Chapter 373: Laugh, My Ass! This is Art!
The filming on the second day began in the most chaotic corner of the “Pig Cage Tenement.”
The “Braised Pork Knuckle Rice Incident” and the “Real Gangsters Joining In,”
these two farcical events not only didn’t tear the film crew apart,
but instead, like two strong doses of medicine, pushed the entire crew’s cohesion to a bizarre peak.
Gu Zhiyuan was completely alive again.
“Lighting! Lower it more! I want that sticky, greasy feeling where you can’t make out faces, only desires!”
“Props! Melon seeds, peanuts, beer bottles, scatter them on the ground! I want the messiness of a fight that just ended!”
The loser who had been barely surviving in that garbage-filled room was gone,
transformed back into that genius director Gu Zhiyuan who held a trophy and looked down on everyone.
Today’s schedule was an important comedic moment in the “King of Extras” script.
Extra Chen San, to scrape by a living, comes to the nightclub backstage,
and with a dead-serious face, teaches a group of dance girls “how to become a good actor.”
Jiang Ci changed into Chen San’s outfit, an old suit one size too big, with a crooked tie.
He held a piece of chalk in his hand, standing before a blackboard temporarily made from a wooden plank.
On the blackboard was a poorly proportioned human anatomy diagram he had just drawn.
“Action!”
Jiang Ci cleared his throat, tapping the chalk heavily against the blackboard,
capturing the attention of all the “dance girls” backstage.
“Students, today’s first lesson is about an actor’s sense of belief.”
He was talking utter nonsense with a straight face.
“What’s most important when we play dance girls? Is it being coquettish? Is it swaying our hips?”
Jiang Ci wagged his finger.
“Neither. It’s qi.”
He pointed at a suspicious circle in the lower half of the stick figure on the blackboard.
“Dantian qi, understand? But a dance girl’s dantian is different from others’.”
“The qi has to sink into the buttocks.”
“That way, when you walk, you can sway like a piece of fried dough twist fresh out of the oil, sticky and piping hot.”
Behind the monitor, Lin Wan, the “King of Extras” head screenwriter, silently held her forehead,
beginning to seriously reflect on whether her mental state had been a bit too unrestrained when she originally wrote this scene.
In a corner of the film set, those gang leaders who had been “pacified” by Jiang Ci,
now wearing security guard uniforms, were acting as the nightclub’s background actor bodyguards.
They had initially come with a mindset of watching the show, but as they listened, they became genuinely absorbed.
The leading Over-the-shoulder Dragon Brother, even off-camera, secretly imitated Jiang Ci’s instructions, trying to sink his qi into his buttocks.
He gave an earnest wiggle.
The Underling beside him couldn’t hold back, letting out a muffled snort.
Over-the-shoulder Dragon Brother felt his face couldn’t hold up, his neck flushing red with embarrassment. He backhandedly slapped the Underling on the back of the head.
“Laugh, my ass! Didn’t you hear Teacher Jiang? This is art!”
Gu Zhiyuan didn’t call cut. Glancing at this scene from the corner of his eye, he excitedly signaled to the Cinematographer.
The camera quietly swept over those bodyguards “practicing their skills,” fully capturing this ridiculous moment.
The comedic effect was instantly maxed out.
The other protagonist of this scene, Chen Yi, was sitting in the shadows of the corner.
She played Liu Piaopiao, with an unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth, legs crossed, coldly watching this farce.
She performed every action in an extremely exaggerated manner.
Eating melon seeds, she didn’t use her hands, but directly used her mouth, spitting shells all over the floor, the action greasy.
Rolling her eyes, she practically wanted to show the entire white of her eye to the camera, exuding a vulgar “I can’t be bothered with you” vibe.
She jiggled her leg, the one in fishnet stockings, with a rhythm that was fast and choppy, full of impatience.
Gu Zhiyuan watched from behind the monitor, secretly astonished.
This wasn’t acting like a woman of the night; this was clearly a top-tier actor,
desperately playing a terrible actor with lousy acting skills.
Jiang Ci’s “theoretical class” continued.
The plot reached its climax. Chen San, looked down upon by Liu Piaopiao,
decided to step up personally to cow these dance girls who didn’t know their place.
What he was going to demonstrate was “the desolation of a dance girl who has lost her love.”
Jiang Ci took a breath.
On the monitor, everyone saw him change completely.
One second ago, he was that braggart, ridiculous fraud, Chen San.
The next second, he lowered his gaze, looking at his own hands covered in chalk dust.
That kind of wordless, bleak feeling overflowed through the lens, filling the entire film set.
Chen Yi, sitting in the corner, was stunned.
The melon seed she hadn’t yet cracked in her mouth dropped out.
The cigarette in her hand also slipped to the floor.
At this moment, she was genuinely moved.
From Jiang Ci, she saw a familiar shadow.
Gu Zhiyuan on that rainy night three years ago, being berated by the Investor, yet could only force a smile.
Herself on that winter day a year ago, being humiliated on the street by a customer for being late, yet could only keep apologizing.
“Push! Camera movement! One continuous shot!”
Gu Zhiyuan suppressed his ecstasy behind the monitor, speaking into the Walkie-Talkie.
The camera moved.
The Cinematographer carried the machine, his steps incredibly steady.
The lens smoothly pushed from Jiang Ci’s face, full of stories, to Chen Yi’s eyes, which had lost their focus.
Then it slowly pulled back, taking in the entire chaotic, bizarrely lit backstage.
On one side, an extreme heartbreak was being performed.
On the other side, a real shock was being struck by that heartbreak.
Not a single line of dialogue.
Only two top-tier actors, using their souls to engage in a tense, electric collision.
Only when Jiang Ci finished his performance, turning back into the somewhat flustered Chen San,
did Gu Zhiyuan jump up from his chair.
“Great! That’s a take!”
The set fell silent for a second.
Then, thunderous applause erupted.
All the crew members, including those gangster background actors, were clapping vigorously.
They weren’t applauding for a scene.
They were applauding for what they had just witnessed with their own eyes, a performance that could be called a “miracle.”
The chemistry between the two geniuses was so smooth it made everyone’s scalp tingle.
During the break.
Chen Yi unscrewed her thermos cup, taking small sips of the hot water inside.
She walked over to Jiang Ci, who was still savoring the performance, and stopped beside him.
“That look in your eyes at the end just now…”
Chen Yi organized her words. She wanted to describe it with a professional term.
“Were you imitating the expression of Cheng Dieyi in ‘The Farewell My Concubine,’ when his makeup was smeared, utterly despondent?”
This was one actor’s most direct inquiry and respect for another.
Hearing this, Jiang Ci looked up, something still being chewed in his mouth, and answered indistinctly, “No.”
He swallowed what was in his mouth, then slowly raised his eyes.
Those eyes, which had just been brimming with stories, were now clear and simple like a goof.
“I was imitating you.”
Chen Yi was stunned.
“I was imitating you when you were delivering food, got a malicious bad review from a customer for being late,”
he added seriously, “that look of wanting to smash the customer’s braised pork knuckle rice right in his face, but in the end having to force a smile and say, ‘Enjoy your meal.’”
Lin Wan was just walking over with a cup of coffee. Hearing this god-tier reply,
her wrist jerked violently, the scalding coffee nearly sloshing out of the cup.
She looked at the negative public opinion still trashing “King of Extras” on her phone,
then looked at these two lunatics in the film set “harming” each other.
She couldn’t wait to see the expressions on those people’s faces when the movie was released.
Chen Yi, because of this utterly ridiculous answer, completely short-circuited.