Entertainment Era: My Good Sister Is All Over the World

Spring rain is misty, spring wind is chilly, and there is a small building in the courtyard.

The exquisite little building is like a delicate beauty, gracefully standing in the wind and rain.

—Huang Ying, *The Legend of Shen Shengyi: The Peerless Score*, 1979

……

The selection process for the female roles, while not particularly intense, did produce some minor controversies.

One of them was Liu Xiaoqing who suddenly came to the conference room and asked Chen Huaikai to let her audition for the role of the county magistrate's wife.

Chen Huaikai couldn't help but feel a bit amused and exasperated.

Liu Xiaoqing is incredibly popular right now, playing leading roles in almost every film, and she never stops receiving offers for movies.

Not to mention the recently released "Look at This Family", there is another film, "Little Flower", to be released in the second half of the year.

Chen Huaikai saw that film during an internal screening, and he thought it was going to be a huge hit.

Although Liu Xiaoqing's private life is chaotic, she has played positive roles on the big screen. The role of the county magistrate's wife is not very big, but she is a prostitute, which is completely inconsistent with her current screen persona.

However, Liu Xiaoqing was convinced that the script for "Let the Bullets Fly" would be a hit, so she insisted on playing a role in it. If she couldn't play the county magistrate's wife, she would play Sister Hua.

Although Sister Hua has now been changed to a concubine, it's still not suitable for Liu Xiaoqing to play the role.

Liu Xiaoqing doesn't care about the size of the role; she just wants to get involved.

In the end, Chen Huaikai had no choice but to agree to give her a role, but he did not promise which role it would be.

Liu Xiaoqing finally stopped, otherwise she might have continued to cause trouble, and the audition would have been completely ruined.

After Liu Xiaoqing left, the auditions for the female roles went surprisingly smoothly, and in no time they found the county magistrate's wife, Sister Hua, and Daiyu and Qingwenzi.

The county magistrate's wife was cast in two roles. One was Cao Cuibin, who in later generations could only play the grandmother of the main character, but she was only 35 years old at the time and was an actress at the Shanghai Film Studio.

But it didn't matter. Chen Huaikai had already sent out notices to major film studios, welcoming their actors to audition.

The other one is Chen Zurong, who is only 37 years old this year and is also a veteran actress.

She rose to fame in 1966 for playing the lead role of Xiang Fei in the film "Female Pilot," which tells the story of China's first generation of female pilots. However, she didn't act much after that until February of this year when she played the gymnastics coach of the female lead in the sports film "The Swallow Flies," bringing her back into the mainstream spotlight.

In later generations, her most famous roles were You Shi in the 1989 film version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and Feng Shi, the wife of Zhen Shiyin, in the 1987 TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Of course, her son Yao Lu is also outstanding, as he played Hu Qian in the original "Let the Bullets Fly".

For the role of Sister Hua, the actress needed to be slightly younger than the county magistrate's wife, and Chen Huaikai decided on someone around 25 years old.

After auditioning many actresses, Chen Huaikai finalized the casting of Zhang Jinling and Li Xiuming, who will become two of the three future leading actresses of Beijing Film Studio, the other being Liu Xiaoqing.

When Huang Wenbin saw that Chen Huaikai had chosen these two, a mischievous thought suddenly arose in his mind: why not include all three actresses in this movie?

But then I realized I was being too presumptuous.

"Let the Bullets Fly" is a typical male-dominated film, with very few female characters. There are only two named characters, and Daiyu and Qingwenzi are not even real names; they are just casual remarks made up by Zhang Mazi.

The remaining two female characters are clearly Ma Bangde's wife from Shanxi, and the other is a commoner woman who has revealed her large, snow-capped breasts.

That would obviously be even more inappropriate.

These days, casting isn't the most urgent thing.

Sometimes, filming is even delayed for more than half a year because they can't find suitable actors.

By evening, after selecting a few more supporting roles with significant screen time, the auditions for the day were almost over.

As soon as the audition ended, Chen Huaikai called in the entire directing team, including the newcomers Zhang Yimou and Zhang Lai, for a meeting.

The main purpose was to discuss which roles the actors auditioned today were suitable for and to reach a consensus internally.

