Literary Master 1983

Chapter 248 The film entered the central government
"That candy was given to you by Gong Xue, Teacher Yu," Jiang Wen smacked her lips and said anyway.

I think she might be interested in you.

"Really? Tell me why?" Yu Qie didn't find it strange at all.

“Look, let me list them for you…” Jiang Wen counted on her fingers, “Gong Xue is a movie queen, so it goes without saying how popular she is… The number of people pursuing her stretches from one side of the Huangpu River to the other. After she won the double Best Actress award, she had many opportunities… But she chose to act in your film and introduce you to everyone. I think that’s what makes her special.”

That seems to be the case.

This isn't the future, after all. Right now, if a woman can do this much, that's about right. Gong Xue has a very cheerful personality. If it were someone like Chen Xiaoxu, she'd make sure you couldn't see anything and would keep it all bottled up for the rest of your life.

However, Yu Qie sighed.

Baochai is still wearing her hair.

He said, "You can see that now. Gong Xue is my good comrade-in-arms, and we have a pure friendship... at least for now. Besides, I have a very good girlfriend, and I can't let anyone down—do you know her? She's Xue Baochai from 'Dream of the Red Chamber,' and she's quite famous now."

"Yes, I know him," Jiang Wen nodded quickly.

"After we got together, she studied English, researched economics... She never wronged me for a single day, and always put me first. I would never do anything reckless unless she agreed to it... But how could she possibly agree? This is an unsolvable problem."

Jiang Wen was also stunned: Your partner gave permission, so of course that's impossible.

Wait... no... maybe it will work.

Wasn't Gong Xue's reaction quite obvious?
She wasn't there to break up the family; she seemed to want to join it. At least her attitude was quite respectable.

Jiang Wen said, "Although Gong Xue is older than you, I don't think age is a problem. I like older sisters the most. To be honest, I will definitely find an older sister who is a few years older than me in the future! Someone who knows how to care for me and is considerate of me."

Yu Qie chuckled to himself: Jiang Wen later married Liu Xiaoqing, who was seven years older than him. Liu Xiaoqing was truly obedient to him in everything.

Jiang Wen added, "The most difficult things are often the easiest to happen. As long as your partner agrees, everything is negotiable."

"impossible!"

Yu Qie was resolute and decisive.

Give up on that idea! "Although Zhang Li agrees to everything I say, she has her bottom line! She would never agree to things like this."

However, Jiang Wen's words made Yu Qie realize how the literary and artistic circles viewed these promising young writers.

To be honest, his personal conduct alone is not very good.

Zhang Xian, the author of "The Corner Forgotten by Love," has had several relationships, and miraculously, he managed to maintain them all at one point. Women developed genuine love for him. After divorcing his first wife, she wrote numerous bitter and resentful articles published in the magazine "October," severely damaging Zhang Xian's reputation.

This is the first half that was mentioned before.

The second half is as follows:
Zhang Xian was in poor health and was hospitalized. His first wife couldn't help but visit him. When she saw how ill Zhang Xian was, she stopped blaming him.

Touched by his talent, another woman even described this scumbag as an "innocent child" after Zhang Xian's death, which shows how much she loved him.

If Yu Qie were to really get Zhang Li to open a door, he would probably have to resort to a self-inflicted injury, but that would be too despicable. Yu Qie is as strong as an ox now, how could he suddenly fall ill?

In the literary world, there is no one on the mainland who can completely overshadow him.

On the front lines, the border conflict has largely subsided, with only sporadic gunfire. Even if Yuche were to go to Laoshan or Fakarin Mountain again, he wouldn't be unlucky enough to get shot.

But Yu Qie was still curious.

Gong Xue has feelings for him. How did this happen, and how was it discovered?

He went to the newspaper office to find editor Zhang Shouren: "Mr. Zhang, do you still have any reviews of my novel? Let me take a look at them."

"Yes! I've kept all the articles about celebrities for you. It's just that there are too many celebrities for you to read."

"Are there any... uh... movie actors among them?"

"Of course," Zhang Shouren said, taking out a large booklet.

Every so often, Zhang Shouren would cut out important commentaries for Yu Qie and compile them into a notebook for him to read. Zhang Shouren was essentially a personal commentary wall for Yu Qie.

