The King of Soft Rice in Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 520 "Man Jiang Hong"

There's no need to elaborate on what Yue Fei means to China. Regardless of his physical appearance, he has become a spiritual totem for China. Given this, some things can be discussed, while others cannot.

Therefore, given the opportunity, Xu Jiuyang naturally wanted to secure the role in "Man Jiang Hong" first. The reason he let Zhang Yimou direct it was because Zhang Yimou was a very suitable tool for him.

Although Zhang Yimou also has his own desire to express himself, he is not as stubborn as Kai Zige, and it is relatively easy to suppress him, just like Zhang Weiping stuffed Jimmy Fallon into the "Curse of the Golden Flower" crew in his previous life.

Once you suppress him, he'll do whatever you want, and he won't stand up for himself when it comes to bargaining.

Therefore, Xu Jiuyang decided to let him "atone for his crime by doing good deeds." As long as he filmed his version of "Man Jiang Hong" well, he would not pursue the matter of him giving up flying fighter jets to go to school.

It's worth noting that I put a lot of effort into writing my own version of "Man Jiang Hong".

In the current environment, it's best to avoid involving the Jin Kingdom if possible. Although Angela helped him get rid of a lot of mites because of Zhao Yan's incident, there are still areas beyond her reach.

Therefore, the focus cannot be on war scenes. Otherwise, even if the initial review is passed, the higher-ups will require some positive shots of the Jin Dynasty, just like the emotional scenes added for Nianhan, Zongwang, and Jin Wuzhu in the previous "The Patriot Yue Fei".

However, it would be too frustrating to only film Fengbo Pavilion, since the ending is something every Chinese person knows. Under such circumstances, it wouldn't be acceptable even if the filming in the middle was very enjoyable.

It's like writing a wish-fulfillment novel, and at the very end, the male protagonist, who had been so arrogant and domineering all along, is poisoned to death in his own secret room; or the male protagonist, who originally had lofty ideals and vowed to change the world, ends up becoming not only like Wang Jingwei, but also groveling to the occult gangsters, occult nobles, and even occult prostitutes.

This is clearly unacceptable.

Xu Jiuyang had actually decided to modify the version from his previous life, as long as he didn't film the scenery of Jiangnan in Shanxi, and didn't have Qin Hui's double recite "Man Jiang Hong" in public, he would write a story about a chivalrous hero assassinating Qin Hui.

At worst, the protagonist could kill Qin Hui at the end of the story. However, when he was about to leave the city the next day, he heard that Qin Hui had gone to court. For a moment, he couldn't be sure whether the person he killed last night was the real Qin Hui.

So the protagonist told his companion to leave, and then went back into hiding, saying that if he could kill him once, he could kill him a second time.

The movie ends here. Although it's still a bit frustrating, it's much better than the version from the previous life.

However, Xu Jiuyang was still somewhat unwilling. After racking his brains for a long time, he finally found a good enough story outline from his memory.

After the release of "Man Jiang Hong" in the previous life, it attracted a lot of criticism and even bad reviews. Then, in order to increase the persuasiveness of their criticism, many film lovers wrote some story outlines to show that there were obviously better choices.

One of the stories, told from the perspective of an ordinary person, recounted the events following Yue Fei's death. This outline left a deep impression on him, so much so that he can still recall it today.

This insignificant figure was the jailer Wei Shun. Although there is no record of him in official history, his story is mentioned in many Song Dynasty notes.

It is said that after Yue Fei was killed, because it was an extremely serious political event that had been approved by Wanyan Gou, no one dared to collect his body.

However, Wei Shun stood up and secretly sent Yue Fei's body out of the city and buried it in secret next to the Jiuqu Temple. He also tied a waist ring on Yue Fei's body and planted orange trees on both sides of the burial site as a marker. Then he kept quiet about it.

Thus, it wasn't until his deathbed that Wei Shun told his son about this. Only after Emperor Xiaozong of Song publicly exonerated Yue Fei did Wei Shun's son step forward to provide clues about the burial site, allowing Yue Fei's remains to be moved to Qixia Ridge. Wei Shun can be considered a representative of ordinary people who are pillars of the nation.

"The beggar instructor takes in the third young master, the coachman and the advisor are Xiao Aqiao..." Xu Jiuyang muttered as he scribbled in his notebook.

"Hey, I told you to come out and have fun with us, why are you still writing?" Li Xue and Li Xiu, the sisters, sat down next to him after a satisfying shopping trip and asked.

“Although Yunnan Province is relatively remote, quite a few people should have seen my work. If I am recognized, it will still be very troublesome,” Xu Jiuyang said, pulling down the brim of his hat.

The previous scenes had already been filmed, and now the crew had come to Yunnan Province to film the training and anti-drug scenes. Wu Zhe's scenes in this film were neither many nor few. Just then, Li Xue and Li Xiu came to visit the set, so he simply asked the crew for leave.

After all, as Angela's confidantes, they also participated in writing the script for "Man Jiang Hong".

“So, this is…” Li Xue craned her neck to look at the words in his hand.

“Our version of ‘Man Jiang Hong’ is based on the structure of ‘The Thirteen Protectors of Shanghai’, right? I was thinking of writing a jingle or something.” Xu Jiuyang explained.

The story is simple: the Prime Minister's mansion sent people to destroy the evidence of Yue Fei's body. So, Wei Shun fled out of the city with Yue Fei's remains. Although the Prime Minister's henchmen were ruthless, he received help from many people along the way, including Taoist priests, monks, courtesans, down-on-his-luck scholars, remnants of Yue Fei's army, and Han Shizhong's men.

The core logic of "The Thirteen Protectors of Shanghai" is one clear goal, N differentiated characters, and multiple scenes with wave-by-wave confrontations, which fits the story with Kui Shun as the protagonist very well.

In fact, back in 09, there was a movie with a similar structure that was released – the famous "Bodyguards and Assassins".

However, this type of film still has some flaws in its story logic. Putting aside why Sun Yat-sen had to come to Hong Kong to meet the revolutionary representatives of the thirteen provinces in "Bodyguards and Assassins," the plot of the ancient "Shanghai Thirteen Protectors" is not very convincing, and many people died purely because of the plot.

Of course, as a Hong Kong film from the early 80s, these issues are normal and were common in that era.

However, "Man Jiang Hong" definitely cannot be done that way, so Xu Jiuyang has been thinking about how to polish it properly before filming starts, such as adding some cuts or something.

For example, in the TV series "The Thirteen Protectors of Shanghai", there is a rhyming jingle: "Thirteen Protectors, one man in charge, instructor with a quick knife, playboy and rich man, student and young master, bear, tiger, eagle and leopard, glasses and cigarette holder, long gun can't escape".

If the movie hadn't been of mediocre quality, this rhyme would have been even more well-known. Even so, the movie "Great Expectations," which also tells a story set in Shanghai and uses the character of Wei Xiaobao, took this rhyme and modified it to "Southern Xiao Du, Northern Lao Jiu, the Thirteen Protectors are invincible; Beggar Instructor Na San Shao, Coachman Young Master Xiao A Qiao; Blind Man, Drunkard, Black and White Impermanence, Dragon, Tiger and Leopard" and presented it to the audience.

The two lines Xu Jiuyang just recited were taken from this. If this kind of jingle is well-written, it can save a lot of character development.

However, Li Xue doesn't see it that way.

"Please, the setting is Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, not Shanghai in the Republican era! Would there be such a jingle in the Southern Song Dynasty? No way, no way, you're a well-known writer, you can't possibly not know this?!"

(End of this chapter)