The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 570 Nonsense

The plot of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is mainly composed of four major scenes.

The four major scenes are: subduing the fish demon, subduing the pig demon, rescuing the monkey demon in the Five Elements Mountain, and finally Xuanzang sacrifices his small self to achieve the greater self and influence Sun Wukong.

In an unknown mountain outside Hengdian.

The scene where Xuanzang subdues Sha Seng will be filmed here.

Amid the green mountains and clear waters, the crew dug a large pool in advance and built a small wooden water fortress around it, which was a bit like the Pig Cage Fortress in "Kung Fu".

Dozens of extras put on tattered costumes and painted their faces as dark as possible, looking just like beggars on the street. They gathered together and cast longing glances in a certain direction from time to time.

Lu Yuan's costume in the play is that his face is dark, his hair is a mess, he has a "Shamat" style with some weeds hanging on it, and he is wearing a beige torn gauze dress.

There was a wooden plank road leading from the water fort to the pond. He sat on it, rolled up his trouser legs, and stretched his legs in the water, repeatedly thinking about Xuanzang's first appearance in his mind.

The crew arranged a motorhome for him. In the middle of summer, he felt it was too stuffy in the car. Although it was a bit hot outside, the air was fresh and the scenery was beautiful.

The little girl sat next to him, holding a lollipop in one hand and taking a few sips of it from time to time.

She followed suit and swung her two white feet in the water, splashing water. She placed a picture album on her legs and occasionally turned the pages with her other hand.

She was still mumbling to herself, "A crow crawls and crawls, and two fish swim and swim."

Lu Yuan waved the prop "Three Hundred Children's Songs" in his hand and felt the slight coolness.

This is the third day since the crew started filming, and he hasn't shot a single scene so far.

Zhou Xinchi's directing style is different from that of most directors.

There is no so-called script reading, and the content of the script is uncertain and can be changed at any time.

On the first day of filming, Shu Qi was flipping through the script of The Exorcist on the set, which was only for her own reference, intending to review the dialogues.

Zhou Xinchi then floated in front of her and said in not-quite-standard Mandarin, "Don't remember, they're all different!"

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving Shu Qi with a confused look on his face.

Yes, Zhou Xinchi overturned the early script lines. All the content was in his head, not in the script he sent to the actors.

This results in extremely slow filming progress.

Zhou Xinchi is also a person who pays great attention to details. He personally takes care of everything, no matter how big or small. Even the roles of extras, he hopes to make them come out brilliantly.

For example, when a monster appeared in the water, the fishermen panicked and hurriedly hid in the corner, but they couldn't help looking up and around.

We shot this one shot about thirty times, a total of four or five shots a day.

The good thing is that his movies are always filled with all kinds of wonderful supporting characters, and from time to time there will be a supporting role that completely steals the limelight from the protagonist.

If the camera captures a particularly outstanding extra, that extra person will immediately become the center of attention and may have more roles to play.

Therefore, in Zhou Xinchi's films, extras are the most active, because there is a chance that they can soar into the sky just because of one or two lines or one action.

"Brother, why does this fish have a tiger's head?" The little girl handed him the picture album cutely, interrupting his thoughts.

Lu Yuan glanced at the photo in the album, which was the rendering of Sha Monk (fish monster) submitted by the special effects team.

There are many special effects in this play. The large pool under the village is intentionally designed to be 1.2 meters deep to facilitate the production of special effects.

The style of fish monster that Zhou Xinchi wanted was not the style that had been used before in foreign countries, such as the monster in "The Host". He wanted a monster with Chinese characteristics.

"Because this is a monster from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it has a tiger's head and a fish's body, a horse's foot on its lower abdomen, and a frog's tongue."

"What is the Classic of Mountains and Seas?" The little girl tilted her head, looking like she was determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

"Yeah, a cookbook."

"The recipe, is there anything delicious in it?"

"Yes, I have."

"Brother, please tell me, I want to listen."

"Let me think about it." Lu Yuan pretended to recall.

“For example, there is a fruit called Danmu, which looks like a red and black watermelon. If you eat it, you can permanently gain the ability to be resistant to fire.

There is also a monster called Lu Shu. Um, you don’t need to understand this. Let’s change it. There is a tree called Mengbi Tree, and the fruit it bears is called Mengbi Fruit. After eating it, you will feel confused, forget your troubles, and be super happy. "

He began to make up stories.

"Which one do you want to eat?"

"Mengbiguo!" The little Loli swallowed her saliva and raised the lollipop in her hand.

Lu Yuan: "."

"What else? What else?"

"Well, there's more." Lu Yuan had a headache. Who knows what is in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas". He only learned about these few things when he was coaxing Yaoyao to sleep at night.

He pointed to Huang Bo who was chatting with Shu Qi not far away and said, "Here, ask your uncle Huang. He has a lot of them at home."

After a few days of getting along and feeding him, the little girl now realizes that although Uncle Huang is a little ugly, he is still a pretty good person.

