Chapter 446

"Hug me, just hug me."

At the makeup test site for "Journey to the West," Wei Ming was forced to hold Zhao Zifeng, the big and the small watching Biaozi and Yanzi try on makeup; don't say, this little chubby girl was really fleshy.

Next, they were about to film a scene of the husband and wife.

Because many interior scenes were filmed centrally, this pair of Nine-Headed Insect and Princess Wansheng had to film a scene in the Wansheng Dragon Palace, which was still modified from the East Sea Dragon Palace.

Biaozi demanded that his character's combat power be strong, so Wei Ming chose the Nine-Headed Insect for them.

Sun Wukong couldn't take down the Nine-Headed Insect alone, and later had to ask Erlang Shen for help, and even then, the Nine-Headed Insect still slipped away from the hands of the two great powerhouses; he was one of the few villainous demons in Journey to the West who was neither subdued nor beaten to death.

Moreover, in this script, the two of them and the White Dragon Horse also had a love triangle; "Love in the Brush" had already been released, and the actor who played the White Dragon Horse, Wang Bozhao, also became famous overnight because of it.

This film had good box office, and many people went for Gong Xue's costume look on the poster, but it turned out that Gong Xue's scenes were not many, and Zhao Xuzhi played by Wang Bozhao was the soul character, which was a huge bonus for this newcomer; if it weren't for having already promised this role, he wouldn't even have bothered to come for a small supporting role.

Now Zhao Zifeng was about to be one year old, not small in stature, and could walk while being supported; Wei Ming was playing with her outside.

The little girl would hug and kiss Wei Ming from time to time, which made him feel great, thinking when Sister Xue and Sister Lin would get him such a little cotton-padded jacket.

When the Nine-Headed Insect and Princess Wansheng came out, Zhao Zifeng felt a sense of strangeness looking at her parents, not recognizing them at all; when her mother wanted to hold her, her first reaction was to hide in Wei Ming's arms.

Director Yang Jie and the others laughed when they saw it; it took a long while for Zhao Zifeng to accept her mother's new look; as for her father, he was still ugly-rejected, even if Wei Ming told them that the Nine-Headed Insect was not an insect but a bird, but changing to nine bird heads didn't make him look any better.

Biaozi's appearance was not as delicate as the original version, but he looked like a ruthless character.

Wei Ming also noticed two young people behind Yang Jie, one of whom was the Hong Kong martial arts instructor he had cooperated with long ago, Lin Dian, a disciple of Lau Kar-leung, and also the candidate Wei Ming sincerely invited by letter to come to the mainland to serve as a martial arts director.

The twenty-year-old Lin Dian didn't want to come at first; he wasn't afraid of hardship, but mainly because ATV was about to film "Chen Zhen," which would surely be a hit, and he didn't want to miss this rare opportunity.

It was his master Lau Kar-leung who did ideological work for him, stating the great significance of "Journey to the West"; if this show was successful, it would be a great bonus for him.

Lin Dian thought to himself, what bonus; he still wanted to mix in the film circle in the future, so he used a pseudonym for filming this show and didn't dare to make it public in Hong Kong.

However, this film could also be considered a cooperation between ATV and the mainland; as an ATV person, it was only right for Lin Dian to come and help, not to mention that the remuneration offered by the other party was quite considerable.

But he only signed for half a year; after half a year, he would definitely have to return to Hong Kong; he was afraid that if he left the circle for too long, people would forget him.

During these six months, he not only had to be a martial arts director and teach the use of wires, but also had to cultivate the "Journey to the West" crew's own martial arts guidance team.

And after coming, he found that for such a large crew, he couldn't handle it alone, so he called a helper from Hong Kong, who was the boy next to him, even younger than him.

Wei Ming recognized him; it was the Three-Eyed Baby.

Chin Ka-lok was only 17 years old this year; his brother Chin Siu-ho started from Shaw Brothers and was now an actor, but he was still basically a nobody.

His brother used his limited connections to bring his younger brother into the martial arts instructor trade; his first film was "Project A," but because Jackie Chan was injured, the project was suspended, so he had to find other work.

