Chapter 190: With such a gem before us, I heard you're planning to try...
After the card game that night, Li Sishi quickly went home and called Lu Yiting to tell her that director Cheng Hesheng was looking for a female lead for his next film, "Big City, Small Love".
Upon hearing this news, Lu Yiting on the other end of the phone was very satisfied and pleasantly surprised by Li Sishi's hard work: "Since the original first choice for the female lead has recommended you, and the first choice for the male lead is Leo, who has worked with you many times, I will help you contact the audition as soon as possible."
Although Cheng Hesheng's latest creative work, "Ma Gui Fan," is indeed as troublesome as its name suggests, not only did it flop at the box office but it also directly led to the acquisition and merger of Cheng Hesheng's production company... Cheng Hesheng's directing ability is still beyond doubt in the industry.
This is similar to how the two films, "Ma Gui Fan" and "Hu Nan Hu Nu," both starred Yan Yingyi as the female lead, but their box office and critical reception were vastly different. Success requires consideration of multiple factors, and one cannot dismiss everything based on a single failure.
Especially since Yan Yingyi's two Golden Film Awards for Best Actress were already quite controversial during this period, and she also announced her relationship, but not with a popular on-screen couple, coupled with the poor box office performance of other films she participated in—under such a series of negative circumstances, it was foreseeable that Yan Yingyi's box office boom would gradually fade away.
Thinking of this, Lu Yiting couldn't help but use this as a reference case to give Li Sishi a thorough lecture, telling her to either not talk about it at all, or to find some artists that are recognized and liked by the public to talk to. She almost explicitly told Li Sishi the names of those CPs that were accepted by fans...
Only after Li Sishi reiterated that she was absolutely certain she had no intention of being in a relationship did Lu Yiting nod with satisfaction and regret. Before ending the call, she reminded Li Sishi to pay attention to work-life balance and to rest as much as possible, no matter how busy she was, so as not to ruin her health. Only then did she reluctantly hang up the phone.
In the following period, in addition to continuing her studies and career, Li Sishi also had the task of cheerleading performances. To celebrate the opening of the Capital-Port City Railway, the port city and the capital jointly held a series of sports friendship activities, and the first event was a football exhibition match by the Port City All-Star Football Team.
Li Sishi thought that this was probably inspired by the precedent of ping-pong diplomacy: although Hong Kong was an inseparable part of China, the people had been away from home for a long time, and some distance had inevitably grown between them and their siblings; now, taking advantage of the upcoming year of the handover and the connection with the railway, using relatively gentle and subtle sports and cultural activities to strengthen exchanges between the two sides was a similar approach.
The story of internal communication and deep affection between the two places.
In fact, most of the plot of the movie "Big City, Small Love" is about reality and helplessness, but it also subtly describes the most representative decade of the port city through the perspective of a city's changes and two young people who came from other places to work hard.
With the performance of Shang Lanyu, whose acting skills reached perfection in this drama, preceding her, Li Sishi, even with the recommendation of the first choice and the recognition of the male lead, still couldn't help but feel a sense of loss.
Especially when she sketched out her own heroine little by little based on her memory—the indescribable contradiction of having to distinguish herself from Shang Lanyu's image which was already deeply ingrained in her mind, while also portraying her own unique heroine without changing the character's personality, made Li Sishi, who seemed very hardworking on the surface, feel apprehensive inside.
She almost messed up the cheerleading performance rehearsal because she was trying to do too many things at once. It was Yu Xiaobao, who was also a cheerleader, who noticed in advance and asked her if she was tired and needed to take a break.
Compared to Li Sishi, who has pursued a career in singing, film, and television after stepping down, Yu Xiaobao, who came in third place, has only hosted some "Women's New Look," "Afternoon Tea," and travel programs on TBL. She has been involved in various activities since then and is currently affiliated with the Celebrity Soccer Team as a member of their cheerleading squad. She has also joined the program for this exhibition match.
Yu Xiaobao used to be like this too. Compared to working in the entertainment industry, she preferred to participate in social activities, clearly indicating that she wanted to take another direction from the two conventional paths that followed the Miss Hong Kong pageant.
If Li Sishi hadn't been handpicked by the outgoing cheerleading captain, Sister Kang, to temporarily fill the captain's position, Yu Xiaobao probably would have been able to compete for the temporary captaincy for this performance. It was only thanks to Li Sishi's arrival that the others in the team gave up their ambitions to compete for the temporary captaincy.
"yes
"Ah May, you don't look well. Have you been working too hard lately?" Others chimed in.
There's really not much to say about Li Sishi—the cheerleading captain's performance moves are the most difficult and complicated, even for people with a dance background, it's strenuous to practice. But Li Sishi, with her dance and martial arts skills and hard work, managed to perfectly and beautifully perform each move.
Her talent is evident to all; and her hard work is also something everyone has witnessed.
"I'm sorry, I'll go rest for a bit first. You guys continue practicing." Li Sishi explained apologetically to the other cheerleaders, and then...
With their understanding and persuasion, they sat down on the long benches around the stadium.
Just then, the long bench next door was occupied—Li Sishi politely waved and greeted her old acquaintance, Jiang Zhiwei.
