“Ali told you?”

Xu Lu was not surprised that Li Yishu knew about it. After all, she had called Gong Li in advance. Seeing that the other party took the initiative to bring it up, she said, “Brother Kai brought the script to me before. I read it and felt it was pretty good, but…”

At this point, Xu Su glanced at him and said, “I’m just worried about the conflict between you and Brother Kai.”

Li Yishu said, “Sister Xu, Director Chen and I have no conflicts. If you want to invest, I don’t mind. And if the script is really good, our group is also interested in investing part of it.”

Hearing this, Xu Lu carefully looked at Li Yishu’s expression.

Seeing that he didn’t seem to be joking, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, “The script is pretty good. It’s based on Ye Zhaoyan’s novel Flower Shadow. I’ll have someone bring the script to you later.”

“No need to give it to me.”

Li Yishu shook her head and said, “Just have someone send the script to my company in Hong Kong. Whether it’s for investment or not, there are dedicated reviewers.”

With the establishment of Art Media Group, there is now a standardized process for investing in any type of film.

Moreover, Li Yishu also knew a little about the movie that Brother Chen Kai was going to make from Gong Li. The original film, “Feng Yue”, was starred by Zhang Guorong and Gong Li.

This is the second time they have teamed up after “Farewell My Concubine”.

However, it is almost impossible for Gong Li to perform in the role nowadays, because she has a very bad impression of Chen Kai.

Xu Su nodded: “Okay, I’ll have someone send it to your company in Hong Kong tomorrow.”

The two chatted briefly for a few more sentences and then left.

Today, many popular directors and actors from mainland China came to the premiere of “Empress Dowager of Liao”, most of whom came for Gong Li’s face.

This is normal, since the film director Huang Lijia is not very famous, and the production unit, Liaoning Film Studio, is also unknown.

This time, he collaborated with Gong Li to shoot a historical film, and the premiere was held with such a grand fanfare that many people exclaimed that there was actually a state-owned enterprise called Liaoning Film Studio.

Liaoning Film Studio: ! ! Am I unworthy of the title?

In fact, Liaoning Film Studio was virtually unknown before today.

Although Liaoning Film Studio was established as early as 1958, when it was first created, it was mainly a news film training class and began to shoot news, documentaries, science and education films, etc.

In 1977, it was officially named Liaoning Science and Education Film Studio.

It mainly shoots documentaries on science, education, news and other subjects, and provides science education film videos for local people.

It was not until 1980 that it began to collaborate with other film studios to produce feature films.

In 1985, it was officially renamed “Film Studio”, and then in 1995, it was officially approved by the Film Bureau as a feature film producer.

In other words, although Liaoning Film Studio changed its name early, it was only last year that it became qualified to independently produce feature films for release nationwide.

“Empress Dowager of the Liao Dynasty” is the first film released by the Liaoning Film Studio and invested by an art film company after the studio obtained the feature film qualification.

“Yeshu-ge!”

Seeing Li Yishu, Jiang Qinqin happily brought Alyssa Chia and Xu Jinglei over.

“good.”

Li Yishu smiled and ruffled Jiang Qinqin’s fluffy long hair, looked around, and asked, “Where is your sister Feihong?”

“Sister Feihong is chatting with someone over there.” Jiang Qinqin pointed to a place not far behind her.

Hearing this, Li Yishu looked in the direction he was pointed and saw Yu Feihong chatting with Director Ma of Liaoning Film Studio.

When filming “Black Coal, Thin Ice” in Liaoning before, Li Yishu and others also met with Director Ma and Deputy Director Xing.

Now that they met again, Yu Feihong naturally wanted to chat with him.

So after just a glance, Li Yishu retracted his gaze, chatted briefly with Jiang Qinqin and the other two, and then started greeting Jiang Wen and others who were walking over.

time flies.

More than half an hour later.

All the guests who were supposed to come have arrived, and Gong Li also came in from outside with the director and others.

When the main creators arrived in the theater, without too much nonsense, they asked everyone to sit down and then the movie started.

The plot of the movie “Empress Dowager of Liao” begins from Xiao Yanyan’s teenage years until she takes power and becomes the Empress of Liao.

It’s this plot that seems a little familiar.

When Xiao Yanyan was a young girl, she was a lover of a Han boy named Han Derang. They were deeply in love, but unexpectedly, Xiao Yanyan was captured in the wild by the emperor Muzong of the time.

The greedy, lustful, cruel and brutal Emperor Muzong was assassinated when he asked Yanyan to spend the night with him.

