After all of them were reborn, who would still be an actor?

Chapter 711 Cannes' Favorite Son

The 66th Cannes Film Festival closed on the 26th, with Lee Myung-yang, director of the University of Tokyo, winning the Palme d'Or for Best Film for his film "The Handmaiden," which was nominated for the main competition for the second time.

"Cannes's favorite son! Li Mingyang!"

"This is the first time in 16 years since Shohei Imamura's 'The Eel' in 1997 that an Asian director's film has won the Palme d'Or."

"Twenty years after Farewell My Concubine, the director from the University of Tokyo has won the Palme d'Or again!"

"Li Mingyang was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes for two consecutive years, and won the Palme d'Or for Best Screenplay and Best Film."

"The 66th Cannes Film Festival: The Road to Stardom for Li Mingyang, Asia's First Director!"

"A huge upset! The young lady wins the Palme d'Or."

……

The next day, news of Miss winning the Palme d'Or spread like wildfire around the world.

It has generated unprecedented buzz across Asia!
Li Mingyang's Cannes son became an overnight sensation.

Many artists are considered Cannes' favorites by the media, such as Jia Zhangke from the University of Tokyo, Hirokazu Kore-eda from Japan, Ceylon from Turkey, and Walter from Brazil.

He wrote a screenplay at 16, made a film at 17, and won three Cannes awards at 19 with a film he wrote, directed, and starred in.

Xavier Dolan is known as the "golden son of Cannes".

However, in the eyes of the French, Cannes's "favorite son" is Steven Soderbergh.

In 1989, 26-year-old Steven Soderbergh won the Palme d'Or at the 42nd Cannes Film Festival for his film "X, Lies and Videotape".

Become the youngest Palme d'Or winner in history!
The appearance of Li Mingyang broke the record of this biological son.

A 24-year-old Palme d'Or winner, and also a director from the University of Tokyo!
Foreign media were utterly astonished by this result; they were completely baffled.

They're questioning the fairness of Cannes like crazy!
French film critics' association president Jean-Michel Rouyet publicly questioned the Cannes jury on social media: Why did they award the Palme d'Or, the highest honor, to the South Korean film "The Handmaiden," while the critically acclaimed "Blue Is the Warmest Color" went home empty-handed?

"I am deeply disappointed with this year's Cannes award winners. A decent film, 'The Handmaiden,' beat out better films like 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' and 'Inside Llewyn Davis.' This is a blatant disregard for cinematic aesthetics."

Rouyer's remarks garnered considerable support, mostly from French film industry insiders. Some commented that this was due to the jury's own lack of competence, "After all, every year there are films nominated that are disappointed because of the jury's amateurishness."

Spielberg was criticized.

"Most of the jury members are not true film enthusiasts. In order to make the awards more convincing, we should reconsider selecting film historians and senior film critics to serve as judges."

The Cannes Film Festival has come to a close; the festival is controversial every year.

The controversy surrounding the film was more intense and more fierce than that of previous Palme d'Or winners.

Very normal.

After all, the film is an Asian film, and Lee Ming-yang's final speech in Chinese, in which he called himself a director from Tokyo University, was met with disapproval from Western media.

Even the South Korean media are sarcastic and cynical.

Domestically... domestically it's even more of a mess, and countless netizens are speaking out for Zhang Yimou.

At yesterday's press conference, Zhang Zhao and Jia Yueting, who were both disappointed by the failure, expressed their regret for Zhang Yimou.

I'm very disappointed with this year's Cannes Film Festival.

They lavished praise on the film's return, calling it the number one MAX art film at Dongda University.

They started a marketing campaign for their return.

Zhang Yimou remained silent throughout the entire process, as did Gong Li.

Instead, Chen Daoming, who is usually taciturn, was pushed to the forefront to answer reporters' questions.

Chen Daoming's art of speaking is quite unconventional.

Very Liu Bang-like!
Thunder, little rain.

Every word he spoke was spoken with great emphasis, coupled with his righteous and awe-inspiring face.

It feels like I'm speaking up for someone, but upon closer inspection, it's not.

On Weibo, Zhang Yimou's past achievements have been dug up again!

One of the Weibo posts titled "Why Zhang Yimou is called the National Master" is really well written.

"For more than two decades, director Zhang Yimou has been the undisputed number one director of Southeast University films. He laid the foundation for the brilliance of Southeast University's art films in international cinema and ushered in the era of Southeast University's commercial blockbusters. He can be called a milestone figure in the history of Southeast University films."

