weddingnovel Chapter 76 Suggestions and Brief Campaigning
Chapter 76 Suggestions and Brief Campaigning
It's Anne Hathaway; the English text on the screen appears rather small.
Lin, I just received a notification from CAA that Brokeback Mountain has been officially selected for the main competition at the Venice Film Festival in September!
Li (Li An) hopes I can go to Italy with the film crew to walk the red carpet. If everything goes well, I can fly directly to Toronto to meet you after Venice. How are you doing in China? —Anne
Looking at the text message, Lin Ruiyang rested his forehead on his hand and couldn't help but chuckle softly.
As a prophet with a rebirth perspective, the image that instantly flashed into his mind was a film representing a minority group that was about to completely rewrite the historical status of Chinese directors in Hollywood.
At this time, Annie was just a girl who desperately needed to prove her acting skills.
Lin Ruiyang moved his fingers and replied in an almost certain, prophetic tone:
[Anne, congratulations! And please give my regards to Director Li An. I have a small suggestion: when you go to Venice, remember to have your stylist prepare your most formal and dazzling gown in advance.]
If my intuition is correct, this year's Golden Lion, the highest honor at Venice, is destined to belong to Brokeback Mountain. See you in Toronto; then you'll be an actress adorned with the Golden Lion's halo.
On the other side of the ocean, in Los Angeles at dawn.
Anne Hathaway stared at the reply in front of the dressing mirror, completely stunned.
Even Li An himself hasn't dared to speak so confidently. How could this young Chinese director be so certain about the Golden Lion Award?
For some reason, seeing the undeniable confidence in Lin Ruiyang's words, Annie's heart skipped a beat, and she felt a surge of curiosity and anticipation for the upcoming trip to Venice.
Meanwhile, in an old residential area in Yanjing.
Nineteen-year-old Yang Mi was sitting cross-legged on her fabric sofa in her home, completely unladylike, and was yelling at the kitchen:
"Hurry, hurry! Mom, bring me your phone! Dad, don't forget yours!"
The television was playing "Super Girl," the talent show that swept across China this summer and sparked a nationwide frenzy.
From July 15th to August 26th, there will be a series of national finals matches.
On the screen, Li Yuchun, Zhou Bichang, Zhang Liangying and others are standing on the stage, and the fans below are waving glow sticks wildly, with the screen filled with the text message vote counts.
"Oh, you silly girl, all you ever do is mess around with this." Yang Chunling handed over the phone with a hint of helplessness.
"What do you know! Bibi's vote count is in danger tonight!"
Yang Mi snatched the phone, skillfully entered the number, and started typing rapidly on her Nokia phone.
After using up all the voting quota on her three phones, Yang Mi looked at Li Yuchun's unstoppable vote count on TV and suddenly slumped onto the soft cushions of the sofa in frustration.
"Sigh, it's still not enough, the corn is too crazy."
As Yang Mi stared at the gradually darkening black screen in her hand, the image of Lin Ruiyang suddenly and inexplicably flashed through her mind.
My senior is so successful in Hollywood, I heard that his company in China has also hired a lot of employees.
If my senior could get his company to help vote for Super Girl, how many SMS votes would that be?
Once the idea popped into my head, it grew wildly like weeds.
Yang Mi bit her lower lip, and her pink earlobes turned inexplicably red.
But as soon as she saw the number of votes Zhou Bichang desperately needed on TV, that impulsive, headstrong impulse of the Beijing girl came back.
"Whatever! The worst that can happen is I'll get laughed at by my senior!"
Yang Mi took a deep breath and, forcing herself to speak, began editing on QQ:
"Senior Lin, how's your jet lag going? (smiling face) Um... I don't know if you watched 'Super Girl' tonight? The competition is so fierce right now!"
Um... if you have a spare moment, could you perhaps get your company's employees, or your local contacts, to vote for contestant number 1, Zhou Bichang? (Pleadingly) Just consider it supporting our domestic music industry! Thanks, senior! I promise I'll be much better next time we meet!
After pressing the send button, Yang Mi threw her phone onto the sofa, covered her face tightly with a cushion, and wailed inwardly:
"Yang Mi, Yang Mi, you've gone mad! You actually tried to get a girlfriend from your senior! You'll never get a chance to work on his set!"
After the phone was thrown, it bounced once on the sofa and then slowly slid to the armrest.
Yang Mi buried her face in the pillow, feeling increasingly ashamed.
