Chapter 351: The Biography of a Female Doctor
The script for the co-produced TV series was written very quickly by Lin Weimin, with two episodes basically produced every day.
Unfortunately, the script was too long, so Xiao Sheng could only wait in the Yanjing Hotel.
That evening, Lin Weimin came to Xiao Sheng again with the script for the six episodes.
After reading the script, Xiao Sheng sighed, "There are still a few episodes that are about what Shu Li said, right?"
"That's right. In history, Tan Yunxian lived to be ninety-six years old, but her later years were not very good. For the sake of the audience's feelings, I will not write about the end, but only write about the climax of her writing books and saving lives."
Xiao Sheng nodded, this is a mature screenwriter.
After these days of creation, the TV series script has been written to 56 episodes. With another 4 episodes, it will be a total of 60 episodes.
It’s not that TVB doesn’t have TV series with more than 60 episodes, but they are all unit dramas.
There has never been a TV series of this length written with a single story like Lin Weimin's, and its difficulty is incomparable to that of a unit drama.
He recalled the contents of the script, which was based on the prototype of the Ming Dynasty female doctor Tan Yunxian.
Tan Yunxian was born in Wuxi Tan family, which is not only a medical family, but also a prominent family. The ancestors were both famous doctors and officials. Tan Yunxian is the daughter of Tan Gang, the second son of the family. Tan Gang was the head of the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing at that time, which would be a bureau-level cadre in today's time.
As the daughter of Tan Gang, Tan Yunxian had a name from birth and also received a good education.
Tan Yunxian was very smart since she was young. She was loved by her grandparents because of their care. They would take her with them whenever they went to see patients and carefully explain various prescriptions and pathologies. When Tan Yunxian grew up, she had already mastered superb medical skills.
When she reached the age of marriage, Tan Yunxian married into the Yang family, who were also doctors. Soon after the marriage, Tan Yunxian suffered from deficiency of Qi and blood and was unable to have children. She used the pharmacology knowledge she had learned to prepare prescriptions by herself and tested the medicine on herself. Eventually, the medicine cured her disease and she gave birth to three daughters and a son, Yang Lian, for her husband's family.
Since then, Tan Yunxian's medical skills have impressed her husband's family, and they would feel at ease to leave their family members' illnesses to her for treatment.
When her step-grandmother, Ru, was dying, she gave all the medical skills, prescriptions, and medical equipment she had collected to Tan Yunxian, and praised Tan Yunxian's medical skills: "I will die with my eyes closed!"
In the Ming Dynasty, influenced by Chen Zhu's Neo-Confucianism, the society had strict etiquette and ethics. Many women were unwilling to see male doctors due to the differences between men and women. Even if they did, they could not ask about the patient's condition because they could not see the patient's face. Even the most basic pulse diagnosis had to be done through a handkerchief. Tragedies of delayed treatment and death often occurred.
Due to the differences in the physiological structures of men and women, women find it difficult to talk to male doctors about many of their private and difficult-to-diagnose diseases. The appearance of the highly skilled Tan Yunxian gave many female patients hope, and they asked her to come to their homes for treatment.
Encouraged by her grandmother, Tan Yunxian officially stepped out of the mansion and began working as a female doctor.
Tan Yunxian was not only an expert in medicine, but also had a very good understanding of the psychology of her patients. In the process of communicating with her patients, she alleviated their anxiety with her delicate and calm personality as a woman. She also used this to spread the tragic conditions of abused women to the public, gaining a great reputation and even beginning to enter and leave the palace many times as a female doctor.
As Tan Yunxian's fame grew, many sick royal women were unwilling to seek treatment from male imperial physicians and invited Tan Yunxian to enter the palace.
Lin Weimin's script only ends here. Tan Yunxian has become a master of traditional Chinese medicine, and the next four episodes will be the end of the story.
"Historically, Tan Yunxian wrote books first, then lost her son and grandson, and no longer had the heart to write books. I plan to reverse the order, first lose her son and grandson, then write books."
Xiao Sheng nodded after hearing this. Don’t underestimate the reversed order of the two events. As long as the TV series sets it off well, the legendary and glorious image of the characters can be established at once.
TV dramas are not historical records, so they need to be appropriately artistically processed for dramatic effect.
After sorting out all the plots, Xiao Sheng asked, "The title of the play should have been decided, right?"
Lin Weimin thought for a moment and said, "How about calling it "The Biography of a Female Doctor"?"
"The Biography of a Female Doctor?" Xiao Sheng chewed on the name, and after reading it a few times, he said, "Good, this name is good. It is simple and grand, and people can know the theme and content as soon as they hear it."
Lin Weimin smiled. He chose Tan Yunxian, a female doctor, as the protagonist in the script because he was influenced by the Korean drama "Dae Jang Geum".
The prototype of "Dae Jang Geum" actually existed in history. Her name was Seo Jang Geum. As a commoner's daughter, she taught herself medicine and was appreciated by King Jungjong of the Joseon Dynasty and was given the title of Dae Jang Geum. After King Jungjong's death, she was convicted and exiled, and died in 1566.
Xu Jang Geum and Tan Yunxian died in the same year, but Tan Yunxian was born decades earlier than her.
In terms of medical achievements, Tan Yunxian could write a book on it. In terms of her life trajectory, her life was far more eventful than that of Seo Jang Geum.
Lin Weimin felt that it was a waste to leave such good material unused.
What's more, following Xiao Paocai's path and leaving them with no way to go makes me feel happy just thinking about it.
At this time of year, TV dramas about female empowerment are extremely rare.
