Chapter 221: The Art of Addition and Subtraction Addition or subtraction, in film…
The so-called Golden Lotus Award is actually derived from the first characters of Jinhaimen and Lianjiang Island, which also fits the trend of major film festivals around the world using "golden brand" names.
As the oldest film awards in the Chinese-speaking world, the Golden Lotus Award in Taiwan, the Golden Film Award in Hong Kong, and the Golden Phoenix Award in mainland China are known as the three major awards in Chinese-speaking films. An actor who can win all three awards in his acting career can achieve a grand slam of Chinese-speaking film awards and become a "triple crown actor" or "triple crown actress".
However, due to the regional bias and selection bias of these three awards, let alone winning all three awards in one's acting career, winning even one of them is already the dream of many actors—especially those who are clearly talented but always lack the luck to win, whose masterpieces coincide with someone else's masterpieces, and who eventually wait their long career to finally "get their turn to win an award"...
Li Sishi's aspirations and desires for film awards were not as great as those for music awards: Firstly, it was well known that film awards had an excessive bias towards art films, while her current focus was on commercial films to solidify box office numbers, rather than specializing in art films to win awards. Therefore, it was natural that the conservative judges would dislike her, a newcomer with little experience and a "strong commercial aura".
Secondly, this era is indeed a time of great competition, with many great and lesser gods vying for her attention on the same track. Rather than having excessive hope that leads to greater disappointment, it would be better to relax and take a break. This might make it easier to approach a state of "not being arrogant in victory or discouraged in defeat."
Of course, even if you have a calm mindset, you still have to try your best when you need to. Just like when she passed away and knew she would not win the Miss Universe and Miss Universe pageants, she set her goals one or two levels lower in advance and then tried her best to achieve them.
Lu Yiting undoubtedly shared this mindset of calculating goals in advance and striving to achieve them. Furthermore, due to the somewhat superstitious nature of Hong Kong people, she specifically used her connections to arrange for Rong Juezhang, who was also attending the Golden Lotus Awards ceremony, to be Li Sishi's date. Her main motivation was to leverage his "lucky charm"—a charm that would bring good fortune to his partner but not to himself—to ensure Li Sishi's success in her first attempt at the Golden Lotus Awards…
When Li Sishi heard this "truth," she was both amused and exasperated.
But then she thought again, and her cousin was indeed the only male companion she could choose for the Golden Lotus Awards ceremony: Shang Hanyou was going to be a presenter with Tang Jingwen, and Ling Chen, Cheng Erjian, and others weren't nominated this year and were busy with work. The only exception was Rong Juezhang, because of Kong Wei, who was going to be his presenter.
Busy filming and "avoiding suspicion"
It's inconvenient for me to go, so I left a female companion's spot vacant.
Although policies have been relaxed considerably in the past two years, the gambling film series that Kong Wei and Zhou Shengyi collaborated on back then had to be made into a Taiwan-exclusive version because Kong Wei is a mainland Chinese actress and film policies at the time required that no mainland Chinese actresses could participate. Even if it was due to policy at the time, anyone would feel uneasy about being restricted by politics like this.
On the surface, it may seem like they don't care, that's just social etiquette for adults; as for what they do in private, that's something everyone tacitly avoids.
While packing her luggage, Li Sishi suddenly heard the phone ring again. She rushed forward and picked up the receiver. The caller was her old friend Sun Yuan, who was playing the role of "Xia Xiang" in the new version of "The Three Smiles Marriage".
Compared to Li Sishi's dual career path of singing and acting, Sun Yuan, who was spotted and signed by TBL after graduating from university by shooting coffee and chocolate commercials, has had a relatively "smoother" path to stardom—but only compared to supernovas like Li Sishi who have strong backing and high profiles as beauty pageant contestants.
Considering her experience as a newcomer who has only been in the industry for a few years, Sun Yuan's ability to play the second female lead and the first female lead respectively in the 27th anniversary drama "Mr. Morning" last year, and then to be promoted to the first female lead in the 28th anniversary drama "Heavenly Marriage" this year, is a result of talent, hard work and luck.
After chatting for a while, the two seemed to have returned to the close relationship they had when they filmed "Mr. Morning". That's probably how friendships are in this industry. When you don't contact someone, you can go a long time without contacting them, but as soon as you do, you can immediately restore the relationship you had before. It's like a beloved toy that has been idle for a while. When you pick it up again, you can still feel the joy you had back then.
