The literary era since 1979

It was 5 o'clock in the morning and the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Zhu Lin had gotten up early and came to the crew's dressing room, where he was surrounded by makeup artists, hairstylists and others.

Ever since I joined the crew of In the Mood for Love, it has been like this every day, because it takes about 3 hours to make just one look.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I don't have the usual short and neat hair, nor the long flowing hair like in previous dramas. Strands of hair are curled and formed into waves, neatly winding on one side of my forehead. I look like a Hong Kong woman in the 60s, dressed and charming.

However, at the beginning, she was actually not used to this kind of makeup, and it was difficult for her to fit in with the Hong Kong city of the 60s which was completely unfamiliar to her.

The hairstyle was not the most difficult thing for her to control; the cheongsam was what made her feel most uncomfortable.

Every day, every few scenes, or even just a single scene, I had to change into a different cheongsam. Because there is no concept of "time" in the entire movie "In the Mood for Love", I had to cleverly use the cheongsam to help the movie express the passage of time.

In this way, it can be used to tell the audience that it is the next day or a week has passed, so as to avoid confusion about the time.

The crew specially tailored 23 cheongsams for her. Some of them had floral patterns, some had stripes or spirals, and some had geometric patterns. But although they looked beautiful, Zhu Lin actually didn't like wearing cheongsams from the bottom of her heart. They were tight and uncomfortable to wear, and restricted her movements.

But she had to admit that this restriction allowed her to walk in the pace and posture of Hong Kong women in the 60s.

More importantly, the designs of these cheongsams all come from art director Zhang Shuping and costume designer Fang Hong. Fang Hong is Fang Yan's biological sister. According to her, most of the styling suggestions from head to toe came from Fang Yan, so she had no resistance in her heart and accepted it silently.

After all, it was Fangyan who chose the hairstyle, makeup and clothes for her!

Just as I was lost in thought, I heard the gentle voice of the makeup artist:
"Ms. Zhu, if you are sleepy, you can close your eyes and take a short nap. I will wake you up when my hair is done."

"Thank you."

"You are too polite. Mr. Fang and Director Gong specifically told us to take good care of Miss Zhu."

"That's right..."

A complex look flashed across Zhu Lin's eyes, but he quickly suppressed his emotions, fearing that others would notice something.

I squinted my eyes for a while and quietly let the costume and makeup teams help me dress up. After all this, it was already 8 o'clock.

Today's filming location is on the stairs of the apartment building where Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun live. According to the people who scouted the location, Wang Jia had a lot of requirements for the house where the male and female protagonists of the Guard are neighbors. He stubbornly insisted on having a staircase between the two rooms, which he liked very much.

Moreover, it must have the flavor of an old Hong Kong house from the 60s!

This kind of house is not easy to find!

The location shooters searched almost the entire Hong Kong upside down before finally finding a house that would satisfy Wang Jiawei.

The first scene today was shot of Su Lizhen, played by Zhu Lin, walking down the corridor with a heavy heart.

Wang Jiawei wore sunglasses and said sternly, "Just keep going like this."

"Do you have any requests?" After these few days of contact, Zhu Lin felt that it would be better to ask clearly.

Wang Jiawei looked serious and said, "Let's walk around first and get a feel for it."

"it is good!"

Zhu Lin sighed softly, it was just as she thought.

To be honest, in all the years of making movies in the mainland, I have never met a "weird" director like Wang Jiawei. He has no requirements for the acting skills of the actors, but he has very high requirements. However, if you ask him to give specific requirements, he can't say anything, and he just goes by his feeling. So, I took a deep breath, and when I heard the "click" sound of the clapperboard, I walked slowly in the aisle.

His face was filled with worries, and his feet seemed to be filled with lead. The more he walked, the heavier he became, and the slower he walked.

The lights in the corridor cast a long and slanted shadow, as if the pace of time was also quietly lengthened at this moment.

"Crack!"

Wang Jiawei looked at the screen on the monitor, stroked his chin, and said leisurely, "One more!"

"Director, what do you think?" Zhu Lin asked, "Is it because the pace is too slow, or maybe the expression..."

Wang Jiawei said: "On the contrary, you are walking too fast, can you slow down a little?"

Is that fast just now?
Zhu Lin was shocked, but still followed his advice, "Okay, I'll walk slower."

Then, with the clapperboard hitting again, the camera started rolling again, and Zhu Lin's graceful cheongsam figure appeared in the picture.

I thought Wang Jiawei would be more satisfied this time, but I never expected that he would still ask me to do it again, and his evaluation was too slow.

slow?
What made Zhu Lin even more depressed was that apart from this, Wang Jiawei did not have any other requirements or guidance, such as what kind of expression he wanted to perform or what kind of movements he wanted. However, Wang Jiawei did not give any specific answers and just asked him to reshoot over and over again.

Fortunately, she had already been filming with Wang Jiawei for several days and gradually began to adapt to his habit of NGing dozens of times.

Nowadays, movies are made with film. If it were in mainland China, no director would dare to "waste" it so extravagantly.

However, Zhu Lin still greatly underestimated Wang Jiawei's "wastefulness" and "paranoia".

Just one shot of walking down the corridor was shot more than 30 times, which has exceeded her NG record in "In the Mood for Love"!

Wang Jiawei's "start over" again and again was like a heavy hammer hitting Zhu Lin's heart, as if to smash her self-confidence.

As a result, even after Zhu Lin had walked on it more than 40 times and felt that the floor was shiny from his walks, Wang Jiawei was still not satisfied.

"Director Wang, what do you want?"

Zhu Lin began to doubt whether he could no longer act and was not suitable to be an actor because he had been sitting on the bench for more than half a year in Emei Film Studio!
"Anyway, it's not right, just keep going."

Wang Jiawei shook his head, looking serious.

The more serious his expression was, the more Zhu Lin doubted his life, and his mind was full of question marks.

Everyone present cast sympathetic glances at her. The same look was last seen on Maggie Cheung when she starred in "As Tears Go By".

Zhu Lin let out a long breath, dragged his feet which had been sore and numb for a long time, and forced himself to be strong. There was a look of loss and confusion in his eyes. He appeared in front of the camera again. His steps were light but he looked heavy. His face looked expressionless but he was full of worries.

"Crack!"

Wang Jiawei saw her walk to the end of the aisle and stood up and clapped his hands. "Good! This one is great! Let's take the next one!"

Hearing this, Zhu Lin felt as if he had heard the sound of a fairy, but he had no idea that there would be more torture waiting for him! (End of this chapter)