Back to 80: My Literary Life

Actually, Fang Minghua was not mistaken.

In history, Wong Kar-wai came to the mainland to shoot "Ashes of Time" in the autumn of 1992, but the shooting progress was extremely slow, and it took more than a year to shoot intermittently.

A very important reason is that when shooting, even the most basic main film story framework was not finalized. For example, Leslie Cheung's role was originally to play the role of the East Evil, but later he decided to let Leslie Cheung play the role of the West Poison Ouyang Feng. This decision also led to the deletion of most of Wang Zuxian's scenes that had already been filmed.

Moreover, Wong Kar-wai likes to change the script, and often abandons the crew and runs to rewrite the script.

The investors are afraid of losing money. If the work is delayed, everyone has to eat. So the film company invited director Liu Zhenwei to use the original crew and actors to shoot a funny movie "A Chinese Odyssey" in their free time. It took a very short time and was released during the Spring Festival. Unexpectedly, the hastily shot "A Chinese Odyssey" had a higher box office than "A Chinese Odyssey".

However, in this life, the situation has changed. Wong Kar-wai did not rush to the mainland to shoot a film. The problem still lies in the script of "A Chinese Odyssey" written by Fang Minghua.

It turned out that after Stephen Chow got the script last year, he looked for a director to prepare for a new film, and naturally found Liu Zhenwei, who had worked with him.

The two hit it off and began to prepare for the new film.

Once Wong Kar-wai came to his good friend Liu Zhenwei's house as a guest. Liu Zhenwei took out the script and handed it to Wong Kar-wai as if showing off. After reading the script, Wong Kar-wai remained silent.

After Wong Kar-wai finished shooting "Days of Being Wild", he wrote a script called "The Return of the Condor Heroes 1991" last year (1991), and handed it to directors Lai Dawei and Yuan Kui for directing, and Andy Lau, Anita Mui, Aaron Kwok and others starred.

Although the name of the film is "The Return of the Condor Heroes 1991", it has nothing to do with Mr. Jin's "The Return of the Condor Heroes".

It tells the story of a city mercenary who, after experiencing the departure of his friends and the destruction of his enemies, got tired of fighting and finally retired.

According to his own imagination, Wong Kar-wai described a deep love story, which also contained the tenderness of a knight. The romantic and strange martial arts world was dressed in ultra-modern new clothes, and with the cartoon-like treatment, the movie received good reviews after its release.

He wanted to make a real martial arts film this time, of course not the traditional martial arts. He had a general framework in his mind but had not thought it through.

Now when I saw the script of "A Chinese Odyssey", I even said "WTF" in my heart.

The outside world said that I, the King of Sunglasses, wrote scripts in an unconstrained and unconventional way, but when I saw this one written by Fang Minghua, it was called subverting the three views.

Is this still the "Journey to the West" where Tang Monk and Sha Monk went to seek Buddhist scriptures? !

But it is really "Journey to the West"!

So he decided to seriously consider the martial arts script he wanted to shoot. At least it should be better than this "A Chinese Odyssey", right?

The filming of "Ashes of Time" was postponed.

Fang Minghua naturally didn't know what happened in Hong Kong, but he didn't ask too much, after all, he was not very familiar with Liu Zhenwei.

In addition, he was busy filming and it was not appropriate to disturb him for too long, so he said goodbye to Liu Zhenwei and Stephen Chow and went for a stroll with Zhang Xianliang.

Yinchuan in September was neither cold nor hot, which was a good time for tourism. Accompanied by Zhang Xianliang, Fang Minghua not only visited the Western Film and Television City, watched the Western Xia Royal Tombs and the Helan Mountain Rock Paintings, but also went to Huangsha Ancient Ferry and visited the Ningxia Museum. They also discussed calligraphy skills together and tried local Yinchuan snacks such as mutton old rubbing noodles, Yan noodles, and Yinchuan Sanzi. They went out early and returned late every day and had a lot of fun.