Lin Weimin also deliberately avoided the melodramatic love and palace fighting in the so-called "female inspirational" TV dramas of later generations, and focused entirely on portraying Tan Yunxian, the first female doctor in history. This is what is called a true "female-led drama."
A few days later, the script of "The Legend of Female Doctor" was officially completed.
Dai Linfeng, Xiao Sheng and Lin Weimin gathered again in the coffee shop of Yanjing Hotel. Xiao Sheng took out the budget he had calculated based on the script.
Twelve million!
Seeing this number, Dai Linfeng's heart trembled.
The station filmed two classic masterpieces, "Journey to the West" with an investment of 3 million yuan and "Dream of Red Mansions" with an investment of 6 million yuan. Now, this TV series "Legend of Female Doctor" cost 12 million yuan.
"This...this is too much!"
Yang Jie had just recently spent the 3 million yuan that the station had invested in her. In addition, the crew had frequently changed roles and the special effects had malfunctioned, so Yang Jie was reported to the station. CCTV also set up a special investigation team to check the accounts of the "Journey to the West" crew.
Lin Weimin said, "Dai, you can't look at it that way! The number of episodes and the length of our TV series are the same as those of Journey to the West and Dream of Red Mansions. They have invested nearly 10 million yuan in total, right? Besides, we have comrades from Hong Kong here, and the labor costs in Hong Kong are also expensive!"
When Lin Weimin talked about the wages in Hong Kong, Dai Linfeng felt even more distressed. It was not him who asked them to come. It would be better to use our own talents.
"Dai Tai, don't forget. The investment in this TV series was split 70% between TVB and CCTV. TVB paid 70% and you paid 30%. CCTV actually didn't pay much."
Dai Linfeng felt a little better after being reminded by Lin Weimin.
"There have been too many large investments in the station in the past two years." Dai Linfeng sighed.
"I understand!" Lin Weimin said with a smile.
Several people continued to communicate and it was decided that the production team behind the scenes would be a collaboration between the two locations, with half of the personnel in each location.
When it comes to actors, Xiao Sheng is rather stubborn and demands that all major roles be played by actors from TVB.
His reason is very simple. Mainland audiences usually do not pay attention to the fame of actors. They treat everyone the same as long as the actor fits the role.
But the audience in Hong Kong is different. It is a co-production and uses actors from the mainland who are not famous in Hong Kong. It would be bad if it affects the broadcast performance of the TV series.
Dai Linfeng argued, "It's a co-production, it's a co-production, so naturally we have to use actors from both places. How can we only use actors from Hong Kong and not our mainland actors? I don't agree."
The two held different opinions and the situation was at a stalemate for a while.
Lin Weimin tried to smooth things over, "This problem is easy to solve. Since Producer Xiao is worried that the actors are not well-known and Hong Kong audiences will not accept them, then why don't we just find two famous actors?"
"Famous actor? Who?" Xiao Sheng asked.
"Liu Xiaoqing, who previously starred in The Burning of the Old Summer Palace and The Imperial Court, should be fairly well-known in Hong Kong."
Dai Linfeng's eyes lit up, "Not bad, not bad, Xiaoqing is very suitable."
It’s not suitable at all!
Lin Weimin couldn't help but complain in his heart, with that big Benz hair, how does she look like me, the heroine?
But there is no other way. For the sake of the overall situation, Teacher Lin can only recommend her with a pinch of his nose. Who made her so famous?
Xiao Sheng pondered upon hearing the name. "Legend of a Female Doctor" is a true female-led drama, and the focus is all on the heroine. If he gave up this heroine, Xiao Sheng felt that he would still be at a loss even if he got all the other main and supporting roles.
"For the female lead, I think we have two actresses on TVB who are more suitable than Liu Xiaoqing."
"This is a co-production. All the roles are given to you. What else can our mainland actors play?"
Dai Linfeng was angry at Xiao Sheng's greed.
The two sides discussed back and forth, but neither could convince the other.
Lin Weimin tried to smooth things over again, "Since we can't decide, then let's not decide yet! Producer Xiao has to go back to Hong Kong anyway. How about this, we list all the backup actors. After Producer Xiao returns to Hong Kong and discusses with the senior executives of TVB, we can negotiate over the phone."
Dai Linfeng and Xiao Sheng had no choice but to agree to Lin Weimin's plan.
The next day, Xiao Sheng boarded the plane back to Hong Kong with the script.
The story of "The Legend of the Female Doctor" has come to an end with Lin Weimin.
Time flies and it is already August. Lin Weimin received another letter from Arthur Miller.
The Tony Awards mentioned in my previous letter were presented at the ceremony in June.
"The Intouchables" won two awards: Best Actor in a Drama and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, but missed out on two important awards: Best Drama and Best Director of a Drama.
This result was within Lin Weimin's expectations. "The Intouchables" is a drama driven purely by characters and stories. It was not popular in the competition for these two awards. It was already very good to win two acting awards.
Arthur Miller obviously also approved of this result and expressed his happiness in the letter.
Because of the Tony Awards, the attendance of "The Intouchables" hit a new high, and almost every show was full for more than a month after winning the award.
Therefore, Lin Weimin's share of performance this quarter has increased compared to before, reaching 420,000 US dollars.
Lin Weimin looked at the number and felt surprisingly calm.
I can’t spend it all anyway.
After putting away the email, Lin Weimin was about to continue reviewing the manuscript when Mo Yan came to the editorial office of Contemporary Magazine after a long absence.
Lin Weimin asked happily: "Your school should be on vacation, right? I thought you had already returned to your hometown!"
Mo Yan nodded, "Let him go. I was going to come back, but there is one thing I haven't finished yet."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
