I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 194 Acting!

The blood-red subtitles on the screen, "No one was injured during the filming of this movie," remained frozen for several seconds, and the theater fell into a brief silence.

Liu Jiasheng stared intently at the line of text, his gaze gradually shifting from initial suspicion to complexity.

The cold air from the air conditioner blew down from above, but the hairs on the back of Liu Jiasheng's neck stood on end. He had initially thought that the "death of Zhou Yang" that was spreading like wildfire across the internet was a publicity stunt deliberately created by Zhou Yang's team for the movie "The Mine," but at this moment, this direct and cold statement seeped into his mind like water seeping into a mine.

The rustling sound of a popcorn bag came from beside me.

A young man in a baseball cap in the front row suddenly scoffed, "Playing it pretty seriously, huh?"

The sound was particularly jarring in the silence.

Liu Jiasheng frowned and looked over, discovering that the person was secretly filming the screen, the lens reflection casting will-o'-the-wisps of green in the darkness.

He recalled the frenzied reposts under the hashtag #ZhouYang'sPosthumousWorks# on the trending topics list last week, and his stomach suddenly felt acidic.

Then, looking at the screen, this line of text, devoid of production information and film title, seemed like a powerful counterattack, as if telling everyone that Zhou Yang disdained using his own death to hype up a movie, and even more like a slap in the face to those media outlets and websites that profited from human suffering.

Whispers began to ripple through the screening room; some seemed to understand immediately, while others remained skeptical. Liu Jiasheng's fiancée, Zhang Ying, gripped his hand tightly and whispered, "Does this... mean Zhou Yang is really alright?" Liu Jiasheng didn't answer, but his nerves tightened slightly as he focused intently on the film.

He had a feeling that this film might be unlike any of the films Zhou Yang had made before.

Just at this time!
In the screening room, the lights on the dark screen came on again.

Looking at the camera on the screen, Liu Jiasheng was slightly taken aback!
The film footage is slightly shaky, and the rough image quality is full of dust particles. It doesn't look like it was shot with a professional movie camera; instead, it looks more like the quality of footage shot with a regular DV camera.

But such shots give people an indescribable sense of realism!
Immediately afterwards, the camera, from a first-person perspective, slowly descended into the depths of the mine, and the surrounding lights gradually changed from bright to dim.

Only the faint glow of the miner's lamp trembled, as if it might be swallowed up by the endless darkness of the mine at any moment.

As the camera slowly moved forward, Liu Jiasheng heard a series of rapid, labored breaths...

The breathing grew stronger and stronger, as if the person holding the miner's lamp in the camera was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe in the darkness.

This recurring sense of oppression caused Liu Jiasheng to have a physical reaction, and he even couldn't help but quicken his breathing!

Immediately afterwards...

"Snapped!"

Suddenly, the camera jerked violently!
The man seemed to have stepped into thin air, his body sliding rapidly downwards. The camera spun around him as if he were desperately grabbing at something.

The camera began to drop rapidly, and the rock walls on both sides suddenly approached in the dim light. The rough, jagged, coal-black stone surfaces almost grazed everyone's cheeks...

After finally regaining his balance, the light from the miner's lamp flickered again, illuminating the narrow passage less than half a meter in front of him.

The camera no longer peers down, but moves forward, but the space becomes increasingly narrow and cramped!

Liu Jiasheng's breathing quickened once again!
The documentary-style realistic scenes, accompanied by the ever-increasing panting sounds in the film, combined with the gradually narrowing mine from a first-person perspective, use both "visual" and "auditory" methods to instantly pull the audience into the world of the film, as if they are in sync with the entire movie!
Immediately afterwards, the miner's lamp was placed on the ground, and the owner in the first-person perspective appeared to be sitting on the ground resting.

In the desolate and dark mine, an old-fashioned Novya mobile phone appears in the frame...

The signal was intermittent, with faint sounds mixed in...

"The director said that documentaries must be authentic. If you film half an hour of a landslide escape, the German judges will love that and ask for more money after you finish filming..."

"Boss, the support timbers in this mine are all rotten and leaking. Maybe I should go to another mine? I... I'm just an ordinary miner. This place is the most dangerous collapse zone. I... I regret it. I'll go up..."

"Nonsense! How can you win an award if it's not dangerous? Don't worry, the safety ropes and everything are there... Remember, the camera needs to be aimed at the rotten wood later. The director said foreigners love to see this. If you shoot it well, I'll give you 1000..."

"Is the rescue team ready? Hello? Hello! Hello!! Boss, boss!!!"

"..."

on the screen.

The faint light from the Novia phone flickered in the darkness; the signal was completely lost.

Deep inside the mine, only the dim yellow light of the miner's lamp illuminated the water-seeping rock walls around them. The supporting timbers beside them had long since rotted and turned black from being soaked in the seeping groundwater, looking as if they would break at the slightest touch...

As the audience stared at the screen, almost everyone felt a sense of oppression emanating from it, making them hold their breath.

Immediately afterwards, an eerie silence descended upon the film.

The silence was unsettling, broken only by the trembling camera and the sound of panting in my ears.

