Chapter 237: Discussions

According to reliable sources, at the premiere of "The Postman" that year, when the ending of the movie was played, the entire venue was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

"The so-called civilized people who watch the 'backward places' fight for a little benefit have always been accustomed to standing in the so-called civilized place, looking down on the backward places in the East from a high position. Little did they know that this time, they kicked the iron plate - in the second half of this movie, the meaning and metaphors displayed by the plot of the movie have greatly impacted their long-standing concepts."

"Just as Kowloon Walled City was once called a small society, this movie, in just over two hours, used an extremely calm brushstroke to insinuate 'civilization' with 'backwardness', making those who like to watch the dark side of our country no longer laugh..."

“I’ve watched a lot of movies about the Walled City, but the only one that actually focuses on the Walled City and was mostly shot on location is The Rooftop Post. I don’t know how to describe it. Every plot of it talks about the past and backwardness, but the idea it wants to express is the completely opposite future and civilization.”

“It was probably from The Rooftop Postman that Marie Sue embarked on her journey as a ‘farsighted and accurate prophet’, using the stories in The Walled City to hint at the problems that arise from rapid development; this is a potential hidden danger that other countries have begun to be aware of, but our country has not yet paid attention to.”

"From the property bubble to the aging population, they are all based on the struggle between people and capital; but the ending of the story implies that the undercover police used electronic evidence to expose the crime, which involved a new legal issue and became the inspiration for the introduction of the Computer Evidence Act of 1983 in our country..."

After reading the cut footage of the movie, some people found the electronic evidence that exposed the whole story of the crime: this somewhat confusing reversal was the insurance measure left by Yun Ji, an electrician, when he sneaked into Hongfa's office to steal the contract.

At the same time, this also became the basis for Wing to discover the problems of Jiahui after leaving the Walled City and quickly correct them, thereby using this as a basis for his final turnaround in overthrowing Hongfa.

Due to the length of the film, the scene where Yun Ji steals the contract was completely cut out by Su Yun herself in the premiere and public release of the film. It was only after the high-definition collector's edition disc was released that a new 3-hour version with the complete plot was re-edited, which made fans who love this movie very much or are extremely partial to Su Yun very excited.

Since her debut, Su Yun has mainly been making commercial films, both large and small. "The Rooftop Postman" is one of her rare literary and artistic films. In addition to writing, directing and acting in the film, she also introduced people in the 1980s to "cosmetic contact lenses", a magical new technology product that can change eye color.

Of course, when Su Yun used "beautiful contact lenses" on a large scale, the colored contact lenses she developed jointly with Johnson & Johnson, it was in the next series of movies "Sister Exorcist" that she used to promote Hong Kong and Taiwan actresses and make the beauty of modern oriental women famous both at home and abroad...

Compared to the heated discussions after the premiere and release of the film, the audiences in later generations, who seemed to have a God’s perspective given by time, were even more amazed at Su Yun’s “long-term vision” while looking back at the classics.

"I strongly suspect that Su Yun had already sensed in the 1980s that the variants of the Walled City, such as the 'urban village', would soon emerge. That is why she precisely targeted the Chungking Building, later known as the 'Kowloon Walled City for Ethnic Minorities', and the Quarry Yong, known as the 'Monster Building' and the 'New Walled City'. As a result, Uncle Ho, who stole the interests of the neighbors, and Jiahui, who meant well but did bad things, thought they had escaped and destroyed the Walled City, but before they knew it, they returned to the evil and painful 'Walled City' again..."

“Everyone wants to have a perfect ending, but in the end, it can only end up in a mess - the selfish die in dedication, the loyal lose their original intention; the fire thief can't escape the disaster, the firewood carrier can survive in the desperate situation; the stubborn ones can't resist the changing times, the reformers are broken and sink into reality... There is no doubt that this is a story without true right and wrong.”

"It only cares about the angle and position you stand at, and it uses an absolutely neutral approach to show everything: the incomparable beauty in the eyes of the hunter is actually the unbearable scar of the owner - but in this erosion, there are still galls attached to it..."

"It's also evidence that they survived."

There are many kinds of wonderful reviews for art films, some of which can make the film more brilliant, or dig deep into the "true meaning" of the film to the point that the director and screenwriter are confused and say that they didn't think so much at the time; however, in terms of being down-to-earth, the wonderful reviews of literary youths seem to be less popular with the general public than those unconventional and unique reviews...

"I have little education and my brain is not very good. I always fall asleep within ten minutes of watching art films. But after watching the old film "The Rooftop Post" awake throughout, I just want to say one thing - those so-called international directors who rely on filming the dark side of their motherland to win awards abroad, can they learn from Marie Sue's cross-era classic masterpiece, which seems to show the backward dark side to please the foreigners, but in fact it has been mocking the foreigners with all its strength?!"

