Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 70 Finding Fault

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yan secretly wondered if he could finally launch his long-planned "music industry talent scout" project once Dou Wei returned to the mainland.

Riding the wave of the Black Panther album's explosive popularity in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Dou Wei's influence in the industry has also soared. Coupled with his ability to "discover talent," he has no worries about finding singers.

As for the equipment and venue, which require the largest investment, Tianjin TV station can help solve these issues.

The TV station's equipment and facilities are readily available. Given Zhang Yan's current relationship with the TV station, renting them temporarily for a small fee is not a problem at all.

If private individuals are not allowed to engage in the audio publishing industry in China, record companies can even temporarily operate under the name of Tianjin TV Station.

Although this might lead to some property rights issues later, it also allows for the legitimate use of television stations' promotional channels.

It can be said that everything is ready except for the final push.

Back in the private room upstairs, Chen Hong immediately asked, "So, has the house been settled?"

"The 66666 package includes the property transfer; it should be completed before the end of the year."

Hearing that the price included ownership, Chen Hong, who already had some knowledge of Beijing real estate, was overjoyed. She pulled Zhang Fang aside and said she would reserve a room for her, decorating and arranging it entirely according to her sister-in-law's wishes.

This highlights the necessity of that 10,000 yuan. If Zhang Yan had paid for the house all by himself, she wouldn't have been able to make such a confident promise.

…………

After finishing his meal, Zhang Yan took his sister and roommates back to the Broadcasting Institute, then returned to Chen Hong's apartment to continue writing.

You can't rush things with Dou Wei, and you can't rush the house purchase either. If you rush to finalize the deal, the other party might think it's a rare find and try to raise the price.

The new book has already reached 17 words – the first three issues published 13 words.

The plot has now reached the point where, under the guidance of scientists, the male protagonist uses his superpowers to analyze the core material ratio of the Great Mao aircraft engine and even attempts to add rare earth materials, creating an unprecedented super alloy.

The University of Tokyo has never lacked good designs; what it lacks are high-strength alloy materials capable of producing such designs!

From this perspective, rare earth elements are the real treasure, a winning formula left to us by our ancestors!

While Zhang Yan was painting a rosy picture in the book, he also slipped in some personal opinions. Based on what he saw and heard in his dream, he said that the biggest trump card for Dongda University to counter the US in the conflict between China and the US was rare earth elements, which shows how important these things are.

But it seems that no one has realized this yet.

It's unclear whether his repeated emphasis on this point in the book will attract the attention of the relevant authorities—even if not, it could at least be seen as a sign of foresight once the importance of rare earth elements becomes apparent.

It’s not a loss anyway.

Three days after the dinner party, the landlord still hadn't contacted Zhang Yan, nor had Dou Wei. Instead, Guan Hu came to the door with the script.

Guan Hu originally wanted to meet outside, but Zhang Yan had already promised Chen Hong, so he had Guan Hu come directly to the apartment.

When Guan Hu took out the script, he said somewhat reservedly, "Teacher Zhang, this story is not yet finished. Many things need further improvement and revision. I hope you can give me some valuable suggestions."

He seemed a little nervous, like a middle school student who has finished writing an essay and is waiting for the teacher to grade it.

"To be honest, I've never really worked with a movie script before, so this is a kind of mutual learning between us."

Zhang Yan also made a humble remark, and then began to look through the script titled "My Hair is a Mess".

This script is roughly about:

Ye Tong, the female protagonist who grew up in the hutongs of Beijing but was later forced to move to Guangdong, chose to apply to Capital Medical University when the hospital arranged for her to study there, for the sake of her childhood memories.

But after she returned to the capital and reunited with her friends, she found that she could never find the shadow of the past again.

In her confusion, Ye Tong gets together with the male protagonist who is in a rock band, trying to find solace in the noise, but she becomes increasingly lonely and isolated in the noise, and even begins to become indifferent.

While doing her internship at the hospital, she calmly turned off the IV drip for a patient in a vegetative state.

And after she caused a conflict that burned down the warehouse that her childhood friend had kindly provided, as well as all of his savings, she acted like an outsider and showed no remorse whatsoever.

After the band's lead singer cheated on her and left, she chose to embrace her childhood friend, a policeman, who was the second male lead. Then, after her friend was beaten and crippled by a group of thugs, she left Beijing with her guitar.

Guan Hu probably wanted to give his lost youth a grand funeral, but Zhang Yan felt conflicted after watching it.