Deep within the pitch-black mine, it resembled the gaping maw of an abyss, as if some terrifying and ferocious monster might pounce at any moment...

A sense of unease suddenly surged up along with the camera lens!
Next!

The camera suddenly started shaking violently!

Next!

"boom!"

A muffled thud came from overhead, accompanied by the rustling sound of gravel rolling down.

The next second, the scene spun around, the miner's lamp was buried under the falling coal, and darkness completely swallowed everything...

"Boss! The mine has collapsed! Call the rescue team immediately!"

"Boss, boss! This landslide isn't right!"

"Not in accordance with..."

"boss!"

In the darkness, the lights gradually came on. A figure frantically shoveled away the coal ash, grabbed his phone with trembling hands, and frantically dialed a number, but only a busy tone came through the receiver.

A series of rapid busy tones indicated that the call had been connected.

but……

But no one answered!
"Hello? Boss? Hello!"

"Boss, boss, help me, boss!"

"Boom!" Just then, a huge rock suddenly crashed down from above!

With a piercing scream, the scene went dark again, only to be illuminated by a sliver of light a moment later.

The phone, which had fallen to the side, was answered at that moment...

"Hello? Hello? Say something while you're alive!"

"..."

"Damn it, are you dead or not?! If you're not dead, fucking get out of here, stop pretending!"

"..."

A string of curses came from the other end of the phone.

After the shouting, there were trembling voices, seemingly those of the staff.

"Boss, the explosion we just did seems to have a chain reaction. The collapse is abnormal. Could people really be..."

"What's the panic? It's just a mine collapse, no one's dead... We'll deal with it tomorrow. Sending out rescue teams now will cost extra. Which group, has that group responded yet? Did the miners from that group also get caught in the collapse?"

"Tell the director we need extra pay for scenes with dead bodies, understand?"

"..."

The phone call was filled with the wailing of a miner's family member: "Mr. Li! My brother is still down there!"

"Don't worry, if he dies, we'll compensate him 100,000 yuan; if he doesn't, he's lucky to be alive... By the way, have him sign the 'voluntary mine-going' agreement, so those dogs in the safety supervision bureau don't catch him red-handed!"

"But……"

"One hundred thousand isn't enough? How about one hundred and fifty thousand? A bunch of vampires, damn it!"

"..."

"Go, contact the director and tell him to come here right now. Tell him we filmed a 'real mining accident' for him!"

"..."

In the darkness, intermittent conversation could be heard, then abruptly ceased!

The signal was interrupted again.

The screen went dark again.

Only the faint, fading breaths remained deep within the mine...

……

In the screening room!

Liu Jiasheng was stunned!

His expression gradually became serious!

This movie doesn't deliberately exaggerate despair, but it's pervasive with despair, sending chills down your spine!

What shocked him even more was!
This movie is so bold it's frightening!
The dialogue is designed to highlight how capitalists view "mining disasters" as a tool for profit, and even deliberately create danger in exchange for "artistic value," seemingly satirizing the distorted pursuit of "suffering narratives" by some film festivals.

wrong!

Not as if!

It should be said that it completely tears apart the essence of Western film festivals and presents it harshly to everyone!

Liu Jiasheng subconsciously sat up straight.

He stared intently at the screen.

On the screen, there was still endless darkness.

But his breathing grew heavier and heavier, interspersed with faint coughs and painful screams...

The screams sent chills down Liu Jiasheng's spine. His fiancée, Zhang Ying, standing beside him turned pale, gripping the armrests of the movie theater chair so tightly that her fingernails dug into the fabric, yet she remained oblivious.

Apart from her, all the other viewers in the theater stared intently at the darkness of the screen, listening to the struggles and cries of pain inside!
Their expressions gradually shifted from curiosity to astonishment.

They realized this was not a performance, but the beginning of a disaster!
The darkness lasted for several tens of seconds, and the sounds of pain also lasted for several tens of seconds...

Just when everyone's hearts were in their throats, the phone screen lit up again!
The lit-up phone screen illuminated a trembling, bloody hand, covered in wounds, with flesh torn apart, and even revealing the bare white bone.

It is clear that the owner of this hand was seriously injured in the landslide.

The "palm" quickly and excitedly taps to open the phone.

As I turned on my phone, I heard even more intense breathing; the person in the movie seemed to be desperately checking something!
It seems the cell phone signal has disappeared again!
Then, that hand suddenly began to tremble violently...

In the dim light, it convulsed violently, and in one of these convulsions, the phone slipped from its hand and fell to the ground.

A few seconds later, a wail, mixed with howls and cries of pain like those of a wild beast, echoed wildly across the screen...

Anger, despair, sorrow, pain...

A variety of emotions seemed to penetrate the screen and impact Liu Jiasheng's heart.

Liu Jiasheng stared intently at the screen.

On the screen.

The camera shifts to a close-up of the phone screen lying on the ground!
A text message appeared on the phone screen.

The rescue team is fake... The director and the boss are waiting for us to die.

this moment!
The darkness in the screening room continued to spread, as if merging with the mine on the screen...

(End of this chapter)