The literary era since 1979

Hong Kong, Kai Tak Airport.

In the VIP lounge, Gong Xing, wearing a dark green velvet cheongsam, and Zhu Lin, wearing a deep blue Suzhou embroidery cheongsam, complemented each other and attracted attention. However, the most popular among passers-by were Fang Yan and Zhang Guorong. Most people stopped to watch, and a few brave people asked for their autographs.

"Thank you, brother."

The fans got Zhang Guorong's autograph and left happily.

"Looking at your current popularity, it would be a shame for you to quit the music industry."

There was a hint of regret in Gong Xing's tone.

"It's not a pity, it's actually pretty good."

Zhang Guorong disagreed, saying that he had long been tired of the "Tan-Zhang dispute", otherwise he would not have switched to the entertainment industry.

Zhu Lu said: "If my brother was still in the music industry, singing "Angkor Wat" with Li Zhi would definitely be a better result."

Zhang Guorong raised his hand, "Lizhi is pretty good on her own, I won't make trouble."

Fangyan smiled without saying anything. Since the premiere of "Angkor Wat" on Thunder Channel 881 of Hong Kong Commercial Radio, the popularity has continued to rise. Because of the popularity and fans accumulated by previous songs such as "Evening Breeze Blowing in My Heart" and "Second Hand", the sales of Li Zhi's single may exceed 3 platinum.

Zhang Guorong took a sip of water and suddenly heard Wang Jiawei's voice beside his ears.

"Mr. Rong, I wonder what you think of that play?"

"A play? What play?"

Gong Xing and Zhu Lin looked at each other.

Under the curious gaze of the crowd, Wang Jiawei explained that he was preparing to start a new play and wanted to invite Zhang Guorong to be the male lead.

Fangyan was greatly shocked. He never expected that Wang Jiawei, the "Fighter of the Altar", would be so efficient!
"I was also inspired by Fang Sheng's In the Mood for Love and wanted to write a prodigal son's story set in Hong Kong in the early 60s."

Wang Jiawei said slowly.

Gong Xing became more and more curious, and after asking, he found out that the story was probably about the absence of his biological mother during Ah Fei Xu's growth, which caused him to become extremely eccentric, irresponsible, and unruly towards every woman he met in his life.

“Like a rootless bird.”

There was some deep meaning in Wang Jiawei's words.

"What is a rootless bird?"

Zhu Lin was puzzled.

Zhang Guorong said helplessly: "Director Wang told me that it is a bird without feet. It can only fly and fly, non-stop."

"Are there really birds without feet in nature?" Gong Xing wondered.

"Of course not. I guess this may be a literary image. The rootless bird has no feet, so it can only fly all the time. When it is tired of flying, it sleeps in the wind. This kind of bird can only land once in its life, and that time is when it dies." Fangyan smiled and replied, "It may describe the emotional state of the protagonist Ah Fei. He keeps shuttling between women, but he can't build a nest at all."

"That's right, what Fang Sheng said is exactly what I was thinking!"

Wang Jiawei excitedly took out a pen and paper, vowing to copy the words he had just spoken into the script exactly as they were.

"Will there really be no problems if you use it word for word in the script?"

Zhang Guorong's heart skipped a beat.

"will not."

Wang Jiawei sighed and said that although he is a screenwriter and director, he particularly dislikes writing scripts because it takes too much time to convert ideas into words, and scripts must be written very neatly, so it would take twice as long if they were written down.

"So you won't film without a script?" Zhang Guorong had a bad feeling.

"Of course not. I definitely have a script when I'm filming."

Wang Jiawei's serious look seemed to dispel the doubts of Zhang Guorong, Gong Xing and others.

Fangyan was laughing on the side and said only the first half of the sentence and left out the second half. Wang Jiawei has a script when filming because the script is himself.

………………

The plane took off from Hong Kong and arrived in Italy after a long journey.

Fangyan and his group followed the route given by the Venice Film Festival Organizing Committee and arrived at the Venice Lido Hotel recommended in the letter.

As the only five-star hotel designated by the organizer, it accommodated most of the stars and crews who came to attend the film festival.

Fang Yan originally planned to take some time after the opening ceremony of the film festival to meet Marco Mueller, who was friends with Xie Jin. However, he never expected that after completing the screening of the participating films, the film selection director would become a reception ambassador and entertain various people in the hotel.

"Haha, it's our honor that you can participate in this Venice Film Festival!"

“It is also our honor to be invited to the Venice Film Festival.”

Fangyan replied politely.

After greeting each other for a while, Gong Xing suddenly mentioned Xie Jin:
"I heard that you and Director Xie are both friends and master and apprentice, right?"

"That's exactly right."

Marco Muller said seriously that in the late 70s, after returning to Italy after studying in China, he gave up his original music education job and began to concentrate on studying films, especially Chinese films. He also wrote articles for some European newspapers and journals, planned film series, and specialized in translating and introducing Chinese films. All of this originated from Xie Jin, who led him to the path of film.

"I also heard Director Xie mention you, saying that you were the first person to systematically recommend Chinese films to the West."

Listening to his fluent Chinese, Fangyan felt very close to him.

"No, no, I just made some insignificant contributions."

Marco Muller waved his hand.

Although he said so, Fangyan had already learned from Xie Jin that in the 70s, Turin, Italy was preparing for a film festival. Marco Muller took the initiative to talk to the person in charge of Turin about the way to make the film festival a success, which was to hold a large-scale retrospective of Chinese films.

So much so that since the first Turin Film Festival, it has always been a window for Chinese films to showcase to Europe.

It was the first time that everyone met and they didn't have much in common to talk about. Fortunately, they could start with Xie Jin and gradually open up the conversation.

"Every time I come to Shanghai, I will contact Director Xie in advance. He will treat me to a meal with the 50-year-old rice wine stored at home, called 'Nü'erhong'. We drink a whole bottle together. He has a great alcohol tolerance. He orders all the dishes. He said that you must eat drunken shrimps when drinking 'Nü'erhong'. When I first ate it, I felt that the live shrimps were still jumping in my throat..."

Marco Muller talked endlessly about the interesting stories of his interactions with Xie Jin.

"What a pity. I should have invited Director Xie to the Venice Film Festival so that you could have reminisced about the past."

Gong Xing frowned.

"Haha, that's not necessary!"

Marco Mueller said openly that Xie Jin was one of the judges of this year's Venice Film Festival.

"What!!"

Fangyan was greatly surprised, and he and Gong Qian exchanged a glance, the shock in their eyes difficult to conceal. (End of this chapter)