Chapter 275-286 [Male actors from both sides of the Taiwan Straits and Hong Kong compete]

At the gate of Beijing Film Academy.

Li Yishu sat in the car waiting for Jiang Qinqin and Yu Feihong to come. Looking at the students coming out of the campus in groups of three or five, he couldn’t help but remember that he was one of them a few years ago.

But times have changed. In just three short years, he has become a figure that Beijing Film Academy students look up to.

For the first time, Li Yishu felt the changes and beauty that rebirth brought him.

“Dong dong!”

Just as Li Yishu was looking at the school gate in a daze, he suddenly heard the sound of knocking on the glass. He glanced sideways and saw Jiang Qinqin, Jia Jingwen and Xu Jinglei standing by the car door.

Li Yishu rolled down the car window and said with a smile, “Well, Qinqin is here.”

“Yeah, I just got out of school.” Jiang Qinqin said with a smile, “Brother Yishu, can you bring Jingwen and Jinglei with you? I promised to treat them to a meal.”

“Okay.” Li Yishu agreed readily and waved her hand, saying, “Everyone get in the car. When your sister Feihong comes, we’ll go together.”

“Thank you, Yishu!”

“Thank you Director Li! X2”

Jiang Qinqin smiled happily and quickly asked the two people who were a little restrained around her to get in the car.

With a click, the three of them squeezed in the back. Fortunately, the Santana that Li Yishu bought had a relatively large space, so the three of them didn’t feel crowded sitting in the back.

Li Yishu turned around and asked, “How are you doing in your studies recently? The final exam is coming up soon. Can you get good grades?”

“Of course you can, Yishu brother, you don’t know that I am in the top three in the class in acting, and first in physical education!”

Jiang Qinqin raised her chin proudly. Thanks to her experience in several movies and Yu Feihong’s private teaching, her grades in the acting class were always among the best. In the physical education class, she had almost ten years of Peking Opera skills.

His comprehensive score was definitely one of the best in the same acting class. Coupled with his good looks, he has always been a celebrity in the 93 Beijing Film Academy Acting Class.

“Haha, that’s not bad, keep it up and don’t be too proud.”

After Li Yishu praised them for a few times, he also looked at the other two: “Jingwen, Jinglei, how are you two? Can you get good grades in this final exam?”

Jia Jingwen is now considered his employee, and Xu Jinglei has met Jiang Qinqin several times because of her. Now that they meet again, she naturally asked about their performance in school.

Jia Jingwen quickly said, “Boss, my academic subjects are still a little difficult, but everything else is not bad, especially my performance, which is second in the class!”

Jia Jingwen was very grateful to Li Yishu. Not only did she pay for her father’s medical treatment, she also helped pay off her debts, although the price was a 20-year contract and the cost of breach of contract was an unimaginable number.

But Jia Jingwen is still very grateful to Li Yishu. Without his help, Jia Jingwen, who is only a freshman, would have to face her father’s serious illness and a huge debt. Under the double pressure, it would not be as simple as dropping out of school.

As a native of Taiwan, Jia Jingwen knows too well the difficulties faced by female students in her situation. There is often only one way out: to be kept by someone and then make a debut to pay off the debt.

Although Jia Jingwen had never experienced such a thing, she had seen similar news in the media in Taiwan. She used to think it was fake, but now she has personally experienced her father being seriously ill and heavily in debt. In this situation, she really doesn’t know what to do except selling herself to pay off the debts and save her father.

“This is not a company. From now on, just call me Brother Yishu like Qinqin does.” Li Yishu waved his hand and said with a smile, “Your current task is to study hard and don’t think too much. Wait until you graduate from university before you decide.”

“Okay, Director Li.” Jia Jingwen didn’t dare to call Yishu “Brother”. Ever since she asked Jiang Qinqin to help contact Li Yishu last year, she naturally integrated into Jiang Qinqin and Xu Jinglei’s small group.

After more interactions, how could Jia Jingwen not see Jiang Qinqin’s undisguised little thoughts?
Seeing Li Yishu looking at her, Xu Jinglei quickly said, “Director Li, my grades are pretty good. I should be able to get a good score in the final exam.”

“Well, studying hard is the key.”

After chatting for a few words, Li Yishu saw Yu Feihong coming out of the school gate, and he also stuck his head out and waved.

Yu Feihong came over, opened the passenger door and sat down. He then noticed the three girls in the back and said with a smile, “Oh, you three are here?”

The three of them said in unison: “Teacher Yu!”

