It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 30: A Real Man Needs No Doubt! Shortlisted...

The scene of a depressed and drunk person, which was originally scheduled to be filmed in one hour, took an hour and a half to finish.

For Liu Yifei, portraying a drunken state while remaining sober is no easy feat!
Fortunately, Lü Rui kept a close eye on her throughout the process, personally demonstrating and guiding her. In the end, he managed to help her achieve the flavor that Li Dawei wanted without touching a drop of alcohol.

"How is it? Will it pass?"

Jiang Wen stared at the screen on the monitor, then turned to look at Li Dawei.

The latter nodded eagerly: "Yes, yes, yes, the effect is absolutely amazing!"

"If a director wants to climb higher mountains, he has to achieve success together with the actors. If you don't truly respect them, how can you create a good work?"

A knife has a blunt side and a sharp side; both sides are useful, and you can't do without either. The same goes for actors; you can't just focus on their flaws and miss their strengths..."

Jiang Wen immediately started lecturing him again.

Given his seniority and status, how could Li Dawei dare to refute him?

After all, Jiang Wen had already filmed "In the Heat of the Sun" when he had just graduated from school.

This bigwig in Beijing's elite circles is someone who can stand on equal footing with his father, let alone a junior like him.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lü Rui was chatting with Liu Xiaoli, who had rushed over.

Hearing that her daughter had almost been forced to drink, her face instantly darkened: "Director Lü, we owe you and Director Jiang so much tonight. If it weren't for you two..."

"a piece of cake."

Lu Rui raised his hand to interrupt her; those concerns were clearly not appropriate to mention in front of a 15-year-old girl.

"What's going on with this film crew?" he asked, frowning.

He had heard in his previous life that Liu Yifei had suffered a lot in this debut work.

The rumors were rampant, but it was difficult to discern the truth from the falsehoods.

Liu Xiaoli frowned: "Actually, the original choice for the role of 'Bae Soo-joo' was a South Korean actress, but she couldn't come because of visa issues, so Xixi had the opportunity to take her place."

Who knew that more than half a month after filming started, that girl's visa was suddenly processed. I don't know what connections she used, but she insisted on squeezing out Qianqian to join the crew. This girl is stubborn, and she gritted her teeth and didn't give in, withstanding the pressure..."

Upon hearing this, Lü Rui glanced deeply at Liu Yifei, who was standing not far away.

He hadn't expected that this girl had been holding on for quite some time.

"Senior? Do you want a drink too?"

She hopped over, holding a bottle of Ad calcium milk, her eyes crinkling with laughter, her face radiating innocent naiveté.

"You drink it yourself."

Lu Rui's lips unconsciously curled up into a faint smile.

She recovered quite quickly, and now she has that silly look on her face again.

It was getting late, and after filming wrapped, Lü Rui and Jiang Wen left the set first.

After their interaction tonight, Liu Yifei's filming of "The Story of a Noble Family" should go much more smoothly from now on.

Moreover, the reason Liu Xiaoli left the group in such a hurry was actually to help her daughter find an acting teacher.

The person she sought out was none other than Xiu Qing!
Lü Rui was quite familiar with this person; Ouyang Ke in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and Murong Fu in "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" were his classic roles.

With him there, the subsequent filming will likely be much smoother.

Meanwhile, the entire crew of "The Story of a Noble Family" finally figured out Liu Yifei's background.

It turns out that before joining this film crew, she had also acted in the big-budget film "Mystic River," directed by Lü Rui, starring Jiang Wen, and with an investment of up to 30 million yuan, and even played Jiang Wen's daughter in the film!
Upon learning of this relationship, Li Dawei almost burst into tears.

You should have said so earlier if you had such a powerful backer! If you had said so earlier, I wouldn't have dared to make things difficult for you.
Liu Yifei: Makka Pakka?

Actually, she didn't expect that Lü Rui would bring Jiang Wen to support her.

Chen Kun, who was originally full of complaints about Liu Yifei's "bringing her own investment to join the production," has now completely lost his temper.

This girl's resources are so impressive that they intimidate him!
If I keep giving them attitude, I'm afraid I'll be cutting off my own escape route!
Since he had nothing else to do, Lü Rui spent some time preparing for his make-up exams while also visiting the set of "The Story of a Noble Family" a few times.

Every time she went to see him, Liu Yifei would smile and whisper to him, "Senior, since you came, everyone in the crew has suddenly become super nice to me! It's so strange!"

This is so typical of the entertainment industry!

She's been protected and remains innocent, so she hasn't encountered too many unsavory things yet.

But the girl in the same drama crew named Shu Chang wasn't so lucky.

Although she debuted early and acted like a little adult on set, she had no one to accompany her and had to shoulder everything herself, big or small.

If it weren't for Liu Xiaoli's occasional help, I probably would have been bullied a lot on set.

