Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 166 Rakshasa Sea City, Personal Interview

"How about 'Four Joys in the West Chamber'?" Old Guo said with a smile.

"I thought it was a fan painting," Chen Shouzhe joked.

"Go to hell." Old Guo didn't expect Chen Shouzhe to say that, and many people who knew about the overturned print fan painting smiled knowingly.

"Hurry up, everyone who's going to come up later," Lao Guo said, turning to the people behind him.

“Let’s take turns,” Chen Shou said.

"Alright, Boss Gao, start singing as soon as you start playing the clappers!" Old Guo said in a loud voice. Gao Feng took out his bamboo clappers and started playing. It can be said that no one in the entire Deyun Society can match Gao Feng's clapper playing skills. Old Guo's clapper playing skills are not very good. Yu Qian's clapper playing skills are very high, even higher than Gao Feng's. He is of the same generation as his master in the crosstalk school. Therefore, Yu Qian never plays the clappers. People who have heard his Tongrentang know that his clapper playing skills are very good. His biggest drawback is that he has severe rhinitis and has even had surgery, but it has not been cured.

The backstage rehearsals had already begun, and the opening songs were decided to be "The West Chamber" and "Four Joys," with several people sung together.

"Da, da, da da da..."

Chen Shouzhe hadn't sung in a long time, but his basic skills were still there. He opened his mouth and sang:
"A bright moon shines on the west wing, where the beautiful young women Yingying and Hongniang invite Zhang Sheng to a banquet three times. Finding no one around, they jump over the flower wall. At the fifth watch, the lady learns of the news, and six times Yingying is tortured with a flower-patterned stick while Hongniang is interrogated..."

Neither the performers nor the audience expected Chen Shouzhe to have such a good voice. Now we can only see Chen Shouzhe performing crosstalk in some archaeological videos. We never expected his singing to be so good.

After Chen Shouzhe finished singing the first part, he stepped out, and Lao Guo took over, followed by Guo Qilin, Zhang Yunlei, Yue Yunpeng, and Zhang Helun.

Finally, Guo Degang added a segment about a peaceful year, and that marked the beginning.

The actors left the stage, leaving Zhang Helun and Lang Heyan to start the show.

Chen followed the old couple downstairs, and the backstage area was suddenly packed with people.

Some of the older staff weren't allowed to stay backstage any longer and were asked to go home early. The rest of the staff mostly sat backstage chatting and eating sunflower seeds.

Chen Shou stayed with the elderly couple and other people, sitting together eating sunflower seeds and chatting.

Four performances were staged: Lun Lang, Meng Zhou, Bing Si, and Zhang Yang. When it was the fourth performance, Chen Shou walked onto the stage.

The audience was surprised when Chen Shouzhe came up on stage.

"As I said before, it's hard to do a solo performance at a large gala. I've prepared a storytelling segment for today, since I don't have a partner and there's no time to rehearse. It's been a long time since I've stood on this stage. I haven't told any stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio since I was reported. I don't know if you guys can handle it."

Chen Shou stood on the stage, speaking in a slightly magnetic, smoky voice. He had really smoked too much. When the audience heard that he was going to tell a story from Liaozhai, they started to cheer. What was Liaozhai about? Ghost stories! Telling ghost stories in the middle of the night, how exciting!

"Let's start with a poem: If life were only as beautiful as our first meeting, why would the autumn wind bring sorrow to the painted fan?"

Waiting for leisure to change but the old people's mind, but the old people's mind is easy to change.

After speaking at Lishan, half the night had passed; tears fell like rain, yet there was no resentment.

How could a heartless, richly dressed man compare to the vows of being like paired birds and intertwined branches, broken with a snap?

While many were still savoring the first sentence, Chen Shouzhe had already begun.

"The story I'm telling today comes from Liaozhai, and it's called Rakshasa Sea City. Where is Rakshasa Sea City? It's 260 li to the west of the Rakshasa Kingdom..."

The story of Rakshasa Sea City is one of the longer ones in Liaozhai. A strange country appears in Chen Shouzhe's mouth, which is chilling and absurd.

However, as I listened, there seemed to be some differences. It seemed to be saying something, yet it also seemed to be saying nothing at all. Upon closer listening, I felt that I could connect with certain things.

As a director, Feng Xiaogang possesses at least some analytical ability, as evidenced by his whispered conversation with his wife.

"Storytelling has its time, so this concludes the story of Rakshasa Sea City. Unlike my godfather, who always digs holes, I've finished telling the whole story. Of course, if I were to elaborate, there would be much more to say, but time is tight, so let's leave it at that." Chen Shou bowed and stepped off the stage.

At this point, the audience burst into applause. The storytelling didn't have many jokes, but the story was bizarre and convoluted, making it fresh to listen to while also allowing the audience to learn something from the story. The main attraction was the opening poem by Chen Shou, which they had never heard before. Many people were still savoring the first line and even searched for it online, but couldn't find any related poems.

Next came Yue Yue, then Gao Luan, and finally the elderly couple. There were eight programs in total, and the performance lasted until almost 1 a.m. For the grand encore, Guo Degang pulled Chen Shouzhe out separately.