After Jingzong ascended the throne, he ordered Xiao Yanyan to enter the palace and made her the imperial concubine.

After entering the palace, Xiao Yanyan tried to please Emperor Jingzong, participated in state affairs, and managed the government, but was opposed by the old ministers.

Xiao Yanyan was calm and composed in government and had a great demeanor, so she was deeply loved by Emperor Jingzong. He immediately ordered Emperor Jingzong to make Concubine Xiao the empress and run the government together with her.

During this period, Xiao Yanyan promoted Han Derang, entrusted him with important tasks, and handed over military power to him to protect her power and maintain their old relationship…

Li Yishu had indeed seen this movie in her previous life, but that was many years ago, and she could hardly remember the plot, except for some highlights. Now when she watches it again, it feels very similar to “The Empress of China” starring Alyssa Chia later.

They all had a “lover” in their teenage years. They were first favored by the old emperor, then became concubines with the new emperor, and then gradually became queens. They also promoted their former loves…

Halfway through the movie, Jiang Qinqin asked quietly, “Brother Yishu, was there really a person named Han Derang in history?”

“This…” Li Yishu hesitated. He really didn’t know whether this was real or adapted. He subconsciously looked at Gong Li who was sitting on his left.

As if she had heard Jiang Qinqin’s question, Gong Li smiled and turned her head to say:
“There is indeed such a person, and he has a special relationship with the Empress Dowager Liao. But the specific details of whether he was her childhood sweetheart are not recorded in history books, so there is no way to know whether it is true or not. However, Han Derang is still a very powerful person. He defeated the Song army in the Battle of Gaoliang River…”

As soon as the Battle of Gaoliang River was mentioned, Li Yishu had an intuitive impression of this character.

It turned out that he was among the enemy troops that forced Zhao Guangyi to ride his donkey cart at full speed.

The movie continues, and the next part is one of Gong Li’s highlight moments.

“I am the Queen of the Liao Kingdom, not an unsympathetic female demon…”

“What is Han barbarian? The seeds of the Han people in the Southern Dynasty were sown on the grasslands of the Northern Kingdom, took root and sprouted, and what bloomed were the flowers of our Khitan people…”

On the screen, Gong Li was dressed in white mourning clothes, riding on a horse, holding a whip, and was as proud as a real queen.

Li Yishu glanced at Gong Li beside her, leaned over and whispered: “Were you excited when filming this scene? My Queen.” “It’s okay, the really exciting part is what comes later.” Gong Li raised the corners of her mouth, and seemed to enjoy Li Yishu’s words “Your Majesty” very much.

Li Yishu asked back, “What about the later scenes of conquering the grassland?”

At the end of the movie, there is a scene where after Xiao Yanyan ascends the throne, the Khitan nobles living on the grassland are dissatisfied with her, a woman dominating the court, and thus rebel.

Xiao Yanyan led the army to quell the rebellion. This scene can be said to be the longest and most expensive segment in the movie.

This was all thanks to Lee Yi-su’s filming of “Red Cliff” in Inner Mongolia. Otherwise, with their crew, let alone shooting war scenes, even getting dozens of horses would probably be a bit too much money.

“Well, that scene was very enjoyable to shoot.”

Gong Li’s face showed excitement.

In that scene, although Gong Li did not wear armor and go into battle, the plot and story of the battle in the parade ground inspired the soldiers of the three armies, allowing her to experience the thrill of being an ancient empress.

Li Yishu smiled and said, “Then I am looking forward to it.”

He was definitely there during the live filming, but it was less clear during post-production.

Judging from Gong Li’s appearance now, the filming should be quite good.

As the movie continues to play, it is soon revealed that the Khitan tribes on the grassland are rebelling.

Xiao Yanyan, played by Gong Li, personally led the army to the grassland. The scenes of suppressing the rebellion were very passionate, with thousands of cavalry charging at each other. In the close-up shots, blood and flesh were flying everywhere, showing the cruelty of ancient wars.

After the rebellion was suppressed, Gong Li led his army back to Shangjing, Liao, and officially took power.

This scene was shot in the Shenyang Imperial Palace. The little emperor ascended the throne and the empress dowager Xiao Yanyan was dressed as an empress and sat next to the little emperor.

Gong Li had a stern face and was wearing a gorgeous dress with a crown and other decorations. She looked full of the charm of a mature woman, and also had the heroic spirit and arrogance that ordinary women did not have.

All the civil and military officials knelt at the feet of Gong Li, the “Empress Dowager Xiao”.

The camera freezes.

Subtitles began to appear.

