Chapter 036
Because of the importance of the night scene, the crew deliberately advanced the dinner time to five o'clock. As soon as the dinner was over, everyone was stuck in a nervous and busy preparation process.
Ji Li sat in the lounge, staring at the content of the script with a serious expression.
On the first day of filming, the character replay came up, saying that he was not under pressure is a lie.
The plot of this movie is very heavy.
Xiang Suian actually lives in a remarried family. Back then, Xiang Mu married to her current husband when Xiang Suian was only ten years old.
On the outside, the stepfather is a gentleman, wearing a pair of square glasses, and always smiling when he meets people outside.
At first, Xiang Mu had taken a fancy to his easygoing attitude and agreed to marry him.
As a result, the good times didn't last long. His stepfather lost his job after marriage, and his career was frustrated. He didn't want to make progress and became a complete alcoholic.
He not only loves to drink, but was also a violent drunkard. He took several painstaking advices to his mother as a breeze. After a drink, he lost control and beat Xiang Mu and Xiang Suian.
And this is the beginning of the doom of the mother and son.
In the past eight years, the drunken habit of his stepfather has intensified and the tendency of domestic violence has become more and more serious. From the beginning of resistance and struggle to the mother, to the halfway escape and begging for mercy, to the final paralysis and despair.
Everyone in the neighborhood knows about this, but as outsiders, they can only persuade them once or twice, but they can’t persuade them a hundred times.
On the evening of the third year of high school, Xiang Suian just returned home and saw a familiar and terrifying scene — his stepfather tied his mother with a string like a livestock, and he slammed her fiercely with a belt in his hand.
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In this scene, it is natural to capture the reaction of Xiang's mother and son, and the most difficult point is that Ji Li has to interpret the same character on two timelines.
The first timeline is Xiang Suian, who has not experienced reincarnation.
The second timeline is Xiang Suian, who has experienced countless same reincarnations.
It is not only necessary to conform to the character's emotions, but also to deduce a completely different mood. The difficulty can be imagined.
There was a knock on the door.
Baozi walked in from outside and said cautiously, “Brother Ji, Director Wang called you to go over and try out the scene.”
He knew that Ji Li stayed alone in the lounge to brew his emotions, and he was afraid that it would affect his immersive state during the silent play.
Ji Li put down the script full of notes and walked out calmly.
The play is already in his mind, there is no need to hold the script in one fell swoop.
In the houses along the river, the crew has set up the ‘domestic violence’ scene properly.
The actor who played Xiang Mu was Song Xingchen, the queen of the Baixiang Awards. This time she was invited by Qin Yue to come here for a special role.
Qin Yue's idea is very clear.
Now that you have spotted this project, you have to do it as an important production. If you invite more experienced actors as guest appearances, the post-propaganda campaign will be an extra gimmick.
Under the leadership of Yu Fuya, Ji Li greeted her on the sofa in a polite manner, “Hello Teacher Song, I am the actor of Xiang Suian, Ji Li.”
“An-An, have you eaten yet?” Song Xingchen smiled and directly called Ji Li on the character's name in the play.
The highlight of the veteran actors is here, as long as the script is good, it would be easy to grasp the inside of the play and it's character's emotions and personality.
Ji Li was surprised for a moment, and then burst into a restrained and well-behaved smile belonging to ‘Xiang Suan’, “I have eaten.”
Song Xingchen smiled lightly, obviously having a good impression of this calm and good-looking junior.
Qin Yue watched the interaction between the two and raised the corner of his mouth briefly.
In fact, he was being selfish in asking Song Xingchen to participate in the film.
After the other party is recognized as a powerful filmmaker, her acting works have been well received since her debut, especially among the young and middle-aged generations, who have been recognizing her on quite a high degree.
There was a survey at the beginning, as long as it is a movie starring Song Xingchen, 90% of the audience said that they would go to the theater to watch it.
This time, Ji Li and Song Xingchen played together. As long as he played as steadily as before, he wanted to follow the latter's reputation after the film was released to gain a wave of affirmation.