Chin Ka-lok had just entered the trade and didn't pick jobs, and then he was recommended to Lin Dian and came to the mainland.

With a nervous mood, this future top expert in the Hong Kong martial arts instructor circle just became the deputy martial arts director of "Journey to the West."

When he first came in, he kept staring at Zhao Debiao; he had seen "Young Heroes" and had also heard from Lin Dian how fierce Biaozi was; seeing him today, he really had a domineering bandit spirit, feeling that Sun Wukong + Erlang Shen would be pressed and beaten by him.

Chin Ka-lok had already begun to conceive this quite heavy divine-demon fight scene.

"Ah Le, come over, let me introduce you; this is Wei Ming; you should call him Wei Laoshi here; he works at the university." Lin Dian enthusiastically introduced Wei Ming to Chin Ka-lok; hearing that Wei Ming was the chief consultant of this show was also one of the reasons why he was finally willing to come to the mainland.

Wei Laoshi could be considered his strongest connection in the mainland; this big thigh might be useful even when he reached Hong Kong.

Wei Ming smiled and asked the two of them if they were accustomed to Yanjing and other caring words.

Actually, it was okay; although the prosperity here couldn't compare with Hong Kong, with their income, they could get the experience of being above others in Yanjing, which was something the two Hong Kong small fries couldn't feel back home.

Lin Dian knew that Wei Ming was naturally fond of treating guests; sure enough, after Biaozi finished his makeup test, Wei Ming called them to go to Donglaishun to eat together and chat about the action design of Journey to the West by the way.

Since there was Chin Ka-lok, Wei Ming felt that the difficulty of Sun Wukong's movements could be increased a bit, which presumably shouldn't be difficult for Chin Ka-lok.

Chin Ka-lok knew that Wei Ming was the screenwriter of "Project A," also a good friend of Jackie Chan, and even a world-famous great writer; he didn't expect that today, in close contact, the big shot had no airs at all.

Seeing Wei Ming toast him, he drank it all in one gulp and patted his chest, promising, learning from the old Yanjing people: "I will definitely film this show well; Wei Laoshi, you just watch!"

Wei Ming smiled kindly; a 17-year-old young man is indeed easily carried away when facing a little bit of kindness from a superior.

This was noon, and they still had a lot to do in the afternoon, so they didn't drink much, mainly experiencing the flavor of old Yanjing mutton hot pot.

By evening, Wei Ming and Biaozi came to Changping again and witnessed the scene of more than 600,000 being burned to the ground.

For this shot, Li Hanxiang and the Beijing Er Yingchang used all the cameras they could mobilize, capturing from all angles and in all directions; this was a scene that could not go wrong.

Old Li's eyes were firm, but the people sent by the Beijing Er Yingchang were full of heartache; this was all money.

However, there was no help for it; this was not like the Ming-Qing Street of the Beijing Er Yingchang, which could be used as long as they were filming Ming-Qing costume dramas, and "Teahouse" and "Camel Xiangzi" could be recycled without problems, but this scene could only be used for this film.

After burning the Old Summer Palace, the crew rested a little and then had to move to the Chengde Mountain Resort, and Wei Ming was also prepared to set off for Sichuan.

Today the Ministry of Culture was looking for him; it was possible that there was news from Venice, and he was prepared to go there; just after coming out of the overseas Chinese apartment, he saw a person standing at the door.

"Wei Laoshi, Wei Laoshi!" The other party was still carrying a net bag in his hand, with fruits and canned goods, and with a grin, he had a mouthful of rotten teeth.

Old Sun at the door told Wei Ming: "Looking for you; he has been here for three days."

Wei Ming only lived in the overseas Chinese apartment occasionally; Feng Xiaogang had come three times and finally met him once.

In his previous life, Wei Ming didn't have much interaction with Feng Xiaogang; if he had, he would probably dislike him very much, after all, he was notoriously known for stepping on the low and lifting the high, with a foul mouth and a poisonous tongue; those whose status was lower than his shouldn't expect to hear any good words.

