Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 181 Not Handsome Enough

"Old Xie, when did you come to Yanjing?" Lin Chaoyang asked in surprise.

After not seeing each other for more than three months, Xie Jin looked a little tired. "He came a few days ago."

Today, Li Tuo had just told Lin Chaoyang that "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" was facing a public opinion crisis, and asked with concern: "The movie "Legend of Tianyun Mountain"..."

Xie Jin waved his hand and said, "It's not a big problem. Many people still support our film."

Xie Jin has been in Yenching for a few days. His first major purpose of coming to Yenching was to attend a seminar jointly organized by "Film Art" and "Popular Film" magazines.

The conference was large in scale and high in standard. Not only more than one hundred film directors, screenwriters and theoretical workers participated, but also some official leaders attended.

As a well-known figure in the domestic director circle, Xie Jin was bound to come.

It is indeed as Li Tuo said, "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" encountered some criticism after being screened at the meeting, but Xie Jin also received support from several heavyweight leaders and guests, which was enough to offset the criticism from the outside world and also gave him great confidence.

Judging from Xie Jin's tone, there should be no problem for "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" to pass the censorship.

The two chatted for a while and then changed the topic. Xie Jin told them why he came today.

In addition to holding a seminar, another purpose of his trip to Beijing was casting.

Before "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" was officially released, the news that Xie Jin was preparing for "The Shepherd" had already spread throughout the film industry.

The two films are almost the same subject. The Legend of Tianyun Mountain tells the story of the hero Luo Qun's belief in the D and the people after he was wrongly classified as a member of the Y faction, and the heroine Feng Qinglan's noble love and her beautiful sentiments on life and praise of human nature.

The book "The Horse Herder" tells the story of the protagonist Xu Lingjun who was wrongly classified as a member of the Y sect and went to the grassland to work as a horse herder, although he suffered unfair treatment for twenty-two years.

But in his interactions with the simple working people and in his love life with his hardworking and kind-hearted wife Li Xiuzhi, he healed his emotional wounds and rekindled his love for life and his motherland.

The two films have similar themes and the time interval between their filming is so short, Xie Jin has undoubtedly posed a difficult problem for himself.

With the success of "Legend of Tianyun Mountain", how to make "The Shepherd" even better than the original is the most serious problem Xie Jin is facing now.

In order to bring forth something new and fresh, the first thing Xie Jin thought of was to work hard on the cast.

"For the two roles of Xu Lingjun and Li Xiuzhi, I want to use new faces, and they must be new faces that will surprise the audience."

Xie Jin talked about his thoughts on the film's casting, and said to Lin Chaoyang, "You are both the author of the original novel and the screenwriter, so you have to step in on the casting."

"I have to go to work."

"Winter vacation is about to start, why are you going to work?" Xie Jin asked anxiously.

Lin Chaoyang didn't want to get involved in the casting as there was no money to be made, but Xie Jin insisted that he go, so he had no choice but to agree.

After finishing the business discussion, Xie Jin ate another meal before leaving and made an appointment to audition actors at Yanying the day after tomorrow.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to Zhuxinzhuang in the CP area on the northern outskirts of Yanjing City early in the morning.

The Yanying campus stands in a field. In winter, the surrounding farmland is bare, which makes the place look more lonely and deserted.

After entering the school, Lin Chaoyang met up with Xie Jin, who also brought along photographer Zhu Yongde and assistant director Bao Zhifang.

At that time, the Yanying campus was full of red brick bungalows, and the only building was a tube-shaped building, which was not only the school’s classroom but also the students’ dormitory.

Xie Jin, Lin Chaoyang and his group came to Yanying and were treated as guests of honor by the school leaders. They were specially invited to the principal's office. Chen Huaikai, an old acquaintance of Xie Jin, was also specially called to accompany the guests.

During the chat, the school leaders took out a bunch of student information and photos and asked them to have a brief understanding of the students' information first.

After a while, the school leaders took them to a rehearsal room and used it as an interview room.

1977年国家恢复高考，燕影却是78年才恢复了教学，因此燕影朱辛庄校区现在只有78、79、80三个年级的学生，总计还不到600人。

Xie Jin is here today to cast for a new movie. Yanying students knew about it two days in advance and are eager to try.

Unfortunately, the school has a requirement that freshmen and sophomores are not allowed to interview, so only students from the Acting Department of 78 are eligible to participate in today's casting.

The name Yanying Class of 78 is a very special name for the Chinese film industry. As the first batch of college students after Buzz Buzz Buzz, Yanying Class of 78 has provided a large number of talents for the Chinese film industry, and many students became famous in later generations.

Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Hou Yong, He Ping, Tian Zhuangzhuang...

When selecting actors today, all the people he met were students from the acting department, and there were many familiar faces among them.

The first one to come in was Zhou Liqing, who was favored by many teachers at Yanying Film Academy. He was admitted to the Performance Department of Yanying Film Academy with full marks for image and first place in the country in professional courses.

Judging from the aesthetic standards of that era, Zhou Liqing's appearance was indeed outstanding. Xie Jin's eyes lit up when he saw him. He whispered a few words to photographer Zhu Yongde and asked Zhou Liqing to try out a scene.

The audition was just one page long, and it was the scene in the movie where Guo Feizi takes Li Xiuzhi to Xu Lingjun's house and meets Xu Lingjun for the first time. The person acting opposite Zhou Liqing was Yu Shuping, a teacher from the acting department.

Zhou Lijing had five minutes to prepare. When the time was up, Xie Jin asked, "Are you ready?"

He nodded nervously, looked at Yu Shuping again, and officially began the performance.

He made a gesture of half-closing the door, with a helpless look on his face. He turned his head away, not daring to look at Yu Shuping. He looked left and right, hesitated for a long time, and then started to simulate pouring water.

