Exciting 1979!

Chapter 452 Decadent Music, Wei Ming Returns to the Capital

After thinking it over, Wei Ming decided that he should return to the capital city himself.

Putting aside the fact that the Mao Dun Prize is a major event that embodies Mr. Mao Dun's last wishes, he wrote a moving preface for himself while suffering from illness, and then passed away not long after. Those were his last words. Just for this sense of inheritance, Wei Ming should support this event regardless of whether he wins the prize or not.

Also, December 20th is Sister Lin's birthday. I missed my own birthday, so I still have to spend this one with her. I'll also pass on the script for the Beijing People's Art Theatre to her through Sister Lin.

I just don't know if Sister Xue can make it back in time. It's only when the three of us are together that it feels like home.

In addition, his correspondence course graduation exam was also in mid-December. Although the school could make an exception and let him choose another time to defend his thesis, Wei Ming thought he might as well just get it done in one go.

However, Wei Ming was going back to Beijing, and he was worried about leaving the four children here. Although there were many people in the crew who could keep an eye on them, he was the person in charge, so he thought he might as well take all the little brats back with him this time.

He didn't plan to bring them back, so he decided to take this opportunity to let them finish filming and let the other crew members go back to Chengdu to rest, which would take about a week to ten days.

This would definitely increase costs invisibly, so it would be better to do it all at once. But the cost has already exceeded 50, and Wei Ming would have to bear any additional costs himself.

The only ones I feel a little bad about are the lead actors and the behind-the-scenes crew, Li Baotian and his son Ge Cunzhuang. So Wei Ming decided to cover their expenses in Chengdu during this period so they could have a proper short break.

After making the decision, Wei Ming held a meeting that evening with Han Sanping, Chen Kaige, and the others to discuss it.

No one objected to Wei Ming returning to Beijing to attend the Mao Dun Literature Prize ceremony. They all felt that Wei Ming was a shoo-in for the award, so he should go back.

The following night, they adjusted the filming schedule. They planned to finish filming all the children's scenes in the next three days. If they couldn't finish, they would save Xizi's scenes for last and prioritize the other children.

This includes a very important scene: when Teacher Zhong leaves the school to return to the city, the students fold paper airplanes to see him off.

For this scene, a school in a suitable location was specially built during the pre-production stage, and equipment had to be transported up and down slopes every day when filming school scenes.

Now that filming is finally about to begin, all the child actors have gathered at the school. After listening to Teacher Zhong calmly finish his last lesson, he says, "get out of class dismissed."

The students remained motionless. Teacher Zhong carried his pre-prepared luggage, and outside, a tractor carrying grass awaited him.

From the moment Li Baotian walked out of the classroom, Zhang Yimou's camera remained behind him, never showing the actor's face directly. The camera followed him all the way from the classroom out of the school, down the slope, until they saw the tractor.

Zhang Yimou was amazed. Li Baotian's acting skills were too good. He could feel the rich emotions in Teacher Zhong's heart just by looking at his back.

What's most obvious is his reluctance to part with these students, a sense of relief at the restoration of order, and a hint of resolute determination to die. The few small pauses are just right; even his back view can act. Zhang Yimou, as the "perspective," is hoping that he will turn around.

Until the tractor driver raised his hand in surprise and pointed behind Teacher Zhong...

Actually, there's nothing behind her now, but Teacher Zhong needs to turn around and make a face of relief and emotion as she sees the paper airplane fly out of the window.

After capturing enough of Li Baotian's expressions, switch the perspective and film the students.

The students' acting skills were not as good as Li Baotian's, and there were too many actors. If one of them didn't do well, the scene had to be reshot. So most of the time was spent on the students.

Fortunately, Xizi didn't let us down. He was the most crucial one in this section. Pipi, who has no family, also has the deepest bond with Teacher Zhong.

At this time, Teacher Zhong already knew that his wife had committed suicide after he left. His soulmate was gone, and the meaning of his life had vanished. Although it was not explicitly stated, Wei Ming hinted in many ways that he might commit suicide after returning to the city to handle his wife's funeral arrangements.

Although he has helped many children overcome their emotional difficulties, he himself has found it hard to get out of his own predicament.

But now Pipi has come after us, hoping to live with Teacher Zhong.