However, besides calling to check on Li Sishi, Sun Yuan also had a question she hoped she could help with: As someone who watched the movie change from Li Sishi's version of Qiu Xiang to Kong Wei's version of Qiu Xiang, Sun Yuan could somewhat understand Zhou Shengyi's helplessness and dilemma after his favorite female lead was suddenly replaced.
Most importantly, besides not being as physically suited to the role as Li Sishi, Kong Wei also seemed somewhat out of place with the film's style. It's not that Kong Wei's acting was bad; in fact, among the entire cast, her acting was arguably second to none. The problem was that Kong Wei, a graduate of a formal acting school, was ill-suited to the "utterly eccentric" and nonsensical comedies of Hong Kong cinema.
I wasn't used to the filming style of the 20-year-old segment, and it felt awkward to act out.
Especially with Li Sishi's portrayal of Qiu Xiang, who was exceptionally charming in both appearance and age, Kong Wei used her acting skills to significantly reduce the queenly aura of her appearance and try to get as close as possible to the character of a "maid." However, for Zhou Shengyi, who has high standards for filming, this was still not enough.
The scene that was supposed to be the first appearance of the female lead, Qiu Xiang, and a stunning moment of beauty during her outing to the Hua family mansion, was not enough for Kong Wei to stand out with her simple maidservant look. In the end, Zhou Shengyi changed the script on the spot and replaced it with a group of extras with ugly makeup who lined up around the doorway to surround Kong Wei's Qiu Xiang. In the end, they managed to film the scene by using the "contrast to create beauty" approach of green leaves setting off red flowers.
"Although that's what they say, Kong Wei's acting skills are really good. Even though she herself realized the problem and felt that she was having trouble fitting in, she still managed to finish acting in Sheng Ye's new script." Sun Yuan couldn't help but sigh again when she said this.
Li Sishi laughed and said, "So, never believe a top student when they say they didn't do well on a test; they might actually have gotten 98 points..."
Kong Wei's acting skills are absolutely top-notch among Chinese actresses. She can convey a multitude of stories with just a glance. She is particularly suited to well-rounded and complex characters and scripts, which is why she has been able to win various awards smoothly since her debut.
But not everyone can act in comedy. Even highly skilled drama actors can't do comedy, which is perfectly normal. Especially since Zhou Shengyi's "nonsensical" Zhou-style comedy commercial films are quite different from ordinary commercial films. Kong Wei came to Hong Kong temporarily and was chosen because of her fame and the possibility of expanding into the mainland market. She was almost forced to take on this film, which is completely different from her usual acting style. It would be strange if she didn't have "culture shock"!
Thinking of this, Li Sishi almost felt sorry for Kong Wei: based on the above relationship, strictly speaking, the obstruction of this film shoot was not really Kong Wei's fault.
Besides the "culture shock," Kong Wei possesses a voluptuous, mature, and dignified appearance that, when paired with suitable glamorous makeup and styling, can absolutely outshine all others. Her appearance, like that of Sussrika, who competed with her for the Miss Universe title, belongs to the "Mother Earth" Gaia type. When playing charming and adorable roles, she is naturally at a disadvantage compared to fairy-like characters. This is an undeniable issue of the fit between appearance and role—something that acting skills cannot make up for. Otherwise, the term "playing oneself" wouldn't exist in the entertainment industry.
If Kong Wei were replaced with a gambling film series like the one she previously collaborated on with Zhou Shengyi...
If Kong Wei were to adopt the look of a wealthy young lady, she would undoubtedly be significantly more beautiful, and her stunning appearance would be greatly enhanced.
Unfortunately, these days there are basically no special treatments for lead actors in terms of styling. No matter how famous the actor is, if the role is a maid, then the actor has to dress up as a maid. As a result, Kong Wei inevitably suffered from the makeup and costumes required for this role.
Even though the collaboration didn't work out, the friendship remained. Besides, Kong Wei was one of the female artists she liked and admired. After saying goodbye to Sun Yuan, Li Sishi thought about it seriously and then found a time to call Zhou Shengyi.
Knowing that Li Sishi was not able to go out recently, Zhou Shengyi, who was extremely busy at the moment, did not care about the formalities of face-to-face conversations in the industry. After patiently listening to the purpose of Li Sishi's call, he smiled wryly and said, "You are right. Kong Wei is not like those gossip magazines say, who has an idol image to maintain and is afraid of looking ugly and not being able to act well. The main reason now is that she can act in anything, but we need to make her understand why she should act in this way."
"So, she can't understand or adapt to your style for the time being, so things are at a standstill?" Li Sishi asked back.
