Exciting 1979!

Chapter 416 A Hundred Flowers Clash: Gong Xue of the South and Zhu Lin of the North Face Off for the First Time

"Later, the snake demon and scorpion demon threw the seventh Calabash Brother into the alchemy furnace, only to find that the Seven Star Pill had not been successfully made. Grandpa said it was because the Calabash Brothers were disunited and no longer united, so they couldn't even make the pill." Wei Ping'an was telling Xizi and Lele the last part of the Calabash Brothers story.

"At this moment, Grandpa pretended to surrender, saying that he had a way to make the Calabash Brothers united, but the demons had to release him. The two demons, having no other choice, let Grandpa approach the alchemy furnace. Suddenly, Grandpa took out the Seven-Colored Lotus and threw it into the alchemy furnace. The Seven-Colored Lotus emitted a burst of colorful light, awakening the Seventh Brother's memories. He remembered the happy times on the vine and how the demons had captured him here, vine and gourd together."

"So the seven brothers worked together and broke the alchemy furnace. Unfortunately, Grandpa was also controlled by the Scorpion Demon. They used Grandpa to threaten the Calabash Brothers. In order to subdue the demon..." At this point, Wei Ping'an sighed, "In the end, in order to protect the Calabash Brothers from being threatened, Grandpa died under the Scorpion Demon's knife."

Lele's eyes were brimming with tears: "Then the Calabash Brothers won't have a grandfather anymore?"

Xizi said sadly, "Just like us?"

Wei Ping'an thought to himself, "They might not necessarily be the same as you."

He said, "Birth, aging, sickness, and death are all natural laws. Let's continue to observe."

What follows is even more heartbreaking: in order to suppress the two demons forever, the seven Calabash Brothers transformed into a seven-colored mountain, pressing down on the magic gourd that had captured the two demons.

This seems like a somewhat tragic story, but Wei left a loose end, saying that the Calabash Brothers were not dead, but just asleep, and that the sleeping Calabash Brothers would one day wake up.

Wei Ping'an murmured, "Is there a sequel?"

~
"A sequel? Of course there will be one, but Xiaoming said he needs to take it slow," Lü Xiaoyan said to everyone.

At that moment, Lü Xiaoyan was hosting a banquet for all the members of "King of Fairy Tales" at a small restaurant.

This banquet was a celebration banquet, to celebrate that the sales of "King of Fairy Tales" surpassed those of two similar publications, "Children's Literature" and "Juvenile Literature," for the first time, truly making it the number one children's publication!
Of course, Wei's two novels deserve much credit for this achievement: the completion of "Calabash Brothers" and the latest installment of "Black Cat Detective" featuring One-Ear's successful prison break.

Although One-Ear has been gone for a long time, children have not forgotten this cunning guy. Later, the sheriff also encountered many criminals, but none of them were as smart and tenacious as One-Ear. Even when the sheriff was solving cases, he often mentioned this old rival, which deepened the readers' obsession with One-Ear.

In this episode, One-Ear almost became the main character. Black Cat Detective only threw a criminal into prison at the beginning, and then had a brief encounter with One-Ear before starting to talk about One-Ear's life in prison.

He not only learned many criminal techniques in prison, but also behaved well and was always looking for an opportunity to escape.

On this day, the criminal brought in by Chief Black Cat suddenly died. The prison guards were about to take the body away when One-Ear secretly reported that the criminal was not actually dead, but was faking it.

"How could he not be dead? His body was stiff, his breathing and heartbeat had stopped, and there was even a smell of rotting flesh on his body."

“I said it’s not dead, and it’s not dead. It’s called an opossum, and it’s a distant relative of mine. Its greatest skill is playing dead. If you don’t believe me, call a forensic doctor to dissect it and see if it comes back to life.”

This time, One-Ear was in charge of popularizing knowledge about the animal kingdom, and it gave the children a thorough explanation of the opossum's special ability.

Because the illustrator of "King of Fairy Tales" didn't know what opossums living in the Americas looked like, Wei Ming found a popular science book and provided it to the illustrator.

Later, the prison guards tried it out, and the opossum was indeed playing dead in an attempt to escape. It was a master at playing dead.