Actually, she and Jiang Zhiwei can be considered to have a connection. Back then, when she participated in the Miss Hong Kong pageant, Jiang Zhiwei was one of the hosts for both the semi-finals and the finals.
The second male lead, "Tiger," in the subsequent drama "Big City, Small Love" was also played by Jiang Zhiwei.
Jiang Zhiwei had probably heard that Li Sishi was interested in competing for the female lead role in "Big City, Small Love," so he brought up the topic and started talking to Li Sishi: "I heard you're planning to audition for the female lead role in 'Big City, Small Love'?"
"Yes, I really like this script," Li Sishi said frankly.
Jiang Zhiwei nodded: "Indeed, this script is very good, and I also really like the character of the second male lead, 'Tiger Brother'..."
That being said, Jiang Zhiwei also really liked the role, and Cheng Hesheng felt that the role suited him very well. However, the previous collaboration between the two, which even earned Jiang Zhiwei the Golden Film Award for Best Actor, "Twin Cities," had a scene where Jiang Zhiwei died. Although he acted very well, the audience couldn't help but laugh. This past incident made Cheng Hesheng worry that the audience would be distracted by Jiang Zhiwei's usual image and thus not appreciate his dramatic performance.
After all, Jiang Zhiwei's image has always been mostly that of a comical, clown-like character used for comedy. Even though his acting skills are enough to carry a serious drama, it is too easy for a comedic image to define a person.
Just like Zhou Shengyi, his success and his predicament both stem from comedy.
"And I also heard that Leo was chosen for the male lead—wow, that makes me even less likely to ask Lao Cheng for the role." Jiang Zhiwei was very self-aware of his appearance and even joked about his short and chubby figure, "Who would believe that the female lead wouldn't choose a tall and handsome guy like Leo, but instead chose a short guy like me..."
Li Sishi was amused by his exaggerated appearance, but she couldn't say anything after the movie was released.
Many people actually liked the character of Tiger more; so I simply talked about my thoughts on the movie and then mentioned that my cousin also played for a second-tier football team, at least as another topic of conversation.
Of course, there was also a bit of personal motive involved: Jiang Zhiwei was selected as a member of the Hong Kong City Football Team when he was young. Compared with other half-baked celebrity football team members who relied solely on their hobbies, he was both the captain of the celebrity football team and one of the best players with solid skills.
Even though her cousin Zhou Huiguang is different from her petite sister Zhou Huichang, his current height of 176 cm is barely above the passing grade for athletes. Compared to her good friend Zhu Yu, who was recruited from the basketball team and is actually over 2 meters tall, Li Sishi couldn't help but look for some examples to refer to for her little cousin, whose talent was recognized but whose height limited him.
"Oh, your cousin plays football too? What a promising young man!" Jiang Zhiwei perked up immediately upon hearing that Li Sishi's cousin was already a rookie on a second-tier team.
Despite having changed his career path and entered the entertainment industry for many years, Chiang Chi-wai's love for football has not changed much, so he is naturally happy to see more fresh blood joining the Hong Kong football scene.
Li Sishi smiled and said, "If there's a chance, you might be able to play a friendly match in the future."
"Hey, don't be fooled by how well they play. If they were to actually play, they might not even be at the level of Group C..." Jiang Zhiwei shook his head and chuckled. "However, the All-Star team mainly plays exhibition matches and friendly games. Maybe they'll actually have a chance in the future."
After resting for a while and feeling better, Li Sishi quickly went back to finish her practice and then went to the agreed location to prepare for the movie audition, as arranged by Lu Yiting.
He arrived a little earlier than her in the early morning. When he saw Li Sishi, he immediately greeted her with a smile and handed her a brief script: "Director Cheng is busy with other work. Take a look at the script first. We'll start formally after he comes back and you confirm that it's okay."
This is because Li Sishi has a powerful backer, has achieved certain success, and was recommended by the original first choice for the female lead. Other auditionees would not have such a relaxed atmosphere.
Li Sishi nodded, took the script, and saw that the scene she was given to try out this time was not the classic crying scene from the movie, but rather a "breakup scene" between the female lead and the male lead.
Although that classic crying scene didn't actually require a co-star, Director Cheng's choice of this scene for her probably had his own ideas and arrangements.
Li Sishi recalled Shang Lanyu's performance in this scene while looking at the script, and then erased all the images that had surfaced in her mind. She then looked at the black and white words on the script in front of her and began to redraw her own depiction of the character.
After Director Cheng finished his work and returned, Li Sishi quickly got into a ready position.
"You've memorized this part of the script so quickly?" Director Cheng was somewhat surprised, but he had no doubt about Li Sishi's memory speed and comprehension.
After all, the person in front of her was a beautiful and intelligent academic achiever who had passed numerous tests of "both beauty and brains".
Moreover, she has a good relationship with Tang Jingwen and Ling Chen, and those two should have given her a general overview of the movie.
This way, by adding details to the audition script after understanding the overall general structure, it's like continuing to draw on a pre-drawn sketch, which definitely saves a lot of time compared to auditionees without any prior experience.
"Since you think it's okay, Leo, come over and assist her, then let's get ready to begin," Cheng Hesheng said after receiving a definite answer from Li Sishi.
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