Actor: My Entertainment Era

Zhang Yuanjun returned to Paris on the same night after watching the premiere of "Ash Is Purest White" and refused most media interviews.

What's there to interview him about? He came to Cannes just for the sake of convenience; his main job is in Paris.

But some media still followed him to Paris and asked him to talk about this year's film festival.

Three days later, the crew of "The Witch" arrived in Cannes. Liu Yifei went to Paris to reunite with her husband first, and the two children were left in the country with their grandmother and grandfather.

The next morning, the couple set out from Paris and arrived in Cannes around noon.

Outside the station, the media had been waiting for a long time. Zhang Yuanjun walked out holding Liu Yifei's hand, and facing the media's camera, Liu Yifei greeted them warmly.

This should be Liu Yifei's first public appearance in front of the media this year. Not only was she blocked by reporters when she visited the exhibition before, but she was in particularly good shape today. She didn't even wear sunglasses or a hat, and she accepted interviews in front of the camera with confidence.

"It's just a screening, not a competition, so I feel more relaxed." Liu Yifei said with a smile, "... Before I came here, I heard that there are many good films this year, so I will watch a few more... I hope everyone can get good results."

After saying that, she and her husband left in the car.

The premiere of "The Witch" was at 3 pm, and the crew walked on the red carpet at 40: pm. As a family member, Zhang Yuanjun walked the red carpet with Liu Yifei and the crew's main creators.

As a screening film, the media will not hold "The Witch" to the standards of competition films or art films. Foreign media penguins cannot control this, but domestic media penguins participating in today's premiere have informed them in advance that this is a commercial genre film, so media friends please be gentle with their words.

At 4 o'clock, the film was shown on time and the familiar dragon logo appeared on the big screen.

Lu Yang controlled the length of the feature film to 110 minutes, which is a very precise length for a genre film, and the audience will not feel it is lengthy or boring.

What was sacrificed was some worldview foreshadowing, but this movie was originally intended to be a sequel, and the first part only briefly explained the background of the genetic experiment. The audience only needed to have a simple understanding of it. Even if they ignored the background introduction and watched "The Witch" as a simple action movie, there would be no obstacles in watching the movie.

When domestic media report on Cannes, they usually write that the film won applause after the screening, but in fact this is a common practice in Cannes. Almost all films will be responded to with polite applause and cheers by the audience after the screening, unless like "Spring Breeze Drunken Night", the media and film critics do not like it, so there will be boos.

As an action film, "The Witch" is undoubtedly qualified. Although it is low-cost, the final fighting scene is exciting enough, and the sense of impact makes the audience very enjoyable. It is the kind of mindless and fun.

Naturally, it also won applause from the audience.

The main creators of "The Witch" sat in the middle of the theater. They stood up to accept the applause and cheers, and shook hands and hugged the guests around them to express their gratitude.

"The Witch" is a good commercial genre film with a smooth plot, smooth acting and exciting action scenes. Apart from that, there is nothing else to ask for, as it is made to make money.

Liu Yifei turned around and hugged her husband, then asked, "How is it?"

"Very good." Zhang Yuanjun also applauded the crew.

Liu Yifei shook hands with the guests around her and accepted their congratulations. During the post-screening exchange session, Zhang Yuanjun sat in the audience.

Sun Zhonghuai is still worried about the risks of this film: "To be honest, when we started the project to make this film two years ago, we were very nervous. Superpower action is a brand new genre in Chinese films. Our company was very worried that the audience would not like it. My colleagues kept telling me to give up, but I decided to do it anyway, because someone has to eat the crabs, so why can't I be the first one? Now that I see that everyone likes it so much, I feel relieved."

Most of the questions in the entire exchange meeting were very routine, asking the director and actors how they prepared for the play, what difficulties they encountered during the filming, which scene impressed them the most, and how they evaluated their opponents, etc.

But some foreign media were not so easy to deal with. One British reporter asked director Lu Yang: "When choosing a woman as the protagonist of a superpower action movie and using it to unfold the story, did you consider that women have different powers from men? Is it the director's choice to give women superpowers?"

This is a trap. The feminist movement in the West is very popular now. Lu Yang obviously realized that this reporter was setting a trap for himself, but he still said:
“I don’t know if I understand your question, I will try to answer it, please forgive me if I am wrong.

"This is a brand new theme. For me personally, I have never made a superpower action movie before. This is a brand new challenge. When I got this story, I thought about how to make this movie well from beginning to end. I chose Yifei to star in the movie because she is the best actress in China. She is a very energetic person. She can infect all of us on the set. She is very dedicated and hardworking. During the filming, she can give any performance effect I want. It is very pleasant to work with her."

Lu Yang cleverly turned the question to why he chose Liu Yifei to star in the film, and refused to fall into the reporter's trap.

Because if Lu Yang followed the reporter's words and answered whether women have or do not have different powers from men, the other party would find fault with him.

Liu Yifei was asked why she chose "The Witch" as her first movie after her postpartum comeback.

Liu Yifei said: "I didn't deliberately think about how to make a comeback after giving birth. I just thought the story was novel and decided to do it. Maybe it's because I've done superpower movies like Lucy before, so the director and Mr. Sun chose me."

The post-screening discussion lasted about an hour, and every creator present was asked questions.

After the exchange meeting, Lu Yang's back was wet. This was his first time facing the media from all over the world in Cannes, and he was very nervous.

Liu Yifei came down and comforted him: "You will get used to it after a few more times."

"The Witch" had a limited budget, so only this one screening was held. Sun Zhonghuai took people to the trading market to sell the film. Liu Yifei had a certain market overseas, and he wanted to make some of his money back with Liu Yifei's name. The other members of the crew boarded the plane back to China.

Zhang Yuanjun was busy with a lot of things in his own crew, so he only attended the first day of the screening and spent the rest of the time filming in Paris.

Liu Yifei did not stay in France for long and returned home the day before the film festival closed.

Lee Chang-dong was very unlucky at Cannes this year. "Burning" got the highest score in the history of Cannes program brochure, but in the end it didn't win any award. As expected, the hot favorite will fail. The Palme d'Or was given to Hirokazu Koreeda's "Shoplifters".

But then again, no matter which one of "Burning" and "Shoplifters" wins the Palme d'Or, it will be convincing to the audience. In the end, we can only say that this year's judges prefer "Shoplifters".

Otherwise there is no reason. Both are rare masterpieces. You have to choose one of them.

If Zhang Yuanjun were asked to make this choice, he wouldn't know who to vote for. (End of this chapter)