Middle age: leisurely life in the entertainment industry

The next day, Yu Dongqing's family of three started traveling in Los Angeles.

As the largest city in the western United States, it is known as the "City of Angels" and has many fun places, such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Beach, and Disneyland.

The family of three played happily.

At night, Yu Dongqing took a shower and went to bed, but Mei Mei gently hugged Yu Dongqing's neck.

"Husband, I want it." Meiliang's voice was gentle and charming,

"Tongtong is right next door." Yu Dongqing whispered.

"Let's keep our voices down."

Just when Yu Dongqing and the beautiful spring breeze were having a moment, a bar in Chinatown not far from the hotel was filled with people.

It turns out that the crew of "The Road Warrior" was finishing filming, and director Smith specially invited everyone to come here to play, and of course Li Yunjie was also there.

In fact, Li Yunjie didn't like this atmosphere very much, with half-naked dancers and the smell of marijuana in the air, but he had just arrived in the United States and needed to adapt to this kind of life.

While others sang and danced wildly, he sat alone on a high stool and drank beer silently.

"Jack, why don't you go dancing?" Someone greeted him in English. Li Yunjie looked back and saw a bearded man holding a bottle of beer. It was director Smith.

"Director Smith, I'm not very good at it." Li Yunjie replied in not too standard English.

"As an Oriental, you are so humble. It's completely different from how you behave in the play." Smith sat down on the high stool next to him, took a sip of beer and said to Li Yunjie.

"Jack, don't be discouraged. You can definitely make a career in Hollywood with your boxing skills. I'm very optimistic about you."

"Thank you, thank you." Li Yunjie said.

Smith left a good impression on him. He spoke cheerfully, unlike some people who showed condescension and arrogance in front of Asian actors. He was also quite considerate among the crew.

Because I admired Li Yun's kung fu, I temporarily added several sets of shots for him in the film, but even Smith didn't know whether they would be edited out in the future.

The filmmaking model in Hollywood is different from that in China. Most of the domestic production systems are now director-centered, but Hollywood implements a producer-centered system.

The director's power is relatively small, but the producer's power is very great. The choice of subject matter, the determination of the camera crew, as well as the choice of shooting angles and editing are all made by the producer!

However, Li Yunjie was very grateful.

"Director Smith, I congratulate you on this movie's box office success!" Li Yunjie also raised his beer glass, and the two of them clinked.

"Thank you, Jack. To tell you the truth, I'm still worried." Smith sighed.

"What are you worried about?" Li Yunjie asked curiously.

"Hey soundtrack!"

It turned out that Smith and producer William had a dispute over the theme song of the movie. William read the famous rock song "Tomorrow Morning" written by the famous Chinese musician Paul and planned to make it the theme song of the movie, but Smith disagreed. .

It’s not that the song is bad, but it has been used as the theme song or soundtrack for several movies, and Smith wanted to use a new song.

But after asking people to write several songs, Smith was not satisfied.

After hearing this, Li Yunjie's heart moved and he said: "Mr. Smith, my friend, Mr. Yu Dongqing, our country's famous musician, is traveling in Los Angeles right now. Why don't you ask him to write a theme song?"

"Yu Dongqing?"

"He is not only a famous musician in our country, but also a director. The movie "The Swordsman" has a box office of 6 billion yuan."

"'Swordsman'? (English name of the movie Swordsman) I've seen it, you are the protagonist in it, your kung fu is very good!"

"Mr. Yu's guidance is still good." Li Yunjie said modestly, and then said that the dubbing and theme songs in the movie were all written by Yu Dongqing, which made Smith immediately interested.

"Did Mr. Yu Dongqing also write an English song called "Scarborough Fair" and an Italian song "Beautiful Girl"?"

"Yes, but these two songs are not very popular in our country."

"But it's very popular in America! Especially the song 'Scarborough Fair' is so beautiful!" Smith exclaimed.

"Dear Jack, please contact him immediately!"

It's too late?

Liu Yunjie looked at his watch and it was already half past eleven. He had probably rested long ago.

"It's too late now to disturb him. I'll call him tomorrow morning."

"OK!"

At eight o'clock the next morning, Yu Dongqing's family got up and washed up. Yu Dongqing was shaving in front of the mirror in the bathroom when the cell phone suddenly rang on the coffee table in the living room.

"Husband, it's Li Yunjie calling." said Meiliang in the living room.

Did he call?

"Take it for me."

"OK."

Yu Dongqing continued shaving in front of the mirror, and then heard Meili talking to Li Yunjie on the phone for a while, and after he finished shaving and washing his face, he came to the living room.

Meili said to him: "Husband, Li Yunjie asked you to help write a theme song for this movie he shot on the phone."

Mingliang told Yu Dongqing in detail what was on the phone.

This is it.

According to the plan, we have one more day of fun today and have to fly back to China tomorrow night. It’s really troublesome to pick up another job.

"Husband, Smith is a relatively well-known director in the United States. He likes to use Asian actors, especially Chinese actors." Meiliang said, "I have seen his films, and they are pretty good.

Yeah?

"Dad, didn't you hum an English song while driving the other day? I thought the melody was very good. Didn't Uncle Li say that he was filming a road movie? I thought it was very suitable." At this time, Yu Tongtong next to me said .

"California hotel"?

That's okay.

"Okay, contact Li Yunjie and I'll meet Director Smith."

At a cafe called Urth Caffe in Los Angeles, Yu Dongqing, Mingliang, and Yu Tongtong met Smith.

This cafe is quite high-end, and there is a small band singing American country folk songs.

Li Yunjie is accompanied by his agent Wang Dongming. There is also a white man wearing glasses, who is the producer of this film, William. He is gentle, but his eyes inadvertently reveal a hint of arrogance.

He was dragged over by Smith, and of course he also wanted to meet this musician from China.

After everyone sat down and introduced each other, Smith couldn't wait to briefly tell the story of the movie he was filming, and asked Yu Dongqing to write a theme song for the movie.

"Mr. Yu, write a rock-style song related to travel that fits the style of this movie." Smith requested.

Yu Dongqing nodded and was about to speak when he suddenly heard William speak, with a polite but arrogant tone: "Mr. Yu, may I ask you, have you ever written a rock song?"

Damn it!

What does this mean?

Yu Dongqing hasn't spoken yet, but Mingliang is unhappy and her tone is a little cold.

"Mr. William, my husband has unparalleled talent in music. I can proudly say that there is no type of song that he cannot write."

Oops

Daughter-in-law, don’t say that. People will laugh at you for being arrogant.

Sure enough, William chuckled: "Dear Ms. Ming, I know you are proud of your husband, but unfortunately, there is no such all-rounder in the world."

"As far as I know, Mr. Yu is good at folk songs and pop songs, and he also has a lot of research on your Chinese pentatonic scale. As for rock and roll."

When William said this, he picked up the coffee cup and took a sip without saying any more.

"Uncle, you are wrong, my father can write rock songs!" Yu Tongtong suddenly spoke, also speaking English.

"Oh, this beautiful girl, what rock songs has your father written?" William asked with a smile.

Yu Tongtong hummed and started singing.

On a dark desert highway cool wind in my hair

Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light

It was the song "Hotel California" that Yu Dongqing sang on the road!

Thanks to book friend 160330211855609, book friend 20220111112106729, and Atang for their monthly votes.