China Entertainment 1997

Zhejiang Province, Hengdian Film and Television City

This place destined to leave its name in the history of Chinese film and television has not yet completely reached the point of being unique among mainland film and television cities, but its overall strength can firmly rank among the top three.

Especially after the Qin Palace built by director Chen Da during the filming of "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" was settled, Hengdian came into limelight.

Later, "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" failed miserably at the box office, and the film studio lost money to my grandma's family. However, Hengdian was very profitable every year because of the Qin Palace. At its peak, it even made hundreds of millions a year.

So much so that Director Chen later became wise and built a film and television city as long as he made movies.

If you lose money at the box office, you can still travel, and worst of all, you can still save money on land...

The shooting location of "Little Li Flying Knife" was also in Hengdian, with the main scenes at Dazhi Zen Temple and a small number of scenes in other Hengdian scenic spots.

Cao Xuan came to Hengdian on September 25th and was warmly welcomed by the directors and producers as soon as he joined the set.

Especially the producer wanted to send someone to follow Cao Xuan for fear that he would run away.

When the crew of "Little Li Fei Dao" invited Cao Xuan, Cao Xuan's album had not been popular for a long time and he had just become a first-line singer.

At that time, the crew felt that Cao Xuan might not necessarily agree to the invitation, but they just wanted to give it a try. Unexpectedly, Cao Xuan actually agreed.

At that time, although several senior executives of the production team were happy, they were not very excited.

After all, Cao Xuan is just a newcomer to film and television, and the stars of "Little Li Fei Knife", Jiao Enjun, Xiao Qiang, and Alyssa Chia, are not unknowns either.

Even Wu Jing, the second male lead, is very popular in the mainland thanks to "Tai Chi Master" and "Water Margin".

Until the sales of "Stars Dotted" continued to rise, Cao Xuan became more and more famous, and finally had a peak showdown with Ren Xianqi in September, which caused a certain sensation in the three places across the Taiwan Strait.

Only then did the crew of "Little Li's Flying Knife" realize that they had actually picked up a gold ingot.

The producer was afraid that Cao Xuan would change his mind and stop acting, but Cao Xuan had no such idea. If he really did this, his reputation would be ruined, and no one would look for him to film in the future.

In accordance with the contract, Cao Xuan came to the set on time to play the supporting role of Jing Wuming.

But how could the crew of "Little Li Fei Knife" treat Cao Xuan, a popular actor, like an ordinary supporting actor?

On the first day that Cao Xuan joined the team, the director and screenwriter came to him and expressed their desire to give him more roles.

"Little Li Flying Knife" has three directors, Yuan Baye, Lu Xiaowei, and Li Hantao, and two screenwriters, Chen Wengui and Zhu Yu.

Needless to say, Yuan Baye, Lu Xiaowei is the one who made the drama "Desire" and is also a famous director.

Li Hantao is a junior, and he has not been officially a director for a long time. He has no successful works for the time being, but he has developed well in the future. Although he has not made any hits, he has never been short of filming.

Screenwriter Chen Wengui's masterpiece is the 1993 version of "Bao Qingtian". If nothing happens, next year he will be invited by Leslie Cheung to join the screenwriting team of "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan".

Zhu Yu is a Taiwanese martial arts novelist who once ghost-wrote for Wo Longsheng. He has few screenwriting works and mainly helps control martial arts elements in scripts.

Among the five directors and screenwriters, the ones who can really make the decision are Yuan Baye and Lu Xiaowei.

Chen Wengui could barely speak, the remaining two were just tools, and Zhu Yu was not even on the crew.

This time, it was Yuan Baye who personally came to talk to Cao Xuan about adding drama.

Not only did he want to win over and appease Cao Xuan, lest he look down on the supporting role and not film well, but he also wanted to use Cao Xuan's current high popularity to feed back into the TV series.

For an actor, adding more dramas to increase exposure is a good thing, and Cao Xuan will naturally not refuse. However, there are two key issues in this matter.

First, Cao Xuan has a tight schedule. He only had one month left to film "Little Li's Flying Knife". If he added more, he would not be able to finish it.

Secondly, Cao Xuan felt that the meaningless extra scenes actually did more harm than good to the character. It seemed that there were many appearances, but to a certain extent, it depleted the audience's expectations for the character.