"The stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio you just told were great! How many stories do you have in your Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio? Give me a few more sometime, so I can scare them a bit," Old Guo said with a laugh.

"Not many, about five hundred," Chen Shou said. "Whoa~" Everyone on and off the stage was startled.

"So many?" Old Guo was shocked, thinking Chen Shou was joking.

"I'm not kidding you, there are over four hundred, almost five hundred. When I have some free time, I'll write them all down, so you can have a different one every day," Chen Shou said with a smile.

“That’s great. This kid is working really hard these days, constantly making movies and running his own company. On the first day of the Lunar New Year this year, he produced an animated film that cost a whopping 700 million. I told him, ‘You have so much money, why don’t you save it and enjoy it?’ He likes small animals, just like his master,” Lao Guo said.

"Hi." Yu Qian smiled.

"He's like me in personality, like his master in interests, and a hundred times better at making movies than me. Plus, he's been helping me make money all these years. He even gives me birthday gifts. This kid is impeccable. This year during Chinese New Year, the movie WALL-E is being released, right? Everyone can take their kids to see it. Don't take kids to stand-up comedy shows, it'll corrupt them, but animated movies are fine. Happy Chinese New Year, everyone can enjoy it together."

Guo Degang promoted the movie on stage, followed by a group sing-along, and then he went home after get off work.

We're all exhausted from working so hard, so a few night owls went to find something to eat.

Every year at the end of the year, there's a small group photo, where a few people gather together to take a picture.

Chen Shouzhe mingled in with them and took a picture with his arm around their shoulder. The driver then drove him home.

The closing performance from last night appeared online early this morning, and many people mentioned Chen Shouzhe's stand-up comedy routine, especially the opening poem.

Some literary figures even began to comment that the first line was so well said that many people started to study the poem.

Chen Shou ignored all of this and participated in several programs after the press conference.

One of them was an interview that had been arranged with CCTV beforehand, and it was also Chen Shouzhe's first solo interview.

The interview was conducted at Xiaoxiaomeng. When the CCTV reporter arrived at Xiaoxiaomeng, she was overwhelmed by the large number of instruments. Chen Shou patiently explained them to her, and the camera recorded the process.

Finally, the interview was conducted in front of a huge poster. After the program aired, it served as publicity, and the CCTV reporter couldn't really say anything about it.

"So, you performed a crosstalk routine on stage yesterday?" the reporter asked with a smile.

"Yes, I've been doing this since elementary school, so it's a bit hard for me to give it up. I still occasionally think about going to the teahouse to tell stories," Chen Shou nodded.

"So how do you view the profession of crosstalk performer, and what made you become a director?"

"In the past, crosstalk was called the 'lower nine classes,' which was a term used before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Later, the country advocated equality for all, and all professions were equal. You are a big boss, and I am a farmer. What is the difference between high and low status? So I often say that those who constantly talk about the 'lower nine classes' are not broad-minded in essence. They can only find a sense of superiority among those who are weaker than themselves. People who are truly moral do not care about the difference between high and low status. So I do not shy away from my identity as a crosstalk performer. Even if others call me the 'lower nine classes,' I think they are pathetic."

I became an actor not because I can't perform crosstalk. The fact that I was able to perform on stage yesterday proves that I can perform crosstalk and make a living from it. However, I studied directing in college. My mentor, Mr. Yu Qian, also studied directing at the Beijing Film Academy.

So around 10, my crosstalk partner left Deyun Society and went to work for another organization. I was left alone and had no partner to perform with. I had to find someone to perform with.

Around that time, a fellow student asked me why I hadn't directed a film myself after studying directing for so many years, and that's how I started directing.

"So, do you think being a director is harder, or being a comedian is harder?"

"It's all hard work. Our industry is a service industry. An actor's value comes from their work. To put it nicely, a work is art. To put it bluntly, it's about what I can give the audience so that they are willing to pay for it. It's not a necessity, it's not like firewood, rice, oil, salt, or daily necessities. You have to have three meals a day."

Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation are necessities; one cannot live without these people. They can live quite well without crosstalk and movies, so it's difficult for them to survive.

The reporter nodded, agreeing. She had never listened to crosstalk, but she had seen movies, because movies were associated with love.

Going to the movies or coffee shops on dates—these are all marketing tactics. We didn't have these when we were dating before, and we still managed to date.

"What's your view on the current domestic film market? The film market is getting better and better, and there are more and more films. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's definitely a good thing. A larger film market means a higher standard of living for people. Only when the standard of living is higher can people spend money on entertainment. If the money earned can only meet basic needs, who will go to the movies? If movies don't make money, who will make movies? Who will open cinemas? Everything starts with people having money."

However, having more and more movies isn't necessarily a good thing. Having a lot of movies is useless; we need a lot of good movies. Hundreds of movies are released every year, but how many make money, and how many are truly memorable? I hope everyone can make more good movies, allowing Chinese films to go international and promote our Chinese culture.

(End of this chapter)