Chapter 173: The Voice of Dreams (1) Come closer…
In fact, most of the teenagers who witnessed Li Sishi's rise from a newcomer to a legendary superstar were experiencing the growing pains of a time of development.
Born and raised in this era of rapid economic development, following in their parents' footsteps from a young age, they went south and north to work, becoming the cornerstone of social development. This generation did not have a happy childhood or a happy youth; all they had was a narrow space in the factory, which bound their young souls.
They endured life's hardships at a young age, scrimping and saving to make a living and support their families, all for the sake of returning home for the New Year in a "glorious" and "triumphant" manner.
The only thing that could ignite a ray of light in their gloomy youth was the film and music works from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which led their souls to roam the vast world and temporarily escape the shackles of a life of suffering.
As for those who deliberately dress themselves up in a different way, the "F-mainstream" and "kill-M" style, it is the only way for these young people to let loose and find relief—these people have nothing but these strange outfits.
No one can understand their thoughts from their perspective. Most normal people only see their ugliness, strangeness, and ignorance, and ridicule and insult these young people who have lost their normal growth period due to various factors.
They didn't even know what they had done wrong; simply because they were "different," being attacked by the masses became a strange kind of "correctness."
The only time they saw this was in a movie during their occasional vacation, watching a once incredibly beautiful actress, sporting the same look, arguing with people about why she looked the way she did—she didn't care about other people's opinions, she simply wanted to do what she loved, even if many people thought these things were "unacceptable to the world."
But what does it matter what others think of you? You live your life for yourself.
In addition, the plot of this movie is also a story about a rural girl who achieves success in a singing competition through hard work - this classic trope of underdogs rising from the bottom still has a unique appeal to certain groups, allowing them to empathize with the character while watching the movie, and then sincerely identify with the character, turning it into a fantasy full of beautiful symbols.
Although life is still tough, they can keep going as long as they have hope and dreams.
Therefore, many years later, when Weibo became popular and many Hong Kong stars opened their own Weibo accounts, some people who had experienced that era left comments on Li Sishi's Weibo, reminiscing about their youthful days and also feeling...
They may want to go back or not, but they deeply understand that no matter what, they can never go back to the old days.
"Thank you for being by my side when I was young and ignorant; and thank you for remaining in my heart as I grow older..."
"The name 'Li Sishi' is not just about a person and a dream, but about the youth that many people can never return to. Back then, we all loved the same person and recklessly squandered our youth..."
"It's rare to find someone who can match the aesthetic preferences of my entire family, from eighty-year-olds to eight-month-olds, but she managed to do it—that's probably what they mean by 'she has all the looks I like,' right?"
"Thank you for giving me a beautiful dream during my barren youth, making me believe that there are still beautiful things in this cruel world..."
The sweat and tears of those years piled up in the factory workshops and dormitories, and the youthful years relied on the existence of these spiritual sustenances to find peace.
Later, someone summarized this grand occasion of reminiscing about the past into a poignant and moving statement: "We, the people of the 1990s..."
Posters of the then-popular actress Li Sishi adorn the walls of their homes; in the millennium, they expressed their admiration for Li Sishi's unconventional and unique style on QQ Space; and later, as the retro wave of reminiscing about Hong Kong style goddesses swept through, you still couldn't escape the same name...
Some have likened Li Sishi to a ray of white moonlight in the sky during that turbulent era, accompanying people through this bewildered time. With her wonderful stories and beautiful appearances, she has created a beautiful dream that all young people who still have dreams in their hearts never want to wake up from during the dark and oppressive years.
It's like a grand cultural and entertainment event that their generation once experienced, born from perfect timing, location, and human harmony. It grew wildly in the turbulent years, and they watched it spread and flourish. They personally felt it touch their hearts, and then regretfully watched it gradually descend from its pedestal and become a memory with the new era they built with their own hands.
What they love is "Li Sishi" as a person, but it is not just "Li Sishi" as a person, but also the imprint of an era and a generation.
Therefore, they will intentionally put aside all the hardships they have experienced and use the filter of memories and youth to pick up the light in those difficult years little by little and piece it together into a memory card with both laughter and tears, recording the most beautiful gift that ordinary people have encountered in the first half of their ordinary yet common lives in terms of cultural and spiritual aspects.
Thank you for liking me and thank you for liking my work.
Seeing those comments, Li Sishi personally replied to all the comments on Weibo with a simple yet profound sentence, just like a reunion and farewell seen through a soft-focus filter on a poster on the wall in the past.
Li Sishi asked herself if she was a saint. While she was developing her career in Hong Kong, she was also paying attention to managing her "business" in the mainland. Her "ambition" was to make the mainland economy take off in the future and become the white moonlight of a generation, paving the way for her to become a legendary superstar of the era. But when she actually did it, she seemed to lose her original intention and become more idealistic.
While the "goal" remains unchanged, the "ambition" has gained a touch of tenderness: it is hard for an artist who has never experienced genuine liking and love to imagine how moving it would be to be touched by such selfless affection.
