Chinese Showbiz: Starting in 2002

[Chinese Showbiz] [One Heroine: Liu Yifei] [Director’s Rise] [Power Fantasy] [Starting in 2002]

Lin Chaoyang is reborn.

The moment he opens his eyes, he’s back at the Beijing Film Academy in 2002: eighteen years old, a first-year directing student, broke, and surrounded by future stars.

In his previous life, he was a frustrated director. He spent twenty years toiling on film sets and died without a single decent work to his name.

This time, he decides to live differently.

Make an art film? Sure. He wins the Berlin Film Festival’s prize for humanitarian spirit in a Catholic context during his freshman year.

Make a commercial film? That works too. Hero hasn’t even been released yet, and China’s film industry is about to enter its golden decade. He’s right at the forefront.

But his greatest goal is neither winning awards nor making money

It’s winning the heart of the girl who dazzled the entire Beijing Film Academy at just fifteen.

Liu Yifei.

She’s the youngest student in the acting department, the “fairy sister” in everyone’s eyes, and the “fairy goddess” who will later become famous throughout Asia.

But to Lin Chaoyang, she’s just a girl who asks him in the library, “What is emotional memory?” Someone who needs to be understood and protected, an ordinary person.

“When you make movies in the future, can you cast me?”

“Sure. It’s a promise.”

Pinky swear. A hundred years, no take-backs.

From a short film shot on a DV camera, to sweeping international film festivals, to building a box-office empire worth tens of billions

This is the story of a reborn director who conquers the world through his camera and devotes himself to protecting one person.