Qin Yue is paving the way for the youth's career in his own way. As to whether he can make it through, it still depends on the latter's own performance.
In order to match the plot, Song Xingchen's exposed skin was painted with many bruises and red marks, and there was a long, cracked blood hole on her forehead, which looks very realistic.
The stepfather was played by Wei Guofu, the old drama actor. As soon as he appeared on the filming set, Baozi shuddered subconsciously.
“What got you shuddering?”
“Brother Ji, Teacher Wei once acted in an urban drama. His ‘domestic violence man’ act is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.” Baozi said in a low voice, “I remembered that role as soon as I saw him.”
Some actors can be kept inside the audience mind for a long time with just a single role.
Wei Guofu himself is actually very easy to get along with, he smiled and greeted everyone as soon as he came in.
Seeing that the preparations for the scene have been completed, Wang Zhang said, “Okay, it's almost time to shoot.”
The ‘family of three’ in the play quickly entered the role state.
Undoubtedly, the focus of this scene is on Xiang Suian, played by Ji Li.
After some preparations are done by Wang Zhang and the filming team, they planned to adopt a one-shot shooting mode, and there is no fixed point of changing positions, which means that the actors cannot make mistakes through out the process, otherwise they will all be overthrown and restart the scene again.
The interpretation of the scenes was originally difficult, but the more difficult was adopting the shooting mode, which puts Ji Li's test to a higher level.
Everyone walked through the scene several times before confirming the detailed status of each camera position.
Before the filming started, Ji Li took the initiative to walk to Wei Guofu’s side and asked embarrassedly, “Teacher Wei, I wanted to suggest something before filming. When you use the belt to hit, you can put a little more strength on it. So when the shot is filmed, it would look more realistic.”
After hearing this in surprise, Wei Guofu asked, “Are you sure? This belt must be tightened, or it will really hurt.”
Ji Li nodded and insisted on his thoughts, “Don't worry, I can bear it since I'm young. As an actor, it's okay to sacrifice a little for the film effect.”
Wei Guofu pushed his glasses and responded with a low smile.
After getting his answer, Ji Li nodded to him politely, and then quickly walked to the door to get ready.
Wei Guofu stared at his back, a glimmer of praise flashed through his heart.
It is rare these days that there is still a young man who is not afraid of hardship, but he doesn't know if he can perform this kind of energy after the official shooting in a while?
Ji Li stood still in the alley, directly in front of the mobile post position. He closed his eyes, discarded all the distracting thoughts in his mind, and silently waited for the sound of the director's action.
About thirty seconds later, the sound of hitting the board sounded.
Ji Li opened his eyes and walked towards the house with a calm expression on his face.
As soon as he arrived at the door of his house, he heard a suppressed sob inside, and the man's angery voice was mixed with waves of whipping, and people's hearts were beating.
Ji Li's slightly raised lips instantly stretched into a straight line. He firmly grasped the shoulder strap of the schoolbag, and the whitening marks were clearly visible on his knuckles.
Didn’t it just happened last weekend? Why did it start again?
Ji Li's chest rose and fell slightly for a moment, and walked in quickly, “Mom, Uncle Li, I'm back.”
The sound of pushing the door came forcefully, but the words of the exit fell into the dust.
Ji Li's eyes drooped slightly, and he saw the mess all over the floor. The dining table had been turned upside down, and all the soup and vegetables were scattered on the floor.
The woman's hands and feet were roughly tied with a string, and her body was covered with traces of belt bruises. The most serious was her forehead, which was covered with flesh and blood.
Ji Li stood quietly on the spot. As long as one looked closely at the camera, they would be able to notice his quietly tightened jaw, which was obviously suppressed and tolerated to the extreme.
With his arrival, the cruel air in the house finally loosened a little.
The picture turned, the red-faced stepfather threw the belt on Xiang's mother and sat down on the sofa drunk, panting for breath.