Director Zhang achieved numerous victories at the three major European film festivals in his early years, winning two Venice Golden Lions (for "The Story of Qiu Ju" and "Not One Less"), one Berlin Golden Bear (for "Red Sorghum"), one Cannes Jury Prize (for "To Live"), one Cannes Technical Prize (for "Shanghai Triad"), one Venice Jury Prize (for "Raise the Red Lantern"), and one Berlin Silver Bear (for "My Father and Mother").

This also led to Ge You and Gong Li being crowned Best Actor at Cannes and Best Actress at Venice, respectively.

One film, "To Live," is enough for a director from Tokyo University to study for a lifetime!

These works opened a window for the international film industry to understand Tokyo University and won a world-class reputation for Tokyo University films. To a certain extent, they broke down the international film industry's prejudice against Tokyo University and people of Asian descent. Ze Hui was a colleague and successor of countless generations.

One film, "To Live," is enough for a director from Tokyo University to study for a lifetime!

When the country opened its doors and Hong Kong commercial films and Hollywood blockbusters came one after another, directors of the same generation and younger generations continued to follow in the footsteps of Zhang Yimou in his early years, making various rural-themed films and focusing on winning international awards.

Therefore, in the box office competition, it was completely defeated by Hollywood and Hong Kong films, and its competitiveness was even inferior to video halls and DVDs.

Major cinema chains are on their last legs, and countless cinemas have been demolished.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the nascent Dongda Film Market was about to follow in the footsteps of Taiwanese and Japanese films. On one hand, art films were winning international awards, while on the other hand, the local market was almost dried up and ignored.

At this time, director Zhang Yimou, with a sense of responsibility to the film industry of Southeast University and with the fearless spirit of daring to be the first, disregarded personal reputation and started from scratch to change course and make a film called "Hero", which is of unparalleled significance in the history of Southeast University film.

The film not only held the record for the highest-grossing film in China for four years before being surpassed by its own blockbuster, "Curse of the Golden Flower," but also topped the box office in North America, Japan, South Korea, and other parts of the world with a budget of $31 million (Hero is the only Chinese-language film to hold the top spot at the North American box office for two consecutive weeks).

It grossed a total of $1.77 million (14.5 billion yuan) at the global box office.

It also received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Special Innovation Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and was named the world's best film of the year by several authoritative media outlets, including Time magazine.

This marked the beginning of the era of Chinese-language commercial blockbusters, truly saving the entire Dongda Film Academy. Its merits are unparalleled and its benefits continue to this day.

However, it was precisely the huge box office and critical success of "Hero" that made countless industry professionals and self-proclaimed "public intellectuals" and literary film critics feel not only "envy, jealousy and hatred" of director Zhang Yimou's achievements, but also a strong desire to get rid of him as soon as possible.

In the eyes of those literary film critics, Director Zhang's decision to stop making rural art films reflecting the backwardness of Dongda University and instead make commercial blockbusters that have achieved huge box office success is "single-mindedly making money and abandoning artistic ideals".
Director Zhang's advocacy of patriotism in the film, and his reverence for Qin Shi Huang, the great man who founded a unified China and laid the foundation for the Chinese nation's long-term prosperity, have been interpreted by some "GZ" film critics who harbor deep dissatisfaction with the system as "submitting to power and flattering the system," and have been heavily criticized.

Many people who are driven by fame and fortune simply use the criticism and smear of Director Zhang, the most outstanding representative of Dongda Film School, as a means to show off their own insight and knowledge.

In the early years, the internet was not yet well-developed, print media still had considerable influence, and the general public lacked understanding of movies.

These "film critics," who have moved from print media to the internet and like to put on airs and talk in a mysterious way, have also gained considerable control over the discourse on film evaluation.

Thus, in their so-called "film reviews," films like *Hero* and *House of Flying Daggers*, which received international acclaim, won numerous awards and nominations, and whose overseas box office far exceeded their domestic box office, were all labeled as "bad movies" that were merely piled up with colors, had formulaic plots, and had weak stories!

Next came the box office, critical acclaim, nominations, and award records of films like "Heroes," "House of Flying Daggers," "Curse of the Golden Flower," and "The Flowers of War."

It's a long and detailed piece of writing, over a thousand words long.

"Throughout history, Chinese-language films have only been nominated for the Oscars a total of seven times, with Zhang Yimou receiving three nominations (Li An's films received three nominations, and Chen Kaizi's 'Farewell My Concubine' received one nomination).

