Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 204 The Director Crushed (Happy New Year!)

The Hundred Flowers Awards trophy sculpture is modern in style, depicting a graceful goddess holding flowers and gazing intently into the distance, symbolizing boundless expectations for today's film industry.

"Haven't you touched it enough yet? If you keep touching it, you'll wear this gold plating off completely!" Wu Yuchen said with a laugh.

Jiang Qinqin hugged her Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress trophy, stroked the three characters "Jiang Qinqin" printed on the base one last time, and then reluctantly placed it on the table. Three trophies were now casually placed on the table: one for Best Film at the Golden Rooster Awards, one for Best Director at the Golden Rooster Awards, and one for Best Feature Film at the Hundred Flowers Awards, all naturally belonging to Wu Yuchen.

Jiang Qinqin walked over to Wu Yuchen and patted his arm: "These are three major awards! Only you would be so indifferent."

Wu Yuchen laughed and said, "Hey, hey, don't talk nonsense. What do you mean by 'not caring'? I'm just unfazed by praise or criticism!"

"Good, good, you're a great director, you remain calm even if Mount Tai collapses before you!"

Wu Yuchen nodded in satisfaction and gently pinched Jiang Qinqin's nose: "Hmm, you're a promising student!"

Jiang Qinqin snorted twice: "Wait until you win an Oscar next year, then let's see if you're still all smug!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but pinch Jiang Qinqin's waist: "Heh, do you think winning an Oscar is as easy as you think? You think I can just win it whenever I want?"

Jiang Qinqin tilted her head back, blinking her eyelashes as she looked at Wu Yuchen: "You're so amazing, you've already got the Golden Bear and the Golden Lion, what can't you do?"

Jiang Qinqin certainly knew that she won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress because Wu Yuchen protected her; otherwise, how could she, at such a young age, have won the award so easily?

Putting aside other factors, take Xu Fan, who worked with Feng Xiaogang, for example. He's been in the industry for ten years and has acted in many well-known works, yet he's only received a Golden Rooster Award nomination and hasn't won a single acting award. Compared to Xu Fan, Jiang Qinqin is much luckier, having won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress less than two years after graduation!
Therefore, Jiang Qinqin now idolizes Wu Yuchen to the extreme. In addition, Wu Yuchen won the Berlin Golden Bear and the Venice Golden Lion this year, which made her admire Wu Yuchen's ability to win awards to the extreme. She felt that as long as he wanted to win, he could win!

Wu Yuchen chuckled and shook his head: "The three major European cinemas and the Oscars are completely different things. The rules, methods, and standards are all different. Many directors who have applied for nominations at the three major European cinemas don't even get nominated! If it were as easy as you think, why would I be preparing to leave for America so far in advance?"

After winning the Golden Rooster Award, Wu Yuchen will immediately fly to the United States for a public relations trip, which will last for five months, from mid-October until the end of voting next March!
Actually, if you really want to count, his American team had already started promoting his film "Amour" when he won the Venice Film Festival award. That's why everyone says Oscar campaigning is a marathon!
"They can't compare to you! My husband is the best, he'll definitely win you over!" Jiang Qinqin now blindly idolizes Wu Yuchen, and is even more confident than him.

Seeing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but laugh. Don't be fooled by how much importance is placed on the Oscars in China now. Many people know the great name of the Oscars, but if you ask them how the Oscars work, even many people in the film and television industry don't know. They just think it's a simple award, just like Jiang Qinqin at this moment.

Wu Yuchen could only pull Jiang Qinqin aside and give her a thorough explanation of the "democratic" voting model of the Oscars, which involves thousands of judges.

……

There are currently no direct flights from Fengtian City to the United States, so after receiving the Golden Rooster Award, Wu Yuchen had to return to Beijing and then travel to the United States from there.

As soon as Wu Yuchen landed in Beijing, he received an urgent phone call: "What? How could this happen?"

