Chapter 289: A slight shift in role positioning...

Hearing this extremely typical Cantonese accent with no distinction between flat and upturned tones, Li Sishi turned her head blankly to look at Ling Chen, who had a look on her face that said, "I've tried my best to remind you."

Finally, when Li Sishi's gaze left Shang Lanyu and returned to him, Ling Chen gently shook his head, his eyes filled with helplessness and a hint of schadenfreude...

Recalling her hesitant demeanor when she visited the set in the early hours of the morning, and listening to Shang Lanyu's death rock version of "Sweet Love Song," Li Sishi took a deep breath, suppressed the raging storm in her heart, and finally managed to force a smile, signaling Shang Lanyu to pause for a moment and prepare to continue the previous topic after filming the MV footage.

"I didn't sing off-key this time, did I? I practiced this song for a long time before..." Shang Lanyu looked at her intently.

“Well, strictly speaking, there was no off-key singing—” Li Sishi hesitated for a moment, then answered with a bitter face.

The main problem with Shang Lanyu's singing this time was her accent, which is probably more difficult to correct than being off-key...

Just like Shang Hanyou, who is known as the second generation of singing god and has released a lot of Mandarin songs, he can be considered one of the more Mandarin-speaking singers in Hong Kong. But before, Li Sishi was able to hear him singing the legendary "Blue Pear Bay" very hard at a charity event.

The inability to distinguish between flat and retroflex consonants is a common problem for most Cantonese speakers when speaking Mandarin. This presents a different challenge compared to Huang Qianyan's Taiwanese accent. For a while, Li Sishi didn't know how to handle this issue.

"You go ahead and do your thing. I'm not in such a hurry." Seeing that Li Sishi seemed to be having trouble because of her, Shang Lanyu took the initiative to smooth things over.

"Yes, I'll think about it carefully." Li Sishi nodded.

Shooting MV footage was obviously much easier than filming dramas before. After all, Li Sishi and Ling Chen had worked together a lot before, shooting a series of MV-style commercials and music videos for Luo Ji Telecom. And Shang Lanyu at this stage was a top-tier actress who could make people imagine countless stories just by standing to the side with a blank expression.

Moreover, all three are handsome men and beautiful women who are very suitable for eye acting. Under Li Sishi's "timeless" vision and design, the atmosphere between the three is quiet yet contains turbulent undercurrents. It looks so reserved and quiet, but it is more intense than those roaring or explosive performances.

However, what Li Sishi didn't expect at this time was that the song "Red and White Roses," whether in Mandarin, Cantonese, or a Mandarin-Cantonese hybrid, was so...

It perfectly captures the atmosphere of a love triangle, so this song was frequently used in various contexts and by many early video editors to create music videos depicting her in a love triangle with two other people...

The male lead, Ling Chen, who already appeared in the movie "Big City, Small Love" and the music video "Red and White Roses," is naturally indispensable. However, after seeing too many traditional love triangles, people get tired of them. So, some unconventional approaches have started to emerge. For example, if you slightly switch the roles of Ling Chen and Shang Lanyu, the male lead, who was originally caught in the dilemma between two beautiful women, is instantly transformed into a despicable third party who destroys the touching love story of the two beautiful women...

The funniest one is this unconventional and unexpected version featuring lesbian themes.

The popularity and acceptance of this style of music among the locals in the port city is quite good.

At this time, the entertainment industry in Hong Kong was greatly influenced by Western ideas. Film and literary works contained many scenes depicting same-sex relationships, and some were even the main plot.

Therefore, while people may not readily accept this kind of emotion and view of love that differs from the traditional one in reality, they adapt well to its depiction in literature or film and television, and may even support it more than traditional emotions. What they cannot accept or achieve in reality becomes a beautiful dream that is easy to be captivated by when placed in a story full of fantasy and surrealism.

Of course, at this early morning, he certainly has no idea that while filming this, he was doing the double work of being the male lead and the male mistress for free cameo fees...

So after he smoothly finished shooting the footage that Li Sishi needed, he asked her in a gentle and kind voice, "Is this okay? Would you like to do another scene?"

"No need, film is free, you really are. You might even shoot a lot more tonight..." Li Sishi quickly climbed out of the narrow bed, looking exactly like a heartless scumbag who would take advantage of someone and then run away...

In the early morning, feeling a little dazed, I sat up in my small bed and saw that Li Sishi was still wearing the pajamas she wore for the scene. I hurriedly ran over to exchange business cards with Shang Lanyu and chatted intimately. I felt a little strange, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Perhaps it's because filming has been too mentally taxing lately that I'm feeling a bit listless.

After all, although he had a lot of screen time, his character was particularly bland, almost like a glass of plain water that you could see the bottom of at a glance. With such a character, he had to act opposite Shang Lanyu, who was at the peak of her acting skills and whose character was particularly intense. Every time he had to put in his best effort, he had to act opposite her.

