1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 617 Horrifying
In Japan, mystery novels mainly fall into two categories: the orthodox school and the social school.

The orthodox school mainly focuses on revealing secrets, that is, the internal logical reasoning in the novel is very rigorous.

The social school of thought primarily focuses on depicting the psychology of criminals and their social environment.

Clearly, Keigo Higashino should be categorized as a social commentator.

As a mystery novelist, Keigo Higashino's works vary greatly in quality, with both highs and lows.

Therefore, among the social realism writers in Japan, Keigo Higashino is not considered the top.

There's the towering figure of Seicho Matsumoto ahead of us, and the "Seicho curse" has influenced the Japanese mystery fiction world for decades.

Keigo Higashino clearly couldn't do that.

As for tricks, Keigo Higashino's most outstanding technique is the one in "The Devotion of Suspect X," which is actually a variation of Shakespeare's "The ABC Murders."

This technique looks impressive at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it has many flaws.

The novel's popularity stems from the author's characterization of Ishigami, rather than from mere plot twists.

Moreover, during the same period, Shimada Soji's "Astrology" and Ayatsuji Yukito's "The Clock Tower" were more brilliant in terms of plot twists.

Therefore, Keigo Higashino is definitely not among the top-tier mystery novelists in Japan.

The more books by Keigo Higashino you read, the more you'll find that he just keeps repeating the same few themes, which leads to an increasing amount of padding in his works.
However, this top-tier mystery novelist must have a very high level of taste; not being ranked above Keigo Higashino doesn't mean he's bad.

Even Shimada Soji, who is often hailed by fans as the god of deduction, may not be considered a top-tier figure.

The absolute king of mystery novelists are figures like Edogawa Ranpo and Matsumoto Seicho, who were instrumental in advancing the genre.

But then again, having one or two masterpieces that have been passed down through generations is already a great success for a mystery writer.

Not everyone has the strength of the Golden Three.

While Keigo Higashino may not be considered a master, he is certainly an excellent bestselling novelist.

The reason he is a bestselling novelist rather than a mystery novelist is that many of his works are not considered mystery novels.

"Miracles of the Namiya General Store" is one of the most famous of them.

This novel became a phenomenon, selling over 1000 million copies worldwide in multiple languages.

Later statistics showed that among overseas suspense novelists, only two had Chinese sales exceeding ten million.

The first is Agatha Christie. Based on the fact that her works have been continuously flowing into China since the 70s, although the data shows millions in later generations, the actual sales of her works in Chinese must have exceeded ten million. This is a consensus that no one disagrees with.

Another one is Keigo Higashino. His novel "Miracles of the Namiya General Store" alone has sold over ten million copies. This number is printed on the book's cover, which shows how famous "Miracles of the Namiya General Store" is.

Jiang Xian successfully completed the novel at the end of last year, and began writing it at that time, which has continued until now.

One reason it took so long was that he had a lot of things to do, including intervening in so many film and television productions, which slowed down his writing progress.

Another reason is that it's difficult to write.

"The Miracles of the Namiya General Store" is not a novel written in China, nor is it a novel written in this era.

This is a novel by Keigo Higashino that began serialization in 2011 and was not published as a standalone book until 2012.

The era depicted in the work is also the period in which the work was published.

With such a huge difference in the times, how can this story be written?

Having chosen to synthesize this novel, Jiang Xian naturally had his own plans and had also devised how to modify it.

First, the rewriting is feasible because although "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store" is set in the 21st century when the work was published, the story it tells is a story that transcends time.

A letter was sent more than thirty years ago, and more than thirty years later, someone can reply to it in this general store.

And going back more than thirty years from that period is exactly the present time when Jiang Xian is living.
From this perspective, this novel is also of extraordinary significance to Jiang Xian.

From the perspective of time travel, thirty years from now will be the era in which he originally lived.

For him, this kind of dialogue existing in the novel was definitely a rather wonderful feeling.

Taking some time out, Jiang Xian went to Northeast China again, visiting the film set of "Black Sun".

The Northeast is still covered in ice and snow.

Mu Dunfei, wrapped up like a ball, shivered while passionately pointing out the country to a group of "Japanese devils."

"This scene! It has to portray a state of frenzy!"

Jiang Xian covered his nose as he watched Mu Dunfei give instructions to the veteran actor Liu Tianfu.

