Huayu: Starting with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu

The filming of "The Legend of Chu and Han" lasted for two and a half months.

The final scene is his suicide at the Wujiang River.

This scene took a whole day to film.

It was unusual for Gao Xi to make Chen Mo go through seven takes before he finally passed.

It wasn't because he acted badly, but because Gao hope felt he could have done better.

After each take was filmed, Gao hope would walk up to Chen Mo and whisper a few words to him.

The conversation between the two was not very clear to those around them, but they could see that Chen Mo was listening attentively each time, nodding, and then returning to his seat to start over.

When the seventh take was finished, Gao hope sat behind the monitor for a long time.

Then he stood up, walked to the center of the set, and said something to everyone.

Filming has wrapped.

The tone was very soft.

But everyone heard it.

Cheers and applause erupted on set as someone brought out flowers and a cake that had been prepared in advance.

Chen Mo stood there, still wearing the costume from Xiang Yu's last scene, covered in sweat, his hair a mess from the wind.

He looked at the celebrating crowd around him and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

Then she closed her eyes.

It closed for about three seconds.

When he opened his eyes again, Xiang Yu was no longer there.

Only Chen Mo.

Shut down.

Clean and neat.

the last time.

We had our wrap dinner at a restaurant near the film studio that evening.

During the meal, Gao hope drank three glasses of baijiu (Chinese liquor), which was unprecedented for him. After his face turned red, he said a few words.

"This film took two and a half months to shoot. It was the most tiring film I've ever made in my 30 years of filming, but it's also the one I'm most satisfied with."

He picked up his fourth glass of wine and glanced at Chen Mo.

"You portrayed Xiang Yu better than I expected. I originally thought you'd be lucky to get a 70% score."

Just as Chen Mo was about to say something modest, Gao hope's next sentence cut him off.

"But you've achieved 95 points. The remaining 5 points are for you to break through in your next film."

After saying that, he tilted his head back and drank it.

This is the highest praise Gao Xineng could give.

Chen Mo picked up the cola in front of him, stood up, and bowed slightly to Gao hope.

"Thank you, Director Gao."

He doesn't drink alcohol.

He didn't drink a drop of alcohol during the two and a half months of filming.

Because alcohol can affect the shooting condition the next day.

Everyone present knew this detail, and no one forced him to drink.

After spending two and a half months in the crew, everyone had gotten used to Chen Mo's style.

Quiet, self-disciplined, and unassuming.

But she's like a completely different person in front of the camera.

After the wrap party, Chen Daomin found Chen Mo.

"Come on, let's go out for a bit."

Chen Mo followed him to a small path outside the film crew's residence.

On an early summer night, the air is filled with the scent of grass and earth.

Chen Daomin took something out of his pocket and handed it to him.

It's a script.

It's very old; the cover is worn and the corners are curled.

Upon opening it, the title page bore the words "Cao Cao," and below it were densely covered handwritten notes by Chen Daomin.

The characters are written in tiny, neat characters, with meticulous care.

Some are annotations of the lines, some are analyses of the characters' psychology, and some are just a few simple words, such as "ruthless," "enduring," and "killing with a smile."

Chen Mo's fingers tightened slightly.

He knew what it was.

This is the script that Chen Daomin used when he played Cao Cao 28 years ago.

It is one of Chen Daomin's most precious possessions.

"Teacher Chen, I can't accept this." Chen Mo shook his head.

"Take it." Chen Daomin's tone left no room for negotiation. "This thing will just collect dust for me. With you, it might even shine a little brighter."

Chen Mo looked at the script in his hand, unsure of what to say for a moment.

"I gave you this not because of your good acting," Chen Daomin said, his hands behind his back, looking at the distant moon. "It's because you remind me of myself twenty-eight years ago. Back then, I was just like you—poor, stubborn, and without connections, but I just wanted to act well. How far you go in this industry doesn't depend on how famous you are, but on whether you can remember why you started when you're at your peak."

He turned to look at Chen Mo.

"You have a long road ahead of you. Don't rush."

Chen Mo gripped the script tightly in his hand.

He didn't say those platitudes like "I will definitely live up to your expectations."

He simply nodded.

I pointed it very hard.

Chen Daomin looked at him and smiled.

Then he turned and left.

After taking a few steps, he turned back.

"Oh, right, when you get back, take care of your blog followers. Hundreds of thousands of people are following you; you can't just not post any new updates."

Chen Mo was taken aback, not expecting that Chen Daomin would pay attention to such matters.

"Teacher Chen, you also browse blogs?"

"I didn't swipe it. My granddaughter swiped it and let me see for a moment."

After saying that, he left without looking back.

Chen Mo stood alone by the roadside, clutching the old script from twenty-eight years ago, watching Chen Daomin's figure slowly disappear into the night.

The summer night breeze blew by, stirring the hem of his clothes.

He glanced down at the script.

