Literary Master 1978

Chapter 214: I have never fought such a rich battle

As June was approaching, Lin Chaoyang was dragged to the outskirts of Changping by Li Hanxiang.

In order to shoot a movie, he wanted to replicate the Old Summer Palace.

The garden had just begun to be built, and it had been more than half a month, but there was not even a prototype.

Li Hanxiang was not going to replicate the entire Old Summer Palace. If he did so according to the complete Old Summer Palace, even if it was a crude method, it would cost an astronomical amount. He was only going to replicate a few partial scenes.

But even so, the cost of this scene was huge.

For the movie "Burning the Old Summer Palace", Yanjing City provided Li Hanxiang with a site of more than 30,000 square meters in the outskirts of Changping.

In the set design of the crew, the set of a large water method alone covered an area of 13,000 square meters, used more than 300 cubic meters of wood, and required nearly 10,000 set structure parts, costing more than 300,000 yuan.

Today, Li Hanxiang's ideal "Yuanmingyuan" is still just a wasteland, but in front of him, there seems to be a huge army. He took Lin Chaoyang to stand in the middle of the open field, holding his waist with one hand, full of vigor and vitality.

In the past, when he was filming in Hong Kong and Taiwan Island, especially in costume dramas, he could only make some fake sets. Now that he has come to the mainland of the motherland, he can get tens of thousands of square meters of shooting sites at once, which makes Li Hanxiang feel that all the previous dramas were filmed in vain.

In my life, Lao Li has never fought such a rich war!

Lin Chaoyang listened quietly to Li Hanxiang's explanation of the filming concept, and he could understand Comrade Lao Li's feelings very well.

Make a movie and build a city. Few directors can resist such temptation. Just look at his cheap nephew, who can be called a city-building maniac.

Li Hanxiang wants to make a movie in China, and the government departments will provide all-round support. The Yanjing Municipal Government provides the venue, and the co-production company, Yanying Studio, and Qingying Studio are responsible for providing human and technical support.

According to Li Hanxiang's idea, there should be large areas of lawn around the Dashuifa, so the props staff of Yanying Studio proposed to use spring wheat instead of lawn.

The props staff tried to plant it last month. In just over half a month, the wheat seedlings have grown more than two inches high, and they look no different from lawns.

It would cost at least 30,000 yuan to lay lawns on such an area, but now using spring wheat instead can save most of the cost at once, which is beneficial without spending any money.

"In the future, here, here, and here, all precious trees will be transplanted, spruce, Milan, palm bamboo, cypress... These are all done, so that there will be a bit of royal atmosphere."

When Li Hanxiang said this, he could not hide his smugness on his face, as if the general was showing off his achievements to others.

After taking a walk in the empty "Yuanmingyuan" and looking at the venue, Li Hanxiang pulled Lin Chaoyang into the car and talked to him about casting.

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Empress Dowager" were shot in succession, but in fact, they were one movie. Li Hanxiang had thought of shooting a movie with Empress Dowager Cixi ruling behind the scenes a few years ago.

However, at that time, the box office performance of his two movies "The Fall of the Country" and "The Tears of Yingtai" was not satisfactory, so Shaw Brothers was not optimistic about his shooting plan.

Shaw Brothers put forward a condition at that time. If Li Hanxiang wanted to shoot "The Empress Dowager", he had to shoot another tragicomedy with eunuchs as the theme, because they were both themes of the Qing Dynasty palace, and they could be shot together with "The Empress Dowager", saving some funds.

Li Hanxiang was forced to agree to this request at that time, but he had a disagreement with Shaw Brothers on the selection of actors.

He wanted to use Lin Qingxia to play Empress Dowager Cixi, but Fang Yihua, who was in charge of Shaw Brothers at that time, thought that Lin Qingxia's image was not suitable for this role.

At that time, Lin Qingxia was a popular movie star in Taiwan, but her screen image was more of a pure and innocent girl type, and she was also young. Fang Yihua's idea was actually very reasonable.

But Li Hanxiang insisted on his own opinion, and the two sides finally parted ways unhappily, and the filming plan of "Behind the Curtain" was shelved.

Now, Li Hanxiang went to the mainland to make a movie. After many twists and turns, he picked up this theme again. The first heroine in his mind is still Lin Qingxia.

Listening to Li Hanxiang's choice of heroine, Lin Chaoyang was a little surprised. He didn't expect him to say the name Lin Qingxia. In his impression, Lin Qingxia's image is far from Cixi.

"When Xianfeng died, Cixi was only 27 years old. Lin Qingxia is a movie star in Taiwan and has acted in many movies. I think she has a heavy and majestic aura, and she is quite suitable to play Cixi."

Li Hanxiang may be afraid that Lin Chaoyang doesn't know what Lin Qingxia looks like, so he specially handed him a photo.

The Lin Qingxia in the photo has charming eyebrows and bright and majestic, but her temperament is still a little weak.

Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but think of her temperament when she played "The East is Red". In fact, she is quite malleable, and it's not impossible for her to play Cixi, but he thinks Liu Xiaoqing's version of Cixi is also good.

"For this kind of thing, you, as a director, just make the decision." Lin Chaoyang said.

Seeing him say this, Li Hanxiang was very happy. Since he met Lin Chaoyang, his directorial authority has been challenged repeatedly. It seems that today's trip to "Yuanmingyuan" was not in vain. Finally, Lin Chaoyang realized who is the king.

"The Burning of Yuanmingyuan" and "Behind the Curtain" are two films co-produced on an unprecedented scale. Not only are they rare historical blockbusters in the history of mainland movies, but even if Hong Kong and Taiwan are included, they are also top-level specifications.

