1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After sitting down, Scorsese did not talk about "Shutter Island", but praised "The Chorus" first, saying that the Berlin Film Festival deserved to award the Jury's Best Film to "The Chorus".

Zhou Yan had only watched Scorsese's movies before and didn't know much about Scorsese's personality, so he couldn't tell whether Scorsese was being sincere or just being polite.

But no matter what, since Scorsese praised him, he also has to engage in a wave of commercial mutual praise.

He then praised several films Scorsese had already made, especially "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas".

"I don't remember where I read an article, but there was a paragraph saying that when a killer takes revenge on the structure that oppresses him, that kind of explosive violence will have a positive effect on him."

"I think the movie Taxi Driver uses this element and puts it at the center of the audience's attention. Violence is the protagonist's only way to express himself. He cannot overcome the barriers that prevent him from observing and perceiving. When he explodes, this explosion is his only way to express his existence to the city..."

At first, Scorsese thought Zhou Yan was just being polite, but after listening to Zhou Yan's evaluation of "Taxi Driver", he actually developed a feeling of mutual appreciation.

When a director is directing a movie, the emotions he wants to express are varied. Some of them are expressed purposefully, while others are purposeless and happen by chance.

There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and this applies to the evaluation of any work of art.

After the creator presents his or her work, it is no longer something unique to the creator, but something that is exposed to the public's perspective and analyzed and understood by the audience in various ways.

What it specifically expresses is no longer up to the creator to decide.

For example, the song "Borrowing Cucumbers" composed by Zhou Yan is generally felt by the public to be a song praising pure love. This is not actually a misunderstanding of the audience, because it is not important what Zhou Yan wanted to express when he created the song. What is important is what the audience understands from it.

Some creators, when seeing others analyzing their works, say that they don’t think that way.

But from the audience's perspective, it means "I don't care what you think, I care what I think."

Idealists say that the audience is the biggest.

What Zhou Yan just said actually belongs to the latter. These things were not what Scorsese deliberately wanted to express when he was creating the film.

But Scorsese quite agrees with this, because although this is not what he expressed purposefully, it is also what he thought in his heart. It’s just that at the time of creation, he was not clear about what he was thinking.

When a creator looks back at his own work, he will transform from a creator to an audience, and his perspective will also change. The change of identity will also result in different feelings.

What Zhou Yan said coincides with Scorsese’s feelings when he watched Taxi Driver as an audience.

When the movie "Taxi Driver" was made, Scorsese had been in the industry for almost ten years, but this movie can be considered one of his early works, and it also won the Palme d'Or, which has a very special meaning to him.

When a director reviews his early works, he will certainly find many deficiencies, mostly technical ones, but he will also often find things he has lost, and these lost things can never be recovered.

As we age, we change, and this change is irreversible. Things that can no longer be reproduced become particularly precious.

Seeing Zhou Yan talking, Chris also said, "Mr. Scorsese, when Y gave us the script of Shutter Island, he highly recommended you."

Chris's words helped Zhou Yan prove that he really admired Scorsese, and also successfully turned the topic to "Shutter Island". After all, this was the reason why they met here today.

Scorsese pushed his glasses and said to Zhou Yan with a smile, "Thank you for your recommendation. The script of Shutter Island is so well written. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the best script I have read in recent years. When I was reading the script, I was waiting for the ending because I had a hunch that the ending would definitely surprise me. As it turned out, my hunch was right and the ending did surprise me a lot. The structure of this script is perfect and the details are handled very well. The story takes the readers into a tangled mess of threads, making the audience want to untie the threads, but in the end they find that the threads are not messy at all and they can be untied with just a slight pull."

"Thank you for your compliment. The script is just a beginning. The final presentation of the film still depends on your hard work."

"That's our job." Scorsese smiled and then asked, "I heard from Chris that you recommended three actors to play the leading role, Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, I did recommend these three actors, but it's just a recommendation. It's up to you to decide who will be used in the end. I won't have any opinion."

This statement has made it very clear that he will not interfere with Scorsese's work.

Scorsese was not worried at all about Zhou Yan interfering with his work. Instead, he asked him very seriously, "Who do you think is more suitable among these three actors?"

Zhou Yan looked at Scorsese and saw that he didn't seem to have any other intentions, so he said, "If I were to rank them, Bruce Willis would be first, Kevin Costner second, and Tom Hanks third."

Scorsese laughed when he heard Zhou Yan's ranking. "We both have similar opinions."

Scorsese’s ranking is different from Zhou Yan’s, but Bruce Willis is always the first. It’s just that the second and third places are in different orders. However, it doesn’t matter if they are the second or third, because as long as they think the most suitable actors are the same, it’s fine.

Scorsese also decided to invite Bruce Willis to star in this movie.

"What about the attending physician and the protagonist's attending physician?" Scorsese asked again.

Zhou Yan shook his head. "I don't have any idea about these two roles. In fact, I don't know much about actors here in the United States."

This is half true and half false. He certainly doesn't know as much about American actors as he does Chinese actors, but he has an impression of all the famous actors, otherwise he wouldn't have recommended three candidates at once.

Scorsese felt a little regretful. Although he might not necessarily follow Zhou Yan's ideas, he still wanted to hear the ideas of screenwriter Zhou Yan. As the first creators, the ideas of screenwriters are very important.

In fact, Scorsese also discovered that Zhou Yan was somewhat conservative when talking about casting, and seemed reluctant to express his true opinions. This may be a statement, or it may be Zhou Yan's personality.

