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

The week Chen Mo joined the crew, another event caused quite a stir in the entertainment industry.

Gu Chenyang has officially announced his new film.

Gu Chenyang is the one who played Huo Qubing in "The Pride of Han Dynasty" and was dubbed the "Foundation General".

After being ridiculed by the entire internet for more than half a year, his management team made a painful decision to transform his image.

The direction of the transformation is towards realistic themes.

He took on a role in a movie called "Flowers in the Mud," playing a food delivery worker in an urban village.

The investors were very willing to spend money on publicity, releasing dozens of press releases on the day of the official announcement. The core narrative was only one: "Gu Chenyang sheds his idol label, challenges himself with a grassroots role, and proves with his strength that he is more than just a pretty face."

The accompanying photo is a candid shot of Gu Chenyang in an urban village.

Wearing a food delivery uniform, riding an electric scooter, and with some dirty makeup on her face.

It certainly looks much more down-to-earth than the "foundation general".

But the reactions in the comments section were quite interesting.

"The foundation general is going to play a food deliveryman? I'll laugh first."

"Don't be so quick to mock them. What if they really have undergone a complete transformation? Give them a chance."

"I'll give him a chance, but first wash off that layer of foundation on your face. Look at his skin in the leaked photos. Which deliveryman has skin that fair? Wouldn't he get three shades darker after a day in the sun?"

"The last point hits the nail on the head. Look at Chen Mo; he tanned his skin to play Xiang Yu. That's the difference."

This last comment was pushed to the top of the trending comments.

Once again, Chen Mo was compared to Gu Chenyang.

This is the third time.

The first one was "Young Huo Qubing" vs. "The Pride of Han Dynasty".

The second one is Chen Mo's old stills vs. Gu Chenyang's "Foundation General".

The third time is now.

Coincidentally, Chen Mo also took on realistic roles, and these roles also involved people from the lower classes.

One played a truck driver, and the other played a food deliveryman.

However, the two people prepared in completely different ways.

Gu Chenyang's "experience of life" involved spending three days in an urban village, taking a series of behind-the-scenes photos, and then posting a blog entry: "For this role, I put aside all my fame."

The accompanying photo shows his profile in a delivery uniform, riding an electric scooter. The lighting and composition are very sophisticated, clearly taken by a professional photographer.

Chen Mo's "experience in life" involved spending a month at a truck driving school, developing calluses on his hands, tanning his skin a shade darker, and making friends with seven or eight real truck drivers.

There were no Reuters photos, no blog posts, and no press releases.

He didn't even tell anyone that he had taken on Zhou Mu's new film.

The news didn't start circulating online until the day I joined the production team.

"Chen Mo has joined Zhou Mu's new film 'Silent Snow' and will play the male lead."

The moment this news broke, the comment section exploded.

"Chen Mo played a tyrant and then a truck driver? That's quite a leap!"

"Zhou Mu's film! This is Zhou Mu! Has Chen Mo jumped straight from TV dramas to top-tier art films?"

"Some people say that Gu Chenyang playing a food deliveryman is a career change, so what about Chen Mo playing a truck driver? Is it some kind of game-changer?"

This last line tied the two of them together again.

Gu Chenyang saw these comments while on the set of "Flowers in the Mud".

He put down his phone, his expression complex.

It's not anger.

It's something deeper than anger.

It's anxiety.

He knew that his transition was not going smoothly.

During the three days he "experienced life" in the urban village, he stayed in a hotel arranged by the film crew, only going to the urban village during the day to take behind-the-scenes photos.

He learned to ride an electric bike on the spot, and fell twice after riding for half a day. The final leaked photo was the best one out of dozens that the photographer chose to release.

His "dirty makeup" was meticulously applied by a makeup artist over two hours; it looked like sweat and dust, but felt smooth to the touch.

It's not that he doesn't want to experience life.

He didn't know what to do.

Or rather, his team wouldn't allow him to do that.

"You're a celebrity, not a real food delivery worker," his agent said. "You just need to look like one. If you actually deliver food and get recognized, and your skin gets sunburned after a day in the scorching sun, what will happen to your future endorsement contracts?"

This is the most fundamental difference between Gu Chenyang and Chen Mo.

It's not a difference in talent.

It's not a difference in the level of effort.

It's because they have different understandings of the word "actor".

Chen Mo believes that actors should become the characters they portray.

Gu Chenyang believes that actors only need to "look like" the character.

"To become" and "to resemble" differ by only one word, yet they are worlds apart.

