In 1998, Zhang Yimou participated in the Cannes Film Festival with "No One Left Behind". However, at the Cannes Film Festival, this film about out-of-school children was criticized as being a positive publicity for the government.
Zhang Yimou withdrew from the Cannes Film Festival in anger and issued an open letter to express his dissatisfaction, believing that this was a prejudice against Chinese films.
Because of this withdrawal incident, the relationship between Zhang Yimou and Cannes fell to a freezing point. Fortunately, he has already won the Palme d'Or before, so he has no regrets about the Cannes Film Festival. So from then on, Zhang Yimou never went to the Cannes Film Festival again.
Of course this is a story for later.
After withdrawing from the Cannes Film Festival, Zhang Yimou took "No One Less" to the Venice Film Festival, where he won many awards including the Golden Lion Award, the UNICEF Award, the Magic Moment Award, the Sergio Trasati Award, etc. awards.
In addition, "No One Left Behind" has received strong support from the government because it complies with the government's policy of popularizing compulsory education and saving out-of-school children.
The National Copyright Administration issued a special copyright protection notice. This is the first time that China has implemented copyright protection for domestic films. Although the effect may not be great, it is of great significance.
In addition, this film is also an educational film for teenagers and has entered campuses with unprecedented influence. This is undoubtedly a good thing for Zhang Yimou and even Kirin Pictures.
Xiang Nan also reciprocated and donated all the box office sales of "No One Less" to Project Hope. Moreover, he was also at the filming location of "No One Less", investing 1 million yuan to build a Hope Primary School to help children realize their dream of enrolling in school.
After the news came out, it was a great help to Xiang Nan's reputation.
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In 1998, Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yimou each came up with new scripts and prepared for filming.
What Feng Xiaogang took out was "Endless". This was a script he came up with while chatting with his friends. It tells the story of bus driver Han Dong asking for debt from his boss, which quite reflects reality.
In fact, he originally wanted to film "In Embarrassment" by Wang Tie, which tells the story of a middle-aged man having an extramarital affair.
But at that time, Wang Tie aroused the resentment of many people in the literary world because he was too high-profile. He was criticized as a rogue writer, and he was also criticized as a rogue writer.
Wang Tie was not a boss who was willing to suffer losses, so he started scolding others. The two sides started to argue in newspapers and magazines, and even talked to the media, which caused a very bad impact.
In addition, Wang Xie has been controversial since his debut. Now something like this happened again, so he was banned in disguise. No one dared to publish his essays, or scripts, or use them.
Feng Xiaogang's script was adapted from his, so naturally it couldn't be used. It couldn't pass the review and couldn't get a license. Only then did Feng Xiaogang retreat to the next best thing and come up with "Endless".
Zhang Yimou took out "My Father and Mother". This script is adapted from "In Memory" by writer Bao Shi. After this movie was released in 1998, Zhang Yimou noticed it.
He was still filming "No One Less" at the time, so he called Bao Shi to the mountain village to discuss writing the script with him. The mountain village environment was quiet and quiet, and the two of them wrote the script just in time.
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After Xiang Nan read these two scripts, he thought they were well written, so he directly approved the filming.
However, he still gave some suggestions on the selection of actors.
The original version of "My Father and Mother" starred Zheng Hao as the male protagonist. Xiang Nan recommended Xu Zheng and Duan Yihong to Zhang Yimou. Because they have more potential to become popular, they are more worthy of spending great efforts in cultivation.
As for the female lead, Xiang Nan still proposed that Zhang Ziyi should play the role. This is also a good opportunity for her.
In "Endless", Feng Xiaogang is planning to use Hong Kong and Taiwan artist Karen Ng to play the heroine. Because at that time, domestic directors did not believe in the box office and ratings appeal of mainland actors, and were more willing to use Hong Kong and Taiwan artists as leading actors.
For example, the heroine Guan Zhilin of "Big Shot", the starring Andy Lau and Liu Ruoxiao of "A World Without Thieves", the male protagonist Wu Yanzu of "The Banquet", the heroine Shu Qi of "If You Are the One", the starring actors of "Hero" are Liang Chaowei, Zhang Manyu, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, " Starring Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro of "House of Flying Daggers", Starring Zhou Runfa and Jay Chou of "The Golden Armor"...
Xiang Nan disagrees with this.
To be honest, the entertainment industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan has been in sharp decline since the late 1990s. Whether it is actors, directors, or behind the scenes, it cannot be said that their talent has been exhausted and their glory has faded, but they are still far from their golden period.
Rather than believing in their abilities, it is better to invest these resources into young mainland actors, which will make it easier to cultivate new box office stars.
Therefore, Xiang Nan stopped Feng Xiaogang's approach and changed the role to Chen Hao.
Chen Hao is much more beautiful than Wu Qianlian, and her acting skills are also good. She is very suitable to play the heroine.
In the end, both Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang accepted Xiang Nan's suggestion.
Zhang Yimou finally chose Duan Yihong and Zhang Ziyi, while Feng Xiaogang chose Ge You, Chen Hao and Fu Biao.
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At the end of 1998, various TV series were scheduled again.
Zhao Baogang is preparing to shoot the TV series "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind" adapted by Zhang Yongchen; Gao Xixi is preparing to shoot "Li Wei Becomes an Official", a spin-off of "Yongzheng Dynasty"; Kong Sheng is preparing to shoot "New Year", which is also about life; Kang Honglei started filming "The Sky of History"; Zhang Guoli started filming "Kangxi Private Interview 2"; Ouyang Fenqiang started filming "The Intern"...each has its own thing to do.
Xiang Nan didn't interfere too much. On the one hand, several directors were experienced, so they couldn't afford to keep watching him every day and giving him advice. On the other hand, after getting along for a long time, everyone knew his character and hobbies, and they couldn't afford to continue to give him guidance. .
Therefore, Xiang Nan just asked Xu Zheng to play "Li Wei as an Official" and also asked Jiang Qinqin to be the heroine.
This made Xu Zheng very happy. After he signed a contract with Kirin Pictures in 1997, he filmed "The Burning Years" that year, playing the role of the eldest son Shi Lin; in 1998, he played Li Wei in "Yongzheng Dynasty" and also in "The God of Wealth" Played a supporting role. Now that he is officially the protagonist, he is naturally very happy.
Xiang Nan is also happy that Ouyang Fenqiang's "The Intern" actually selected Gao Yuanyuan as the heroine, which added a new blood to the company.
Zhao Baogang's "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind" discovered two artists, Lu Yi and Li Xiaoran, who also contributed to the company.
Xiang Nan originally didn't want to sign too many artists. Because there are too many people, there is chaos, there are too many dragons and there is drought, and there are too many chickens that cannot lay eggs. If there are too many artists, it will be difficult to achieve a balance. It will inevitably favor one over the other, and it will be easy to become alienated from the company.
However, these talents were so good that he was reluctant to let them go, so he signed them all in the end.
But he also knows that after an artist signs a contract, he should take good care of it. Otherwise, an artist with great potential may be wasted if he is not careful. Therefore, he is also thinking about how to take care of everyone.
