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Chapter 280 "Martial Soul 3": A Hero's Tragedy!
The screen lights up.

on the screen.

The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the quiet village, wisps of smoke rise from the chimneys, and children chase and laugh in the fields.

The gentle flute and string melodies intertwine, like a breeze rustling through wheat fields, instantly drawing the audience into a warm and nostalgic atmosphere...

This beautiful and peaceful scene, accompanied by melodious music, stirs everyone's emotions, immersing people in this purity and tranquility.

……

The opening of "Wu Hun 3" is completely different from that of "Wu Hun 2". "Wu Hun 2" opens with a fast pace and an apocalyptic atmosphere, with tension throughout; while "Wu Hun 3" conveys a sense of beauty and nostalgia to the audience through melodious music, warm visuals and tranquil rural scenes, creating a peaceful and profound atmosphere.

but……

Watching the beautiful scenes on the screen.

A sense of unease, indescribable, welled up deep within Yamanaka Kazuo.

As a veteran in the film and television industry, he is all too familiar with this narrative technique: presenting the most beautiful scenes to the audience, and then completely destroying them, thereby stirring up the audience's emotions. This is almost a classic formula in filmmaking...

And this movie seems to be no exception...

In a warm and pleasant atmosphere, the camera slowly pans up, switching to a majestic and towering city wall. The thick wall is covered with thorns and barbs, and its exterior is covered with numerous defensive fortifications, standing imposingly in the afterglow of the setting sun.

This is a utopia built by man.

The screen then displayed a line of text: "Three years after the outbreak of the Dark Beast Tide, the turmoil has not subsided. Remnants of giant beasts still attack, making them impossible to defend against. Under the protection of the Martial Soul Warriors, the surviving humans retreated to the last sanctuary, building this high wall to isolate them from danger..."

As the subtitles slowly faded away...

As the screen lit up, Kazuo Yamanaka was instantly pulled into that apocalyptic world...

He saw the steel walls cleaving the heavens and the earth, searchlights piercing the eternal night like swords, and the roars of beasts outside the walls and the even breathing inside forming a chilling duet in a unique soundscape.

He saw the camera pan across the frosted eyelashes of the guards. He stared intently into the distance, and in the darkness where the gun was pointed, the infrared radar suddenly exploded with a blinding red light!

"Southeast quadrant, crocodile herd approaching!"

The alarm ripped through the silence, and the entire defense force sprang into action like a perfectly tuned machine…

He saw snipers sprinting across the vertical wall, saw the demolition team's fingertips glinting as they swept across the landmine fuses, and saw the medical team's bandage rolls fluttering in the cold wind.

They witnessed one horrific scene after another: the bones of 47 beast tides over three years piled up like mountains beneath their feet. At that moment, the blood moon hung in the sky, and the crackling of electricity mixed with the scraping of scales from the communicator grew ever closer…

A sudden surge of emotion welled up inside me...

Kazuo Yamanaka stared intently at the screen.

As a veteran in the tokusatsu (special effects) industry, he keenly noticed that each shot had undergone meticulous and careful design...

This includes the metallic glint of a sniper's boots against a wall, the trail of flame from a demolition team's fuse, and even the direction in which a medical bandage is blown by the wind...

This almost obsessive attention to detail gives this limited-budget tokusatsu film a quality that far exceeds its budget.

It even led some to suspect that the film wasn't produced in a studio, but rather shot entirely on location...

Besides, unlike "Wu Hun 2", the special effects in this movie seem to be exceptionally well done!
On screen, as the camera pans across the mountain of bones, the charred skeletons pile up like city walls, broken animal horns and shattered weapons stand in a jumbled array under the moonlight, accompanied by a mournful soundtrack, seemingly silently telling the story of the horrors of war...

After watching this scene, Kazuo Yamanaka nodded subconsciously.

Next, write a line on the evaluation form: "[Industrial standard Grade A, better than ordinary tokusatsu films for Hollywood blockbusters]".

After writing...

He continued watching the movie.

When the members of the Earth Defense Force dragged their weary bodies back inside the high walls, they were greeted with thunderous cheers.

Children held up rough wooden spears and imitated battle moves, girls placed carefully woven flower garlands around the necks of warriors, and old people held out their treasured wine with trembling hands.

On the watchtower of the city wall, the boys shouted the name of each team member at the top of their lungs, as if trying to engrave this respect into their very bones...

Everything seemed to be at its most beautiful.

However, the camerawork shifts from the most beautiful scenes to a series of somber and sorrowful ones...

Amidst this jubilation, the heroes who should have been the center of attention—the two warriors of Zhao Zilong and Guan Yu's martial spirits who thrilled countless viewers in "Martial Soul 2"—stood silently in a corner. The cores of their martial spirits were covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and their once brilliant light was now reduced to scattered sparks...

Ding Rong, who plays Xiao Yi, who embodies Guan Yu's martial spirit, tries to grip the Green Dragon Crescent Blade transformation device on camera, but broken metal parts fall through his fingers...

Chen Jianfeng, who plays Zhao Yang, the embodiment of Zhao Zilong's martial spirit, is repeatedly wiping his Dragon Gallant Silver Spear, but the tip of the spear can no longer gather even a trace of electricity...

The two gazed at the darkening sky beyond the city walls...

The last rays of the setting sun were being swallowed by darkness, just like the extinguishing flames of their martial spirits.

There is no dialogue in the film, yet the film vividly portrays the hero's desolation through its delicate cinematic language. In particular, the film's unique soundtrack...