Across all Chinese-language films, only 12 have received nominations at the Golden Globes, with Zhang Yimou receiving five. (Ang Lee received four nominations, Chen Kaige two, and Stephen Chow's *Kung Fu Hustle* one).

These are already extremely high achievements, yet some keyboard "film critics" have ridiculed them as "single-mindedly aiming for an Oscar, simply overestimating their abilities."

As for all the other "Hong Kong and Taiwan literary directors" who have been praised to the skies by "literary youth film critics," such as Yang De'an, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-wai, Tsai Ming-liang, Hsu An-hua, and Tsui Kok, as well as Jiang Wen and Jia Zhangke, the most popular mainland directors among film critics, all of them combined have 0 Oscar nominations and 0 Golden Globe nominations.

Behind these film critics, there are countless film industry colleagues who are envious of Zhang Yimou's achievements and eager to bring him down and replace him, fueling the flames.

It is said that Japan's NHK television station produced a special documentary about the University of Tokyo's film program. In it, many self-important film directors would discuss how to find new ways to smear Zhang Yimou whenever they met.

At the Olympics, the grand and magnificent history of five thousand years of glorious civilization unfolded like a scroll, not only shocking the world but also inspiring countless netizens' spontaneous patriotic enthusiasm.

Patriotic netizens gradually gained the upper hand, and after several years of fierce debate, it wasn't until after 2012 that our generation of patriots finally began to dominate.

This war of public opinion, fought without gunfire, can be said to be related to the fate of the nation and its people; it is a close-quarters, bloody battle.

Director Zhang Yimou has transformed from a mere filmmaker into a master of organizing ceremonies for the nation and its people, and further into an artistic master who promotes Chinese culture to the world.

It's too long; this short essay is over ten thousand words long...

That's quite a boast!
They've turned Zhang Yimou into a saint!
Zhang Yimou is not a saint; he also has emotions and desires!
If this article had been published before the Cannes closing ceremony, Zhang Yimou might not have even had a chance to win an award.

The reason for releasing this now is twofold: firstly, to promote "Coming Home," and secondly, to put pressure on him!
With the Palme d'Or in hand, there are very few players in Asia who can rival him!
Using Zhang Yimou to pressure him shouldn't be a problem.

He's too young, lacks experience, and is a pure Cannes faction member—they're practically his own son.

However, judging from this long post, it's clear that it was premeditated.

Li Mingyang suspects that if Zhang Yimou wins the Palme d'Or, he will use this long essay to clear his name.

To establish oneself as the spiritual totem of Dongda Film.

As for the things they compromised with Cannes and agreed to in order to win the Palme d'Or, they refuse to acknowledge them at all!
You've already won the award! What's the point of acknowledging anything else?
So what if the director who has won all three of Europe's highest honors turns against me? I'm not going to play there anymore.

What can you do to me!
"What a shrewd person! He'd rather give it to me than Zhang Yimou!" Li Mingyang exclaimed. Although he's currently facing heavy criticism from the world's media—The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Telegraph, Variety, The Movie, Tokyo Cinema, Harper's Bazaar, Southern Daily, JTBC, and many more…

But the victor is king and the loser is villain.

Even if you stand on tiptoe, you're still a champion!
The criticism is overwhelming, but I don't care at all.

He had no intention of spending money to quell public opinion; let them criticize him as they please, since the Palme d'Or is already his!
If trash like Anora is acceptable, why can't Miss?
"Honey, what time is it?" Jing Tian, ​​wearing a thin, white camisole nightgown, was still sleepy as she scratched her head as she entered the study.

"9:30 a.m."

Sweetie is becoming more and more capable.

I heated it to a red temperature last night, and woke up this morning.

"I thought it was already afternoon," Jing Tian said, sitting down in Li Mingyang's lap, her big eyes fixed on the computer screen.

After watching for a while, Jing Tian frowned deeply and said angrily, "These media outlets have no conscience at all. They bought the awards! Does that mean they're not our own people's awards? Zhang Yimou even wanted to buy them, but they refused."

“A lot of people are standing up for Zhang Yimou, but you won the award, as if you’ve committed a crime.”

Jing Tian kept rambling on, but Li Mingyang thought it was perfectly normal; the girl was from a Korean movie.

The individual honors belong to him, but the Palme d'Or goes to the Koreans.

The film is no longer a Sino-Korean co-production.

Cannes won't allow it!
His thoughts were all on Tian Tian. From behind, she had milky skin, a slender waist that could be encircled with one hand, and fair, snow-white arms, exuding youthful charm.