Why are you covering your nose?

The set was filled with the smell of formaldehyde!

Well, Mu Dunfei's feat has truly shaken the entire film industry.

I heard that when the goods were being transported, the strong smell of preservatives almost made the driver faint as soon as they were loaded onto the van.

Upon arriving at the film set, a female production assistant vomited on the spot, and the lighting technician's hand trembled as he silently lit a cigarette.

What did Mu Dunfei say?

"This is the effect we want!"

"We want the audience to be able to smell the blood even through the screen!"

"Do you think he's gone mad?" A colleague from Changchun Film Studio told Jiang Xian while complaining about the Hong Kong director.

"What's this?"

Jiang Xian remained calm. "The real scenes are a hundred times more brutal than in the movies. If we can't even face the camera, how can we face our fallen compatriots?"

"."

The comrades from Changchun Film Studio were speechless.

Jiang Xian's words made so much sense that he was momentarily speechless.

As they were talking, the play began.

The content of this scene is quite horrifying.

Veteran actor Liu Tianfu was required to play a cinerary worker, drinking and chopping wood in the cinerary.

Mu Dunfei's design required Liu Tianfu to actually swing an axe at a real ST while simultaneously acting out a state of madness.

He demanded that the actual cutting be performed.

The term "real chop" has two meanings. It means that Liu Tianfu needs to chop for real, and what he chops must be real, because fake props cannot replicate the feeling of bones breaking.

Liu Tianfu is a professional actor at the Harbin Drama Theatre. He is truly dedicated. Although he was extremely reluctant, he still did his job conscientiously. No matter how uncomfortable he felt, as an actor, the play is of utmost importance. Therefore, before filming began, he drank half a bottle of baijiu in front of everyone.

As soon as Mu Dunfei shouted "Action!", the set fell silent. Liu Tianfu swung his axe, striking again and again, sending bone fragments flying everywhere.

"Ouch!"

"Fuck!"

"yue!"

Many staff members on site felt extremely uncomfortable and turned their backs one by one.

Jiang Xian also felt somewhat uncomfortable.

After all, the scene was truly inhuman and terrifying. With each chop Liu Tianfu made, he could feel his own heart pounding in his ears.

The filming of this scene took a whole day.

By the time they finished work, Liu Tianfu's costume was soaked with formaldehyde and sweat, and his hands were twitching violently from holding the axe for so long.

That very night, a young makeup artist from the film crew resigned, leaving a note saying, "I'll go crazy if I keep having nightmares."

Mu Dunfei handed the note to Jiang Xian with a look of disdain. "They were like this back then. Now, in order to recreate the scene from back then, they can't even take a few hits?"

Jiang Xian didn't know what to say about this. He was relatively objective and could understand why people couldn't accept it, since the filming process was truly horrifying.

"Was the filming all going smoothly?"

Yesterday, Mu Dunfei was busy filming the scene with Liu Tianfu. This scene had been in preparation for a long time, so he didn't have much time to talk to Jiang Xian. It wasn't until now that the two of them had a chance to sit down and chat.

"smoothly."

Mu Dunfei was very happy. "This is all thanks to the script you wrote for me. It is exactly what I wanted. You wrote it in such detail, and you considered every detail. This way, I can basically just follow the script for each scene without having to think about anything else. The filming went very smoothly."

"Hmm, what about other aspects? Have you encountered any resistance?"

"Other aspects?"

Mu Dunfei realized what Jiang Xian meant, after all, the filming of this movie was full of controversy, he shook his head, "No, not at all."

After saying that, he added in a very firm tone: "Anyone who tries to stop me from making this movie is a traitor!"

As the screenwriter, Jiang Xian also spent some time on set, witnessing the process of Mu Dunfei making this film, and thus seeing more of Mu Dunfei's infamous "outrageous" scenes.

One is Jiepou. In the movie, there is a mute boy who is a friend of the gifted youth class. He is later tricked into coming here and used as material for Jiepou.

How should this scene be filmed?

Mu Dunfei found a teenager's body and, after obtaining the family's consent, invited a real doctor to perform an autopsy in front of the camera. Only core team members were allowed to enter the scene, while the photographer recorded through an observation window.
Another scene is the "frostbite experiment," in which Mu Dunfei directly kisses his niece Minjiang as they enter the scene.