Xiang Suian's mother played by Song Xingchen raised her head with difficulty, revealing the blood-stained and pained face.
She tremblingly raised a smile that was uglier than crying, “...An-An, mom is okay. You, you go inside quickly.”
Lock the door, close the window, and don't come out even if you hear any movement.
Hearing this familiar opening remark, Xiang Suian's breath condensed.
“An-An...” Xiang Mu's voice was extremely weak, implying an unspeakable rush, “Be good. Go on now.”
They all know that a new round brutality will soon begin.
It is better to be beaten alone than to get injured together.
A mother who can't even protect herself, is guarding her child with all her might in the only way she could think of.
Xiang Suian met Xiang Mu's pleading eyes, the mist in his eyes flickered, and the toes that had just been lifted to go to her has been taken back.
He turned sideways mechanically and walked stiffly back to his room.
Lock the door, close the window.
A series of actions, according to Xiang Mu's order, that was done almost habitually that Xiang Suian already remembered deep in his heart.
Outside of his room, another round of beating and scolding sounded from his stepfather.
Xiang Mu's whimper was intermittent and very slight. It was the sound she made when she bit the towel desperately, just to prevent the neighbors from hearing the movement and rushing to check up on her.
Because after the neighbor’s ‘well-intentioned but short-term’ persuasion, the mother and son will face a more painful night.
Sitting in the seat, Xiang Suian took out his test paper blankly, and pressed the upturned page with his palm.
The palm pressing and rubbing action became harder and harder, until the fragile paper surface suddenly tore.
——Patter.
A big tear suddenly broke out on the tidy test paper, and the rough typeface was crumpled.
The camera pans up slowly, and freezes on those red eyes that held resentment and anger.
Tears accumulated in Ji Li's eye sockets, and there was bottomless despair in his gloomy eyes, his teeth pressed against his fist knuckles, and his whole body trembled fiercely.
Can't anyone help them?!
Can't anyone see their despair?!
No matter the neighbors or the police, no one has ever been able to save them.
They fought back and got a more painful beating. They ran away, but the man appeared like a ghost, pulling them back to the house within mere minutes.
Until now, it seems that even death has became an extravagant hope.
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In front of the camera, the young man's heartbroken silent shouts resonated to everyone present through the monitor's screen, causing everyone to ignore the surrounding environment and worried about him.
Feng Cheng and Wei Lai looked at each other, completely shocked by the youth's acting skills.
Strong!
It is too strong!
Obviously there is no line, but Ji Li is able to portray the character's heart vividly in his own way.
The shooting continues.
Song Xingchen and Wei Guofu, two old-fashioned filming actors, are playing together, creating a strong tension.
The hateful man and the woman begging for mercy, the cruel picture of one strong and one weak, hit the onlookers' moral bottom line.
If they didn't know they were acting, they were afraid someone would rush to beat the violent scumbag right now.
Just thinking about it, the door of Xiang Suian's room bursted open.
Xiang Suian, played by Ji Li, rushed back to the living room unbearably. He tried his best to push the man away, yelling, “Go away! Don't touch my mother!”
The stepfather fell on the ground full of soup and vegetable slag, he stumbled for a few seconds before he got up, and kicked the young man who was struggling to untie the rope on his mother.
“Damn, bastard! You dare to push me?”
“You really take after your bitch mother! Just go and die!”
Xiang Suan's back was kicked sharply by the man, and the blue veins in his forehead suddenly appeared because of the severe pain. He gritted his teeth and climbed up, quickly covering Xiang Mu with his thin body.
He looked up at his hateful stepfather, his body was so tight that he trembled, like a cub dying to protect his precious things, “...I forbid you to beat her! Stop!”
“You don't want me to hit her?”
The man put the belt head round and round in his palm, closing his fist, staring at the young man with a terrible killing intent, “Okay! Then you take her place!”
The image of the ‘violent scumbag’ portrayed by Wei Guofu is too strong. Even if it is just acting, it makes people afraid and hateful.
