The song "Raising a Cat" kept "Yi" in the spotlight for a long time, especially after "Blue" covered it, the song's popularity reached its peak. In the video, Ning Wei seriously sang the line "I want a cat," but his expression was calm and composed, allowing fans to clearly appreciate his unexpected charm.
Fans played the video on repeat dozens of times while presenting evidence—
"Da Ning, you have a cat!"
"My God, is this the cat that the Wings Group envies so much?"
"I'm dying of laughter. I really love how cute it is that Wings and Colors cover each other's songs. I love it so much."
"+1+1+1, although the Cat Colors group singing this song has a Versailles feel to it."
"Raising Cats" is a very cute song, but neither "Wings" nor "Blue" are known for their cuteness. However, when they sing this song, fans are able to discover the cute aspects of them.
Naturally, "Raising Cats" remained a popular song on various music charts until the New Year, winning numerous awards.
In recent years, Wings has always been a prominent name in various music awards in China. Although they rarely attend award ceremonies, starting with their second album "At 23", whenever Wings releases an album that year, they always manage to win an Album of the Year award.
Unless there's a "blue" team competing with them that year.
However, compared to Blue's album release frequency, Wings is considered very diligent. Generally speaking, Wings and Blue rarely compete for awards, and their fan relationships are also harmonious.
Fans of "Blue" even felt that if the two groups didn't have such a good relationship, they probably wouldn't have seen "Blue" release any cover videos—in previous years, apart from tours and album releases, "Blue" had almost no other activities.
Even when it comes to owning cats, the "Wings" members would tease Ji Yan for being disliked by his cat, while the "Blue" members would also mention cats in interviews, praising their own cats as cute while expressing sympathy for Ji Yan being disliked by his cat.
In short, it's very Versailles.
...
After joining the filming of "Running Out of the Sky" in December, Ji Yan did not miss a single day of filming except for attending two events. The plot of this movie is relatively simple, and the set construction is not complicated. All the stories revolve around the race track. There are no dazzling special effects or dramatic plot twists, only the purest love for running.
In some ways, Ren Lu, the protagonist of "Running Out of the Sky," is similar to Gu Shan. Both are the kind of people who completely devote themselves to love once they fall in love. However, Gu Shan chooses the boundless stars, while Ren Lu chooses to be down-to-earth and run out of his own life step by step.
In the film market in recent years, sports movies have been a complete niche, with only one film a year being considered good. Even if there are any, they are usually more popular genres. In addition, these films are not usually about pure competition, but often include the confusion of teenagers and an unforgettable first love.
But this film, "Running Out of the Sky," is different. When Ji Yan was choosing a script, he valued the purity of the film. This film doesn't have any fancy plots. The protagonist just keeps running. No matter how difficult it is, he perseveres. When others say he can't do it, he tries his best to prove himself. He can overcome any harsh conditions.
Among the films that started filming this year, the crew of "Running Out of the Sky" was very low-key. The cast and crew were not particularly strong, and the total production cost was more than 30 million yuan, which was slightly higher than "Young Love Poems" and "The Vanished Murderer". However, in a year with a total box office of more than 50 billion yuan, such an investment is really nothing.
However, Ji Yan's participation brought the film a great deal of attention.
It's common knowledge that Ji Yan makes money no matter what he stars in. While he may not have the Midas touch, the box office of his films is incredibly enviable, especially "The Vanishing Murderer," which was a textbook example of a huge success, earning both box office revenue and awards. Even though Ji Yan has only starred in a small number of films, he is far ahead of the competition in terms of the number of nominations.
After learning that Ji Yan had joined the cast of this film, many industry insiders speculated about what merits this film possessed that made Ji Yan so interested.
As a result, driven by some people, investors began to favor sports films in the film market. After research, investors found that sports films usually have low costs. The only difficulty is to present high-level competition scenes to the audience. But this is not absolute. As long as the scene is exciting enough, even a student's competition can be filmed to be exciting.
This is no exaggeration; the film market today is very fond of Ji Yan.
People in the film and television industry are often superstitious. If a star has several hit movies in a row, investors will wave their checks to invest in his new film. If the actor himself has enough appeal, his choice can even make a niche subject popular. Xi Ming is one such actor. Although Ji Yan is much younger than Xi Ming, he has gradually gained box office appeal as well.
Even if the movies he stars in aren't huge hits, fans know that he at least won't star in bad movies.
Ji Yan's film appearances are not comparable to those of other actors, but precisely because he only has one film released every year or even two years, fans believe that the scripts he chooses are carefully selected.
...
"OK! This one is approved!"