The current situation is that the supporting roles have been mostly cast, but the three main roles, Zhang Mazi, Ma Bangde, and Huang Silang, are not progressing as smoothly.

The role of Huang Silang, in particular, attracted auditions from actors who had previously played traitors, translators, and Japanese villains in war dramas.

These people's images don't match Huang Silang at all, and even Chen Huaikai couldn't quite accept them.

As for Zhang Mazi, there isn't a suitable candidate yet. Although Xu Min has been confirmed for the audition, he is relatively older, at least 35 years old, and has a tough guy like Ken Takakura.

"You should also keep an eye out and see if there are any suitable people. Don't limit yourself to actors; actors from other genres, stage actors, are all fine, as long as their appearance is suitable."

As the meeting was drawing to a close, Chen Huaikai said to the members of the directing team present, "Of course, I will also inform a few actors I know, and try to finalize the two control group actors by tomorrow, then go to the studio for a few days of auditions, and finalize all the roles within a week."

The others echoed in unison, and then the meeting adjourned.

"If you know anyone who could be a good fit for a role in the film, go find them as soon as possible!"

Chen Huaikai deliberately kept Huang Wenbin with him, now somewhat trusting the young man's judgment. "Don't keep things to yourself."

"Uncle Chen, I've only been at the Beijing Film Academy for a little over a year. How could I know so many friends?" Huang Wenbin couldn't help but laugh and explain, "I've just watched a lot of old and new movies, and I often listen to the radio and watch plays, so I know some unknown actors."

Chen Huaikai pondered for a moment, patted him on the shoulder, and teased, "Anyway, I'm going to have a surprise for you tomorrow too. You better get ready, or I won't allow it."

After saying that, he left.

Huang Wenbin couldn't help but shake his head.

However, Director Chen's words reminded him of the older brothers and sisters he had met before.

With that thought in mind, he went to the shed to get his bicycle, then rode out of the Beijing Film Studio and headed towards the China National Peking Opera Company.

There weren't many detours along the way; it was almost a straight line, and I arrived in half an hour.

Upon arriving at the National Peking Opera Company, he spoke to the gatekeeper and said, "I'm looking for Yu Rongguang, an actor here. Could you please pass on my message?"

About ten minutes later, a tall figure walked out of the theater.

"Brother Rong!" Huang Wenbin waved with a smile.

Yu Rongguang had clearly just removed her makeup, with some powder still on her face. She smiled at Huang Wenbin and said, "It's good that you're lucky today, otherwise you would have missed out."

"Huh, what do you mean?" Huang Wenbin asked, puzzled.

Yu Rongguang explained with a smile, "I am an actor from the Fenglei Peking Opera Troupe. I only come here occasionally to perform a couple of shows. I happen to have a show today, and I will go back tomorrow."

"That's quite a coincidence." Huang Wenbin came here mainly to see the beautiful Wei Huili; seeing Yu Rongguang was just a side thing.

Yu Rongguang led Huang Wenbin into the theater, found a quiet spot, and asked with a smile, "What did you want to see me about?"

"There is something I need." Huang Wenbin nodded and didn't beat around the bush: "Last time I suggested you go into acting, and it just so happens that there's a movie I wrote that's about to start filming at Beijing Film Studio, so I came to ask you, and Sister Wei Huili, if you're free to go to Beijing Film Studio for an audition."

"What kind of play?" Yu Rongguang was indeed interested.

In the world of Peking Opera, there's no way he can surpass his father.

So he had thought about changing careers a long time ago. He tried to get into the Beijing Film Academy last year and this year, but he didn't get in.

"It's a drama film, the kind of film where bandits fight against tyrants, but it's different from the bandit suppression films of the past."

Huang Wenbin briefly explained the plot and main characters to Yu Rongguang: "However, Rong-ge, you may not get to play the lead role, but I still have the right to make suggestions about supporting roles."

"It's an opportunity, thank you in advance." Yu Rongguang didn't give a direct answer, but said, "How about this, let's have a meal together later. I'll invite your sister Wei and a few new friends too, and we can chat while we eat."

"That's great!" Huang Wenbin nodded.