One-Ear became a trusted prisoner of the guards because of his meritorious report. Not only was his room exempted from inspection, but he was also able to supervise and lead other prisoners, and lead them in labor and exercise.

However, one day, One Ear suddenly disappeared from the prison and could not be found anywhere.

Left with no other option, the prison guards called over Black Cat Sheriff again, asking him to help find One-Ear.

When Chief Black Cat arrived at One-Ear's cell, he found a poster of himself on the wall, dressed in a police uniform, saluting, looking particularly smart.

The prison guard said, "One-Ear said that you caught it and that it admires you very much, so it wants to hang your portrait in its room so that it can see you every day and be reminded not to commit crimes again."

Black Cat Sheriff walked up to his portrait, smiled slightly, and then peeled it off. He then saw a hole behind the wall, a mouse hole!
Pangolin, one of the prison guards and a tunneling expert, immediately leaned over and said, "This tunnel has been here for a long time!"

This is a kind of interaction with "Calabash Brothers". The pangolin that finished filming there has become a prison guard here.

Then the perspective shifts to One-Ear. After gaining the trust of the prison guards, he led the other prisoners in labor and exercises every day. Every day, he would roll up some soil in his trousers and take it out to shake it off on the ground. Over time, he finally managed to dig a tunnel leading out of the prison.

When he escaped, it was raining heavily. One-Eared laughed loudly, and the rain washed away his footprints, making his whereabouts a mystery.

Wei Ming parodied "The Shawshank Redemption" in this plot, but Stephen King's novel may have been written by now, but it hasn't been published yet. It can only be said that the two had the same idea, and Wei Ming was faster.

Thanks to One-Ear's escape from prison, the popularity of "Black Cat Detective" has reached a new level, and young readers are eagerly anticipating the next cat-and-mouse game.

Zheng Yuanjie took a small sip, not drinking much. He was also looking forward to his own cat-and-mouse game, except that his story was the opposite of Wei's. In his story, the mouse was righteous and the cat was evil.

He had previously tried his hand at writing a short story called "The Little Mouse Who Flies a Helicopter," which was published in the neighboring Children's Literature magazine. Now that "The Magic Cube Building" is about to end, he wants to expand on the story of Shuke and turn it into a medium-length novel.

Oh, Shuke is the name of the little mouse who flies the helicopter. There's also an evil tabby cat named Mimi in the story. It's definitely not meant to be a reference to Black Cat Detective Mimi.

At that moment, he only thought of giving Shuke a cat rival, and hadn't thought of writing a mouse to keep Shuke company.

When the celebration banquet ended and Lü Xiaoyan returned home, Wei Ping'an had already put the two children to sleep. Aunt Xiaoyan waved the wine in her hand at Wei Ping'an, and the two prepared to have a small drink as a warm-up.

“Director Wei, you seem to have something on your mind lately.” The two sat on the sofa, and Lü Xiaoyan pressed Wei Ping’an’s head against her chest.

Wei Ping'an: "It's nothing, just worrying about the country and its people."

Lü Xiaoyan: "Why don't you go with Xizi next time he goes out to film a movie? Just to help him relax."

Wei Pingan shook his head: "I'll accompany him when he goes to Hong Kong to film. Come on, let's have another one."

~
By this time, the Hong Kong Film Awards trophy had been sent to Wei Ming's home through Bluebird Film Company. He left the address of the Overseas Chinese Apartment. Wei Hong once went to the post office to mail a letter and picked it up for him. She was already very familiar with the postman and could act as his sister.

When Wei Hong saw the Hong Kong Film Awards trophy, she was a little embarrassed because it depicted a nude woman, but thankfully the film covered the vital parts.

Upon seeing the Hong Kong Film Awards trophy, Wei Hong suddenly remembered the voting for the Hundred Flowers Awards. She quickly found the "Popular Cinema" magazine that her family had subscribed to.

There were many blockbuster movies last year, but "Heroes from Ancient Times" was not on the shortlist because it was a co-production. Among the dozens of domestic films released in 81, the first ones were "Joyful Reunion", "Mom, Love Me Again", "The Legend of the White Snake", and "The Mysterious Buddha".

Voting started last month. Wei Hong chose "Joyful Reunion" and Zhu Lin. This time, she will choose "Mom, Love Me Again" and Gong Xue. They are both her brother's good friends and her good older sister, so she naturally wants to treat them equally.

