Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Chapter 356 Sophie’s Choice

Yang Ye arrived in China with the "Kill Bill" crew and was warmly welcomed by Beijing Film Studio.

The level of domestic film shooting is extremely backward these days. You can learn a lot from the teams in Hong Kong and Hollywood.

Akina Nakamori also arrived in the capital at this time. She had always wanted to film, so Yang Ye arranged a small role for her in "Kill Bill."

A beautiful girl killer with side-length bangs, shawl hair, baby make-up, wearing a sailor uniform, knee-high white socks, and is good at using flying chains.

She has a duel with Adjani in the movie!
……

After arriving in the capital, the group headed non-stop to Xiangshan to shoot exterior scenes.

Yang Ye did not choose to shoot at the Tomb of Prince Chun, the original filming location of "Kill Bill."

Because at this time of year, the red leaves in Xiangshan are all over the mountains and fields, which makes it more beautiful to take pictures.

However, the actors suffered a bit, because the average temperature in Beijing in November was only 10°C, and in order to better demonstrate the martial arts movements, the actors could only wear thinner clothes.

Yang Ye had no choice but to shoot for two hours at noon every day, when it was the warmest, and then call it a day.

Otherwise, it would be troublesome to make Ajani sick from the cold.

The white eyebrow in "Kill Bill" is a pervert.

In order to enhance his character, the movie uses a special scene to tell his story.

……

At night, a bonfire burned in a ruins.

Bill (Yang Ye) sat on a broken piece of wood, holding a flute in his hand, and while playing a few words casually, he told Beatrice (Adjani) the story of Bai Mei.

Adjani lay on her side opposite the bonfire, leaning on her hands and listening with a smile on her face.

"A long time ago, in China. It is said that it was... in 1003 AD.

One day, Bai Mei, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, was walking on the street, thinking about questions that only a peerless master like Bai Mei would think about.

In other words... no one knows what he is thinking. "Bill spread his hands.

"Chuck!" Beatrice laughed. She smiled at her lover, admiring his little humor.

"At this moment, a Shaolin monk came towards him.

Just as they passed each other, Bai Mei...

He nodded kindly to the Shaolin monk, almost inscrutably.

But this nod received no response.

Is that Shaolin monk deliberately humiliating Bai Mei?

Or did he not understand Bai Mei's kindness?
The monk's true intentions are unknown, the only thing known...is the consequences of what he did.

The next morning, Bai Mei came to the Shaolin Temple and asked the abbot of Shaolin to draw his sword and kill himself as an apology.

At first, the abbot wanted to appease him, but found that Baimei was still furious.

After that, the White Lotus Sect went on a killing spree and bloodbathed Shaolin, and no monks in the temple were spared.

Since then, there have been legends about the peerless martial arts of Bai Mei's Five Thunder Piercer Heart Palm..."

Beatrice listened with great interest and couldn't help but sit up and said, "Can you tell me what the Five Thunders Pierce the Heart Palm is?"

Bill played with the flute in his hand and said, "Anyway, it's... the most deadly move in martial arts!"

Bill said, gesturing with one hand: "If he attacks you with five fingers, you will have five different internal forces in your body, and then he will let you go, but within five steps, your heart will burst. And fell to the ground dead!"

"Did he teach you this trick?"

"No, his Five Thunders Pierce the Heart Palm never spreads to others. Speaking of which, what I appreciate most about you is...

My dear, you look smarter than your actual age, so remember what I said...

No matter what Bai Mei says, you must obey him. If you dare to show the slightest disrespect, he will immediately dig out your eyes.

If you pissed him off in the American way, he would snap your spine like a twig. "

……

In the next scene, Adjani is going to become a disciple.

Yang Ye warned: "Remember, don't ridicule, don't contradict, it will be like this for the first two years at the dock, and you have to let Baimei slowly accept you.

He hates white people, despises Americans, and looks down on women! So, people like you... take some time. "

"Goodbye!" After Yang Ye said that, he drove away in a broken car.

……

Beatrice carried her luggage and slowly climbed up the steps.

On the top of the mountain, an old Taoist with white hair, white eyebrows and white beard, wearing a white robe, is meditating.

Beatrice knelt down and said respectfully in Chinese: "Master!"

Bai Mei opened her eyes slightly and complained: "Your Chinese is so bad, I can't understand it at all! I didn't ask you to speak, so you should keep silent. Do you speak Mandarin better? Or Cantonese?"

“It’s good that I’m Japanese!”

"I didn't ask you Japanese, I asked you if you can speak Cantonese."

"A little bit!"

"You are here to learn martial arts, not to learn how to speak. If you don't speak Chinese, I will treat you like a dog! Is your master Bill?"

"Yes!"

"Your master said that you once studied martial arts. What did you study?"

"I'm proficient in Japanese Kendo."

"Hmph! Japanese kendo? Are you kidding me? Japanese kendo is worse than shit... You can speak Japanese? I hate Japanese people the most!"

……

After a dialogue scene was played, Luo Lie played Bai Mei's arrogance and arrogance to the point of perfection.