Seeing Wu Yuchen hang up the phone with a furrowed brow, Jiang Qinqin couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

"Director Li An has been hospitalized after suffering a shock."

"Huh?! What happened?!" Jiang Qinqin was also shocked upon hearing this.

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "I don't know, I have to go there and take a look now."

“I’ll go too,” Jiang Qinqin immediately said. After all, Li An had mentored her for a while, so they had some connection. Besides, she was genuinely curious—what kind of illness had suddenly struck?

At the hospital, Wu Yuchen looked at Li An lying on the hospital bed outside the ward. Li An was on a ventilator, and Wu Yuchen could see through the glass that his face was slightly dark.

At this moment, Wu Yuchen didn't want to go inside and disturb Li An, so he asked Jiang Zhiqiang beside him, "Producer Jiang, what's going on? He was fine when he called me yesterday."

Yesterday, Wu Yuchen won the Golden Rooster Award, and Li An even called Wu Yuchen to congratulate him. Wu Yuchen didn't seem to realize there was anything wrong with it.

Jiang Zhiqiang also looked dejected, with bloodshot eyes, indicating he hadn't rested at all. He said apologetically to Wu Yuchen, "Director Wu, I'm sorry, the crew has actually had a series of setbacks since filming started, but we didn't want you to worry, so we didn't tell you..."

The "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" project has also been very bumpy. At first, it encountered investors withdrawing their funding, and then Jet Li quit the role. It was thought that after Wu Yuchen became the new investor, things would turn around.

As a result, just as the crew arrived in Xinjiang to start filming, they encountered seven days of heavy rain, making it impossible to do anything. After the rain stopped, they encountered a desert storm. They had spent so much money to transport a large number of machines and people here, but they couldn't do anything. Li An was so anxious that he couldn't sleep and his lips were blistered.

After finally starting filming, another crew shooting on location got lost in the desert. The entire crew searched everywhere, and thankfully they were found on the third day. After filming for a few days, the crew encountered a flood on their way to a new location, which washed away a bridge. Coincidentally, a torrential downpour started, and the entire crew was stranded there overnight, thinking they were going to die.

After the arduous filming of the scenes in Xinjiang was completed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, even worse news followed. On the tenth day of filming, Yang Ziqiong tore the ligaments in her left leg while performing a roundhouse kick, fell heavily off the wall, and immediately lost consciousness. After being rescued, she was immediately sent to the United States for surgery and recuperated for two months before returning to the set.

This time, the filming in Beijing was divided into day and night groups, but Li An had to watch both groups. Under the pressure of repeated setbacks, his body finally gave out and he collapsed into a coma.

Jiang Qinqin, who was next to Wu Yuchen, was shocked. Goodness, the crew was having such bad luck. She thought that it might not have been a bad thing that she wasn't chosen. Now even the director was overwhelmed, and it was uncertain whether they could continue filming!

Wu Yuchen was also getting annoyed: "Producer Jiang, so many things have happened? Why didn't you say anything? You even kept such a big thing as the female lead being injured from me?!"

Jiang Zhiqiang also acted like a child who had made a mistake: "Director Wu, I'm so sorry! We didn't want you to worry about it at first, but then Yang Ziqiong got injured, and the insurance company kept urging us to replace the female lead..."

The most important responsibility of the completion guarantee company is to ensure the film is completed; the impact of changing the female lead is not within their consideration. If Yang Ziqiong's injury continues to slow down the filming schedule, their company will have to make up for any extra costs.

Wu Yuchen said irritably, "Are you afraid that I'll also advocate replacing Yang Ziqiong?"

Jiang Zhiqiang clasped his hands together and bowed repeatedly to Wu Yuchen: "Mr. Wu, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault as the producer! I'm so sorry..."

Wu Yuchen glared at him, but it was too late to say anything now. If he had known from the beginning, he might have really replaced Yang Ziqiong. However, he roughly understood Li An and Jiang Zhiqiang's thoughts. Among Chinese actresses, Yang Ziqiong was the only one who could fight, act, and had a certain appeal in the United States. Li An did not want to replace her unless absolutely necessary.