It was precisely because they were not familiar that Wei Ming's attitude toward him was neutral and peaceful: "May I ask how to address you, and what are you looking for me for?"

Wei Ming said while glancing at his watch, meaning to keep it short, as he was busy.

Feng Xiaogang hurriedly said: "Wei Laoshi, I want to defect to you."

"Defect to me?"

"Yes, let me introduce myself; my name is Feng Xiaogang; you can call me Xiaogang or Little Feng; I work in art-related work in the army and can also write articles; recently I want to change careers to do film and television; I heard from my former comrade-in-arms Big Brother that you are going to be a director and are recruiting soldiers and buying horses; I thought to myself, this is too coincidental; I am willing to be a cow and a horse for you."

He was worthy of being Feng Pants; his posture was really low before he became famous; Wei Ming narrowed his eyes slightly: "You are that comrade-in-arms of Brother Feng?"

"Yes, yes, yes, Brother Feng, Qiao Feng!"

Wei Ming remained silent for a long time, and Feng Xiaogang felt a bit nervous, wondering if his gift was too light.

After pondering for a moment, Wei Ming said: "Do you know where I am going to film? I am going to Sichuan, and it may take a few months; you are in the army, right, with organizational discipline; can you afford to waste it?"

"It's okay, I am a civilian; there are not many things to do; I can ask for leave, use all my leave, and if that doesn't work, if that still doesn't work, I will simply quit; I really admire you and want to learn something from you; I have read every one of your novels and every one of your articles." Feng Xiaogang expressed the face of a low-level small character who disregarded dignity and seized every opportunity to climb up to the fullest.

However, Wei Ming was a serious person, and he blurted out: "What article did I write in the December 1981 issue of 'Yanjing Literature'?"

Feng Xiaogang's eyes rolled: "I remember, it's about what you saw and heard in Japan!"

My goodness, he has something!

Sure enough, not everyone can be a qualified dog-leg.

Wei Ming added: "My crew actually doesn't lack any cows or horses; the personnel configuration can basically be matched for me by the film studio; adding you belongs to over-staffing."

Hearing this meaning that he was about to be rejected, Feng Xiaogang hurriedly wanted to increase the dose of flattery, but Wei Ming added: "Let's do this, at most I will let you be a field manager, but this field manager of yours may also have to help the art master in ordinary times; if there are bit parts, you have to go up too."

With this appearance, it was too suitable for playing a rogue in the village or a village guardian.

Feng Xiaogang was overjoyed, wishing he could bow down immediately.

"As for your work problem, I will apply to transfer you over to help."

Feng Xiaogang happily used his sleeve to wipe the back cover of Wei Ming's motorcycle; Wei Laoshi is really a great good person; he even wanted to recognize a foster father!

Actually, he didn't dare to really leave the army to work alone; it was too difficult to have no unit in this day and age; he still thought about transferring to a unit like a film studio.

"Alright, I have something to do, so I'm leaving; besides, I'm going to Chengdu the day after tomorrow, but I didn't buy your ticket."

Oh my, he is worthy of being Wei Laoshi; he is even taking a plane.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'll take the train there myself; the train is steady."

"That's good; when the time comes, find a way to go to the Emei Er Yingchang in Chengdu to meet up with the crew."

"Okay, okay, Wei Laoshi, you go get busy; oh my, take these fruits."

Wei Ming waved his hand, and he had already run out of sight.

Feng Xiaogang looked at Old Sun, left the gift at the guard room, and also left a note, writing down his name and the name of his unit.

Feng Xiaogang felt that the sun had become bright, full of expectations for the future.

And Wei Ming was carrying some bad taste, wanting to see what interesting chemical reaction would happen when a crew gathered Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang at the same time.

Arriving at the Ministry of Culture, both Minister Zhu and Director Shi of the Film Bureau were there.

It turned out that "The Eyewitness" had already been delivered to the Venice Film Festival; after watching it, they reacted quickly and immediately sent a fax, sincerely inviting them to participate in the film festival.