Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 363 We need a director, not a poet!

"Two major truck tenders?"

Upon hearing this, the judges present exchanged bewildered glances, and then the leader strode out, with the other judges immediately following.

Below, reporters had completely surrounded Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou, but with official staff clearing the way, they dared not block the path and made way for them.

Wu Yuchen saw a group of judges approaching and greeted them with a smile. The leader, seeing this, immediately asked, "Director Wu, are these two large trucks carrying your bid documents?"

At this moment, two large trucks were seen carrying two large shipping containers. Judging from the size of these containers, they probably wouldn't fit inside the hall and would have to be placed outside.

Wu Yuchen chuckled and said, "Boss, you'll see when you open it."

Wu Yuchen directed the people to unload the container, and when they opened it, they discovered that it contained two miniature versions of the Bird's Nest!
Construction of the Bird's Nest began on December 24, 2003, and it is still not completed. Surprisingly, Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou's team actually created two Bird's Nest models specifically for this bidding process!
Everyone present was taken aback, and then the leader pointed to the Bird's Nest model and said:
"Director Wu, what are you doing..."

"Haha, boss, words sometimes can't describe things clearly. This is something our team specially created to showcase the effect. One is the opening ceremony, and the other is the closing ceremony!"

Upon hearing Wu Yuchen's words, everyone was shocked. This move alone put them at least a step ahead of the other teams!

Wu Yuchen then pointed to a stack of black boxes next to the Bird's Nest. Each box was marked and numbered. He picked one up and said, "These contain our project proposals. There are four to five in each box."

The leader pointed and asked, "Are all of these?"

Seeing Wu Yuchen nod, the leader pressed further, "How many are there in total?"

Wu Yuchen didn't speak, but Zhang Yimou next to him said with a smile, "There are 24 in total."

Upon hearing this, the judges were speechless, and a group of reporters gasped in astonishment. Each of the 24 black boxes contained 4-5 proposals—that's over 100 books! All of them were ideas for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics!

Think about the teams that have already arrived. At most, a few people each brought a file package, while Chen Kaizi only brought a brown paper folder. Just the number of proposals alone is incomparable!
While the number of proposals may not necessarily indicate the quality of their content, looking at these two Bird's Nest models and the more than one hundred proposals neatly organized in these 24 black boxes, one can see how much effort Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou's team put into this project, and how much dedication they put into it!
The leader looked at the two large containers, then at Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou, and nodded repeatedly, his eyes revealing undisguised appreciation.

They were still at the main entrance, and a group of reporters were taking pictures of the Bird's Nest model and the team. Therefore, it wasn't appropriate for him to express any opinion verbally; as judges, they were aware of this sensitivity. But to be honest, any judge seeing the team's meticulous preparation, just that attitude alone would earn them considerable goodwill!
Amidst the flashing lights of reporters, the model from the shipping container was carried inside by several staff members. Wu Yuchen, Zhang Yimou, and others followed the judges through the door. A group of reporters, watching Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou's retreating figures, couldn't help but chatter:

"I bet Director Wu's team will win the bid this time!"

"With the preparations made by Director Wu and his team, they've already pulled ahead of the other teams!"

"Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou already had an advantage over other teams by combining their skills, and they've gone this far. How are other teams supposed to compete?"

Inside the building, the voices of the reporters outside were naturally inaudible. At that moment, Li An smiled wryly at Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou, saying, "You two really caught me off guard!"

Li An has close relationships with both Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou. Wu Yuchen has invested in his films twice, and Zhang Yimou is also a benefactor to Li An. Zhang Yimou helped him win the Golden Bear for "The Wedding Banquet," which was a very important start to his career.

The unexpected situation Li An mentioned wasn't actually about the two Bird's Nest models and over a hundred project proposals, since those were well-prepared and he had nothing to say about them. What he meant was that the two of them suddenly formed a team.

The judging for this Olympic opening ceremony adopted a multi-dimensional scoring system, with judges considering different teams' proposals from multiple perspectives and assigning them scores. Among these, team influence was a separate scoring dimension. Wu Yuchen's personal influence was undoubtedly the highest among all participants, and now that he's teamed up with Zhang Yimou, there's no doubt their team will score full marks in this category!
Before Wu Yuchen could speak, Zhang Yimou said, "I really have to thank Director Wu this time, otherwise I might not even have been able to participate!"

