The literary era since 1979

Austin Road, Tsim Sha Tsui.

"In the Mood for Love" had only been filmed for a few days, but Zhu Lin felt like the days were passing by like years.

Wang Jiawei's repeated NGs and reshoots almost tortured himself to the point of collapse, and he gradually began to doubt his life.

Fortunately, when I felt I could not hold on any longer, the crew suddenly gave me half a day off, just because Fang Yan and Zhang Guorong were coming.

When Fangyan came, he paid for egg tarts, pineapple buns, and mandarin duck milk tea for the entire crew...

"Teacher Fang, Brother, you are here!"

Zhu Lin was like a prisoner imprisoned in a dark prison who suddenly saw the sunlight.

"Hey, why do you look so haggard? Why are your eyes still so red and swollen?"

Zhang Guorong frowned, "I remember there were no crying scenes in In the Mood for Love?"

Fang Yan's face turned cold, "Is there anyone in the crew bullying you?"

"Don't be afraid. If you have any grievances, just tell Mr. Fang and me. We will help you get justice!" Zhang Guorong couldn't help but feel angry.

"No, no, no one is deliberately making things difficult for me."

Zhu Lin said that everyone in the crew was very polite to her and spoke nicely, and she particularly liked the atmosphere there.

Zhang Guorong was puzzled, "What's going on?"

Seeing Zhu Lin's confusion, Fang Yan seemed to have seen through it, "The problem may lie with Wang Jiawei."

"Him? Is it really him?" Zhang Guorong was surprised and doubtful.

Zhu Lin nodded under their gaze, "It's just about filming."

"This is too, too..."

When Zhang Guorong heard about what she had experienced while filming "In the Mood for Love" these days, he was completely unheard of and his face was full of shock.

Fangyan shook his head and laughed. The King of Sunglasses was indeed worthy of being the King of Sunglasses. His efficiency like "severe procrastination" was unique in the Chinese-language film industry. He was not at all like other directors in Hong Kong, such as Wang Jing and Xu Ke, who all pursued the "short, flat, fast and high efficiency" Hong Kong film model.

Zhu Lin sighed, "He is really the weirdest director I have ever seen in all my years in the industry. Sometimes you don't know what he wants."

Zhang Guorong listened to her complaints quietly. He said that just for a shot of walking down the aisle, he had to NG a full 41 times. It was not until he was tortured to the point of being in a trance and his legs and feet were weak and his steps were heavy that he suddenly said that this was exactly the feeling of trance and heaviness that he wanted.

What’s even more exaggerated is that there was a shot that he felt he could get right in one take, and other crew members applauded and praised it as “perfect.”

As a result, Wang Jiawei said, "There is no perfection in the world, try again," and shot it 11 times before he was satisfied.

"I was kind of, kind of..."

Zhu Lin vented the distress in his heart.

"'Crash' huh?"

Fangyan can understand her feelings very well. For example, when Liu Jialing was working with Wang Jiawei, a scene of mopping the floor was required to be reshot 27 times.

Zhu Lin hummed, then raised his hand and said, "Of course, I'm not saying that Director Wang's filming is bad, it's just that his filming method and style are very uncomfortable for me. I don't have any plans, and I can't grasp his filming direction. I have to keep asking questions."

Zhang Guorong asked curiously, "Have you ever taken the initiative to talk to him about these issues?"

"I have talked about it, and more than once!" Zhu Lin said that while he was acting, he couldn't stand not having a script, so he decided to have a heart-to-heart talk with Wang Jiawei.

"The results of it?"

Zhang Guorong cast an inquiring look.

"The result is that every time he would play a song for me and ask me to listen to it several times, and he said that my character felt like that."

Zhu Lu was helpless. "But I don't know what it feels like. He likes to let the actors figure out what he means for themselves."

"This is too much torture!" Zhang Guorong couldn't help but empathize.

Zhu Lin pursed his lips. Under Wang Jiawei's direction, he felt like a tool being commanded and serving him completely. In other words, the actors didn't know what they were filming, but the director knew clearly what he wanted.

This kind of "sense of loss of control" will undoubtedly make actors who are good at understanding characters, especially those who are experiential, feel very painful and tormented.

"hiss."

Zhang Guorong took a deep breath and then asked when Gong Xing would return from the United States.

"It will probably take five or six days at the fastest, or eight or nine days at the slowest. Once the casting for The Intouchables is finished, she will come back to join the crew immediately."

Fang Yan was also secretly glad in his heart that he was familiar with Wang Jiawei's character and specially appointed Gong Xing to be the chief director.

Of course, I didn’t do this because Wang Jiawei was “torturing” the actors, but because Wang Jiawei was just too slow in filming!

Not to mention that "Days of Being Wild" took one year to shoot and "Ashes of Time" took two years to shoot, "In the Mood for Love" alone has been filming for so long. Originally, it was thought that the shooting progress could be one-tenth, but under Wang Jiawei's shooting, it didn't even reach one twentieth.

Nowadays, Hong Kong directors would like to shoot films at 10x speed, but Wang Jiawei prefers 0.5x speed, no, 0.1x speed!
If we continue shooting at this pace, we won't be able to finish it before the Cannes Film Festival in May, and we may not even be able to make it in time for the Venice Film Festival in August or September. It will end up being delayed for another year or two. The cost of the film alone has exceeded the original budget.

Fortunately, when Gong Xing comes back and takes over Wang Jiawei's directing baton, and with his own supervision, everything will be fine!

While he was thinking about this, Zhang Guorong and Zhu Lin were eating egg tarts and sharing their experiences under the direction of Wang Jiawei.

"Everything has its good and bad sides. Although Wang Jiawei may make you feel tortured, torture is the only way to have room for performance."

"Is that so..."

"Wang Jiawei's shooting method may make actors in their comfort zone complain bitterly."

Fangyan explained with a smile that it has been rumored that Wang Jiawei can torture actors to the point of collapse, but there are still countless actors who want to be "trained" by Wang Jiawei. It's not because these actors are masochists, but because filming Wang Jiawei's movies can really win awards.

In addition, there are many "benefits" and helps for actors who are eager to make a breakthrough in their careers.

For example, Wang Jiawei is very good at helping actors discover their own strengths and find another side of themselves beyond their comfort zone.

The characters such as Tang Yan, Xin Zhilei, and Ma Yili in "Fang Hua" have a different style from other characters.

"Thinking about it carefully, it seems to be true. Although filming his scenes is very tiring, he always takes pictures of me to make me look beautiful."

Zhu Lin recalled the scenes on the monitor, and his frown gradually relaxed.

"That's why I specifically borrowed Wang Jiawei from Movie Master to be the director."

Fang Yan looked at her left and right at Zhang Guorong, "Because he can really help you break through the current bottleneck in your acting skills."

When Zhu Lin learned about Fang Yan's good intentions, his heart warmed up. It turned out that he did this for his own good! (End of this chapter)