So he got up, patted his butt, stepped on the wooden plank road, and ran over.

Seeing Huang Bo pick her up and then look at him speechlessly, Lu Yuan stood up and walked towards the high platform of the water fort.

Zhou Xinchi is currently discussing a play with the group.

He was wearing a gray and white T-shirt, black casual shorts, sneakers, and a baseball cap.

This look looks like a social animal who goes downstairs to buy instant noodles and then goes home to continue playing games.

The crew starts work at 8 am every day and finishes at 5 pm.

As the director, Zhou Xinchi would arrive every morning after the scene was almost ready, and then call co-director Guo Zijian and screenwriter Lu Zhengyu.

If there are action scenes, a martial arts instructor, Gu Xuanzhao, will be added, and several people will get together to discuss what will be filmed that day.

The time can be long or short, maybe half an hour, maybe an hour.

At the same time, the assistant director ran to Lu Yuan and others' car and reminded them one by one that the shooting might start in about an hour.

Half an hour later, the costume designer and makeup artist got on the bus to do makeup or touch ups for the actors.

After another 15 minutes, the director may have finished his brainstorming, and the actors will be brought to the scene to talk with Zhou Xinchi for about an hour.

"Chatting" is the keyword in Zhou's creation.

Almost all the plots and lines were "chatted out" by Zhou Xinchi on the spot. Every line was polished on the spot and delivered to the actors as soon as it was freshly produced.

He rarely sits in front of the monitor and will talk to everyone, regardless of their status or how much role they play.

No one knew what was going on in his mind, and no one knew whether he kept talking like this out of complete relaxation or because he was overly nervous.

Sometimes the topics brought up are fanciful and seemingly unrelated. They may be related to the play at the beginning, but completely unrelated in the end.

Just like now, Zhou Xinchi is adjusting his ideas while chatting with the actors.

An extra was holding a dustpan and reciting the lines in a very awkward tone: "Master, thank you very much. Here is a small amount of silver and two salted fish. Please accept them."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Zhou Xinchi interrupted, took out two palm-sized salted fish from the dustpan, held them in front of his chest, and spoke in poor Mandarin.

"It's not an ordinary salted fish. Ordinary salted fish are not funny. It has to be a thousand-year-old salted fish! If you want to tell me, there are two thousand-year-old salted fish. Please accept them, Taoist priest."

Not to mention, the salted fish the size of two palms was given the title of a thousand-year-old monster, which was ridiculous and full of contrast.

The extra who played the role of the villagers nodded and went to practice on his own.

Zhou Xinchi walked up to the Taoist priest again and said, "This Taoist priest has no ability, but he is greedy for money and looks righteous." He recited the Taoist priest's words, "People who practice Taoism only want to help the world. I won't take such a precious thing."

At the same time, he calmly took the silver and returned the salted fish to the villagers.

The extras playing the Taoist priests clapped their hands in sudden realization.

Then he walked over to a middle-aged female extra nearby and said, "Don't speak such standard Mandarin. Like this."

He raised his index finger and spoke word by word in a long tone: "I~want~revenge~"

When Lu Yuan saw this scene, he inexplicably felt as if he was watching Zhou Xinchi challenging someone to a duel in the movie "Kung Fu".

Seeing him approach, Zhou Xinchi nodded, as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to him, and said, "What happened just now doesn't count, let's start over!"

The people around blinked their eyes and didn't think it was strange. Similar things happened frequently in the past few days since the start of the project.

Co-director Guo Zijian glanced at the sun above his head. Seeing that the morning was about to end and he hadn't finished shooting a single scene, he was tired and reminded: "Director, it's time to start."

Zhou Xinchi then waved his hand reluctantly.

In the minds of most viewers, the 86 TV series "Journey to the West" constructed a world of journey to the west full of childlike fun and imagination. In comparison, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is contrary to the family-friendly world and shows the dark and crazy side of the journey to the west world.

The story begins with the story of Monk Sha being a fish spirit, doing evil and hurting people in a small fishing village.

The villagers invited a Taoist priest to perform a ritual, but the priest turned out to be a half-baked money-maker who made dirty money. He pretended to be an exorcist, but in fact he was a swindler. The money was given away, but the disaster was not cured.

It was at this time that Chen Xuanzang made his first appearance and told everyone the truth.

As a result, the villagers did not believe him, and with the Taoist priest's instigation, the angry villagers punched, kicked, and cut him, and even hung him up to be executed.

After some adjustments, the shooting officially began.

"Action!"

The Taoist priest, with a peach wood sword on his back, faced the crowd and said righteously, "Now that the monster has been caught, you can do whatever you want with it."

The surrounding extras vented their anger at the fish monster.

"Kill it!"

"Isn't it happy?" the old man gritted his teeth.

The short middle-aged man stared with his eyes wide open, his expression ferocious and his face full of wrinkles: "Then hit it again!"

"Report the ball!"

The middle-aged woman before her raised her index finger and spoke word by word: "I~want~to~report~the~ball!"