Upon hearing this, Li An naturally understood the meaning behind Zhang Yimou's words. Zhang Yimou's previous controversy over having more children than allowed had indeed pushed him to the brink of disaster. If Wu Yuchen hadn't stood up for him, it would be hard to say what would have happened to him now.

Wu Yuchen waved his hand and said with a smile, "We're all doing this for the Olympics. This Olympics is a great stage to showcase our Chinese culture. No matter which team is selected or who directs, as long as we can host the Beijing Olympics well and show the world the beauty of China, I will support them!"

Upon hearing this, both Li An and Lao Yizi nodded in agreement.

The group didn't chat for long, as their respective teams needed to prepare for their upcoming campaign presentations.

In the conference room, just before the presentation was about to begin, the leader specifically instructed the waiter: "Don't come in to pour water during the presentation; we'll do it ourselves."

The opening ceremony's concept is of paramount importance, and its specific details are top secret; no detail can be overlooked.

There are 13 teams in total today, and each team has a uniform presentation time of 50 minutes. The order in which the 13 teams will present will be determined by drawing lots.

The team that drew the first number was Cui Jian's team.

In fact, Wu Yuchen and Zhang Yimou serving as co-directors is not an isolated case. For example, there is Cui Jian's team. Although everyone talks about Cui Jian's team, the real director is someone else, namely Lin Zhaohua, the director of Beijing People's Art Theatre.

Cui Jian was still wearing his signature red five-pointed star white baseball cap, a white pullover, and a red modified Zhongshan suit with frayed edges.

Cui Jian had organized numerous concerts, so he shouldn't have been stage-frightened. However, once his presentation began, Cui Jian became nervous. He wasn't exactly a eloquent person to begin with, and when he got nervous, he started stammering even more. After saying a couple of sentences, he suddenly stood up and said, "I can't speak sitting down, so I'd better stand up."

The leader smiled and reassured him, "It's alright, Xiao Cui, we don't have that many rules here, just do whatever is convenient!" Cui Jian took a breath and then began his presentation again. But even though it was a little better, it was still far from achieving the effect of the rehearsal.

As the judges listened to the proposal titled "Huaxia Laws," which used three chapters—the Laws of Fire, the Laws of Water, and the Laws of Wind—to express that music lies in rhythm and life lies in movement, they all thought to themselves that Cui Jian was indeed a musician by training, as he had put the focus directly on music.

However, this design also has some eye-catching elements: three types of drums—high, medium, and low—along with the xun, xiao, guqin, and chime bells, creating a grand ensemble of the five notes of the pentatonic scale. Amidst the music of various countries and cultures around the world, the grand ships of Zheng He set sail to explore new worlds, and the prosperous scene depicted in the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll is recreated. In the center of the venue, a square of earth is constructed, and on this earthen stage stands a 16-meter-tall tree. This tree grows, blossoms, and sheds its leaves with the changing seasons…

"I didn't think too much about it. I believe the Olympics is a grand event for all mankind. When people gather here, they shouldn't be too individualistic, but rather pursue something more common to all humanity..."

Listening to Cui Jian's concluding remarks, while not entirely wrong, the leader's evaluation of him was lowered by one notch. This Beijing Olympics should certainly include elements common to all humanity, but the host country is China, so Chinese culture and style are indispensable. Even when showcasing common elements, it's best to highlight Chinese characteristics.

Subsequently, one team after another appeared on stage. After lunchtime, the first team to appear was Director Chen!

When the leader saw Chen Kaige walk in with a confident and dignified air, he was also impressed by his self-assurance and couldn't help but smile. Of the 13 companies participating in the election, the other 12 attended as teams, while Chen Kaige was the only one running as an individual, not with a team!

After placing the file folder on the table, he walked to the center and stood there motionless, waiting for it to begin.

The leader glanced at him and asked, "Director Chen, is there anything else you need to bring over?"