“Okay, school is over now, so stop calling me Teacher Yu. I’m only a few years older than you. Calling me teacher makes me sound old. Just like Qinqin, call me Sister Feihong.”

Yu Feihong smiled and waved her hand. She was only in her twenties, only four or five years older than Jiang Qinqin and the others. It was okay to call her teacher at school, but if she still called her teacher outside, it would seem a bit old-fashioned.

Jiang Qinqin was fine, she usually called Feihong Sister in private. This was the first time for Jia Jingwen and Xu Jinglei, but after looking at each other, they still called out “Sister Feihong” tacitly.

“That’s right.” Yu Feihong smiled and looked at Li Yishu and asked, “What are we going to eat?”

“Let’s eat hot pot. I’ve been in France for so long, I’ve been missing the taste of hot pot.”

Li Yishu is not a hotpot fan, but she spent a lot of time in Cannes this time. The taste of French food is okay, but the portion is a little small and the taste is a bit light, which makes Li Yishu, a Sichuanese who has lived in Sichuan for decades, naturally not used to it.

It’s edible, but not for long. Now that I’m back home, of course I have to try something savory.

I drove the four of us to Wangfujing and went to the same Sichuan hotpot restaurant where we had eaten last time.

The steaming Sichuan hotpot made Jia Jingwen, who is from Taiwan, drool. She was not greedy, but she was afraid of the spicy food.

Fortunately, Li Yishu ordered a double-flavored hotpot, with one side being medium spicy and the other side having clear soup.

Jiang Qinqin and Li Yishu naturally like it moderately spicy. They are both from Sichuan, and eating spicy food is a tradition for them.

Yu Feihong, Jia Jingwen and Xu Jinglei only ate clear soup, and occasionally had something spicy to change the taste, but they would sip on it after just a little bit.

Halfway through the meal, Yu Feihong wiped his mouth and asked, “Yishu, is the Three Kingdoms Red Cliff going to cast?”

“We’re already casting, and we’ll try to get everything done before the end of June.”

Li Yishu nodded without comment. Being well versed in the ways of publicity for future generations, he had already cooperated with several newspapers since the project of “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms” was launched, and would release some news every week.

From costumes and props to the progress of the studio’s construction, the goal is to make “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms” appear in front of the public as much as possible. Only in this way can more people pay attention to it.

The crew of the earlier “Dream of Red Mansions” and the crew of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” which was completed last year actually had similar publicity, but because they were invested by CCTV, CCTV normally conducted on-site interviews and reports on the crew. “Are there any other minor roles?”

“Why, you want to act too?”

“No, I’m thinking that your movie will start shooting next year or the year after. It just so happens that the students I teach are all sophomores and juniors now. I’ll go to your crew and play some small roles. It will at least help me gain some experience and resume.”

Yu Feihong still cares a lot about the students in his class. The final exams are coming soon, and after that, they will all be sophomores.

Beijing Film Academy itself encourages students to actively participate in social practice. Now that they are almost sophomores, Yu Feihong, as a performance teacher, naturally has to find some social practice for the students.

To put it bluntly, it is to encourage students to go out and act. After all, the acting skills learned in school are only one-sided and there is no way to put them into practice. Most of those who will become veteran actors in the future started out as ordinary extras and steadily developed their own performance style.

Otherwise, he would probably end up like Director Bi in the future, making a movie called “Chasing Dreams in the Entertainment Industry” to make the public fully understand what a disaster it is to have academic qualifications but no ability.

It’s just empty talk!
Li Yishu nodded: “If you just want to participate, that’s fine, you can arrange for the students in your class to come along.”

“Okay!” Yu Feihong smiled happily. When she was in college, it was thanks to the help of her teacher that she was able to play several small roles in the crew.

In this industry, there is really no one to help, and it is extremely difficult to get a role.

After Yu Feihong became a teacher himself, he fully understood the distress of his former teacher. If he wanted all his students to have a future, he had to help them increase their visibility first.

Now with Li Yishu’s words, we will be able to participate in such a big-budget domestic film in the future.

Li Yishu thought for a moment and said, “Summer vacation is coming soon. If it really doesn’t work out, you can contact Yongmei and ask all the students in your class to join the crew of “Legend of the Han Palace”. Although the main roles have been decided, there are still many small supporting roles and special performances.”

Hearing this, Jiang Qinqin was fine, because she would be filming with Jia Jingwen on the set of “Legend of the Han Palace” during the summer vacation, even if it was just a small supporting role.

