The drama Wen Bao mentioned was called “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. It was a mainstream drama set in the Republic of China that told the story of countless heroes and martyrs fighting on the front lines and behind enemy lines, building a Great Wall with flesh and blood to resist the invaders under extremely difficult conditions during the Anti-Japanese War.
Although the plot sounded very dry and looked very old-fashioned and orthodox, in terms of character image, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” boldly adopted richer description methods no matter whether it was the male and female protagonists or supporting roles. The protagonist was no longer a stereotyped righteous hero, full of party constitution and discipline, and the supporting characters were no longer stereotyped 2D characters that come out of the same mold. For example, the role that the director wanted Tao Mu to audition for was Su Dingbang, an elite student who had studied abroad. This Su Dingbang was exposed to advanced ideas and knowledge while studying abroad. After returning to China, seeing his devastated motherland and the invaders who oppressed the people of China, he wanted to join the revolution and serve his motherland.
Unlike Wen Bao’s character, who was a traitor in the beginning who then turned to the side of the hero, the role Tao Mu was about to audition for first appeared as a progressive young man with a particularly positive image. He was handsome, dignified, and had an extraordinary family background. He was knowledgeable, possessed ideals and hot blood and was always ready to devote himself to his ideals. He even held several student demonstrations after returning to China to protest the inaction of the Nationalist government during the war. Because his father was the president of Shanghai Commercial Bank, Su Dingyuan also used his father’s relationship to secretly deliver medicine and supplies to the underground party and even acted as a cover for the underground party several times.
It was precisely because of this reason that Su Dingyuan later got acquainted with the second male lead in the drama and became the second male lead’s connection.
Up to this time, Su Dingyuan’s image was very positive. Until the Japanese inadvertently found out the transportation channel of the Su family used to deliver medicine for the underground party when they were investigating the underground party. The Japanese became suspicious towards Su Dingbang. But they did not make a move, but continued to investigate the actions of the Su family, and finally caught everyone as Su Dingbang was arranging for the underground party to evacuate.
Su Dingbang was imprisoned in the base camp of the enemy. There, Su Dingbang witnessed how the brutal Japanese treated the underground party. Of the original tough and brave comrades-in-arms three of them were lost in less than half a day under the torture methods of the Japanese.
When it was Su Dingbang’s turn, Su Dingbang was very frightened. The hot-blooded devotion to the revolution was wiped out under witnessing the severe torture of the enemy. What was more, the Japanese also threatened Su Dingbang with the lives of the Su family.
Su Dingbang finally defected. Under the instruction of the Japanese, he sent intelligence to the second male lead who was not yet aware of what had happened, tricking the second male lead to come out for a meeting. And the meeting place was already set up by the Japanese with heavy manpower lying in ambush. As long as the second male lead came to the appointment, he would be surrounded by enemies.
In order to rescue the second male lead and the male protagonist, the chief of a police station in Shanghai, who had always been a cowardly character——the traitor played by Wen Bao wanted to inform the male protagonist and the second male lead before the Japanese succeeded in their plan. Only to be discovered by the Japanese dying tragically under the gun of the enemy.
But because of Wen Bao’s tip-off, the male lead and the second male lead managed to escape in the end. However, half of the comrades they brought with them died tragically under the guns of the Japanese, or were caught by the Japanese.
The male lead and the second male lead swear to avenge their comrades and kill the defector Su Dingbang.
They made a detailed and well-planned plan, sneaked into the base camp of the Japanese, and found the traitor Su Dingbang. But they were stunned to find that the originally handsome and dignified elite student now sported a disfigured face and ten fingers that were crippled.
Su Dingbang knelt under the gun of the male protagonist, crying bitterly that he didn’t want to be a betrayer, but he couldn’t stand it anymore. He didn’t want to die, and he didn’t want the Su family to be destroyed because of him.
But he didn’t know that the Japanese used his capture as an excuse to raid the entire Su family as early as the moment he was arrested. All the male members of the Su family were killed, and the female members were snatched into the military camp. The Su family, once famous all over the Huangpu River, had already disappeared.