The results will be announced next month, with the Hundred Flowers Awards and the Golden Rooster Awards being presented simultaneously in May.

In terms of the popularity of the movie and the character, "Happy Family" and Zhu Lin are actually not as popular as "Mama" and Gong Xue.

However, coincidentally, Changchun Film Studio provided a boost at this time, releasing the period drama "Du Shiniang".

Two weeks ago, the movie version of "Teahouse" was released, which received a lot of coverage and had a decent attendance rate. However, once "Du Shiniang" was released, it completely overshadowed the somewhat depressing "Teahouse".

Zhu Lin's ancient costume photos as Du Shiniang appeared simultaneously in major newspapers and magazines across the country, instantly captivating audiences. Zhu Lin, you are the goddess of ancient costumes! Fans flocked to support her.

Changchun Film Studio was very confident in this film, which directly resulted in the second-highest number of copies made this year, second only to "Shaolin Temple".

The key is that the movie quality is also very good, with extremely high attendance. It successfully took over the top spot in theaters after "Shaolin Temple". In the end, Du Shiniang angrily sank the treasure chest. Seeing the crazy look of the scumbag in the movie with his heart dead, the audience said they were satisfied.

Audiences are not always completely rational. At this time, "Du Shiniang" is very popular, and people's feelings for Zhu Lin will be deeper. Many people will inevitably be influenced by the new film when voting and will be biased towards her.

When Wei Ming was in Yangzhou, he saw a newspaper that reported on the recent Hundred Flowers Awards voting by Popular Cinema magazine. The newspaper also posed a question at the end: would Gong Xue ultimately prevail, or would Zhu Lin rise to prominence?

The author of this article is probably a fan of both actresses and doesn't care about the other actresses at all.

Actually, Liu Xiaoqing has "The Mysterious Buddha", Li Xiuming has "Xu Mao and His Daughters", and oh, Zhang Yu has "Soulmate".

The voting for the Hundred Flowers Awards in those days was comparable to the Super Girl competition in later years. Although it didn't reach the level of nationwide participation, it could still gather one or two million votes. Whenever the Hundred Flowers Awards started, the sales of "Popular Cinema" magazine were unmatched in mainland China. Even "Story Club" magazine had to temporarily give way to it, and literary magazines couldn't compare to the combined sales of the four major literary magazines.

The biggest motivation for viewers to vote is still the Best Actress competition. Even the cast and crew of "Journey to the West" are discussing this. Every time they see someone holding a copy of "Popular Cinema" magazine, they want to campaign for their favorite actress.

The faction was divided into two groups, led by Chi Chongrui and Li Chengru, who respectively supported Gong Xue and Zhu Lin.

Wei Ming just wants to watch "Du Shiniang" with Sister Xue and Sister Lin right now, but unfortunately he still has to keep an eye on them while they're filming.

"Liu'er, your movement is a bit exaggerated. You should do it like this, like this..."

Today, filming finally began for the scenes with Tang Sanzang and his disciples. Wei Ming boldly offered his opinions on Liu Xiao Ling Tong's performance, essentially using his later, more mature portrayal of Sun Wukong to correct Liu's exploratory stage, helping him avoid some pitfalls. Liu Xiao Ling Tong was initially somewhat unconvinced, saying, "Have you even played Sun Wukong? Why are you giving me this nonsense? My Zhang family has been performing monkey plays for generations; how could I not understand this?"

However, Director Yang Jie still made him act it out according to Wei Ming's instructions, imitating the movements and expressions perfectly. At this point, Teacher Liu was very obedient.

When he acted out the scene as Wei Ming had taught him, Wei Ming couldn't help but nod and say, "That's the real you!"

Director Yang Jie and the others discussed it in hushed tones, and they all agreed that this level was just right, possessing both monkey-like qualities and human-like characteristics. Considering that this was the middle part of the entire play, Sun Wukong should have matured a lot by then.

"Xiao Liu, if it were filming the first few episodes, you could act more extroverted. But for now, just do as Xiao Wei just taught you."

Liu Xiao Ling Tong nodded obediently. Then Wei Ming gave some more instructions to Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Tang Sanzang. They didn't have too many problems. The soul of the whole play is still Sun Wukong, and more effort needs to be put into him.