That afternoon, Zhang Xianliang and several of his friends went to the famous "Laomao Shouzha" mutton restaurant near the Drum Tower, drank "Western Xia Gong", and returned to their room in the hotel drunk.

Song Tangtang was in the room, operating something on a laptop, with a pile of account books next to him.

The notebook was the one Stephen Chow gave to Fang Minghua. After the Chinese Literature Award was over, Fang Minghua took it home and gave it to his wife.

Shengshi Film and Television Company began to promote computerization and bought a genuine UFIDA. Song Tangtang also installed UFIDA in this notebook for her convenience.

When she saw Fang Minghua coming back, she looked up and said, "You are out now, and your life is free."

"That's right." Fang Minghua smiled and said, "It's the filming. Liu Zhenwei and his team are progressing smoothly. If we don't understand, don't get involved. The company is led by you, Manager Song. Do I still need to worry about it? I am an idle person, not just playing."

Song Tangtang snorted and said, "Liu Zhenwei is looking for you today."

"Why? To modify the script?"

"No, it seems that I want you to help write the script."

"What script?" Fang Minghua was stunned.

"I don't know either. He will probably come to you after the crew finishes work tonight." Song Tangtang said.

"Oh, okay." Fang Minghua fell on the bed after saying that.

"Did you drink too much? I'll make you some tea." Seeing this, Song Tangtang stood up.

Fang Minghua brought his own tea. Now he always brings his own tea leaves when he goes on a long trip. He is used to the taste and feels comfortable.

Song Tangtang made a cup of strong tea and helped Fang Minghua up again.

Leaning against the head of the bed, Fang Minghua took a few sips and immediately felt much better.

The Hong Kong crew finished work late. At almost nine o'clock, Fang Minghua heard a noise coming from the corridor outside. It was probably the crew coming back.

After a while, someone knocked on the door. Song Tangtang went to open the door and saw Liu Zhenwei standing at the door.

"Is Mr. Fang back?"

"He's back, Director Liu, please come in."

Fang Minghua was lying down, and when she heard the conversation at the door, she got up and went to greet Liu Zhenwei, and the two sat on the sofa and chatted.

"Director Liu, I heard from my wife, what script do you want me to write?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Yes, Mr. Fang, I came to you now for this matter, not me, but my friend."

"Who?"

"Wong Kar-wai."

"Wong Kar-wai asked me to help write a script?!" Fang Minghua was very surprised: "Director Wang is a master of screenwriting, how did he think of asking me to write a script for him?"

Liu Zhenwei talked about the origin of the matter.

It turned out that just last night, Liu Zhenwei received a call from Wong Kar-wai in Hong Kong about the company.

Just this year, the two jointly opened a film production company called Zedong Film Company. During the period, Liu Zhenwei talked about his own filming of "A Chinese Odyssey", and also said that Fang Minghua, who wrote the script, was in Yinchuan and was playing around the area at the invitation of a friend.

Wong Kar-wai suddenly made a request: let Liu Zhenwei tell Fang Minghua to help him write a martial arts script.

"Mr. Fang, Kar-wai has bought the film adaptation rights of Mr. Jin Yong's The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and has been thinking about how to adapt it. He has written several scripts but he is always dissatisfied. When he saw the script of A Chinese Odyssey you wrote, he admired your wild ideas very much, so he wanted to ask you to help him write a script."

Ouch

Write "Ashes of Time"?

Interesting.

"Okay." Fang Minghua agreed immediately.

Liu Zhenwei didn't expect Fang Minghua to agree so readily, and he felt a little embarrassed.

Did he betray him?

It turned out that Wong Kar-wai was notoriously difficult to serve, and had extremely high requirements for the script. What's more annoying is that the script was changed beyond recognition after the filming.

This is a nightmare for screenwriters.

Liu Zhenwei had a good impression of Fang Minghua, a very famous writer in the mainland, who was said to be very rich and well-mannered.

And he also had a pleasant cooperation with his wife Shengshi Film and Television.

If Fang Minghua was mistreated by his friend because of the script, he would feel bad.

But the other party had already agreed, so he couldn't say much.