Exciting 1979!

Chapter 478 A Night of Glory, the Global Focus

The film captivated the audience from the very first scene with its visuals, music, and outstanding performances. First and foremost, we must commend Mr. Wei Xi, though it's a pity he's currently streaking in Changbai Mountain.

In this regard, Wei Ming did not give special consideration to foreigners, nor did he provide detailed explanations of the historical background through text or voice-over. All they knew was that the refined middle-aged man was a university music teacher who had been forced to take over a troubled primary school.

Due to a shortage of teachers, students from several grades study together at this primary school.

Wei Ming's animal series has been translated and published abroad one after another. "The Spring of the Shepherd's Class" is one of the more widely circulated works, but it still has a huge gap compared with Mr. Why's other commercial works, and its influence is limited to the circle of literature lovers.

There was a British university student at the scene who had read the original novel "The Shepherd's Class" and was quietly explaining to his girlfriend why the male protagonist looked a bit disheveled and what he had been through.

Such behavior is generally frowned upon in movie theaters, but David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, who were in front of them, were listening intently to the explanations of the college students behind them, afraid that they might not understand a foreign film.

David Bowie was motivated by respect for Mr. Why, who was also a friend of John Lennon, who wrote his first Billboard hit, "Fame." He also wondered if he could have the opportunity to collaborate with Mr. Why, and he envied Phil Collins and Elton John.

Ryuichi Sakamoto also has a great fondness and interest in China. He has seen some Chinese films, but the atmosphere presented in Wei Ming's film is completely different.

With the help of the university student's introduction and English subtitles, Ryuichi Sakamoto easily understood the plot of the story; it was not a film that made people feel obscure.

Moreover, the music was so good that it was amazing. Mr. Zhong, who had just taken over the elementary school, was experiencing a heavy rain, but he miraculously created a very beautiful melody using a container.

Wei Ming inserted a scene in this play where Li Baotian plays the piano and Pan Hong plays the violin. This was Zhong's imagination, and the piece being played was "Listening to the Rain," which Zhong composed after the rain. In English, it could be called "The Rain."

Not only was Ryuichi Sakamoto captivated by the piece, but even Takeshi Kitano, a rough and unrefined man, nodded in agreement.

It's hard not to agree that this was created by Joe Hisaishi for his "Kikujiro's Summer" several years later.

Listening to this music, Vivian Chow squinted comfortably, feeling that it was composed by Ah Ming. It was beautiful to listen to and beautiful to watch. If she ever went to the mainland, she would definitely visit this village.

Compared to most films competing at international film festivals, The Shepherd's Spring is relatively easy to understand in terms of plot. Apart from Mr. Zhong's wife frequently appearing as an imaginary character, everything else is easy to comprehend, as long as you can keep up with the English subtitles.

After a heavy rain, Teacher Zhong gradually attracted the students back and demonstrated her superb musical skills, even whistling out beautiful rhythms.

Now only three people on the list have not yet returned to the classroom. Led by the principal's grandson, the village chief's son, and class monitor Wang Shitou, Teacher Zhong finds them one by one and brings them back to the classroom. This is the main storyline.

During this process, the natural landscape of rural Ya'an, Sichuan, and the music that brings either peace or turmoil to the heart make the process of collecting cards through challenges anything but boring.

As a genuine music prodigy, Ryuichi Sakamoto was repeatedly moved by the soundtracks used in the film, finding it hard to believe that so many excellent works could be featured in a single movie.

Although he doesn't know who created it yet, he thanks Wei Ming!

Wei Ming: I also thank the Japanese musicians.

The music in this film can be broadly divided into two series: one is played on modern instruments, and the other is generated using traditional Chinese instruments.

Hu Weili was mainly responsible for traditional musical instruments, and most of them were original compositions he made for the film. He used chime bells, erhu, various drums, guzheng, pipa, flute, and various sound sources from rural life. Wei Ming believes that they are in no way inferior to the background music he made for the martial arts films later on.