Wu Yuchen waved his hand: "Alright, alright. How is Director Li doing now?"

Wu Yuchen doesn't care about other things right now; his priority is to ensure that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" can be made. Therefore, director Li An cannot have any problems; he is the core figure of the film.

"The doctor said it has stabilized. The shock was caused by endocrine disorders and excessive stress leading to difficulty breathing. He should recover after a few days of rest."

Wu Yuchen breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; he was genuinely afraid that Li An had died.

At this moment, Jiang Qinqin shook Wu Yuchen's arm: "Director Li seems to be awake!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen and Jiang Zhiqiang hurriedly looked into the room and, sure enough, Li An had opened his eyes. The group immediately called for a doctor.

After a while, once the doctor left, Li An, who had already been taken off the ventilator, smiled and said to Wu Yuchen, "Director Wu, thank you for coming to see me. Don't worry, I'll be able to leave the hospital in a couple of days to film..."

Wu Yuchen reached out to stop him from continuing, saying, "Director Li, don't think about that too much right now. Your health is the most important thing. Rest in the hospital for a week first. If you collapse, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' will truly be over!"

Li An shook his head with a wry smile: "I'm lying in the hospital, and all I can think about is 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'."

"No matter what you're thinking, you should rest for a while first!" Hearing Wu Yuchen's words, Li An could only nod.

Then Li An smiled and tried to ease the tension by saying to Wu Yuchen, "Director Wu, it's a good thing we didn't invite Chow Yun-fat. Yang Ziqiong's Mandarin was so bad it made me want to die. If the male and female leads were like that, I don't know if we could have continued filming!"

Wu Yuchen smiled upon hearing this. This time, the male lead was played by Leung Ka-fai, whose Mandarin was much better than Chow Yun-fat's.

Li An was a perfectionist; he insisted that all the characters in the drama speak Mandarin. However, in his previous life, he had cast Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh, but after filming for so long, their Mandarin was still terrible. In his memoir, he wrote that during post-production dubbing, he had them dub three times. Listening to their broken Mandarin, he was so distraught that he wanted to strangle them and then bite his own tongue to commit suicide.

Wu Yuchen chatted with Li An for a while in the hospital room. They didn't talk about anything related to the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" crew; they just chatted about everyday things to avoid putting more pressure on him. As for the matter of replacing Yang Ziqiong, he naturally wouldn't bring it up again at this point, otherwise Li An would probably really have a breakdown.

After Wu Yuchen came out of the hospital, he couldn't help but sigh, thinking to himself that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had truly had a troubled fate. If it weren't for his help with the investment, Li An and Jiang Zhiqiang would have had to rely on loans to make the film, putting them under even greater pressure.

Jiang Qinqin put her arm around Wu Yuchen's arm, looked at his face, and said, "Honey, is being a director really that stressful?"

"What do you think? The director has to carry the entire crew on his shoulders, and he also has to consider investors, recouping costs, art and audience. There are so many pressures from all sides! If he can get through it, he can improve; if he can't, he will collapse."

"Ah?" Jiang Qinqin looked at Wu Yuchen with more love, pity and tenderness. She had never thought that Wu Yuchen had to endure so much before, she had only watched him walk through life in glory.

"Then, what about you directors?" Jiang Qinqin asked with concern.

"Some people choose their own way to vent, some turn pressure into motivation, and some just tough it out. Everyone is different."

Wu Yuchen said something, then smiled at Jiang Qinqin and said, "Alright, don't overthink it. I'm still young, I can handle this pressure."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Qinqin tightened her grip on Wu Yuchen's arm and said, "Honey, it doesn't really matter whether we win the Oscar or not. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. So many people haven't won one anyway~"

Wu Yuchen couldn't help but glance at Jiang Qinqin with a smile. She was actually concerned about him now, quite a change from her attitude yesterday!
Then he put his arm around Jiang Qinqin and laughed heartily, "Haha, don't worry, when it's time to fight, you have to fight. I can't back down!"

