Chapter 573 Originality Starts with Reference

“Pa pa pa pa pa pa…”

Warm but not intense applause rang out in the small screening room.

Dozens of friends of Wu Yuan, Liu Yifei and others who were invited to watch the premiere of “Love Letter”, as well as internal artists and middle and senior management of Light and Shadow Times, all gave enthusiastic applause after the movie ended.

No matter what their opinions on this movie are, at least on this occasion, everyone is full of praise.

Sitting in the middle, Wu Yuan was not confused by this obviously high-praise atmosphere. He knew that “Love Letter” can only be regarded as a love movie that is above the passing line, which is good, but there is still some gap between it and excellent boutiques.

Compared with “Under the Hawthorn Tree”, which can win awards and has good depth and emotional release, the gap is not small.

But compared with ordinary love movies, it is much better, especially under Wu Yuan’s mature camera control, it is a little better than the immature “Your Name” back then.

There is no hope for awards, but the box office results should not be bad.

Perhaps for him, an international director who has made hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars at the box office, there is nothing worth mentioning.

But considering that this is Wu Yuan's first "original" movie in the true sense, he is already very satisfied with it.

Thinking back to the time when he was dreaming, he didn't really climb to the position of chief director until 2023 and raise funds to shoot his own original movie. Now he can realize this dream more than ten years in advance, which is already very good.

"Thank you, thank you everyone."

Wu Yuan stood up and turned around, bowing to everyone continuously, with a bright smile on his face.

Liu Yifei, who was sitting next to him, was also very happy. It was not because the filming of this movie was a great challenge to her acting skills, but mainly because Wu Yuan and she acted in this movie together.

Liu Yifei felt very happy to be able to star in a love movie with Wu Yuan, no matter what the content was.

Even happier than when she won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress.

"Two hopelessly romantic souls, who love each other in a classical and passionate way, even have their love words engraved on their tombstones just for him to see. The scene of them meeting on the stairs is so beautiful." Chen Kun commented with a smile.

He likes to watch romantic movies privately, and he likes "Love Letter" quite a bit, but he is not deliberately advocating it.

Zhou Xun also smiled and nodded: "The middle and the end are quite wonderful. The pictures, music, and the background of the times set off the story better, especially the two songs, which I remembered completely after listening to them once."

"It's a bit sad from a God's perspective. Although the hero and heroine meet again in the end, everyone knows that the heroine Wei Lai met at the end is no longer Jiang Lan. The real Jiang Lan has been quietly sleeping in the cemetery."

"This should be the first time that Director Wu has filmed a tragic ending, although it seems to be a happy ending."

"Compared to this "Love Letter", the hero in "Your Name" meets the heroine at least three years later, and it's still the same person."

"But this is more romantic, isn't it?" Chen Kun interrupted Zhou Xun's sigh.

"Hey." Zhou Xun smiled, "How can you, a grown man, be more emotional than a woman like me?"

Chen Kun shrugged and didn't answer.

Neither of them went to Wu Yuan to share their impressions with him, mainly because Wu Yuan was surrounded by a group of people now.

"You really like to play with the theme of time and space." Jiang Wen frowned, put his hand on Wu Yuan's shoulder and said, "To be honest, this kind of chick flick is really boring."

"When will you make another movie like "Gravity" that will be cool!"

Without waiting for Wu Yuan to reply, Zhang Yimou shook his head and said, "The romance movie is good. Although this theme looks ordinary, there are really few good romance movies in China."

"Most of them are old movies from the 1980s and 1990s, or from Hong Kong and Taiwan. There are really few good romance movies in the mainland after the millennium."

"The plot, structure, and theme are all very good in general, and they are also very thoughtful and not clichéd." Chen Kaige agreed, but Chen Kaige would never just say good things.

"However, this kind of theme is still too difficult to stand out. Although there are no love movies of this theme in the mainland, there are still many in foreign countries."

"'Back to the Past 70 Years', 'The Invisible Lovers', and the Japanese version of 'Love Letter' are all movies of this theme."

"Director Wu, your inspiration comes from 'The Invisible Lovers', right?"

'The Invisible Lovers' is a Korean movie in 2000. Jeon Ji-hyun became famous in Korea with this movie.

This movie tells a love story across time and space between a man and a woman who live in the same house in two different periods and communicate with each other through a mysterious mailbox.

The male protagonist moved into a new apartment in 1997, but received a letter from the next resident in 1999, and then the two kept talking through the letters.

"Yes, these two movies really inspired me." Wu Yuan had nothing to be embarrassed about, and admitted it openly.

His inspiration for 'Love Letter' did come from these two movies, and there was nothing wrong with admitting it.

However, he just borrowed the idea that the letter can connect through time and space, and the specific story is completely original.

This is not a shameful thing. Many directors often borrow some excellent settings from their previous films.

Or, pay tribute.

Just like after Wu Yuan's "Your Name" became a big hit, many ideas borrowed from this body swapping appeared throughout Asia, and many love films from various countries were made.

There is even a domestic director who dares to think and wants to make a historical magic masterpiece. The general content is that Emperor Chongzhen of the late Ming Dynasty exchanged souls with Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, before hanging himself on Coal Hill.

As the last emperors and living in the same century, the two people who originally could not have any intersections had an intersection.

The two monarchs who both wanted to save their old empires but were powerless to do so sympathized with each other and saved each other's lives.

Well, it sounds outrageous.

What's even more outrageous is that this script was also submitted to Guangying Times. The director took the script and wanted to attract investment to make this epic historical magic masterpiece.

He believed that if this movie could be made, it would definitely go international. After all, the Roman Empire was very influential in the world, and Constantine XI, the last emperor, was even more famous.

Unfortunately, this project was ruthlessly killed by Li Xiaoping. She felt that such a subject matter would distort history too much and would be unlikely to be released successfully.

Now, this unconventional director is still trying to attract investment everywhere to make this movie.

Ahem, the topic has gone off topic.

In short, after watching this movie, although several directors did not feel that it was amazing, they also recognized it.

After they surrounded Wu Yuan and talked about their own impressions after watching it, they said goodbye and left with a sense of regret.

"Director Wu, it will be released this Friday, right?"

Before leaving, the most "down-to-earth" Feng Xiaogang said generously: "I will book a private theater to support it!"

"At least book seven consecutive theaters!" (End of this chapter)