Exciting 1979!

Chapter 199 returns with honors, and the animated film has great potential (guaranteed two-in-one)

Why not just stay overnight? I’ve already bought toiletries like toothbrushes and towels.

So after making Wei Ming lie down, Zhu Lin started to feed him from below.

But she still has something on her mind. What will be the ending of "Ancient and Modern Battle of Qin Terracotta Warriors"?
That thick stack of manuscripts turned out to be unfinished. The part of the second life that he had read was about to end tragically, and it seemed that it was just missing an ending.

She glanced at the master bedroom and really wanted to grab this guy and let him write the ending.

Why are you sleeping? Have the readers slept?

Then Wei Ming woke up, and immediately went over to Zhu Lin when he saw him slurping noodles.

"Give me a couple of bites too, to sober me up."

"I've never heard of eating noodles to sober you up. I see you're just hungry." However, Zhu Lin still lovingly handed Wei Ming a pair of chopsticks and a bowl.

Wei Ming didn't use a bowl, but picked up two chopsticks directly from Zhu Lin's bowl.

"I'll just try it."

Zhu Lin snorted and asked, "Which Hong Kong filmmaker did you have dinner with today?"

"Xia Meng, you know it."

Zhu Lin shook his head. It was not surprising. Zhu Lin was still a child when she was active. Besides, she retired from the film industry in 66 and had not filmed a movie for more than ten years.

Wei Ming introduced Xia Meng's achievements and gave some information about the Three Princesses of the Great Wall. Speaking of Chen Sisi and Zhu Lin, you will know that her "Three Smiles" was very popular in mainland China in the 60s. Zhu Lin watched it more than once when he was a child.

"Chen Sisi is so beautiful, but she is only the third princess. The eldest princess must be even more beautiful!"

"They seem to be arranged by age," Wei Ming said with a smile, "I have a photo with her here, wait a minute and I'll look for it."

Wei Ming took out the group photo taken at last year's National People's Congress and showed it to Zhu Lin. Xia Meng was already 46 years old at that time.

However, the first thing Zhu Lin saw was the grandma in the middle.

"You're amazing. You even got a photo like this!" That's Grandma Deng!

Wei Ming said modestly: "It's all the elders caring for the younger generation."

In fact, he is just thick-skinned, and people don't care because he is a child. This photo has helped Wei Ming a lot, and he will have to frame it later.

Zhu Lin then focused on Xia Meng, who was indeed very beautiful. "It's rare for her to be so beautiful and elegant at her age."

Wei Ming: "You will definitely be fine at this age. I will ask my friends in Hong Kong to bring you some skin care products later."

"No need, I only used a little last time." Zhu Lin thought of the little pen pal with impure intentions again.

After dinner, although it was late, Zhu Lin couldn't sleep. She asked Wei Ming: "Have you finished writing the story of the ancient and modern battles and the love of Qin Terracotta Warriors?"

"I've finished writing it. I just finished the finale today."

Zhu Lin asked hurriedly: "Where is it? Where is it? Let me see!"

"I'm at school," Wei Ming said. He finished the last 2,000 words during work hours and then went to the Yanjing Hotel for dinner. "If you want to hear it, I'll tell you."

So the two of them snuggled up on the sofa and started a late-night story. Feeling a little cool at night, Wei Ming took another blanket and covered them with it.

Zhu Lin felt weird, as if the two of them were sleeping under the same quilt, but the ending captured all her attention.

Wei Ming first asked her what she had seen, and then continued from there. When Zhu Lin heard that Lily died in Meng Tianfang's arms, tears immediately flowed down.

Wei Mingze took the opportunity to put his arm around her shoulders and patted her gently, and Zhu Lin did not resist. She needed some warmth at this time, so the two of them got closer and closer under the blanket, almost sticking together.

Wei Ming then talked about the third generation, several decades later in the 80s, when a Hong Kong tour group came to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses site.

At this time, Meng Tianfang had transformed into a cultural relic worker, and in the Hong Kong tour group he saw a girl who looked exactly like Dong'er and Lily.

The two looked at each other for a lifetime, and the story ended there.

I thought Zhu Lin would be happy about this happy ending, but she was actually concerned about why Dong Er's reincarnation became a Hong Kong girl.