Once you encounter this, you can no longer rationally view everything as a career, but instead genuinely want to repay these fans who love you unconditionally.
Having lived two lives, Li Sishi knows that the era she lives in is a time of transition and change—while she is dressed in finery and active under the lights of the big screen and the fluorescent screen, many people in distant places are still struggling to make ends meet.
She is passionate about participating in public welfare and charity fundraising activities not only for herself but also to help these people.
However, individual strength is limited and has its limits. Whether as an artist or a philanthropist, she cannot completely save people. Therefore, she can only do her best to bring the light of the bustling world to some mentally exhausted people, allowing them to temporarily forget the pain of life and roam in the vast ocean of the spiritual world to relax for a moment.
Of course, at this moment, in this place, Li Sishi, who will become a generation of rural youth idols in the future, failed to put the male lead, who was acting opposite her, at ease...
Such visually explosive "art" is far too early for young people whose aesthetics are still rooted in traditional schools of thought. Shang Hanyou was stunned for a while before he realized that Li Sishi's look was not a joke on him. He subconsciously leaned back with a look of horror.
Then I almost fell off the folding chair.
"Hey! Is it really necessary?" Li Sishi was both annoyed and amused as she went to help him up.
The colorful black fabric and the jingling chains made Shang Hanyou feel inexplicably dizzy.
But Director Liu was praising his reaction, saying that the male lead in the film had a similar mentality when he first saw the female lead: a staid old man would be very assertive when faced with a trendy young woman.
I can't stand the existence of this "trendy" thing...
Otherwise, the two wouldn't have disliked each other at the very beginning of the movie.
After being praised by the director, Li Sishi proudly raised a hand covered with a pink striped sleeve to show off her weight loss results: she already had a well-proportioned figure and a cool and noble temperament, so she was recognized as a great beauty in front of people, and people would often forget her age.
However, now that the heavy, mainstream smoky makeup has covered her true appearance, she can significantly enhance her perceived age by controlling her weight and body shape, using a slender and delicate figure that leans towards a young girl to maximize her resemblance to the character's persona.
After finally recovering from Li Sishi's boasting, Shang Hanyou subconsciously took a closer look at her: he had to admit that her makeup was indeed quite ingenious.
For most people, smoky eye makeup usually makes them look more mature. But Li Sishi, for some reason, had a similar smoky eye look to her makeup artist, paired with a perm that was so mature it was almost a housewife's favorite hairstyle. Instead, it highlighted the youthful innocence hidden behind the heavy makeup.
Especially the deliberately drawn droopy corners of the eyes, which make them look like a pitiful little puppy cowering in a seemingly fierce and unapproachable shell, fearfully observing this bustling yet turbulent world.
With such an obvious age gap, it's no wonder that later on, when the male and female leads were clearly interested in each other, the male lead, who considered himself too old, was unwilling to respond to the female lead's advances.
The weathered tree, wounded and thus willing to remain silent and hidden, would be reduced to ashes if it were to fall into the face of such a vibrant wildfire, seemingly struck by lightning.
It was also at this time
He then realized that Lee Sze-sze, who was recognized as a great beauty in Hong Kong from the very beginning of her career, was only nineteen years old.
Too young, everything about her was not yet fully mature. She was neither the "Rose Girl" who had once deeply amazed him, nor the "virtuous wife and loving mother" he had previously vaguely imagined.
Although he claimed to be a young man, he was actually fifteen years older than her.
Thinking about this, Shang Hanyou seemed to understand the male protagonist's evasive mentality in the later stages: the two, who were both teacher and friend, had a spiritual connection in their long-term relationship, but reality is not fantasy and one cannot easily act according to one's wishes.
Just like filming a movie, he can't just do whatever he feels like, especially with the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the crew is even more...
We have to film in leaps and bounds according to the convenience of the seasons, shooting some of the later scenes in advance.
The festive atmosphere in Yuen Long Wai Village is always much stronger than in the city. Even before the Mid-Autumn Festival, lanterns of all sizes are already hung up in the village, and it is said that their fireworks display for the festival is often comparable to the fireworks nights of Victoria Harbour...
This night scene is considered the scene where the female lead officially expresses her feelings. The male and female leads went from disliking each other to becoming friends and then mentors and friends, supporting each other all the way to where they are today. The female lead, who has changed her appearance and achieved certain results in the competition, has long been secretly attracted to the mature and tolerant man beside her.
However, the male protagonist deliberately pretends not to know and maintains his usual serious demeanor as a teacher to avoid the feeling that things have changed.
So, on this night when the two of them stayed in the walled village to watch the moonlight and the fireworks, the female protagonist seemingly casually but actually quite schemingly beckoned to the male protagonist: "Come closer, I have a secret to tell you."
Little did the young people of today know how sophisticated their tricks were. The male protagonist approached without suspicion, and then the female protagonist seized the opportunity to tilt her head back and peck him on the cheek.
With a bang, whether it was the fleeting brilliance of festive fireworks exploding in the sky, or a stirring within my heart, a flower silently bloomed within me as well.
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