Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 91 Your boyfriend won the grand prize!

At Beijing Airport, Wu Yuchen and Zhou Xun saw someone holding a large sign for "We Two" at the exit. When he walked over, he saw that it was a young man.

"Director Wu, you've finally arrived! Here, let me carry your luggage. Let's hurry up and go, the leaders are all waiting for you!"

“I don’t need any, you can carry it for our Best Actress.” Wu Yuchen patted Xiao Li, the driver who picked them up.

"okay!"

Zhou Xun handed the suitcase to the driver with a smile and followed behind the two.

An hour later, Wu Yuchen led Zhou Xun back into the movie channel's office building.

Inside a large conference room, dozens of movie channel staff who had already received the notification were chatting enthusiastically.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I never expected this! This little film, which only cost 30 yuan to produce, actually won a Best Actress award and a Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival."

"There's one, but there are two Best Actress winners, like double yolks!"

"Yes, yes, that's the same idea. This is going to make our boss ecstatic, like he's won the lottery!"

"I heard this director is still a college student, that's amazing! He's completely outshone the Beijing Film Studio and the August First Film Studio."

"To be honest, I haven't even seen this movie myself yet. I need to find some time to catch up on it."

"Don't worry, we'll probably be airing this segment on our channel every two weeks, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to watch."

As everyone was chatting, they saw a tall, handsome young man walk in with a trophy in each hand, head held high and chest out.

Upon seeing this, Director Gu immediately burst into laughter: "Come, come, let's welcome our heroes, Director Wu Yuchen and Zhou Xun, back with their awards!"

The dozens of people in the conference room immediately burst into applause, their eyes all focused on the trophy in Wu Yuchen's hand.

Director Gu and several other leaders greeted him with smiles: "Director Wu, you've really worked hard! Congratulations!"

"We couldn't have won this award without the support of the Movie Channel. Without the Movie Channel, there would be no 'We Two,' and no such award!"

Wu Yuchen could rattle off these platitudes without hesitation. At the same time, he handed the trophy in his hand to Director Gu across from him, knowing that this was what Director Gu valued most.

Sure enough, Director Gu and several other leaders were all beaming with joy when they saw the trophy in their hands.

They don't care at all about how much money they made selling the copyrights; it's not something they can win anyway. But this award is different. Their movie channel just started out and they've already won a major award—isn't that a testament to their excellent leadership?

Although the movie channel earns a lot of advertising revenue every year, they don't have control over that money; it has to be handed over to the government. For example, investing 200 million yuan in producing a TV movie on their own channel requires submitting a report and getting approval.

But with the two major awards that "We Two" brought back from the Tokyo International Film Festival, it proved its feasibility and success, and their subsequent TV movie plan will definitely be able to proceed smoothly.

In the future, let alone 200 million, even ten times that amount will be the starting point. It is estimated that tens of millions of yuan can be applied for every year, and a special TV and film department can be added to manage the production of domestic TV and film.

At this moment, Wu Yuchen spotted Jin Yaqin at the front of the crowd and quickly walked over with a smile:
"Grandma Jin, when we went to Japan this time, so many people there praised you. Everyone who saw the movie was moved to tears!"

At this moment, Director Gu also came over and handed the Best Actress trophy to Jin Yaqin:

"Grandma Jin, your performance this time was fantastic! You truly deserve this Best Actress award, and you even brought honor to the country abroad!"

Jin Yaqin was all smiles, rubbing the trophy in her hands. She never expected that after playing supporting roles her whole life, she would receive such a great honor for playing a leading role in her old age!

After that, the leaders of the movie channel gave an inspiring and motivational speech. They also invited reporters from several newspapers to take photos with Wu Yuchen, Jin Yaqin, and Zhou Xun. Of course, they also held the trophy together!

The reporters who came were also very interested in the story of "The Two of Us" and asked a lot of questions until the sun set and everyone left.

Of the three trophies, Zhou Xun and Jin Yaqin took their Best Actress awards back with them, but the Jury Grand Prize remained with the movie channel and was kept there. Originally, the movie did belong to them, and the award was given to the entire crew.

Wu Yuchen mentioned finding a cinema to screen the film in order to facilitate participation in the Golden Rooster Awards next year. Director Gu naturally took on the responsibility, saying that even if they had to pay for it themselves, they would arrange for the film to be shown in cinemas as soon as possible.

