Chapter 212

March 20, HR District, China Film Group Shuzi Zhizuo Jidi; it's said this place received over 2 billion in investment, which is outrageous for this era.

But its functions are comprehensive—film production, sound recording, and digital processing can all be completed here.

Games, advertisements, and animations can also be produced here; anything related to content is possible.

The place is divided into twelve zones, including a large digital studio and a set construction workshop—this is where "Superbody 1" was filmed.

In front of a fully equipped research base entrance, all actors and crew members of "Superbody 1" gathered together.

Fang Hong stood in the center, Liu Tianxian resting her hand on his shoulder; Chen Sicheng, Wen Muye, Liu Yin, Li Anran, Xie Miao, Song Jia, Li Zhuomei, and other main cast and crew lined up on either side, and everyone took a commemorative photo.

Thus, the film officially began shooting.

The first scene filmed involved a bus hijacked by terrorists wearing gas masks, who abducted a pregnant woman.

Then the bus and its occupants were pushed off a cliff to stage an accident.

At the research base, Song Jia, portraying Dr. Bai, had pure white hair—a deliberate design to externalize the character's personality and make it instantly clear to viewers that she was not a good person.

Don't make viewers think; tell them outright—this differs from the original.

The character Song Jia portrays is not only cunning but also a world-class neuroscientist.

They kidnapped pregnant women to use the embryos inside them as a foundation for cultivating superbodies that surpass human physical and cerebral limits.

So they captured many pregnant women and extracted body genes from physically superior humans, implanting these extreme genes into the fetuses.

They also extracted violent genes from the brains of death-row inmates and cultivated them into the embryos.

The original had one pregnant woman's embryo cloned into various different children; here, they changed it to capturing many pregnant women for cultivation.

Cloning is too far-fetched—the clones included boys and girls with wildly different appearances, all distinct.

After seven years of cultivation, the research base produced a group of special children.

During these seven years, the base's leadership used inhumane techniques to awaken the children's potential, enabling them to surpass ordinary human physical and cerebral functions.

Those whose bodies were enhanced to gain self-healing abilities were classified as Level Three superhumans.

Those who additionally gained telekinesis were classified as Level Two superhumans.

The standout among them was Liu Tianxian—portrayed as a child by Zhao Jinmai—who reached Level One, the S-Class superbody.

Besides her stronger telekinesis, she could teleport instantly, and her intellect was pushed to its peak, surpassing computers.

That is, Superbody No. 1! Zhao Jinmai is exactly ten years old this year—a suitable age for understanding, and her baby face fits perfectly.

The other children are also around ten years old; too young and they'd be hard to manage.

They wore uniform clothing and walked through the research base with blank expressions, like puppets.

During a performance evaluation, Superbody No. 1—Zhao Jinmai—faced a pack of wolves with chilling calmness, showing no panic, and instantly slaughtered them all.

This scene unsettled Song Jia and the base's leadership, because Superbody No. 1 seemed to have slipped beyond their control.

At this stage, they lacked the technological means to control a being so far beyond their capabilities.

So they summoned mutant armed forces to eliminate Superbody No. 1.

Superbody No. 1, using her superhuman perception, realized that Professor Song Jia viewed her power as too great and uncontrollable, and planned to kill her.

So she pre-planned her escape, using her extraordinary intelligence and mutant abilities to flee—naturally triggering a mutant ambush.

But she wasn't just smart—she was also incredibly strong, fighting her way out of the encirclement, even nearly killing a child during the escape—the child who would grow up to be "Young Master Zhao"! Young Master Zhao is the original's nobleman, here changed to Young Master Zhao, still portrayed by Fang Hong, an S-Class villain.

But as a child, he was weak, which is why he nearly died at Superbody No. 1's hands.

The fight scenes in this film aren't as violent or gory as the original; instead, they carry an artistic tone, in the style of Yuen Woo-ping.

Too much violence would make it hard to release.

After Superbody No. 1 escaped, Song Jia at the base didn't care—she knew Superbody No. 1 would return eventually, because their research had a fatal flaw.

The superbody's brain utilization rate was too high; without a special drug, the brain would explode within a month.

But Superbody No. 1 was clever—she went to a peasant household whose elderly couple had lost their only child.

Using her exceptional acting, she convinced the couple to treat her as their own daughter.

So she stopped using her powers and lowered her bodily functions, delaying the brain explosion, enduring for ten full years.

But she often suffered headaches—a lingering side effect.

This character is extremely calculating and deeply sinister.

When Superbody No. 1 grew up, she became Liu Tianxian; in the warm peasant family, she developed humanity—a compassionate, empathetic aura.

No longer a cold-blooded killing machine.

Although the opening backstory was shot extensively, if edited later, the entire cause and effect could be conveyed in mere minutes.

This version is tighter than the original; the original was 125 minutes, this one must be compressed under 100 minutes.

The original was too slow, making the payoff lack impact.

The girlfriend character was also cut—she's useless; the terrorists can directly kidnap her adoptive parents to drive the plot.

Liu Tianxian's motivation: she simply wants to survive; she can proactively reveal her powers to lure enemies.

The current filming location is a rural farm outside the city; it's early April, the season of warm spring and blooming flowers—the visuals are stunning.

After ten days of large-scale scenes, what follows is dialogue-driven drama.

Liu Tianxian lives peacefully with her adoptive parents here, carefree and relaxed.

"Ah!"

The peace didn't last—she suddenly felt her head splitting open, her face contorting in agony.

She crouched in the corner, clutching her head, forcing herself to endure it so her adoptive parents wouldn't worry, sweat beading on her forehead.

