Chapter 163 [Farewell My Concubine premiere, win as many awards as possible]

5 month 6 number.

“Farewell My Concubine” held its world premiere at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

Xu Suo used the network of connections he had built up over the past few years to send invitation letters to the film producers he knew.

Amy also sent invitations to the European and American film producers who collaborated with her on “Sword Rain” last year.

Reporters from Xinhua News Agency, entertainment reporters from Europe and the United States, and film critics from various countries all sent invitations to the premiere.

Li Yishu, Gong Li, Zhang Guorong and others stood at the entrance of the exhibition hall, welcoming every invited guest with a smile.

When Li Yishu saw Abraham and five other people coming, she immediately greeted them with a smile on her face: “Chairman Abraham welcomes you.”

“Haha, Li, I’m definitely going to come and see your work.”

Abraham said with a smile: “Let me introduce you, this is John Cerf, the chairman of the Cannes International Film Critics Week.”

Hearing that it was the chairman of the Cannes Film Critics Week section, Li Yishu smiled and stretched out her hand: “Hello, Chairman John, welcome.”

“I’ve seen your previous films, “The Postman in the Mountain” and “Sword Rain”, both of which were very good, with a strong and rich oriental style…”

After praising Li Yishu, John Sefu smiled and said, “It’s a pity that this is your third film, otherwise it would have been shortlisted for our Film Critics Week section.”

There is a strict rule in the Cannes Film Critics Week section that it must be the director’s first or second feature film.

Including “Farewell My Concubine”, Lee Ye-su has already released four films, which is why she was not shortlisted for the Critics’ Week section.

Li Yishu pretended to sigh and said, “Yes, it’s such a pity. If I had known earlier, I should have filmed “Sword Rain” later. Maybe I could have won another Film Critics’ Week Award.”

In the eyes of many people, the Critics’ Week Award may be a very exciting award, but for Lee Yi-su, it is basically dispensable. It is not a big loss if she cannot participate, after all, there are too many European film festivals.

In addition to participating in the Cannes Film Festival, “Farewell My Concubine” will also participate in the Polish International Film Festival, the San Francisco Asian International Film Festival, the American Golden Globe Awards, the American Oscars, the Asia Pacific Film Festival, the Korean Blue Dragon Film Festival, and the Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan…

Li Yishu basically lets Xu Lu sign up for all film festivals that allow it in terms of time and festival rules. These film festivals are not Category A film festivals, so there is no need to worry about not winning an award. Secondly, a large part of them are Category B film festivals, and the others are local awards, mainly for the Best Foreign Language Film.

Category A is a competitive non-themed film festival, and Category B is a competitive professional film festival. In simple terms, both are competitions. Category A is a non-themed competition, while Category B is a themed competition, which is the difference between a propositional essay and a non-themed essay.

Although many of these awards are fake awards, the country now doesn’t care whether they are fake or not. As long as you can win the award, it is an honor.

What’s more, the names of these awards are more eye-catching than each other.

At a time when Chinese people don’t know much about overseas and don’t have many channels to learn about it, when they heard that Lee Yi-su’s new film “Farewell My Concubine” had won more than a dozen awards overseas, such as the Cannes International Film Festival, the Polish International Film Festival, and the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival…

I instantly felt taller and more advanced.

Of course, Li Yishu definitely doesn’t have time to attend these awards, so Amy will be arranged to follow up on these film festivals later.

She has developed a detailed film festival strategy and will follow all of these film festivals over the next six months.

When the awards ceremony comes, Lee Yi-su will decide whether to attend in person depending on the situation. Most likely, she will only attend the Golden Globe Awards, Oscars, and Japanese and Korean film festivals.

“Excellent works will never be buried.”

John Joseph was very happy with what Li Yishu said, and said with a smile: “Although you no longer have the opportunity to compete for the Cannes Film Critics Week, you still have the Palme d’Or to look forward to.”

Abraham next to him said, “It’s not just the Palme d’Or, you can still try for the FIPRESCI Award.”

The FIPRESCI Award is an award independent of film festivals. It is organized by the International Association of Film Critics and is presented every year at the three major European film festivals to what they consider to be the best films. These awards are often presented before the closing ceremony of the film festival.

Johann Joseph nodded: “Yes, there is also the FIPRESCI Award!”

“Haha, you two chairmen, you are so polite. It’s as if I’m going to win these big awards soon.”

Li Yishu looked at the two of them talking to each other as if they were about to win an award, and said with a smile, “Everyone, let’s go in. The movie is about to start. As for whether we can win an award, we will judge after you have finished watching it.”

