Chapter 112: The Grand Occasion in the Ancient City
PS: Four updates on weekends with 10,000 words each, third update, asking for votes
August 1st, 1998, Republic's Army Day.
Mr. Wang is a well-known owner of a sauce meat shop in the city, his family's Wangji Sauce Meat is an ancestral secret recipe, famous far and near, business is booming. After a busy day, every evening after dinner, the family gathers together to watch TV, for him that is the greatest pleasure of the day.
At 7:30 in the evening, Gucheng TV station is broadcasting local news.
"On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the army, a red gift drama 'Youth in the Same Class' produced by Mengxiang Film and Television Company, a private enterprise in our county, will officially land on our platform at 8 o'clock tonight."
This is the first TV series produced in our county, which fully demonstrates that under the leadership of the four teams of the ancient city committee, municipal government, municipal people's congress and municipal political consultative conference, the spiritual civilization construction, cultural industry construction of our city have taken the lead among brother counties and cities, made great progress and achieved fruitful results.
Secretary Gu Yun of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Fang Jiang of the county specially extended congratulations to Dream Movie Company, celebrating this grand event on the city's cultural front!
Next is a long interview with Zheng Sen, the vice president of Mengxiang Film and Television. It's not that Su Zhan didn't want to go up there and show his face, but Qian Yun told him that the masses still relatively believe in a mature and steady man like Zheng Sen.
Zheng Sen also said that this play was filmed under the direct care of the municipal leaders to celebrate the 72nd birthday of the founding of the army.
Watching TV news, Uncle Wang muttered: "The TV station has been promoting continuously for several days. Is it finally going to be broadcast? Let's take a look."
His son Xiaowang, who is in the sixth grade of primary school, protested: "Dad, Jiangjiang TV station is going to broadcast Hong Kong's martial arts film 'The Smiling Proud Wanderer', hurry up and switch to Jiangjiang Station!"
"Why change channels? This is our own ancient city's TV series, of course we watch Ancient City Channel."
"This kind of tribute drama, what's good about it is that even CCTV's productions are not good-looking, our small place can't produce any good dramas. I think 80% of the time it's just another one of our city leaders' political achievement projects, a complete waste of money!"
Uncle Wang was a bit angry. "Whether it's good or not, let's watch it first and then talk about it. I heard that most of the scenes in this play were shot in Shuizai Township, where your father and I came from. Let me take a look at it first."
Wang's wife, Li, also chimed in: "Yes, let's see how this TV series portrays our Shuizhai Village!"
Seeing his father and mother insisted, Xiao Wang also didn't say anything more. Anyway, he absolutely did not believe that a small place like Gucheng could produce any decent TV series. If making TV series was so easy, then the mainland's screens wouldn't be dominated by Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas now.
"If it doesn't look good, you'll have to switch to CCTV!"
At the same time, the same thing is being staged in different families in the ancient city.
……
Willow eyebrow home. Willow eyebrow returned home early tonight, and Willow Dad said: "Wow, little Mei, you're back so early?" For students, there is no holiday for Army Day.
"Hmm. The school is considerate, letting us go home early to watch TV." Yilian said as she threw her backpack onto the bed and sat down with her parents in front of the TV.
This is the TV series I starred in, how can I not come and appreciate it properly. Although becoming a cultural soldier through the cultural system will make me go further and further on this path, the first feeling is irreplaceable.
……
Rong Shansheng and his family all finished work. The school kids finished school, the whole family sat together in front of the TV.
Rong Shansheng's mother asked: "Shansheng, the TV series that has been busy for two or three months is about to be broadcast. Do you have confidence in yourself?"
"Yes, of course! Our director Su Jin is very capable, don't worry, the play 'Zha' will definitely be wonderful!"
After months of day and night together, he admired Su deeply. Whether it was the early training or the later period when many actors' acting skills increased inexplicably, in his opinion, all of this had something to do with Su. Sometimes, he even suspected that Su might also be a cultural soldier.
It has been more than two months since he became a cultural soldier, and every night he would choose to stroll through that dreamy cultural hall. There, he met several people who were just like him. After exchanging conversations, it turned out that everyone was a cultural soldier, and they were even in the same class.
Rong Shansheng suspected that this might be the case, and everyone else seemed to have the same feeling. Unfortunately, although they would exchange some experiences in the hall, each person kept their true identity tightly sealed. So Rong Shansheng had his suspicions, but didn't dare to confirm them.
……
At 8 o'clock in the evening, the advertisement on TV has ended and the movie is starting.
"Ding... ding... drop, da... da... da, ......". The film opens with an extraordinary shot, starting with a gentle and dense violin solo, the scene also unfolds at a comfortable pace.
The opening song "One Leaf Knows Autumn" is emotionally delicate, seemingly expressing the ambiguous love between young men and women, or perhaps expressing the beautiful yearning of young people for the future. You can also understand it as an expression of the youthful years of students.
In any case, the opening is great, and it immediately makes this drama stand out from the crowd, vastly different from the many dull and boring mainland dramas that are commonly seen.
The whole Wang family sitting in front of the TV was drawn in, even little Wang stopped switching channels.
The content of the first episode of "Just One Bite" includes:
Kong Zhaoxu, then principal of Xiangnan First Normal School, went to visit his classmate in Japan, "Mr. Itakura" Yang Changji. He wanted to invite him to teach at the school, but unexpectedly met Tan Yankai, the governor of Hunan Province, who also came to offer Yang Changji the position of Provincial Education Commissioner. Faced with a lucrative official post, Yang Changji declined the offer from the military government, but agreed to consider teaching at Xiangnan First Normal School.
The daughter of the Chamber of Commerce, Tao Siyong, saw a book "Dahua Zhai Reading Record" in a bookstore. Unexpectedly, this book was also seen by a tall young man. The young man had no money to buy the book and left with a sullen face. Tao Siyong chased after him and gave him the book. The young man asked for Siyong's name and address, but she refused to tell him. The young man could only shout behind her: "Then you come find me! I live in front of Xiangxiang Guild Hall, my name is Mao Zedong."
The content of the first episode is not surprising, but the script of "Zha" was actually from 2007, when the production level of mainland TV dramas had already made significant progress. Compared to mainland dramas in 1998, a clear improvement is that the narrative pace is faster and more fluent, without giving people a sense of dragging or tediousness.
Of course, Su Jin also made some small improvements during the shooting process.
He referenced many methods of later Korean idol dramas, such as expressing the bookstore buying books, Mao Zedong and Tao Sui's encounter in the play, he took a lot of close-ups of the male and female leads and slow-motion replays, with music accompaniment from time to time. This made the audience watching the TV series before can't help but hope that something would happen between the male and female leads. This attracted the audience's attention to the drama.
Unconsciously, one episode has ended.
Time flies so fast, this is a common feeling of Wang's family. Little Wang has long forgotten that he changed the channel to watch "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer".
The whole play has no climax at all.
The ending song is Su Jian leading the entire cast in a chorus of "Beautiful Xiaoxiang Great Youth", with a pleasant and moving melody, positive and uplifting lyrics, and high morale.
