Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 103 [The first technical martial arts film, You Benchang's Jigong]

"When Lu Zhu was six years old, he listened to my lectures on the Diamond Sutra. When he was ten years old, he went to live in Shaolin Temple, where he practiced Buddhism and martial arts with his hair uncut. He lived there for twenty-seven years..."

"The Buddha taught the world to pay attention to chance. Once the opportunity has passed, the fate will be extinguished. If the opportunity has not arrived, it will not work even if you are enlightened..."

Jigong... No, it was You Benchang who was lying on a rocking chair, holding a bag of Buddhist beads in both hands, closing his eyes, and began to speak the lines slowly and in a Zen-like manner.

Li Yishu, who was standing next to the camera, listened to You Benchang's emotional lines and sighed that an old actor is an old actor. His line delivery skills are enough for many people to learn from.

Gong Li plays Zeng Jing, who sits next to the "idiot monk" and slowly asks, "Then, what does it mean to be willing to turn into a stone bridge for five hundred years, to be beaten by wind and rain?"

Hearing this, You Benchang smiled slowly and said, "Before becoming a monk, Ananda, a disciple of Buddha, saw a young girl on the road and fell in love with her. The Buddha asked him, how much do you like that girl? Ananda replied, I wish to turn into a stone bridge, and endure the wind for 500 years, the sun for 500 years, and the rain for 500 years, just to let this girl walk across the bridge..."

With lines spoken slowly and a voice full of the vicissitudes of life, You Benchang changed his previous image of Jigong and portrayed a foolish monk. Jiang Qinqin, who was already sentimental and girlish, could not help sobbing softly.

Combined with the scene she filmed with Li Yishu before, a poignant love story has already been outlined in Jiang Qinqin's mind.

"Crack!"

Li Yishu glanced at Jiang Qinqin who was crying in the back, smiled, stood up and walked towards You Benchang, "Teacher You is really amazing, your dialogue skills even made the girls in our crew cry."

Hearing this, You Benchang was stunned for a moment, then he saw a crying little girl behind the camera, he immediately laughed and said: "Director Li is too polite, to be honest, your lines are well written, you made this story of Ananda's adventure so touching."

You Benchang has played the monk Jigong for many years, so he naturally has a certain understanding of Buddhist scriptures, otherwise he would not be able to play the crazy, drunken and indulged Living Buddha Jigong.

So when I saw the story of Ananda and the girl in the script, I immediately thought of the Buddhist story "The Adventures of Venerable Ananda".

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Teacher You is really good. He can tell at a glance where this story was adapted from. However, I was bold enough to change the story of the girl chasing Ananda to Ananda chasing the girl."

"It's okay, it's okay, Buddha gives birth to all things."

You Benchang raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "How do you know that in the five hundred reincarnations of Ananda and the girl, there won't be a life in which Ananda pursues the girl?"

Looking at the other person's movements and expressions, he is really Jigong himself. It is hard to tell whether he is acting or real.

Li Yishu smiled with emotion and said, "Teacher You is right. When Venerable Ananda was still in the secular world, he might have pursued that girl."

You Benchang smiled amiably and asked, "Director Li, do you want another take?"

"No need, this one has passed!"

Li Yishu turned around and shouted to the stagehand, "Go get ready. We'll wrap up shooting for Teacher You tonight."

Although it was only a character that appeared for less than a few minutes, it was already a great honor for You Benchang to come and make a guest appearance. After all, the TV series "Jigong" has been very popular all over the country in recent years.

Although this also limits You Benchang's acting range, how many people have acted for a lifetime but cannot play a role that people will remember for a lifetime?
It means that Mr. Liu thinks he is a real monkey, otherwise he should be a respected old artist, not a two-faced one.
When You Benchang and Gong Li went to the dressing room to remove their makeup and the crew began to clean up the scene, Jiang Qinqin came to them with red eyes and said, "Brother Yishu, why didn't I see this line before?"

“Everyone’s script is different.”

Li Yishu looked at Jiang Qinqin, whose eyes were red from crying, rubbed her little head, and said with a smile: "Come on, you are an adult, why are you still crying here?"

Jiang Qinqin pouted: "I...I don't want to cry either, it's just that You...Teacher You's dialogue skills are so great that I feel like crying when I listen to him."

"That's true. Teacher You's dialogue skills are indeed amazing."

Li Yishu nodded in agreement. Even at the age of 90, her acting in "Prosperity" was better than all the actors in the whole show.

What moved Li Yishu the most was the emotions of nostalgia, relief, etc. revealed in You Benchang's eyes when he saw "Abao" put on a suit and tie. The expression was so good.

Without any words, just from his eyes, one could feel that he saw his own youth in "Abao", that kind of nostalgia for youth and compromise with time.

Much stronger than that "Emperor Liang".

Even a movie like "Gold Finger" could win the Best Actor Award, which shows that seniority in Hong Kong is no less than that in the mainland.

Because Li Yishu suddenly wanted to do some "bullet time" scenes.

The crew, which was originally supposed to finish filming the Sichuan scenes in early July, had to postpone the filming time for another half a month.

