Just receiving Li Yan's audition invitation, rather than an explicit role invitation, can make Xia Rong so excited. This is because Li Yan's "status in the world" in the director's circle, having access to his resources, is very important to the younger generation. Xiaosheng, or even any domestic actor, is a great honor.
Li Yan is a foreign Chinese. He traveled to the United States and Ouzhou countries when he was an undergraduate. After graduation, he settled in the United States. Because of the lack of nationality restrictions and prejudices, he is more widely accepted internationally, and his shooting style is more romantic and diverse. The first film he made when he was in college won the Best Story Short Film Award at the Kashiwagi Film Festival. The awards go on and on.
His early style is known for its extreme gorgeousness and romance, and his pursuit of camera lens and light and shadow has reached the pinnacle. He is known as the "magician of light and shadow", and almost every scene of the movie can be painted. His fanatical foreign fans even took screenshots frame by frame, analyzing the color matching and composition of each scene, which sounds exaggerated, but the result of the final analysis is that most of his shots are full of strict requirements for photography: symmetrical composition of the screen , V-shaped composition, diagonal composition, rule of thirds composition, even golden ratio spiral composition...
This analysis made him be well-meaningly called "the strongest obsessive-compulsive director in history", and at the same time made him famous in China, knowing that there is such an awesome young Chinese director abroad.
But for some reason, a few years ago, Li Yan suddenly put down all his work and closed his door to thank guests for two full years. In the past two years, he has no works, and almost no news. If it weren't for the dedicated paparazzi who have been guarding his door for two years, the masses would really worry about something happening to him.
After two years of disappearance, he came back to shoot a martial arts film "Feng Zhi" with a strong Chinese flavor. When the audience went to enjoy the visual feast again, they were caught off guard by the heavy and cold heart of the story. Impressed. After two years of silence and precipitation, Li Yan's style changed from extremely gorgeous and romantic to a rather simple and melancholy pragmatic style: although the obsessive-compulsive composition and use of color still exist, the center of gravity is obviously more inclined to Yu, how to express a good story.
"Wind Stop" allowed Li Yan to get six nominations in the Oscars, and finally won the best director of the Oscars. At 37 years old, he is still very young in the director circle. Became the leading representative of Asian Chinese directors.
With Li Yan's current status, Xia Rong wasn't even sure whether he knew him or not, but now he suddenly received an invitation to audition from him, which was a joy from heaven.
"How did Li Yan know about me?" Because of nervousness, Xia Rong kept asking Shu Yi, "Is he going to enter the domestic market, so he sent invitations to all the young students of the same age?"
"Impossible." Shu Yi said, "I asked Fang Ru, and she said that Ye Mang hadn't received an invitation, and some managers, with their style, if their artistes really received an invitation from Li Yan, they would have already publicized it. It's flying all over the sky. Although some people are quite strict and can't be sure, Li Yan's audition this time is definitely not casting a wide net."
"Ah..." Xia Rong still felt unreal.
"It's okay, Li Yan has never been the kind of director who only chooses big-name actors, he only chooses the most suitable people." Shu Yi said, "A few years ago when he made "Serbia Night", the leading actor was still a worthless actor. A school student with acting experience has become a superstar in Halaiwu now? Well, you can talk about these related situations when you have an interview with him. But now, the audition script has been sent over, I suggest you Think it over...and make a decision."
Shu Yi's serious tone made Xia Rong wait for the script that was about to be delivered. After he actually read the script, he found that Shu Yi's prudence and asking him to think carefully were indeed justified—
This is a gay movie.
Today's public opinion is dominated by the Internet, and the tolerance for the word "homosexuality" seems to have increased a lot, but in fact, in a more general secular sense, the acceptance of ordinary people is far less than it seems on the Internet. Gao, moreover, there have always been negative shadows such as fraudulent marriage and promiscuity hanging over this marginalized group.
Xia Rong is a mainstream young idol mainly with female fans. Although there seem to be a lot of "rotten fans" among the fans, they are keen to pair him with other men, cute CP, draw pictures, and cut videos, but The two-dimensional cute CP, and their idols have really become gay, which are completely different things in their cognition.
If he starred in a gay movie, the impact on him, whether positive or negative, is hard to predict and estimate—
Because in the past ten years, there has never been a popular traffic star who dared to do this.
Although on the cover of the script, under the name of the movie "Waiting for the Aurora", Xia Rong's heart sank slightly with the brightly marked "homosexual theme", but he still couldn't resist the temptation of "directed by Li Yan" and continued to open the script.
This time, it turned into darkness.
Xia Rong finished work early today, and was anxious to ask Shuyi about the follow-up progress, so he went back to the hotel first. Su Chi still had a scene to shoot, and he didn't return to the room until almost eight o'clock in the evening.
He saw that Xia Rong was still nestled in the small sofa on the balcony, concentrating on flipping through something, and asked him, "Have you eaten yet? The trial play script has already been delivered?"
"Not yet..." Xia Rong has read the plot summary and the trial plot several times, and is currently searching for the original novel on his mobile phone.
