She carried her suitcase to the meet up in the spot, alone. She didn’t even take a car. She just dragged her little case along as she walked. Further away, the main cast of Before the Beginning were already standing there.
Qi Haolin, Zhou Zizhe and some of Linlang’s main actors that had recently gained a lot of popularity were there. Liang Chen of course did not make it, as she still had to take care of her baby. Qi Haolin originally did not want to show up either, since he wanted to stay at home to accompany his wife and the baby after all, but he had to show his face for the promotional roadshow. Otherwise, he would feel sorry for the crew, the director and Linlang altogether, and most importantly, for himself.
Therefore, he did show up, but his heart was still with Liang Chen and the baby. He had been on a roadshow for a month now and when he could finally return, the baby would be eight months old. It was fortunate that he would not miss anything major like his baby’s first birthday, otherwise even if he had let everyone down, he would still refuse to leave Liang Chen’s side.
“She’s here.” Luo Lin finally heaved a breath of relief. She was really afraid that Yan Huan would throw a tantrum and decide not to show up.
“Don’t worry, she knows her responsibility in this kind of important matters,” said Qi Haolin with a smile.
“You can’t be too sure, she’s unpredictable now.” Luo Lin was not confident about this at all, and the main reason was because of Yan Huan’s fickle temper. Sometimes, she behaved like she disregarded even her own life, everything was dull for her, but sometimes she seemed to have realized that there was an entire world out there waiting to be discovered. She currently had no idea how to grasp Yan Huan’s temper. But since she showed up, things would be sorted out as long as she did not screw up.
They boarded the plane and prepared for the promotional roadshow for Before the Beginning. The movie’s release has also been scheduled on the very day of the Lantern Festival. Sadly, they would not be able to return home even during Chinese New Year, and of course they had to bear with the pressure from The Aster Flower.
Recently, Aster had been releasing trailers frequently. It was a story about a woman going through samsara. This genre was already very attractive in the first place. On top of that, the scenes were beautifully shot, even the actors and actresses performed vividly and brought their characters to life, so their reviews were off the charts. They had made almost a hundred million yuan just from presales of their tickets.
With such a huge pressure on Before the Beginning, it was all still up in the air whether or not it could make the final breakthrough. It all depended on how strong Aster’s momentum would go.
Maybe everyone in the crew was more or less feeling the pressure. They had filmed Before the Beginning inside a deserted forest for a whole year, so none of them had the chance to enjoy a good meal or a good sleep during that time period.
If it really flopped during opening, then no one would be happy. Everyone worked so hard, wasn’t all of that just to get a good result?
Among all of them, the only one spared from worries would probably be Yan Huan.
Going up against Aster was what she had already expected. She had known it before she even started filming. Though she tried her best to avoid it, she could not escape the fight against Aster in the end. She and Lu Qin were members of Lu family after all.
She also knew how successful Aster was. Now Su Muran and Lu Qin had pressured them, the older generation, which turned them into real enemies. As for who would emerge the victor, only time would tell.
The Aster Flower’s roadshow tour was very successful. An aggressive promotional campaign was done for the film since before the filming even started, up until now. It was also known as the most noteworthy film of Su Muran’s career. The film was deemed a strong candidate to win at the international awards, which would bring glory to the country. So it was natural that it was a heated topic before it even premiered.
In comparison, Before the Beginning was a lot more low profile. It was not as grand as The Aster Flower or selling out tickets as fast as them.
On the first day of Chinese New Year, The Aster Flower had already made more than one hundred million in presales. In less than a day’s time, it has racked up two hundred million in the box office. It felt a lot like when White Fox was a hit back then, probably even more popular than White Fox, and many critics left very positive reviews for the film.
Everyone had also started to acknowledge Su Muran’s acting ability. It was fair to say that she was on point all the time, she had also surpassed all her performances in her previous roles. Of course, the main credit was given to the captivating storyline. It was very attractive, not a single frame out of the 120 minutes runtime was wasted, and not a single frame could be cut away.
Huang Ming’s shooting style was unique and absolutely eye-catching.
The Aster Flower’s performance in the box office continued to surge, the word of mouth was also spreading. On the second day, a day after the premiere, it had made three hundred million in the box office. Adding that to the first day, it had already made five hundred million.
Luo Lin was having a headache looking at Aster’s momentum. It was so absurdly powerful. Could it really surpass White Fox? If it really did, how would it affect Before the Beginning?
Yan Huan had been making preparations over three entire years for Before the Beginning and had taken a whole year just to film it. A heavy usage of state-of-the-art post-production was involved and a total of five hundred million investment. If it ended up flopping, it would not just be about the losses, it would also be a shame that would dog their footsteps for a long time to come. From there onwards, the Su family would have a reason to ridicule them.
She grabbed a lock of her hair. She felt like she had almost pulled out all of her hair in the past few days.
Of course she wasn’t jealous, she wasn’t at all, she was just worried about whether or not it would affect the reviews of Before the Beginning.
Now, people had already begun to compare The Aster Flower and Before the Beginning. They were saying that Before the Beginning had too many useless scenes, and the story alone was a little far fetched. It was not as deep as Aster and most of them supported Aster. It’s fine that you support Aster, but why would you criticize another film that had not much in common? It seemed to be a common illness in the entertainment industry.
Since I support you, therefore I have to criticize the others.
Regardless of how successful she was in the past, make one mistake and people would cling tightly to her only weakness. It could become an ugly stain that would taint her entire life.
While Luo Lin was feeling frustrated, she saw Yan Huan walk out with a scarf and a pair of glasses plus a long overcoat, as if she was trying to wrap up herself tightly.
“You’re going out?”
Smelling something fishy, Luo Lin asked her that tentative question. It was the middle of winter and late at night. Instead of sleeping in her warm bed, she wanted to head out? For what? There were still several roadshows to be done tomorrow, and they had to fly all over the country for the promotional tour in the past month.
“I’m going for a movie.”
Yan Huan grabbed her purse and was ready to head out.
“A movie?” Luo Lin took a while to process that answer. “You are going for a movie? Which movie are you watching?”
“Aster. What else?” she said. She fixed the hat on her head, “Do you want to come along? I’ll buy another ticket.”
The corner of Luo Lin’s eye twitched. “You’re going to watch Aster?”
“Mm.” Yan Huan reacted a little strangely as the stupefied Luo Lin looked on helplessly.
“Are you really going to watch Aster?”
“Yes I am, what’s wrong with it?” Yan Huan did not feel anything wrong about it, the film was decently filmed and was worth a watch. She respected her opponents, even if her opponents were Su Muran and Lu Qin. If it is good, it is good; if it is bad, it is bad.