The staff on the scene were shaken by his behavior, and their hearts were hanging on towards Ji Li's body.
The waving belt fell down again and again, and it was frightening to hear.
Ji Li gritted his teeth and stubbornly held on, without letting out the slightest cry of pain, protecting his mother's arm and tightening little by little.
No!
Don't hurt her!
I won't let you hurt her again if I die!
Song Xingchen felt the strong emotions passed by the youth, and the sorrow of her heart filled full.
After forbearing for a long time, Xiang Mu finally broke down, unable to reach out and begged, “Don't hit the child, Lao Li, I beg you not to hit the child...”
“I was wrong, I was wrong, please don't fight...”
"Help, An-An, who can come... save my An-An!"
Painful begging for mercy drowned in the night.
Suddenly, a small photo fell out of the pocket of the school uniform jacket.
Ji Li's eyes drifted away for a moment before falling back to the ground.
It was a photo of a family of three taken when Father Xiang was still alive. When he was a child, he was happily nestled in his father's arms, Xiang's Mu leaning next to his husband, and one hand stroked the child's tender face.
At that time, the embrace of the father was very warm, and the touch of the mother was very gentle.
He didn't have any reasons to feel fear, nor did he have to bear any sufferings.
The camera slowly zoomed in, and the tears that the boy had held on for a long time finally fell. He tremblingly stretched out his hand and hooked the corner of the photo with his fingertips.
The gaze faded away a little, and the corners of the bleeding mouth evoked an arc.
Dad, if I die, you will definitely come and pick me up, right?
The young boy's tight body suddenly lost its strength and completely fainted to the ground.
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This scene should end here.
The entirety of the people inside the set is quiet, and everyone's hearts are hanging together.
Song Xingchen looked at the young man who fell on the ground, and for a moment in a daze, he couldn't tell whether it was in or out of the play.
Her emotions were still on the outside, tears could not stop breaking the bank.
“An-An?”
Song Xingchen stretched out his hand and probed the young man's pulse, and only after she confirmed that the boy was still breathing, her body collapsed.
Wang Zhang got the scene he wanted, and shouted ‘cut’, completely taking everyone out of the plot.
Yu Fuya couldn't help it anymore, and ran up immediately, “Ji Li?”
At this moment, she finally knew what the boy's mentality of doing heavy scenes was like.
Obviously knowing that the other party is acting, but when Wei Guofu was seen using a belt to ‘hit people’, she almost couldn't hold back and went straight to kick the man's lifeblood!
To say that Xiang Mu was too cowardly, which led to this unfortunate life, and she also suffered with Xiang Suian!
With Yu Fuya's support, Ji Li quickly got up from the ground.
“Brother Ji, quickly drink some hot water slowly.” Baozi walked up and handed him the hot water poured in advance.
It was cold in the early winter, so he couldn't buy ice cream for Brother Ji to eat, lest it hurt his stomach.
Ji Li's costume's only a thin coat. He had fallen on the ground for so long and was a little bit cold. He sipped two mouthfuls of hot water before he looked at Song Xingchen who was surrounded by his assistant.
“Teacher Song, did I pull too hard in the scene just now? Are you okay?”
Song Xingchen, who hadn't even gotten out of her character's emotion yet, heard this concern, and her heart was warm and astringent. She stepped forward, patted Ji Li's red face, and said softly, “I'm fine, but you...” She looked at Wei Guofu on the side, trying to dilute the heaviness in the play with a joking tone, “Did Old Wei hurt you just now?”
Ji Li didn't care about the little pain at all, “No, Teacher Wei controlled it very well.”
Wei Guofu patted him on the shoulder and said, “You, young man, you have good tenacity.”
Song Xing smiled and nodded, making no secret of his praise for her character's son, “Your acting is very good.”
In front of everyone, the two old actors kept complimenting Ji Li, obviously they all liked this new junior actor.
The staff present saw this scene, and all felt it was reasonable.
They are now watching young people with ‘character filters’. Who doesn’t like people with excellent acting skills and a humble attitude?