I won't talk about the female lead.

The male protagonist seems to represent rebellion and resistance, but in the play, his specific manifestation of this is that he shocks a large group of retired cadres from the literary and art federation with his rock music in a nightclub.

If it were just one or two people, that would be normal, but for so many retired cadres to be stunned by a rock song is just too far-fetched. The second male lead is a conscientious young policeman who was first stabbed while chasing his childhood friend who had escaped from prison, and later crippled while trying to help someone.

The second female lead got divorced and wanted the female lead to help her abort her child, but when the time came, she couldn't bear to do it and chose to give up—and it's fortunate that she gave up, otherwise, given the female lead's habit of skipping classes all the time, it would most likely have resulted in the death of both mother and child.

The third male lead was an escaped convict who stabbed the second male lead before falling off a bridge and dying.

Anyway, ever since the female lead returned to the capital, none of her childhood friends have fared well.

But if you say that Guan Hu wanted to write the female protagonist as a 'femme fatale', then the text description clearly doesn't have that intention.

Seeing Zhang Yan frowning, Guan Hu felt increasingly uneasy, but still insisted, "Teacher Zhang, just say what you have to say, otherwise I won't know how to fix it."

"Then I'll just say a few words."

Zhang Yan handed the last few pages of the script to Chen Hong, pondering, "You wrote here that the male lead and his teammates had a conflict because of the female lead, which led to them burning down the warehouse that his childhood friend had provided for free."

The female protagonist witnessed the entire incident, but in her inner monologue, she thought the fire was inexplicable, and then walked away like an outsider...

Anyway, I feel this part is a bit unconvincing.

In Zhang Yan's view, the female lead is undoubtedly the soul of the entire drama, but she is also the most disjointed character in the entire drama.

"Uh~"

After listening, Guan Hu frowned and said, "The part about burning down the warehouse was meant to show the female lead gradually becoming confused and indifferent, losing her way..."

Zhang Yan shook his head and said, "Then we could have had the male lead lie and say 'it was already burning when we arrived,' and then have the second male lead, the policeman, turn to ask the female lead. The female lead would be silent for a moment, then shake her head to indicate that she didn't remember."

This could be described as indifference or bewilderment.

But if you ask her to play dumb in her inner monologue, it doesn't feel like confusion or indifference; it feels more like a hypocrite pretending to be innocent.

"A hypocrite pretending to be innocent?"

Guan Hu slowly pondered these words, scratching his head in frustration. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then scratched his head again and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Seeing his state, Zhang Yan specifically asked to confirm, "Do you really want to hear it, or..."

"I want to hear it! I want to hear it!"

Guan Hu nodded vigorously: "Before you said it, I really didn't think Ye Tong was some kind of 'contrast bitch.' What I wanted to portray was a kind of, a kind of..."

"The distortion and alienation of young people in society?"

"Yeah!"

Guan Hu nodded vigorously, as if an itch had been scratched: "Teacher Zhang, I've come to the right person. I knew you would understand me!"

It's not that I understand you, it's just that I was once a 'chuunibyou' (a person with delusions of grandeur) too.

Zhang Yan recalled his senior year of high school, a time when he forced himself to write poems to express his sorrows, and he awkwardly scratched his toes.

Next, he pointed out some flaws, such as the lack of any prior setup before showing the scene of the liquor being ignited by a cigarette butt and causing a fire.

Zhang Yan had seen strong liquor before, but he had never seen one that could be instantly ignited by a cigarette butt.

It would probably need to be at least 90 degrees.

This kind of wine certainly exists, but you can't just arbitrarily bring up an exception without any prior or subsequent explanation.

"It would be best to mention it beforehand, since maintaining musical instruments requires alcohol, you could have the male lead casually say to his teammates when he's showing the female lead around the band: 'That alcohol is expensive, so pour less.'"

Then, when they move it to the warehouse, just film a shot of them placing the bottles of alcohol in the corner. Wouldn't that make sense?

"Yes, yes, you're right!"

Guan Hu had somehow produced a pen and paper. If Zhang Yan continued to deny his character and plot, he might even develop some rebellious thoughts.

But he was more than happy for Zhang Yanquan to point out these minor, common-sense flaws.

Zhang Yan pointed out two more issues. Looking back at Chen Hong, who was still flipping through the script, he said to Guan Hu, "That's all I can see for now. If you don't mind, leave the script here, and I'll take a closer look later."

(End of this chapter)