1980 My Entertainment Era

Chapter 375: Buried Alive

Milan called again and said that this month's cover of "Popular Movies" is Joey Wong.

Last year's Nie Xiaoqian is also a work that went down in Hong Kong film history.

Later, this role left the deepest impression on the audience of Joey Wong.

Milan sighed on the other end of the phone: "There are so many beauties in Hong Kong and Taiwan! Hiss~"

Xia Tian: "What are you sucking?!"

Milan shouted, "Didn't you say before that Wang Zuxian is one of your mahjong friends? Can't you try harder and bring glory to the mainland?"

Xia Tian: I want your bubble teapot!
After talking for a long time, Milan revealed her real purpose - she wanted to have a chat with Aying.

Xia Tian was not worried about what might happen, but she felt a little embarrassed and guilty: "I am sorry for you..."

"Don't talk to me about this. I heard that Aying is known as the most beautiful woman in Wutai Mountain. I have to get closer to her! Hehehehe~"

This is Milan, and she also wants to get to know Aying.

Xiao Xu and Zhang Li must be furious now. Thanks to Milan!
Milan also mentioned something, which was a program broadcast by CCTV called "Revolving Stage".

Suddenly, a program produced and hosted by the island’s veteran singer Zhao Xiaojun was broadcast: "Tide - Songs from the Island".

The format is quite simple, with Zhao Xiaojun hosting the show with an introductory tone, stringing together ten MTVs, most of which are sung by singers from Feidie Records.

The show opened with Huang Yingying's sad and gloomy song "The Snow is Burning", followed by Wang Jie's "A Game, A Dream", Tsai Chin's "Life is a Play", Qian Baihui's "When I Miss You", Cao Songzhang's "Walking Out of Loneliness", Little Tigers' "Green Apple Paradise", Jiang Yuheng's "Looking Back" and Zhang Yusheng's "My Future Is Not a Dream" and so on.

This is really strange!

You know, before this, only a few singers from the island, such as Jun Jie, were popular in the mainland. I listened to them secretly.

The broadcast of "Songs from the Island" on CCTV is a clear confirmation.

After this, there is no need to listen to songs from the island secretly anymore.

Although there is a certain lag, this is qualitative.

……

Through Baohe’s relationship, Xia rented equipment and asked Uncle Jiu to bring a few people to help.

Since I plan to make a short film in the summer, I want to keep things simple.

When Hong Jinbao heard that they were going to make a short film in the summer and submit it for an exhibition, he lost interest.

It's different from Hong Kong where there are often no scripts and everything depends on flying papers.

Xia Tian’s script and storyboard are so detailed that they are almost as long as a normal 90-minute film.

In order to shoot the scenes buried in the coffin underground, some special arrangements and techniques were required.

Xia Tian wrote, directed and acted in the play himself, and had to complete the performance in a narrow coffin while also taking the camera into consideration.

If you have claustrophobia, you would probably be scared to death lying in there.

The story is about a man who wakes up to find himself stuffed into a coffin and buried in the ground.

In the setting, the male protagonist is a gangster, a gigolo, who seduces the sister-in-law, hangs out with rich women, and even uncovers a collusion between police and criminals.

In short, everyone wants him dead.

In his coffin, there were only tools such as a lighter, a watch, a condom, and a knife.

The most useful thing is a telephone.

This year Motorola launched a new mobile phone that is shrunk to the point where it can be operated with one hand, and it also adds a phone book function. It costs more than $2000.

According to the setting, it was bought by the rich woman he was dating.

The male protagonist woke up in the coffin and started calling for help to everyone he could contact.

For example, the rich woman who bought him a mobile phone ended up being ridiculed and told to die.

I called the gangster/bad girl/psychopath played by Wang Fei, but she was drunk and hung up after saying a few irrelevant words - dubbing, because there was only sound on the phone.

In the end, he also called the woman played by Aying, who truly loved him but was abandoned - Aying really wanted to save him, but it was too late.

As the oxygen ran out, the picture began to blur, and the hero's voice and eyes began to become unfocused.

Finally, the phone ran out of battery and the lighter, which had already been hot, gradually went out.

The male protagonist, who was already unconscious, let out a shrill scream in the darkness - the camera stretched out, rising from underground to the ground, looking from the cemetery to the brightly lit city in the distance.

Although it is a short film, Xia Tian still put a lot of effort into it.

With the help of Uncle Jiu and a few others, it took 12 days to finish the filming. In the end, we shot more than minutes of footage.

In the summer, we invited an editor from here to help with the editing. First, we did a rough cut, then a fine cut, and finally the film was 15 minutes long.

In 15 minutes, fill it with details and information!

Through the dialogue, the identity of the male protagonist, as well as the identity and attitude of the person he calls, are clearly expressed. It's not easy!
Finally, Uncle Jiu watched the finished film without saying a word, and he breathed a sigh of relief after finishing it.

"Phew~ This movie is so breathtaking!"

This short film is a bit too depressing. The scumbag male protagonist tried to save himself several times and called for help, but failed in the end.

The feeling of oxygen running out and death approaching step by step makes people subconsciously hold their breath!

Tension, despair, regret, and unwillingness made it really hard to breathe the whole time!