Yu took it home and looked through it, unexpectedly discovering something he hadn't noticed before.

For example, director Tian Zhuangzhuang had been following Yu Qie for a long time and had published many comments praising Yu Qie as a novelist with "visual appeal".

Tian Zhuangzhuang's good friend, Chen Kaige, is even more famous; he's a die-hard fan of Yu Qie. From the publication of Yu Qie's first novel, Chen Kaige has read almost every one of Yu Qie's novels, and has even argued heatedly with others about the themes of his novels.

"No one understands Yuqie better than me." Chen Kaige probably said something like that.

Why didn't these people, like Xie Jin, directly approach Yu Qie himself and request to make a film?

They're probably still leveling up and developing their characters.

Compared to the great director Xie Jin, these people are really nothing.

As an actress at the Shanghai Film Studio, Gong Xue wrote numerous reviews of Yu Qie's novels adapted into films and television series. After she became a double Best Actress winner, these reviews were published in magazines.

In an issue of "Popular Cinema," Gong Xue claimed that her favorite novel was "Death Kiss," because it was written by Yu Qie after he went to the battlefield.

"Sister, sister! I'm dying, can you kiss me?!"

Gong Xue wrote: "When the medic kissed the wounded soldier, I couldn't help but shed tears. Now I am not a star of the Shanghai Film Studio, but just an ordinary reader."

……

Another magazine, Wenhui Daily, mentioned that Gong Xue also organized a book club at the Shanghai Film Studio, with her younger sister, Gong Ying, as the vice president. At that time, there was a very famous writer named Zhang Haidi, a disabled woman who was very good at writing inspirational novels and was known as China's Helen Keller.

Gong Xue really liked Zhang Haidi's inspirational articles, and even more so Yu Qie's novels. So every now and then, she would recommend Yu Qie's novels to the new members, and she would specifically pick out the inspiring parts of Yu Qie's novels to talk about.

The two sisters even tried writing poems and short sentences themselves—but why do they sound like Da Bing?

Gong Xue also organized a fundraising event. Yu Qie knew about this, but didn't know the amount she donated. An interview mentioned that after reading Yu Qie's novel, Gong Xue and her sister donated 500 yuan.

Why is it exactly 500 yuan? Half the 1000 yuan donated by Chen Xiaoxu and Zhang Li? Just equal to one of them?

These things, taken in isolation, seem insignificant, but when viewed together, they reveal a Gong Xue who clearly has feelings for me. Does Gong Xue really have feelings for me?
It’s over.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through Yu Qie's mind: when he was forced to play a "staff member," Gong Xue changed her lines in front of the camera, saying, "What you see now is Yu Qie..."

Oh shit!

I'm such a blockhead!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Not long after the farewell dinner, Xie Jin called to say that the film "Children of Heaven" had passed censorship and was scheduled for release on August 1st.

"August 1st? What, are you showing this to the troops?" Yu Qie immediately asked.

“That’s right!” Xie Jin said, “You’ve already published your novel on the front lines, how could you possibly forget about this movie! Among so many people across the country, those who can afford to buy tickets and donate are mostly comrades with jobs in towns and cities… The military is a huge group, several million people, they must donate a lot of money.”

The review process at that time followed a process from within the factory to a certain commission, and then to a certain bureau... If someone was exceptionally good, they might even be selected by the central government and introduced to the bigwigs.

After three months of filming, the final product of "Children of Heaven" received excellent feedback. No editing was needed; the actors used their own voices, eliminating the need for dubbing. Gong Xue plays a teacher from mainland China who comes to Xinjiang to provide educational support; her temperament is pure and beautiful, and her voice is gentle and pleasant.

In short, from that moment on, she became the representative of teachers in mainland China.

The Shanghai Film Studio organized an internal review meeting, and many reviewers were moved to tears after watching the film. This year, the film market has been particularly bad, with many domestically produced films being released without the audience's willingness to pay to see them. In order to survive, the vice president of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television took the lead, stating: "We should not only encourage the production of entertainment films, but also suggest awarding prizes to entertainment films with high attendance rates."

This doesn't sound like something a leader from the 1980s would say.

After watching "Children of Heaven," Director Teng of the Film Bureau praised the film, saying, "All the classic scenes from the original novel have been preserved, and even the controversial casting of 'Ali's sister' now seems fine."