Teacher Zhong refused; his heart was already dead. But he still comforted Pipi: "The principal will adopt you. From now on, you can call him Dad, and you'll be Stone's Uncle."

Ge Cunzhuang, the character of the old man, is ultimately a good person, unlike Ge You, who is evil to the end.

However, when Teacher Zhong got on the tractor, the vehicle started and went for a while, he suddenly shouted to stop.

Wei Ming asked Zhang Yimou to move the camera further away; he wanted to shoot a long shot with a fixed lens.

The tractor is positioned at the golden ratio point of the shot, while Pipi is outside the frame.

In Wei Ming's version, this scene was performed without background music; it was completely silent.

The music only started playing after Teacher Zhong left the frame, then came back in carrying Pipi, got into the car, and drove away.

The two waved goodbye to their classmates behind them.

After the scene was filmed, Xizi, who was usually so relaxed about getting into and out of character, suddenly burst into tears.

At this time, the behind-the-scenes camera was also on, pointed at Xizi.

Wei Ming asked him, "Why are you crying? You haven't finished filming yet. There are still a few scenes to film after you come back from Yanjing."

Xizi wiped away her tears and sobbed softly, "I'm crying because I know Teacher Zhong won't die."

Li Baotian gave a thumbs-up and praised, "A born actor!"

Chen Kaige, the assistant director, was also secretly wiping away tears. The tall man, who was over 1.8 meters tall, was crying like a child. At that moment, he really wanted to compose a poem.

Feng Xiaogang had only one feeling: as a director, if you can make a movie like this in your lifetime, then your life will have been worthwhile!
At that moment, the seed of becoming a great art director was planted in his heart.

Zhang Yimou knew that Director Wei Ming had concealed Teacher Zhong's will to die very subtly. In addition to Li Baotian's subtle performance, there were also many hints in the camera language. The arrangement was very clever, but none of them were explicitly stated.

But once you understand all of this, when you watch the play again and see Pipi step forward and Teacher Zhong accept him, you'll feel: It's so good. Teacher Zhong once redeemed Pipi, and now Pipi has redeemed Teacher Zhong.

This is a two-way journey, a two-way redemption.

There's a warm power in Wei Ming's works. He's not extreme, but that doesn't mean he lacks power. This scene was very moving.

With this key scene finished, Wang Fei, Liu Lin, and Wu Jing's scenes were all done, and Wei Ming could now send them back to Beijing.

Of course, Xizi will also go back home to see her parents and sister before coming back.

Wu Jing secretly walked up to Wei Ming and said, "Director, I haven't filmed enough yet, and I'm reluctant to leave everyone. Why don't I come back with you?"

Winter break hasn't started yet, but he's basically on holiday here.

"Look how clever you are." Wei Ming laughed, but didn't agree. He had hired private tutors for them. They hadn't been to school for several months, so they couldn't possibly miss the final exams.

In addition to the four child actors, Wei Ming also plans to bring Pingping and Fangfang along so they can see their older sister and nephew.

These were six little kids. Wei Ming was worried that he couldn't keep an eye on them all, and he couldn't tie them together with a rope.

Therefore, Wei Ming decided to send Chen Kaige back to Beijing as well, and to take the opportunity to put the already filmed footage back at the Children's Film Studio so that they could review the footage again and see if there were any scenes that needed to be reshot.

Actually, most of these materials had already been reviewed by the Emei factory, so there weren't any major issues.

In addition, Hu Weili, who is in charge of the music, is also going back. He has accumulated enough musical material and now it's time to produce it.

Chen Kaige asked Director Wei, "So how are we going to get back to Beijing?"

Wei Ming: "Of course we'll take a plane. Lao Han will be in charge of getting the necessary permits."

Seeing that they were going to take a plane, Feng Xiaogang was extremely envious. He heard from Zhang Yimou that he had also been on a plane, and that the plane had even grazed past a place called Kowloon Walled City, which was very exciting.

Feng Xiaogang thought sourly, "Hong Kong's nightlife is probably more exciting."

He had heard Chen Kaige say how explicit the movie "The Witness" was, apparently filmed in those kinds of places. Old Zhang was someone who had seen it all.