“Clap clap-“

The scene burst into applause.

From the perspective of a historical drama, the movie is quite exciting. The only thing that might be criticized is perhaps the shooting technique and the fact that many aspects of the plot are not explained clearly due to time constraints.

But if you just look at it as a movie, it was still a very successful film.

Li Yishu stood up and applauded while saying, “Sister Gong Li, your queen mother costume looks great, and your makeup is also very good.”

Gong Li smiled and said, “Do you like it?”

“not bad.”

“I brought back the costume.”

Gong Li noticed that the director and others were walking to the front to give a speech, so she stood up and followed them, saying, “Little Leo, help me change my clothes tonight.”

Li Yishu was not unhappy because of Gong Li’s call of “Little Leo”. Instead, her eyes lit up.

It looks like there’s going to be a big show tonight.

The Queen Mother and the Fake Eunuch!

“I would like to thank Director Lee Yi-su for the success of this film. If it weren’t for Director Lee’s support, our film would not have been approved, and some of the war scenes in the film would not have had such good effects…”

Director Huang Lijia burst into tears as he was speaking. This movie took him a long time to shoot and he put a lot of effort into it.

Now that the movie has premiered smoothly and successfully, director Huang Lijia is extremely excited.

Not only him, but also the main creators of the crew, actors such as Gong Li, Yang Fan, and the leaders of Liaoning Film Studio, all had mixed emotions.

The film took a little over a year from preparation to release, and cost nearly 10 million yuan.

This amount of money may sound like a small amount, but you have to know that in order to get half of the share, Liaoning Film Studio almost spent all its money. Not only did it put its savings of many years into it, it also borrowed money from the bank to get the 500 million yuan.

It can be said that with a production cost of 1000 million, one cannot expect to make a profit from the mainland market alone.

The male lead Yang Fan is a little famous. He has played Zhao Yun in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and Wang Wu, the big knife in the Hong Kong movie “A Sword of Swords”, but his popularity is still too low and he can’t carry the box office.

Although the leading actress Gong Li is quite famous and can be considered one of the best actresses in both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, her ability to carry the box office is not very strong.

What’s more, he starred in a historical war film with the Khitan people of the Liao Dynasty as the main theme.

However, the only advantage of Gong Li playing the leading female role is that there is hope of selling the copyright overseas.

Liaoning Film Studio has already agreed with the people at the Art Media Group that it will send a director to participate in the Cannes International Film Festival on May 5 this year to sell the film.

With Gong Li’s fame in European and American art films, it should not be a big problem for this movie with a total investment of 10 million RMB to get one or two million US dollars in copyright fees, not to mention the long-term cooperative relationship between the Art Media Group and international film producers.

For a war-themed movie like this, it is still possible to get copyright fees of one or two million dollars.

Speaking of which, this year’s Cannes Film Festival only had one Chinese film shortlisted, which was “Goodbye Southland” by Taiwanese director Hou Xiaoxian.

In the absence of all directors from mainland China and Hong Kong this year, Hou Hsiao-hsien can be said to have performed stably. The films he shot in recent years, “A City of Sadness”, “A Puppet Show” and “Good Men, Good Women”, were all successfully shortlisted for the three major European film festivals.

However, Hou Xiaoxian is different from Zhang Yimou. He is a bit stubborn and is determined to oppose Cannes.

After winning the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 with “A City of Sadness”, Hou Xiaoxian fell into the Cannes curse and was hooked by Cannes like a black bass.

In 1993, “A Puppet Show” was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won the Jury Prize. In 1995, “Good Men, Good Women” was shortlisted for the main competition unit of Cannes but did not even get a consolation prize.

With this year’s “Goodbye South”, Hou Xiaoxian once again hit the Cannes Film Festival, as if he would not give up until he won the Palme d’Or.

In fact, Hou Xiaoxian did so.

In 1998, he directed “Shanghai Hai”, which was shortlisted for Cannes. In 2001, he directed “Millennium Mambo: The Name of the Rose”, which was shortlisted for Cannes and won the Technical Award. In 2005, he shot the romantic film “The Best Time”, which was shortlisted for Cannes.

Since 05, Hou Xiaoxian has participated in the Cannes Film Festival a total of six times. The best time he won was only a Jury Prize. After that, he only won a Technical Award and never won any awards again.

It was actually caught by Cannes and turned into a black carp, and took on the shape of Cannes.

On the other hand, Zhang Yimou was very open-minded. After two failed attempts, he decisively turned back to the Venice Film Festival. (End of this chapter)