Said: Is it because of that Amin!
Under the blanket, Wei Ming hugged Zhu Lin and explained earnestly: "Because I want to publish this novel in Hong Kong, it must have some Hong Kong elements."

In the original version, this was a Japanese tour group. Dong'er's reincarnation was also a Japanese girl. The actor who played the Japanese tour guide was the same actor as Xu Fu, which hid a hidden easter egg that Xu Fu might have taken the elixir of immortality and lived in Japan.

However, Wei Ming changed it to Hong Kong for the sake of the market, and the previous plot was not completely based on the movie version, with some of his own innovations.

Zhu Lin thought this explanation made sense. She yawned and prepared to go to sleep. It was already past 11 o'clock and she had to go to work tomorrow.

Wei Ming suggested: "You are so sleepy, let me carry you to sleep."

"Ah?" Zhu Lin opened her eyes suddenly. Before she could react, her whole body had already flown into the air.

Wei Ming felt it and thought it was about 100 pounds, which was moderate considering Sister Lin's height.

It was the first time for Zhu Lin to feel this kind of "princess hug". Wei Ming held her legs with one hand and put the other hand under her armpit, just a few inches away from her chest. I wonder if he could feel her suddenly accelerated heartbeat.

Fortunately, Wei Ming just carried her back to her bed and did not ask her to stay.

However, when he turned to leave, Zhu Lin stretched out his foot and kicked him in the butt, allowing you to hug your sister uninvited.

Wei Ming wanted to kick back or hit back, but Zhu Lin curled up in the quilt and prepared for defense.

Wei Ming had no choice but to rub his butt and leave.

Hearing the door closing, Zhu Lin stuck her head out, but she couldn't fall asleep. In the darkness, she tossed and turned with the quilt between her long legs. She even started oral exercises in the middle of the night, spitting into the air.

~
Early the next morning.

Wei Ming slept well. After he got up, he went to the bathroom to flush the toilet. Just as he was doing that, he suddenly heard light footsteps behind him.

When he turned around, he saw Zhu Lin, who looked sleepy, walking towards him, and Zhu Lin also saw him and it.

"Fuck!" Wei Ming quickly straightened himself.

Zhu Lin was so frightened that he lost all his sleepiness: "Why didn't you close the door?"

Wei Ming: "I'm sorry, I forgot you were here too, but don't be embarrassed. You're going to be an actor in the future, so just think of this as training to liberate your nature."

"Screw you!"

Zhu Lin helped him close the door directly. It was because she had read some medical books with pictures in them. If it were an ordinary girl, she would have been scared and ran out of the door.

But even so, the image was still shocking and deeply imprinted in her mind. She couldn't get rid of it even when she was making breakfast, especially when she saw the rolling pin.

To be honest, there is a big difference between the photo and the real thing. The textbooks are still too conservative.

While eating, Wei Ming told Zhu Lin that he might be busy in the next few days.

"Because I have to host Hong Kong filmmakers and I also have to participate in the subsequent co-productions, I may not have time to pick you up. You can come by yourself. I will definitely stay at my house at night."

"Let's talk about that later. I also have a lot of things to do and may not have the time to come." Zhu Lin buried his head in drinking porridge, feeling that the relationship between them was a little abnormal.

This is a dangerous signal, and a rational person should cut it off decisively, but Zhu Lin is a little reluctant.

Because she came here by bike yesterday, Wei Ming didn't see her off, and they went their separate ways.

On the way back to work, Zhu Lin saw a newsstand and wanted to see if there was any report about the Hundred Flowers Awards.

But she saw the new issue of People's Literature, which someone in front of her had already bought. She even said to her companion, "This issue has new poems by Wei Ming!"

Zhu Lin guessed that it should be "Love Life". When he opened it, he saw Wei Ming's name on it, so he bought a copy as a collection.

~
Wei Ming took the manuscript of "The Battle of Ancient and Modern Times: The Love of Qin Terracotta Warriors" to the school magazine office, got the ending he wrote, and asked for leave from Vice President Zhou. He was not sure whether he could come to the unit in the next few days.

Then he used the school magazine's copier to make three copies of his manuscript. Since working at the school magazine, he no longer had to trouble Mei Wenhua to copy his articles.

He kept the original manuscripts of these three manuscripts himself, submitted one to "Story Club", and sent one to the old man in Hong Kong, hoping to earn Hong Kong dollars from them.