She could even picture Lin Ruiyang's bewildered expression when he saw the message.
It's absurd no matter how you look at it.
"It's all over, it ......"
Yang Mi rolled around on the sofa, clutching her head.
Before she could even finish regretting it, the Nokia phone next to the sofa suddenly beeped.
Her movements suddenly froze. A few seconds later, the girl slowly retrieved the phone like a thief.
On the screen, the QQ avatar is flashing.
Yang Mi's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly clicked on it.
The chat box contained only one line of text:
"Zhou Bichang? You like this style?"
Yang Mi sat up straight instantly.
She started typing rapidly:
"Yeah! She sings incredibly well!"
"And she's not the conventionally pretty girl, but she has a really unique personality as soon as she opens her mouth."
"Now a lot of people online are criticizing her appearance, saying she's not suitable to be a celebrity, which I find particularly absurd."
After posting, Yang Mi felt she had said too much.
The next second, the other person replied, "It's fine."
On the other side of Yanjing.
One is Hollywood's future sweetheart, undergoing a transformation for art and awards.
One is a 19-year-old girl from mainland China who is still struggling in school and has become a "data worker" for her idol.
The undercurrents across the ocean and the revelry of the mainland's rough-and-tumble era inexplicably converged across time and space in Lin Ruiyang's mobile phone.
Meanwhile, Yang Mi kept receiving messages in the QQ window.
"Senior, senior, haven't you watched Super Girl?"
"This year is really outrageous!"
"Many people across the country are voting via text message right now!"
"Some students in our class even go to internet cafes in the middle of the night to browse online forums and solicit votes!"
Lin Ruiyang stared at the rapidly popping-up messages and suddenly felt a little dazed.
He, as a reborn individual, knew better than anyone how crazy this year's "Super Girl" was; it was practically the first truly nationwide star-making movement in China's entertainment industry.
In an era before Weibo existed and smartphones were still a distant dream, a talent show managed to create a nationwide media frenzy.
SMS polls, online forum campaigning, fan sites, support culture...
These things, which were later overused and overused in the Chinese entertainment industry, are still in their most primitive and wildest nascent stages.
In some ways, "Super Girl" is more of a symbol of an era than many later blockbusters.
Because it made ordinary people realize for the first time that celebrities don't necessarily have to be high and mighty, and that ordinary girls can also stand in the spotlight overnight.
"Suggest an employee vote?" A strange look flashed in Lin Ruiyang's eyes.
He made a random phone call.
"Fatty."
A groggy voice came from the other end of the phone:
"...ah?"
"Still not asleep?"
"I was just getting ready to sleep, what trouble are you causing now?"
Lin Ruiyang couldn't help but laugh out loud on the other end of the phone: "Have someone from the company help send out text message polls."
"What the heck?"
The fat man was completely dumbfounded.
"For those who didn't vote for 'Super Girl,' vote for Bibi Zhou next week, and then I'll treat everyone to a meal out of my own pocket."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"...You called me in the middle of the night just for this?"
"Um."
"Are you sick?" The fat man was now fully awake.
"The company still has a ton of things to work on, and you want me to organize employees to go on a celebrity chase?"
"It's part of the company team building activities."
"Team building my ass!"
The fat man grumbled and cursed, but despite his grumbling, he still agreed.
After all, there are only a few people at Vanguard Pictures right now, so it wouldn't actually cost much to get things going.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Ruiyang reopened QQ.
"Okay, I've had everyone in the company submit their applications."
Almost immediately, the QQ avatar started flashing wildly.
"Really?! Senior, you're so kind!!!"
A string of random exclamation marks followed, and Lin Ruiyang could even picture Yang Mi excitedly flapping her wings.
"Don't worry, senior, I'll definitely study hard from now on! I promise I won't let you down when I get to the film crew!!"
Lin Ruiyang couldn't help but chuckle as he read these words. This girl really did treat getting into the production team as a long-term goal.
He was about to reply to the message when his phone suddenly vibrated again.
This is a short message.
"Lin, Ang Lee just read your prediction for the Golden Lion and laughed for a long time. He said if you really win the award, he'll treat you to drinks in Toronto."
Lin Ruiyang looked down at the text message; no one knew better than him what this year's "Brokeback Mountain" truly meant.
This represents a breakthrough for minority groups and their rights in every sense of the word.
Now that he's standing at this point in time, as someone who's seen the answer beforehand, he knows who will win.