Then I carefully put it into the innermost layer of my backpack.

It was placed together with his book, *Records of the Grand Historian*.

One of them is a history book from more than two thousand years ago.

One of them is a notebook from twenty-eight years ago.

The two books were stacked together, and they weren't very heavy.

But for Chen Mo, this is the most important thing he currently possesses.

It's much more important than the money in my bank account.

The post-production of "The Legend of Chu and Han" took four months.

Gao hope's requirements for post-production were just as obsessive as his requirements for filming. The editing went through more than a dozen versions, the background music was changed three times, and the color grading took more than two months.

Chen Mo did several things in those four months.

First, I maintained daily updates on the blog platform.

The content is simple, just everyday life: running, reading, and occasionally sharing a video of myself practicing lines in my rented apartment.

There was no elaborate planning or team management; it was just the daily life of an ordinary young person.

But it is precisely because of its "ordinary" nature that it has attracted a large number of fans.

One video went viral.

The content shows him practicing his posture in front of a mirror on the balcony of his rented apartment.

The lighting was poor, the image quality was mediocre, and you could even see socks hanging on a clothes rack in the background.

But the comments section exploded.

"Is that physique the result of hard work or natural? I'm so jealous."

"Others practice their physical fitness in professional studios, but he practices on the balcony of a rented apartment. But look at the precision of his movements. A friend of mine who studied acting at the Central Academy of Drama for a year said he's better than most of his classmates."

"What brand are those socks hanging on the clothes rack? I'd like to see a link to the same style."

This last comment received the most upvotes.

Chen Mo laughed for a long time after seeing it.

In this era where everyone is trying to "create a persona," a person who doesn't try to create a persona is the biggest persona in themselves.

Over four months, the number of followers increased from 60,000 to 280,000.

Secondly, he turned down all variety show offers.

His experience filming "The Legend of Chu and Han" brought him some attention within the industry, and producers of several variety shows contacted him through various channels.

One of them is currently the most popular talk show, and the price offered is not low.

He refused them all.

The reason is the same as it was five years ago.

He doesn't want to rely on variety shows to maintain his popularity; he wants his work to speak for itself.

"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Wang Zhiping called to ask him. "That talk show has a lot of influence. Going on it will help you get roles later."

"I know. But I'm still not going."

Why?

"Because I don't have a second notable work yet. When I'm on a show and people ask me 'What are your plans for the future?' and I say 'Not yet,' it's so awkward. It's not too late to go on the show when I have a new project."

Wang Zhiping was silent for two seconds on the other end of the phone, then laughed.

"Your mind doesn't seem like that of a twenty-three-year-old."

"Maybe he was criticized for being precocious."

"...Alright then."

Third, he read the old script that Chen Daomin had given him three times.

Each time I read it, I gain something new.

Chen Daomin's annotations on the script are not textbook-style analyses, but rather the genuine traces of an actor's thinking during the creative process.

Some places have signs that say, "He needs to be ruthless here, but the audience can't feel that he's evil."

Some places have signs that say, "The laughter here is fake, but so fake that you have to believe it's real."

Another sign reads, "Look down for a third of a second, then look up. In that third of a second, the audience will imagine a million possibilities for you."

Chen Mo copied these annotations one by one into his notebook, and then practiced them repeatedly in front of the mirror.

For a third of a second, his eyes drooped.

He practiced for the entire afternoon.

In mid-September, the release date for "Legend of Chu and Han" was set.

It will officially air on satellite TV during prime time on October 1st.

On the first day of the broadcast, Chen Mo sat in his rented room and turned on the TV.

He rarely watches TV, but he made an exception today.

The first episode includes the scene where "he can be replaced".

He looked at himself on the screen, dressed in coarse cloth and short brown clothes, standing by the roadside, watching Qin Shi Huang's carriage.

Then he said those seven words.

He thought it was alright.

There's room for improvement, but it's alright.

He turned off the TV, turned on his phone, and prepared to check the online feedback.

Then he couldn't stand it anymore.

It's not because of the insults.

It's because the style of the comments section was completely different from what he had expected.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! Who is this? Who's acting this? I'm going to die on the spot!"

"Wait, wait, isn't this the expressionless general from five years ago? When did he become like this???"

"I've read the phrase 'He can be replaced' a hundred times in my textbooks before, and I never thought it was anything special. But when this actor said it, I got goosebumps all over."

"I now formally retract all the bad things I said five years ago. I'm sorry, Chen Mo, I called you a 'stone-faced general' back then, now I call you a tyrant."

"Did anyone else cry like me? Not the kind of crying that comes from sadness, but the kind of crying that comes from being suddenly struck by something. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I just couldn't stop myself from crying."

Chen Mo looked at it for a while, then put down his phone.

The corners of her mouth curved slightly.

Okay.

The audience saw what he wanted to express.

This is enough.

But this is only the beginning.

The real storm has yet to begin.