Entertainment Era: My Good Sister Is All Over the World

Guangdong Province.

Mountainous area of ​​Shaoguan.

It's raining again.

Du Qifeng, his face contorted in a frown, leaned against the door of a dilapidated house, smoking incessantly to drown his sorrows.

Liu Songren, one of the investors, was also frowning, his heart bleeding.

To make this movie, he spent all his savings from the past few years, just to take a gamble and see if he could become famous in the film industry. Even if he didn't become famous, he would at least make some money.

As a result, things have turned out like this.

His heart sank as soon as he arrived in the mountainous area of ​​northern Guangdong.

The transportation conditions here are really bad. The group of them carried all kinds of equipment into the mountains and walked for about a day and a half before three of them fell ill.

When filming was about to begin, several days of torrential rain occurred, and several people fell ill.

Finally, the rain stopped, but while filming on the mountain, two martial arts instructors slipped and broke bones because the mud was too slippery.

After a month, not many scenes were filmed, but most of the money had already been spent, and half the crew had been lost.

Sending the injured and sick back to Hong Kong cost money, and subsequent medical expenses will certainly need to be covered.

"I'm completely baffled. Why are you making a movie? Can't I just stick to being a TV star?"

Liu Songren's hair was frizzy and messy; he hadn't showered or washed his hair for over a week while he was in the mountains.

"Don't say that." Du Qifeng threw his cigarette butt into the rain, turned around and sat down next to Liu Songren. "This isn't your fault. Who knew we'd encounter this kind of weather and all this bad luck!"

There was another person in the room named Liu Jiang. He was originally an actor at CTV, but CTV went bankrupt last year, and he is currently a freelancer. So Liu Songren pulled him in to play the main villain, and he is also the assistant director.

"So what do we do next?" Liu Jiang frowned, looking worried. "Many staff and actors are making a fuss, saying they want to go back to Hong Kong. I'm not sure I can keep them in check."

Du Qifeng curled his lip: "They just want more money!"

Liu Songren touched his face and sighed, "I'll figure out the money later. This film still needs to be finished, otherwise all the work done so far will have been for nothing."

"We definitely have to finish filming!" Du Qifeng nodded. "If we finish filming, there's still a chance to get it released and give it a shot. If we don't finish filming, then we'll really have nothing left."

Liu Jiang, however, didn't share this positive attitude and asked, "Both martial arts instructors are injured and have returned to Hong Kong. How are the three of us, who don't know any martial arts, supposed to film this?"

"I called Master Zhu, and he said he's arranged someone for me!" Liu Songren looked up at the rain outside and said casually, "That person is in the mainland and should arrive in the next few days."

Du Qifeng asked, "Who?"

"Xu Xiaoming!" Liu Songren replied, "He has practiced since childhood, learning Wing Chun and Mantis Boxing. In 74, he worked with Jackie Chan and Corey Yuen on 'Four Kings and One Queen,' and he has also acted in many dramas for RTV. He has absolutely no problem with martial arts direction."

"That's good!" Liu Jiang breathed a sigh of relief. Having a martial arts instructor at least ensured that there would be no problems with the following scenes.

Du Qifeng's worries eased a little: "Once the rain stops, let's speed up the filming and finish. We can't stay here any longer."

Liu Songren actually wanted to give it another shot, after all, this film was his company's debut project, and if it failed to become a hit, the company would have to shut down.

However, he also knew that given the current situation, he could only finish filming as soon as possible, because who knew if there would be even worse weather or more serious accidents later on!

"Director Du, Ah Ren!"

At this moment, a figure hurriedly ran up from the foot of the mountain, looking rather anxious.

"What's wrong, Brother Wen?" Liu Songren was startled upon hearing the voice and immediately stood up. "What happened now?"

The visitor was photographer Chung Chih-wen, three years older than Liu Chung-jen. He had worked as a director in 1977, making a film that wasn't very well-known, and had been a photographer ever since.