But it's just a novella, and I'm afraid it can't make up for the loss of Qi Baishi's painting, so Wei Ming also prepared three songs, which took a long time to write, and he sent them to Amin today.

It is estimated that by the time the letter reached Hong Kong, Zhang Mingmin's album had already been released, and the musician "A Ming" had also gained some fame, so this time he suggested that Amin vote for more famous singers and companies. After all, Zhang Mingmin would not release a new album in the short term.

This time it is still specially customized. I heard from Amin before that Tan Yonglin has achieved good results in the music industry after going solo, and he has recently started to enter the Taiwan market and filmed many movies there, which means that he is probably going to release a Mandarin album.

So this time Wei Ming suggested submitting these three songs to PolyGram, which is probably collecting songs for Tan Yonglin at this moment.

When passing by the South Gate, the guy on duty told Wei Ming: "Brother Ming, you have received a lot of letters again today!"

Wei Ming knew that it was probably because "People's Literature" reprinted "Love Life" yesterday. After a poem becomes popular, the number of letters it receives from readers far exceeds that of a novel. The enthusiasm of poetry readers is obvious to all.

Although Wei Ming did not write many poems, only four at most, but when it comes to contemporary modern poets, he can already be compared with Bei Dao, Gu Cheng and others.

However, Wei Ming was worried that these letters contained money or food coupons, because his previous efforts to give back to old readers had spread, and many readers submitted their works to the newspapers after receiving the signed new books.

As they were chatting, he saw Biaozi and Xiaomei coming back from the cafeteria. They both looked listless, as they had just finished their night shift.

And they didn’t have a day off this weekend either, because it’s almost the end of the month and they had to go south to purchase goods, so they took a day off.

Although they were very tired, Wei Ming still asked Biaozi: "A Hong Kong director is here and wants to find someone to accompany him around Beijing. Do you want to go?"

Biaozi insisted, "I'll go!"

If Yan Zi was chosen to act, he would definitely join the crew, so Wei Ming asked him to change his clothes and took him to the Beijing Film Studio. After arriving at the place, Wei Ming asked him to sit on the motorcycle for a while, and he went upstairs to find Director Wang. Soon, Xia Meng and others took the hotel car to the Beijing Film Studio, and the negotiation on cooperation officially began.

However, that is a matter between the two units, involving the specific investment ratio and profit distribution. Wei Ming will not get involved, nor is he qualified to get involved. However, his suggestions will be conveyed to Xia Meng and others through Wang Yang.

His main task today was to entertain Yuan Xiangren on a tour of Yanjing. Biaozi, a native of Yanjing, was responsible for leading the way, while Wei Ming was responsible for taking photos and explaining.

In order to facilitate the travel of the three people, Beijing Film Studio specially provided a shoulder vehicle.

A sidecar is a type of three-wheeled motorcycle with a sidecar installed on the right side of a two-wheeled ordinary motorcycle. It was very popular during World War II, and many children from military compounds often drove them around the city.

However, it is relatively rare in Hong Kong. Ah Xiang felt very cool sitting in the sidecar, and his way of addressing Wei Ming changed from "Screenwriter Wei" to "Handsome Boy".

It’s a pity that many ancient buildings in Yanjing can no longer be seen today and are in a stage where they are neither old nor new.

Yuan Xiangren said, "I heard from my father that the old city wall of Yanjing is very wide and can even accommodate cars. Can you take me to see it?"

Biaozi: “It was demolished a long time ago.”

When he was a child, the old city walls were almost invisible, with only some arrow towers and place names remaining.

Wei Ming nodded: "Yes, in order to build more roads and subways, it has to be demolished."

"What a pity! The Forbidden City was not demolished, right?"

"Yes, yes." Wei Ming felt bitter as he had to visit the Forbidden City again.

While visiting the Forbidden City, Wei Ming introduced Biaozi's identity as a "martial arts student" in detail. Yuan Xiangren became interested and chatted with Biaozi about what kung fu they had learned, and wanted to learn from each other.

Biaozi looked at Yuan Xiangren's thin appearance and was afraid of beating him to death, but he still agreed with a silly smile on his face.

At noon, they arrived at Jingshan Park and fought the final battle on the top of Jingshan Mountain.

Biaozi felt that he had underestimated Yuan Xiangren. This little guy was actually quite capable.

