Actor: My Entertainment Era

Liu Yifei is very famous in Asia. It is no exaggeration to say that she is the number one young actress in Asia. She is the only one among the top three film queens of the post-80s generation in Asia.

Although "The Witch" is only a low-budget production, the Thai co-production team attached great importance to this cooperation and took a few extras who only appeared in the crew and had a few lines to do favors for the Thai side.

For example, the father and son who sell feed are played by local Thai actors. Liu Yifei doesn’t even know their names, mainly because their names are too long and Liu Yifei can’t remember them.

In the entertainment industry, it doesn't matter if you use connections or take backdoors. It can even be said that in the entertainment industry, what matters most is who has stronger connections and who has a stronger backer.

But there is a prerequisite, you really have to have some ability. Otherwise, even if you get the resources through connections, you can't control them, the audience will still scold you, and the investors will replace you anyway if they think your performance is not good.

The 19-year-old Zhao Ruth is such an actress with connections but no talent.

It's not that we despise her, but her performance in the first few days on the crew really makes people wonder who is behind her, and how could she be given to Liu Yifei to lead.

They are not from a professional background, are young, and lack both talent and experience. Such new actors are a burden in any crew.

She plays the role of Liu Yifei's classmate and best friend. According to Liu Yifei and Lu Yang's previous expectations, such a student girl and a newcomer of this age can completely play herself.

How worse can it be?

But both Lu Yang and Liu Yifei were wrong.

She is really bad.

It’s okay if she fails one or two, but when she fails eight or ten, Lu Yang starts to curse.

People with connections still get scolded!

Lu Yang didn't indulge her: "It's not that hard to play a school girl! Any extra in Hengdian can act better than you!"

Zhao Lusi and her agent are not indestructible. They cannot be criticized or scolded. They know it is their own problem and they just accept the scolding.

There is no actor who doesn’t get scolded on the set.

She walked away after being scolded a few times, and then she shouted for revenge. No other daughter would have such a bad temper.

Liu Yifei played the role of a good person, mediating between Zhao Rusi and Lu Yang, and comforted Zhao Rusi: "It's okay, the director is under a lot of pressure, so just scold me a few times, don't take it to heart. I'll go over the lines with you again."

Said to Lu Yang: "She is a young girl who has just started acting, so she won't be very normal. Take your time and be patient."

Liu Yifei was working hard filming in the suburbs of Chiang Mai, while Zhang Yuanjun was working hard taking care of the baby at home.

The baby is 7 months old and it’s time for him to learn to crawl. Zhang Yuanjun has been actively training his two children to crawl recently.

For this purpose, he specially bought two toys and taught the two children to crawl. Sometimes Zhang Yuanjun even taught the children to crawl himself.

But more often than not, the child's head is too heavy. After lying on the ground and watching his father and toys crawl for a while, his head falls down and he chews the mat and the floor.

Although the progress of teaching the child to crawl is very slow, Zhang Yuanjun is not in a hurry and interacts with the child patiently every day.

"You are eating feet again." Zhang Yuanjun laughed, "If you want to eat your own feet, just eat them. Why are you eating your sister's?" Zhang Yuyi lay at his sister's feet and nibbled her toes.

Zhang Yuanjun lifted her son up and put them both on the same level. Zhang Yuyi turned over, hugged her sister's head and kissed her face.

Liu Xiaoli was not in a hurry and said, "Don't bother yourself, just let them have fun. They are not crying or making a fuss, why do you have to interfere in the affairs of the two siblings?"

Just as Zhang Yuanjun was about to speak, his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and said to the two siblings, "You guys go play. I don't care anymore."

After saying that, he went to answer the phone.

Before Zhang Yuanjun came to Thailand, he asked someone to introduce Apichatpong to him, and now the opportunity has come.

The Chinese Embassy in Thailand learned about this and felt that it was a good opportunity for cultural exchange, so it decided to hold a master dialogue.

We hit it off with the Faculty of Communication Arts, Bangkok University and decided to hold the event at Bangkok University.

Bangkok University cannot normally invite international superstars, but now that Zhang Yuanjun has come to them, they have no reason not to accept him.

Zhang Yuanjun only envisioned a private meeting and did not intend to alert the authorities.

But since there was an opportunity and it was an official cultural exchange activity, he had no reason to refuse.

With a nod from Zhang Yuanjun, the embassy and Bangkok University had an easy deal. Although it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, once the news was released, everyone at Bangkok University welcomed Zhang Yuanjun to the school for exchanges.

Ordinary Thai students may be unfamiliar with Zhang Yuanjun, but eight out of ten of those who seriously study acting and film know Zhang Yuanjun, the international film emperor.

The event was quickly organized, and two days later, Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei set off for Bangkok.

The filming of "The Witch" was very intense, but no matter how intense it was, it was still okay to take a day or half a day off.

"Yifei is going to participate in the cultural activities of the embassy." When this was made public, many people in the crew were envious.

In fact, this was a strong request from the embassy and Bangkok University. The couple are both in Thailand and are leading figures in the international film industry in Asia. There is no reason to invite Zhang Yuanjun but not Liu Yifei.

"No, I just wanted to meet Apichatpong. How did it turn out like this?" Zhang Yuanjun got the guest list for today's event in the car and was a little shocked.

The Chinese person in charge of the event is Ms. Lan Suhong, the Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, and the person in charge of Bangkok University is the Dean of their School of Communication Arts, who will also host this exchange event. These two people are the regular configuration, but the latter is wrong.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand has a vice president and a secretary general.

The Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce sent a vice president to attend.
Representatives from the Minnan Chamber of Commerce also attended the event.

There are also representatives of overseas Chinese.

On the Thai side, the lineup is luxurious, and the Thai king's representative Princess Sirindhorn will listen to the entire exchange.

On the Thai government side, Culture Minister Wira will personally welcome Zhang Yuanjun and his delegation at Bangkok University.

It is no wonder that Thailand attaches so much importance to Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei. Tourism is a pillar industry in Thailand. The movie "Lost in Thailand" brought so much GDP to Thailand. Since then, Thailand has attached great importance to and is very willing to have Chinese crews come to Thailand for filming.

Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei are the couple of The Condor Heroes, one of the three greatest international film actor and actress couples - there is only one such couple in the history of film.

Both of them are top actors in China with good reputation and popularity. They came to Thailand to film and do film exchange activities. This is a living advertisement!

The couple arrived in Bangkok and then took the embassy's car.

Ms. Lan Suhong joked with Zhang Yuanjun: "We were originally thinking of taking advantage of you, but we didn't expect you to come to us on your own. Now we don't have to work so hard."

Zhang Yuanjun said: "I originally wanted to have a private meeting, but I didn't expect to alarm you."

"You can't say that. Cultural exchanges between filmmakers of the two countries are our responsibility. We would like to thank you for giving us this opportunity." Lan Suhong said with a smile.

Then, Lan Suhong introduced to Zhang Yuanjun some Chinese representatives who were traveling in the same car.

Many chamber of commerce representatives also said they knew Zhang Yuanjun’s parents.

"That's an old friend, so it's more convenient."

The representative of the Min Province Chamber of Commerce even said that Zhang Yuanjun was half a maternal family member: "The Gan Province business group and our Min Province have been close since ancient times. I went back to China last month and had tea with your father. How can I not be considered a maternal family member?"

The secretary general of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce was not happy and said with a smile: "You can't make connections as far as the ancient times. Everyone knows that Mr. Zhang made his fortune in Guangdong Province, and the headquarters of Guodao Catering is in Guangdong Province. In this way, Mr. Zhang is our in-laws in Guangdong Province."

Everyone in the car was talking and laughing, very happy.

Thailand's Minister of Culture Wira welcomed the Chinese delegation at the gate of Bangkok University, which was crowded with reporters and onlookers, teachers and students.

"Sawadee ka." The group greeted each other, took photos, got on the Bangkok University school bus, and began to tour the university.

Seeing other people's things always feels fresh. While touring the campus of Bangkok University on a school bus, Zhang Yuanjun felt that Bangkok University had a strong sense of design and an artistic atmosphere.

The exchange activity was held at the Surat Osathanugrah Library of Bangkok University. The host was the Dean of the School of Communication Arts of Bangkok University. In addition to Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei, the Thai guests included Apichatpong, Tony Jaa, Thai drama queen Sachul and young actor Pinchana, all of whom are mainstays of the Thai film and television industry.

The event lasted for one and a half hours, with no restrictions on topics, and the guests were free to speak.

The two sides exchanged views on issues such as the internationalization of local actors and film creation.

Zhang Yuanjun did not hesitate to express his love for Apichatpong's films, saying that he "made Thai films known to filmmakers around the world."

Apichatpong received film education in the United States, but his films are rooted in Thailand: "Your films always have a sense of mysticism, which brings a fresh feeling to the world film scene and makes many people curious about Thailand."

But he added: "Your films are full of metaphors, symbols and unreal dreams. Many people say they can't understand your films."

But Apichatpong said: "For me, the word audience does not exist in my dictionary. I think it is an illusion. You can never find an audience that is always in tune with you. Because the audience is changing every time, and it is also a very fluid group. Decades later, some people will change their views on your work. So you should focus on your current feelings and what story you want to tell with the camera." People who make experimental and independent films can certainly not care about the audience.

Liu Yifei then turned the topic to Pincai Na, saying that she "may be the Thai actress most familiar to Chinese audiences."

"Because A Little Thing Called First Love is very popular in China, many viewers like your Xiao Shui."

Ping Caina speaks very good Chinese. She said, "Thank you, Yifei, you have a lot of fans in Thailand too."

Zhang Yuanjun jokingly talked about his meeting with Tony Jaa a few days ago: "We also said that we would work together on an action movie. Are you looking forward to it?"

The audience shouted yes!

Zhang Yuanjun also revealed Swan Elegy for the first time at the event: "I have been writing a science fiction story for some time, and I want to know what Abang thinks of science fiction stories."

Apichapong is obviously not interested in science fiction stories: "I think human nature is eternal. Whether it is in the context of ancient times, contemporary society, or science fiction, human nature will not change. I have seen your film Her. People fall in love with robots, but it is still love after all, no different from loving another person. It's just that this love needs to withstand criticism from the outside world, which is no different from Romeo and Juliet."

But he also affirmed the visual feedback of science fiction movies on the audience: "Science fiction movies will give the audience a novel experience visually, which is one of the reasons why science fiction movies are attractive."

Under the host's instigation, Apichatpong and Zhang Yuanjun both said that they wanted to work with each other once.

Zhang Yuanjun joked, "But I only know one Thai word, which is Sawadee ka."

This caused the guests and audience to laugh.

The event timed out, but no one cared.

After the event, Zhang Yuanjun signed autographs for fans at Bangkok University, and that marked the end of today’s itinerary. (End of this chapter)