Superstar's Development Diary
Chapter 458 - 459: Ace Takes Action

Chapter 458: Chapter 459: Ace Takes Action

At one o’clock in the afternoon, during the peak daytime traffic on Weibo, Tonghua Entertainment officially announced that Sheng Yan was nominated for the Berlin Film Festival and would bring "World" to compete for the Movie King award!

Besides the most prestigious Golden Bear Award, the "World" crew also received three additional nominations, making it the film with the most nominations at the Berlin awards.

By next February, whether the "World" crew would emerge as the big winners was something all netizens were eagerly looking forward to.

After Tonghua Entertainment released the news, the official Weibo of "World" also reposted the message and expressed their fierce ambition to contend in Berlin.

V World: "Even if the path ahead is unclear, the road perilous, and dangers abound, I will don my armor and wait for your triumphant return, Prince Chen! February 8013, see you on the battlefields of Berlin!"

Just one minute later, the comments section exploded.

Imperial Army Mo Xi: "Wishing Emperor Sheng a triumphant return!"

Imperial Army Qili Sheng: "Wishing Emperor Sheng a triumphant return!"

Imperial Army Xun Yueyao: "Wishing Emperor Sheng a triumphant return!"

...

Looking at the homepage, the blessings from the Imperial Army were all uniform, even those who weren’t fans of Sheng Yan at that moment spontaneously wrote down their wishes—

Wishing Emperor Sheng a triumphant return!

At the moment it was known Sheng Yan was going to compete for the Berlin Movie King, the ridicules against Sheng Yan online plummeted to an unprecedented low.

All Huaxia people felt a sense of national pride and honor, among the dozens of films nominated in Berlin, only Sheng Yan, a Huaxia star, could compete for the ultimate grand prize.

At this moment, Huaxia netizens were unified in their support, backing Sheng Yan to seize the glory in Berlin.

It’s fine when one’s own people aren’t doing great, they can be scolded and criticized, and that’s all internal discussions to be kept within closed doors.

Now that one’s own people have outdone themselves, bringing a movie previously criticized as worthless to an international film festival, netizens changed sides and wholeheartedly supported Sheng Yan to reclaim the title of Movie King again!

Ah, you say the box office for "World" was terribly weak?

Pfft, "World" is still in theaters, and its global box office has already made it into the year’s top ten, so you tell me, is that weak!

Ah, you say Sheng Yan’s performance in "World" was not at all outstanding?

Pfft, are you saying the whole world is blind? The professional film festival juries have acknowledged Sheng Yan’s acting skills by nominating him for Movie King, so his acting is top-notch!

Ah, you say many people dissed "World" before?

Pfft, you don’t understand the depth of love entails severity of criticism, I was openly criticizing to keep him from getting arrogant!

...

In front of national honor, any negative news about "World" is non-existent, and the previous criticisms and insults are also non-existent.

Anyway, no matter what, netizens have all transformed into staunch supporters of Sheng Yan, backing him to take down the Movie King award!

Tonghua Entertainment already knew that this would be the outcome after the news was released, and immediately set about having marketing accounts publish PR drafts.

However, this PR press release wasn’t supporting Sheng Yan, but rather analytically assessed his trip to Berlin based on his performance in "World," suggesting that his journey wouldn’t go as smoothly as expected.

Sheng Yan was already a superstar, so attending Berlin did not require any promotional effort. Publishing these press releases aimed to prevent Sheng Yan from being "overhyped."

As the saying goes, the higher you’re lifted, the harder you fall.

The higher people’s expectations, the more heartbroken—and even furious—they become when the results don’t meet their wishes, and in unreasonable circumstances, who knows what might happen.

Under the barrage of press releases from Tonghua Entertainment, within a mere ten minutes, the whole internet knew that Sheng Yan was going to compete for the Movie King in Berlin, and within half an hour, everyone knew that Sheng Yan’s trip to Berlin next year would not be smooth.

V Gossip Daily: "Selected as Movie King in Berlin, it whitewashed last month’s scandal and proved his capability! This time in Berlin, he competes against four actors, among them two are superstars, two are top tier actors!

All four works are excellent, ’Mist Jungle’ talks about a sci-fi future and terrifying creatures; ’One’s Loneliness’ dissects the legendary life of the great writer Cherskyv; ’Festive Speech’ approaches from a fresh perspective and narratively discusses class struggle; ’Steel City’ reconstructs the cruelty of WWII, showing humanity’s humbleness and pity under war.

Sheng Yan’s ’World’ is relatively mediocre among these four films, with his portrayal of Prince Chen being a fictional character, which strictly speaking, can be classified as a biographical movie.

However, ’World’ represents an era too distant from modern times, no matter how outstanding Sheng Yan’s acting might be, it couldn’t conceal its disadvantageous background. If the Movie King is to be chosen from biographical types, ’World’ and ’One’s Loneliness’ would inevitably clash.

Not to mention ’Mist Jungle,’ ’Festive Speech,’ and ’Steel City’ are all exceptional works. Surrounded by such strong competitors, Sheng Yan’s situation is troubling!"

This marketing account’s analysis was impartial, giving a brief analysis of the other four nominated films as well, providing a clear overview at a glance.

There were many more similar marketing accounts.

Tonghua Entertainment, with its PR expertise, guided public opinion, shifting people’s excitement about Sheng Yan’s participation in the Berlin Film Festival to concerns about whether he could win the Movie King.

To be honest, it’s better to keep the audience happy than worried, but after the company’s analysis, this trip to Berlin looked very uncertain, making Sheng Yan’s chances of winning the Movie King quite slim.

Instead of waiting to fail in February next year and be bombarded by criticism instigated by interested parties, it was better to take the initiative and guide public opinion beforehand.

After an afternoon passed and when the news of Sheng Yan competing for the Movie King in Berlin had cooled slightly, Tonghua Entertainment took action again. During the evening peak traffic period, they released the news that He Jinxia had also been nominated in Berlin.

V Tonghua Entertainment: "Thank you, Miss He Jinxia, for your brilliant performance in ’Eighteen Years Old Sky.’ Thanks to the Berlin Film Festival for recognizing ’Eighteen Years Old Sky,’ uncovering a profound film for Huaxia and the world!

Congratulations on ’Eighteen Years Old Sky’ being selected for the Berlin Newcomers’ Special Screening, competing for the Crystal Bear Award with films from around the world!"

This piece of news, once released, struck a loud sound on W-blog like a tsunami, even more thrilling and center of attention than Sheng Yan being nominated for the Golden Bear Award.

"What, He Jinxia also got nominated?"

"What’s the Crystal Bear Award, it sounds so cute!"

"Berlin Film Festival... so, does He Jinxia get to go to Berlin too?"

"Damn, did Tonghua Entertainment cheat? This year, not many Huaxia films got into Berlin. Besides ’World,’ only ’In Love’ was noteworthy, but ’In Love’ only got selected for best screenplay, while the third and last Huaxia film turned out to be He Jinxia’s ’Eighteen Years Old Sky’!"

"[Crying face emoji] Let me rant a bit, this title is a bit low..."

"Jinxia also got nominated in Berlin, nominated in Berlin, nominated in Berlin!"

"Long live Fat Emperor, no, long live Pang Hu, Pang Hu you’re the fattest!!"