The final scream in the darkness was so creepy that it gave me goosebumps all over my body!
But, this is a great shot! It's so stunning!
…By the time the editing and post-production were completed and the final film was ready, it was already the end of the month.

During this period, A Rong held a press conference, at which he announced that he would hold 33 consecutive concerts at the Hung Hom Stadium, with the theme: Rongsheng Zhang's farewell concert.

Just like what they say in summer, take a rest when you are tired.

Xia Tian went to find Li Hanxiang and Li Heizi on his own.

Just like what I told Sammo Hung before, this short film is intended to be submitted to a film festival.

Li Heizi has a good brother named King Hu!

The two of them are truly sworn brothers with different surnames.

Director Hu's "A Touch of Zen" was a huge obstacle that no martial arts film could overcome!

He originally made "Dragon Inn", which became a huge hit - yes, later Tsui Hark made "New Dragon Inn".

"Dragon Inn" was a big hit, and he had the confidence to ask his boss for more money to make a big production!
He first spent more than a year setting up the scenery, and then paused during filming to wait for the reeds to grow taller.

Often, he could not be satisfied with a shot from morning to night, which resulted in the shooting period of "The Zen Lady" becoming longer and longer.

The company boss was very dissatisfied with the fact that King Hu had spent more than 1500 million but the movie had not even been half shot, so he edited and released the filmed parts without telling King Hu.

The result is predictable, the box office was a disastrous failure.

In an era when most commercial films were 80 or 90 minutes long, "A Touch of Zen" was out of place at more than three hours long. It was also an art film, which brought it with natural disadvantages.

The failure of "A Touch of Zen" made King Hu very disappointed.

So in 1975, he funded the re-edited international version of "A Touch of Zen" to participate in the Cannes Film Festival.

It was first nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 28th Cannes International Film Festival, and finally won the highest comprehensive technical award.

The successful sale of overseas copyrights made up for the previous losses.

As a result, King Hu was named one of the top five directors in the world by a film magazine at the time, becoming the first internationally recognized Chinese-language film director with auteur characteristics.

"The Female Zen Master" is truly a work of art like an ink-and-wash landscape painting!
"Yang Guifei" directed by Li Heizi also won the highest technical award in Cannes in 1962, becoming the first Chinese-language film to win an award at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Film festivals are very dependent on the circle.

After all, if you want to send an exhibition, you need certain connections, otherwise you won’t even know where the door is.

So, Xia Tian found Li Heizi, hoping that he and Director Hu could help send the short film "Buried Alive" to Cannes.

It is not difficult to participate in an exhibition, but the difficulty lies in whether you know someone who can send your work to the exhibition.

Li Heizi had heard from Xia Tian before that he wanted to make a short film, and if the result was good, he wanted him to help send it to an exhibition.

It was a small matter and he agreed at the time.

Now let’s look at the finished film.

He was talking and laughing before watching it, but he was silent during watching it. After watching it, he looked at Xia Tian with a serious face: You kid actually has this skill?!

Although I have known him for a long time, I know that he is very talented in this area.

But talent is something that needs to be honed. You can't become a mature film director by shooting two documentaries.

But this short film is really sharp!

He called his good brother Director Hu on the island and said, "Come over quickly, I have a good movie to show you!"

Director Hu flew over the next day, and after watching the film, he exclaimed, "Wow! What a genius!"

This style is sharp and unique, I have never seen it before!
Li Heizi smiled like the big brother of the Black Society and patted Xia Tian's shoulder: My little brother is awesome~
……

Speaking of which, Director Hu is quite a legendary figure.

I collected a set of "The Legend of Swordsmen from Shu Mountain" in the summer before, the author of which is Huanzhu Louzhu.

Director Hu’s family and Huanzhu Louzhu’s family are old friends!
When he was young, Director Hu did not dare to meet Huanzhu Louzhu openly at home, nor did he dare to walk into the living room to listen to his idle chatter. He just stood outside the door and listened to a word or two.

Later, he became so obsessed with the story that he ran to Huanzhu Louzhu's home without telling his family and begged him to tell him a few stories.

As a result, Huanzhu Louzhu ignored him, just said a few polite words and sent him away.

Director Hu started thinking when he got home. He remembered that Huanzhu was addicted to opium. Every time Huanzhu was invited to their home, his family would always prepare a small bag of opium for him as a gift.

He followed suit, stole the opium from home, and brought it to Huanzhu's house.

As a result, under the influence of Huanzhu Louzhu, King Hu began to be fanatically obsessed with martial arts literature...

I can only say that naughty kids are not beaten enough!

There is another thing. When Director Hu was filming "Drunken Master", he found someone to help because it was too tiring for one person to design the postures of all the actors and he couldn't take care of it all.

This job is both tiring and hard, so people should be paid more, and that's just as it should be.

However, the manager of Shaw Brothers asked, "What's going on?"

Director Hu explained the whole story. The manager agreed, but said, "We can't just get away with it like this. We need a name for it!"

It's about reimbursement! There has to be a reason, a justification.

Director Hu said, "Let's just call him 'Martial Arts Instructor'!"

Since then, there have been "martial arts instructors" in martial arts films!

(End of this chapter)