The next day, Zhang Ziyi rushed into the dormitory in a flurry, carrying a newspaper:
"Zeng Li, Li Zi! Your boyfriend won a big prize!"

Her commotion alerted all the girls in the dormitory. More than a month after entering the school, thanks to Zhang Ziyi and Qin Hailu's promotion, everyone already knew that Zeng Li had a handsome boyfriend, and Zeng Li was now too lazy to even bother to explain.

The women all gathered around Zhang Ziyi, and noticed that the front page headline of the *China Film News* in her hand read:

"Chinese Cinema's Glory in Tokyo!"

Then there's a striking photo: a group photo of Wu Yuchen, Zhou Xun, and several leaders raising a glass together in the conference room of the movie channel.

There was also a supplementary publication at the end of the newspaper:

"An older and a younger actress both win Best Actress awards at the Tokyo Film Festival!"

"College Student Genius Director Thanks Movie Channel for Support!"

……

Several articles introduced the four awards won by "We Two" and "The King of Masks" at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The article also provided a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes story of the filming of "We Two" and the sensation it caused at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Indeed, most of the article focuses on "The Two of Us," while "The Face Changer" is only mentioned in passing.

If you ask why, it's because "We Two" is backed by the movie channel, so naturally they're going to give it a huge shout-out!
If we don't praise it, how will everyone know that the leadership of this movie channel has made brilliant decisions? How can they improve if we don't praise them?
Is this it?

“Yes, it’s the boy smiling in the middle of the photo, no doubt about it!” Zhang Ziyi pointed and said.

Mei Ting turned to Zeng Li and exclaimed, "Li Zi, your boyfriend is amazing! He's only 18, and his first film won a major award at the Tokyo International Film Festival! He even won the Golden Bear for Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival before that. He's such a genius!" Hu Jing also chimed in, "Li Zi, that's not fair! You're keeping such an incredible boyfriend a secret! You have to bring him out to meet us!"

"That's right, Zeng Li, have your boyfriend tell us how to act!" the women chimed in.

Now that these girls have been at the Central Academy of Drama for over a month, they've all become aware of what winning a major award means. It's something many directors could never achieve in their entire lives, but Zeng Li's boyfriend has already been racking up awards one after another.

Zeng Li had actually known about it a few days ago; Wu Yuchen had told her during a phone call. But seeing the amazed and envious expressions on the faces of the girls in the dormitory, Zeng Li felt happy for them, but also couldn't help feeling a sense of pride and vanity.

However, after thinking about it, Zeng Li explained again, "We are just ordinary friends."

The women exchanged glances, still wanting to continue teasing, but Mei Ting, the eldest sister, smiled, walked over, and took Zeng Li's hand:

"Alright, alright, just a friend? Then you can treat your friend to a meal, okay? We'll treat him, consider it a way of helping us get to know this internationally renowned director!"

The women immediately realized what was going on: "Right, right, Pear, tell him we're inviting him!"

Seeing that her roommates all said so, Zeng Li hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll mention it to him. I don't know if he'll agree."

The women exchanged smiles upon hearing this, finally managing to get Zeng Li to come out with her mysterious boyfriend.

In addition to professional newspapers like the China Film News, major newspapers like the China Youth Daily, and the China Film Channel's own program, China Film Dynamics, all gave extensive coverage to the success of "We Two" at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Unlike the last time, when "Car 44" won the Berlin Golden Bear but couldn't be promoted because of its subject matter, this time "We Two" is a purely positive film, so there's no need to worry about promotion at all.

With its dual reach through print and television media, "We Two" quickly gained fame among film enthusiasts, and the name of the talented director Wu Yuchen truly entered the public eye.

Meanwhile, Wu Yuchen, the genius director, was in Dean Hou Keming's office.

Hou Keming shook the script in his hand, then smiled and scolded Wu Yuchen:

"You little rascal, I just praised you, and now you're causing me trouble again!"
"You've got a bit of a New Wave avant-garde film vibe to it. Does it have to be this way? A similar film like *A Chinese Odyssey* was a box office failure."

Wu Yuchen nodded: "Teacher Hou, if we change it, it won't have the same feel. Besides, isn't the point of school to teach us to be bold in exploring? I want to give it a try."