Wei Ming, on the other hand, "borrowed" many well-known background music from later generations, such as the exclusive background music for period film narration, "The Great Reunion", the grand and majestic "The Distant Journey", the melodious and ethereal "Thoughts Across Time", and the song "The Original Scenery of Hometown" played on the ocarina.

In addition, he wrote a duet for erhu and piano called "The Street Where the Wind Dwells," which was directly played by Hu Weili on the erhu.

These soundtracks are mostly composed by Japanese musicians, and because they are very popular on short video platforms, many people even think they are domestic works.

Good melodies need someone to play them. To create the dozen or so pieces of music for this film, musicians from the Central Song and Dance Troupe and the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe worked together to achieve the ultimate auditory experience in the movie.

Of course, most of the budget for post-production was spent on this.

A movie is considered good if it has one or two catchy background music tracks, but every track in "The Shepherd's Spring" is a classic.

Fortunately, this is a work about music, and the music and plot are closely related. Moreover, Wei Ming arranged it well, so it didn't feel like the music overshadowed the plot.

David Bowie felt he absolutely loved the movie. Not only was the story moving and he understood it, but the music was also amazing. He even wanted to recommend the original soundtrack to his record company, EMI.

However, as a near-master of filmmaking, Martin Scorsese was quite worried for Wei Ming.

Because the background music in the preceding parts was so excellent, he was afraid that if there was another major emotional climax in the later part of the plot, the final background music would not be able to support all the excellent pieces that came before, and would feel weak and uninspired.

Furthermore, based on his deduction, the male protagonist fantasizes about his wife multiple times, demonstrating the depth of their feelings and the resonance of their souls, suggesting that there will definitely be a major emotional catharsis later on.

Sure enough, a letter arrived, informing Zhong that his wife had already committed suicide.

Accompanied by the scene of Pan Hong writing her will and walking towards the lake, Wei Ming played an erhu piece called "Thinking of You with Sorrow," which was also composed by Wei Ming.

This song is so sad, especially when it's accompanied by the image of Pan Hong committing suicide and superimposed with the image of Teacher Zhong forcing himself to teach his students while suppressing his grief.

Its destructive power was no less than that of Qiao Feng holding A'Zhu's corpse.

Martin frequently played the erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument) in this film. The piece was indeed very powerful, but he felt it wasn't enough; the foundation was still a bit weak.

He glanced at his watch; it had been 110 minutes. The movie was supposed to be two hours long, right?

To be precise, it was 123 minutes.

In the last ten minutes or so, all the viewers were worried about Teacher Zhong, and they suddenly realized that this seemed to be a romance movie.

Although the "teacher's wife" did not make a formal appearance earlier, but only existed in Teacher Zhong's narration and imagination, there was no doubt about the strength of their relationship.

Now that his beloved has left, Teacher Zhong seems to have become a soulless shell. When the county magistrate personally delivered the documents to him and told him, "You can go home," he showed almost no emotional fluctuation. At this moment, viewers who are prone to suicide know that something bad is about to happen!
In fact, Martin's concerns were also a key consideration for Wei Ming during the creative process. With so many great musical scores inserted earlier, there had to be one score at the end that could overpower them all, pushing the plot and the audience's emotions to a climax, and then ending abruptly at the peak, leaving a lingering aftertaste.

Wei Ming assigned the creative task to Hu Weili and made a suggestion: use a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument).

This proposition seemed very interesting to Hu Weili. The suona is usually used to send people off, but here it is used to welcome Zhong Wei and Pipi into their new life.

In the end, he did not disappoint Wei Ming and completed the suona piece entitled "Reignition".

When the movie reached its finale, when the background music suddenly disappeared, and even the male lead left the screen, the entire audience fell silent. Amin even held her breath, waiting for a miracle to happen.

Then she waited for Teacher Zhong Wei to come and, like a melon thief, carry Chen Pipi onto the tractor. The tractor started, and "Reignition" began. The suona, a musical instrument that could be described as a rogue, exploded in the minds of the entire audience with its extremely aggressive and penetrating notes.

