[First date with a Type B girl completed, Host performance rating: S]
After finishing his trip to Bear Mountain State Park with Liu Yifei and returning to his home in New York, Lin Yuan immediately received a system notification.
An S-rank evaluation? The reward must be substantial, right?
Recalling the wonderful experience from yesterday, Lin Yuan felt he had already gained enough.
Thank goodness for rebirth, allowing him to make up for past regrets.
So, rewards don't matter anymore?
How could that be!
He desperately needed the skill rewards given by the system.
Lin Yuan wanted to become an action superstar, but besides having good physical fitness, he was completely ignorant of other martial arts skills.
Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Bajiquan, Xingyiquan, Drunken Fist… he knew none of them.
Swordsmanship, gunnery, sabre techniques, staff techniques… he understood nothing.
Muay Thai, Karate, Sambo, Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu… all were foreign to him.
How could he become an action superstar like this?
The car jump scene in The Fast and the Furious was purely done by relying on his physical fitness.
If he could master various parkour techniques like Jackie Chan, his success rate wouldn't have been so low.
It's not easy to become a furniture city war god.
So, what kind of reward would the system give?
Without making Lin Yuan wait long, golden text immediately appeared before his eyes:
[Host gains skill reward: Swordsmanship (Master Level)]
[Achieved highest date rating, additional reward: Parkour Techniques (Master Level)]
Lin Yuan didn't have time to think much; a segment of memory instantly appeared in his mind out of nowhere.
In that memory, he held a three-foot longsword, practicing diligently for over thirty years.
Various sword forms were displayed one by one in his hands, constantly refining and simplifying, making his moves increasingly concise and condensed.
His swordsmanship was only one step away from the ethereal supreme realm.
Instantly gaining swordsmanship that would normally take over thirty years of hard work, Lin Yuan couldn't help but feel a surge of ecstasy:
He not only mastered magnificent routine swordsmanship that could be used for performances in films and television, but also gained practical combat sword skills that could be used in real fights.
It was truly killing two birds with one stone.
While he was still celebrating, another memory about parkour was also crammed into his mind.
It was also years of rigorous training, including climbing and jumping techniques in various complex terrains, and even insights on how to reduce self-inflicted injuries.
After mastering Master-level parkour techniques, Lin Yuan suddenly had an audacious thought:
What are stairs? Do I really need such things to go downstairs?
A scene appeared in his mind of himself flipping over to the outside of the balcony, descending floor by floor along the outdoor air conditioner units outside the windows.
No zuo no die, he immediately banished this thought from his mind the next moment.
"I laugh proudly, and laugh proudly again, singing with wine in hand, seizing the day…" His phone suddenly rang.
Lin Yuan glanced at the caller ID and quickly answered: "Director Ang Lee, hello."
"You rascal, The Fast and the Furious has wrapped up, hasn't it?"
"Yes, it finished yesterday."
"Then why aren't you rushing to participate in the promotional tour? The movie has been out for two days, and you're also a lead actor; you can't be absent the whole time, can you?"
"Okay, I'll buy a ticket and rush over immediately."
Hanging up the phone, Lin Yuan changed into formal attire, grabbed his luggage that he hadn't had time to pack earlier, and headed out.
Yesterday, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" officially premiered in North America.
As a reborn person, Lin Yuan knew that this movie would ultimately gross an astonishing 128 million USD at the North American box office and over 200 million USD globally.
But he also knew that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" did not have a smooth start during its initial release.
As a wuxia film directed by a Chinese director, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" initially did not receive much attention from North American cinemas.
It was initially scheduled in only 16 theaters, and its first-week box office was only 600,000 USD.
This was an extremely dismal result, no wonder Director Ang Lee sounded a bit anxious on the phone.
But Lin Yuan was not worried at all; as word-of-mouth spread, the number of theaters showing it increased to 31 in the second week, over 140 in the third week…
The screenings for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" continuously increased month by month, and its word-of-mouth effect became more and more prominent.
At its peak, over 2,000 theaters were playing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and its final box office was 128 million USD, making it the highest-grossing foreign language film in North America.
The foreign language film ranked second was the Italian film "Life Is Beautiful", with only over 50 million USD at the box office, more than 70 million USD less than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Achieving such results is enough to prove that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an extremely excellent wuxia film.
In fact, Director Ang Lee had already clearly pointed out the theme of this movie with its title: "Cang" (Hidden) and "Wo" (Crouching).
Cang means concealment, and Wo means suppression.
Cang is the gamble of whether to confront one's inner desires directly.
Wo is the suppression from moral norms represented by rites and laws.
Therefore, this is a story depicting the struggles and choices of the human heart when facing human nature, desires, fame, fortune, and rites.
The more desires you have, if you cannot learn to let go, the more tightly you will be bound.
But if you let go of everything and pursue freedom, can you truly bear the consequences?
In a few years, Chinese people will start shouting: "Duan She Li" (decluttering, letting go).
So this is a story with an extremely Eastern core, not a work meant to please the West at all.
Director Ang Lee merely used a way that both Eastern and Western people could understand in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to display the struggles of human nature.
Yu Jiaolong, played by Zhang Ziyi, as the female lead of this film, is truly a person who pursues freedom at all costs.
But what did she ultimately gain from this desperate pursuit?
At the end of the film, she chooses to leap from a high mountain; perhaps in that brief moment, she truly found freedom.
Westerners like these stories with philosophical contemplation, and the core of desire's gamble and the pursuit of freedom is also easy for them to understand.
Combined with the extremely beautiful Eastern elements shot in this film: Chinese architecture, Jiangnan water towns, bamboo forests, qinggong, eighteen kinds of weapons…
The combination of multiple attractive factors created the miracle of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Being able to star in such a film is certainly fortunate for Lin Yuan.
He wasn't worried about the film's performance, but he had some indescribable minor concerns:
Lin Yuan has a bed scene in this movie!
His character, Luo Xiaohu, has a bed scene with Yu Jiaolong…
And it's very intense…
Liu Yifei will definitely see this movie; she won't get angry, will she?
The key is that Lin Yuan cannot completely keep his distance from Zhang Ziyi; according to his plan, he needs to get to know Director Zhang Yimou through her.
Stimulated by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", domestic directors have all ignited their ambition to shoot commercial blockbusters and enter Hollywood.
"Hero" and "The Promise" are the corresponding products.
Lin Yuan decisively chose to avoid "The Promise", but he didn't want to miss "Hero".
This film is a battleground he must contend for.
If Lin Yuan only considered developing in Hollywood, then whether to star in this film would indeed not be important.
But Lin Yuan is a Chinese person; his path to superstardom cannot only have Hollywood as one leg; his roots should be in China.
"Hero" pioneered domestic commercial blockbusters and is the most unmissable opportunity in these few years.
It's just that his current resume is not enough to contend for it; he must wait until his wings are stronger.
It's coming soon; Lin Yuan calculated that in another year, he would have enough capital.
It is so fortunate to be reborn; only by constantly moving forward can one live up to the prime of life.
[Feeling the host's fighting spirit, an additional task is issued.]
[Please make efforts to help "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" increase its box office, and attributes will be rewarded based on the results.]
Lin Yuan: ???