She was also a costume designer on set. In this scene, she had her arms exposed outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, and was repeatedly doused with ice water until her skin froze.

During breaks in filming, the staff frantically rubbed her arms with snow to promote blood circulation. Minjiang cried until she was almost exhausted, saying that she couldn't take it anymore and didn't want to film anymore. Mu Dunfei also shed tears and kept encouraging her from the side: "Child, hang in there! Hang in there!"

This is still considered good.

The plague experiment was the most outrageous. Mu Dunfei demanded the use of 10,000 live rats. Therefore, the crew went to the countryside to collect rats at a price of 80 cents each.

Because it was cold and the mice weren't very active, the crew gathered around the stove to keep warm, but the mice were too lazy to move.

In order to capture the scene of "ten thousand rats running rampant" described by Jiang Xian, Mu Dunfei ordered the laying of an electric fence, gradually increasing the voltage, and using electric shocks to make the rats run wildly, ultimately creating the shot of "a rat swarm running rampant".

However, there is a problem with this play: the rats are tearing each other apart due to hunger, and hundreds of them die every day.

Finally, local farmers suggested feeding the rats some corn stalks to alleviate their fighting.

After the filming of this scene was completed, all the rats were burned to prevent the spread of the plague.

Jiang Xian witnessed this scene firsthand. Black smoke billowed into the sky, and the air was filled with the stench of burning. Several crew members broke down and cried on the spot.

In short, after filming so many horrific scenes, Mu Dunfei became the universally acknowledged madman of the entire crew.

Of course, he's outwardly a madman.

There was also someone secretly considered a madman.

That's Jiang Xian.

After all, he is the "culprit" who created these "famous scenes".

After returning to Beijing, Jiang Xian met with Fu Qi again, and they mainly talked about the release of "The Last Emperor" in Hong Kong.

By the way, Silver City opened another cinema in Hong Kong this year called Cineart House.

This theater specializes in showing non-mainstream art films. What makes it unique is that one hall is dedicated to showing mainland Chinese films, while the other hall shows Japanese and European art films.

Recently, they have been planning to get Jiang Xian's "Hibiscus Town" to be broadcast in cinemas.

Jiang Xian didn't find the name "Yingyi" too unfamiliar. Everyone knew that Yingyi was a major cinema chain owned by Yindu, and it was also very famous in later generations.

What is a movie theater chain?
Simply put, it's a cinema alliance led by the same region or the same capital and distributor, which then connects with film distributors to get real-time feedback on audience ticket purchase intentions. This greatly reduces the workload of distributors and also helps cinemas gain greater bargaining power.

In later years, after a century of market competition, there were about sixty cinemas in Hong Kong. Among them, one of the seven major cinema chains was Cinematheque, owned by Sil-Metropole Organisation, one of the four major film distribution companies in Hong Kong.

However, compared to MCL and Broadway, Cinema has relatively few theaters.

"I heard that a new cinema chain opened in Hong Kong this year?" Jiang Xian asked casually as they chatted.

“Yes, it’s called Xinbao Cinema Line,” Fu Qi nodded and introduced.

In the early 80s, there were three main cinema chains in Hong Kong: Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and Golden Princess.

In the mid-80s, after Shaw Brothers withdrew from the scene, D&B Films took over, and the three major players, Golden Harvest, Golden Princess, and D&B Films, emerged.

During this period, the film industry developed rapidly, with box office revenue repeatedly breaking records. Moreover, it was a huge success in Southeast Asia and even in some provinces, outperforming their local films.

These three Hong Kong cinema chains, Golden Harvest, Golden Princess, and D&B, essentially monopolize the entire industry.

They produce and sell their own products, and they have their own offices in the province, making it difficult for others to get a share of the profits.

At this time, some small independent production companies began to produce films by accepting external funding.

However, due to the company's limited resources, the films it produced were all small-scale productions with little box office appeal outside of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, they also couldn't secure good release dates because they needed to be screened in the three major cinema chains. As a result, these foreign-invested Hong Kong films have always been lukewarm at best.

It wasn't until last year that Chen Rongmei, one of the three owners of Golden Princess Cinemas, noticed the foreign investment.

What a waste of such pure silver!
So he pulled in another boss, Feng Bingzhong, and together they established another cinema chain outside of Golden Princess, which is the Xinbao Cinema Chain.
(End of this chapter)