Even the most dejected young man seemed to have experienced a rebirth and been injected with stimulants. All he wanted to do now was live well and make a big splash.

Some people burst into tears on the spot, drawing energy from this film that they had never experienced before.

This piece, "Reignition," was written by Hu Weili and performed by Zhao Chunting, a teacher at the China Conservatory of Music, who was 71 years old at the time. The sound of the suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument) conveys his insights into life.

Wei Ming's contribution was proposing and assisting Zhao Lao in inventing the "Suona movable core". Through the retractable copper core structure, the traditional suona can play the semitone scale and twelve-tone system, solving the problems of pitch stability and modulation, and expanding the artistic expression space of the suona.

The amazing effect of "Reignition" at this moment is also largely due to this little device.

As the rousing sound of the suona horn faded, "The Shepherd's Spring" came to an end. When the screen went dark and the lights came on, the entire audience erupted in thunderous applause, with most of the audience standing up to clap and even shout.

Ryuichi Sakamoto kept exclaiming to Takeshi Kitano and David Bowie beside him, "I absolutely have to meet the composer of this film; he's a genius!"

Martin Scorsese pushed up his glasses and suddenly felt like he was getting old. Mr. Why was only in his early twenties, while he himself was just beginning to explore the New Wave cinema at Mr. Why's age.

As expected of the genius who made the short film "The Witness," this feature film is so complete, so moving, and so shocking, and it has already developed its own style.

Jury president William Sterling remarked that this year's Asian films were incredibly strong, with the two Japanese films and this one from China being undisputed masterpieces. Oh, and the Soviet film too. This year has truly been a delightful surprise.

After the premiere, Wei Ming, as the director and screenwriter, went on stage to say a few words, thanking the audience for sitting quietly for more than two hours to listen to his story.

As the audience left, Vivian Chow was about to walk through the crowd to greet Wei Ming when she saw Melinda with fiery red hair walk up to Wei Ming and stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they interacted with their film industry colleagues.

Amin's bright eyes dimmed instantly.

It turns out that he wasn't lonely at all, even when I wasn't by his side.

~
Ming Pao reporter Law Ah-sau finally watched the movie end and began to see the audience leaving the theater.

He could still find opportunities to see movies later, but now he's using recording equipment to interview audience members.

"Excuse me... Oh, I don't understand English, I'm sorry."

"What did you think of the movie we just watched?" he asked an elderly white man.

"The visuals are beautiful, the music is great, and most importantly, I actually understood it. I always only vaguely understood the Chinese movies I watched before, but this time I felt like I understood it completely. It was a very, very surprising movie-watching experience. I even want to go to China for a vacation."

Next, Luo Ashu interviewed people of all ages and genders. There were also negative reviews. For example, some felt that the film overly glorified China, and others said that they were so focused on listening to the music and looking at the scenery that they didn't pay attention to what was being filmed.

The vast majority of the reviews were positive, and many felt the films exceeded their expectations, with more than one person stating that it was the best film they had seen before the Cannes Film Festival. Wei Lingling and her mother, who had booked a room for him, were nearby during his interview. Hearing such high praise for Wei Ming's film, they were delighted, until they saw Zhou Huimin emerge from inside.

Amin looked like she had been wronged, her puffed-up cheeks like a little steamed bun.

However, when Wei Lingling asked her what had happened, she wouldn't say. She didn't want the reporters to know, so she pulled Wei Lingling and Lin Ni away. Only after returning to the hotel did she confess that she had seen Wei Ming with his ex-girlfriend Melinda.

Wei Lingling asked, "Are you suspecting they've been sleeping together these past few days?"

Lin Ni said with certainty, "No doubt about it, that's for sure. Men, pshaw, only eunuchs can resist being thrown into someone's arms."

Hearing her say the same thing, Zhou Huimin said with a wronged expression, "Sister Ni, why don't we go home?"

Linni: "Why? Don't you want our Ah Ming anymore?"

Amin lowered her head and said, "I think he might not want me anymore."