The following day, at Beijing Capital International Airport, before Wu Yuchen's departure, Han Sanping specially came to see him off, holding his hand and saying:

"Brother Wu, although no one has said anything yet, quite a few people have high expectations for you as you head to the US to compete for the Olympics. I just hope you can learn from the mistakes of Yi Mou and Kai Ge, and return victorious from this trip!"

"Brother Han, I will do my best!" Wu Yuchen replied, shaking Han Sanping's hand.

It has been a full 20 years since China began competing for the Oscars. The first mainland Chinese film to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was in 1979, an animated film called *Avanti*. Yes, that's the legendary figure, the symbol of wisdom from western Xinjiang. *Avanti* is very widely known; many people in Europe have seen this animated film.

However, in the past 20 years, all Chinese-language films have failed to win Oscars. As for Han Sanping's point about learning from the mistakes of Zhang Yimou and Kai, it's because those two films actually had a chance to win awards.

The first time was with Zhang Yimou's "Ju Dou," which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 91. At the time, everyone thought it was because the film was not technically good enough. However, several years later, Lu Yan, who was a judge at the Oscars, came back and said that many judges actually liked "Ju Dou." But Zhang Yimou had never been to America, which led everyone to think that he did not value it and simply did not vote for it.

The second instance was with Kai's "Farewell My Concubine," which was nominated, but they were still too naive. Producer Hsu Feng publicly told reporters that "Farewell My Concubine" didn't rely on public relations, but solely on its superior quality! Later, after understanding the rules, "Farewell My Concubine" also held a party, but their methods were nowhere near as effective, and they didn't dare to meet with the judges privately. Naturally, the result was disappointing!

Later, Chen Kaizi complained upon his return: "I didn't realize how important it was to communicate with the Oscar judges. They all thought I didn't want to win the award."

Wu Yuchen had already heard Han Sanping talk about this to him, and he immediately understood that the Oscars were completely different from those in China. In China, people nowadays value feigning humility. Even if you really want to win the award, you have to act very modest, saying things like whether you can win or not doesn't matter, blah blah blah.

But the Oscars don't operate on that model. You have to clearly state to everyone that you want to win. It's all about explicit rules, and it relies on public relations. Only with a strong enough public relations effort can you demonstrate your sincere desire to win!

Moreover, with so many films vying for awards every year, those elderly people don't have the time to watch every single one. Therefore, they will only watch your film if you visit them in public relations, and when it comes to voting, they will naturally only vote for the film they have already seen.

Like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, you either didn't even go, or you went and then publicly promoted your lack of public relations to show your aloofness. Expecting to win an award like that is ridiculous, isn't it? Do you really think those film PR fees they spent on winning awards were wasted?

However, Wu Yuchen was quite well prepared this time. His public relations team had already prepared his daily schedule, which was something that Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige couldn't do back then!

……

In Hong Kong Island, Huang Xiaoming vaguely heard a loud knocking sound at the door.

"Brother Ming, wake up! Big news!"

Hearing that it was his teammate Wu Ke-qun's voice, Huang Xiaoming shook his head, got up, and then went to open the door and complained, "Ke-qun, aren't you tired? It's not easy to have a day when you can sleep in, why don't you take advantage of the time to rest more!"

Huang Xiaoming has been enjoying immense popularity these past few months. With the huge success of "Meteor Garden" across Asia and the massive sales of the album "Meteor Shower," F4 embarked on an Asian tour.

Needless to say, young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong, especially teenagers, are absolutely crazy about F4.

F4's arrival at the Singapore airport caused a huge commotion, with thousands of fans coming to greet them. To ensure F4's safety, Singapore deployed large police cars for their transportation and dispatched more than 100 police officers to protect them. During the journey, F4's cars were closely followed by fans' vehicles, with a record of 45 cars following F4 all day long, frequently overtaking them, creating dangerous situations.

