dared not accept Liu Ying's praise, but had a very good relationship with Liu Ying, and was both a superior and a friend.

"So I have to say, Lu Ze is a good actor. I'm not praising him just because he's in my crew, but I only saw his ability and his serious and hardworking work ethic after he joined my crew. This film is very tiring, and I'm only referring to Lu Ze. If he says he's not tired, then no one else has the right to say they are, because before filming this film, he needed to gain weight, but he wasn't as fat as he is now."

Liu Ying is a very direct person. He bluntly said that Lu Ze was fat in front of everyone. Although this was obvious to everyone, they could clearly see Lu Ze's sexy double chin from below the stage.

Aside from the movie fans who bought tickets to attend the premiere, the people in the audience were too embarrassed to laugh. On the contrary, the crew members on stage were laughing even more heartily than the movie fans.

"You've all seen the previous trailers and promotional photos. This is the first time I'm going to answer fans' questions directly. Whether Lu Ze's muscles are real or not, seeing is believing. Check out our behind-the-scenes footage."

Liu Ying walked to the big screen, pulled out a chair and sat down. The screen lit up, showing a very short VCR featuring Lu Ze during his muscle-building phase.

"Straighten your legs! Good, beautiful! Keep it up! Don't make that hand shape, does it feel comfortable like that? Raise them normally, good, beautiful! Brother Sun, I really can't eat anymore, I need to take a break. I feel like throwing up whenever I see eggs now."

The camera kept cutting quickly, starting with Lu Ze's leg press, then bench press, clean and jerk, and even when he was learning to box with his coach, he was slammed to the ground by the coach, and he was eating egg whites with a pained expression. All of these were recorded by the camera.

Lu Ze sat in a chair, arms crossed, looking at his younger self in the video, then at his current fat belly, wobbling with every pat. He felt a mix of emotions, but mostly he wanted to cry but couldn't.

The guests in the audience were completely astonished. If this were a training video of an athlete, they wouldn't be surprised; athletes are all superhuman, who doesn't know that? But this is an actor, after all. To train like an athlete every day is hard to imagine. "Let's reveal Lu Ze's daily exercise, diet, and ultimate success."

The screen displayed a table showing a daily exercise load that would frighten the average person. Someone with a weak constitution would probably be exhausted in just a few days. The diet plan looked good, but what's with the 25 eggs a day?! Who could possibly handle that?!
It wasn't until the final comparison of Lu Ze before and after his workout that they finally confirmed that the video they had just seen wasn't staged. If it were staged, he wouldn't have achieved this level of fitness.

Figure 1: Lu Ze stands with his arms naturally down, shirtless, his belly smooth, with a series of data marked next to him: weight: 153 jin, body fat percentage: 16%, normal level.

The second picture shows a complete muscle man, raising his arms to show off his biceps. His arms are thick, his chest muscles are perfectly shaped, and his abdominal muscles are very obvious, with shark lines and mermaid lines. His muscles are well-developed but not stiff, and are streamlined. He is definitely a muscle man that women can't help but admire.

The data next to it was even more striking. Four months later: weight 178.4 pounds, body fat percentage 11%, lung capacity and so on, he could be described as a strong man.

Liu Ying was very satisfied with the guests' expressions; this was exactly the effect he wanted, and it was the key to generating buzz.

"Everyone saw it, which is why I said Lu Ze was exhausted, practically working himself to death. Another point I need to make is that this is a legitimate fighting action film. Lu Ze studied boxing, kickboxing, Sanda, judo, Muay Thai, and other combat techniques for four months, all to show a realistic boxing ring, not like what many people imagine—something like spinning 720-degree roundhouse kicks, jumping four or five meters in a row, yelling about some kind of special move, and occasionally throwing out a critical hit. Honestly, I, Liu Ying, wouldn't stoop to filming that kind of stuff; even I find it disgusting. Okay, now that we've talked about Lu Ze, let's talk about the others."

Liu Ying spoke for a long time, but his presentation was packed with valuable information, leaving the guests in awe. He praised everyone from the producer and screenwriter to the actors and crew, speaking for nearly twenty minutes before finally sitting down, satisfied, and letting the screenwriter and producer speak.

After these bigwigs finished speaking, it was time for the Q&A session. The actors weren't even given time to share their thoughts, otherwise the premiere would have been a really long and tedious affair.

Everyone's here to watch the movie, and we'll just take a look at you guys, the main cast members. Nobody's going to be so stupid as to pay to hear what you guys are saying.

As for the Q&A session, it was indeed more formal than any of the events Lu Ze had participated in before. How formal? The answers to the questions raised by the reporters were already sent to Lu Ze yesterday.

Lu Ze was looking at his phone in the hotel's underground parking lot, just to memorize this thing. He didn't need to answer word for word, just give the general idea so he wouldn't be at a loss for words later.

It was basically a bunch of mutual flattery, with everyone praising whatever they could find. The person who received the most praise was the director, and Lu Ze, who ended up blushing.

In a harmonious atmosphere, this segment finally came to a pleasant end. The emcee stood up and announced the start of the movie, the lights in the venue went out, and the screen lit up.

"A bucket of popcorn and a Coke, please."

Lu Bo hurriedly entered the screening room with his popcorn bucket. He had just finished get off work and the traffic was a bit congested. Just as he found his seat in a rush, the dragon logo appeared.

As an artsy young man, he didn't really want to watch any commercial inspirational films, but since this was Lu Ze's first film after winning the award, he, being the busybody he was, had to come and check it out.

As for why he, a film critic, didn't attend the event? It's because he's an amateur. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to invite him to the premiere of "Mr. Tree." Given the conditions of "Mr. Tree" at the time, it was indeed difficult to find a proper film critic.

He grabbed some popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth. He was actually hungry; he hadn't eaten since getting off work and had come straight to the movie theater. He was practically a fan of Lu Ze, since the tree had left a deep impression on him.

He had some expectations for "The Boxer," but not too high. He thought that even if an action movie had inspirational elements, it wouldn't have a very deep meaning.

"Lu Ze, I wonder if you can give me a surprise this time."

He muttered something to himself, grabbed some popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth, took a sip of cola, and then an image appeared on the screen.

The movie starts.

"."

(End of this chapter)