New Age Artists

Chapter 633 Fire!
From Shen Santong's own perspective, the plot of "The Lost Tomb" remains the same old story.

Following the logic of commercial films, it only increases the length, speeds up the pace, fills in highlights, and amplifies emotions in the "resolving conflicts" and "climax" stages.

The story structure is very rigid and the content is relatively simple.

The script framework of a commercial blockbuster combines epic adventure with oriental mysticism, which conforms to the narrative logic of commercial films.

The theme is a combination of oriental fantasy epic, hardcore adventure, allegory of national destiny and other elements.

Background story.

In the United States, the hippie movement broke out in the 1960s, and the Vietnam War further corrupted the overall atmosphere.

Some wealthy Puritans saw this situation and believed it was a systemic degeneration and began looking for solutions.

He actually found an ancient legend.

In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance trampled through the Shenwu Gate in the Forbidden City.

Cixi ordered the Eight Banners' birthplace to be found, and the black-blind wizard was summoned to perform a blood sacrifice in the firelight.

"Anyone who steals my Dragon Vein Silver Vault will be cursed - poisonous miasma will corrode your bones, evil will devour your heart, and your national destiny will be ruined!"

The camera follows the drifting talismans through the clouds.

The scene flashed by, and there seemed to be silhouettes of Paris and London, and the Statue of Liberty in New York seemed to be there and not there.

As time goes by, the throne changes hands, and today it is Citi's turn.

Having witnessed the golden age of Citigroup and how it has come to this point today, the old rich man needs a reason.

In 58, Kennedy raised the missile gap and announced to the nation that the United States lagged behind the Soviet Union in intercontinental missiles.

The men, who had just returned from the Korean battlefield in a panic, were hammering the screws until sparks flew.

Where did these people go?
It’s definitely not Citigroup’s fault, it’s someone else’s fault.

After in-depth research, with the help of priests and psychics, it was determined that before her death, Cixi used sorcery to bind the fate of the Qing Dynasty with the powers that plundered silver. Any country that invaded the Qing Dynasty's silver would suffer the "three disasters", with drugs flooding, the country on the verge of collapse, and evildoers rampant.

The curse can only be broken by sacrificing the sacred object of the Ghost Cave Clan, the Zhuchen Pearl, to the dragon vein.

Coincidentally, the two sides resumed their exchanges during the reform and opening up period. With the support of the wealthy, they sent a team of mercenaries to Dongda in the name of investment, and went to the ancient city of Jingjue to obtain the sacred object of the Guidong clan, the Zhuchen Pearl.

This is the treasure-hunting faction.

Also in the United States, in a school.

Chinese-American archaeologist Shirley Yang also learned that the University of Tokyo was open, and organized an expedition team to the XJ Desert to explore the ancient city of Jingjue on the pretext of looking for her missing father.

This line basically follows the original work. Like the original work, she also invited Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi to join.

Shirley Yang belongs to the camp between treasure grabbing and treasure stealing.

Tokyo University.

Shirley Yang was not the only one who invited Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi. When the team sent by the rich man entered Dongda, the relevant departments discovered something unusual.

A poor family brings sorrow to everything.

At the beginning of reform and opening up, material resources were scarce, and we attached great importance to foreign businessmen and needed foreign exchange.

We clearly knew that this group of people were not normal. They seemed to be an international mercenary group, and there were also international cultural relics smugglers among them.

But there are indeed investors and investment projects accompanying them, so they cannot be expelled directly.

However, material poverty does not mean spiritual poverty, and the relevant departments have formulated ways to deal with it.

Handle it properly in accordance with the principle of "neither humble nor arrogant, polite and restrained".

Guests are welcome, but if they have bad intentions, we have enough confidence and strength to do a good job of guarding them.

Objectively show the spiritual outlook of that era.

Everyone is eager for development, but not everyone will fall for the world of glamour and pleasure; most people just want to get by.

Since there are cultural relics smugglers who keep trying to go to XJ, the relevant departments have made preparations for both scenarios.

One is the worst-case scenario, that this group of people is trying to contact certain forces.

There are other possibilities as well, it is indeed for the purpose of stealing cultural relics.

Every possibility has been arranged.

If it is tomb robbery, military force cannot be used directly. For the sake of international image, government forces must also intervene cautiously and protect national treasures through semi-official organizations.

At this time, Hu Bayi, who had military experience and had the feng shui knowledge of his ancestors' "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique", came into the sight of relevant departments.

