Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 42 [I dare not forget my country, invitation to the premiere in Japan] Please read
Seeing that everyone was curious about what Chi Ling meant, Li Yishu explained:

"This is a story that popped into my mind when I was conceiving the script for Farewell My Concubine. When the Japanese invaded Beijing and asked Cheng Dieyi to sing for them, I would like to trouble Mr. Li to help with the revisions later."

"No problem, as long as the story is good, I will help you revise it." Li Bihua agreed readily.

"The plot is roughly like this..."

When Li Yishu opened his mouth, everyone looked at him.

"The July 7 Incident, with the sound of the Japanese gunfire, plunged the whole country into dire straits."

"At this time, the city, which had not yet been affected by the war, was still peaceful, and the stage of the theater was still singing the sad and happy "Peach Blossom Fan".

"The male lead Pei Yanzhi is the star of the theater. With his graceful sleeves and beautiful singing voice, he brought to life Li Xiangjun, a woman who dares to love and hate, and is willing to stain peach blossoms with blood..."

"Until the enemy realized that the fire had already spread, they wanted to escape but found that the door had been blocked tightly. The whole theater was doused with kerosene without them knowing it..."

"..."

What Li Yishu was talking about was the background story of the later song "Red Ling".

The general content is that when the male protagonist Pei Yanzhi was performing for the Japanese, he ordered people to set fire to the theater and risked his life to drag the Japanese to death in the sea of ​​fire. Even though no one knew who he was, he died heroically and proudly.

Just like the "Monument to the People's Heroes" written by the teacher, it does not refer to anyone specifically, but commemorates all the people's heroes.

Li Yishu is not afraid of the story leaking out. The subsequent script is definitely not that simple. Secondly, the story and the movie are two different things.

What happened to the science fiction novel Shanghai Fortress?
As an author, Li Bihua mostly writes love stories, so after listening to Li Yishu's story, a picture immediately popped up in her mind.

In the midst of the fire, the male lead Pei Yanzhi sang calmly and calmly, while the Japanese soldiers in the audience fled in panic...

Li Bihua slammed the table and said in surprise, "What a good story! Pei Yanzhi's words, "Even though I am in a low position, I still dare not forget my worries for the country", completely subverted the unbearable image of the opera world in the past. People say that actors are ungrateful, but who knew that actors also have hearts!"

The reputation of opera theater was very bad in the past. It was only after the founding of the People's Republic of China, when everyone was equal, that opera theater gradually rose from the lowest class to art. In the past, who took actors seriously?
Praise someone when you like them and step on them when you don't like them. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such sayings as bitches are heartless and actors are disloyal.

Zhang Manling, who knew a little about Kunqu Opera, said thoughtfully, "It seems that Director Li has studied Kunqu Opera before."

Li Bihua asked curiously, "How do you say that?"

Zhang Manling explained: "Director Li just said that the male lead is good at singing Peach Blossom Fan, and Peach Blossom Fan is one of the classic pieces of Kunqu Opera."

"It tells the story of the late Ming Dynasty, with the joys and sorrows of Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun as the main plot, praising the national heroes and the grassroots people who are loyal to the country, and showing the pain of the Ming Dynasty survivors who lost their country."

"This also perfectly fits the story that Director Li tells. The male protagonist Pei Yanzhi is an actor, who was considered the lowest class in the old society."

"But even such a lowly person, who has been singing Peach Blossom Fan for many years and knows the pain of losing his country, is willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of his country and the rise and fall of his nation, and will not regret it even if he dies nine times!"

Zhang Manling understood Kunqu Opera, so she could see through Li Yishu's ulterior motives at a glance. In that era, most of the actors were like Cheng Dieyi, who were coerced and bribed by the Japanese to perform for them.

But the male protagonist Pei Yanzhi is different. Although he is an actor, he often sings "Peach Blossom Fan" which represents the righteousness of family and country. After the Japanese invasion, he felt that he had really become Li Xiangjun in the Peach Blossom Fan and truly felt the fate of the impending destruction of his country, so even if he died, he would fight hard.

