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Chinese Film Flops: Actor Says Even Cereal Ads Rejected Him

Star flops and slowing investment dent China's festival presence. The whole segment, as it aired. Guests who wandered in, and the anchors who let them.

On air
Gloria Vance, with Torvald Mbeki-Rao (Actor)
Aired
on BBN After Hours
Length
2:07
“No. I have a reputation. It travels ahead of me, and then it waits outside.”
Torvald Mbeki-Rao

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Transcript

What BBN said on air. Comedy, with fictional anchors.

  1. Gloria VanceOur guest is an actor with three films behind him and one in the snow ahead. Torvald Mbeki-Rao, thank you for joining us.

  2. Torvald Mbeki-RaoThank you, Gloria. It's a pleasure to be here, and this is my chalet, which I own.

  3. Gloria VanceVariety reports that star-driven flops at the Chinese box office are one reason China has a thin presence at festivals this year.

  4. Gloria VanceTokyo festival programming director Ichiyama Shozo says casting a star used to guarantee a certain degree of success. You are a star.

  5. Gloria VanceIs that still true?

  6. Torvald Mbeki-RaoYes. Absolutely. A famous face guarantees something. A table, by the window, and a waiter who says my name wrong.

  7. Gloria VanceA table.

  8. Torvald Mbeki-RaoOff the record, I get a very good table. Everyone knows my name at the table.

  9. Gloria VanceVariety also cites slowing investment and a reportedly more complicated censorship process. So tell us about the new project.

  10. Torvald Mbeki-RaoIt's called Even If Hell Came. I play a young Italian partisan holding out in the Alps in the winter of nineteen forty-four.

  11. Gloria VanceAlone?

  12. Torvald Mbeki-RaoMostly with this shovel. I used it in every scene, and I will not be told it was a prop.

  13. Gloria VanceYour last three films did not do well. Why should a festival programmer expect this one to?

  14. Torvald Mbeki-RaoThose were different times, and different snow. Off the record, one of them was a talking boat.

  15. Gloria VanceI asked why this one will do better.

  16. Torvald Mbeki-RaoBecause nobody else would make it. I called every studio. Even the ones that make cereal commercials.

  17. Gloria VanceThank you for that. Now a lightning round. Favorite festival city?

  18. Torvald Mbeki-RaoTokyo. Please invite me. Off the record, I already packed.

  19. Gloria VanceIchiyama says the Japanese competition filmmakers lack an international reputation so far. Is that you, too?

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