When Xu Ke led the crew members to interact on stage, the opening film of the Venice Film Festival was officially played. Ethereal and magical music, a little boy riding on a boat-shaped moon, angler moon in the water.

"Oh, I know this title, it turns out that "Shushan" is a DreamWorks movie!"

Immediately, the audience exclaimed that with the increasing prosperity of Hong Kong films, Golden Harvest, DreamWorks, and New Arts City have several films sold into the European market every year. It has the largest number of Hong Kong films released in France and the United Kingdom, and there are a few in Italy, and there is even a group of European audiences who specialize in watching and collecting Hong Kong films, so the opening credits of DreamWorks are no stranger to Italian movie enthusiasts.

After the opening credits of DreamWorks ended, the logo of Xu Ke Film Studio was followed before the feature film officially began.

On the big screen of the theater, a misty mountain appeared, and suddenly a streamer of light crossed the sky. The camera was qiē, but it was a long-bearded old man with fairy wind and bones who came with a sword, and he was still carrying a person in his hand like a chicken.

Like an offline arrow, the long-bearded old man disappeared in an instant, and only a small figure remained in the camera.

"Wow, that's cool, is this the wizard of the East?"

"It should be, they use swords instead of broomsticks to fly."

“……”

Ordinary viewers were immediately refreshed, and they paid attention to the beautiful pictures and magical "flying magic" of the oriental fantasy world. The film colleagues who came to enjoy the opening film were shocked by the special effects technology of "Shushan", and the more than ten seconds of footage just now were too difficult to shoot.

Of course, the special effects of "Shushan" are not against the sky. Ten years ago, Star Wars was an epoch-making change in special effects, and since then, it has continued to innovate. The special effects of "Shushan" were made by inviting industrial light and magic, and the technology used was basically the technology explored during the filming of "Star Wars". Still, there are occasional innovations.

These special effects will look rough in ten years, but when they are screened at this moment, coupled with the beautiful and novel oriental landscapes, the shock they bring to the audience is not much weaker than watching "Star Wars" back then.

"Real person, Deng Yin has brought it back!" In front of the Taoist temple renovated at the expense of the Dream Factory on Qingcheng Mountain, the old man who flew with Edgeworth threw a young man to the ground.

In the original novel of "The Legend of the Swordsman of Shushan", Changmei Zhenren and Deng Yin are brothers. However, this "Shushan" Deng Yin is the nephew of Changmei Zhenren.

The long-eyebrow real person twitched his eyebrows and shouted: "Criminal, you betrayed the rules of Shushan Gate." Kill fellow offenders, but there's still something to say! ”

Deng Yin said disdainfully: "That person plotted against me first, could it be that I stood and let him kill?" ”

After a round of questioning, the real person with long eyebrows raised his sleeves. A palm strikes out of the long sleeve. The palm wind struck Deng Yin's chest, but five palm prints were printed on his back. Deng Yin was directly hit by this palm and flew to the foot of the mountain, and his whole body strength was abolished, and he became an outcast sinner of the Shushan Sword Sect.

Planner: Kang Jianfei, Xu Ke

Producer: Oriental DreamWorks

Screenwriters: Kang Jianfei, Xu Ke

Starring: Li Saifeng, He Jiajin, Zhao Yazhi, Wu Zhixiong

Director Xu Ke's work!

When Chinese characters and their English subtitles appeared on the screen, Yu Yingnan, a scholar played by He Jiajin, had already run into the ruined temple in the heavy rain with a bookcase on his back, while Deng Yin, who was expelled from the school, was drinking alcohol inside, and the whole story began to officially unfold.

"Dangdangdang......"

"Force. Forced u, forced u......"

"Boom. Boom, boom ......"

The movie is endlessly full of spells and magic weapons, showing a variety of light, shadow and sound effects in battle, coupled with the scenery like ink landscape paintings, the audience can't stop watching.

At this time, the three-hour original version of "Shushan" was screened, and the pace was slower than the theatrical version, but it was more conducive to Western audiences to understand the film, and it also carried some artistic colors of Eastern philosophy.

In particular, the guzheng cooperated with the bamboo flute, and Yu Yingnan, who went down the mountain for the first time, fought with the little villain in the bamboo forest, which was so beautiful that it was pleasing to the eye.

That scene was filmed in Zhuhai in Shunan, and it was a scene planned by Kang Jianfei and strongly asked Xu Ke to shoot more. Originally, Xu Ke was quite resistant, feeling that this scene was inconsequential and took up valuable film time, but after it was cut out in the end, it proved that this bamboo forest battle added a lot to the film.

Three hours is a long time for a movie, and if it's a slow-paced art film, you can see the audience fall asleep.

But this is not the case with "Shu Mountain", although the vast majority of European and American audiences can't understand the deep meaning of the plot, but the beautiful picture and the plot of fighting monsters and upgrading are enough for them to watch happily.

At the end of the film, Yu Yingnan and Li Yingqiong, with the help of everyone, defeated the villain Deng Yin, the two of them carried long swords, stepped on the flying boat, walked through the rolling clouds, and sailed to the sunset on the horizon.