Hou Keming looked at Wu Yuchen in front of him and thought to himself, "Good lad, he's already taken this step. Compared to him, we old filmmakers really have lost our ambition."

Hou Keming looked at the script in his hand again, and seeing "Run Lola Run" on the cover, he thought to himself, "I'll help this student run a part of it."

“It’s not easy to film your movie in mainland China; it really needs to be shot in Hong Kong or Macau. I don’t have any contact with Sil-Metropole Organisation Ltd. there. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll call Han Sanping at Beijing Film Studio later. They have dealings with Sil-Metropole Organisation Ltd.”

Wu Yuchen heard the name of the future "Mountain Eagle" in the Chinese film industry and never expected that he would be dealing with him so soon.

"Thank you, Teacher Hou!"

Wu Yuchen's next project is "Run Lola Run," which is hailed as a classic time-loop movie.

"Run Lola Run" is a very famous movie, exuding an unconventional and maverick spirit.

The story of the movie is actually very simple: Lola must earn 10 marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend. She uses a time loop to have three chances to start over and finally saves him. The entire movie revolves around these crucial twenty minutes, showing three processes and three outcomes: Lola running, Lola finding money to rescue her boyfriend.

The logic of "Run Lola Run" is somewhat similar to that of "A Chinese Odyssey." Love is the theme, saving lives is the main plot, time is a symbol, the telephone and the money bag are transitions, and each call to the Moonlight Box leads to vastly different processes and outcomes.

The classic quality of this film does not lie in its story itself, but in its filming techniques, editing, narrative structure, and the themes it expresses.

In terms of narrative, it breaks away from Hollywood's emphasis on complete stories, closed endings, and the narrative structure of three- or five-act plays. Instead, it cleverly uses time loops to achieve a novel three-part narrative, which is a complete counterattack against Hollywood tradition.

The film "Run Lola Run" has a total runtime of 81 minutes, 71 of which are action shots. Despite its short runtime, the film contains 1581 shot transitions, averaging only 2.7 seconds per shot, making it one of the "fastest-paced films in cinematic history".

It is also known as a must-see film for screenwriters and directors, and almost every film student has been led by their teacher to analyze "Run Lola Run".

Another reason Wu Yuchen chose it was its ability to achieve great success with a small budget. The entire film cost less than $2 million, and it grossed nearly $10 million in North America, which might be considered good, but it earned $110 million in Europe!
All of Europe went crazy for this movie, even giving rise to a Lola wave and the Lola phenomenon.

A German fanatic said in an interview that he watched the movie more than 80 times. He even bought a treadmill specifically for it, so he could watch the movie while running alongside the female lead. That's how obsessed he was!

Hollywood doesn't even consider him a threat anymore, does it?

Wu Yuchen wanted to use this anti-Hollywood film to achieve success and then have Hollywood invite him back.

At the Beijing Film Studio, after Han Sanping hung up the phone, he showed an interested expression.

He knew Wu Yuchen, but not because of "We Two" or the previous Berlin Short Film Golden Bear, but because of "The Night the Comet Came," which was currently showing in theaters.

"Xiaoyu, what's the specifics of that 'The Night the Comet Came,' which you mentioned cost over ten million?"

Standing in front of Han Sanping, Yu Dong smiled and introduced, "Director, this movie has been showing for a month and a half, with 110 copies, and the box office is currently 1230 million. I estimate the actual production cost to be around 50."

Han Sanping exhaled a puff of smoke: "This Wu Yuchen, he made a movie with 500,000 yuan that grossed over 10 million yuan, and then used 300,000 yuan to bring back two major awards for the movie channel. He's really a talent!"

Yu Dong chuckled: "Director, if you admire him, why don't you just invite him to our Beijing Film Studio? Our studio is the best career path for graduates of the Beijing Film Studio."

Han Sanping smiled and said, "There might be an opportunity to cooperate soon. He's coming over this afternoon, and he's your junior brother. You can meet him at the entrance and show him the way."

Upon hearing this, Yu Dong immediately patted his chest and said, "Factory manager, I guarantee I'll get him into our factory!"

"Hehe, you're the best guy on the whole body when it comes to your mouth!" Han Sanping laughed heartily.

(End of this chapter)