But Chen Mo was unaware of these things and didn't care.

He has only one thing on his mind right now.

Meng Chuan.

The filming location for "Silent Snow" is a small city in Jilin Province in Northeast China.

It started snowing in Northeast China in November.

The film crew was stationed in a small hotel on the outskirts of the city. The conditions were very basic; the heating was barely adequate, and the windows were not very airtight, so you could hear the wind seeping in through the cracks in the middle of the night.

Zhou Mu has a unique approach to filming: he dislikes building sets and prefers to use real locations as much as possible.

He felt that no matter how realistic the set was built, it would still have a sense of "cleanliness", while the real environment had a rough, unprocessed texture, which was the natural soil for the actors' performance.

Therefore, the filming of "Silent Snow" was almost entirely completed in real locations.

Abandoned factories, old residential areas, frozen rivers, and roads in the snow.

On his first day on set, Chen Mo did one thing.

He went to see the large truck that Zhou Mu had arranged for him.

An old-fashioned Jiefang brand truck, its blue cab paint peeling off, and its cargo box covered in rust.

This car belongs to Meng Chuan.

He was driving this car before he was arrested.

Twelve years later, when he was released from prison, the car was still there, parked in an abandoned parking lot covered in snow.

Chen Mo climbed into the driver's seat and sat down.

He did not start the engine.

He just sat there, his hands on the steering wheel, looking at the gray sky outside the windshield.

I sat there for about ten minutes.

Then he got out of the car, walked to the front of the car, and touched the rusty bumper with his hand.

My finger traced the rust, leaving a faint mark.

The stagehand glanced at it but didn't pay much attention.

But Zhou Mu saw it.

He stood at a distance, wearing a scarf, his hands in his pockets, watching Chen Mo's every move.

"What is he doing?" the assistant asked.

"I got to know his car," Zhou Mu said.

The assistant didn't quite understand the meaning of that sentence.

But Zhou Mu understood.

The relationship between Meng Chuan and this car is not that of "driver and vehicle".

This car represents everything Meng Chuan had for the first half of his life.

He supported his family with this car, traveled all over China with it, and slept countless nights in the driver's seat.

For Meng Chuan, this car feels more like home than his own.

Therefore, Chen Mo needs to establish contact with the car first.

It's not the kind of connection where "I know this is my prop".

Rather, it's the kind of connection where "I can tell with my eyes closed which part of the steering wheel is worn and at what angle my hands should be when shifting gears."

This connection takes time.

It also needs quiet.

The first scene that was filmed was the very first shot of the entire film.

Meng Chuan was released from prison.

The prison gates opened, and a man wearing an old cotton-padded coat walked out.

He was carrying a plastic bag containing his personal belongings from when he went to prison.

He stood at the prison gate, looking out at the world.

He went in during the summer twelve years ago.

It's winter now.

The sky was overcast, and the snow hadn't fallen yet, but the air already had that damp, chilly smell.

"Let's begin," Zhou Mu said.

There was no shout of "Action" or use of a walkie-talkie.

He simply said two words calmly.

Chen Mo walked out of the prison gate.

He walked very slowly.

It's not the kind of slowness that's deliberately slowed down, but rather a slowness where the body has almost forgotten how to walk in open space.

Twelve years of prison life had conditioned him to move in confined spaces. Six steps to the wall, turn around, six steps back.

There's no wall in front of me now.

He didn't know how fast or how far to go.

His shoulders were slightly hunched.

It's not cold.

It is an instinctive form of self-protection.

In prison, hunching your shoulders means "I'm no threat, don't pay attention to me."

This posture has been etched into his muscle memory.

He stopped after walking out the door.

I looked up at the sky.

I only looked at it for a few seconds.

There were no lines, and no changes in expression.

But everyone watching the monitor sensed something.

That was the feeling of someone who had been forgotten by the world for twelve years, seeing the sky again.

It wasn't excitement, it wasn't joy.

It's bewilderment.

A vast, overwhelming sense of bewilderment.

The sky is still the same sky.

But he is no longer the same person he used to be.

"Card."

Zhou Mu's voice was very soft.

He did not comment on whether it was good or bad.

He only said one sentence to the assistant director.

"Next game."

Zhou Mu never praises actors on set.

He felt that praise would make the actors complacent.

But his assistant director had been with him for fifteen years and had long since learned to read his micro-expressions.

When Zhou Mu said "next game," the corners of his mouth curved up by 0.5 millimeters more than usual.

In the "Zhou Mu Expression Rating System", this is equivalent to giving a thumbs up.