He achieved great success in the future, participating as a photographer in classic works such as "An Autumn's Tale," "God of Gamblers," "Once Upon a Time in China," and "Flirting Scholar." After the new millennium, he also participated in the filming of the American TV series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

"Nothing happened. It's just that martial arts instructor Xu Xiaoming has arrived and is at the guesthouse at the foot of the mountain."

Chung Chih-wen caught his breath and said softly, "He's reading a script and asked me to call you. He has something to say to you."

Liu Jiang immediately turned to look at Liu Songren; he himself had long wanted to leave the mountain. Staying on this mountain was nothing but suffering.

"Let's go!" Liu Songren's eyes darted around, and he made a decision: "Let's go down and talk to him together."

Du Qifeng's feelings were somewhat complicated, but he still followed them down the mountain.

Down the mountain, at the guesthouse.

Although it was called a guesthouse, it was actually just an ordinary house.

Originally vacant, the owner had fled, but the village chief specially had it cleaned up and then used as a guesthouse for a film crew from Hong Kong.

At this moment, Xu Xiaoming was flipping through the script, his brows furrowing more and more as he read.

His appearance terrified Cherie Chung, who was standing next to him.

Cherie Chung is only 19 years old and just won fourth place in this year's Miss Hong Kong pageant. She has never acted before.

She felt that Xu Xiaoming was very serious, and seemed to have an aura that made her afraid to approach him.

"How long did it take to film this movie?" Xu Xiaoming, having almost finished flipping through the script, turned to Chung Chu-hung and asked, "How many of your scenes were filmed?"

Chung Chor-hung stared with her big, watery eyes, then shook her head: "I don't know."

Xu Xiaoming then asked, "So how's things going on with your film crew right now?"

"I...I don't know." Chung Chu-hung shook her head again, then noticed Xu Xiaoming frowning again, and quickly said, "Because of the weather, some people have been injured, and people have been leaving these past few days. Now there should be less than twenty people left."

Xu Xiaoming couldn't help but chuckle: "Those conditions must be pretty tough for you. Can you handle it?"

"It's alright. I started helping my family make a living when I was 11, so this little bit of hardship is nothing."

Chung Chor-hung is well aware of her current status as a newcomer. If it weren't for Lau Chung-yan specifically requesting her to play the lead role, she would never have been able to film a movie so quickly, so she maintains a very humble attitude.

"Xiaoming! Mingzai!"

Liu Songren hurriedly ran down the mountain and shouted at Xu Xiaoming from afar.

"You're here, that's great!" He stepped forward and hugged Xu Xiaoming tightly, almost crying with grievance.

The two are old acquaintances, both working at RTV (Rediffusion Television), and they collaborated on the TV series "Family Spring and Autumn" back in 1974. According to the original timeline, they were also scheduled to co-star in another hit TV series, "The Land of Love," at the end of this year.

Looking at Liu Songren, who was covered in rain and mud, with messy hair and looking extremely haggard, Xu Xiaoming said speechlessly, "If you knew him, you'd think he was here to film a movie; if you didn't, you'd think he was fleeing a disaster!"

"You have no idea how much I've suffered!" Liu Songren almost burst into tears on the spot: "This film might wipe out my entire fortune."

Xu Xiaoming nodded: "You were quite prescient. With a script like this, it would be strange if it didn't lose money!"

Upon hearing this, Du Qifeng, who was following behind, looked somewhat displeased.

"Is this script not good enough?" Liu Songren released Xu Xiaoming.

In the past, Xu Xiaoming might have said that the script was mediocre, because many Hong Kong films had such rough scripts, or even no script at all, and would just start filming based on the director's idea, and then find someone to write the scenes and dialogue on the spot.

However, Xu Xiaoming is different now. During his time at the Beijing Film Studio, under Huang Wenbin's tutelage, his appreciation of scripts has greatly improved, and his screenwriting skills have also made a qualitative leap. Moreover, he even specifically sought out and read several of Huang Wenbin's scripts.