"That's right, one or two people took the photos. They are either in remote mountainous areas that are so backward that you have to take Route 11 to get in. Or they are in backward rural areas where the whole village may not even have a primary school education. They are using the scars that the motherland has not yet healed to be laughed at by others in exchange for this award or that award. This dirty act of selling one's mother for glory makes people feel sick - he~tui!"

"1. But the problem is that many people just watched the problems that Mary Sue had predicted in the 1980s and then stepped heavily into the pitfalls that had already been warned..."

"There is no way. If you want to overtake others and complete the development of others in hundreds of years in a short period of decades, you will inevitably derive this kind of remnant problem. And you have to step into these pitfalls once in person to understand what they mean. Not to mention us, many countries abroad also have serious problems of real estate bubble and aging. From time to time, they just tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, tinker here and there, and barely maintain the situation without collapse..."

"Oh, come on, even The Rooftop Post, which was approved by the authorities to be released in China without any cuts, had its last sentence changed, with the word 'capital' changed to 'gap' - although this is a small change that is closer to the original meaning, the intensity of the ridicule has been reduced a lot..."

"Changing two words is not a big deal. This movie is still banned in some places and cannot be shown. But this rule has made it easier for the owners of video stores..."

"Tsk, I rented a disc of this movie when I was studying abroad. The more strictly it is banned, the more people want to watch it. Video stores are often out of stock. Hahahaha!"

All of the above are things that are left to later discussion.

Back to mid-1982, when The Rooftop Postman had just been filmed, Su Yun stood in the dim little screening room, waiting solemnly for Zhao Rifu to review the rough cut.

"It's very thoughtful and adventurous." Zhao Rifu said in a deep tone after watching the ending of the ideological exchange and enlightenment between two generations on the rooftop.

After watching the film, Zhao Rifu, who had originally had high hopes for Su Yun's art film and had given the green light to it, began to have new considerations about whether he should send "The Rooftop Postman" to participate in awards as originally planned, because he felt that the content shown in the film was more serious than the script.

"I think this film is worth our effort." Because what was done secretly was related to the real estate market, and "The Rooftop Postman" also criticized the behavior of capitalists maliciously disrupting the real estate market. Zhao Liming was almost astonished after reading the entire script, and privately made a lot of efforts to help Su Yun to facilitate the filming.

"It's certainly a good thing to win an award, but if you don't, it will be very offensive." Compared with the two ambitious young people, Zhao Rifu's considerations are more profound and realistic.

"Sir Zhao." Su Yun changed his usual nickname of "Sixth Uncle" and addressed Zhao Rifu respectfully. "I think the Zhao family will not be afraid of offending others - especially under your leadership."

"Besides, overseas, the Zhao family's strength has never been underestimated. It's just a matter of luck and some minor mistakes..." Although everyone knows that most of the relevant people overseas think that the Zhao family is stupid and rich, if we look at it from another angle, does being stupid and rich mean being strong and able to withstand hardships?

"Hong Kong films have never lacked good stories, but they just lack a stage to show them to the world, to showcase the profound thoughts inherited from the mysterious East..." Su Yun spoke more and more fluently and excitedly, and she almost believed it herself. "Although the culture born from the ancient country has a thin barrier in the Western world, I believe that excellent thoughts, like music, have no national boundaries. On the contrary, because of the unique national characteristics it contains, it will become the fundamental basis for it to stand out and the unique solid foundation..."

Even after Zhao Rifu promised to send "The Rooftop Postman" to the Berlin Film Festival and the two of them walked out of the boss's exclusive screening room side by side, Zhao Qiming still did not take back that look of "You really can brag!"

"You don't have to look at me like that. The reason why Sixth Uncle agreed to use this film to compete for awards is probably because he saw his past self in me..." Su Yun smiled and shook her head: When Zhao Rifu risked his life to return to Hong Kong from Southeast Asia to develop the Zhao family, his confidence came not only from the support of his father and brothers, but most importantly, from his spirit of hard work and willingness to take risks.

Therefore, even though the Zhao family has experienced obvious ups and downs in recent years, Zhao Rifu still did not give up this film company that had begun to reduce production, and instead began to follow the route that Su Yun hoped to see, which was to reduce production and improve quality.

Blade Runner, a super-modern science fiction film that swallowed up a huge amount of money from Zhao, is destined to lose money in the current era. But if it is changed for the sake of box office, a classic science fiction masterpiece will be lost in the history of movies.

It's not that it's bad, but that it's too good and too advanced, so much so that not many people of this era have the knowledge to appreciate its profound connotations.

Therefore, Su Yun has been working hard on post-production special effects these days, and has also been shooting commercial and art films to earn word-of-mouth and box office to offset the losses.

As long as they can handle the losses from Blade Runner, Zhao Film Company will not end up shutting down production as we remember.