Chapter 106: Blueberry Wrap, Final Kiss

The girl fell in love with blueberry pie from then on, and every night after that, she would come to this restaurant to order a portion of blueberries that no one would eat.

This was the reason Wong Kar-wai named this movie "My Blueberry Nights."

"My Blueberry Nights" was actually a typical Wong Kar-wai style movie. It had no suspense, no thriller, no bloody violence, and the plot didn't even have any twists.

Just as Chen Nuo felt, this film was a story that was so flat it was boring and cliché. It relied entirely on the actors' performances to support the whole scene.

Li Er told Chen Nuo that Wong Kar-wai's films had no plot, only actors. If possible, every actor should go into his films, be tempered by him, be forced into a dead end by him, and be interrogated by him in their souls.

Be crushed by his countless NGs, and then be rebuilt.

Shed all disguises and enter a state of performance that forgets performance.

This kind of encounter, as long as it happened once, would be a huge improvement for an actor's future acting skills.

As for why other directors couldn't do what Wong Kar-wai did?

Li Er said at the time that the answer to this question should be left for Chen Nuo to answer himself.

But Li Er didn't expect that the time Chen Nuo spent in "My Blueberry Nights" would be so short, so short that before Chen Nuo found the answer after being rebuilt, the time had already arrived for his last day in the Blueberry crew.

The second-to-last scene Chen Nuo had in "My Blueberry Nights" was Elizabeth returning to New York after traveling around the United States.

Although it hasn't been filmed yet, in the script, she met Natalie Portman, who works in a casino, in Montana, and they went to Las Vegas together. She also met Rachel Weisz, whose relationship with her husband had broken down, and had a wonderful plot with that sexy and alluring woman.

In the end, she understood love from them.

After returning, she called Jeremy.

Chen Nuo picked up the phone, but strangely, there was no expression on his face.

Wong Kar-wai almost wanted to call cut.

But he thought afterward, fortunately, he stopped at the last moment based on his trust in Chen Nuo.

He was lucky enough to see his male lead's performance that was like showing off a skill.

Chen Nuo walked out of the hotel and, in the cold wind of the night, lit a cigarette with trembling hands.

He took a deep drag, tucked his hands into his jacket pockets, and looked around tremblingly.

This was a medium shot. In the frame were Chen Nuo and the restaurant behind him. Besides that, he couldn't see the street in front of him, nor could he see anything else.

Chen Nuo in the lens was shivering with cold, but he still stood outside the restaurant, wanting to see Elizabeth sooner.

He carefully watched every passerby who walked past him.

He looked so carefully, examining every person from head to toe, as if he wanted to identify if this person was the woman he was waiting for through their hats, scarves, clothes, or pants.

Chen Nuo looked for Elizabeth among the coming and going pedestrians for three whole minutes under the gaze of everyone in the crew.

Wong Kar-wai couldn't see anything wrong with the whole picture. He could even see that the angle of Chen Nuo observing everyone was different, because the people who walked past him were tall, short, fat, and thin, and each one was different. Of course they were different; where in the world were there identical people?

But the problem was, where were the people?

The street in the early morning outside the lens was empty, and there wasn't even a ghost.

Damn.

Wong Kar-wai cursed in his heart.

"Cut! Pass!"

Next was Chen Nuo's final scene.

It was a kissing scene again.

Chen Nuo could be sure that this was Wong Kar-wai's intentional arrangement.

This man in sunglasses was simply a literary youth with a belly full of bad water, playing some heart-wrenching tricks at every moment. He even suspected that Wong Kar-wai had long seen through the relationship between him and Emma, but pretended to know nothing.

Truly shameful.

Elizabeth returned to the restaurant and saw Jeremy, who hadn't changed at all. A relaxed smile appeared on the corner of her mouth; at this time, she had completely let go of the past.

She was wearing a black leather jacket with a blue T-shirt inside, and a red plush hat on her head, just like a black rose blooming in the dark night.