Hu Bayi joined the army during the border conflict in 1969. He participated in combat readiness construction in the Kunlun Mountain Engineering Corps and later took part in the 79 self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.

He suffered psychological trauma due to the sacrifice of his comrades on the battlefield. He was demobilized and returned to BJ in 81. His life was difficult. He reunited with his childhood friend Wang Pangzi, whose original name was Wang Kaixuan, and began his career as a tomb robber.

In order to understand Hu Bayi's situation, they called in Hu Bayi's old squad leader, who returned to his hometown to drive a tractor after demobilization.

The old squad leader: "Tomb robbing?"

The relevant department personnel explained: "It's just tomb robbing."

The old squad leader immediately got angry: "Ridiculous!"

The relevant departments advised: "The veterans are not well taken care of because we have not done our job well."

Afterwards, the relevant departments and the old squad leader went to find Hu Bayi and asked for his opinion.

This matter involves foreign affairs, and it happened at the beginning of the reform and opening up, so it needs to be done carefully and seriously, and it cannot be done without willingness.

I would like to hear Hu Bayi’s thoughts and whether he has any conditions.

After Hu Bayi learned about the situation, he immediately agreed and also told him about Shirley Yang's commission.

At the same time, Hu Bayi fights for Shirley Yang's remuneration, which should normally belong to him.

The relevant departments agreed, but the foreign exchange had to be converted into RMB.

At the same time, out of practicality, he also promised to recover any cultural relics he might obtain.

The main storyline has changed from tomb robbing in the original novel to protecting cultural relics and treasures.

Three forces.

Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi, who are guarding the treasure;

The Citibank mercenaries on the treasure-hunting side;
Shirley Yang, who hopes to obtain the Zhuchen Pearl through cooperation, is between the two.

The three forces go deep into the Taklamakan Desert, and the thrilling journey to find the ancient city of Jingjue begins.

The above is the background of Shen Santong’s version of “The Mysterious City”.

The main feature of the movie opens straight to the point.

The mercenary group went from Shenzhen to the border, and their purpose of stealing treasures was revealed through dialogue.

Hu Bayi took on a secret mission and joined Shirley Yang's archaeological team from Panjiayuan in Beijing to the border area.

The conversation indicated that they were going to rob a tomb, but Hu Bayi and Wang Fatty seemed to have other purposes.

Shen Santong uses a limited perspective to maintain suspense throughout, without giving out all the information at once.

A tomb-robbing gang under the banner of tourism, a tomb-robbing gang under the banner of archaeology, and the national power hidden in the dark. The two sides had exchanges before the expedition.

The relevant Chinese personnel informed the mercenary team that their intentions had been discovered and hoped that they would give up.

Tell the other party that this trip is very dangerous and there will be unexpected horrors.

However, the mercenary team was the most stubborn and kept emphasizing that they were there for tourism. They also accused the University of Tokyo of being unwilling to open up.

Good words can't persuade a damn ghost.

Hu Bayi also reminded Shirley Yang that there were many dangers, and Shirley Yang had her reasons for going in order to resolve the curse.

In order to make the plot more reasonable, the movie version of Hu Bayi is not just robbing tombs to make a fortune. He goes there even though he knows it is dangerous. There must be a reason.

Of course, there are also jokes about cultural collisions mixed in.

Hu Bayi and the relevant departments compared the information they had obtained and complained that foreigners were not afraid of death.

The archaeological team and the mercenary team set out on their journey, each with their own thoughts.

The desert is the best barrier, and exploring ancient tombs in the desert is extremely difficult.

What's more, it is located in the heart of the most dangerous Black Desert.

Even the leader of the mountain-moving gang, Partridge Whistle, and the leader of the hill-removing bandits, Blind Chen, were intimidated by the Black Desert, as their methods of moving mountains and removing hills could not be applied here.

During their first exploration of the Kunlun Glacier, the expedition team encountered a prehistoric creature called the "fire beetle", which would spontaneously combust if it touched a human body.

The first appearance of the Red Hound created a huge visual impact. An armored creature leaped out from the bursting ice, its hair condensed like an ancient ferocious beast. A nine-story demon tower and the tombs of the demon country's nobles were also discovered.

Uyghur guide Anliman leads the team through the black desert.

The movie uses a dynamic sand sea to present the scene of army ants devouring sand. The sand dunes surge like waves, the ant colonies form the faces of the gods of death, and the camel caravan turns into skeletons in an instant.

Magnetic Mountain is the nemesis of all modern technology. No matter how advanced the electronic equipment is, it will be useless. We can only rely on experience and intuition to grope forward.