"It's a good story. I know Peach Blossom Fan. Last year, Hong Kong director Chu Yuan made a movie with the same name, Li Xiangjun."

At this point, Xu Su looked at Li Yishu eagerly: "Director Li, you must let me invest in this play no matter what!"

"The script hasn't come out yet. Let's wait until Teacher Li writes it."

Li Yishu smiled and turned to look at Zun Long: "Mr. Zun Long, I wonder if you are interested in playing this role?"

Although both "Farewell My Concubine" and "Red Actors" contain opera elements, the stories are completely different.

The former is a forbidden love + exploration of human nature, while the latter is more about family and country feelings and national justice. The favorite of the three major European film festivals is definitely "Farewell My Concubine".

As for China, perhaps "Red Ling" can also win some awards?

This is a pure mainstream film, it would be a shame if it didn't win an award.

"Yes! Of course!"

Zun Long has just been thinking about this story.

The story is short but the outline is clear. The first half is similar to Cheng Dieyi, but the second half is completely different. Cheng Dieyi is a microcosm of the cannibalistic society of that era, but Pei Yanzhi cares about his country and the world.

The sentence "I dare not forget to worry about my country, even if no one knows me" is enough to become a classic character.

"Since Mr. Zun Long is interested, that's good. We'll wait until Teacher Li finishes writing the script and then find time to start filming."

"I'm OK."

Zun Long had a smile on his face, and even with Peking Opera makeup on, he still exuded a unique charm.

This made Li Yishu couldn't help but sigh, he is indeed a handsome guy that people still remember decades later.

No wonder in the movie "M. Butterfly", the foreign consul was fascinated by the character for more than ten years without knowing that his wife was actually a man.

After finalizing the main actors, Zhang Guorong hurried back to Hong Kong Island as he had to rush to shoot "All's Well, Ends Well".

Xu Lu did not stop either. In order to make the cross-strait and Hong Kong-Hong Kong co-production of the charity film possible, she had to go back and communicate with the Hong Kong Artists Association and the Directors Association, and at the same time, she had to find connections to smooth things over in Taiwan.

It is not difficult to deal with Hong Kong, but the difficulty lies in Formosa.

However, in recent years, cross-strait relations have gradually developed into non-governmental cooperation, which is obviously intentional on the part of Taiwan.

Therefore, this co-production opportunity may be a good opportunity for the Taiwan authorities to completely ease the past tense atmosphere between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Zun Long also flew back to the United States, where he also had a movie to shoot. Zhang Fengyi also had to go back to Sichuan to inform the production studio, and then return to Yanjing to train in Peking Opera.

Li Yishu asked Zhang Fengyi to help bring some local specialties from Yanjing to his parents and Jiang Qinqin's family.

Everyone who had gathered together the day before went their separate ways the next day. Only Li Bihua stayed. She had never written this kind of novel before, so she had to check some documents and materials from the museum about the Republic of China's Anti-Japanese War to help her write a more realistic and attractive script.

After several days, in early October, the Yanjing Film Studio and the Emei Film Studio finally succeeded in negotiating, with one distributing the film in the north and the other in the south.

At the same time, Li Yishu also asked his father to talk to the film studio, and he directly donated the domestic screening rights of "That Mountain" to provide a little help to the people in East China who were affected by the disaster. Naturally, this charitable act was praised by the leaders of the two film studios.

Official reputation +1+1
Li Yishu donated it because the flood in East China was really terrible. In his previous life, he was far away in Sichuan and didn't know much about it, but now that he was in Yanjing, he realized how terrible it was there. It was even worse than the 98 flood.

This is the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China that the country has sought international assistance on a large scale due to a natural disaster. You can imagine how tragic it is.

In Hong Kong, there are selfless performances and charity movies being made, not just because they are trying to show goodwill because Hong Kong Island is about to return, but because they really can't bear it, so those patriotic people have come out one after another.

Just when Li Yishu was attending classes with peace of mind and waiting to go to Hong Kong during the next holiday, Toho Corporation in Japan took the lead and sent the previous Ichiro Tanaka.

I hope to invite Lee Yi-su to Japan to attend the premiere of "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog".

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(End of this chapter)