Volume 1 Chainsaw Man Chapter 50: An Interview with Time Magazine

  "What? Are you looking for Christina? She's filming, I'm the script supervisor, my name is Amelia. Are you Christina's boyfriend? You're really cute!" The voice on the phone was not Christina's, but another woman's.

  Zhou Shaoming was almost so humiliated that he wanted to die, he could only laugh awkwardly, hurriedly hang up the phone, and fell headfirst onto the sofa, groaning in pain, his face red with shame.

  Little Robert swaggered in, chewing on a cigar butt, and looked at Zhou Shaoming's red face with confusion, asking: "Hey, buddy, what's wrong? Why is your face as red as a monkey's butt?"

  “Damn it! What's it to you? No way! I'm going to buy a plane ticket, I want to settle this as soon as possible! No, the speed needs to be fast, but the process needs to be enduring!” Zhou Shaoming had already lost his patience, jumped up and started packing his clothes. His heart had long been flying far away to Xia Wei's side, to Kristina's side.

  "No, you can't go! At least, not tonight!" Little Robert hastily grabbed Zhou Shaoming, who was about to fly away, trying to suppress his emotions that were on the verge of exploding, and stared into his eyes.

  "It's just Time Magazine, you can go for me! I have more important things to do now! I've been putting up with this for 22 years! Today I absolutely cannot tolerate it!" Zhou Shaoming said half-jokingly and half-seriously, struggling to free himself from Little Robert's embrace.

  "No, no, no! Dear Smith Zhou, listen to me!" Little Robert said helplessly. The guy in front of him didn't know what was wrong with him, he looked like a bull that had eaten half a catty of ***, his eyes were red and emotional, he could only probe and say: "I don't know what important things you have to do, but I want to tell you that in 1999, Time Magazine selected the world's top 100 most influential artists, China only had Bruce Lee and Teresa Teng on the list. Now, a new century is coming! Don't you want to let Time Magazine add one more Chinese person? Don't you want to let Americans know about China, know about Smith Zhou from China, and know that he is such an amazing director?"

  "Alright, let that guy hurry up, I'll go buy the last ticket for the flight to Hawaii, once the interview is over, I'm leaving immediately!" Zhou Shaoming thought for a moment and reluctantly said.

  "Haha! So it was for Christina after all! No wonder you were in such a hurry, like your butt's on fire!" Little Robert smiled slyly: "Want to share the thrill of box office explosion with her? Or did someone just can't wait for two months and want to have an explosion with Christina?"

  "Get out! Let's go find that damned Time Magazine reporter and have a chat!" Zhou Shaoming, being young and thin-skinned, felt embarrassed by Little Robert's words and could only glare at him before turning around and running away.

  Little Robert burst out laughing and hastily quickened his pace to keep up with Zhou Shaoming who was charging forward.

  The two came to a Western restaurant, where they had agreed to meet, laughing and chatting. Joanne from the Lion's Gate Films and Louis-Benjamin Bisson, editor of Time Magazine's film section, who were already waiting there, stood up to welcome them.

  "This is the editor of Time Magazine's film edition, Louis Benjamin Sis! Benjamin, this is the young genius director, Smith Chow! And this you know, he's the incredibly talented Robert Downey Jr.!" John hastily introduced the three main characters who didn't know each other.

  "Hello! Mr. Benjamin! I am Zhou Shouming!" Zhou Shouming looked carefully at this Benjamin who was disturbing his plan to find a beauty, and then solemnly reintroduced himself.

  Benjamin is not tall, wearing a pair of big glasses, about forty years old, looking very mature and humorous.

  "Smith Week! The most sensational new superstar director in recent times! His first film, made with a production cost of over $10 million, achieved a box office of $57.6 million in the first week and $52.39 million in the second week! Nice to meet you!" Benjamin gave a very pleasant smile of appreciation.

  "Sit down, sit down! Hey, buddy, bring us two more coffees!" John called out to the waiter after gesturing for everyone to take a seat.

  "To make a long story short, I have something very important to attend to! Sorry about this, Mr. Benjamin!" Zhou Shaoming smiled and shook hands with Benjamin, maintaining his elegant demeanor, but there was still some urgency in his tone.

  "Alright! So let's get started with the interview. Mr. Smith Chow, Johan-Bobby from Los Angeles Times wrote in his review of "Saw": On Halloween night, I hope people won't go to some stupid party or play even more stupid games. Instead, you should go to the cinema and watch "Saw", and then be scared out of your wits. This film is one of the most terrifying and disturbing films of the year in America, and it's one of the best horror movies I've seen since "The Fly". Director and screenwriter Smith Chow has created a fantastic horror movie with an astonishing ending! What do you think about this review?" Benjamin was very familiar with the strange behavior and words of these big directors and stars, so he didn't mind Smith Chow's actions at all, and still asked with a smile.

  And the first question was asked with a slightly flattering tone, which can obviously make the interview atmosphere better and easier to ask subsequent questions.

  Zhou Shaoming was indeed taken in, and as soon as he heard it, he burst out laughing, showing off his pearly white teeth: "I think Joe-Bao is a wise guy, he has an IQ that surpasses ordinary people, he clearly sees my understanding of movies, this guy is not bad! I like him!"

  "Jason from the Daily Entertainment wrote that compared to The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, which were released in the first half of this year, Saw is a complete failure in every way! At the box office, Saw can't surpass the global box office of over $600 million for The Sixth Sense, and in terms of production costs, it far exceeds The Blair Witch Project, which was made for only a few hundred thousand dollars but achieved a global box office of over $200 million. What do you have to say about this?" Benjamin knew that flattery wouldn't get him anything interesting from his readers, so he shifted gears and started to provoke instead.

  Zhou Shaoming, however, just smiled and leaned back into the sofa, replying, "Daily Entertainment News? I've never read that paper. I think Americans don't read it much either! As for Jason, I have nothing to say because he always likes to think things through in reverse!"

  "Why did you say he got it backwards?" Benjamin asked, somewhat perplexed.

  "It's simple, because SAW is cheaper to make than Sixth Sense but it will definitely gross more worldwide than Blair Witch!" Zhou Shaoming took a sip of his coffee and said something that made Little Robert burst out laughing.