Chapter 331: Shooting 2

In a small river in the suburbs, in the river not captured by the lens, staff members were holding transparent fishing lines in their hands, with two fish hooked at the end of the fishing lines.

And in the lens, the transparent fishing line couldn't be seen at all, only two fish were seen constantly swimming upstream against the water flow.

After seeing Wu Yuchen's gesture, the staff put a dead fish into the water, and soon in the lens, the corpse of this dead fish was seen floating past the two constantly swimming live fish in the river.

And at this time, Zhao Wenzhuo looked at this scene, and couldn't help but sigh:

"How pathetic! Struggling to swim upstream, just to die? In the end, it's death; why is it so hard."

Niu Ben beside him looked at the two fish constantly swinging their tails in the river and said: "They want to go home, return to the place where they were born. This is the law of nature!"

After speaking, he didn't care about Zhao Wenzhuo who was a bit dazed, and left on his own.

"Pass!"

Hearing Wu Yuchen say this, the staff in the small river also came up, and Wu Yuchen was looking at the playback.

This dialogue was very concise, but made people feel a different meaning. At this time, the male lead had experienced his first mortician work and was very afraid, and didn't quite understand the meaning of the work. 【

This scene reveals the male lead's confusion, while also giving the confused male lead some food for thought, and inspiring the audience to wonder: are passing away and returning home actually the same thing? Are they both a spiritual return, a special kind of homecoming?

At the same time, the two fish constantly struggling to swim upstream are also hinting at a truth to the audience: death is inevitable, but while alive, one must strive to survive.

This segment was filmed quite smoothly, but the next scene did not go as well.

Wu Yuchen looked at the young girl before him; although he felt somewhat irritable, he still patiently said to her:

"You cried very well just now, but it would be even better if you could bring a bit more longing into your eyes!"

This scene depicts the male lead's second experience with encoffining. This young girl plays the daughter of the deceased. Her performance in this scene is very important, especially her reaction when Master You finishes preparing her mother's body and restores her face to how it looked in life; it must move the audience.

However, Wu Yuchen was not very satisfied with her crying scene. Her crying was purely just crying; it lacked that sense of sorrow, longing, and reluctance to let go that makes people feel the grief of a mother's death.

After hearing Wu Yuchen's words, the girl nodded timidly. She knew she hadn't done well and had made everyone unhappy. Seeing her reaction, Wu Yuchen secretly thought it was a bad sign.

Sure enough, it seemed to get worse as they went on, leaving Wu Yuchen no choice but to call a halt to the performance and let everyone take a break, especially the middle-aged aunt playing the deceased, who also needed to get up and move around.

It wasn't that Wu Yuchen hadn't filmed children before, but encountering trouble this time made him think to himself that children are indeed uncontrollable; she had performed quite well during the audition.

However, he also knew that the more this happened, the less he could pressure the child, otherwise it would be very difficult to adjust back. On the other side, while everyone was resting, You Benchang went to the girl's side and chatted and laughed with her.

Wu Yuchen watched from the sidelines, knowing that this must be Master You helping to regulate and soothe the child's mood. He didn't step forward to disturb them; as the director, he had already left an impression of authority in the girl's mind, which would bring her pressure regardless of what he said, so it was truly better to do nothing and let Master You work his magic.

After a while, You Benchang smiled and came to Wu Yuchen: "Wu Dao, shall we try again now?"

Wu Yuchen smiled and nodded: "I'll trouble you, Master You~"

"3, 2, 1, action!"

In the shot, the middle-aged husband's expression is numb and vacant.

After You Benchang cleans the face of the deceased, he suddenly looks up and asks the husband: "Does your wife have a lipstick she loved to use while she was alive?"

Hearing this, the middle-aged husband, who had been grieving and dazed, slowly lifts his head, revealing a somewhat dull and confused expression: "What?"

At this moment, the girl with red-rimmed eyes beside him quickly turns and runs to get a lipstick, delivering it into You Benchang's hands.

Then, You Benchang uses a very fine makeup brush to pick up the lipstick, and then gently and meticulously, bit by bit, applies it to the middle-aged woman's lips.

The moment You Benchang stands up, the middle-aged woman in the shot looks as if she hadn't died at all, wearing beautiful makeup, just peacefully fast asleep.