Scorsese has not worked with many Asians, and even fewer pure Chinese. There is no Chinese who has reached Zhou Yan's level, so when he communicates with Zhou Yan, he has no experience to refer to.

Scorsese didn't talk much about the casting, and then asked some questions about the script.

"The structure of Shutter Island is perfect, but there are still some parts that I am confused about..."

Scorsese's doubts mainly stem from some errors in the process of translating from Chinese to English, such as the mystery of the protagonist's name. The Chinese version seems to give people a very direct feeling, while the English version is a literal translation, and the names are replaced by pinyin. Although there are notes next to it explaining the mystery of the name, it still seems a bit lacking in meaning.

In some places, Zhou Yan made some changes based on China's national conditions, and they were not changed during the translation, so Scorsese seemed confused. Zhou Yan patiently answered Scorsese's questions one by one, which was also within the scope of his after-sales service.

As for the name, they could make one up on the spot in English, and Zhou Yan could also directly change some of the details back.

Just chatting casually like this, the whole morning passed.

At first, Chris and Zhang Youan were there to accompany them, but when they saw that Zhou Yan was engrossed in the discussion with Scorsese, they stopped accompanying them and went somewhere else.

It was not until lunchtime that Chris and his friends came to call them to eat.

At this time, the two were still chatting and showed no intention of stopping.

Scorsese wanted to continue, he was not in a hurry to eat, but after looking at Zhou Yan, he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go eat first, fill our stomachs, and then continue the discussion."

Seeing Scorsese's expression, Zhou Yan smiled. All the directors he had met could be called workaholics.

Not to mention Zhang Yimou, who is a workaholic among workaholics. Several other directors, including Chen Kaige and Wang Junzheng, are so busy with work that they forget to eat.

……

After lunch, Scorsese was kind enough to give Zhou Yan a fifteen-minute break. When the time was up, he took Zhou Yan to the conference room and continued to discuss the script, as if he was determined not to give up until the issue was sorted out today.

Scorsese's questions were very detailed, and some of them even Zhou Yan couldn't react to immediately. He needed to think for a moment before giving an answer. You know, Zhou Yan had read the original film and the original book, and he had been thinking about it for a long time in order to write this script.

Sometimes, Scorsese's questions can also give Zhou Yan some new ideas.

Zhou Yan originally wanted to take some time to help Maria finish the arrangement of "Someone Like You" before returning to China, but looking at the current situation, it might be difficult. Even the problem with Scorsese may not be solved.

Scorsese also knew that Zhou Yan was about to leave the United States, so he made good use of his time. After the meeting ended that afternoon, the two had dinner together and continued their discussion in the evening.

It was not until after ten o'clock that Scorsese let Zhou Yan leave, and he made an appointment with Zhou Yan to meet again at Warner at 8:30 the next morning.

There was no choice, Zhou Yan could only rush to Warner early the next morning.

The next day, the two of them started discussing at 8:30 in the morning and continued until 11:00 in the evening, a total of fourteen and a half hours. Eating and going to the bathroom took less than an hour, leaving more than thirteen hours for the two of them to discuss.

Zhou Yan had seen too many workaholics, and this was not the first time he was asked to work overtime, so he didn't feel very tired.

At the end of the day, Scorsese said there were still some minor problems, but they didn't have a big impact, and the film had just entered the early preparation stage, so they would have a chance to discuss it later, and even if they couldn't meet, they could solve the problem over the phone.

……

Before Zhou Yan returned to China, he received a call from Maria. On the phone, Maria said resentfully that she was still waiting for Zhou Yang to arrange the song "Someone Like You" for her.

Zhou Yan could only apologize for this and told Maria that he would finish the arrangement as soon as possible after returning to China.

When she was about to hang up the phone, Maria suddenly said, "If you see someone say something, don't take it to heart."

Zhou Yan was confused by this sentence.

"What do you mean, who are you talking about?"

"I didn't mention anyone, I just wanted to remind you to have a safe journey and look forward to seeing you next time."

"Uh...bye."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan was still confused and didn't know what Maria wanted to say.

Are you talking about the scandal about them a few days ago?
But didn’t the heat of this matter quickly die down? And they had just briefly discussed it, and there was no problem.

……

It was not until the third day after Zhou Yan returned to China that he finally understood what Maria meant by what she said that day.

It was a phone call from Zhang Youan that resolved his doubts.

Zhang Youan told Zhou Yan that the scandal between him and Maria had just died down, but suddenly it came up again and advanced to version 2.0.

The one who caused all this was Tommy Mottola, who was divorcing Maria.

Tommy Mottola publicly stated that Maria was the unfaithful one in their marriage, but he did not name anyone, so the media brought up the scandal between Zhou Yan and Maria a few days ago again.

The key point is that when the scandal was going on, Maria went to Zhou Yan's autograph session to support him, which makes people think more.

Tommy Mottola accused Maria of infidelity, while Maria denied his claims and accused him of spying on her and even tapping her phone calls.

The divorce farce between the two was very shameful, and Zhou Yan was the most innocent in the whole thing. There was really nothing going on between him and Maria.

Fortunately, Zhou Yan has returned to China now, and this incident will not have much impact on his life.

After he returned to China, the school was about to close in half a month. It was a busy time, so he had to quickly catch up on the work he had missed.

So during this period of time, he has been wandering around in school and has no time to care about other things. (End of this chapter)