Linni: "How could that be? Men, of course they want it all. If you can tolerate having a woman in Europe who occasionally sleeps with your man, then don't wallow in self-pity. You should face it bravely, unless you give him up completely."

Zhou Huimin was in a state of turmoil. Of course, she didn't want to give up. After so many years of relationship, Wei Ming was already the most important person in her life, comparable to her mother.

But the thought of sharing a boyfriend with other women is equally disillusioning for young women in the throes of first love; what happened to the sweet romance they were promised?

Just as she was feeling confused and unsure of what to do next, Wei Lingling slammed her hand on the table.

"This is outrageous! This brat has gone too far! Amin, you wait here, I'll bring him over here for you to deal with as you see fit!"

After all, they were family, so Wei Lingling was definitely on Wei Ming's side. After going downstairs, she first found Luo Ashu and asked him to find out where Wei Ming was staying, and then she found the hotel.

At this moment, Wei Ming and Melinda were having dinner with international friends such as David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto at the hotel restaurant. When they learned that half of the soundtrack in the movie was composed by Wei Ming himself, Ryuichi Sakamoto's admiration for Wei Ming was as endless as that of Masashi Sada in his film "Yangtze River".

They were chatting happily about music when Wei Lingling suddenly appeared behind Wei Ming.

"Ah, Aunt, you..."

Before Wei Ming could introduce them, Wei Lingling forcibly took him away. Melinda chased after her and returned shortly afterward, explaining to the group, "Mr. Why has some urgent business to attend to. We'll eat our food."

The group nodded knowingly. It seemed Mr. Why was quite popular with women, attracting both an English rose and a Chinese beauty. Truly a man of great talent and wide-ranging affections.

They misunderstood the relationship between Wei Ming and Wei Lingling, but their deductions were largely correct: it was all caused by their mutual affection.

Upon arriving at another hotel, Wei Lingling knocked on the door, beckoned to her mother, and then Lin Ni went out while Wei Ming walked in. He had already gained a basic understanding of the situation on the way.

Amin had already noticed. She was lying on the bed with her back to Wei Ming. She hadn't cried just a moment ago, but now tears were streaming down her face uncontrollably.

It wasn't an act for Wei Ming; it was only when the person involved appeared that the grievances could finally be fully expressed.

Wei Ming placed his hand on Amin's shoulder, but it didn't feel like he couldn't hold her down. So he simply took off his shoes, lay down on the bed, and hugged the girl from behind, just holding her quietly like that.

"Don't you want to say anything?"

Wei Ming: "Last night, Melinda and I were up all night, and today we watched three movies and attended two events. I'm very tired."

Hearing Wei Ming not only admit it but also shamelessly boast about having spent the whole night with Melinda, the usually good-natured girl was furious. Just then, Wei Ming had his arm around her and one hand was on her waist. Amin picked it up and bit her wrist hard.

Ouch, those rabbit teeth really hurt when they bite, but Wei Ming forced himself to keep quiet.

It wasn't until she tasted blood in her mouth that Zhou Huimin realized what she had done. She turned to look at Wei Ming and asked with some guilt, "Why didn't you dodge or scream?"

Wei Ming: "People who have done something wrong will find peace of mind after being punished. I should thank you for that."

"Stop grinning like that. Don't think you can get away with this. You have to promise that you'll never do it again..."

"I can't guarantee that." Wei Ming started acting like a bachelor before Zhou Huimin could even finish speaking.

"you……"

Wei Ming: "I just don't want to lie. My emotional world is very rich. It's determined by my profession. You may be the most special to me, but others are also indispensable. Do you understand?"

In order to prevent Amin from being hurt again, he must shatter Amin's fantasy of monopolizing everything today.

But Amin refused to accept it, covering Wei Ming's mouth: "I don't want to understand, I just want to have a simple relationship."

Wei Ming held her hand: "I don't expect you to understand right now, so I'm waiting for you to grow up. Only when you're determined to accept Wei Ming as he is, to accept all of me, can our relationship naturally continue."

"What if I don't accept it? Will you break up with me?"

