Chapter 15

When the time reached 20:45, a new screening of "The Wedding Approaches" officially began. The over a hundred audience members in the cinema all perked up.

With a light and cheerful melody, the opening animation began on the big screen. On a lush green lawn, a black-haired little boy and a black-haired little girl were playfully running around. A puppy suddenly dashed into the scene from the right side of the screen, sniffed the flowers by the roadside, and then quickly chased after them. In the center of the screen, the company name "VIDO" appeared.

This was designed by Ye Haogen, and the audience all felt it was quite good. Such a fresh opening animation increased their interest in the film.

"The Wedding Approaches" is a typical three-act Hollywood comedy. The story goes like this:

With less than half a month to go, it's almost time for Kana and Bern's wedding. However, many of the originally planned elements have gone wrong. The biggest issue is that Kana has developed the idea of canceling the wedding because she is unsure if she is truly suited for married life and if she really wants to spend the rest of her life with Bern. This is the first act.

In the second act, with the encouragement and help of her family and Bern's sincere expressions of love, Kana realizes that she truly loves Bern and wants to grow old with him. However, the problem is that with less than 24 hours left until the scheduled wedding, there are still a large number of issues and mistakes that have not been resolved, making it impossible for the wedding to proceed as planned.

In the third act, everyone works together to miraculously make the wedding happen. After a somewhat unsuccessful wedding, Kana and Bern head to Florida for their honeymoon, and the film ends.

It's a simple story, but the script is well-written. The screenwriter, Carsten Maken, used a wealth of comedic inspiration and a unique perspective on weddings to create many interesting scenarios and memorable details. For example, the scene where the newlyweds cut the wedding cake and end up flipping it over is sure to elicit a lot of laughter, which is why it touched the hearts of investors like Ye Haogen.

However, Kevin Thomas, the producer and director, completely botched it. It didn't even reach the level of a TV movie...

"I am Kana, and in half a month, it will be my wedding. I met my fiancé Bern at a charity dinner..."

With the voiceover of the female lead, a montage of flashbacks and introductions began, and the film started.

The audience was silent, with smiles of interest on their faces. However, gradually, their smiles disappeared, and they became expressionless, distracted, dazed, looking at their phones, and yawning...

After about ten minutes, only a few sparse laughs could be heard, and they were forced.

"Ha ha ha!" One of these was from Lev and his group. Lev was laughing hard, but in fact, he was full of doubts. Is this a comedy? Should I laugh?

"Ha ha ha!" Bud was also laughing, stuffing popcorn into his mouth and turning red. He was the type of audience member who would laugh uncontrollably at even the worst jokes, and he was one of the few people in the audience who was genuinely amused.

Chen Nuo and Corwin couldn't really laugh, but they tried hard to, resulting in expressions that were even more painful than crying.

The other guests in the front row weren't much better. Friends and relatives felt embarrassed for Ye Haogen, who had spent two million dollars to produce such a film. It lacked the depth of a drama and the fun of a comedy. If they had to be honest, it was just boring...

Ye Wei frowned, his eyes fixed on the big screen, his breathing becoming more and more rapid.

This was the first time he had truly watched the film since having that nightmare. It was terrible! The scene direction, cinematography, and pacing were all awful...

The first act, which was about to end after the first 30 minutes, completely failed to establish the characters! Kana, the female lead, was portrayed as boring, annoying, and even slutty, with no charm at all, not even the simplest sexual appeal. How could the audience identify with her or look forward to her completing the wedding?

The male lead Bern and the other characters were also poorly portrayed, with no genuine emotions, only artificial, childish, and boring performances...

The same story and the same lines, but different storytelling and acting can lead to completely different results.

A good script was thus completely ruined. After watching this disastrous first act, the audience wouldn't care about what happened next.

Kevin Thomas, the damn director, had produced a pile of garbage!

"Shh! It's so bad!" "What a waste of my 6 dollars..."

The standard length of the first act is 30 minutes because the audience usually only has a half-hour of patience. If the story isn't set up within that time, they often won't waste another hour. This is a critical point, a line between life and death.

Boos and complaints began to rise from the middle of the audience, those who had bought tickets, and they were so piercing!

Soon, some audience members got up and left early, unable to endure the pile of garbage on the screen. A family of three also left, regretting their decision. They wished they had watched "True Love, False Affection" instead and checked if there were any empty seats in that screening room.

The number of audience members in the cinema kept decreasing, and gradually, it seemed that only the front row was still occupied...

"These bastards, can't they be a little more tolerant? It's just the beginning!" Lev, noticing the audience leaving, was furious.

Bud looked back, also angry: "Come back, come back! It's so funny, why not keep watching? Look, ha ha ha!" He was again amused by the screen, but he couldn't get Chen Nuo and the others to join in.

The atmosphere became increasingly somber, and the guests' expressions became complex. Now everyone knew this was a terrible film. Although independent films often turned out this way, spending over two million dollars and waiting so long to get such a mess was hard to accept.

"Haogen might have been cheated this time."

"I knew it, there's no such thing as easy money. I advised Haogen not to invest so much..."

"Ah, making movies isn't something just anyone can do..."

Some of the guests couldn't help but whisper to each other. Those who could sit here were all close friends, so they mostly felt sympathy, pity, and concern for Ye Haogen. The other investors were angry, depressed, and regretful. And there were the predictable gloating, mocking, and ridicule from outsiders and enemies...

A thousand faces, "The Wedding Approaches" was thoroughly bad, and it meant something different to everyone.

Ye Wei, with his red eyes, listened to all this, watched all this, and clenched his trembling fists. His heart was like a surging wave, without a trace of resentment, only a surging determination!

Just watch, everyone, those who love us and those who hate us. One day, you will all be here, in the same screening room at the Beverly Center 13 Cinema, captivated by Ye Haogen's son Ye Wei's film, and driven mad by me!

At that time, applause will be the only sound here, and smiles will be the only expression. Then, you will all shout a name, and that name will be... VIY!

Beside him, Ye Haogen was smiling at the screen, as if in a trance. The world was the world in the screen, and his smile was as bright as a baby's first smile. When he stepped onto the rainbow bridge of his dreams, he was reborn and saw new hope: a rising sun.