As the afterglow of the setting sun bathed the shattered core of the Martial Soul, the cello's deep, plaintive sound seemed to pour out its lament, followed by layers of strings that evoked the desolate feeling of a hero's twilight years, while the zither's tremolo, seemingly broken yet unbroken, sounded like the final struggle of the Martial Soul's flame...

In the sudden silence, a broken flute note rose, like a farewell, or perhaps an unfinished vow...

The music, with its blend of the subtlety of Eastern instruments and the grandeur of Western symphony, etches the hero's desolation into his very bones, making the listener's chest tremble.

When Yamanaka Kazuo witnessed this scene, accompanied by mournful background music, an indescribable sense of tragedy and desolation welled up within him...

Chen Anhua also felt a sense of desolation.

He was somewhat shocked!
As a seasoned film professional, he was familiar with famous film scores from both China and abroad, but the score playing at this moment felt unfamiliar to him!

He knows it very well!

This level of soundtrack quality could never have been created by an ordinary behind-the-scenes composer...

Who composed the music for this movie?

This question suddenly surged in his mind!

He looked down, subconsciously searching for the most detailed information on "Martial Soul 3," and then he saw the name of the background music below... He saw two people...

The first one is Shen Hu...

do not know!
And the second one...

Zhou Yang!

At that moment, his eyes widened instantly!
How can it be!

He lowered his head and asked who Shen Hu really was, and then he was even more incredulous!
How could these two create a soundtrack of this caliber?

Are you kidding me?

……

The lights in the screening room were dim and intermittent.

On camera, Shen Hu sat silently, observing the reactions of the others...

Since the album "Snail" achieved good sales in the Chinese music scene, Shen Hu has not capitalized on the momentum, nor has he given interviews in the media or appeared on variety shows to make money.

Shen Hu cherished this hard-won opportunity and longed to undergo a complete transformation. After becoming Xian Xing's apprentice, he locked himself in the studio's recording room and studied diligently day and night under Xian Xing's occasional guidance.

The studio lights often stayed on all night, and he had professional books such as "Harmony" and "Film Scoring Techniques" spread out in front of him, while the audio track waveforms on the computer screen kept flashing.

To adjust the duration or intensity of a single note, he could sit staring at the screen for over ten hours straight. When he got sleepy, he would drink strong coffee to stay awake, and when he was hungry, he would grab a few bites of cold bread to fill his stomach. Even when he was sleeping, unfinished melody fragments would be playing on repeat in his headphones.

To capture the poignant feeling of a hero's twilight years, he scoured classic soundtracks from historical war epics, disassembling and recombining Eastern and Western instrumental elements.

One early morning, when Zhou Yang called and hummed a melody to ask about the possibility of arranging it, his bloodshot eyes suddenly lit up...

Zhou Yang called that melody "The Last of the Mohicans," and the adaptation of this soundtrack in "Wuhun 3" also comes from that melody...

The screen lights flickered.

When Shen Hu saw the complex expressions on the faces of the audience, he leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

A hint of relief flashed across her tired face; her tense emotions finally relaxed...

This meticulously crafted soundtrack seems to have successfully touched everyone's heartstrings!
He succeeded!

....................................

On the screen.

Accompanied by a sense of sorrow!
While everyone was laughing and celebrating peace...

The camera shifts slightly, moving to the training ground at night.

Kazuo Yamanaka saw a scene that sent a slight shiver down his spine...

On the screen, he saw Ding Rong, who played Xiao Yi, kneeling on the sand under the moonlight, his hands tightly gripping the cracked Green Dragon Crescent Blade transformation device.

His right arm muscles trembled from excessive exertion, and his hands gripped the cracked Green Dragon Crescent Blade transformation device tightly.

His right arm muscles trembled violently from overexertion; he strained with all his might to sense the Martial Soul Core, sweat dripping down his arm…

Not far away, Zhao Yang, played by Chen Jianfeng, dragged his broken body, leaping up again and again, only to fall heavily into the mud pit each time.

Even the mud couldn't conceal his resolute eyes, which remained fixed on the outside of the city...

Those eyes were fixed on the surging tide of beasts outside the city walls, as if they wanted to burn through the darkness.

"Come again!"

The hoarse roar, mixed with the muffled thud of dislocated bones, was particularly jarring in the night.

The battle with the gorilla king nearly exhausted all their energy, and they were also severely injured...

But the beast tide grew increasingly fierce, forcing them to drag their broken bodies up again and again, to throw punches again and again, even as their bones shattered and their armor soaked in blood.

……

When Yamanaka Kazuo witnessed the hero's demise.

I was deeply moved by the film's delicate cinematography and poignant soundtrack.

He stared intently at the shattered martial spirit core and the blood-stained figure of the warrior on the screen, and an overwhelming sense of tragic heroism welled up inside him.

He then solemnly wrote the comments "[Excellent emotional rendering]" and "[Actress's acting skills are satisfactory]" on the evaluation form.

After finishing writing, he looked up and continued watching the movie.

On the screen.

Just at this time……

Suddenly, the sound of a child crying in terror came from afar, and the two main characters froze at the same time.

Next!

in the dark.

They struggled to their feet, trembling, and rushed towards the nearby...

……

Then...

Kazuo Yamanaka witnessed a scene that he would never forget!
On the screen, in the darkness...

He saw a scarlet light suddenly tear through the sky!
The halberd, carrying a destructive storm, crashed into the city wall. In an instant, bricks and stones shattered, dust billowed into the sky, and the defensive fortifications were torn to shreds like paper.

Amidst the ruins, fragments of the Earth Defense Force's weapons, mixed with black light, rained down. The piercing cries of "Requesting backup" on the communication channel abruptly ceased, leaving only the static of electricity crackling through the rubble...

(End of this chapter)