Chapter 87: Intending to Add Drama
If it weren't for the need to add scenes for her own character, Li Sishi felt that the script she had was already a fairly mature commercial film script: the plot was well-structured with a clear beginning, development, and conclusion, and the main storyline of a small character's growth had moments of heartbreak, humor, and witty remarks. It was of a certain standard in every aspect.
In addition, Zhou Shengyi's seemingly superficial yet profound performance makes this drama truly timeless, offering new insights every time it's watched.
The problem at hand is that she can't rely on box office guarantees and a safe minimum to play this decorative female lead role step by step. Instead, with the "support" of Zhuang Menghua, she has to come up with some new female lead character stories, and these stories have to be able to compete with the already well-developed male lead.
Therefore, the character of the "beautiful goddess who admires the great hero" in the plot needs some fashionable and commercial changes that can be accepted by both the audience and Zhou Shengyi.
That was no easy task—especially since the male lead in the scene was Zhou Shengyi, who was known in the industry as a domineering actor. Stealing his scene when he was at the height of his career was almost like taking food from his bowl…
As Li Sishi carefully considered her words, she explained her ideas for changing the character to Zhuang Menghua one by one.
In short, the original plot of this script is about a deliveryman named "Yiwen" who falls in love at first sight with a beautiful female student named "Lili" at the Century Sports Center. With the help of Uncle Hua, who seems like a sleazy conman but is actually a retired martial arts master, he goes to great lengths and goes through hardships to pursue Lili. In the end, he moves Lili with his passion and sincerity and successfully wins her heart in the finale. It's a classic love story.
However, the word "cliché" also has another name: "classic." So, after the brilliant screenwriter and Zhou Shengyi, the new generation comedy king, worked together to polish the details, this old tree with its trunk that had already turned out of shape sprouted fresh green buds, becoming a stunning color that was not at all shy in the lush greenery of early spring.
Looking at the script as a whole, the character "Lili" actually has quite a bit of storyline. From her stunning appearance and bold actions at the beginning, to her judgment of love and the person she admires in the middle of the story, to her touching moment after realizing that the delivery boy is truly sincere towards her... Overall, it can be considered a young girl's cognitive process from dreams to reality.
In short, it perfectly aligns with the male perspective on the aesthetics of a young girl: a young and beautiful girl always fantasizes that her ideal man will be a peerless hero who can give her...
A comfortable life and a beautiful love.
Little did they know that times had changed, and those legendary heroes were no longer relevant or had ulterior motives. Only that simple-minded boy, who had little money and wasn't handsome enough, was still doing his best for a beautiful girl's smile.
Compared to Zhou Shengyi's later films, which often ended tragically when love stories were involved, this one has a fairytale-like happy ending—although that's only from the perspective of the "male protagonist" and only from the timeline that abruptly ends at the end.
In the end, the simple-minded boy's sincerity moved the goddess he had long admired, bringing this fairytale-like story to a perfect conclusion: the knight who protected the princess finally won her heart.
However, the camera did not focus on the princess, nor did it explore her changes in thought along the way, or the moment of heart-fluttering at the end, or whether she could withstand the heavy pressure of future reality.
Perhaps it is precisely because even the screenwriter knew that this happy ending was just a beautiful fantasy for others that the film's short runtime allowed the story to end hastily while it still held hope and beauty.
In her past life, when Li Sishi rewatched some of Chow Yun-fat's classic films, she had seen some comments saying that in this particular film, the goddess "Lili" was actually not good enough for the delivery boy "Yiwen".
Because the former only has a pretty appearance and a shallow mind, while the latter has the courage to risk everything for his lover.
Clearly, this situation is a consequence of the story's highlights and main plot all revolving around the male protagonist, making everyone else seem like "supporting characters."
What Li Sishi needs to do now is to explore the character story of "Lili" and add a few but significant elements to the original character setting to change the audience's impression of her, so that the character will not become a "pretty face" that some viewers in later generations say is "unworthy of the male lead".
Moreover, she doesn't just want "Lili" to be a supporting character who is seen as unworthy of someone yet worthy of someone else, but to make this character a true protagonist in the shadows, standing in the position of the female lead and intertwining and complementing the male lead's main growth story!
After listening to the key points raised by Li Sishi, Zhuang Menghua nodded, and then asked, "Can you complete these settings and plots yourself? Or do you need to find one or two screenwriters to teach you how to turn them into script text?"
Li Sishi initially impressed the scriptwriting team of "Mr. Morning," then discussed and exchanged ideas with them before officially starting production after confirming the changes.
Currently, she is the only one working alone on revising the script, hence Zhuang Menghua's question.
“I’ve learned some writing methods from the scriptwriting team of ‘Mr. Morning.’ My plan is to write out these key points first, draft some character dialogues, and then test the effect on set before making any further plans,” Li Sishi replied.
