director of the millennium

Compared to the three older European film festivals, the Tokyo International Film Festival is indeed very young, having only been established in the 1980s.

Even now, the Tokyo International Film Festival is not the most authoritative and influential film award in Japan. After all, they have the long-established Japan Film Blue Ribbon Award and the authoritative Japan Academy Award. The Japanese film industry does not actually pay much attention to the Tokyo International Film Festival, and rather regards this film festival as a business card to the world.

Of course, within Asia, the Tokyo International Film Festival is one of the most influential and authoritative awards.

After all, Hong Kong's Academy Awards have always been a closed-door affair, Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards target Chinese-language films, and Asia as a whole lacks international or Asian film awards.

This is also why China has been promoting the Shanghai International Film Festival in recent years, striving to gain Asian authority and influence in the field of film.

Of course, even so, Wu Yuan does not have to miss the Tokyo International Film Festival just for the sake of his own Shanghai International Film Festival.

In fact, after thinking about it for a few days, he still felt that he had to be the chairman of the jury.

The first point is that the Tokyo International Film Festival has always been very supportive of Chinese-language films.

In the second year of the Tokyo International Film Festival, "Old Well" directed by Wu Tianming won the Sakura Award, which is equivalent to the Palme d'Or or the Golden Lion or Golden Bear.

Later, Tian Zhuangzhuang also won it.

After 2010 in the new century, although Chinese-language films have not won any major awards, they have won many Best Actor and Best Actress awards.

In 2017, Duan Yihong won the Best Actor award at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will also hold the Chinese Film Week next, which really gives face to Chinese-language films.

As a result, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige both agreed to serve as the jury chairman of the Tokyo International Film Festival, and Wu Yuan felt that it was not appropriate for him to be pretentious.

The second reason is the importance of the Japanese market.

Although the Japanese market has been surpassed by the Chinese market in recent years, Japan is still one of the world's leading entertainment powers. The markets for movies, TV series and music are very large, second only to China and the United States, and on par with South Korea.

Guangying Times and Guangying Kuaibo have always had a considerable market share in Japan, and have also cooperated a lot with local distribution companies and film and television companies. In particular, Guangying Kuaibo has cooperated with Japanese TV stations on many exclusive Japanese dramas and currently has 1200 million paying users in Japan.

Even if it is for the Japanese market, he has to go to Japan to show his face and maintain relationships with local partners.

After all, the Tokyo International Film Festival is an event that brings together almost all the important figures in the Japanese film industry, and it is indeed a very good social circle.

Finally, the organizing committee was indeed sincere in sending the invitation so early, giving Wu Yuan enough time to arrange his work. He even felt embarrassed to make an excuse that he was busy with work.

After all, it is only November 2020, and the next Tokyo International Film Festival is October 11. There is still a whole year to go, and no matter how busy you are, you can't find free time. So after careful consideration, Wu Yuan instructed his assistant to send a solemn reply letter to the organizer, agreeing to take over the task of chairman of the jury of the Tokyo International Film Festival next year.

After all, he has been in the industry for a long time, but he has only served as the chairman of the jury once. It would not be bad to do it again now, which is also a way to enhance his resume.

However, when he was free, Wu Yuan couldn't help but grumble, why his own Shanghai International Film Festival had never invited him to be the chairman of the jury?
Even his films were rarely nominated. As far as he could remember, the Shanghai International Film Festival didn't even invite him to participate.

Wu Yuan even checked it out, only to find out that he had never signed up.
The Shanghai International Film Festival did invite him to present awards or serve as a judge, but he rejected them along with other invitations.

Now that it has its own Dali International Film Festival, Wu Yuan looks down on the Shanghai International Film Festival even more, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for him to have any intersection with this film festival in the future.

What a pity.
After agreeing to participate in the Tokyo International Film Festival next year, Wu Yuan temporarily put this matter behind him and only instructed Xiao Zhang to keep an eye on the subsequent progress.

He himself put all his attention back into the filming.

"Mulan" is an important project. It is not only his wife's "international comeback" work, but also Wu Yuan's return to Hollywood as a commercial film after "Doctor Strange". The previous "Bruce Lee" was not considered a commercial film, otherwise the global box office of 3 million would not be worthy of his fame.

Wu Yuan's goal for "Mulan" is to have a global box office of at least $5 million, with an ideal box office of $7-8 million. He does not seek to have more than "Beauty and the Beast". After all, "Mulan" is not as well-known as "Beauty and the Beast" and the cast is all Asian faces. But he cannot expect even half of the latter's box office to be outperformed.

In order to achieve this goal, Wu Yuan must focus 120% on filming this movie in order to produce good pictures.

The days passed as he worked diligently on the shoot.

Liu Yifei, who hadn't filmed for almost two years, gradually regained her filming form after the filming started and regained her aura as a female warrior.

It just so happened that the filming at Jiaozuo Film and Television City was mainly focused on the plot before Mulan joined the army and after her victorious return. Most of the scenes were literary, and there were only a few martial arts scenes, such as Mulan practicing martial arts at home, sparring with her neighbor brothers, and a few assessments during conscription. This was just right for Liu Yifei to try her hand first and get into the state with a low intensity.

Perhaps it was because she had been doing yoga and Pilates since giving birth, Liu Yifei even felt that her body was more flexible than in previous years and she could perform some complex martial arts moves with ease.

However, after the crew arrived in Hulunbuir, the real big scenes came one after another. It was hard to say whether she could adapt to the high-intensity martial arts scenes by then.

Anyway, Wu Yuan is already prepared. If his wife really can't stand the high-intensity fighting scenes, he will stop the crew for a few days and let everyone have fun on the grassland. On the one hand, the foreigners in the crew can enjoy a funded trip, and on the other hand, his wife can have a rest and adjust herself.

Anyway, Hulunbuir is big enough and fun enough. Most of the Chinese and foreigners in the crew have never seen such a stunning prairie. If they were given a paid vacation, they would definitely be happier than each other.

Even the producer sent by Disney to manage the purse strings wouldn't have any objections.

We all get paid, so why bother with public funds? (End of this chapter)