The middle-aged husband looks at his wife's face, then looks up at her portrait; he can no longer hold back, his eyes moisten, and he begins to murmur his wife's name over and over.

And the girl beside him cannot help but rush forward two steps, leaning her body forward to look at her mother, tears streaming down her face, calling out "Mom" in distress, full of reluctance and longing!

And the male lead, Lin Wu, is deeply moved by this scene at this moment. As the final escort for the deceased, he brings vitality back to the cold body, bestows upon her eternal beauty, lets the deceased depart peacefully, and brings comfort to the living!

"Cut! Good!"

Wu Yuchen's "good" let the whole crew breathe a sigh of relief, but the little girl was still crying, clearly not yet out of the emotion. However, her parents had already walked over, hugging their daughter to comfort her.

Wu Yuchen looked at You Benchang and gave the old master a thumbs up; the old master just chuckled.

In the evening, back at the hotel, Wu Yuchen saw Jiang Qinqin watching TV, and the figure on the screen was none other than Detective Di. Jiang Qinqin had no scenes today, so she hadn't gone to the set.

Wu Yuchen asked with a smile: "How is it? Is this show good?"

Jiang Qinqin didn't even look away: "It's good, I've been following it all the way, I can't stop at all, it's the finale today!"

Wu Yuchen smiled and didn't disturb her watching Detective Di's finale. He picked up a newspaper to browse through, and one piece of news caught his attention: *The Promise* had wrapped up filming.

Back then, Chen Hong had even come to ask if they at Miracle Pictures wanted to collaborate on *The Promise*, but it was ultimately declined by Miracle Pictures.

Chen Kaige was not discouraged; he brought in funding from four countries and assembled an all-star Asian cast for his *The Promise*, including Xie Tingfeng, Zhang Baizhi, Zhang Dongjian, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Liu Ye. Looking at the reports, the filming process of *The Promise* was quite bumpy, encountering fires and mudslides, and there was also the director being dissatisfied with local extras, later bringing in 800 soldiers to act as extras for him, and so on...

When Chen Hong accepted an interview, she claimed that *The Promise* would become an epic masterpiece for Chen Kaige to break into the global market!

Looking at this confident couple, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but sigh inwardly; it looked like they had put in a lot of effort, but unfortunately, they had produced a massive failure!

Many people say *The Promise* ruined Chinese costume martial arts films, because after *The Promise*, the overseas market for Chinese martial arts films deteriorated.

Regarding this issue, Wu Yuchen actually felt that it couldn't be blamed entirely on Chen Kaige. After all, foreigners watching martial arts films were just looking for something fresh; by the time *The Promise* was released, it was already the fifth year foreigners had been watching martial arts films, so it wasn't strange that the novelty had worn off.

Moreover, Chinese costume martial arts films after *The Promise* didn't really stop selling overseas; films like *Curse of the Golden Flower* and *The Banquet* also sold. It's just that the overseas failure of *The Promise* did indeed accelerate this process, making overseas companies and cinema chains more cautious about Chinese costume films.

Wu Yuchen smiled; this wouldn't affect him. If he, the great Wu Dao, were willing to film martial arts, a whole bunch of subsidiaries and cinema chains would be lining up to beg him!

He would just wait to watch the fun next year.

In a not-so-large living room, Zhao Wenzhuo and Jiang Qinqin were talking across a coffee table, the atmosphere somewhat solemn.

"I just, occasionally went to be a model once..." Zhao Wenzhuo still wanted to continue hiding it from his wife.

"I've already gone to check what your company does." Jiang Qinqin had an unhappy expression on her face, but she was still restraining herself.

Hearing this, Zhao Wenzhuo was silent for a few seconds: "So... what about it."

Jiang Qinqin took a deep breath, then asked with some reproach: "Why didn't you tell me?"

"If I had told you, you definitely would have opposed it."

Jiang Qinqin immediately replied: "That goes without saying! How could you do this kind of work? Don't you feel, ashamed?"

"Cut!"

After Wu Yuchen called a halt, he said to Jiang Qinqin:

"Qinqin, pay attention to your emotions! Don't be so intense here. You are a traditional, introverted Eastern wife; gentleness and virtue have always been your principles. Even when angry, you are relatively restrained. It's not yet time for you to explode."

Jiang Qinqin nodded, took a deep breath to adjust, and after a moment, they filmed again.