~
When the group of nine—three adults and six children—appeared at the airport, even Chen Kaige was a little excited. He had changed into his most formal attire for this flight, as it was his first time traveling by plane.

Wang Fei is a teenager, and she can also help Wei Ming share some of the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings.

Before boarding the plane, she counted the heads and, after confirming there were no problems, looked at Wei Ming.

Huh? This watch has been changed again?
She remembers that it was initially a watch from Shanghai, then it was changed to a Swiss watch, and now it's a Japanese watch, which looks very futuristic and is also very expensive.

Wang Fei sighed, "With your attitude, who knows how corrupt you'd become in Hong Kong."

The Swiss watch I switched to in the middle was a Rolex that Amin gave me. Now that I'm going back to Beijing, I'm switching to Sister Lin's watch.

This Rolex isn't cheap, but Vivian Chow isn't short of money now. Her two albums sold very well, and she received a large share of the profits; she's already quite wealthy.

Moreover, he also made a lot of money in the stock market.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong in 82 has fallen by more than 50% from its peak, which can be called a stock market crash. In particular, Margaret Thatcher's kneeling incident caused the index to drop by 25 points.

But thanks to Wei Hong's prior arrangements, the two of them actually made a considerable amount of money.

In high spirits, Ah Min attended Lai Siu-tin's wedding banquet after receiving the invitation.

Lai Siu-tin and Kwan Kuk-ying officially got married. The wedding was attended by friends from the music industry and colleagues from TVB.

Ah Min sat with Zhang Guorong and Anita Mui. The two had become very close recently because of their colleague relationship, often going out together and performing together. Ah Min even suspected that there was something between them.

But Zhang Guorong vehemently denied it, saying that he had recently met a friend named Tang Hede who works at Standard Chartered Bank.

The next table was full of middle-aged and elderly people, many of whom were lamenting how much money they had lost in the stock market. Huang Zhan and veteran composer Wang Fuling were also chatting.

Wang Fuling was recently invited by the Hong Kong Youth Federation to compose a new piece of music.

This song was written in response to the Japanese textbook controversy, so it was essentially a commissioned piece of writing that required the lyrics to contain patriotic elements and national sentiment.

Wang Fuling extended a warm invitation to Huang Zhan to write the lyrics for this song.

Because of the Japanese invasion of China, Wong Jim left his hometown at a young age and moved to Hong Kong with his parents. He gladly accepted the invitation and immediately began to talk with Wong Fu Ling.

Later, when he saw that Vivian Chow, a young girl, had also arrived, Wong Jim casually pulled out a small gift and gave it to her. "What is it?"

"Teresa Teng's new album has just been released in Taiwan. It's amazing and definitely worth a listen."

After Zhou Huimin took it, she and the young people at the table looked at the outer packaging together.

The album is titled "A Faint Sentiment" and was released by PolyGram.

Soon, Amin and the others realized what made this album special. The lyricists on the songs in the album were all big names, including Li Yu, Su Shi, Fan Zhongyan, Qin Shaoyou, Ouyang Xiu, Liu Yong, and Xin Qiji.

Good heavens, even Wei Ming would have to admit defeat!
Seeing the song titles "Alone on the West Tower," "May We All Live Long and Prosper," and "A Rendezvous at Dusk," the three became even more interested and couldn't wait to find a place to listen to them.

If it weren't for the fact that it's impolite to wear headphones at someone's wedding while everyone is eating, Vivian Chow would love to listen right now; she always carries her Walkman with her.

As soon as the wedding ended, the three of them left together to find a place to listen to music.

Huang Zhan also pulled on his elder brother Wang Fuling, saying, "I've got it! I've got it!"

After listening to the other party's music, Wong Jim kept thinking about the lyrics, and a few hours later he wrote a Mandarin song in one go.

After reading it, Wang Fuling exclaimed in delight: "The rivers and mountains are only in my dreams / I have not been close to my motherland for many years / But no matter what, it cannot change / My Chinese heart!"

And this line, "The Yangtze River, the Great Wall, Mount Huangshan, the Yellow River / weigh a thousand pounds in my heart!" Great, great!
Finally, the song, titled "My Chinese Heart," was sent to the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and Wong Jim even recommended the renowned Cheung Ming-man to sing it.