The director gestured to Ji Yan from the monitor.
After filming began, everything went incredibly smoothly. Ji Yan had studied the script and analyzed the characters' psychology before joining the crew. During filming, he received guidance from professional track and field athletes and worked on building muscle—but his muscles still couldn't compare to those of professional athletes. However, the protagonist's journey to the professional arena takes place much later in the story, and by then, some of the filming will be done using special effects.
On set, Ji Yan is usually low-key and quiet.
When he thought of Ren Lu, a boy from a rural background, he felt that Ren Lu was a quiet but stubborn person, very resilient and persevering. In the movie, the protagonist also had the regret of losing a loved one. That was probably the scene that Ji Yan put the most effort into filming so far, because that scene best showed the protagonist's character - after the sadness, he still filled himself with running.
He was born to run.
The weather was very cold when filming began. Although the filming location was specially chosen to be a southern province, the temperature was still not very high. Ji Yan could only run on the track in his racing suit most of the time. Even though he was not a professional track and field athlete, he had to run with all his might in every race, to the point where his heart was about to explode.
One day, during a morning scene, Ji Yan had barely run out when he realized something was wrong. He sped up a little and felt his right foot twist outwards, causing him immediate pain that prevented him from filming. He was quite anxious, and the crew was also quite anxious, so they could only wait for him to rest before filming could resume.
The difficulties faced by "Running Out of the Sky" are completely different from those faced by "Young Love Poems" and "Black Curtain".
Aside from the time he twisted his ankle, the filming of "Running Out of the Sky" did not encounter any problems. Ji Yan himself was the biggest star in the crew, with both box office success and awards. After the movie was released, the box office and word-of-mouth would depend on Ji Yan. Therefore, during filming, the entire crew revolved around Ji Yan.
This made Ji Yan feel flattered. After all, he had worked under directors Li Xiang, Zhu Shuguang, and Qu Xiyu and often experienced their "encouragement." Although Lu Ming was also a director with a good personality, there were still some problems during the filming of "The Vanished Murder Case," and even now, Song Jing's performance is still being criticized by fans.
The "Run Out of the Sky" crew was different. With Ji Yan in charge, the atmosphere was very harmonious. In addition, Ji Yan was not an actor who liked to act like a diva. After joining the crew, he only studied the script and how to shoot better effects. Since Ji Yan was working so hard, the other actors naturally wouldn't slack off.
Therefore, the filming of "Running Out of the Sky" was one-third faster than the director's plan, and the crew officially wrapped up filming shortly after the Spring Festival.
The entire crew only had 5 days off. As the lead actor, he had one less day off than everyone else. That year, Ji Yan really wanted to spend the Spring Festival at Ning Wei's home. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. His holiday was already short, and on the day he returned, Ning Wei's hometown was hit by a heavy snowfall that hadn't been seen in many years, blocking the roads. Ji Yan had no choice but to... take Teacher Ning back to Z County first.
Things just happen in such a magical way.
In fact, Ji Yan breathed a sigh of relief. On the way to Ning Wei's house, he was still thinking about how to introduce himself. Should he say that he was Ning Wei's boyfriend, his partner, or... In short, Ji Yan wanted to establish his identity but did not want to upset Ning Wei's family too much.
If he goes back to see his brother, the pressure will fall on Teacher Ning.
Ji Yan remained outwardly calm, but his eyes were secretly observing Ning Wei's expression. He noticed that although Teacher Ning appeared as composed as an old dog, seemingly unfazed and indifferent, he could tell from the way his fingers were clenched that Teacher Ning's fingers would never be clenched when he was relaxed.
And his tense posture, and the sweat on his forehead... It's not easy to sweat in this temperature, and the temperature inside the car wasn't high enough for him to sweat.
As the car gradually entered the territory of Z County, Ning Wei looked even more tense. He had been chatting with Ji Yan or glancing at his phone just moments before, but now he didn't even look at his phone. His expression was serious and focused. Ji Yan thought that Teacher Ning was probably doing something similar to what he had just been doing—memorizing his self-introduction.
"We're almost there," Ji Yan reminded Ning Wei.
Ning Wei suddenly snapped out of her daze: "Clothes, is that alright?"
Ji Yan gave a thumbs up: "Super cool, my brother likes this kind of guy."
Ji Yan didn't know whether his brother liked it or not, but he knew that his sister-in-law liked it and Dun Dun liked it too. Many fans of "Blue" were around the same age as his brother and sister-in-law. His brother was a bit old-fashioned and didn't usually listen to music, but his sister-in-law was different. Ji Yan had even heard her hum "Blue" a few times.
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