In the Philippines, "Meteor Garden" achieved a peak viewership rating of 57.4% and an average rating of 42.9%. The F4 members were received by the president and treated with royal honors throughout the event.

Not to be outdone, the Indonesian president also sent an invitation. When F4 arrived in Indonesia, they were escorted by security, but the entire procession was still jammed with fans, and the welcoming vehicle moved at a snail's pace. The president hoped that F4 could hold a concert in Bali to revitalize the local economy, using F4's popularity to attract more Jakarta fans to Bali and revive the struggling tourism industry.

In Japan, this place was the home of the original manga "Boys Over Flowers". After the broadcast of "Boys Over Flowers", a large number of fans held flowers to participate in F4's support activities, which also set off a wave of learning Chinese.

In South Korea, F4's fan club surpassed 20 members in just one week and is still growing rapidly. The girls' fervor for their oppa during the support activities even made Huang Xiaoming a little scared.

The Bangkok Post reported that two months after the airing of "Meteor Garden," F4's records and merchandise sales in Thailand had exceeded 1 million baht, calling F4 the hottest stars in Asia!
It can be said that in just a few months, F4 has become the top boy group in Asia, and Huang Xiaoming's so-called dream of becoming a star has been achieved 10 times more than expected!
As for the cost, it's exhaustion, extreme exhaustion! For the past few months, I haven't had a single day of proper rest. I've been constantly running around for promotions and appearances, either on the road or on stage. As soon as I get back to the hotel and hit the bed, all I want to do is sleep.

Huang Xiaoming didn't know that in their past lives, F4 had to do promotional tours while on IV drips, with the needles only removed just before going on stage and then reinserted afterward. That Cai Yinong could still ensure they got enough sleep was already incredibly kind of her!

Therefore, Huang Xiaoming cherished this rare opportunity to sleep in after returning to Hong Kong Island. He really wanted to sleep so soundly that he didn't even want to meet his goddess Zhao Wei in his dreams again.

Wu Ke-qun grabbed Huang Xiao-ming and said, "Brother Xiao-ming, this is really a big event! You'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't see it with your own eyes!"

As Wu Ke-qun dragged him along, Huang Xiaoming asked helplessly, "What's going on? Is it a fight between the two Qi sisters? Or is the Heavenly King impotent?"

Huang Xiaoming said that what he was referring to was the recent hot topic in Hong Kong Island that he had heard about after returning to Hong Kong Island yesterday.

The "Double Gigi Battle" refers to the love triangle between Ekin Cheng, Gigi Leung, and Maggie Siu. Simply put, Ekin Cheng and Maggie Siu had been dating for seven years, but Gigi Leung suddenly stole him away. Newspapers then accused Gigi Leung of being a homewrecker. Ekin Cheng subsequently publicly stated that the breakup was his own decision, apologized to Maggie Siu, and compensated her with a property worth 4000 million HKD. However, gossip newspapers continued to relentlessly attack Gigi Leung, fabricating numerous scandalous stories about her alleged rise to power.

The "Heavenly King's Impotence" refers to Aaron Kwok, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Last month, a sex tape leaked, revealing that he had been targeted by a honey trap, with a video of him being intimate with a woman sent to a gossip magazine. Although the tape didn't contain any shocking content, and Kwok ultimately won the lawsuit, the incident left him quite embarrassed. The woman gave interviews to multiple media outlets, revealing that Kwok's sexual performance was extremely poor, which quickly led Hong Kong gossip media to create the eye-catching headline "Heavenly King's Impotence."

This incident dealt a fatal blow to Aaron Kwok's image. After all, he was promoted as the King of Asian Dance, and his image had always been masculine and energetic. Now, suddenly being labeled as having "impotence" made him a laughing stock for many. Even with a strong public relations team and considerable resilience, it still took him a year or two to recover.

(End of this chapter)