This song, with lyrics, music, and vocals by Hong Kong people, and expressing their love for the motherland, has also taken on extraordinary significance for mainlanders.

On the other side, Amin and the others had already listened to all the songs in "Light and Elegant Feelings," and the three of them were amazed.

The lyrics are absolutely amazing, after all, they are the essence of thousands of years. Teresa Teng's singing voice is also superb. The three of them felt that they could not do such a perfect performance. Their favorite song is "Wishing We Last Forever".

The key is to sing ancient lyrics in a modern way; this idea is fantastic.

Amin felt that such a clever idea should have come from Amin. No, she had to send it to him so that he could hear it too.

Teresa Teng held a dominant position in the Asian music scene, and this album, "Light and Elegant Sentiments," was clearly another legendary album that would sell at least a million copies. Even if you put Zhang Guorong, the other two, and Tan Yonglin together, they wouldn't be able to beat her.

Let alone Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, even in mainland China, where Teresa Teng is regarded as a scourge, she is probably one of the most well-known singers, and might even be more famous than Li Guyi at this time.

Although the attitude towards her in inland areas remained one of censorship, and songs like "Tian Mi Mi" and "Xiao Cheng Gu Shi" could only be listened to secretly, pirated cassette tapes of Teresa Teng were rampant in the southern coastal areas.

Not only can you hear pirated songs, but singers in many venues also perform her songs and earn performance fees from her.

Her classic songs are almost universally known among young people. Even though many songs, such as "When Will You Return?" and "The Moon Represents My Heart", are actually covers by her, they are all generally considered to be Teresa Teng's songs.

However, recently, a new song that is not by Teresa Teng has become popular, and many resident singers, especially female singers, are singing this song to liven up the atmosphere.

This song is called "Pink Memories," and it's incredibly catchy.

This year, China Record Corporation, the first large-scale audio-visual publishing unit in China with large-scale, group-managed operations, was established in Yanjing.

This also means that Pacific's monopoly on the magnetic tape industry is about to end, and the era of making huge profits is over.

Nevertheless, the second Lark Awards, hosted by Pacific Company, was still held in a grand and lively manner.

During this time, a female singer asked General Manager Liao Mingzu if she could cover "Pink Memories".

This song has become a hit along the coast and is now spreading inland. Although the lyrics are somewhat about love and romance, they are not too explicit and should not be considered decadent music.

Of course, whether it counts as a matter of personal choice or not, but as long as this song is covered, it should be no problem for the cassette tape to sell over a million copies.

However, Liao Mingzu refused, as he knew that the song was created by teacher Wei Ming.

Moreover, along with this song, which traveled from the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, came the love story of teacher Wei Ming and a Hong Kong girl.

Therefore, this song must be of great significance to Wei Ming. General Manager Liao plans to ask Teacher Wei if it is possible to directly release Comrade Zhou Huimin's original soundtrack tape.

He considers Vivian Chow a comrade, so he definitely can't just pirate her work; he has to pay her.

The price has gone up now; it's 20 yuan per song, which you can bring directly to Teacher Wei.

~
After landing in Yanjing, Wei Ming and his group first called the Children's Film Studio to pick them up, as there were too many people and too much stuff, and it was all very important.

Upon arriving at the Children's Film Studio, Wei Ming asked Xiao Mei to come and pick up his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, while Wei Ming personally escorted Xi Zi to the studio.

Without interfering with their family reunion, Wei Ming went into the Peking University girls' dormitory and pulled Wei Hong out for a brief reunion.

At this time, the letter from General Manager Liao of Pacific had already arrived and was in Wei Hong's hands.

Wei Ming glanced at it and, in short, just two words: Agreed.

It's not that I care about the 20 yuan per song, but I hope that Amin can conquer the blue ocean of the mainland market as soon as possible.

Although there's definitely not much money to be made now, Amin doesn't have to do anything. Moreover, once Zhou Huimin's fame is established, it will be much easier to officially enter the mainland market in the future.

Teresa Teng passed away too early. If she had waited until her devoted fans had the purchasing power to hold concerts in mainland China, even the Four Heavenly Kings combined wouldn't have been a match for her.

But she definitely can't come, and Amin can completely take the lead in occupying the ecological niche of the number one female singer from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the hearts of mainlanders.