So what Cao Xuan means is that adding more drama is worse than changing the drama.

He had previously criticized the scene involving Jing Wuming in "Little Li Fei Dao".

Many of the highlights of this character in the original work have not been preserved. From a featured villain to an ordinary supporting character, the highlights are not as bright as Shangguan Jinhong's son. At least they have reduced the number of protagonists.

When accepting the role before, Cao Xuan made a request to the screenwriter, hoping that the setting of Jing Wuming in the play would be closer to the original work.

The screenwriter did make changes, but overall it is still far from the original work. I don’t know if it’s because of his level, or because he didn’t take Cao Xuan’s request to heart at all.

But no matter what, Cao Xuan has now mentioned this matter for the second time. It is unreasonable for the screenwriter to continue to be so confused.

If it doesn't work, Cao Xuan will change it himself.

He read Gu Long's original work several times at home and wrote several thousand words about Jing Wuming's character biography. He was confident that he could incorporate the original version of Jing Wuming into the script of "Little Li Flying Knife".

He has even written a rough outline for reference by Yuan Baye and screenwriter Chen Wengui.

Yuan Baye and Chen Wengui chatted with Cao Xuan for a while, then turned around and held a small meeting with other directors and producers.

I found that Cao Xuan’s ideas had little impact on the overall plot arrangement, except that the character and motivation of Jing Wuming were changed, and it seemed pretty good.

In order to keep Cao Xuan as a popular actor, the crew of "Little Li Fei Dao" finally agreed to Cao Xuan's request to change the play after discussion.

Chen Wengui and his assistant worked overtime urgently, and Cao Xuan also shamelessly joined the small drama team, brainstorming with Chen Wengui while stealing script writing skills from him.

There are so many good stories and scripts in his mind, it would be a pity not to copy them out...

The small team of script editors worked hard for three days, found three directors with the revised script, and gained approval.

Cao Xuan, hiding his merit and fame, turned back to discuss Jing Wuming's image and clothing with the stylist.

To be honest, although there are many excellent designs in Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television, there are also many outrageous ones, especially costume dramas.

The same is true for "Xiao Li Flying Knife".

Li Xun Huan's instant noodle boss, that is, Jiao Enjun, can hold on, but if it were an ordinary person, he would be useless.

There is also Yu Feihong's Fairy Jinghong, whose appearance must have brought down the appearance of the main character. Alyssa Chia and Xiao Qiang are barely okay, and can be regarded as average.

However, an excellent makeup stylist should combine the actor and the character, and then amplify the charm. It all depends on the actor's own face, so what else do they need to do?

Cao Xuan took a look at Jing Wuming's costume and liked the color scheme. It was black and white, but he just didn't understand why there were a few belts in the middle to make it look like a sexy costume.

Cao Xuan wanted to take off the belt and wear a white bottom coat with a black leather waistband and armbands. The other clothes were mainly black and white, which was cold and solemn.

In terms of hairstyle, Cao Xuan tried several styles one by one, and finally chose the most normal hairstyle, with a faint strand of white hair mixed in.

Cao Xuan also added a gray contact lens to himself.

In Gu Long's original novel, Jing Wuming's eyes are dead gray, and he is said to have neither emotion nor life.

Cao Xuan feels that this setting is a point that can capture the audience. In an era when colored lenses are not yet popular, such eyes are impressive.

After the modification, the overall shape of Jing Wuming is not outstanding, but Cao Xuan personally feels that it is much better than before.

After all, he is not a professional stylist. He does his best and judges it from the perspective of ordinary viewers. He does not do any bells and whistles. The most important thing is to be pleasing to the eye and handsome.

Changing the play + changing the appearance, Cao Xuan stopped after satisfying his needs.

It's true that people in "Little Li Flying Knife" say that he has a lot of things to do, but who makes Cao Xuan so famous now?

What's more, he still "condescended" to play a supporting role. In terms of position alone, Cao Xuan is now the number one in the crew. If the crew wants to retain him, they will inevitably have to coax him a lot.

But even so, there are gradually rumors that Cao Xuan is the "drama tyrant" in "Little Li Fei Dao"...