These teams were all somewhat prepared when they presented; some had made PowerPoint presentations, others had created mockups. Wu Yuchen's team, for example, put in the most effort by designing two Bird's Nest stadiums. Therefore, seeing Chen Kaige empty-handed, the leader, fearing he might have forgotten, gave him a reminder.

Chen Kaige simply shook her head: "No need~"

"Okay, then you can begin."

Upon hearing this, Chen Kaizi smiled, cleared his throat, and began to chant:

"Suddenly news came from beyond the sword gates that Jibei had been recovered; upon hearing this, tears filled my clothes."

But look at his wife, where is her sorrow now? She rolls up her books and is overjoyed.

Singing in the daytime must be indulging in wine, youth is a good company to return home.

"From the gorges of Ba and Wu, one can descend to Xiangyang and then head towards Luoyang."

This is Du Fu's "Hearing of the Recovery of Henan and Hebei by the Imperial Army." The background of the poem and the emotions it expresses are very suitable for this scene. Applying it to Chen Kaizi, the gist is: He was extremely excited and thrilled to hear that the Olympics would be held in Beijing and that the director would be selected through a public tender. He was happy from head to toe!

As Chen Kaizi sang the last line with measured intonation, he couldn't help but feel overjoyed. He raised his right arm to express his happiness, then looked at the judges, waiting for their approval.

Based on Chen Kaizi's past experience, he would usually receive applause and cheers. But this time, the judges present exchanged bewildered glances. They were all cultured and understood the meaning behind Chen Kaizi's poem, but wasn't this a bit too exaggerated? And these 50 minutes were for presenting his proposal, not to see how happy he was!

The leader coughed and then said to Chen Kaizi, "Director Chen, you'd better hurry up and present your proposal."

Chen Kaizi didn't get any support, so he sighed inwardly, went back, and sat down in his chair again.

Later generations spread rumors that Chen Kaizi was kicked out after reciting a poem, but the judges weren't that petty. There are also claims that Chen Kaizi only prepared one poem and had no prepared script at all, but this is also false. Chen Kaizi wasn't stupid; he must have made some preparations.

However, compared to everyone else's proposals, Chen Kaizi's was the thinnest one. He took out a white cover from the leather document bag, which was about 2 centimeters thick. The right side of the cover was sealed with traditional sealing wax. After tearing it open, he took out his proposal, which consisted of only a few pages.

One thing that shows Kai's sincerity is that these pages were all handwritten by him, not typed. There are many marks and revisions, which clearly show that he had thought about them.

"Every national grand ceremony begins with grand music... This grand music is a culmination of iron drums, gongs, chime bells, giant chimes, and all other bronze percussion instruments. The grand music ensemble blends the essence of folk percussion instruments from all over the country, arranged by masters, rising and falling, sometimes strong, sometimes gentle, sometimes as fierce as thunder, sometimes as clear as still water, its ups and downs captivating the audience..."

When Chen Kaizi started pedantic again, the judges were immediately annoyed. "You're here to present your proposal? What are you doing here? Showing off your writing skills?"

Fortunately, in the later part of his article, we did hear his creative ideas, starting with tracing the origins of the Chinese nation, mentioning the Yellow River, red kites, and peonies of the Tang Dynasty, and modern elements such as Jackie Chan's Chinese Kung Fu, Yao Ming's astronauts...

However, Chen Kaizi's proposal was truly unacceptable. He simply wrote a rather eloquent article, which used symbolism to create a romantic, solemn, and humorous atmosphere.

After Chen Kaizi finished reciting his magnificent essay, he felt his throat was a little dry, so he picked up the water on the table and took a sip. After putting down his glass, seeing all the judges looking at him, the leader directly asked, "Director Chen, what's next?"

"The next part? That's it!"

Upon hearing Chen Kaizi's answer, all the judges inwardly lamented, "What on earth is this guy doing here?!"

The leader checked the time and saw that everyone else was talking for 100 minutes or more, and this guy finished in 20 minutes? And it was all such empty talk!
Chen Kaizi is often tolerated in the industry, but this leader won't. He spoke sternly and directly:
"This Olympics is a massive project worth tens or even hundreds of billions! What we need are 'executable' plans, not empty promises from you. We need directors, not poets!"

(End of this chapter)