"Waiting for the Aurora" is also adapted from a novel, but this time the original work is a documentary novel called "The Days I Survived in Antarctica". At that time, he was separated from the tour group because of an avalanche. He and his friends trekked hard in the Antarctic Circle, and found a hut left by former scientific research personnel. There were still food, fuel, etc. left in the hut. They used the hut as their "base" and struggled to survive in Antarctica for forty-five days. Finally, rescued. And he and his friends, in these forty-five days of desperation, also developed an extraordinary relationship.
Egg Mai is a country where same-sex marriage is legal, and the "I" who writes down the novel is a relatively careless man, so most of the entire novel is devoted to describing the Antarctic landscape, animals and plants, weather changes, and their adventures. What you get for survival. In the end, being with my friends is also a matter of course and natural, without too much entanglement, not much ink, and it can make people smile.
The script of "Waiting for the Aurora" has made a drastic adaptation of this novel, changing it from a documentary novel that is more like popular science to a Jedi love full of tragedy. The protagonist of the story has changed from a Danmai person to a Huaguo person. From the beginning, the firm and friendly partnership has also been changed to two strangers who are forced to bind. The process of cooperation, and then the initiation of affection and constant struggle makes the story more dramatic.
Seeing this, Xia Rong understood why Li Yan chose to invite young domestic actors. There are two characters, one is enthusiastic and bright, and the other is arrogant and unruly. Although the two characters have different personalities, when they collide, they are both flamboyant and vigorous. With an indomitable vitality, this kind of role cannot be played by non-young people, and young people who are not good-looking can't play that effect.
The character that Xia Rong wants to audition for is called Ran Yi, a young man who looks cheerful, lively and full of vigor. However, as the story progresses, his cheerful and sunny appearance will be slowly torn apart, exposing his fragility and melancholy through his lonely and dark childhood, which suffered from domestic violence.
The ending written in the script is that Ran Yi's leg was injured when he was out hunting. When they finally had hope of being rescued, the two had to trek three kilometers to the designated place where the plane landed. Another protagonist, Yan Jun, used the tools in the hut to make a simple sled, and he wanted to pull Ran Yi along. On the night before leaving, Ran Yi and Yan Jun saw their purpose of going to the South Pole—the aurora. Under the gorgeous aurora, Ran Yi leaned in Yan Jun's arms and said, "Instead of going back to the city to waste love, Finally parted ways with you, why not leave my time in Antarctica forever, dead people will never grow old... "
In the end, it didn’t say whether Ran Yi died or whether they were rescued. It seems to be an open but tragic ending. However, there is an ellipsis at the end of the script. It seems that there is a turning point...
Xia Rong sighed at the script for a long time, even Su Chi who was at the side almost ignored it—until the other party's spoon was gently fed into his mouth.
"I asked the hotel. You haven't called for service since you came up, and there is no leftover bag in the room. You probably haven't eaten yet." Su Chi smiled, "Is the script so good?"
Xia Rong subconsciously swallowed, the sweet and sour taste spread in his mouth, and the smooth and delicious hot porridge slid down the esophagus all the way to his stomach. It will not be too exciting, the emotions of being immersed in the story for one afternoon and one night are instantly replaced by the fireworks of the world, which arouses people's appetite and index finger.
Looking at the table behind Su Chi, his favorite home-cooked dishes had already been placed there, including meat, vegetables, and soup. It was probably ordered by the hotel, but he didn't hear anything.
Xia Rong sat down at the table and waited for him to fill his stomach like a storm, before thinking of answering Su Chi: "The script is very good, and Li Yan has always had the ability to make simple emotions move people's hearts. I believe him, but… "
"But what?"
Xia Rong pointed to Su Chi the line on the cover of the script: "This is a gay-themed movie." He looked up at Su Chi who was standing aside, "I don't know if I want to go yet."
"Hmm..." Su Chi also pondered for a moment, then said, "Isn't the other heroine me? Then stop acting."
"Ah?!" Xia Rong didn't particularly care about acting or not, but he was rather shocked that these words came from Su Chi's mouth.
"You're kidding." Su Chi smiled and pinched his face, and said, "It's true that few popular niches dare to touch homosexual themes. It’s not worth the candle.”
"But can Li Yan smash it?" Xia Rong felt that he had touched the key to resolving the conflict.
Su Chi smiled and said, "I don't think so either."
"I still have another concern," Xia Rong said, "Li Yan has been making movies longer than director Xu Ping. I'm afraid that if we don't stay with you for too long, we will..."
"You don't have to worry too much about this." Su Chi said, "Li Yan always shoots in real locations. After the filming of "Lanzhou Ji" is finished, Antarctica should enter winter, and Antarctica in winter is very unfavorable for the shooting environment. Shooting in summer. There is still a long time before the summer in Antarctica, if we haven’t completely solved Yu Chengchang during this period of time, then I can take a break for a while, and I can also accompany the family members.”
"What kind of family..." Xia Rong joked, "Do you still want to monitor me by the way?"
"It's really necessary..."
"Hey, are you so worried about me? I'm not interested in other men!"
"I can't worry..." Seeing that Xia Rong had a tendency to explode, Su Chi stretched out his hand and pinched his nose, "I'm not worried that you will like others, but I'm worried about you."
The logical relationship seems to be a bit complicated... Xia Rong was concentrating on sorting out, when his nose was pinched unconsciously, and his mouth opened slightly.
Su Chi leaned down and bit his warm lips: "Go and try, no matter if it succeeds or not, I will accompany you."