China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 921 Pingyao Film Festival
The anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers' going abroad to fight against the United States and aid Korea is October 10th, so the film had to be released before the anniversary day. Therefore, the release date of "King Kong River" was finally set on the 25rd, and the premiere was on the 23nd.

The premiere is only a few days away.

And at this moment, the ancient city of Pingyao was shrouded in a sense of sadness of parting.

On the evening of October 10, which was also the last day of the 18th Pingyao International Film Festival, Jia Zhangke suddenly announced during a group interview with the media: "This year may be the last Pingyao International Film Festival organized by our team."

This news shocked everyone, and then it caused a huge uproar.

Because almost no one knew that Jia Zhangke would announce this matter beforehand, including the staff around him and the main person in charge of the film festival. At the same time, most of the media, industry guests, and film creators had already withdrawn from Pingyao and did not receive any news.

As a result, Jia Zhangke single-handedly brought the "Pingyao International Film Festival" to the forefront of the domestic film industry.

Four years ago, it was also October.

The ancient city of Pingyao, located in central Taiwan Province, is packed with fans from far away and curious locals.

What brought them together was a film festival that suddenly appeared and was named after the local place name - the Pingyao International Film Festival.

It is not easy to hold an international-level film festival in a county town. From government relations, site selection and arrangement, invitations to domestic and foreign filmmakers, film selection, to the training of local staff, the Pingyao Film Festival starts from scratch.

Today, the Pingyao International Film Festival has become a very influential film festival.

But no one expected that four years later, it would usher in the farewell of its founder.

People in the film and television industry were also a little surprised to hear the news, because although the Pingyao International Film Festival is named "Ping", in actual operation, its name is still "Jia".

If Jia Zhangke had not used his connections to invite film stars such as Johnnie To, Lee Chang-dong, John Woo, Lav Diaz, and Zhang Yimou to give lectures in Pingyao, and had not invited Marco Mueller to serve as the artistic director of the Pingyao Film Festival, it would have been difficult for this film festival to survive to this day.

"How could this happen? This film exhibition should be Director Jia's hard work, why would it be released suddenly?"

When Liu Yifei heard the news, she was stunned for a moment, and then looked at Li Mu in confusion.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this film festival is Jia Zhangke’s “own son”.

In recent years, Jia Zhangke has devoted himself to the film festival and asked people for help everywhere for his support. His sudden withdrawal and the announcement that the next one would be handed over to the local government have caused all kinds of speculations to flood the Internet.

There are conspiracy theories, bridge-breaking, intensified conflicts, and all kinds of speculation.

“This issue may be very complicated, and the economy is even secondary. You have to know that behind any large-scale event, there are complex balances and games of various factors.

And when culture, politics and economics are mixed together in this large-scale event, its complexity exceeds people's expectations.

But I don’t know the inside story either, I’ll ask my senior brother in a few days, he should know something.”

Li Mu was naturally talking about Zhang Yi. After all, Zhang Yi said something to Jia Zhangke in the previous session, which led Jia Zhangke to quote Zhang Yi's words during his final farewell.

The news has been spreading these days and cannot be stopped.

On the 22nd, at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution on the western extension of Chang’an Avenue.

This museum, once the tallest building in the imperial capital and having received 1959 million visitors since its completion in 1.6, welcomed the premiere of a film about the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. What is special is that today's premiere did not have a red carpet, nor did it invite too many celebrity guests. Instead, there were more audiences and many invited veterans, including several veterans of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army who fought in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

Guo Fan, Wu Jing and Lu Yang, along with Jiang Wen, Zhang Yi and other main creators, were there early to welcome the guests.

Li Mu brought Liu Yifei to participate in the premiere, after all, he is also the chief producer of the film.

Although this is not my first time to visit the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, when I step into this museum, which carries the memory of the entire nation, I still feel like I am traveling through a corridor of time and space, and I am instantly enveloped by the weight and solemnity of history.

Li Mu even felt that after coming here, the noisy atmosphere would be reduced by three points.

Because in the spacious hall, the walls are hung with reliefs and paintings of great battles in history that determined the fate of the nation, and the neighing of war horses and the roar of soldiers seem to echo in the ears.

As expected, after entering the inner hall, everyone lowered their voices in conversation, as if they were intentionally trying to control the volume of their voices.

"Director Zhang is here." Liu Yifei took a look and saw Zhang Yi in the front row. He was wearing a neat gray Zhongshan suit, with his right hand against his face, as if he was thinking.

"Then let's go there."

Li Mu took a quick glance and saw that Fu Ruoqing had not arrived yet. There were still many guests who had arrived, such as people from the General Administration, invited veterans, and so on.

"Brother!"

"I'm here!" Zhang Yi turned around and smiled, "By the way, you've seen the movie, right? How did you feel about it?"

"I think it's good, but how it turns out in the end still needs to be tested by everyone." Li Mu responded with a faint smile.

"By the way, Senior Brother, I remember you went to the Pingyao Film Festival last year or the year before last."

As Li Mu was talking, he also started to inquire about the most popular topic in recent days.

He doesn't have much contact with Jia Zhangke, but Zhang Yimou has close contacts with him.

"Are you asking me about my trip to the Pingyao Film Festival?" Zhang Yi smiled meaningfully, and then he sighed.

“You and I both know that film exhibitions are not easy to organize. Few people of our generation have ever touched on such things.”

Li Mu nodded upon hearing this. For them, if they really wanted to hold a film festival, at least one of the key links, the connections in the film and television industry, would be very simple, but the other aspects were not.

"Before the Pingyao Film Festival, Jia Zhangke was the main responsible party, but in fact this was not a normal film festival, and one person could not take on the main role, so he had to leave anyway, or at least change his identity before he could come back.

Of course, the main reason is that it is too tiring to organize an exhibition on your own. For example, if you want to hold a film festival in the future, if there is a lack of corresponding support, you will need to spend a lot of time dealing with various inspections, epidemic prevention, public security, fire protection and other matters, and you have to rely on personal influence to attract sponsorship for each film festival.

And in return, you have to provide content creation for others. You can’t just get investment and then refuse others when they approach you for cooperation.”

"Then I can't do it, and provide content creation for others." Li Mu laughed. This was his lifeline.

(End of this chapter)