Chen Nuo smiled the moment he saw her because he discovered her difference immediately. So his smile this time, like hers, was a light smile from the heart.

Then they went into the restaurant together and chatted like old friends. Emma Stone ordered a blueberry pie as usual.

She noticed that the jar that originally held the keys was empty, and her smiling expression slowly became calm, "You didn't keep the keys anymore?"

Chen Nuo smiled faintly, "No, I'm returning them to their owners. Do you want yours?"

Emma Stone shook her head with a light smile, "No, I don't want it anymore."

Afterward, they began to recall the past.

Recalling the bits and pieces that happened in this restaurant at this time a year ago.

Everything they talked about back then, and things they didn't know about each other.

For example, before she left, she had been here, but didn't come in.

For example, since she left, he would leave a blueberry pie every night to prevent her from suddenly appearing.

They confided in each other. But their eyes and expressions were so evasive, as if they were hiding something, a secret that made them both terrified.

They didn't dare to say it, because they were afraid that if they said it, they would never be able to return to the past.

Wong Kar-wai told Chen Nuo in the first act to kiss until he fell in love with her.

But after falling in love with her?

Of course, it was to continue kissing her.

Emma Stone must have been tired again; otherwise, why would she fall asleep with her face on the bar counter like yesterday?

Chen Nuo first leaned against the wall behind the bar, quietly watching her sleeping.

Darius Khondji's camera pinned Chen Nuo's face from the side, with the focus still on his eyes.

In the entire movie, Chen Nuo's eyes had never been so brave and firm. He seemed to have released all his emotions at this moment. Under the warm yellow light, those intense and brilliant feelings were almost visible to the naked eye.

No, not feelings, but love. The next shot fell on Emma Stone's face; she closed her eyes, with white cream on her lips.

A black shadow moved from off-screen, slowly covering her face.

That was Chen Nuo's side profile.

The two faces overlapped from the side.

So the camera pulled up, and Darius Khondji set the camera upright and started filming their kissing scene from top to bottom.

Chen Nuo's kiss didn't just touch and pull away; it stuck to Emma Stone's lips.

At first, he was still dancing alone, but after a few seconds, Emma Stone began to respond enthusiastically.

This kiss between the two was so frantic and uninhibited, lips and teeth meeting, carrying an intimacy that was hard to describe in words, as if they had kissed countless times.

That was indeed the case in reality.

But in the eyes of the audience, this was only their second kiss.

So, if this wasn't ironclad proof of soulmates, what could it be?

Darius Khondji filmed it until his hair stood on end, because in his frame, Chen Nuo and Emma Stone's two faces occupied half each, like a perfect puzzle. Piecing together male and female, yin and yang.

For him, a Westerner, this picture looked like a pair of entangled double fish, but in Wong Kar-wai's eyes, this pair of young boys and girls were clearly a pair of mandarin ducks with necks entangled, dying in entanglement.

Beautiful to the point of suffocation.

Wong Kar-wai looked at this picture and didn't want to call cut for a long time. He dragged it for over ten seconds before reluctantly saying, "Cut."

The moment Chen Nuo got up, Emma Stone bit his lip. It was quite heavy, and it hurt a lot.

Wong Kar-wai stood up from in front of the monitor, walked quickly into the set, handed a large bouquet of flowers to him, and then hugged him, patting his back very hard.

"Nuo Zai, you've worked hard. You acted too well, thank you, thank you."

Wong Kar-wai originally thought that after 'In the Mood for Love,' he would never see leads like Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung who were evenly matched and achieved each other, but the facts proved he was wrong.

Even because of different skin colors, the chemical reaction produced between Chen Nuo and Emma Stone was even more intense than that of Zhang and Leung, allowing the audience's imagination to extend further and deeper in all directions.

Not just today, but also, for example, the scene a few days ago.

At that time, Chen Nuo was standing on a stool fixing a light bulb, and two men eating behind him suddenly started fighting.

Chen Nuo went to break up the fight in the shaking lens, but in the end, he was punched in the face and had a nosebleed.