During the internal screenings, when "Little Yingzi" revealed her bright, expressive eyes and cried in front of the camera, the audience felt their hearts break and their livers ache.

This is a film that truly balances commercial appeal and artistic merit; it may well be Xie Jinxin's artistic peak.

Anticipating the film's potential popularity, the Shanghai Film Studio developed and printed the negatives, creating a single copy for each positive film, then using the positive film to create a copy of the negative film, and finally using the copy of the negative film to make a large number of copies.

At the Baoding Film Factory, stacks of film rolls were being produced and labeled "Shanghai Film Studio." These rolls were then transported by trucks to Shanghai, where they were made into new prints.

The production of "Children of Heaven" required an unusually large amount of film. The Shanghai Film Studio allocated funds to purchase enough color film in advance for hundreds of copies.

So, after the workers on the production line packaged the film, they wrote "Shanghai Film Studio, Little Shoes" on it according to the list.

Another stack of film rolls arrived, still labeled "Shanghai Film Studio, Little Shoes".

……

so much?
It's never going to end.

"They're making film copies!" a worker exclaimed. "Is 'Children of Heaven' the novel written by Yu Qie? It's finally been made into a film! When it's released, I'll take my whole family to see it!"

Another worker said:

"Is this movie really that popular? It's packed with hundreds of stacks of film. There are only three cinemas in my hometown of Tongzhou. What if it doesn't sell well?"

The person in front shook their head: "Hey! Yu Qie's novel! What are you talking about! How could it not be popular? The director is Xie Jin—have you not read 'Children of Heaven'?"

"I haven't read it! I was busy with the New Year celebrations at the time. I heard that Yu Qie's novels were so moving that I didn't read them."

The worker in front of him actually looked envious: "Brother, after you get off work today, go and read that novel. I'm so jealous of you, you haven't read it yet... If only I could lose my memory, I could read it again."

"..."

Is it really that good? You should take this movie to CCTV.

A similar incident occurred at the Shanghai Film Studio.

The copied film reels were packed into black boxes and sent to various cinemas and public institutions. Because of the film's charitable nature, a portion of the reels was specially reserved and shown free of charge to children in mountain villages. A film called *One Second* depicts this scene: between several remote mountain villages, the projectionist carries this black tin box containing the film reels and the projection equipment, as if carrying the whole world. Upon arriving at an inhabited village, he sets up a tent and projects the image.

The village, which was originally deserted, suddenly gathered hundreds or thousands of people, from the old to the young, all staring intently at the picture on the cloth.

At the entrance of the Shanghai Film Studio, postmen lined up to collect their packages; their tricycles were filled with tin boxes containing film rolls.

There were a few people in military uniforms standing there without carrying anything.

"Comrade, I can hardly carry this anymore, can you help me?" the postman said.

Several men in military uniforms were assigned to different roles: one to watch over the factory, the rest to help move film rolls, and another to work inside the factory.

The film rolls were all moved, but these people were still there.

The postman found this interesting and tentatively asked, "Comrade, what brings you here?"

This caused the man in military uniform to change his expression drastically, and he immediately said, "Don't ask about things that aren't your business!"

"Fine, I won't ask. It's like I'm doing you a favor..." the postman muttered.

Because copying film requires a dust-free and light-free environment, the Shanghai Film Studio has a special copying room with no windows and is spotless. Workers have to change into special clothes before entering.

Suddenly, a stack of film rolls was delivered from there.

"Comrade, the copy is ready. This is a complete copy of the film 'Children of Heaven,' the one directed by Yu Qie and Xie Jin," said the copy quality inspector from the Shanghai Film Studio.

"I've checked it, and there's nothing wrong with the storage. You can come and take a look too."

A man in a green military uniform saluted the copy quality inspector, then lowered his head and carefully searched the film, sniffing it—because copying film requires special chemicals.

After confirming there was nothing there, the film was put into a tin box. This tin box had no markings on the outside. Furthermore, this tin box was then put into another wooden box, also without any markings. The man in the green uniform carried this box and met up with his comrades.

Xu Sangchu, the director of the Shanghai Film Studio, made a special trip to deliver these military uniforms, greeting them with a broad smile.

—The mailman finally understood!

This film really needs to be sent to the central government!
(End of this chapter)