Chapter 32: The Audition
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The work on A Love in Lushan and at the tea stall proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Chen Qi shuttled back and forth between Beijing Film Studio, Qianmen, and Menkuang Alley. He merely appeared lazy; in truth, he greatly enjoyed the sense of fulfillment that came from striving for his career.
June arrived, and summer finally came.
The temperature seemed to rise overnight. Long sleeves could no longer be worn, and gray and white short-sleeved shirts spread across the entire city. The women dressed much the same, except that their shirts might be printed with a few scattered flowers. Add a parasol and a pair of heeled sandals, and you had the most fashionable young woman imaginable.
In those days, a person’s clothing and character were closely linked. Simple and plain meant a good girl. If your clothes were too colorful or showy, you could forget about being named a Model Student or an Outstanding Worker.
The Qianmen Gate Tower.
To the west, clouds of gloom hung over everything; to the east, there was great rejoicing.
Huang Zhanying had bought another fifty large bowls, several water-storage jars, several cooking pots, and several large tables. Laid end to end, they stretched for dozens of meters. She had openly put the sandals on display, brought in popsicles and raincoats, and even bought mung beans to make mung bean soup.
The popsicles were packed in boxes painted white on the outside, giving them a clean appearance, while thick cotton quilts were used inside to keep them cold.
The three-cent popsicles were fruit-flavored, with bayberry, tangerine, and sour-plum varieties. The five-cent ones came in red-bean, cream, and hawthorn flavors. The most expensive were the twin-stick ice creams, which cost fifteen cents each.
The cream popsicles were genuine in every sense: every ten thousand sticks required two hundred kilograms of fresh milk.
In later generations, you would have to inspect the ingredient list carefully to see whether it contained fresh milk, vegetable cream, or cocoa butter substitute.
“I won’t be coming tomorrow!”
“Off to the literary and artistic front again?”
“Yes. The main matters here have been settled, so you only need to do as I told you. Hopefully, the next time I come, I’ll see our own shop.”
Chen Qi sucked on a red-bean popsicle, showing no sadness at all. Huang Zhanying, on the other hand, was somewhat melancholy. She felt that the distance between them was growing ever wider, and that they could never return to the revolutionary friendship they had once shared.
Perhaps, years from now, he would call her Runtu, while she could only address him as Master...
Yet this also gave Huang Zhanying the determination to work harder. She had already begun poring over 900 English Sentences.
“All right, I’m off!”
After finishing his red-bean popsicle, Chen Qi rummaged through the box and pulled out a twin-stick ice cream.
“Hey, hey, that one’s expensive! Take a cheaper one!”
“You’re paying for it, then?”
“See you!”
Chen Qi waved and rode away on his bicycle.
The young companions were no longer surprised. They merely muttered things like, “Teacher Chen has gone again,” “That actress is corrupting him,” and “He’ll turn to the bourgeoisie sooner or later,” until everyone was overcome with melancholy.
They understood that Teacher Chen belonged to a different world from them.
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...
Beijing Film Studio, small conference room.
The production team for A Love in Lushan had been assembled. The director was Wang Haowei, and the cinematographer was Li Chensheng, who was also her husband. The pair resembled the husband-and-wife team of Yang Jie from Journey to the West.
The production manager, assistant director, art director, lighting crew, and the rest had all been confirmed as well.
Chen Qi sat in a corner, hardly drawing attention. Wang Haowei had invited him to participate as a gesture of respect, but he also needed to know his place. At that moment, Wang Haowei naturally occupied the seat of honor, holding a stack of documents.
“Let me begin with one matter. Factory Director Wang has approved seven hundred thousand yuan for A Love in Lushan!”
“Seven hundred thousand! Everyone knows what that means. The film is being treated as one of the studio’s key productions.”
The room erupted in excited murmurs.
Chen Qi remained silent. Seven hundred thousand yuan—it was not even enough to cover the losses from his short drama...
“The reason such a large sum has been approved is, first, that we’ll be filming on location at Mount Lu. Second, the female lead is an overseas Chinese from America, and we want to emphasize her sense of foreign sophistication, so we’ll be providing her with some beautiful clothes.”