After entering the Black Desert, the mercenary team began to lose members and became less tough.

But because of the high salaries offered by their employers and the temptation of treasure, this group of people were unwilling to leave.

There is no chance of success once you enter the Jingjue Underground Palace.

The Ghost Cave Clan used the "imaginary space" to set a curse. The underground water veins contained hallucinogenic alkali, forming a poisonous spring illusion. An extremely poisonous black-eyed monster snake suddenly attacked and killed people.

In the underground palace, one discovers the bottomless abyss of the ghost cave, the coffin of the Queen of Jingjue, and the prophet's stone box engraved with prophecies.

The Queen of Jingjue even guarded the tomb with the "corpse-scented konjac", a magical flower that can cause hallucinations and make anyone who gets close to it kill each other.

After seven of the twelve mercenaries died, they became completely honest. This was not muddy water they could wade into.

In the end, the two sides cooperated to escape from the ancient city.

Survivors on both sides.

There were ten people in the archaeological team including the guide, and two of them died. Professor Hao had hallucinations and was bitten to death by a poisonous snake when he went to get water. The military personnel who were also in the team sacrificed themselves to save people.

All the students survived, but eight American mercenaries died and only four survived.

The end of the movie.

Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi used the compensation they received from Shirley Yang and the national award to open a "small shop" in BJ selling antiques.

some day.

Mysterious red spots appeared on the backs of Hu Bayi, Wang Fatty, and Shirley Yang, suggesting that the curse has not been resolved.

After the mission failed, the rich man of the United States was not depressed but happy instead.

Strengthened his own ideas and the existence of the curse.

This sets the stage for the subsequent "Longling Mystery Cave".

Shirley Yang's true purpose comes to light - she has known about the curse for a long time, and is looking for a way to lift it in the name of finding her father.

She is a descendant of the Zagrama tribe, hostile to the Guidong tribe, and is burdened with the "Red Spot Curse". She is looking for the Zhuchen Pearl to lift the curse.

10 month 16 day.

Shen Santong attended a symposium jointly organized by the cultural and publicity departments.

Before coming, he asked if he could talk, and if he couldn't, he wouldn't come.

Shen Santong said: "I have a guess about the global success of The Mystical City, which may not be correct."

"It's not just the domestic audiences that are hungry, the overseas audiences are also hungry."

"Let me start with the domestic audience. We have worked hard over the years and have built the world's largest industrial scale. We have built fifth-generation aircraft and launched aircraft carriers. We study and work hard all day long."

"I'm so busy that when I finally get home to rest, I can't find any spiritual products that suit my taste."

"The entertainment industry is full of shitty things every day, either promiscuity, drug use, all kinds of disgusting things, confused thinking, or just making alarmist statements."

"Literary works are still about adultery, widows' doors, and the rural world. They are still the most disgusting ones."

The leader presiding over the meeting: “Ahem.”

As Shen Santong packed his things, he asked, "Do you want me to talk? If not, I won't talk anymore?"

Invincible.

Completely invincible.

"The Lost Tomb" has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it into the top 50 global box office, but it's not at the bottom.

With the intention of retiring completely, Shen Santong is not afraid of any threats.

At worst, we can live as long as heaven and earth.

"Let me, let me."

Shen Santong continued, "Where are we talking about? I won't talk about the domestic situation. I'll just give you a number. This year, there are more than six million undergraduate and junior college graduates from general higher education."

"Let's talk about foreign countries. They are also starving. Hollywood is a tool of the bourgeoisie, but no one points it out, and no one provides better products."

“The structure of The Mystical City is a Hollywood structure, but the core is not. There is confrontation, but it is not overly tense. The mercenaries and the archaeological team are of the same class.”

“When a certain fantasy is shattered, there is recognition and cooperation.”

"Hollywood's creative work is gradually drying up. The computer technology used in The Mystical Forbidden City is far from Hollywood's first-rate level, which is the level of ten years ago. However, Hollywood does not have the ability to make real-life props like it did twenty years ago. Their films look fake."

"I think that culture must first serve its own people and have basic backbone and dignity."

"You rely on slapping yourself in the face to gain sympathy and act like a clown. Even if you win the Nobel Prize in Literature, it can't change the fact that you are a clown."

The whole place was silent!

Dead!

A few days ago, on October 10, the Swedish Academy announced that the 11th Nobel Prize in Literature would be awarded to Chinese writer Mo Yan.

He also became the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Shen Santong doesn't even bother to act, just fire away!
(End of this chapter)