Chapter 110: The Drummer’s End

As the protagonist removed his mask and revealed his true face, the audience at the concert was stunned. None of them had expected the man standing before them to be the same person who had been mocked online for having no drumming skill at all.

After that performance, the protagonist finally cleared away many of the insults that had been hurled at him online. The most effective counterattack was to step forward and prove it with action, to let them see for themselves that they had been wrong.

After the show, many of the advertisers and companies that had once cut ties with him came looking for him again, because they knew that after this performance, and with his rising popularity, his value would surely soar.

But when faced with those invitations to collaborate, he accepted none of them. He rejected every single one, because the moment he stood on that stage, he understood exactly what he wanted. He had gone up there only to prove himself again. As for working with them and the rest, he had never given it any thought.

He had already decided he would not stay in that world any longer. He felt as though he had seen its true face: whoever was popular would be chased after and adored. There is a saying that rings very true: when you become famous, it feels as though the entire world is exuding kindness toward you.

"Hey, Sister Feng, wait for me!"

After his performance ended, the protagonist stepped off the stage and left at once to pursue the life he truly wanted. After everything that had happened, he finally understood who the person in his heart really was. Since he knew, he would go after his own happiness with all his heart and soul. As for the entertainment industry, what did it have to do with him?

The end.

When the film The Drummer finished screening, Anderson Njie stretched his limbs. After watching for so long, his arms and legs had gone slightly numb.

What surprised Anderson Njie most while watching the film was how unexpectedly impressive it was. Although the script was a fairly standard, conventional inspirational story, and the ending was also a classic one, with everyone happily reunited, a true happy ending, he could still feel the emotions the film was trying to convey. The life lessons Zhou Ran's character gained in the movie were also genuinely useful, and that alone was a big plus.

What they conveyed was something practical, rather than stuffing the film with empty, grandiose words. They started from real circumstances. Of course, some scenes in the movie had been artistically embellished, and that was unavoidable.

After all, a film only has two hours. It is very hard to explain everything clearly and in full detail. If one really wants something that detailed, Anderson Njie would suggest a documentary instead. That kind of thing is true to life, and everything would be recorded exactly as it happened.

What surprised Anderson Njie even more was Zhou Ran's performance in the film. It did not resemble the acting of a newcomer who had switched over from singing in the slightest. Zhou Ran perfectly brought out every emotion the character was supposed to have.

It made Anderson Njie deeply immersed in the story as he watched. Although there were moments when Zhou Ran overacted a little, that was perfectly normal. Taken as a whole, Anderson Njie was astonished by his performance.

For a rookie actor, this was truly an excellent showing. Even if there were flaws, they were the sort one would have to search for with a magnifying glass.

In particular, the scene where Zhou Ran went bankrupt at the beginning was performed with such emotional precision that even a seasoned film critic like Anderson Njie felt it was excellent. He truly had limitless potential. And one must remember that Zhou Ran's main profession was singing; acting was only something he did occasionally. Just thinking about it was enough to inspire envy.

After watching the film, Anderson Njie gave The Drummer a score of eight out of ten. Given his famously strict standards, an eight was already an excellent result.

At first, he had intended to give the film a 7.6 or 7.7, but with Zhou Ran's performance added in, it was enough to bring it up to an eight.

The female lead also acted very well, fully capturing the character's aura. She truly lived up to the praise of being a genius newcomer. Her control over the role's tension and expressiveness was handled with great precision. The only flaw was that her screen time was a little too limited.

But in Anderson Njie's eyes, that flaw could almost be considered a virtue, because most of the film was still about the events experienced by the male lead, Zhou Ran. If the story focused too heavily on Zhang Xiaofeng's side, it would have reversed the proper emphasis.

After watching the film, Anderson Njie firmly remembered Zhou Ran's name. It left a very deep impression on him.

He was far from the only film critic to feel that way. After watching The Drummer, most critics gave it fairly high praise, and they all wrote down their scores honestly and concretely on their cards.

Meanwhile, the film's director, Huang Chef, had already flown to Cannes. His entire focus was now on this movie, and it was fair to say that he had placed all his hopes in it, because there is a harsh truth in the domestic entertainment industry.

Once actors reach a certain age, the roles suitable for them in the entire industry are limited to only so many. The pressure of competition is enormous.

If they want to play their roles well, they have to keep pushing themselves harder and harder, unless they are willing to take bad roles. If they are willing to do that, then they can act however they like. That is the current reality for both male and female actors.

And the situation for actresses is even harsher. Once actresses reach a certain age, the only roles available to them are mothers, mothers-in-law, and similar characters, and even those roles are still fiercely competed for.

That was why Huang Chef wanted to avoid being trapped in that competition. He needed to change careers, and The Drummer was his work of transformation.

As long as the result of this film was good, his transition could succeed. He had truly poured a great deal of effort into it in the early stages. Though it was not without flaws, he had already done his utmost to present, as fully as possible, everything he had wanted to bring out.

Just as Huang Chef was anxiously waiting for feedback from the screening room at the hotel in Cannes, his phone suddenly received a message.

When Huang Chef opened it, he felt completely relieved.

"Response: good!"