"Drink some water. You've come such a long way."

Zhou Liqing placed the "water cup" in front of Yu Shuping and said something shyly.

When their eyes met, Yu Shuping also acted shy. At this time, she was playing Li Xiuzhi, who had just walked a long way to Xu Lingjun's house. The character must be thirsty, so she picked up the "water cup" and drank it. Seeing Yu Shuping finish drinking the water, Zhou Liqing kicked left and right, busy in the empty space, as if he was packing up.

There are almost no lines in this scene in the script. It all depends on the actors' eye contact, facial expressions and body movements to complete it, which is quite difficult for students in school.

However, Zhou Liqing's performance was pretty good, and Xie Jin couldn't help but nod slightly after watching his performance.

"Zhou Lijing, please go out first."

After the performance, Yu Shuping said to Zhou Liqing.

After he left, Yu Shuping looked at Xie Jin. Xie Jin didn't say anything, but whispered to Lin Chaoyang, "What do you think?"

"Not very good." Lin Chaoyang said bluntly.

"Tell me specifically, what's not good about it?"

"Not handsome enough!"

Xie Jin was silenced by his words. He looked at him for a long time and said, "I have always wanted to ask you a question."

"What's the problem?"

"When you wrote the character Xu Lingjun, was it based on yourself?"

The hero of "The Shepherd" is called Xu Lingjun, and Lin Chaoyang used this name as his pen name, so it is normal for Xie Jin to have such an association.

Not only Xie Jin, but many readers who have never seen Lin Chaoyang will also associate him with the tall, handsome and gentle Xu Lingjun in the novel.

"Of course not." Lin Chaoyang replied.

Hearing his answer, Xie Jin breathed a sigh of relief. That's good.

Xie Jin was very afraid that Lin Chaoyang had some misunderstanding about his appearance. If there was any flaw in his aesthetic sense, then asking him to come this time would be counterproductive.

After chatting for a while, Xie Jin stopped hesitating and continued to call people in.

The 78 class of Yanying produced many talented people in its directing department and its acting department as well.

The person who just came in was Zhou Liqing, a top young actor who was famous all over the country in the 1980s. The person who came in this time was a younger version of Zhang Fengyi, who had a tough temperament and a bit of naivety.

After the performance, Xie Jin felt that Zhang Fengyi's acting skills were acceptable, and asked Lin Chaoyang: "How about this?"

"Not handsome enough!"

Lin Chaoyang gave the same answer, which completely made Xie Jin lose his temper.

He now seriously suspected that when Lin Chaoyang was writing the novel "The Shepherd", he poured all his dissatisfaction with his own appearance onto the male protagonist Xu Lingjun, so in his description, the male protagonist Xu Lingjun was tall, handsome, and gentle.

There were 78 students in Yanying's 32 acting class. Each student had ten minutes, and the casting was not completed until the afternoon.

After a busy day, Xie Jin declined the invitation to dinner from the school leaders, and left the school with Lin Chaoyang and others, and returned to the Xinqiao Hotel first.

"Tell me, what do you think? The male actors are not handsome enough, and the female actors are not pure enough. What are your standards?"

Xie Jin's tone was a little impatient. He was not angry at Lin Chaoyang, but he didn't understand what Lin Chaoyang's standards for actors were.

Lin Chaoyang is both the author and the screenwriter. Xie Jin believes that no one has a deeper understanding of the images of the male and female protagonists than him, which is why he invited Lin Chaoyang to participate in the casting.

But today, after seeing thirty-two students at Yanying, almost all of them were handsome men and beautiful women, Lin Chaoyang always said that they were "not handsome enough" and "not pure enough". It was obvious that he had a yardstick in his heart, but this yardstick seemed extremely subjective and abstract.

If Xie Jin could not understand the casting criteria in his mind, then the casting would undoubtedly become very difficult, and Xie Jin might even have to use his authority as a director to act arbitrarily, and he did not want that to happen.

Lin Chaoyang’s idea was actually very simple. He had seen the movie “The Shepherd” and was deeply impressed by the male and female protagonists Zhu Shimao and Cong Shan. According to his idea, he must ask these two people to be the leading actors.

Now that Xie Jin is casting a wide net, he is not like a charlatan instructing Xie Jin to directly dig out Zhu Shimao and Cong Shan, who are still unknown at the moment.

He was also afraid that his advice would mislead Xie Jin and change the candidate Xie Jin should have chosen for the leading role.

Of course, Lin Chaoyang couldn't tell Xie Jin about these thoughts. He could only say, "I'm a layman in acting, what do you want me to say? Anyway, in my heart, Xu Lingjun and Li Xiuzhi are both handsome men and beautiful women."

Xie Jin asked helplessly: "Is Zhou Lijing not handsome enough? Fang Shu not pretty enough?"

When the two were exchanging words, Bao Zhifang, who had just left, came in and said to Xie Jin, "Old Xie, the actor you invited earlier is here. I just settled him down. Would you like to meet him first?"

Hearing this, Xie Jin stopped arguing with Lin Chaoyang and said, "Let him in."

Bao Zhifang went out to call for help from the next door, and Xie Jin started arguing with Lin Chaoyang again.

"You said actors have to be handsome, beautiful, and pure. These are all abstract adjectives. We are casting now, so we have to have concrete standards."

"At least you have to give some ideas, right? Tall, short, fat, thin, gentle, pitiful..."

Xie Jin kept talking, and Lin Chaoyang was in no hurry to reply, so the argument between the two soon turned into a one-man show by Xie Jin.

At this moment, Bao Zhifang entered the room, followed by a tall young man.

(End of this chapter)