“That’s right, so when I took on this role, my key requirement for the female lead was that she had to be able to ‘let loose’…” Zhou Shengyi wiped his face and sighed deeply.
Li Sishi, this young woman, also had her own unique ideas when filming. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to persuade him to add more scenes to flesh out the female lead's character. Zhou Shengyi didn't have the arrogance of a senior when it came to such whimsical ideas that might only exist in newcomers. Instead, he tried his best to communicate and reach out to her patiently.
Many of the time-traveling, transformative inspirations come from such intellectual collisions.
"But it's quite obvious now that Cheng Jin-yan, who plays Madam Hua, adapted much faster than her..." Cheng Jin-yan was once the first choice for the female lead in Cantonese martial arts films and a martial arts film queen. After retiring from the industry for many years, she made a comeback due to business failure. She struggled and faced controversy when playing the role of Madam Hua, feeling that this "transformation" was somewhat shameful. However, after confirming that she took the role for the sake of making a living, she quickly let go of the constraints.
Not only did Cheng Jin-yan accept the action scenes originally intended for the character, but she also took on some nonsensical scenes that should have belonged to Qiu Xiang. After all, apart from her, no other actress in the film could take on the role of Qiu Xiang without affecting the character's portrayal.
What is said without malice may be taken to heart by the listener.
"Since that's the case, why don't you do what you did last time: delete or replace what needs to be deleted or replaced, and rebuild what needs to be rebuilt?"
"Construction?" Li Sishi thought for a moment and smiled slightly at the final effect of Kong Wei's portrayal. "'Qiu Xiang's' quiet and normal demeanor, which is detached from the style of the whole play, is completely contrary to the madness and absurdity of the whole play—"
"But it is precisely because of this contrast that everyone else is insane while Qiu Xiang alone remains sober."
Her extraordinary grace, kindness, and purity, rising above the mundane, would make her the perfect embodiment of the beautiful love Tang Bohu fantasized about…
"And then, with the perfect embodiment of love at the wedding ending suddenly revealing the true face of a gambler, wouldn't that create an O. Henry-esque ending, echoing the other eight gambler wives of Tang Bohu at the beginning of the movie?"
Given Zhou Shengyi's personality, he would never compromise on the quality of his work by accommodating a female lead who is "unsuited" to the role.
Classics are often written unintentionally, and this combination of movement and stillness in narrative is certainly a unique characteristic.
On the contrary, it is precisely this contrast and reversal between fantasy and reality that gives the script a more thought-provoking meaning than the original absurd and madcap story.
Li Sishi's initial suggestion was to "add" more screen time to the female lead in the film; now, based on the current situation, the suggestion is to "subtract" more screen time from the female lead while not significantly impacting Kong Wei's role.
Adding or subtracting is a difficult and subtle balance to master in filmmaking, but if done well, it can absolutely elevate the quality of a film by more than one level.
"Thank you for the ideas you provided. I will think about them carefully." Although Zhou Shengyi said this, his tone clearly showed that he had taken it to heart.
"No need to thank me. If you have the chance in the future, please give me another leading role," Li Sishi replied in a joking tone.
Even if she didn't specifically call to remind Zhou Shengyi, he would eventually figure it out. But the favor she did by taking the initiative to help solve the problem after being "let down" deserves to be noted.
One entry came from Zhou Shengyi, and the other from Kong Wei.
Don't be fooled by Rong Sheng's attempt to expand into both the domestic and international markets by relying on Kong Wei; she's just jumping on the bandwagon to get a piece of the pie!
Especially with the Golden Phoenix Awards, one of the "Three Golden Awards," without a local insider to guide her, and with its even more exclusive and stringent judging criteria than the Golden Film Awards and the Golden Lotus Awards, she didn't know how long it would take to squeeze into this complex web of personal connections, let alone compete for an award...
While Li Sishi was still muttering to herself about the cliquish nature of the Golden Phoenix Awards, Zhou Shengyi was already laughing.
Logically speaking, he does owe Li Sishi a "leading lady" role—but only if he has full control over a film and is no longer influenced by external factors.
“I would really like to make a movie about ‘myself,’ but it’s not the right time yet.” Zhou Shengyi believes that his real experience of climbing up from the bottom is definitely more exciting than many fabricated stories.
It's not that he doesn't want to film or can't film, but that he's waiting for the right opportunity.
He is waiting for an opportunity that allows him to have full control over the production, so that he can create the perfect "autobiography" in his mind.
Of course, the choice for the female lead in this "autobiography" had already been preordained: "If such an opportunity really comes in the future, I will definitely invite you... to be my female lead."
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