"This is what a script should be!" After reading the scripts for "Shaolin Temple" and "The Cotton Robe," he exclaimed.

When he saw the script for "Let the Bullets Fly," he was even more amazed. His admiration for Huang Wenbin reached a new peak. He felt that the script would be just as good as any script if it were shown abroad.

"Your script is as rough as toilet paper." Xu Xiaoming and Liu Songren are old friends, so he spoke quite directly: "The background of the story is already a mess, involving Wei Zhongxian, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and even the Prefectural Governor... but none of these things are used in the plot."

The story clearly aims to depict a gold robbery, yet it's bogged down in numerous unnecessary subplots. Take, for example, the character You Yiru. He fakes his death, resurrects, only to be killed by the protagonist – what's the point? He contributes absolutely nothing to the plot; he's just a plot device, a mere suspense element.

"And this..."

In one breath, Xu Xiaoming pointed out more than a dozen problems, big and small, in the script, leaving it riddled with holes.

Liu Songren said embarrassedly, "I paid Mr. Zhu Yan 30,000 yuan to write this script."

"This lousy script isn't even worth a thousand dollars."

Xu Xiaoming said without any politeness.

"You've gone a bit too far with what you're saying." Du Qifeng, who was standing next to him, was a little annoyed. Although he also felt that the script was not of high quality, it didn't deserve to be criticized like this.

Xu Xiaoming looked up at Du Qifeng: "Who are you?"

Liu Songren quickly introduced him, saying, "His name is Du Qifeng. He is an assistant director at TVB and a disciple of the renowned director Wang Tianlin."

"These are what you call scripts!" Xu Xiaoming didn't waste any words with Du Qifeng, and directly took out a movie magazine from his bag and threw it to Du Qifeng.

Du Qifeng took a look and found that the magazine was called "Film Creation" and was published by Beijing Film Studio.

He discovered it was a mainland Chinese film magazine and instinctively felt disdain. In his view, with such a backward entertainment industry in mainland China, what good scripts could it possibly have?

This is the latest issue of *Film Creation*, featuring a special issue on Huang Wenbin's film scripts. It's a special edition that Wang Yang commissioned Jiang Huaiyan to prepare in advance. Since Wang Yang foresaw Huang Wenbin's rise to fame, everyone would be eager to capitalize on it, so there's no reason why the Beijing Film Studio wouldn't. This issue is significantly thicker, featuring *Let the Bullets Fly*, the adapted *The Coffin in the Mountain*, and reprints of *Shaolin Temple* and *The Cotton Robe*.

Du Qifeng first turned to "The Cotton Robe" and was somewhat surprised. It was indeed a mature commercial film script. Although the quality was not top-notch, the skill was already better than many screenwriters in the Hong Kong film industry at that time.

Looking at "Shaolin Temple" again, I was surprised once more. Although the script seemed ordinary, he was a professional filmmaker and could easily see that the script had a high potential. If some famous action stars could be invited to act in it, it would definitely be a hit.

Upon seeing "The Coffin in the Mountain," Johnnie To was speechless with amazement. The script was phenomenal, a genre never before seen in Hong Kong. Even with the rise of the so-called New Wave cinema, no work had yet emerged that could rival this script.

Finally, he watched "Let the Bullets Fly," and he was completely convinced; the script was simply divine.

"Is this Huang Wenbin a famous writer from mainland China?"

Du Qifeng asked impatiently, "If I have the chance, I must meet him. These few works alone are enough to make him a master."

"What old man?" Xu Xiaoming chuckled. "He's only 19. He's my adopted brother from mainland China. Isn't his biography listed above?"

Du Qifeng was taken aback. He casually flipped through the pages and actually found Huang Wenbin's introduction.

The post also included several photos, including one of the elderly man shaking hands with him.

Upon seeing this, Du Qifeng couldn't help but swear, but it was out of extreme astonishment:

"Damn!"