Chapter 133: Dream of the Red Mansion
While Su Yun was still in Japan looking for the cast list for a new TV series and preparing to perfect the shooting plan, Hong Kong was already preparing to release a bunch of new dramas to compete for the market in the summer vacation war.
This summer in Hong Kong, before the usual hurricanes and rainstorms arrived, it was so hot that people couldn't help but want to go to places with air conditioning.
Shopping malls, cinemas, ice houses, coffee shops...
Wherever there is an air conditioner installed to release cold air, a large group of people will gather there.
Summer vacation has begun. With the precedent of Spielberg's summer blockbuster "Jaws" making crazy money, Hong Kong, which has always been good at connecting with the international community, quickly agreed on this new golden period.
People with spare money are certainly not as good as those who have the audacity to spend the whole day in a coffee shop enjoying the air conditioning with a cup of tea and a sandwich. Their favorite and most fashionable pastime is to go to the cinema to watch movies.
The female students of Maryknoll Convent School had just finished their exams and were having the most leisure time. They gathered in groups of three or four in the ice house to eat, drink and chat. As dusk fell and night rose, they gradually began to discuss which movie to watch tonight.
"Ladies, do you want to go see a movie? How about I treat you?" When the girls were discussing passionately, a sloppy male voice suddenly interrupted.
The female students looked up and saw that the people talking were students from the nearby boys' school. They couldn't help but cast disdainful glances at them: these boys who studied in the boys' school jokingly called "Monk Temple" liked to flirt with the girls from the girls' school the most.
"Please don't use this old trick in front of us. My sisters won't be fooled!" Lin Dandan is petite but has a strong presence. In addition, she is the announcer of the school radio station, so she immediately responded with a sarcastic tone.
The female students next to him also started to boo.
The boy who came to talk to her was stumped and had to leave in shame.
"Alas, the quality of boys nowadays is really getting worse and worse. If I had known earlier, I would have gone to the school party. Maybe I would have been the one dancing with Chen Baiyang that night!" A female student held her face and looked at Lin Dandan with envy and hatred: Even if Chen Baiyang had not performed and won awards in those music programs on TV, he would have been a celebrity in the prestigious St. Paul's High School. I heard from those senior students that before he went abroad to study, he often played the electronic keyboard at the morning meetings in St. Paul's. He was handsome, elegant and talented... He was simply a dream lover like the Prince Charming!
Lin Dandan snorted proudly: "I told you that my uncle had exclusive information. It was very likely that Chen Baiyang would be invited to the joint high school party that night. You guys didn't believe me!"
As a result, she waited at the party and finally waited for Chen Boyang to be released by the agent. She also relied on her long-trained dancing skills to get up and successfully danced with her idol.
When friends who didn't go to the party because it was boring heard the news, their expressions were amazing!
"Okay, okay, we know your uncle is a big star! Next time if you have exclusive news, remember to tell us!" The female students laughed and played together.
Lin Dandan and her friends laughed for a while, then she pointed to one of the poster photos on the newspaper with a pen: "Well, based on my exclusive information, I recommend this movie "Dream of the Red Chamber" tonight!"
Because of the first impression that the film title would give to the audience, the original title "New Trend of Dream of the Red Mansion" and Su Yun's later change to "The Last Days of the Red Mansion" were not used. The film's owner, Far Eastern Pictures, chose this new name based on the naming method of the era and the plot after consulting Su Yun over the phone.
"'Dream of the Red Chamber'? It's a costume drama, is there anything interesting about it?" The female students carefully read the introduction in the appendix next to it, and when they saw that it was adapted from a classical masterpiece, they immediately felt a little depressed.
Young girls like them should watch some trendy urban romance movies! Wouldn’t it be more interesting to see handsome men and beautiful women showing affection?
"Listen to me - this movie invited three handsome guys, Zhang Querong, Chen Baiyang and Zhong Buluo! There are also classic scenes like Daiyu burying flowers and the precious hairpin catching butterflies. There are definitely handsome men and beautiful women. The costumes and scenes are all so gorgeous and beautiful!" Lin Dandan explained hurriedly.
When the female students heard the names of the three male protagonists, they suddenly realized and let out a long "oh": Zhang Querong and Chen Boyang were both popular figures in the middle school in recent years.
Since they were in high school in Hong Kong, they were already well-known handsome boys in the middle schools in Hong Kong. After they returned from studying abroad, they also started to enter the entertainment industry. Although the Hollywood movie "Falling in Love" in which they both starred could not be seen in the cinemas in Hong Kong due to various reasons, the clips of their participation in singing and music competitions were recorded by countless girls who were attracted to them and played them on their TV sets day and night to show their support and love.