At the same time, Shinichi Chiba also brought Hiroyuki Sanada, Mie Nakayama, and Takuya Kimura to Sichuan to prepare to shoot a special edition.

When they learned that there was a Japanese actor appearing in the crew, and that it was the now popular Takuya Kimura, the technician from Canon Group of Japan who was responsible for liaising with the director of photography Zhao Fei, they immediately contacted the headquarters.

After getting permission from the headquarters, Honda Hiroshi, the technician in charge of adjusting the camera, said modestly, "Director Li, can we allow our Japanese actors to use this innovative photography technology?"

"This……"

Li Yishu frowned and said hesitantly, "Honda mechanic, you should know that this innovative photography technology is very time-consuming and costly. Our film budget is limited..."

Hiroshi Honda quickly said: "We can pay another $100 million in technical service fees. At the same time, after the movie is released in Japan, our Canon Group will also provide some appropriate publicity services for the movie." $100 million?
The Canon Group is really rich!

Li Yishu asked, "If that's the case, I don't have any problem with that, but is it worth it for your company?"

Honda Hiroshi said: "Of course, our group has already contacted Kimura Takuya before, wanting to invite him to be the spokesperson for one of our cameras. Now that he can star in Director Li's movie again, we hope that he can be considered when Director Li shoots the commercial blockbuster."

"Of course no problem." Li Yishu smiled.

The next week.

Li Yishu arranged Chiba Shinichi and others to perform a wonderful scene of samurai fighting swordsman with Gong Li, who played Zeng Jing.

At the same time, a scene was also filmed where the magician's illusion "Shenxian Rope" fought against the Japanese ninja's ninjutsu.

This is due to the fact that later generations have watched some Japanese samurai and ninja-themed films.

Both scenes were shot very well.

Especially in the battle between Chinese illusion and Japanese ninjutsu, Li Yishu also adopted an exaggerated shooting technique and applied the Shadow Clone Technique from the later popular Naruto into the movie.

Although this seems to be a disconnect with the first half of the movie.

However, considering that it is a special edition, and the film itself has a bit of fantasy, the remains of the Indian monk Rama can regenerate severed limbs, which in itself falls into the category of high-level martial arts, so it is not unacceptable.

mid-July.

After Jiang Qinqin finished reshooting the scene with Li Yishu, she hurried back to the mountain city.

Originally she didn't want to leave, but the school had performances in July and August, and as the main female warrior, Jiang Qinqin was naturally indispensable.

When Jiang Qinqin left, Li Yishu immediately breathed a sigh of relief. The little girl was good in every way except that she looked at people very closely.

During the filming, when Li Yishu was discussing the scene with Nakayama Mihui, she would always appear around her, staring at Nakayama Mihui with a vigilant look.

It seems that Jiang Qinqin really needs to listen to Gong Li and apply for the Central Academy of Drama instead of coming to the Beijing Film Academy.

But when he thought that there would be many beautiful students at the Central Academy of Drama in a few years, and he might have to go to the Central Academy of Drama to look for new actors for future movies, he decided to let her apply for the Beijing Film Academy.

Wanlingqing Bamboo Sea in Southern Sichuan.

The bamboo sea in July is still lush and green, with endless expanses of blue water, clean and pure, and beautiful beyond words.

In the next few days, we will shoot the final bamboo forest battle scene here. After that, we will return to Yanjing Beijing Film Studio to shoot the remaining scenes in Beijing.

"Cut! That's all for today. We'll continue filming the battle in the bamboo forest tomorrow!"

Seeing that it was getting late, Li Yishu waved her hand and asked the crew to start packing up.

Today, Wanlingqing Bamboo Sea has not yet developed into the tourist attraction it later became. There are no places to stay nearby, and you have to pack up and go to the county town in the evening.

After all, in such a lush bamboo forest, there must be some snakes, insects, rats and ants.

night.

In a room of a small hotel in the county town, Li Yishu is drawing some scenes of tomorrow's bamboo forest battle, while thinking about how to freeze the "bamboo leaves".

If you want to shock, then shock to the end and make "Sword Rain" a top-notch technical martial arts film.

Good martial arts stories, about chivalrous spirit, traveling the world with a sword, serving the country and the people... basically have all been written into novels and filmed.

If you want to make a breakthrough, you have to add some technical special effects like Xu Ke's "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" later.

But that movie was made during the post-millennium era when martial arts films were beginning to decline.

It is still 92, and martial arts films are very popular. His technical martial arts film has come out of nowhere. Maybe he will be regarded as a master of martial arts films in the future, right?
dong dong——

"Who is it?" Li Yishu turned around and shouted.

"it's me!"

Gong Li's voice was heard outside the house. Li Yishu got up, walked over and opened the door, and saw Gong Li carrying a bag of cold beer and several packages of peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Gong Li smiled and said, "It was a bit hot at night and I couldn't sleep. I bought some cold beer. Would you like to drink with me?"

Looking at the bag of beer in the other person's hand, Li Yishu glanced at her and smiled, "Okay! It happens that I'm a little hot too!"

(End of this chapter)