After Abraham, John Seph and others entered the exhibition hall, Li Yishu glanced at his watch and frowned as he said to Amy beside him, “Amy, have you notified Director Chen and the others?”

Amy said: “Yes, I even went to deliver the invitation last night.”

“That should be coming soon.”

Li Yishu nodded and said to Zhang Guorong and Xu Suo, “Sister Xu, Brother Guorong, you go in and entertain the guests first. I’ll wait here.”

“it is good!”

The two of them didn’t think much about it and went in directly. Zhang Fengyi was already chatting with reporters from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Hou Xiaoxian and others.

After everyone left, Gong Li curled her lips and said, “Why do you want me to invite Brother Chen Kai over?”

“Sister Gong Li, we all came from China together, so we can’t hurt the harmony.”

Li Yishu said with a smile: “Besides, tomorrow is the premiere of Director Chen’s “Tree”, I have to go and support it.”

Hearing this, Gong Li didn’t say anything else, but she felt that Brother Chen Kai was being a bit of a big shot. Hou Xiaoxian, who was also shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival, was already waiting inside, but Brother Chen Kai had to come at the right time.

In fact, Brother Chen Kai really arrived on time. He has attended the Cannes Film Festival several times and knows very well that it often takes a long time to wait for a movie premiere. It would be very boring to just sit there early.

Ten minutes before the official screening of the film, Chen Kai and Ni Ping hurried over, along with several main actors of “Tree”, including Chen Daoming, Jiang Wenli and others.

When Brother Chen Kai came over, he said apologetically, “I’m so sorry, Director Li, we were delayed by the traffic jam on the road!”

Gong Li rolled her eyes, but luckily she was standing at the back and no one saw it.

“It’s okay, Director Chen.”

Li Yishu said politely, “It’s good that we can catch up. There are still ten minutes before the show anyway.”

“Yes, I hope I can catch up.”

Brother Chen Kai also introduced: “Let me introduce you, this is our “Tree” actor Chen Daoming, this is Jiang Wenli.”

“Hello, Mr. Chen, Miss Jiang…”

“Hello Director Li. X2”

After a brief greeting, Li Yishu warmly invited them into the exhibition hall and arranged them to the pre-arranged viewing seats. Then he asked Amy to notify the projectionist to prepare for the screening.

After sitting down, Gong Li went to sit directly to the right of Li Yishu and said, “This brother Chen Kai is really pretentious. Look at the way he walks leisurely. He doesn’t look like he is in a hurry at all.”

Li Yishu smiled and said, “Some things are good to know.”

Jiang Qinqin was confused: “Brother Yishu, what are you talking about?”

“Don’t ask questions, kid. Just watch the movie.”

Li Yishu touched her hair.

“I’m not small.”

Jiang Qinqin snorted coldly and patted Li Yishu’s hair away.

She is not small anymore. When she was shopping for clothes with Gong Li in Hong Kong, the salesperson measured her and said it was a B cup.

A, B, C, D and so on. Even though Jiang Qinqin didn’t quite understand, she knew that cup B was not small.

Seeing Jiang Qinqin’s sudden change of attitude, Li Yishu smiled and coaxed her a few words, thinking that the girl just didn’t like others saying she was young, completely unaware that what she cared about was not her age.

The movie starts~~
The total length is 176 minutes.

Compared to the 171-minute version that Li Yishu had seen, he shot an extra 5 minutes of plot, mainly to better extend Cheng Dieyi’s psychological changes, two of which were scenes of the young Cheng Dieyi.

The original version changed a bit too quickly, so Li Yishu added some drama.

It shows the audience how the young Cheng Dieyi was forced from a man to a woman step by step by the social environment at that time.

There’s nothing surprising about the opening overpass scene.

Brother Chen Kai watched the whole process. He wanted to see how “Farewell My Concubine”, which he had been invited to direct, would turn out after being filmed by Lee Yi-su.

After reading the novel, Brother Chen Kai immediately rejected it and said that he would never film such a third-rate romance novel.

So later, after being picked up by Li Yishu to film, Brother Chen Kai did not get angry. Instead, he secretly laughed at Li Yishu for being able to film works that the great director Chen did not like.

Although I don’t think much of the original novel, the movie has already been made, and it was directed by the young director Lee Ye-su.

Brother Chen Kai naturally wanted to come and see in person how Li Yishu turned a third-rate novel into a film shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival.

He also believed that the novel was third-rate, and that the movie, even if it was shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival, would still be inferior to his “Tree”, which took him seven years to polish.

(End of this chapter)