As for Zhong Buluo, although he does not have as many opportunities as the previous two, his recent photos of him drinking soda gg are also very stylish and handsome. Because of his gg, the soda of this brand in the school store is sold out.
This movie seems to be really well thought out, as it brings together three teenage idols to play the male protagonists.
"But, the actor who played the attacker...seems to be a Category III movie star?" a female student asked weakly.
"What are you afraid of? This movie doesn't have a Category III label. It can be shown in prime time in cinemas!" Lin Dandan waved her hand. "Just because you've acted in an R-rated movie doesn't mean you'll always be in R-rated movies. Just like Lu Qi, before he switched to acting in R-rated movies, he was also a young talent in Cantonese-language films who partnered with Bao Shi!"
"As long as the movie is a decent one, why should it matter what the actors have played in the past?"
"That's true..." The female students nodded one after another, "Okay, let's go watch this "Dream of the Red Chamber" tonight!"
As the excited female students walked out of the ice house, the boy who had been staring at them almost without blinking started to chatter: "Hey, did anyone hear which movie they were going to buy tickets for?"
"This one! It's called something like 'Dream of the Red Chamber'!" Immediately, someone pointed at the photo on the movie poster and raised his hand to speak.
"Wow, is it really "Dream of the Red Chamber"? Hehehe..." Upon hearing the name, someone immediately laughed maliciously.
Compared to the Redologists who are eager to worship the masterpiece "Dream of the Red Chamber" and spend their entire lives studying the relevant knowledge and materials of the Dream of the Red Chamber with respect and love, these young men with poor education only see the surface of the book - in layman's terms, they treat this masterpiece as a legal pornographic book that can be shown in public.
After all, they were all at the age of full vigor and vitality, and a short and lightly described paragraph of "love and sex" in the book was like an erotic magazine to them.
"But this movie is going to be shown in theaters, so should we delete or modify the scenes that are difficult to film?" Someone else expressed his opinion.
"No way, after the deletions and revisions... wouldn't it be the most boring love drama? Monster, I immediately lost interest in it." The so-called "love drama" means sweet love. Most boys of this age like to watch martial arts movies with swords and kung fu movies with fists and feet. Those love movies that girls especially love are just sweet and sticky stuff to them.
"Don't be so pessimistic. We are not going to watch a movie, we are just going to see the pretty girls!" A knowledgeable senior student immediately added, "Besides, there are so many pretty girls in the book Dream of the Red Chamber, so the actors must be pretty girls to play the role. This way, we can not only see the pretty girls in the movie, but also the pretty girls in the theater. It's killing two birds with one stone, what a good deal!"
The male students were awakened by the words of this knowledgeable and interesting brother, and they all slapped their thighs: That’s right, we spend so much money to watch movies, except for the ones we really like, isn’t it all for meeting girls!
Compared to those so-called bittersweet love movies that people watch just to please girls, where they are so bored that they cry and the protagonists have no idea why they have to live and die but can't be together after watching the whole movie, at least "Dream of Red Mansions" is relatively familiar to them and they don't need to pinch their thighs to resist sleepiness!
Just when the boys were beginning to feel excited, a man with tattoos at the next table suddenly came over and said, "Are you guys going to see that Red Mansion too? You are really knowledgeable!"
"This is a 'good' movie." The man with tattoos winked at them with a stern look that said "you know what I mean".
Sensing that the tattooed man was talking about something else, the boys, who couldn't hide their thoughts, all came over and asked, "Brother, do you have any insider information?"
Just looking at the tattoos on this guy’s arms, you can tell he must be a gangster!
Perhaps adults would avoid these gangsters with disgust, but for boys of this age, they subconsciously look up to the big guys.
The tattooed brother was enjoying the back massage and fanning from his brothers. He blew out a long smoke ring and proudly told them the news he had heard from a director named Jin when he was collecting debts for a casino a few days ago: "There is an actress in this movie who has starred in Category III films before, right? Of course, you may not know her, but I have seen her. Wow, her figure is really first-rate!"
A bunch of young men who didn't know much laughed and nodded along: Even though they were looked down upon by the big brother, they just nodded obediently if they wanted to get information from him...
"I received exclusive information from the inside. This movie actually has a lot of 'action' scenes. The crew used a fake script to trick the male and female protagonists into joining the crew. They also used some tricks to get it to be shown in the cinema at 9:30. I heard that it is almost the same as those erotic films that are shown after 11:30, except that the clothes are not taken off that much!" The tattooed brother laughed very wonderfully. "You young men who are not old enough to watch nightclubs, go and watch it now. If the subsequent public opinion comes out later, it will probably have to be moved to 11:30 or later."