Of course, although Wei Ming agreed, the matter was not entirely legal, so Wei Ming asked President Liao to keep a low profile and treat this as a trial run, not as a formal introduction of Hong Kong singers' works.

"Brother, are you going home to stay today? I'm going home too."

"Go home? How could I possibly go home? I've filmed so much footage, and it's all waiting for me to see it. I'll probably be staying at the Children's Film Studio for the next few days. You should also focus on preparing for your final exams at school."

"Oh fine."

After saying that, Wei Ming went home, mounted his horse, and rode to Tuanjiehu.

My cousin Pingping was on the balcony, pointing downstairs and saying, "Big cousin!"

Yunyun hurriedly called to her younger brother, "Stop being such a big brother, 'Black Cat Detective' is about to air, come quick!"

My older cousin didn't linger at Tuanjiehu for long and left quickly.

Since no one was home, Wei Ming made a phone call, and someone answered in Nanluoguxiang.

Well, not only is Sister Lin here, but Sister Xue is here too. These past few days, the two women have been eating and sleeping together, living a carefree life.

The phone call was a surprise to the two women. Although they had guessed that Wei Ming would return to Beijing to receive the award, they did not expect him to return so quickly and in time for Zhu Lin's birthday.

Zhu Lin had originally planned to invite her colleagues from the Beijing People's Art Theatre to dinner for her birthday, but now it's confirmed that she won't need to.

Colleagues are no match for men.

Moreover, Zhu Lin felt that his colleagues should treat him to a meal, because Wei Ming took out a script after entering the room, which belonged to the People's Art Theatre.

A script with several main characters can provide so many performance opportunities for the actors.

While Wei Ming and Gong Xue were kissing, Zhu Lin quickly glanced at the script and exclaimed with delight, "I want to play this English teacher!"

Always playing the understudy role for Song Dandan is easy, but she also wants to be the lead for a while.

Moreover, this role is very challenging and represents a huge subversion of my established image.

Wei Ming released Xue Jie and said to Zhu Lin, "This role wasn't tailor-made for you. It'll be difficult for you to play, and you'll also have to sing."

Zhu Lin's singing is rather average, far inferior to Xue Jie's. If she could sing it, no one else would have a chance to sing "Daughter's Love".

"Then I'll start learning now. I'll find Teacher Gu, and I'll be Lele's junior sister, okay?" Zhu Lin said.

Wei Ming smiled and said, "Although I know it will be difficult for you to play the role, I guessed that you definitely want to play Zhang Yiman, so I will support you 100%, but the movie will have to be delayed."

"Aside from the performance period, it's fine at other times, and I definitely have an understudy role too." Zhu Lin still wants to work on movies, after all, movies have a greater impact.

After discussing these trivial matters, the three got down to business.

The next day, Wei Ming went to the Children's Film Studio to review the footage with the leaders and saw their relieved expressions.

The raw footage clearly demonstrates Wei Ming's first-rate aesthetic sense, exceptional ability to train actors, and highly distinctive personal style, showcasing the demeanor of a master.

Of course, the final editing is also crucial to whether the finished product will look good, so we'll have to wait and see.

On the third day, Wei Minggong celebrated Sister Lin's birthday at a courtyard house in Nanluoguxiang, making longevity noodles for her.

That day, the script for "Mr. Donkey" was also seen by Director Cao and Vice Director Yu of the Beijing People's Art Theatre. They never expected that Wei Ming would produce such a satirical and biting script about the Republican era.

The key is still the character "驴" (donkey).

The two old men discussed it and agreed that the story was fun, more mature than "The Tale of Two Donkeys," and had many funny moments. However, Zhu Lin volunteered to play the charming English teacher. This would surely make the audience love learning English even more!
~
That afternoon, the inaugural Mao Dun Literature Prize award ceremony was officially held in the Great Hall of the People.

Unfortunately, Ba Jin was unable to attend due to illness, but 600 people from the arts and culture circles gathered that day. Wei Ming knew them and didn't know them, some were nominated and some weren't, everyone came.

This momentum is tantamount to telling the outside world that the Mao Dun Literature Prize will become the number one literary award in China after the Mao Dun Literature Prize!

……

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