Chapter 273 Xie Fei
"Old Ma?" Lin Weimin looked at the young foreigner across the street and waved at him with some surprise.
Mark Meng trotted over, and after the two hugged, Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Long time no see!"
"Yeah, long time no see!"
This is the first time that Lin Weimin has met Mark Meng this year.
"What have you been busy with recently?" Lin Weimin asked.
"Man, you really don't care about me at all. I have already finished my studies in Yanjing."
"Graduated?"
Mark Meng's reminder reminded Lin Weimin that these foreigners he knew had all been in Yanjing for several years. Shouldn't they have graduated by now?
"What about them? Why didn't they come?"
"I'm back home."
"Back home?" Lin Weimin exclaimed in surprise. After a moment, he sighed, "What a pity. I didn't get to see you."
Ma Kemeng explained: "We came to look for you when we graduated in July, and your colleague said you were on a business trip."
Lin Weimin nodded. He thought that he had just gone to Yantai for a writers' conference when Ma Kemeng and the others came to find him.
"Come on, I haven't eaten yet, so I'll just treat you to some food."
Lin Weimin took Mark Meng to the restaurant, ordered the dishes, and the two continued chatting.
Mark Meng and his group of young foreigners will graduate in July. Xiao Hei Yangzi is the first to leave China. Her financial situation is not good, so the first thing she did after completing her studies was to return to Nihong to find a job.
Feng Xiaolong, Cao Mengde and Yin Geli went out to travel for more than ten days before leaving.
Only Mark Meng, who took advantage of this period of time to travel all over China, has just returned to Yanjing and is preparing to return to the United States tomorrow.
After returning, he plans to find a job as a university teaching assistant.
Mark Meng handed a booklet to Lin Weimin and said, "Here is our contact information. You can contact us anytime if you need anything. If you have the opportunity to visit our country in the future, please let us know!"
Lin Weimin accepted the small address book and said, "Of course, there will definitely be a chance."
After chatting for a long time and having lunch, Lin Weimin originally planned to take a day off and have a good time in Yanjing with Mark Meng, but the little foreigner had a lot of things to do at school and had to catch a flight early the next morning.
Lin Weimin offered to see him off, but he refused, "Don't do that. I felt depressed every time I saw them off the last few times they left."
"Well, then we have to say goodbye now!" Lin Weimin said with regret.
The two hugged again, and Mark Meng said, "I hope we can meet again one day."
"Of course, I will!" Lin Weimin said firmly.
Mark Meng smiled. Lin Weimin's works have been published in the United States, and he believes that there will definitely be a day when they meet.
Looking at Mark Meng's receding back, Lin Weimin felt a little depressed.
I returned to the office and just got to work in the afternoon. While my colleagues were busy working, they were still discussing the movie "Life" which was released a few days ago.
"Life" is adapted from Lu Yao's novella of the same name. The original novel has won the love of countless readers since its publication. The cumulative sales of the single volume have exceeded 1.2 million copies since its publication, and its popularity remains unabated until now, with tens of thousands of copies sold almost every month. While bringing Lu Yao, the author, considerable income, it also earned him huge fame.
The movie "Life" was invested by Xi'an Film Studio, and Lu Yao, the original author, served as the screenwriter. Naturally, it was eagerly anticipated by the readers of the novel. Once it was released, it became a national hit. Countless young people flocked to the cinema, and a wave of movie-watching was formed in just a few days.
Zhou Liqing, who played the leading actor Gao Jialin in the movie, became a hot actor in the domestic film industry in just a few days.
"Hey, Weimin, have you ever met Zhou Lijing when you went to Yanying to give a lecture?"
Lin Weimin had actually seen Zhou Liqing before. Zhou Liqing was a student in the 1978 acting class of Yanying Film Academy, and Han Zhuangzhuang often mentioned him when they were in school.
“Yes!”
"How is he? Is he as handsome in real life as in the movies?"
Every era has its own aesthetic standards, and Zhou Liqing's appearance is the most accepted standard of this era. Han Zhuangzhuang once mentioned that when Zhou Liqing took the entrance exam for Yanying Film Academy, the teacher there gave him full marks for his appearance.
Lin Weimin recalled Zhou Liqing's appearance in his mind and could only say that different people have different tastes.
“Very handsome.”
After a month of pregnancy, Yao Shuzhi finally came out in the second trimester, her face had become rounder.
She and Liu Yin were discussing Zhou Liqing's appearance with greedy looks on their faces, almost drooling.
Wow, the fighting power of middle-aged women is really terrifying!
"Weimin, when will your novel be adapted into a movie?" Liu Yin suddenly asked.
Movie adaptation?
Lin Weimin thought about it and realized that starting from Farewell My Concubine, after almost every novel he wrote was published, he would receive some adaptation invitations, most of which were film adaptations.
It’s amazing to say, among all the possible versions of literary works, movies, which should be the most difficult to adapt, have the most demanding adaptations.
The main reason for this is the booming film industry after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the people, the country divided the country into provinces and built one film studio in each province. It can be said that there are as many film studios as there are provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China.
Capital cities like Yanjing and municipalities like Shanghai have more than one film studio.