Next up is a relatively light action scene, which will be Master Biao's turn to perform, and both cameras will be turned on.

When it comes to filming action scenes, Wei Ming and Biaozi are the most experienced among the group. Today, they were the ones who were busy with everything. Biaozi, in particular, used to hang out with Yuan Xiangren and Xu Xiaoming all the time, so he has a lot of experience in martial arts design.

Director Yang Jie oversaw the overall situation while also quietly learning.

She felt that Zhao Debiao, the martial arts director, performed very professionally, designing several amazing moves in a short conflict scene.

So at lunchtime, she sat next to Biaozi, wanting to discuss with him whether they could simply become their martial arts instructors for the whole time.

Wei Ming did mention hiring a martial arts instructor and wire work expert from Hong Kong, but Zhao Debiao boasted that he also knew about wire work, so she figured it would be cheaper to hire someone from the mainland than someone from Hong Kong.

She also promised, "Xiao Biao, if you join our team, I'll try my best and maybe I can get you a position at CCTV."

This question embarrassed Biaozi. "Big sister, I'm just here to have some fun."

Li Chengru was quick-witted and noticed Biaozi's predicament. He quickly spoke up to help him out of his embarrassment: "Director, Master Biao is the owner of Oriental Plaza. Although he doesn't have a company, he's not short of money."

If it were any other self-employed individual, Yang Jie could have said, "Bullshit, how can a self-employed business owner compare to a CCTV employee with a formal position?" But he was talking about Oriental Plaza, which was featured in the People's Daily and was established as a typical representative of self-employed businesses, not only rich but also with high status.

Yang Jie sighed, "What a pity."

Biaozi scratched his head awkwardly: "Sorry, I have a Monopoly card."

Wei Ming laughed and said, "Director Yang, we can't skimp on the action choreographer's fee. This is just a pilot episode, so we can use Biaozi to make do. Once filming officially starts, I'll find you a better one from Hong Kong right away, and we can use the sponsorship fee from Hong Kong to pay for it."

Yang Jie: "I almost forgot we still have one million Hong Kong dollars. We have to thank Mr. Qiu."

Speaking of Chiu Te-ken, just a few days ago, Hong Kong media broke the news that Chiu Te-ken of the Far East Group spent HK$100 million to buy 50% of the shares of Hong Kong's RTV (Rediffusion Television) from the British company Rediffusion, becoming RTV's largest shareholder.

Uncle Siu of TVB wasn't particularly worried about this. Instead, he took advantage of the internal turmoil at RTV to poach talent like crazy. Some were poached by TVB, while others went on to start their own businesses, such as the Mak brothers and producer Siu Yuk-yuen.

After taking control of RTV, Chiu Te-ken couldn't wait to find out if the mainland version of "Journey to the West" had finished filming and whether it would be broadcast this year.

It can only be said that Chiu Te-ken is overthinking it. The episode "Exorcising Demons in Wuji Kingdom" alone will take about a month to film. And this is an episode with few outdoor scenes and relatively concentrated locations. If it were another episode, it would be even more difficult.

To improve efficiency, during the evening debriefing meeting, Wei Ming suggested that the actual filming should not follow the plot development of each episode step by step, as that would be too slow.

"Some scenes might be used in one episode and another, so we'll film them together. For example, the Heavenly Court, the Dragon Palace, the Guanyin Bodhisattva's sacred site in the South China Sea, Flower Fruit Mountain, and the Bodhi Patriarch's cave..."

Because of the lack of experience in filming TV series in China, Wei Ming had to popularize such basic knowledge. In the previous life, it was very common for the "Journey to the West" crew to repeatedly go to the same place to film or to reshoot.

"We also have to consider the seasons. Some scenes need to be filmed in the spring and summer, while some stories need to be filmed in the winter."

The director and others nodded repeatedly after listening and took extensive notes.

Ultimately, the problem stemmed from an insufficiently detailed shooting plan and a lack of technical expertise.

Often it's not that they want to reshoot, but rather that they only see the footage after filming and returning to their unit, and only then do they realize that some parts weren't shot well enough.

Or, during post-production special effects work, it was discovered that the effects could not be achieved due to filming issues, necessitating a reshoot.