Wang Zhang outside the court picked up the megaphone and shouted, “Come and watch the replay again, alright?”
The three actors were strict when it comes to their acting, and when they heard this, they immediately set off.
Feng Cheng, who has been watching on the set, said convincingly, “I was suddenly stressed, but also very motivated. How about you?”
Wei Lai nodded in sympathy, “Go back and study the script carefully. After all, our role shouldn't be inferior to him.”
The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.
When Qin Yue, who was passing by, heard this, his eyes flickered in agreement.
A good crew environment should be what it is now.
Even if there is a comparison between fellow actors, it must be benign and continue to strive forward.
Young people who are focused on their own roles, visibly become the driving force for others to move forward. This is the charm of good actors.
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When Qi An found Qin Yue, the other party was standing on the bank of the river with a burning cigarette in his hand.
The man's face was submerged in the dark night, and only the misty smoke that burned with a bit of loneliness was agile.
Qi An approached and asked, “Why did you smoke?”
“Wang Zhang gave it, just taking it to relieve fatigue.” Qin Yue's fingertips flicking away the soot are very beautiful. He looked at the swaying river and spoke slowly.
“Qi An, when filming ‘Country and the World’, I actually had the idea of retiring after filming.”
Qi An chuckled lightly and took out the cigarette he was carrying with him, and lit a cigarette with his friend's spark. “I know, I have worked with you for so many years, and is your nominal agent again. How can I not see it?”
It took ten years for Qin Yue to become an unshakable figure in the entertainment industry.
Everyone was vowing to say that no one could break Qin Yue's record of being a god, even they themselves thought so.
But no matter how powerful a character is, there will be a day when he gets tired of it.
The family background behind Qin Yue is far more powerful than others imagined. Even if he is not in the entertainment circle anymore, he can still make a proud achievement in other circles.
Originally, he thought about starting with a different field, but now, this idea has been completely dispelled.
Qi An took a puff of cigarette, and asked with a smile, “If there is a Ji Li in this entertainment circle, wouldn't it be interesting?”
Qin Yue hooked his lips inadvertently, “He is the only one who can drag me with his acting into the play so far.”
This situation does not only exist when the two play together.
Just now, from the perspective of a bystander, Qin Yue's emotions will fluctuate with the youth's interpretation.
This feeling is very novel, and even a bit of it makes him understand the taste.
Qin Yue didn't want to retreat and leave.
He wanted to occupy the top position in this circle, and wanted to watch Ji Li, the destined dazzling star, climb to a position next to him.
Qi An smiled without saying a word, and only reminded him when the cigarettes in their hands were all burned out.
“It's half past seven. Should we catch the plane?”
“Later, I want to see him finish the last scene tonight.”
Qi An got the expected answer, humming, “Okay.”
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The time was moved to eight o’clock, but the busyness of the set did not end. Everyone was waiting for the last scene tonight.
It’s exactly the same ‘domestic violence’ scene, and Ji Li will play Xiang Suian after multiple reincarnations.
Wang Zhang’s directing style is external. He will not require actors to perform according to his standards at a glance. Instead, he will delineate a circle of ‘free interpretation’ for them and play freely according to their own understanding of the personality of the characters.
In Wang Zhang's view, the core of creating characters is the actors, not their directors or other people.
Therefore, in the next scene, in addition to a few necessary lens positions, other shooting content, he gave Ji Li the greatest degree of freedom.
In the lounge, Ji Li and screenwriter Mu Suian were talking about something.
Ten minutes later, the two walked back one after another.
Wang Zhang saw Ji Li's figure and asked straightforwardly, “Xiao Li, are you ready?”
Ji Li nodded without saying a word, and walked to the initial shooting position.
The same approach is adopted, but this time, the crew pays more attention to Ji Li's on-the-spot performance and the cooperation of experienced cameramen.
Everything's ready.
In the anticipation of all the staff on the set, the last scene of tonight has finally begun.
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