This flourishing scene lasted for decades. In recent years, with the rapid development of economic construction, the domestic film industry has been booming.
Unfortunately, the good times won’t last long.
As the reform continues to deepen, the planned economy's film studios have gradually revealed their drawbacks under the impact of the market economy. Coupled with the impact of new playback methods such as videotapes, VCDs, and DVDs, as well as the rampant piracy of cultural products, domestic films will enter a shaky development situation in a few years.
“Yes, Weimin, why have your novels been adapted into plays and TV series, but never into movies?” Zhu Changsheng asked curiously.
Lin Weimin groaned and said, "There's no special reason. I'm just a little worried. I haven't met a reliable director yet."
"Worried? What are you worried about?"
Of course, I am not confident about the level of the adaptation.
In the drama adaptation, he collaborated with the leading figures of the National Theatre of China, and had no preconceived notions or impressions.
There are only two TV series adapted from the novels so far, and the novels themselves are based on later TV series, so there is naturally no pressure to change them.
It’s different with movies. When Lin Weimin heard the invitations from the production studios that contacted him before, many of the names sounded unfamiliar. Not knowing their background, he thought he should be conservative.
Besides, if those people had the sincerity of Wu Tianming to ambush Lu Yao, Lin Weimin might consider it.
The problem is that no one does this!
Teacher Lin is not being arrogant. Sincerity actually represents attitude. Without the attitude of striving for excellence, how can you produce good works?
Who do you think is Lin Weimin?
"Of course I'm not confident about the level of adaptation." Lin Weimin said.
"Why are you so confident about the adaptation of plays and TV series?" Zhu Changsheng asked.
"Because the impact of dramas and TV series is much smaller than that of movies."
Nowadays, the influence of a drama is usually limited to one city, and it will gradually gain national fame as time goes by, but most people just hear about it.
However, TV dramas of this era are limited by the number of television sets owned, so no matter how exaggerated they are, they can never reach the level of movies.
"Shaolin Temple" sold movie tickets at a dime each, but it grossed over 100 million yuan, not even taking into account the number of films screened in rural areas.
Can a TV drama compare to this kind of influence?
Another ten years will be about the same.
By that time, the national television penetration rate will reach almost 80%. Even if movies are not affected by various negative factors at that time, the influence they can create is far beyond the reach of TV dramas.
After all, the ways of dissemination are different. The channels for obtaining TV series are too easy. You can just turn on the TV at home and watch them.
Zhu Changsheng understood what Lin Weimin meant, "You are just trying to protect your reputation!"
"Not really. The main reason is that most of the works are long novels, and it is actually very difficult to do a good job of film adaptation, so we need to find someone reliable."
As I said, if you don’t have a good attitude, it’s unrealistic to expect to produce good work.
In addition to these, Lin Weimin did not mention another more important factor.
While we were chatting, there was a knock on the office door.
"Teacher Lin!"
"Teacher Xie?" Lin Weimin was surprised to see the middle-aged man standing at the door.
Lin Weimin and Xie Fei met at Yanying. When the students of the directing department of 1978 were shooting their graduation work, they chose Huang Anyi's "Miscellaneous Notes from the Small Courtyard" as the script, and it was Lin Weimin who helped to revise it. Xie Fei was the instructor of that graduation work.
"Oh! It's been a long time."
Lin Weimin quickly let Xie Fei into the house and asked, "Why are you here? Do you want to talk to me about something?"
Xie Fei took the tea that Lin Weimin poured for him and said, "There is indeed something going on."
"You say." Lin Weimin said.
"I want to adapt your play, The Horse Lassoer."
What a coincidence! Just after I finished discussing it with everyone, Xie Fei came to ask for adaptation.
Lin Weimin asked: "How did you come up with the idea of adapting The Horse Catcher?"
“In fact, I read The Horse Catcher when it was published in People’s Literature at the beginning of this year. I loved the novel so much, but I was working on the film Our Fields at the time and didn’t have time.
I've finished all the things I've been working on recently, so I thought I'd quickly ask you if the film adaptation rights for this novel have been given out yet."
Xie Fei asked with a somewhat expectant look.
"No."
Xie Fei smiled brightly when he heard the answer, "How about leaving it to me?"
Lin Weimin's expression was hesitant.
As the fourth generation of directors, Xie Fei and his colleagues were born at the wrong time. The best creative period of their lives coincided with the booming Chinese culture. Just a few years after their careers got on track, the fifth generation of directors emerged.
However, as a leading figure of the fourth generation of directors, Xie Fei's achievements in the film industry are still very brilliant, and his directing skills are also good. When he came to ask for the film adaptation rights of "The Horse Catcher", it was really difficult for Lin Weimin to refuse.
Seeing this, Xie Fei asked, "Teacher Lin, is there anything you are concerned about? Feel free to tell me!"
"Teacher Xie, you may not know that I have a habit."
"What habit?" Xie Fei asked.
"Even if my work is not adapted by me, the adapted script still needs my approval. Once it is finalized, it cannot be changed at will." Lin Weimin told the truth.
"this……"
Xie Fei pondered.
(End of this chapter)
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