Yang Ye praised: "Very good, Lao Luo, your acting is so cool!"

Luo Liedou has been acting for decades, and playing this kind of forced king is easy for him.

However, Luo Lie was currently working for Yang Ye, so he could act cool, but he didn't dare to show off to Yang Ye. He smiled and said, "Young Master Yang, you've given me the award."

Yang Ye clapped his hands and said, "Ready, let's start filming!"

Next, Bai Mei tries Beatrice's sword skills. In the original version, the heroine uses Chinese sword skills and holds a sword flower, which is obviously wrong.

So Yang Ye changed it to the heroine using Japanese kendo to challenge Bai Mei, and then was completely tortured by Bai Mei.

For this purpose, a long-handled sword was placed on the weapons rack.

After everyone was ready, Yang Ye ordered: "Lao Luo, remember, you must be powerful and arrogant!"

"no problem!"

Yang Ye turned back and told Adjani: "Now you are facing a peerless master, so if his kung fu is displayed, you must show a surprised look."

"understand!"

"Okay, let's get started!"

After Yang Ye finished speaking, he handed the scene to Yuan Heping and sat back to the monitor.

While watching, he chatted with deputy director Zhang Jinzhan: "Director Zhang, when will the Japanese-style izakaya I want be built?"

"It will be completed within half a month!"

"Thanks for your hard work!"

Zhang Jinzhan was sent by Beijing Film Studio to assist the crew of "Kill Bill" this time, and was responsible for overseeing all the work of Beijing Film Studio's co-production and on-site execution.

This person graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and was in the same class as Zhang Yimou. He was later titled "China's First Assistant Director."

Because this person has been working as an assistant director throughout his career, mostly on big projects.

For example, Brother Kaizi's "Singing while Walking", "Farewell My Concubine", "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin"...

"Hero" and "A City Full of Golden Armor" by Lao Mouzi...

Li Yin's "Lust, Caution", Peter Chan's "The War", John Woo's "Red Cliff"... Zhang Jinzhan spent a few days with Yang Ye, and felt that Yang Ye had no airs, so he said: "Director Yang, I think you and other directors, no the same."

"Oh, what's the difference?"

"You are completely creating, not doing manual labor."

"Is it possible that other directors do manual labor?"

"I have also worked with several groups. Compared with them, you are completely 'directing', while the directors I worked with before spent 70% of their energy on various chores that actually have nothing to do with directing. superior."

"That's because my team is highly professional and can perform their duties, so I naturally don't need to intervene in everything."

"Also, it's incredible that you didn't work overtime during the filming and took the weekends off."

"This is not surprising. In Hollywood, everyone is like this. People are not machines. They need to rest and have fun."

Speaking of rest, as a Chinese, it is really a bitter experience.

Before joining the WTO in 2001, except for civil servants, the vast majority of Chinese people basically had no concept of rest. They worked until death all year round and only took a few days off during the New Year.

The so-called "weekend holiday" was still a condition for joining the WTO, but in the end it was in vain and was not complied with at all.

fraud!

……

While Yang Ye and Zhang Jinzhan were chatting, Ajani had been tortured to death by Luo Lie.

Because Bai Mei is a peerless master and Beatrice is a rookie, when the two compete, Beatrice is always easily knocked to the ground by Bai Mei.

For the sake of filming effect, Adjani could only be thrown to the ground over and over again, leaving her in disgrace.

This made Yang Ye quite distressed. He looked at the time and saw that it was already past three o'clock, so he shouted: "Ka! Let's stop here today and call it a day!"

After he finished speaking, the production manager quickly came forward with a down jacket and put it on Adjani, but Adjani refused to accept it and said stubbornly: "Director, I can still continue filming."

Yang Ye pointed to the sky and said, "We still have to go down the mountain."

Then he couldn't help but say: "Take some time to clean up, rest for twenty minutes, and then go down the mountain!"

Everyone started to pack their things. Yang Ye waved to Adjani and said, "Don't be brave, come and sit!"

Zhang Jinzhan saw this and quickly moved out of the way.

Adjani came over obediently. Yang Ye let her sit on his little horse, took out a thermos cup and said, "Drink some hot tea!"

The weather was so cold that Adjani's white skin froze into red skin. She took a sip of hot tea and immediately felt more comfortable.

Yang Ye said: "Don't show off, your health is important."

"I got it!" It feels good to be cared about.

Adjani was drinking hot tea, looking at the red leaves all over the mountains and plains, and exclaimed: "This place is so beautiful, it makes me feel like I'm in Canada."

Yang Ye smiled faintly and said, "Would you like to climb the Great Wall tomorrow at the weekend?"

"Okay, I was in a hurry last time when I came to China. I only went to Sichuan and didn't even visit the capital."

……

In the capital of China, Adjani, a delicate French rose, was taking her time filming movies, and during her free time, she and Yang Ye visited the historical sites of this ancient capital.