Of course, the preliminary preparations cannot be completed in one go. Now is just the beginning.

After a few days, Lin Chaoyang finally finished the novel at hand.

Previously, Yan Film Studio invited him to be the script consultant for "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished", but because he disagreed with the ideas of the screenwriter and the crew, Lin Chaoyang did not choose to cooperate with them and left the crew. The inspiration for this novel came from the ideological dispute with the crew at that time.

The novel is nearly 130,000 words. If it is calculated by the length, it is a novella. If you insist on calling it a short novel, it is not impossible.

This morning, he came to deliver the manuscript to the editorial department of "Yanjing Literature". Zhang Dening was overjoyed to receive Lin Chaoyang's new work again after more than two years.

"It's really not easy. The last time I published your "Little Shoes" was two years ago."

"Didn't you also publish "The World's No. 1 Restaurant"? "Lin Chaoyang said.

"Can the influence of a script be compared to that of a novel?" Zhang Dening flipped through the manuscript happily, and looking at the title on the front page, she asked with a gossipy tone: "You wrote this novel because you had a falling out with Yanying Studio, right?"

"Who told you that?"

"What do you mean by who told you that? This matter has been spread for a long time."

"Don't listen to their nonsense, these are all rumors."

"Then do you dare to say that you didn't write this novel because of that incident?"

Zhang Dening's questioning made Lin Chaoyang speechless. Of course, the reason for writing the novel was because of that incident, but he didn't do it to vent his anger.

Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Dening thought that he was guessed by her and was complacent.

"Oh! That sentence is really true. It is better to offend villains than to offend writers.

You writers, when you are in a bad mood, you have to pick up your pen to fight.

When you are your enemy, you will be infamous for a thousand years if you are not careful. It's terrible."

Lin Chaoyang smiled bitterly and said, "Don't talk nonsense. I think the rumor came from you."

"Look at you, you are angry and embarrassed, right? Don't worry, I am the most strict person and never spread gossip. If others ask me, I will never tell it." Zhang Dening promised solemnly.

I don't believe you!

Lin Chaoyang sat in the office and chatted with Zhang Dening for a while and then left. After he left, Zhang Dening opened the manuscript he sent. She was originally reading other works in her hands, but who made her value Lin Chaoyang's work?

Her eyes fell on the manuscript paper, and the words in front of her turned into pictures, like a slowly unfolding movie.

It has been 47 days since the fall of Shanghai. The Battle of Songhu, which shocked China and the world, seems to have become a distant thing.

The streets are filled with the smell of gunpowder, but that is not brought by the war, but by the firecrackers of every household welcoming the New Year.

The sound of gongs and drums, and the firecrackers welcoming the spring, this is the first Spring Festival after the fall of Shanghai.

The temple fair at the City God Temple is still as lively as in previous years, with noisy city sounds and bustling pedestrians. The common people do not seem to be affected by the war.

There is a stall in the corner next to the wall of the City God Temple. This stall does not sell New Year goods, does not perform acrobatics, and does not sing operas. Instead, it displays black and white chess games.

There have always been stalls with chess endgames on the streets, but few people set up Go stalls. Go has been an exclusive entertainment for literati and scholars since ancient times, and few ordinary people understand it.

The owner of the chess game was a thin and gentle young man, wearing a long blue gown that had not been washed for a long time, and was dirty and torn. At this time, he was holding white in one hand and black in the other, but he was playing chess with himself. It seemed that the noisy city noise had no effect on him.

Next to him was a sign that read: "Go game, the winner will get 20 silver dollars."

Silver dollars, which the common people called Yuan Datou and Dayang. Now that Shanghai has fallen, the legal currency is almost like waste paper, but the dollar is still strong.

A third-class patrolman in the Shanghai Police Department only earns 6.5 dollars a month. 20 dollars is equivalent to a patrolman's three-month salary, and can buy more than 600 kilograms of flour, enough for an ordinary family of three for more than half a year.

This bet is not small!

But the young man had been setting up a stall by the wall since early morning, and no one patronized it until noon.

The short man who was selling candied haws next door teased, "You chess madman, don't even think about it. I think you should find a legitimate business to do, so as not to starve yourself to death."

The young man raised his head, glanced at the short man, and ignored him.

"This madman, he doesn't understand human language!" The short man felt that he was ignored. Just as he cursed, he was startled to find that the straw target was shaking. He turned around and saw a ragged beggar holding a string of candied haws in his hand, running away like flying.

"Little bastard! How dare you steal my things!"

The short man cursed angrily and was about to chase him, but he heard a lazy voice saying, "Don't chase, be careful that the straw target will be gone."

The short man was startled and immediately stopped his action. He glanced at the young man and saw that the other party was still concentrating on playing chess. He didn't say anything else.

"Eh? Kondo-kun, look, there are people playing Go here."

The beautiful girl stood in front of the Go stand and held her companion who was about to walk forward.

Kondo Jiro stopped and looked at the Go stand and the young man with a slightly contemptuous look.

"Go is a gentleman's hobby. Setting up a street stall is vulgar. Let's go!"

The girl held him back and pointed to the sign next to him and said, "Look, he's still gambling. This guy is so arrogant!"

Kondo Jiro looked over intently, "Interesting!"

"Will you get twenty silver dollars if you win?" he asked.

The young man looked at Kondo Jiro, "Japanese?"

"What's wrong with the Japanese?" Kondo Jiro asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing. If you win, I'll get 20 dollars. If you lose, give me 2 dollars."

Kondo Jiro looked the young man up and down, "Do you have 20 dollars?"

The young man reached into his pocket and a bag of things fell on the chessboard, making a crisp sound.