Another issue is that CCTV requires each episode to be filmed, produced, and reviewed, and sometimes the review process doesn't even pass.

For example, in the episode "The Monkey King Thrice Beats the White Bone Demon", the initial version was too scary and might frighten children, so the leadership suggested that the episode be deleted. To ensure the integrity of the series, director Yang Jie called all the actors back to the location to reshoot, which wasted a lot of time and money.

Wei Ming specifically mentioned this point when he was helping them revise the script: don't make it too scary. In "Exorcising Demons in Wuji Kingdom," Tang Sanzang's encounter with ghosts is basically a red line.

The scope of TV dramas is being gradually expanded; we haven't reached the point where we're making shows like "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" or "Investiture of the Gods."

In short, the difficulties encountered in filming "Journey to the West" in 82 were considerable, while filming "Dream of the Red Chamber" in several theaters was indeed much more comfortable.

Back in her room that evening, Director Yang Jie looked at her notes and exclaimed that she had found the right person to be the chief consultant, Wei Ming.

She said to photographer Wang, "We really have to put him after Wu Cheng'en."

By the end of April, filming in Yangzhou had finally wrapped up. Wei Ming and Biaozi had eaten at almost every restaurant in Yangzhou, and had sampled all the Huaiyang cuisine available during the season.

Wei Ming also bought a considerable number of Gaoyou salted duck eggs, partly for Mr. Wang Zengqi and partly for himself; they were indeed delicious.

During this period, Wei Ming also sorted out about twenty essays from his own manuscripts. In order to maintain a consistent style, he revised some of them and even wrote two more.

These manuscripts are not only of above-average quality among my own essays, but also include fine dining experiences in large restaurants, though more often they feature small eateries and local delicacies.

Some of them are even the delicious farm-style dishes I ate in my hometown or at my maternal grandmother's house in Sichuan.

Wei Ming did this for two reasons: first, to avoid flaunting wealth throughout the entire collection; and second, out of a billion Chinese people, how many can actually afford to eat the delicacies served in those fancy restaurants? These dishes don't represent the entire population, and if the entire collection consists of texts boasting about exquisite cuisine, it wouldn't match the title he had in mind for the book.

The filming of this pilot episode of "Exorcising Demons in Wuji Kingdom" took nearly a month, including the time spent in Yanjing.

This past month has been a valuable experience for the team. Looking at Teacher Liu now, he's starting to resemble the Monkey King more and more, and Teacher Chi Zhongrui has a Buddha-like face. If Chen Fupo saw this, she'd probably snatch him home and eat his Tang Monk flesh.

Anyway, Wei Ming felt that his two older sisters must miss him terribly. On the train, he was already eager to go home, wishing he could leave the crew behind and run to Suzhou to catch a plane back to Beijing.

After a day and a night of bumpy travel, upon arriving in Yanjing, Yang Jie and the others immediately took a bus back to their unit to submit the footage.

Wei Ming asked when the finished film would be available.

Director Yang said, "I'll start editing today, and you might be able to watch it next month!"

Wei Ming: "Then we'll be waiting."

Only after the key test episode passes can the entire project officially begin, and only then can the funding and personnel be fully in place.

After waving goodbye to Director Yang and the others, Wei Ming and Biaozi took tricycles home, as they had a lot of luggage.

They brought back a lot of local delicacies and specialties from Yangzhou this time. The two of them ate and took a lot, which boosted Yangzhou's GDP.

When they returned to the courtyard house in Nanluoguxiang, it was not yet noon. Wei Ming estimated that they would not return until evening, so he divided the salted duck eggs in half and prepared to send them to Mr. Wang.

Before they even left the house, the two sisters returned hand in hand. They were overjoyed to see Xiao Wei, as their periods had ended and it was now the perfect time to conceive.

Wei Ming put his arm around one of them, and was about to do something indecent in the living room.

Just then, after we had almost taken off all our clothes, there was a knock on the door.

Gong Xue was startled and quickly put her clothes back on, calling out, "Who is it?"

"Is anyone home? Why are you keeping the door closed in broad daylight? We're from the neighborhood committee, conducting a census. Open the door!" A robust voice from a middle-aged woman from Beijing answered from outside.

……

(Yesterday's guaranteed minimum)
(End of this chapter)