Shang Yechu steeled herself and raised the microphone, laughing, "The role of Xiao Yue is indeed extremely difficult to play. Because she is very different from my previous roles..."
These are all clichés.
Shang Yechu glanced at the audience below the stage, cleared her throat, and said, "Xiao Yue is a cautious and meticulous intellectual."
Zheng Bohan, who was yawning in the audience, paused when he heard these words, and looked up at Shang Yechu.
—The disguised clerk was, of course, also a junior intellectual. In the early stages of infiltration, his position was low, and he could be used as cannon fodder in the internal power struggles of the Kuomintang at any time; therefore, caution was essential.
Shang Yechu cleared her throat; her palms were already sweating.
“What Xiaoyue is learning makes her incompatible with her surroundings,” Shang Yechu said. “This incompatibility makes her feel pain, but she has to pretend to be her true feelings, thoughts and ideas in order to blend into her surroundings.”
Zheng Bohan glanced at Shang Yechu in surprise, seemingly not expecting that a rural melodrama could be so far-fetched.
Shang Yechu continued, "Years of pretense have welded that mask onto Xiao Yue's face. Perhaps sometimes even she herself is confused, wondering which one is the real her—"
Zheng Bohan leaned forward slightly, listening even more attentively.
"Is it that filial, obedient daughter, that good student?" Shang Yechu pulled back the fishing line. "Or is it that Xiao Yue, whose heart is filled with endless anger and burgeoning ideals?"
Shang Yechu glanced at Ji Juntao, who returned an encouraging look.
"But deep in Xiao Yue's heart, there is always an inextinguishable torch..."
Even with her thick skin, Shang Yechu was starting to feel a bit hot-tempered.
"What is this torch?... That's right, it is... it is unwavering faith—"
Ji Juntao coughed loudly and dramatically.
That's too obvious!
Shang Yechu quickly steered the conversation back on track: "Xiao Yue's belief is freedom. That's right, freedom."
Afraid that Zheng Bohan would realize what was going on, Shang Yechu rattled off, "Xiao Yue wants to liberate herself, wants to achieve her own liberation..."
— Li Yiming wants to liberate all mankind and achieve the liberation of all mankind.
It's okay to repeat the same thing over and over again, as long as it's useful.
"This ideal sustained Xiaoyue, allowing her to persevere through difficult times and ultimately achieve her goal," Shang Yechu recounted. "Of course, there were moments of heart-wrenching pain as well. But nothing could stop Xiaoyue's progress..."
Xiao Yue was certainly no match for Li Yiming, but Li Yiming's outward disguise—a low-level Kuomintang clerk—was somewhat similar to Xiao Yue's. Perhaps this similarity could give Shang Yechu a little more leverage.
Shang Yechu's speech finally came to an end.
Gu Wenhua and Qi Ming led the applause. From their perspective, Shang Yechu's words were perfectly reasonable and aligned perfectly with the character's script. The audience also sparsely applauded. Shang Yechu's speech was clearly not as engaging as Qi Ming's, and even had a somewhat vague and ambiguous quality.
Shang Yechu had absolutely no chance of winning. Now it was up to her to see if the movie could move Zheng Bohan.
Because the ceremony had been simplified, the guest speeches were omitted. After the trailer was played, the host announced the start of the screening, and "The Mute Woman" officially began.
-----------------
This was also the first time Shang Yechu had seen the finished film of "The Mute Woman". She was very curious about how Gu Wenhua would edit the film.
The film opens with a hoarse melody. An ant-like figure slowly crawls across a loess slope. The camera zooms in from a distance, gradually focusing on the "ant's" face.
Only then did the audience realize that the hoarse singing voice came from the mouth of an old woman with jet-black hair but a withered and weathered face.
The old woman was singing passionately as she climbed the mountain. Suddenly, a large, iron-like hand grabbed her arm!
With a yank, the old woman turned around in surprise and saw a strong, robust man in his prime.
The old woman let out a long, angry scream.
"Ah ya ya ya ah—"
The man wiped the sweat from his face and breathed a sigh of relief: "You're still yelling! You're still yelling! Why are you climbing the mountain in this cold weather?"
The old woman called out a few more times and made a long string of sign language gestures.
There were no subtitles at the bottom of the screen, but the audience understood the meaning behind the old woman's gestures quite naturally.
The old woman seemed to be going to the other side of the mountain to find a short, fat man.
The man grabbed her arm and impatiently gestured in sign language. While gesturing, he muttered, "Why are you still looking for your daughter? She's long forgotten about you, her mother!"
The old woman tried to climb the mountain, but the man forcibly dragged her away.
The man glanced at the old woman, then pointed angrily at her chest:
"Where's the sign? The one hanging here—" the man gestured with a square, "Where's your sign?!"
The old woman clapped her hands happily and made a "flying" gesture.
The man was furious. He glared at the old woman and roughly dragged her away from the loess slope.
The camera zoomed in again, zoomed in, and zoomed in until it reached the feet of the two people.
A cloud of dust rose from the loess land, and the soil particles stuck to the lens, making the whole picture gray and full of grayish-yellow impurities.
A gust of wind swept by, blowing all the dust off the lens. The image returned to its clean and clear state.
The gust of wind also blew away a layer of topsoil, revealing something that had been half-hidden in the loess.
That's a sign.
A dirty, square wooden sign, its material and workmanship extremely rough, was strung together by a black, shiny rope whose original color was no longer discernible; the rope was already worn through.
The camera zooms in again.
This time, the audience could see clearly what was on the wooden sign.
A piece of paper was taped to the top of the wooden sign, on which two small characters were written in pencil:
"Guan family".
Two large characters were carved at the bottom of the wooden sign using a carving knife or similar tool.
The camera zoomed in again, almost touching the wooden sign. The image blurred briefly due to loss of focus, then became clear again.
The two large characters, carved with a knife, filled the entire screen and became the film's title.
The Mute Woman.
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