This pressure wasn't just on him; some had even fewer scenes.

Li Sishi also plays an equally important role.

However, since returning from Kangcheng, Li Sishi's acting skills and understanding of the character have clearly improved. In her tense moments when facing Shang Lanyu, she also exudes a sense of relief, as if she has finally met her match. She is no longer in a state of constant tension like before.

Rather, it's a feeling of gradually getting used to "balance between tension and relaxation".

I recall Rong Juezhang saying that Shang Lanyu was actually just a pretty face in her early days, and it wasn't until she filmed more than a dozen movies that she gradually "got it" – perhaps Li Sishi was the same after returning from Cannes.

Although he didn't know what Li Sishi had gone through in a foreign country to become what she is now, seeing that the person he cared about so much was clearly developing in a positive direction, he secretly resolved to continue to work hard while also being genuinely happy for Li Sishi's transformation.

Seemingly sensing his gaze, Li Sishi casually glanced in the direction of dawn after finishing her conversation with Shang Lanyu, and immediately received a smile from him that was both encouraging and blessing.

So Li Sishi smiled, raised her fist, and returned his gesture of working together.

The filming of "Big City, Small Love" is still in full swing, but Li Sishi has gradually begun to adapt to the pressure and pace. The second day's scenes were completed smoothly on schedule. Then, during the evening when she didn't have any scenes to film, she went to the recording studio to record songs and discuss the subsequent work plans with Lu Yiting.

"Beauty on the High Platform" is currently scheduled for release in early July, so after she finishes filming her scenes in "Big City, Small Love," she will need to start promotional activities to coincide with the film's release date.

At the same time, she also definitely needs to take advantage of the summer vacation to finish the third installment of the "People in the Jianghu" series, which is scheduled for release in August. Fortunately, as the "People in the Jianghu" series has progressed, the romance between the male lead He Nan and the female lead Si Si has gradually given way to the development of the gang's business. In addition, this series does not require the meticulous crafting and polishing of art films, so the schedule for promotional activities and the film shooting schedule should be able to be staggered, and there may even be some time left over.

But in the entertainment industry of Hong Kong, an artist who is on the rise can have their schedule packed full of appointments, but there can be no time left over.

"I spent a long time choosing this script for you," Lu Yiting sighed. "You know, after you won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award, you received so many scripts..."

Unfortunately, while there are plenty of scripts, few roles and stories are suitable—there are high-popularity, high-grossing projects.

Even with her Cannes Film Festival Best Actress title, Li Sishi wouldn't fare much better in a commercial film script featuring a powerful male actor like action star Lung Sheng.

As for those art-house film scripts that seem to allow female characters to shine, Li Sishi has "Beauty on the High Platform" before and "Big City, Small Love" after. If she continues to focus on art-house films to hone her acting skills, she will soon lose the box office advantage that she has worked so hard to build.

Even if the box office performance of the best actors and actresses is poor, it is difficult to win the favor of people in the industry. Therefore, Lu Yiting tried to select scripts that could highlight the female lead and have a relatively "light and pleasant" storyline. She planned to let Li Sishi avoid the New Year's season with its many big names and instead use the light comedy genre that is most suitable for her to occupy a good position in the Christmas season with the most young audience.

This would perfectly encompass all of Li Sishi's upcoming timelines—the release of "Beauty on the High Platform" in July.

In August, there's the third installment of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". In September and October, there will be preparations for a new album and concerts, and in November, I will go to Japan to participate in a song festival as a disciple of Le Yun. After returning, there will be a concert, followed by the Christmas season, and there will also be a movie to be released. The general direction for the second half of the year is basically all arranged.

Li Sishi expressed no objection to Lu Yiting's arrangement, and then carefully read the top script that Lu Yiting had placed in the stack: "This story is indeed quite interesting, but it seems like I've seen it somewhere before..."

“It’s an old foreign movie. Their company bought the remake rights. I checked the original film and the reviews and box office were good, so I put it first,” Lu Yiting explained. “Originally, their company planned to cast Dong Kehong, but due to various factors, it was delayed and the cooperation was not officially finalized.”

"After Dong Kehong got married two years ago, she faded out of the film industry and stopped taking on roles. Originally, this script, which needed a strong female lead to be able to carry the show, was already planned to be shelved indefinitely. Unexpectedly, you have made a strong comeback in the past two years. So after going around in circles, this script was sent to us to see if we could find you, the newly crowned Best Actress, to take the role."

While explaining why the script had been kept until now, Lu Yiting lightly tapped the script titled "The Beautiful Woman's Seven Marriages" with her finger: "Don't worry, your 'husband' actor and I already have a shortlist of candidates. We guarantee they are all handsome men who can both look good and act well..."