In the capital of France, Sophie Marceau, another delicate French rose, is desperately borrowing money from everywhere to terminate her contract with the company in order to make a movie.

Not long ago, she received a movie script called "Wild Love" handed to her by the great Polish director Andrei Polanski.

The story comes from "The Idiot" by the great Russian writer Dostoyevsky, but the background of the story is moved from the Tsarist Russia to modern France.

Because there were a lot of fruity scenes in the script, it was decisively rejected by Gaumont Company, which did not want to damage Sophie's image of an innocent girl.

But...18-year-old Sophie Marceau is in her rebellious middle school period, and she is unwilling to accept the mercy of the company.

She wants to try something different, she wants to be herself!

She dismissed the company's attempt to threaten her with the move of the contract, and decided to raise her own funds and terminate the contract with the company.

And the instigator of all this, the shabby driver, is an old fox, who is twenty-six years older than Sophie.

Now he is calm and silent, waiting with peace of mind for this little French beauty to fall into his arms!
The shabby driver's philosophy of picking up girls is not to take the initiative, not to refuse, and not to be responsible.

He always treats everything in the outside world calmly. No matter how the outside world questions him, he never explains.

He didn't give Sophie any ideas or decisions, he just told Sophie: Be yourself!
Then Sophie brought her own dry food and ran towards him without thinking about her own safety.

Ah Xi, you are really a high-level horse rider, the king in the world of picking up girls!

To be honest, Yang Ye's methods are far behind compared to this one.

Both of them "kill people and kill their hearts", but the price Yang Ye pays for picking up a girl is a hundred times higher than that of a shabby driver.

However, Yang Ye's wealth is ten thousand times higher than that of a shabby driver, so he doesn't really care. If he has money, don't spend it and keep it to buy a coffin?

Moreover, the shabby driver is waiting for the beauty to come to his door, and the target is relatively random.

However, Yang Ye took the initiative and targeted the female celebrities he had lusted after in his previous life.

Not only does he want their people, he also wants their hearts, and he wants them to give birth to monkeys for him.

……

Just when the shabby driver thought he had a plan, things happened and a spoiler joined in.

In a cafe in Paris, Jean-Jacques appeared in front of Sophie, bringing the work that had just won the Goncourt Literary Prize, Marguerite Duras's "The Lover".

The Prix Goncourt is the highest literary award in France. Unlike the Mao Dun Literary Award in China, it is also a guarantee of bestsellers.

Every November, after All Saints' Day, freshly released Goncourt Prize-winning works will be placed in the most conspicuous positions in major bookstores in France, and many French people will habitually buy a copy.

Jean-Jacques solemnly said: "Miss Sophie, I plan to put "The Lover" on the big screen. Ms. Margaret Duras will personally serve as the screenwriter. I hope to ask you to play the heroine Jane."

Sophie was shocked: Such a pie-in-the-sky thing actually fell on me?
The Goncourt Prize for "The Lover" is still hot, and Duras is a writer and screenwriter that Sophie admires.

As early as twenty-five years ago, Duras became famous all over the world with "Hiroshima Mon Amour", which even broke the French box office record at the time.

Sophie doesn't want to make those boring campus movies. She hopes to make more in-depth literary and artistic movies, and "Lover" is just such a movie.

Compared with Andre plagiarizing Dostoevsky's ideas and moving passages from the novel to modern Paris, "The Lover" written by Duras himself is undoubtedly more original.

Sophie was in trouble. She hesitated and said: "But... I have agreed to director Andrei Polanski to star in his "Wild Love"."

"Have you signed the contract?"

"not yet!"

Sophie is seeking to terminate the contract with Gaumont Company. Before that, if she signs a contract with a junk driver without authorization, she cannot afford the consequences.

Sophie asked: "When will you turn on the phone?"

"Next summer, shoot in Vietnam, you know, this story takes place in the summer."

"Can I... finish filming "Wild Love" first and then "Lover"?" Sophie asked hesitantly.

Jean-Jacques shook his head and said: "No, the production company hopes that "Lover" will be your breakthrough performance. If you finish filming "Wild Love" first, this breakthrough will not exist."

What Jean-Jacques meant was clear, both films had to be stripped down.

If I had taken off my clothes first in "Wild Love", then I would have lost the gimmick of taking off my clothes for the first time in "Lover".

This is a huge loss for the production company of "Lover".

Therefore, Sophie can only choose one of the two.

Sophie was very confused: "Excuse me, who is the production company?"

"EMI Pictures, Hollywood's United Artists, and Hong Kong's Poplar Pictures are jointly producing it and distributing it globally!"

Sophies are all stupid. EMI is the largest film company in France, United Artists is one of the eight major film companies in Hollywood, and Topol is the largest film company in Asia.

As a film practitioner, she certainly knows how powerful these companies are.

"Can I... think about it?"

Sophie wanted to say loudly: "I do!"

But after all, she agreed to the shabby driver first, and she had to be trustworthy, so she decided to talk to the shabby driver first.

Jean Jacques said calmly: "Of course!"

(End of this chapter)