“Where should we buy the clothes? Shanghai? Guangzhou?”
“Those places aren’t fashionable enough. I’m thinking of buying them in Hong Kong and asking Comrades Fu Qi and Shi Hui to help us.”
“...”
Chen Qi blinked and asked quietly, “Who are those two?”
“Comrades from Hong Kong’s Great Wall Movie Enterprises!”
The person beside him paused, then added, “They’re both first-rate figures!”
His expression was full of admiration. Looking around, Chen Qi saw that everyone else instinctively displayed the same reverence whenever the two names were mentioned.
“Once we’ve decided on our leading lady, we’ll contact them. Now, each of you has been given a dossier. It contains some of the actors we’ve recently found as possible candidates. There are people from drama troupes, the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama...”
Chen Qi glanced through the materials. Every name was familiar.
Central Academy of Drama, Class of 1976: Xu Yajun.
Beijing Film Academy, Class of 1978: Zhou Lijing, Wang Yue, Zhang Tielin, Fang Shu, Shen Danping, Liu Dong.
China National Children’s Theatre: Chen Baoguo.
Shanghai International Studies University: Chen Chong.
August First Film Studio: Tang Guoqiang.
“...”
When he saw the list, he crossed Chen Chong off first.
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Then he crossed off Chen Baoguo. Chen Baoguo had hard facial lines and a cold, stern bearing; he was unsuitable.
After considering the matter for a moment, he crossed off Wang Yue as well. Wang Yue was the first Tang Monk in Journey to the West. With his dark complexion, thick brows, large eyes, and honest, kindly features, he was unsuitable too.
These were Chen Qi’s private thoughts. The others knew nothing of them. They examined the list as well, and someone raised a question.
“Director, isn’t the list of candidates for the female lead a little short? They’re all male actors.”
“We’ve done our best. There aren’t many who meet the basic requirements. I’ve asked my friends to help look for candidates as well. We’ll take another look after a while.”
Wang Haowei tapped the table and said, “Starting tomorrow, they’ll come to the studio one after another for auditions. We’re not afraid of trouble; we’re afraid of choosing the wrong person. If you think several people are suitable, that’s fine too. We can train several groups of candidates at the same time and see which group performs best.”
“Let’s adjourn for now. Tomorrow, we’ll see who truly has the goods!”
...
The Beijing Film Academy stood right next to Beijing Film Studio, barely any distance away.
When admissions resumed in 1978, a group of fresh-faced young people were accepted into the acting class. During the 1980s and 1990s, they contributed a succession of fine works. Later, some grew old and others retired.
Yet few people mentioned the achievements of the acting class, because the directing and cinematography departments of the Class of 1978 were even more dazzling. Together, they formed a cultural term: the Fifth Generation.
After breakfast, the students from the acting class remained seated in the cafeteria. They knew that someone would be coming to audition that day, but they did not know the names.
Zhang Fengyi, Xie Yuan, and Zhang Tielin were close friends. Sitting together, they whispered among themselves.
“Do you know what kind of film it is?”
“Something like a romance, I think.”
“Oh no, then the two of us are finished!”
Xie Yuan looked dejected. “What do Zhang Fengyi and I look like we’d be doing in a romance? We’d be more suited to a murder movie.”
“Heh heh, I’m different. I ought to get the part!”
The future Imperial Father, Zhang Tielin, was rather pleased with himself. He had not yet developed his later style of glaring and bristling his whiskers. In his youth, he was also a handsome young man with refined features. Then he lowered his voice and said, “Who do you think the girls will be?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
Xie Yuan looked at him incredulously. “I don’t know about anyone else, but Fang Shu is definitely in it.”
“Right, Fang Shu is definitely in it!”
“Zhou Lijing must be in it too!”
They looked toward a girl sitting alone at the front, and a young man sitting alone as well. The two seemed somewhat apart from the rest, yet their temperaments were strikingly distinctive. Among this crowd, they stood out like cranes among chickens.
The girl was named Fang Shu. The young man was named Zhou Lijing.
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