"Cut!" Chen Sicheng shouted from behind the monitor.

Fang Hong wasn't at the monitor—he stood with arms crossed, watching Liu Tianxian perform.

Although he's the director, he rarely operates the camera, only overseeing artistic direction—his art has only one goal: satisfaction. Hearing the call, the crew relaxed. "What's wrong, Director?" Liu Tianxian wiped her face with a tissue—her face was drenched in sweat.

"Your expression isn't rich enough—pain should crumple your entire face."

Chen Sicheng spread his five fingers and scratched at his own face: "That feeling of being squeezed together."

"Th-this is way too superficial!" Liu Tianxian said.

"It has to be like this, let people see your pain."

Chen Sicheng said a line, then returned to his seat, picked up the walkie-talkie: "All departments, take your positions, one more time."

Liu Tianxian looked at Fang Hong, the two locked eyes.

Fang Hong didn't say anything; he didn't feel Chen Sicheng had said anything wrong.

Liu Tianxian pulled her gaze back, could only do it again, and following Chen Sicheng's instructions just now, began to act.

She was seen holding her head, her features scrunched together, squatting on the ground with an exaggerated expression.

"Tianxian, don't tilt your head up, just face the camera normally, one more time." Chen Sicheng directed again.

"Okay!" Liu Tianxian said.

After filming twice, Chen Sicheng called "Cut" again, and said: "Not enough force, put more force into it."

"Okay!" Liu Tianxian obeyed.

After filming several more times, Chen Sicheng patted his forehead, holding back his temper: "Don't cry, it's just pain, very painful, wipe the tears away."

"This isn't a crying scene, it's pain. A super-high-IQ person wouldn't cry—it's not like their dad or mom just died." Fang Hong also chimed in from the side.

The people around were all watching; Liu Tianxian was finding it hard—just one expression of pain, filmed over a dozen times and still couldn't pass.

Is her acting really that bad? They thought it looked pretty good!

"Okay!"

Liu Tianxian, very obedient, began filming again.

This time there was a little something to it, but it still didn't meet the requirement of "pain."

"Everyone take a break first."

Chen Sicheng held his forehead, called into the walkie-talkie, then walked up to Liu Tianxian, with emotion in his voice: "I don't know what you're thinking."

"You do your thing, I'll talk to her." Fang Hong cut in, his tone stiff.

Chen Sicheng paused, his momentum involuntarily weakening a few degrees: "Alright."

Having said that, he silently stepped back.

He had just arrived and didn't really know the special relationship between Liu Tianxian and Fang Hong, so he couldn't say anything too hurtful.

Chen Sicheng sat down next to Wen Muye: "Did I do something wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong, you said something wrong." Wen Muye said.

"I've already controlled my temper very well." Chen Sicheng complained.

"You just arrived and don't know—our Principal doesn't like to criticize people, and even less likes to criticize Liu Tianxian." Wen Muye said.

"What do you mean? Even if they're a couple, you don't have to protect her that much—if something needs to be said, it still needs to be said, right?" Chen Sicheng turned his head.

"I don't know either; once you've been here longer, you'll understand." Wen Muye said.

Anyway, he'd followed the Principal for so long and had never seen the Principal criticize Liu Tianxian—even if her acting was really bad, it was always patient teaching.

Always with kind words! At the very beginning he had criticized her, but that was back when he hadn't yet started following Fang Hong.

Later, once Fang Hong developed feelings for Liu Tianxian, he stopped criticizing, always giving her confidence, slowly talking her through it.

This time was the same.

The Assistant brought two chairs; Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian sat together, with crew members walking back and forth in front of them.

"Chen Sicheng wasn't wrong—this scene is actually very simple. Don't think about anything, just pain, that's all. Not heartache, just physical pain." Fang Hong said.

"I know, I just wanted to be more restrained; an overly exaggerated expression always feels like it lacks layers."

Liu Tianxian picked up a water cup and took a sip.

She only shared her thoughts with Fang Hong; if it were any other director, however they told her to act, she'd just try her best, and whether it was good or bad, she'd film it a few more times.

Of course, other directors didn't have such high demands—this was Fang Hong's core team, so the requirements were definitely different from outside.

"Acting is like painting. You first have to learn realism—that is, performance—then develop abstract freehand brushwork, which is experience. For example, Picasso in his early painting period reached the pinnacle of realism, and only after he found realism had reached its end did he begin freehand brushwork." Fang Hong explained it thoroughly.

These words left Liu Tianxian silent, her mind involuntarily starting to think.

It was telling her to go the representational route—facial movements with a touch of exaggeration, like the style of stage drama, but not as exaggerated as stage drama required.

"I find what you're saying is actually quite cultured—you even know about Picasso's painting career." Liu Tianxian took a sip of water.

"It's just speaking from the heart; you know I can paint too." Fang Hong said.

"Oh, right!"

Liu Tianxian had seen Fang Hong's copyright book before—a thick, hefty volume with many illustrations inside.

Those were all Fang Hong's accumulated work.

She placed one hand on Fang Hong's leg: "Then tell me how I should get into the representational approach for this scene."

"You forgot—back in the year before last, when you filmed A Chinese Ghost Story, your hair got caught in a fan. You were in real pain then. Think about it, use that." Fang Hong helped her recall.

If he hadn't said it, Liu Tianxian would have forgotten; back then it really did hurt, and it was a headache too.

Chen Sicheng, having listened to Wen Muye's words, watched the two of them from afar—that natural way they were together, just like a very familiar couple.

Still, he couldn't figure out why he couldn't say anything? If the acting isn't good during filming, surely you have to say a word or two!

(End of chapter)