Wei Ming kissed her on the lips, his face contorted in pain: "If you can't find a breakthrough here, then I'll try to see if they're willing to let go."

Hearing this, Zhou Huimin's face lit up with joy. Ah Ming was willing to cut ties with them for her sake; he really did love her the most after all. Wait a minute...

"Them?" Realizing something, Zhou Huimin jumped out of bed and stared blankly at Wei Ming. "Not just Melinda?"

Wei Ming sighed, "Amin, I'll go talk to Melinda first. She's the easiest to talk to. I'll come back to keep you company tomorrow."

After saying that, he patted Amin's bottom and left the room decisively, telling Grandma Ni and Auntie outside, "Make sure to keep a close eye on Amin and don't let her do anything foolish."

Wei Lingling said angrily, "What did you tell her that made her want to do something stupid?"

"Just be honest, alright, I'll go first. Please bear with me, I'm just trying to help the Wei family have more descendants."

Upon hearing this, Lin Ni nodded in deep agreement. Although Amin was her best friend, it was more important to have many descendants. Just thinking about having dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren visiting her grave in the future, wow, that would be so glorious!

When Wei Ming returned to the hotel, Melinda immediately asked gossipily, "How's your girlfriend doing?"

"It's temporarily appeased, but it's just a delaying tactic." Wei Ming could only wait for Amin to mature and figure things out on her own.

Melinda remarked, "Are younger girlfriends not as easy to talk to as older sisters?"

Wei Ming shook his head: "If my older sister finds out, who knows what kind of trouble she'll cause."

Sister Xue and Sister Lin can accept each other and tolerate Melinda's existence, but they may not be able to accept that Wei Ming has a girlfriend. Age is their most sensitive nerve, and if they are not careful, who knows how heartbroken the two older sisters will be.

Let’s take it one step at a time.

The next day, Wei Ming temporarily put Melinda aside and went sightseeing in Cannes with Amin, as if nothing had happened the day before.

Amin also temporarily stopped pressuring Wei Ming and began to enjoy his care for her. After all, he had promised to persuade the others to back down, and she was sure she would have the last laugh.

But who are these other people?
The first person Amin thought of was Lizhi, who had known Amin for a long time.

And then there's Gong Xue, the actress from mainland China. Although there's a significant age difference, she's really beautiful and doesn't look that old.

Finally, Wei Lingling even flashed through Amin's mind. Oh dear, she was really seeing threats everywhere and overthinking things.

Because of this incident, Zhou Huimin didn't even have time to share her music with Wei Ming. They spent half a day catching crabs and shells at the beach, and in the afternoon Wei Ming saw them off on a plane to Paris.

Two days later, the French magazine "Screen" published a report on the current situation of the Cannes Film Festival, in which "The Shepherd's Spring" received a lot of praise.

The film's rating in the festival's daily publication won't be available until next year, thanks to the efforts of Screen magazine's film critics. Otherwise, given Screen's high regard for the film, it would likely have received a decent score.

During this period, Wei Ming also accepted an interview with Luo Asiu, a reporter from Ming Pao. As a result, before the closing ceremony, Gong Xue and others in Hong Kong saw the interview about Wei Ming's trip to Cannes in the newspaper.

The interview didn't mention the awards; they only talked about the film's creative concept. Luo Ashu had been waiting to be there at the closing ceremony to witness the birth of a miracle.

In the latter half of the film festival, the eight-member jury, who had already seen all the films, were arguing fiercely about who would win the awards, and they couldn't even decide on a shortlist of winning films.

Originally, there were five permanent awards: Best Film, Grand Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. However, due to numerous controversies and the inability of anyone to convince anyone else, the Jury Prize and Screenplay Award, which are not permanent awards, were added, making a total of seven awards.

But it still didn't work. Some judges still felt there were hidden gems, and in the end, a total of eight films made it to the final list. All eight of these films were eligible for awards, while the rest of the films were left out.

The final allocation of awards was not determined until the day before the closing ceremony, amidst various debates and compromises.

On May 19th, at 5 PM French time, the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony officially began...

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