Entertainment Era: My Good Sister Is All Over the World

I have longed for freedom all my life.

Finally, they discovered the door to freedom: death.

—Jaroslav Seifert, *The Umbrella of Piccadilly*, 1979

……

Huang Wenbin received the money from the finance department, and then, accompanied by Liang Xiaosheng, went to the nearby post office.

He kept only 100 yuan and sent the rest back to his parents in his hometown, where he also has a younger sister who is in junior high school.

After sending the money, the two returned to the guesthouse.

Liang Xiaosheng went back to work, and Huang Wenbin continued writing.

Life was going quite smoothly.

On the third day, Chen Huaikai finally reappeared and summoned Huang Wenbin to a conference room in the main building of the Beijing Film Studio.

"I've gone through the script for 'Let the Bullets Fly' again from beginning to end and made some minor changes. Take a look."

Chen Huaikai solemnly handed Huang Wenbin a stack of bound manuscript papers.

"Oh?" Huang Wenbin asked, somewhat curious.

The script for "Let the Bullets Fly" is indeed somewhat inappropriate in this day and age.

However, Huang Wenbin is not from this era, so he cannot empathize with him.

The two of them discussed and revised it once before, but Chen Huaikai was not entirely satisfied, so they went through it again.

Huang Wenbin did not disagree with this, believing that professional matters should be left to professionals.

Chen Huaikai had far more life experience than Huang Wenbin, and having personally experienced that turbulent era, the issues he raised were bound to be sensitive.

This ability to find fault is something Huang Wenbin currently lacks.

Therefore, he carefully read through the script.

Chen Huaikai observed the changes in Huang Wenbin's expression.

Talented people are bound to have the problem of being arrogant, and his son Chen Kaige is a typical example of this.

He had high hopes for Huang Wenbin, so he didn't want him to show any signs of that.

Fortunately, he only saw sincerity on Huang Wenbin's face, and not a trace of impatience.

Chen Huaikai smeared his mouth and quietly walked out.

The entire conference room became very quiet, as if only the sound of Huang Wenbin turning the pages of his manuscript could be heard.

More than half an hour later, Huang Wenbin finally finished reading the script for the new version of "Let the Bullets Fly".

The overall story structure remains unchanged, basically the same as the original.

The biggest change was to the character design.

The most significant change was made to the second-in-command of the bandit group.

The second male lead in the original version had too few appearances and his character wasn't very well-developed; he only became popular because of the gay reference.

It seems to imply that the second brother is leaning towards erotic literature, but later it also implies that he and Sister Hua seem to have something going on, especially the third brother's last sentence, "I want to marry him in place of the second brother," which seems a bit unfounded.

In Chen Huaikai's revised version, some details about the second son's background were added.

First, he came from a poor family, and his childhood sweetheart, with whom he had a secret betrothal, was kidnapped by bandits. In order to find his sweetheart, he began to wander the world, experiencing many hardships, and even became an underground worker for our Party. In order to understand the geography and military and political situation in the southwest region, and incidentally to find his sweetheart, he became the second-in-command of a bandit gang.

He usually avoided women, but he would visit brothels wherever he went, because he had heard that someone had seen his childhood sweetheart in a brothel, but he was always disappointed.

But what makes him complicated is that he actually does have relationships with these prostitutes.

It wasn't until he followed Zhang Mazi to Goose City that he saw Sister Hua, who looked remarkably like his childhood sweetheart.

This approach would seem quite melodramatic in later generations, but it was a fairly mainstream narrative technique in this era.

At least it would fulfill the third brother's promise that "I want to marry her in place of my second brother."

Of course, the classic memes have also been modified.

In the original confession session, the second brother said, "Big brother, you know me. If I were to make the move, the one lying on the table would be her husband," which caused a burst of laughter.

This version was changed to "Brother, you know me. I'm a pure lover, and I'll remain chaste only for my woman." This also caused a burst of laughter, because everyone present knew that he was the kind of person who frequented brothels, yet he dared to claim to be a "pure lover."

Of course, the term "pure love" was mentioned by Huang Wenbin to Chen Huaikai.

Director Chen thought the word was good, so he used it here.

Hua Jie's character has also been changed; she's gone from a prostitute in Goose City to Huang Silang's ninth concubine. Because she was bought from a group of bandits, Hua Jie feels a little grateful to Huang Silang.

Huang Silang didn't care much about her and only let her live in the outer residence.

Sister Hua's personality is one of pursuing freedom and liberation, which leads to a fundamental conflict with Huang Silang.

She had high hopes for every new county magistrate, wishing to meet a good official who would stand up for the people. Unfortunately, each time she encountered greedy and hypocritical parasites.

That's why she hesitated when Zhang Mazi asked her to keep an eye on Huang Silang's double, but was eventually persuaded by the third brother.

The third brother's character has also been slightly altered. He went from being a pure bandit who only wanted to seek revenge and make a fortune through robbery to being gradually transformed into a qualified warrior by the second brother.

His marriage to Sister Hua was, in effect, a way of inheriting the second son's will.

As for whether Sister Hua is actually the second son's childhood sweetheart, there's no need to give a clear answer; let the audience guess.

Of course, their final destination was not Pudong, but Yan'an, heading towards the sacred red land.

This ending is a complete departure from the original's depressing tone.

In the late 1970s, people were generally optimistic about the future and did not want to go against the tide.

The original ending is still somewhat ahead of its time in this era.

Moreover, it is very likely to be over-interpreted by those with ulterior motives.

The current changes are very much in line with the current trend.

"Finished watching?" Chen Huaikai washed his hands and returned to Huang Wenbin, asking, "What did you think?"

"Very good," Huang Wenbin said sincerely, "I have benefited greatly from it."

Chen Huaikai waved his hand and smiled with satisfaction, "You're just young and inexperienced, but your talent far surpasses mine."

"I didn't want such a good script to be tarnished, so I made such big changes. I just hope you don't blame me."

Huang Wenbin said, "No, no, no! I know Uncle Chen was actually protecting me."

"Okay, now that we've reached a consensus, the script is settled."

Chen Huaikai wasn't one to mince words, so he clapped his hands and said, "We still have one task today, which is to select the actors."

The original "Let the Bullets Fly" boasted a star-studded cast, including three big names in the main cast: Jiang Wen, Ge You, and Chow Yun-fat. The supporting cast was equally impressive, featuring actors such as Shao Bing, Liao Fan, and Chen Kun.

The female characters include Liu Jialing, Jiang Wen's wife Zhou Yun, as well as Miao Pu, Bai Bing, and the large, ordinary woman.

It is now 1979. Apart from Liao Bingyan and Zhang Guoli, whom he thought of as a joke, Huang Wenbin really couldn't think of any suitable actors for other roles.

"Uncle Chen, you can decide on the casting," Huang Wenbin said, sounding somewhat hesitant.

"It's alright. I had someone send audition notices to the actors in the factory, as well as the Central Academy of Drama and Beijing Film Academy, a couple of days ago. The auditions start today."

Chen Huaikai laughed heartily and said slowly, "The assistant director, casting director, and... will all be coming over later. As the screenwriter, your opinion is also very important."

Huang Wenbin nodded. "In that case, let me see the brilliance of actors from this era."