Zhao Wenzhuo looked at Jiang Qinqin: "Why feel ashamed? Because it involves touching corpses?"

Jiang Qinqin said, mixed with grievance, impatience, and irritability: "I just want you to go get a normal job."

"What do you mean by normal?" Zhao Wenzhuo's voice rose by three degrees with this retort, making Jiang Qinqin look at him involuntarily.

"Everyone will eventually die; I will die, and you will die. Death itself is very normal..."

As he spoke, Jiang Qinqin's brows in the shot slowly furrowed, her eyes gathering resentment bit by bit, and she suddenly interrupted her husband: "Don't give me those big lectures!"

After her emotions flared up a bit, Jiang Qinqin controlled herself again, her hands twisting together. Her tone dropped slightly: "I just want you to resign now, I'm begging you!"

Zhao Wenzhuo opened his mouth, then turned his head away; subsequently, he pursed his lips and lowered his head again, clearly not wanting to agree to his wife's request.

Seeing Zhao Wenzhuo's reluctance to speak, Jiang Qinqin showed a look of grievance:

"In the past, I never asked anything of you. Whether you wanted to give up the cello to change careers or move back to the suburbs to live in the countryside, I supported you with a smile. Actually, I was also very worried inside..."

Then she looked at Zhao Wenzhuo: "This time, consider it me begging you! Just listen to me once, okay?"

Two cameras were filming from different angles. In the shot of one of them, Zhao Wenzhuo's eyes gradually showed guilt and heartache. His fingers were twisting, meeting Jiang Qinqin's concerned and hopeful gaze, but in the end, he still said softly:

"What if, I say... no?"

Jiang Qinqin's chest heaved, and finally, she asked calmly and with restraint: "Then are you going to do this for the rest of your life?"

Zhao Wenzhuo looked at Jiang Qinqin, speechless.

After several seconds, the hope in Jiang Qinqin's eyes vanished, replaced by disappointment, and then she lowered her head and sighed: "I'm going back to my parents' home. Come find me when you've resigned!"

After saying this, she got up to leave, while Zhao Wenzhuo tried to grab her arm: "Meixiang..."

Jiang Qinqin violently shook off Zhao Wenzhuo's hand, then her body involuntarily recoiled, pressing herself against the wall, and she shouted: "Don't touch me! You're unclean!"

Zhao Wenzhuo, who had fallen to the ground, knelt there blankly, looking in astonishment at his wife, who had always been gentle and virtuous, never imagining she would say such things to him. Even the person closest to him had started to despise him!

And Jiang Qinqin also leaned against the wall, unable to help but shed two lines of tears in sorrow, then she lowered her head and walked out, bypassing Zhao Wenzhuo.

"Cut! Very good!"

Don't look at it as just a simple few minutes of dialogue; this scene was a huge blow to the male lead. After all, the person he loved most had left him because of his profession, causing the goodwill and faith he had just developed for the encoffining industry to waver.

This scene naturally wasn't done in one take; it was filmed repeatedly many times, with many details involved, which ultimately made Wu Yuchen very satisfied.

"Wu Dao, how do you like the layout of this attic?"

Wu Yuchen looked at the second floor of the attic, which was filled with all kinds of green plants, a scene full of vitality, and he also saw a small potted cactus on the table according to his request, so he couldn't help but smile and nod.

This was a contrast Wu Yuchen was deliberately creating. The first floor was an encoffining company, dealing with the dead, symbolizing death. And the boss, You Benchang, had turned the second floor into a place like a botanical garden.

What was about to be filmed here was a conversation where the male lead, Lin Wu, wanted to resign from his boss. It wasn't just because of his wife's departure, but also because he had encountered difficulties at work, with emotionally agitated clients blaming and insulting him, which had also dealt a blow to his enthusiasm for the job.

In this scene design, Wu Yuchen placed the two of them in the midst of lush greenery; the verdant green plants built a scene full of life, which could quickly grab the audience's attention while also forming a huge contrast with the cold and solemn topic.

At the same time, this contrast in color also hints that life and death are actually closely related, and the light of life is inevitably inseparable from the shadow of death. Why should we fear or even loathe death?

This also made it more convenient for the old master, You, to deliver a speech to the male lead that would guide him to think about the relationship between life and death.