In terms of fighting ability, Yuen Cheung Yan is actually stronger than his brother Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen Cheung is really the kind of person who is frail and skinny, but has a very strong ability in action design.

However, Biaozi has the advantage of tonnage and is obviously superior in strength. But today's fight is not to decide the winner, but to show his own and his master's strength in front of the martial arts instructor. Therefore, Biaozi only stopped at the right time and did not let Yuan Xiangren lose face.

After the two of them stopped fighting, Yuan Xiangren hugged Biaozi affectionately and asked, "A Biao, where did you learn this?"

Zhao Debiao: "Shichahai Sports School!"

Yuan Xiangren asked again: "Are there any younger students there?"

"Of course, we have all been practicing martial arts there since elementary school, and we learned it from childhood."

Yuan Xiangren patted his thigh excitedly: "Please take me to your school!"

Before coming, he and Xu Xiaoming had already read the script of "Heroes Have Always Been Young" and liked the story very much. However, a big problem in filming this script was that it required a group of teenagers or even children who were good at martial arts, which was not easy to find.

Now it seems that this is no longer a problem. With so many children, we can always find a few suitable ones.

Wei Ming smiled and said, "I originally wanted to take you to Shichahai Sports School to select actors, but there is no need to rush today. Let's go with the director tomorrow."

"Okay, where are we going next?"

Wei Ming: "Let's go to Dashilan for a stroll."

After a day of fun, tasting some of the old Yanjing delicacies and taking a lot of photos, Yuan Xiangren felt that the old man would definitely be very happy after returning to Hong Kong.

When it was getting dark, Wei Ming and his team sent the people back to Yanjing Hotel. Wei Ming also asked if director Xie Jin's crew had finished filming that day.

Upon learning that the film had just finished work and the staff had not yet left, Wei Ming went over to chat with them. Judging from their progress, they would be able to wrap up filming at the beginning of next month, and the film would definitely be released this year.

Finally, Wei Ming and Biaozi drove their sidecars back to the Beijing Film Studio to change for their motorcycles, and met an acquaintance outside the Beijing Film Studio Guesthouse.

"Director Wang?"

"Oh, Writer Wei!"

Wang Shuchen quickly shook hands with Wei Ming. He had just returned from Cannes today with great honors, so he would stay in Yanjing for a while and make some reports.

"Thanks to your reminder, we found a French filmmaker who likes Chinese culture to help us, otherwise we would have missed the main competition unit."

Wei Ming asked again: "Did you win the prize in the end?"

"I won two awards!" Wang Shuchen said excitedly.

These two awards are the Jury Prize and the Technical Award. Although they are not the most important awards, they are also a major breakthrough for mainland films.

Wang Shuchen also told him: "Because of the award-winning "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", we also sold the copyright to several countries, including powerful countries such as Britain, the United States, France and Japan, earning very precious foreign exchange for the country!"

"Great, great!" Wei Ming sighed, it was a pity that there was no finished clip for "The Magic Book", otherwise it would be great to use it for promotion.

"By the way, the Hundred Flowers Awards were restarted this year, and 'Nezha Conquers the Dragon King' also won the Best Animated Film. Did you know this?" Wei Ming added.

"I don't know yet, but I think there shouldn't be any surprises." Wang Shuchen said calmly.

Wei Ming thought that was true. "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" had no other competitors. The number of votes it received was higher than that of "Little Flower" for the Best Feature Film. It was well-deserved.

In fact, this also shows that the output of domestic animated films is too low. Only one feature film is released every few years. Compared with the output of live-action films, it is far behind. There are far from enough talents in this area.

There is really a bright future for animation in the future. Are you scared if we can make 60 billion in just nine days?
The report on this Cannes Film Festival may not appear in the newspapers until two days later after they finish writing the report, but today Wang Shuchen shared some news from Cannes with Wei Ming.

For example, the winner of the Palme d'Or for Best Film.

"The winner is Shadow Warrior, directed by Akira Kurosawa from Japan."

"Oh, that's not surprising. He has a very high status in the world film industry. Francis Coppola and George Lucas from Hollywood are both his fans." Wei Ming talked freely, and he remembered that "Shadow Warrior" was produced by these two Hollywood bigwigs, so it was also the most influential work in the world in Kurosawa Akira's later years.

Wang Shuchen was surprised: "You actually know the names of Francis Coppola and George Lucas. I didn't know them until I arrived in Cannes."