When he was tilting his head at the restaurant door, using a tissue to dab the red pigment flowing from his nostrils, Emma Stone also pushed the door open and came in, and she also had a nosebleed.

Chen Nuo asked while wiping his nosebleed, "Were you also hit by them?"

Emma Stone's eyes wandered uneasily, "No, I was robbed on the subway."

Chen Nuo looked at her deeply, "Doesn't your Mr. Pork Chop live nearby? Aren't you going to find him to reconcile?"

"Yes, I just... just wanted to prepare a bit. I planned to get off in a few stops, but... I sat past the stop to the Bronx." The Bronx was a black neighborhood in New York. This girl went to find her ex-boyfriend to reconcile, but kept daydreaming and sat past the stop, and was robbed.

"Your preparation is really special."

The conversation between the two was messy and meaningless, just like Wong Kar-wai's previous movies.

Here, Emma Stone and Chen Nuo's performances were divided into two parts; their lines and expressions were almost split. They were talking, but everyone could feel their absent-mindedness.

Audiences who understood film would naturally understand at this time: don't listen to the lines, look at their performance.

Chen Nuo's gaze was always calm, deep, and implicitly loving, while Emma Stone's eyes were always wandering, dodging, and full of sadness.

At the end of this scene, the lens moved from left to right through the gaps in the bar tables and chairs.

In the whole picture, 80% were dark objects or shadows, and only in the middle was there a tiny gap where you could see the two people.

Seeing Emma Stone sitting on the floor below the bar, crying her heart out in Chen Nuo's arms.

Wong Kar-wai laughed at that time, laughing contentedly and very proudly.

Undoubtedly, this was what he wanted, this was the film aesthetics that belonged exclusively to his Wong Kar-wai. What reason, what logic, get as far away as possible.

He praised himself a hundred times in his heart at that time. At that time, he listened to Pierre's words, went to Shanghai, and met Chen Nuo once. Then he listened to Peter Chan's advice and decided to set Chen Nuo down decisively, and re-selected the heroine. He, Wong Kar-wai, was truly amazing. No wonder when he went to worship the White Dragon King, the White Dragon King said that he would die if he went west, and live if he went east. It was indeed so.

Just like when Khondji came to his room to chat in the past few days, he no longer talked about whether Chen Nuo was good or bad, and no longer mentioned his heroine in a sarcastic tone, but instead began to hint to him that this movie was the best time for him to win the Cannes Best Director again.

Wong Kar-wai thought so too.

He even felt that if this test-the-water work still failed, then he would completely give up on Hollywood, and maybe the same for movies.

"Thank you, Director, I'm very happy to act in your movie." Chen Nuo replied.

Wong Kar-wai said solemnly, "When it premieres in Cannes in May, you must come. I am the jury president of this Cannes, and I formally invite you; you must come."

So that's it, Wong Kar-wai, you are both the referee and the athlete, right?

Then what kind of ghost did you film this movie into in your previous life, so that you occupied all the advantages of time, place, and people, and yet it was still a bamboo basket drawing water in vain.

Chen Nuo smiled and said, "OK, I will definitely go then."

Emma Stone sat on the side, watching them talk with a smile, although she didn't understand a single word of the Chinese they were speaking.

After Chen Nuo and Wong Kar-wai finished talking, he walked past everyone and gave her a light hug, "It's up to you next. When you go to Cannes, bring back a Best Actress."

Emma Stone laughed in a low voice and said in his ear in a hoarse and low voice, "If I really win Best Actress, the first person I thank will definitely be you. You know why."

Chen Nuo also smiled and blew a breath into her ear lightly, "Of course I know. Then, goodbye, Elizabeth."

"Goodbye, Jeremy."

3600 words to wrap up Blueberry.

The update time has been changed from 20:03 to 18:03, which is convenient for book friends who get off work to read on the bus or subway. I hope to make your way home a little shorter.

Thank you all!

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 107 =====