Zhuang Menghua nodded, indicating that she agreed to Li Sishi's suggestion, and then winked at Lu Yiting: "Niya, keep a close eye on May's situation in the play, and report to me immediately if anything happens."
“I understand, Miss Zhuang.” Lu Yiting nodded in agreement.
After arranging Li Sishi's next move, Lu Yiting took Li Sishi and Zuo Lili to Zhou Shengyi's place to announce that the female lead for the film "Hero in My Heart" had been chosen.
When Zhou Shengyi saw Li Sishi smiling and greeting him, he was momentarily lost in thought and remembered the schoolgirl in a lemon tea who had once sung softly on the television screen.
It has to be said that, just in terms of appearance, it does indeed have the feel of the first love white moonlight that young people love the most.
Sensing Zhou Shengyi's approval of her appearance, Li Sishi breathed a sigh of relief: that smile of hers was not just a simple smile.
Whether in the film and television industry or elsewhere, there is a term called "first impression".
The degree of likability in a first impression largely determines how others perceive you.
Therefore, this seemingly unintentional smile of first love is actually a "scheming smile" that she practiced in front of the mirror for a long time, adjusting every muscle on her face little by little, until even the slight curve of her lips reached perfection.
As a former beauty pageant contestant, she had faced similar situations before where she needed to cultivate a persona. However, back then, the camera time was generally evenly distributed among each contestant, and she only needed to capture those few seconds when the camera was on and make the best response.
Instead of projecting their persona into the real world and trying to maintain that persona for as long as possible, as is the case now.
To put it simply, she was "performing" before, but now she is "acting"—or rather, she is merging herself with the character, ideally reaching a point where she can't distinguish between the real person and the role for a period of time...
As for why she focused on "pleasing Zhou Shengyi," besides the fact that Zhou Shengyi was the male lead and a box office guarantee of the film, his key role as the screenwriter and director, despite being nominally the lead actor, was also the real reason why Li Sishi targeted him.
The director and screenwriter of this film are nominally Zhou Shengyi's long-time collaborator and friend, but in reality, Zhou Shengyi had already begun to take charge of the on-set filming more than a year ago.
Therefore, he also served as the "producer" in this film.
This resulted in Zhou Shengyi having a near-dictatorial effect in the movies he starred in. He wielded power that was no less than, and perhaps even greater than, that of the director and screenwriter. He was involved in everything from improvisational meetings to script changes to on-set improvisation. Only when the producer visited the set could he be put in a certain position.
The producer of this film is Zhuang Menghua, a figure who has always been superior to Zhou Shengyi, both in the past and present.
With the courage given by Zhuang Menghua's powerful backing and the targeted research on Zhou Shengyi, Li Sishi was already acting from the moment the two met.
Unaware of the cunning and scheming nature of this seemingly innocent and charming beauty pageant contestant who had just come of age, Zhou Shengyi exchanged a few words with Lu Yiting. After expressing his approval of Li Sishi's appearance and his doubts about her acting skills, he generously accepted Li Sishi as the lead actress and decided to let her try out the role first, and if it didn't work out, they would replace her.
That being said, Li Sishi's physical appearance alone is a perfect match for the female lead's character, which naturally earns her a score of 50.
As long as her acting skills aren't too bad, the remaining ten points, which are considered passing, are easily within her grasp.
Of course, if the acting skills are really not ideal, he might as well teach them a lesson based on their good looks—as long as they are not completely hopeless, Zhou Shengyi doesn't intend to replace them.
Although most people in the industry think he's a domineering actor who likes to have his own way of speaking, in fact, he's still willing to give newcomers a chance whenever possible.
He himself climbed his way up from bit parts to where he is today, relying on his love for acting and his thick skin to work hard; and those talented or ambitious newcomers are just like him in the past.
In this industry, factors such as hard work, talent, luck, and mentorship can all lead a person down a completely different path, and those who are fortunate enough to have several of these factors are enough to create miracles of the times.
He has received before and is happy to give.
Moreover, there's another crucial reason: the legendary Miss Hong Kong, whose nickname is "Beautiful," is indeed truly beautiful...
She looks even better in person than on camera!
Having worked with so many actresses, one should have a certain resistance to such beauty...
But he really hasn't met one, one, one... a first love, a white moonlight beauty who perfectly matches the aesthetic of most modern young men.
With the combined influence of "gentleness towards newcomers" and "appreciation of beauty," Zhou Shengyi's voice softened considerably: "Hello, your name is Li Sishi, right? Welcome to the crew."
"Just call me Ah May." Li Sishi smiled even more broadly, and at first glance, she appeared even more charming and graceful, a sight to behold.
At this moment, the comedy emperor, who was still thinking about not being too harsh on the young girl Li Sishi during filming and taking every opportunity to give her extra help and help her improve, really had no idea that the charming and adorable female lead in front of him, who was as soft and cute as a little rabbit, was secretly plotting to steal food from his bowl as the male lead...
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