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

The audience applauded thunderously for several minutes.

"Oriental Fantasy Films Invade Venice"

"The premiere of Shushan was well received, and the applause lasted for five minutes"

"Flying Sword Instead of Broomstick, Incredible Oriental Magic"

《……》

The premiere of "Shu Mountain" was well received in Venice, mainly because of the sophisticated special effects and the novel oriental fantasy world, which brought these gringos a strong sense of freshness.

Of course, there are also those who scold the judges of the Venice Film Festival for being degenerate, saying that they actually chose a commercial film with no connotation as the opening film, but this statement did not make much waves.

In the next half month, Li Saifeng, Zhao Yazhi and other actors followed Xu Ke and his wife, running between various venues, attending some promotional activities everywhere, and sometimes accepting interviews with foreign media. Jiang Zhiqiang and Zhiming began to constantly contact distributors around the world, but they never signed a contract.

Because "Shushan" has been shortlisted for the main competition unit, if it can win the award in the end, it will be extremely beneficial to the box office, and DreamWorks can also win more benefits from the distributor.

It was not until the end of September that Hong Kong had already made the preliminary preparations for "A Chinese Ghost Story", and the Venice Film Festival ushered in the closing ceremony and award ceremony.

In the Palais du Cinéma, the award presenters unpacked the envelope: "What I want to announce is the Special Jury Prize, is it Fernando?" "Tango, Gardel's Exile" directed by Solanas......"

The Special Jury Award is not a fixed award, sometimes it is only awarded once every two or three years, and sometimes several trophies are awarded in one night, and the main awards are given to films that cannot win the Golden Lion or Silver Lion, but some of the judges particularly like it.

Xu Ke is self-aware, although he has expectations for the Golden Lion and the Silver Lion, he also knows that it is difficult to get the commercial film "Shushan", so the positioning from the beginning is to win the special award of the jury.

When he heard the award presenter read out the co-production between Argentina and France, Xu Ke's heart suddenly cooled, and he realized that he had missed the only opportunity.

Tang Shuxuan knew Xu Ke's thoughts, and comforted: "Next time, there will be opportunities in the future." ”

Shi Nansheng also quietly held her husband's hand and silently gave Xu Ke support, she thought that "Shushan" was very promising to win the special jury award after being selected as the opening film.

"I'm fine." Xu Ke spat out a turbid breath and forced a smile.

For Xu Ke, the time after that was like a year, and he just wanted to end it early and go back to the hotel to sleep.

Amid endless applause, the Best Actor and Best Actress awards were settled, and the awards ceremony began to enter the highlight of the evening.

"The winner of the 42nd Silver Lion Award for Best Film is Xu Ke of "Shushan", from Hong Kong."

Tang Shuxuan was so shocked that he sat up straight suddenly, Shi Nansheng was stunned for a moment and turned his head to look at his husband, while Xu Ke himself seemed to have not heard it.

"Lao Xu, "Shushan" has won the award!" Shi Nansheng pushed Xu Ke violently.

Xu Ke reacted at this time, hugged the people around him with a smile, and joked: "I thought I heard it wrong." ”

The Golden Lion Award for Venice cinema is positioned to award the best film of the year, while the Silver Lion Award is much more flexible, it can be awarded to a film with great characteristics, it can also be awarded to a good directorial debut, and even for the unique directorial technique.

The applause at the scene was warm again, and many people knew when "Shushan" was selected as the opening film that the film would most likely win an award at the Venice Film Festival. But like Xu Ke's expectations, they also thought that "Shushan" would win at most one special jury award, but they didn't expect the jury to award a silver lion award to "Shushan".

Jiang Zhiqiang and Zhiming also laughed happily, "Shushan" won a silver lion award, and they had a lot of thick chips when they negotiated with the publisher.

"Thank you to the judges of the Venice Film Festival," Xu Ke said, taking the silver lion trophy and holding it in his arms, "For me, there are too many surprises on this trip to Venice. "Shushan" can become the opening film of the film festival, which is a big wake-up, but I didn't expect that the more exciting is still to come. I am standing here at this moment, and I must thank all my colleagues in the crew of "Shushan", thank my parents and friends, and I would like to especially thank my wife Shi Nansheng, who has always encouraged me and helped me complete this film. Finally, I would like to thank my boss Mr. Kang Jianfei, this film is a super investment in Hong Kong, and I stopped filming and denied the previous script, it was Mr. Kang who gave me financial support so that this film could finally come out, thank you Mr. Kang! ”

After the award ceremony, Xu Can and all the members of the crew of "Shushan" became the focus of media attention.

There's no way, "Shushan" won the second big award at the Venice Film Festival, and it is also the opening film, so you can't keep a low profile.

As a result, everyone who had planned to return to Hong Kong early had to stay in Venice for a few more days. And Jiang Zhiqiang and Zhiming have also become the targets of many publishers, and they spend a foreign time in a foreign country with a tired and happy bargain.

can win the Venice Film Silver Lion Award, and more importantly, this movie is also a commercial blockbuster with great visual impact, and it is no wonder that those discerning distributors do not grab the head! (To be continued......) RI