……

June flew by, and July arrived.

The thing that Lü Rui had worried about had still happened.

Liu Xiaoqing was arrested for tax evasion, with the amount involved reaching 1458 million yuan!
It's no exaggeration to say that, given the current circumstances, this amount of money is enough to buy four or five courtyard houses in the capital.

This shows just how enormous this amount is!

Getting caught for breaking the law is a normal occurrence; no one, whether a celebrity or an ordinary citizen, can escape it.

You can hide for a while, but you can't hide forever.

Logically speaking, Liu Xiaoqing is completely finished and will inevitably suffer for several years after going to jail.

But Jiang Wen is still outside!

Do you have any money left? Lend me some, I need to get someone out of trouble.

Upon receiving Jiang Wen's call, Lü Rui did not hesitate and immediately transferred 500 million yuan.

Although he disapproved of Liu Xiaoqing's illegal behavior, since she knowingly broke the law and deserved to go to jail, he had no objection to Jiang Wen's actions.

One yard owned by a yard.

The grace of dripping water is reciprocated by the fountain.

Real man!
No doubt about it!

With additional fines and penalties, plus hiring lawyers for bail, a lot of money was spent, but things finally took a turn for the better.

"I estimate I should be able to get out next year, and I will pay you back the money I owe you as soon as possible."

Jiang Wen called again, his voice betraying his exhaustion.

"No rush, you can use it first..."

We chatted briefly for a couple of minutes, then the call ended.

Lu Rui turned his gaze back to the laptop screen, staring at the headline "Chen Baolian committed suicide by jumping off a building last night," his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered that next spring, Leslie Cheung would also end his brilliant yet painful life in the same resolute way.

During the filming of "Mystic River", Lü Rui noticed that his mental state was extremely poor.

His previous role as the psychologist "Luo Zhan" in "Inner Senses" seemed to push him further into the abyss of mental breakdown.

Lu Rui had tried to persuade him several times, but with little success.

Now that his work is over, he is lost in a daze, and he might be consumed by dark thoughts again...

"I need to think of a way," Lu Rui muttered to himself.

If the two sides have no interaction in this life, then so be it.

But now that we've found our way to each other, how can we just stand by and watch him fall into the abyss?
But depression is not a disease that can be cured by injections, medications, or surgery. So where should we start?

"Jingle Bell--"

Just as he was struggling with this problem, his cell phone on the table suddenly rang.

Upon picking it up, the caller ID clearly displayed the name "Han Sanping"!

He quickly pressed the answer button, "Hello? Chairman Han?"

"Where are you?" Han Sanping's tone sounded strange on the phone.

"School! What happened?"

Lu Rui felt a little panicked for some reason. Could it be that there was something wrong with "Mystic River"?

Logically, this shouldn't be the case.

When he was doing the localization, he clearly tried his best to avoid those scenes that would be considered very taboo in China!

"Nothing much, just letting you know that Mystic River has been selected for the main competition at the 59th Venice International Film Festival. We'll head to Venice together at the end of next month."

"Oh, they made it into the competition. I thought... Hey? They made it into the main competition?!"

Lu Rui raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Although he had expected it, he did not expect it to go so smoothly.

Did the film bureau have absolutely no objections?

Does that mean we can start shooting bolder subjects from now on?
"The official website has already issued a statement."

Han Sanping hung up the phone after he finished speaking.

Lu Rui put down his phone, moved the mouse to open Baidu, and quickly logged into the Venice Film Festival's official website.

The next second, a long list of entries from the main competition came into view.

The director of "The Brothel Sisters" is Peter Mullan.

The director of "Dolls" is Takeshi Kitano.

Director of "Oasis": Lee Chang-dong.

……

Director of Mystic River: Lü Rui!

it is true!
Mystic River has been selected for the main competition at the Venice International Film Festival!

"Hahahahaha."

A burst of hearty laughter erupted in the dormitory.

"Venice, your brother Rui is here!"

Thankfully it's summer vacation and no one's around next door, otherwise it would probably scare the neighbors.

As the production company, China Film Group naturally issued a statement immediately.

As expected, major media outlets arrived and reprinted the story.

"Warmest congratulations! The suspense/thriller film 'Mystic River,' directed by the up-and-coming Chinese film talent Lü Rui, has been successfully selected for the main competition of the 59th Venice International Film Festival!"

"Following his performance at the Berlin Film Festival, up-and-coming director Lü Rui is about to compete in Venice. Let's wait and see what he can do."

"Taking advantage of this opportunity, Mystic River is expected to surpass Big Shot at the box office and win the title of the highest-grossing Chinese film of 02!"

Having just won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of the year, they're now competing for the same level of award at the Venice International Film Festival at the end of the year!

When this news was exposed, the entire film and television industry was in an uproar!
(End of this chapter)