Chapter 90: True to One's Words
The two old friends' perfectly synchronized antics led to a scene where the entire set burst into laughter after Zhou Shengyi's shocking reaction was filmed.
"Are you kidding me? I kindly invited you to make a cameo appearance, and you turn around and steal my man?" Zhou Shengyi stood up from the ground, laughing incessantly.
He's still young after all. Although he can be quite taciturn and has a bit of a tyrant vibe on set at times, he always manages to show a genuine smile when he meets old friends.
Consequently, her personality seemed to revert to that of the difficult years when she knew how to find joy even in hardship.
"What do you mean I stole your partner? It's clearly you who had ulterior motives and tried to steal my paterner!" Shang Hanyou said, his face full of self-righteous indignation.
“You think we’re filming an old movie? You really are something…” The two had filmed quite a few movies with two men vying for one woman, playing rivals in love and fighting several times. Zhou Shengyi immediately retorted.
Too lazy to watch these two clowns whose combined intelligence seemed to drop to no more than ten years old when they got together, Li Sishi touched up her makeup. She then sat on a folding chair, rubbing her stomach which was a little sore from laughing, and read the script, waiting for her scene to begin.
While Zhou Shengyi was leading the team to shoot some transition footage, Shang Hanyou, who was about to leave, came over and shook Li Sishi. Under her amused and exasperated gaze, he whispered, "I've tested it out for you. If your acting is good and 'reasonable,' he will definitely cooperate with your performance..."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work," Li Sishi replied with a smile.
Then she immediately received the expected response—Shang Hanyou pretended to be annoyed and tapped her, not only making a sullen face but also yelling, "Are you looking for death?"
However, such playful banter between close friends only lasted a few minutes. After knocking on Li Sishi's wrist, Shang Hanyou glanced at his watch and hurriedly went back to prepare for the concert.
Next, following instructions from the staff, Li Sishi stretched her arms and legs, stood up from the folding chair, and went to the roadside railing to take her position and prepare for filming.
In this scene, the deliveryman finally delivers the concert tickets to the female lead, Lili, and receives a reply from Lili agreeing to go to the concert with him. He is overjoyed and skips and hops across the street with the little plush toy he has carefully chosen.
Seeing his dream girl waving at him from across the street from the railing, Yi Wen suddenly had a whim and decided to use his...
He honed his hurdling skills from delivering food and gracefully cleared the road railing on his side of the street.
But the world is always so cruel. When no one is watching, he makes a perfect start, lands gracefully, and lands safely. But when someone is watching, he's halfway across when a passing bus suddenly comes and hits him headfirst, making him a classic "fall-over".
Seeing Lili, who was frightened, rushing over, Wen struggled to get up, but accidentally pressed his hand on a strange, familiar yet unfamiliar object...
This warm and soft feeling—
Having realized he had pressed on something, Yiwen saw Lili rushing towards him and getting very close. He quickly hid his hand behind his back and then held out the backpack he was carrying on his other arm, gesturing for Lili to focus her attention on the small plush toy gift inside.
Lily thanked him for the gift and concert tickets and wanted to shake his hand. Knowing that there was something "wrong" with her hand, she was naturally reluctant and dared not, and kept backing away until the male supporting character, Giant Bear, who had been following her, forcibly grabbed her hand...
When the bear discovered that the girl he wanted to date would rather go to a concert with this guy with poop on his hand than accept his invitation, he was furious and immediately threw a full-force straight punch!
Surprisingly, the deliveryman standing in front of him instinctively ducked and crouched down when the punch came flying at him.
So, not only did this powerful punch miss its target's face, but it also caused further trouble because of this cowardly delivery boy's retreat.
The bullet hit Lili, who was standing at the back...
That force sent Lili flying backward, spinning one and a half times, and tumbling onto the lawn, burying her entire face in the mud.
To achieve a sense of realism, unless absolutely necessary, the female characters in Zhou Shengyi's films seem to rarely use stunt doubles when filming action scenes, and whenever there is a scene where they are hit, they inevitably have to actually take a few hits.
Filmmaking during this period still seems to carry traces of the genuine skills of traditional opera troupes, revealing a rough and wild natural authenticity from beginning to end.
With precedents still fresh in mind, Li Sishi was no exception.
Therefore, she didn't use a stunt double for this fight scene; she performed it herself after practicing many times with the martial arts instructor. During filming, she relied on the male supporting actor's strength and her own twisting movements to land the blow—even so, the fall onto the grass still injured her brain.
I felt dizzy for a moment.
"Are you alright?" Zhou Shengyi quickly brought people over to check on the situation.
Li Sishi, this newcomer, not only has a good appearance and excellent acting skills, but also an excellent attitude towards filming. Apart from occasionally revealing a bit of the playful and mischievous nature that is appropriate for her age, she has almost no flaws. Zhou Shengyi has been filming with her for a while now, so he naturally shows her more favoritism.
Whether it's showing affection for a beautiful young woman, favoring an obedient junior, or remembering that Li Sishi is Miss Zhuang's "new favorite"... in the end, it all makes people a little more nervous about her.
"It's alright, it's alright, I'll be fine after a short rest." Li Sishi leaned against her assistant, Zuo Lili, to catch her breath, then waved her hand to indicate that she could continue after a short rest.
Good grief, you're being polite to him, but he really doesn't hold back.
After Li Sishi recovered, Zhou Shengyi didn't just let the already well-shot take be done in one take. Instead, he coaxed, persuaded, scolded, and rushed her to fall seven or eight more times, until it was almost dark. Only then did he finally get the few shots he was most satisfied with...