But Xu Jinglei is different. She has always been looking forward to acting. Now hearing what Li Yishu said, she can’t help but be excited. She has never acted in a play until now!
Yu Feihong was a little moved: “Will it not disturb the original plan of the crew?”

“It’s okay, they are just some roles like palace maids and guards. It can be regarded as a social practice for your class in advance.”

Li Yishu smiled. There were many famous actors among the students of the class of 93. In addition to Jiang Qinqin and the other three, there was also Liu Lin, who later played the lady in “The Story of Minglan”, Liu Zi, who played Qian Sanyi’s mother in “Life of Pi”, and Xie Run, who played Nuwa in “The New Conferred Gods”.

The performance of male actors has been dragged down quite a bit, but there are also many who are active in the entertainment industry later on.

His art and entertainment group is already developing agency business, and will naturally sign a large number of young artists in the future. Many of these students from Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama were first-, second-, and third-tier star actors active in the early 2000s.

The longer Yu Feihong stays at the Beijing Film Academy, the better he will do. After a dozen years, if he becomes a professor or director of the Performance Department of the Beijing Film Academy, he will be able to provide a lot of help to Li Yishu.

For example, during the enrollment period of new students every year, Yu Feihong would ask people from the art group to go in and select new people to sign in advance.

Seeing that they were just ordinary characters like palace maids and guards, Yu Feihong no longer had any psychological burden and agreed with a smile: “Okay, I’ll tell them later.”

“Well, eat quickly, it’s getting late.”

Li Yishu raised his eyebrows at Yu Feihong. There would be no holiday tomorrow. After dinner, he had to send Jiang Qinqin and others back to school.

Hearing this, Yu Feihong gave him a charming look and started eating.

Eat more now so that you can last longer when you use up your energy at night.

time flies.

Fast forward three days later.

There was a surging crowd in the backstage of the Beijing Film Studio auditorium, with hundreds of people packed in, all of them were actors who came to audition.

Looking around, you can see familiar faces, including many stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

There were more than 30 Hong Kong and Taiwan stars who auditioned for “Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms” this time, and two of the Four Heavenly Kings came, one was Andy Lau and the other was Leon Lai.

The former auditioned for the role of Zhao Yun, and the latter auditioned for the role of Zhou Yu.

In addition, there are Taiwanese actors Li Liqun, Zhang Chenguang, Liu Dekai, Ma Jintao, He Jiajin and Jiao Enjun, who later played Erlang Shen.

This audition is truly a competition among male actors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong.

For this purpose, Li Yishu specially asked someone to get a camera and a dozen rolls of film in order to record the performance of each actor in the audition.

In the future, we can invite them to film or collaborate based on their performance.

offstage.

Li Yishu was chatting with Han Sanping and others. Seeing that it was getting late, he asked the staff about the progress of the makeup backstage. When he learned that several candidates for Zhuge Liang had already finished their makeup, he waved his hand and arranged for them to go on stage for auditions one by one.

The first person to appear is Liu Dekai, who is also a veteran actor. The work that mainland audiences are most familiar with of his may be Jiang Ziya in Bingbing’s version of “The Legend of the Gods: Fengming Qishan”.

At this moment, he is wearing a feather fan and a long scarf, and is dressed in ancient costume. His elegant temperament and handsome appearance really give people the image of a gentle and refined scholar.

Liu Dekai said with a smile: “Hello, directors. I am Liu Dekai. The person auditioning this time is Zhuge Liang.”

“Mr. Liu, please take a look at this scene and act it out. You can read it according to the script.”

Li Yishu waved her hand and asked the staff to take a copy of Zhuge Liang’s Longzhong Strategy and hand it to the other party.

After Liu Dekai read the script for a while, he also understood why he had to read it according to the script. It was not easy to memorize such a long paragraph of lines immediately. He immediately prepared his emotions, put the script behind the fan, and began to perform:
“Since Dong Zhuo, many heroes have emerged, and there are countless heroes who have crossed states and counties. Compared with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao is less famous and has fewer people…”

Watching his performance, Li Yishu and others nodded slightly. He is indeed a veteran actor and his lines were delivered very well.

He also had a handsome appearance, which matched Zhuge Liang’s image. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms states: “Zhuge Kongming was eight feet tall, with a face like a jade crown, wearing a turban on his head and a crane cloak, looking like a fairy.”

Not as good as Mei Zhoulang, but still a handsome guy.

(End of this chapter)