"Wow - why not watch this movie tonight..." Thinking of the many female students going to watch this movie, the boys screamed in surprise.
"It's definitely a great benefit. I heard from the assistant director that it's guaranteed to make people excited and leave them with an endless aftertaste!" The tattooed man said confidently, having no idea that his exclusive information had been ruined by the modified content.
The boys who bought tickets and rushed into the cinema eagerly soon squeezed together and sat on their seats.
With the assurance of the tattooed man that it would be "blood-boiling and unforgettable", these boys had genuine smiles on their faces when watching the normal adapted plots.
Lin Dandan and her friends couldn't help but look back at the group of boys: these days, there aren't many boys of the same age who have the taste to appreciate period romance movies.
I never thought that these boys who came out of the monk temple boys' school could actually appreciate the delicate side of Dream of the Red Chamber...
Although they are not as handsome as Zhang Querong who plays the male protagonist Baoyu in the movie, the requirements of celebrities and ordinary people are naturally different. If you look carefully, they are all ordinary young men with clean and neat appearance, without any ugly ones.
Seeing the female students in front of them turn around and look at them, this group of people with ulterior motives all smiled ingratiatingly.
Seeing the female students turning back in a reserved manner, they were neither sad nor angry: they came mainly to watch a movie to gain "experience", and girls were a secondary choice. If there was a chance, they would go up, if not, forget it.
Seeing the plot deviate from the original story after Baoyu's departure, the boys suddenly became excited: Here it comes!
This statue of Miss Mingyu is so beautiful!
Miss Mingyu in Baoyu's dream is also very pretty! She looks even more fairy-like than Daiyu!
Yes, that's right. In order to save resources and balance the roles, and because many scholars of the Dream of the Red Chamber believe that "Mingyu" is a metaphor for "Daiyu", Su Yun asked Huang Hanxiu, who played Daiyu, to also play Miss Mingyu in the dream. The revised plot was clearly delivered to Huang Hanxiu, and she agreed without hesitation: as long as it was not a revealing scene, she could act in both ordinary literary and martial arts scenes.
It was just a non-property drama performance that needed to be coordinated with post-production special effects. As an outstanding graduate of the TVB Artist Training Class, Huang Hanxiu did not feel any pressure in performing.
Seeing that nothing happened between Baoyu and Miss Mingyu in his dream as they had expected, the boys basically ignored the nonsense about the spread of plague in the plot and stared at the big screen listlessly, waiting for the next development.
The movie is already halfway through, when will those exciting and unforgettable plots appear?
Amid the audience's anticipation, Baoyu woke up from his dream in a daze.
The ruined temple was still filled with the dark blue night, but soon amid the cacophony of frogs and cicadas, a few strange sounds of gasps and screams were heard.
Baoyu in the picture went in search of the sound, and soon found himself in a dark forest.
On the side where the moonlight was not shrouding her, the graceful figure of a girl was kneeling on the ground, her body tilted, half lying on the chest of a big man who seemed to be asleep on the ground.
It was dark at night, and the face of the big man sleeping on the ground could not be seen clearly, but the faint moonlight could at least illuminate his general outline, so Baoyu took a step forward in confusion.
As the two got closer, not only Baoyu but also the audience could see clearly that the man's and the girl's clothes were visibly torn, as if they had been torn after a fierce pulling.
The girl, with her back to everyone, whimpered or panted heavily from time to time, accompanied by the subtle sounds of sucking, licking and biting and the appearance of torn clothes... Those who had no experience were confused and curious, while those who had experienced it all laughed in their hearts tacitly.
It’s late at night in the wilderness... How exciting!
But Baoyu in the play was still a young boy who didn't know much. He felt that the voice was not right, so he quickly took two steps forward and asked with concern, "Miss, what's wrong with you?"
The slender figure paused when she heard that, then slowly turned her head.
The moon moved, the wind swayed, the shadows of the trees danced, and the face, which was so bruised and bloody that it no longer looked human, along with half a heart held in its grinning mouth, appeared in front of everyone without reservation.
Even many years later, recalling this ultra-high-definition, grid-free horror scene, the group of guys who felt they were deeply deceived by the tattooed brother still felt palpitations: This really made people's blood boil and left them with endless aftertaste...
Not only did it become a shadow in their lives, but at that time they were not only filled with excitement - some of them were even frightened to death!