You have the nerve to criticize others.

The greatest suffering I've ever endured in my life is the suffering you've endured.

Thinking of this, Li Mingyang recalled visiting Jin Minxi's room last night.

Kim Min-hee said she wanted to thank her.

Li Mingyang thought it was a form of repayment in kind, and he really didn't mind.

I never expected Kim Min-hee, who is usually so dignified and reserved, to be so bold and avant-garde.

They gave him something different.

When he lifted the sheet, he knew there was someone underneath.

But to everyone's surprise, Kim Tae-ri was bound hand and foot with rough red ropes piercing through her hands, feet, and neck, making her look like a frog lying on the bed.

They even put on blindfolds and earplugs...

Shivering, the Burmese bells jingled, emitting a series of melodious sounds.

Then Kim Min-hee invited him to the sofa by the bed, where drinks, tea, fruit, and a collection of ukiyo-e prints were laid out on the coffee table.

She changed into a white kimono, transforming into a lady, with a sash around her waist, and was about to personally demonstrate to him the ukiyo-e erotic paintings.

The extended and enhanced version of Miss!

Li Mingyang couldn't resist watching half of it; he had been coveting the two women for a long time.

With the Palme d'Or in hand, joy upon joy, how awesome!

Then Jing Tian knocked on the door from outside and called him.

He didn't want to pay attention, but then Jing Tian opened the door and came in.

This hotel is awful; they have absolutely no respect for guest privacy and just open the door to anyone they want.

Jing Tian didn't come in alone; she brought several maids with her.

The two gold coins were terrified, wrapped themselves in blankets, and curled up into a ball.

Jing Tian glanced at Liang Jin, said nothing, stared straight at him, and pulled him along.

What else can we do!

He could only say that he was there to discuss the script, and asked why she was there, before pulling Jing Tian away.

My heart was pounding at that moment!

I'm so heartbroken...

He's only got himself into trouble. He shouldn't have let Jing Tian be that lousy assistant director, which has prevented him from ever getting a chance to make his move.

It was a rare treat for them to come to her door, but Jing Tian got jealous and made a huge mess of things.

Jing Tian probably gave the two gold medalists a psychological trauma...

Back in the presidential suite, Mimi and Shirahama were both there.

Li Mingyang then discussed 1v3 with Tian Tian.

Sweetie immediately lectured him, saying that he was already a Palme d'Or winner and the number one director in Asia.

One should maintain a clean and virtuous lifestyle and avoid engaging in promiscuous relationships.

They also gave him legal education.

Three or more people, including three, constitute gathering a crowd to cause chaos!

This is refusing to acknowledge the debt!

Legal education?! This is abroad!

He wanted to turn hostile right then and there.

Unexpectedly, Mimi and Jingtian turned against each other first, colluding to persuade him to give up on that idea.

He didn't feel bitter about the criticism from global media; in fact, he felt quite pleased.

Despite the criticism, it doesn't affect his status at all.

Jing Tian was truly speechless. He was so controlling and always got angry with her.

"Could you...stop poking me? I just woke up."

Li Mingyang remained silent, only launching a relentless attack, purely for revenge!

Jing Tian, ​​being experienced, immediately put both feet on the ground for support, waving her arms and legs and dodging left and right.

The two sides are old rivals.

Length, depth.

Back and forth, ups and downs.

Just as Li Mingyang was about to enter the depths of Jing Tian's soul.

A head popped out from the doorway. "Mingyang, someone's looking for you outside. Quit."

Yang Mi doesn't have the same stamina and depth as Jing Tian.

She couldn't match the intensity, but she didn't want to go in and get caught in the crossfire!

"and many more……"

boo...

orz……

Jing Tian crawled away on her knees, then turned back and begged for mercy, "I can't... You should do the important work first, I need to rest..."

Li Mingyang had no intention of letting Jing Tian off the hook; he would settle both old and new scores.

Jing Tian's pleas for mercy were like crocodile tears; in reality, she was quite resilient!

"Mingyang, Director Jia and his wife are in the living room, don't go too far... Tiantian, keep your voice down, I'm going out now."

As Yang Mi spoke, her little head suddenly disappeared.

Sweetie raised her hands in surrender, "Honey, I give up. Don't keep the guests waiting too long; they must have something very important to tell you."

"Then what should I do?"

Sweetie gritted her teeth, used both her hands and mouth, and finished the job quickly!

Slurp... slurp...

……

(End of this chapter)