Wei Ming: "I had a girlfriend before, she was British, so I know more about foreign countries."

"Ah!" Wang Shuchen heard it for the first time and exclaimed "unbelievable!"

This is what he learned in Cannes. It was the praise that foreigners gave to "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", and now he gave it to Wei Ming.

If we want to open your eyes to the world, it’s these writers!

"Then why did you come to the Beijing Film Studio?" Wang Shuchen asked.

Wei Ming: "The Beijing Film Studio is going to co-produce a work I wrote with Ms. Xia Meng's Bluebird Pictures, and I came here for this."

Wang Shuchen once again expressed his admiration for the young people’s abundant energy.

After confirming that Wang Shuchen would stay here for a few more days, Wei Ming agreed to take time to bring Liu Rulong, the character designer of "The Magic Book", to visit him.

Wang Shuchen also agreed immediately. This had been agreed upon long ago. During the summer vacation, the young man would go to the Shanghai Film Studio for an internship.

On the way back, Wei Ming rode his bike with Biaozi. He was very sleepy and wanted to go back to Peking University to rest for a while before he had to go to work on the night shift.

It was already past ten o'clock when Wei Ming returned home. He did not see Zhu Lin at home. Wei Ming felt quite regretful. He did not know whether she had stopped practicing in the dormitory. She still had to continue practicing her tongue!
The next day, Wei Ming went to the Beijing Film Studio again. This time, Ms. Xia Meng was not there. She had already returned to Hong Kong. The casting and location selection in the mainland was entirely handed over to the Beijing Film Studio and the director. After the preliminary preparations were completed, the director would return to Hong Kong to report to her.

The Beijing Film Studio sent a director to assist Xu Xiaoming. His name was Yang Qitian. He was nearly fifty years old. He was originally an actor, and after he turned forty he moved behind the scenes. He had served as an assistant director several times before.

A few years later, he will make a very famous domestic martial arts film "The Thirteenth Sister", which is also the earliest three-dimensional martial arts film in the mainland.

3D movies are not something that only appeared in "Avatar". Hollywood has had them for a long time, but the technology was just so-so and could not reach the level of shocking movies.

Although Yang Qitian's identity this time is co-director, Wang Yang told him that Xu Xiaoming will be the main director, and he, as a mainland director, will be mainly responsible for communication and coordination, as well as learning how others shoot martial arts scenes.

Director Yang Qitian is very humble. He is not only polite to Xu Xiaoming, who can be his son, but also to Wei Ming and Yuan Xiangren.

They first discussed the script and reached a consensus that the key to the success of this film was a young wife with excellent martial arts skills and a husband who had no martial arts skills.

So today they came to Shichahai Sports School to start casting, and Wang Yang had already informed the school yesterday, and the other party said they would do their best to cooperate.

Because "Shaolin Temple" had already been cast once and Li Lianjie was chosen to play the male lead, everyone was very envious, so the students were very enthusiastic in the casting this time, so much so that Zhen Zidan couldn't even squeeze in from the back.

It was only after Wei Ming called out "Danny" that he had the opportunity to appear in front of the director.

Since Zhen Zidan will join the Yuan family sooner or later, Wei Ming doesn't mind doing a favor and introducing Zhen Zidan to Xu Xiaoming and Yuan Xiangren.

Zhen Zidan didn't recognize Yuan Xiangren, but when he said that his mother's name was Mai Baochan, Yuan Xiangren's expression changed slightly. His sister Yuan Su'e had learned Tai Chi from someone before, and that teacher was called Mai Baochan.

After asking carefully, he learned that Zhen Zidan's mother was indeed a Tai Chi master, and immediately confirmed the connection between them.

So I asked, “Do you want to film a movie?”

"I think!"

Yuan Xiangren: "Perform a set of boxing techniques that you are good at."

Then Zhen Zidan performed a set of Tai Chi. Although Tai Chi is known for its gentleness, Yuan Xiangren always felt that this kid had a somewhat fierce look on his face, so he could be given a role among the main villains.

But he is small and lacks the sense of oppression, so he cannot serve as the biggest villain.

Yuan Xiangren nodded with satisfaction. Wei Ming directly asked him to stand next to them. It seemed that he was definitely selected. He hurriedly thanked Wei Ming in a low voice, no, Brother Ming!

(End of this chapter)