Seeing Li Sishi, after being checked and confirmed not to have broken any bones, sitting unceremoniously on a folding chair while her assistant applied liniment, Zhou Shengyi, who had already snapped out of his tyrannical state on set, immediately felt a little guilty and grabbed some mercurochrome as well: "Excuse me..."
"You know, I've always been pursuing the best results, so I didn't pay much attention to it for a while..." He himself has been through real fights, so he's completely oblivious to injuries from action scenes.
However, he hadn't noticed it during filming, but after filming, seeing Li Sishi's face, which was contorted in pain yet still youthful and vibrant, he realized that his strict, almost harsh, treatment of this young girl who had only recently come of age seemed to have been a bit "excessive."
Don't you see the current state of many female celebrities? Forget about actually filming scenes where they get hit or fall down, they're too lazy to even practice their own action scenes and simply use stunt doubles instead.
It's fortunate that Li Sishi, a newcomer who can endure hardship and setbacks, was able to meet him when he first had the strength and power to control a film.
Thinking of this, Zhou Shengyi felt even more guilty. He lowered his head but couldn't think of anything nice to say, so he could only stand there blankly with the red medicine in his hand, playing the role of a pitiful apologetic little man next to Li Sishi.
Seeing that he had completely lost his usual tyrannical aura on set, Li Sishi felt reassured and then proactively extended her hand to accept his "apology."
.
"When filming, it's easy to get too immersed in the role or get carried away and forget about other things. I understand—ouch! Be gentle, be gentle!" Li Sishi said halfway through her sentence, then quickly called out again.
"Okay, okay, I'll be gentler. Ah May, please tell me where it hurts!" Zuo Lili said with a pained expression.
"In short, I'm really sorry for today." Seeing this, Zhou Shengyi quickly apologized again.
"I'm really fine, you don't need to worry too much." Li Sishi looked up and smiled, looking like she was trying to make the best of a bad situation. "Now it's perfect, I don't need to do much makeup on my injury, I can go straight to filming tonight's scene!"
Seeing that she genuinely didn't seem to mind how tough and tiring the recent filming was, Zhou Shengyi breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but smile along with her.
That's very rare.
Are there still newcomers who are as passionate about acting as he was back then?
Moreover, this newcomer is a former beauty pageant contestant, a young and beautiful actress who looks delicate and pretty.
It's not that he discriminates against female celebrities, but these days, although female celebrities may find it difficult to compete with male celebrities in terms of career, they clearly have more career options—just one of them being "marrying a rich man."
The path it takes is enough to make most female artists in the industry, who are struggling in hard work, flock to it and follow one after another.
Female artists who started as beauty pageant contestants, starting with Miss Hong Kong Shu Ningning marrying into a wealthy family in the 1970s, have naturally enjoyed the tradition of being pursued by rich men. They are also more likely than female artists from other backgrounds to leave the glamorous but dark waters of the entertainment industry and become socialites and wealthy wives.
Faced with the fork in the road between easy and hard modes, how many people would still be willing to choose "hard mode on their own"?
Just like the female protagonist "Lili" designed by him and the screenwriter, in the end, she is just a dream in the story, and can only stop at the step of love. The heavy pressure of the realities of daily life in the future will not be something that the beautiful girl needs to consider.
With these thoughts in mind, Zhou Shengyi's mood was somewhat affected during the night shoot.
This night scene is where the deliveryman, Yiwen, climbs the telephone pole outside Lili's room to apologize for his retreat during the day.
Seeing the person who had caused her injury, Lili was angry, but she still maintained her composure and politeness, saying that she was fine and that he didn't need to be too nervous or worried.
The subtext was that he should leave this place as soon as possible.
But one
Wen clearly didn't understand the unspoken message in Lili's eyes. She was clinging to the telephone pole, rambling on about how dangerous her nose injury was and how she hoped Lili would get more checkups—what she really wanted was to see her more and show more concern for her sweetheart.
Unfortunately, when feelings are not reciprocated, no matter how much care you show, it will only be seen as "annoying" by the other person.
So the next line from the female lead, Lili, is, "I think you've misunderstood our relationship," followed by a disdainful remark that the male lead, Yiwen, is a coward, and that she dislikes cowards and hopes he will be sensible enough to leave on his own.
However, Yiwen still didn't leave and wanted to struggle a bit more—but for Lili, this "struggle" was just another "entanglement".
Therefore, she finally turned cold, changing her previous innocent and cheerful girl-like demeanor and becoming "unfamiliar" to everyone.
This unfamiliar appearance applies not only to the deliveryman in the article, but also to Zhou Shengyi, who plays the male lead.
According to the plot, "Lili" should return the small plush toy she received during the day to the male protagonist, and then the camera should return to the male protagonist, showing his lonely departing figure.
But Li Sishi didn't pick up the little plush toy and throw it out. Instead, she just looked at the person on the telephone pole and sighed very softly.
And those beautiful almond-shaped eyes lowered their eyelashes slightly at this moment, revealing a sense of relief and helplessness as they were finally able to shed all pretense.
She was about to say something—some lines that weren't originally in the script.
Was this improvisation due to being too immersed in the role, or...?
Recalling Li Sishi's strange behavior these past few days and her response just now, Zhou Shengyi, who thought he had seen through this newcomer, suddenly began to doubt his previous judgment.
Soon, the person in front of him would tell him the answer—therefore, even though he was still filming a difficult scene that tested his acting skills and physical abilities by climbing on a telephone pole, he was also secretly making the same subtle gestures that he had made when he discovered Shang Hanyou's improvisation, in places not captured by the camera, to suggest that filming should continue.
When the flawless facade of "Lili" in the drama is shed, the "beauty" off-screen will also reveal the disguise she has always worn.
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