Lu Yuan stood in the crowd and suddenly said, "You are all wrong. It is not the murderer."

He had carefully considered how to play Xuanzang a month before joining the crew, because this was Zhou Xinchi's script and he was directing it himself, and if he wasn't careful, his shadow might be reflected in the role.

This role is actually not easy to play because Xuanzang faces limitations.

He firmly believed in his master's teachings and strictly abided by the rules. He walked around the streets with a copy of "Three Hundred Children's Songs" and was determined to eliminate demons and become a good exorcist.

But what he didn't know was that he actually had no exorcism ability, and the "Three Hundred Children's Songs" given to him by his master was just a joke.

When he realizes this, he will feel powerless to save the world and gradually begin to doubt himself.

Therefore, the changes in inner drama and emotional depth are the breakthrough of this role.

In this scene, Xuanzang has just started his apprenticeship.

There is no doubt that he is brave and determined, thinking about exorcising demons and getting rid of harm to the people, and he is very confident.

As a rookie, he wished that everyone in the world knew that he was a demon-slaying master.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan straightened his back, his eyes full of confidence, one hand holding a bamboo stick, the other holding an ancient book. Although he was dressed in beggar's clothes, he managed to look like a hermit.

Seeing this, the villagers made way.

The fellow began to educate the villagers: "This is a Gu's fish. It is docile by nature, positive and optimistic, and has good character. It's a pity that it has grown a little big."

"Who are you kidding?" The village chief immediately expressed his confusion.

Lu Yuan smiled kindly: "I am an unordained Mahayana Buddhist disciple, Chen Xuanzang, and an exorcist who exorcises demons and monsters."

The village chief didn't believe it, Ababa Ababa, Lu Yuan continued to explain.

Seeing him sabotage the show, the half-baked Taoist priest was upset and jumped down the stairs holding the silver. The silver made a crisp sound when it collided with each other: "A good father was killed by a monster, and the innocent family members are in great pain, and you still say such things."

After saying this, the Taoist covered his face with his sleeves and pretended to shed tears.

The surrounding villagers immediately accused: "Asshole, asshole!"

"Everyone listen to me, the monster you are looking for hasn't appeared yet." Lu Yuan explained earnestly, with a helpless expression.

The scene was in chaos, and then an old lady in the crowd shouted, "Shut up!!"

Everyone looked back.

The aunt burst into tears, pointed at Lu Yuan, and sobbed, "Have you ever had a husband die?"

Lu Yuan was stunned for a moment, sighed softly, and answered seriously: "Sister-in-law, I'm not gay."

The camera was facing away from the old lady, so her expression could not be seen, but Lu Yuan noticed that she had obviously been offline for a while.

After a pause of less than half a second, she asked again with great sorrow: "Have you ever had a dead husband?"

Lu Yuan threw away the stick in his hand and held the aunt's hand, as if he had been greatly insulted, and tried his best to prove his sexual orientation: "Sister-in-law, you have to believe me, I'm really not gay."

Zhou Xinchi was standing next to the photographer, taking in his entire expression, and his lips curled up unconsciously.

Lu Yuan changed the line. It was originally "Sister-in-law, I am sorry for the loss." He changed it to "Sister-in-law, I am not gay."

From "The Unforgettable Number", he discovered that the other party had an ability to be funny in a serious way.

He was also worried that Lu Yuan would intentionally learn his nonsensical side, but it was obvious that he was overthinking it.

Not only that, he also noticed that the other party made subtle adjustments to Xuanzang's first appearance.

He hoped that Xuanzang would be sloppy and unruly, with Zhou's signature "exaggeration", but Lu Yuan's interpretation was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

But he made no attempt to interrupt.

At Lu Yuan's level, he has his own persistence and understanding of the role. Although he is a director, he dare not say that he is always right.

After taking one shot, Zhou Xinchi praised: "Very good!"

Lu Yuan smiled. From his observations over the past three days, he found that Zhou Xinchi usually had something to say after saying this.

Sure enough, the man frowned and asked, "Your appearance just now is different from what we talked about before. What's the trick?"

"I was sitting over there just now and had an idea." Lu Yuan pointed to the wooden plank road.

"The director must have seen many people who are really rich and those who are pretending to be rich."

Zhou Xinchi pinched his chin, probably understanding what he wanted to say, and motioned for him to continue.

Lu Yuan said: "They are usually not rich. They show off their wealth to attract other people's attention and desire recognition from others. Most of the truly wealthy people don't like to show off in front of strangers."

"So you think Xuanzang is one of those people who are not rich."

"Yes." Lu Yuan nodded: "Xuanzang actually never subdued a demon. He was eager to prove himself, so he packaged himself as a master. Only after experiencing the ups and downs of life, the joys and sorrows, the five flavors of life, and seeing through the warmth and coldness of human nature, could he break free from the shackles of prosperity and vanity, remove external decorations, restore his original simplicity, and return to nature."

"Okay, you've convinced me, here's another one!"

Lu Yuan: "."

(End of this chapter)