Chapter 656

Without a doubt, "Lighting Up the Stars" is a film with a realist theme.

The male lead, Mo Sanmei, is a funeral director who specializes in grooming the deceased, resetting stiff corpses, and repairing bodies that have been disfigured.

The male lead clearly dislikes his profession; he hadn't really figured out how to live until he met the female lead, the little girl Xiaowen. Only after having this "daughter" did he begin to gradually understand everything he was doing.

The tone of the entire film is very much like a Chinese-style fairy tale, meant to soothe the soul with the most grounded, human warmth.

There is actually a very famous work with this type of theme called "Departures," which was produced by our neighbors in Japan back in 2008.

Once the film is released, I reckon quite a few people will associate the two and put them side-by-side for comparison.

However, after Bai Liang finished the script, he felt that this thing was only similar to "Departures" in terms of the work the protagonist does. If you really want to find a "close relative," it's more like that film "Bunny Drop."

"Bunny Drop" is a 2011 Japanese film; the male lead is Kenichi Matsuyama, and the actress playing the little girl is the famous Japanese child star Mana Ashida.

It's all that trope of a single young man adopting a little girl, and then they redeem and grow with each other.

However, the social conflicts expressed by the two films are different, which is fine; after all, if they were the same, that would be a disaster.

Guo Guo Xiaosi is still being roasted for that~

As for the film "Lighting Up the Stars," after Bai Liang joined, many of the previous problems were no longer problems, and it suddenly went from hard or complex mode to simple mode.

The entire production team had a feeling of, "We don't lack anything now!"

However, there was one problem that couldn't be solved by Bai Liang's reputation, and that was the female lead!

It is often said that there are three things that are difficult to film in the movie industry: children, animals, and water.

The reason children are difficult to film starts with the difficulty of casting.

Classic child portrayals in film history, such as Toto in "Cinema Paradiso" or Danny in "The Shining," are all one-in-a-thousand, once-in-a-lifetime choices.

If the protagonist of a film is a child, then the film can only succeed if the right person is chosen, just like Mana Ashida, who has shaped countless classic child roles.

The role of the female lead, Xiaowen, in "Lighting Up the Stars" was once the biggest challenge before filming started.

The director was even advised multiple times to cut down the child's scenes; after all, with his requirements, such a child star was too hard to find.

Hmm... Yang Mi, who was a child star back in the day, might have been able to meet his requirements, but the current Yang Mi is already over thirty.

In the end, they caught the current female lead, Yang Yang Enyou, on a legal education program.

On that program, Yang Yang Enyou cried very convincingly...

But~ whether the film can succeed also depends heavily on the "bond" between Yang Yang Enyou and Bai Liang.

For a little girl this small, talking to her about so-called acting skills is a troublesome thing; the best way is to get along well before filming starts.

This really tests Bai Liang's "skills."

How to get along with a strange little girl in the shortest amount of time so that the two can express the feeling the director wants during filming?

"So... she was just dumped on me?"

"Mr. Bai, please take good care of our little actress and teach her a lot."

Bai Liang looked down at the seven-year-old girl; she was quite cute.

He didn't show the feeling of being at a loss as others had guessed.

Being at a loss is normal; how many single young men who are unmarried and have no children know how to take care of a child?

At this moment, Yang Yang Enyou was also trying hard to lift her head, looking at Bai Liang with a curious gaze, and she was also a bit reserved, though she didn't have the fear of a stranger.

Director: That's not right? This child wasn't like this when she faced me just now.

The next second, he saw the little girl timidly grab Bai Liang's hand, and then she looked up again, her little face seemingly full of expectation.

To be precise, she put her little hand into Bai Liang's hand.

The director turned and left!

His inner thought was just two words: Awesome!

I had heard long ago that the great Immortal Bai is particularly liked by girls; after all, all kinds of young ladies and older sisters have provided so many examples.

You could say he kills it from eighteen to forty-eight.

Seeing it now, I still underestimated him; might as well include women of all age groups.

Of course, it's definitely a bit inappropriate to dump such a small girl directly onto a "single" young man like Bai Liang.

After all, the crew is full of people with loose tongues, and besides, some perverted birds on the other side of the ocean have already made a mess of things on that island...

However, the director had anticipated this in advance; look, before Bai Liang had exchanged a few words with the little girl, Ni Ni and Zhao Zhao Liying had already smelled the scent and come over.

"So cute!"

"So this is our female lead~ The little girl is so well-behaved! I like her!"

"Come, let sister give you a hug..."

Hearing what these two sisters said, before Bai Liang could speak, Wang Wang Yanlin couldn't hold back and said, "Logically speaking, shouldn't she call you Auntie? She just called me Uncle a moment ago~"

This guy just didn't want to be the only one who was "old."

However, as soon as he finished speaking, two gazes instantly locked onto him, as if they could destroy him at any moment!

You little brat!

Making "that kind of joke" with female stars, right?

Bai Liang patted his good buddy on the shoulder, "Have you really never died before?"

Wang Wang Yanlin suddenly felt his scalp tingle. When they had dinner last night, weren't these two sisters quite gentle and magnanimous... Alright, this is a red line that cannot be touched!

Fortunately, Bai Liang still stepped in to help his good buddy.

"I suddenly remembered one thing; you need to find another best man."

"What? Didn't you just agree to me yesterday?" Wang Wang Yanlin asked, puzzled.

Bai Liang spread his hands, "I flipped through the memories in my brain and suddenly discovered that you, damn it, already asked me about this last year."

"Did I?"

Wang Wang Yanlin felt that something was wrong everywhere he listened, and the corners of his mouth twitched twice.

What do you mean by "flipped through the memories in my brain"? Can this thing be flipped through?

Are you searching for data on a computer by keywords here?

"Yes~ I told you at the time that I couldn't be the best man."

"I remember now!"

Wang Wang Yanlin slapped his forehead; there really was such a thing, back when they were recording "Full-of-Energy Brothers."

That time, he and Yang Yang made a bet to stake out Bai Liang in the hotel lobby, just wanting to see his state with those two girls to judge who he spent the night with.

Men, you know, are sometimes just that bored.

As a result, they were caught by Bai Liang, and Wang Wang Yanlin was sold out by Yang Yang in a backhand move. He stubbornly made up an excuse saying he had something to ask him, and then asked about the best man thing.

But to tell the truth, Wang Wang Yanlin hadn't even proposed to his girlfriend at that time; this was really an excuse he forced out on the spot, and he had completely forgotten about it after more than half a year.