Su Dingbang was instantly stunned, wailing heartbreakingly. In the end, he died tragically under the gun of the male protagonist.
He died a traitor.
“…..When writing this character, what I want to express is human nature and the cruelty of war.” When Tao Mu went to see the director and screenwriter of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” under Wen Bao’s persuasion, the director said: “Su Dingbang, a student studying abroad who possesses progressive thinking could be considered a moral and noble character. In our times now, he would be a college student in his prime. His character is actually very commendable. But at that time, he had to endure, he had to face far more cruelty than those of our time.”
“If the country perishes, how can the people enjoy freedom and independence? In that chaotic era, countless heroes and predecessors shed their blood for our stability today. Some of them were revolutionary martyrs, and they died heroes. But some people, for various reasons, defected mid way.” The director said: “I wrote such a character, not to whitewash anyone. I just want everyone to know the cruelty of war. An ordinary person when facing the cruelty of war, when dealing with a brutal aggressor, he may be weak and cowardly. But his weakness can only lead to a more tragic ending. Because the aggressor is not a human being. He is a beast. The more you are weak the more brutal they are. So the only thing that could save us from their brutality is to take up arms and fight. Thus this shows the value of heroes.”
“Heroes are precious, but the compromises and cowardice of ordinary people in the face of oppression can better reflect the complexity of human nature.”
“Yesterday, old Fan and I went to the end of term performance of the Beijing Film Academy. We were fortunate to see CEO Tao’s performance. We felt that the image of CEO Tao’s role of Wang Junqing actually matches very well to the Su Dingbang we wanted.”
Hearing this, Tao Mu’s face darkened. What do you mean? You can see the image of a traitor from Wang Junqing, who was full of sexy and handsome pheromones…..was this a sarcastic remark of his poor acting skills, or do you want to say that his image and aura were too bad? Too similar to a traitor?
This was simply a grievous wound to his pride.
“No, no, no, CEO Tao, please don’t misunderstand.” Screenwriter Fan, who had been sitting on the side and hadn’t said much, noticed Tao Mu’s expression and quickly said, “Old Zhou didn’t mean that. He just wanted to say that your Wang Junqing gives people a splendid and noble feeling, which is very in line with the impression that Su Dingbang’s role gave people at the beginning.”
“The so-called art is to destroy the most beautiful things for people to see. The better the initial impression, the more sad and profound the final tragedy. Su Dingbang is a key role in our script that represents our anti-war sentiments. The success of the character can directly affect the ideal of ​​the script…..” Screenwriter Fan laid it on thick, trying his best to make Tao Mu understand how important Su Dingbang was as a small cannon fodder who only appeared in less than three episodes.
Director Zhou also echoed continuously on the side. Tao Mu was a little surprised by their too serious attitude.
“I think I understand. Listening to Screenwriter Fan’s words, the role of Su Dingbang is indeed very important.” Tao Mu blinked and tentatively probed: “Director Zhou and Screenwriter Fan should just call me Tao Mu. I feel very embarrassed to be referred to as CEO Tao.”
“CEO Tao is really too polite. You became a CEO based on your ability, what is there to be embarrassed about?” Director Zhou chuckled dryly, looked at screenwriter Fan, and also tentatively probed: “CEO Tao, you just had a look at the script. What do you think of our script?”
“This script is very good.” Tao Mu said without hesitation. Tao Mu, who had memories of his previous life, even knew better than the two before him what kind of response this TV series would cause in the TV circle when it was released.
“Then…..” Director Zhou and Screenwriter Fan looked at each other again and asked cautiously, “I wonder if CEO Tao is interested in investing?”
Ah?
Tao Mu was stunned for a moment. He suddenly thought of the ratings of this classic anti-Japanese war drama in his previous life. The highest ratings of the premiere drama exceeded 15%, and even the replay drama ratings broke 10%. A few years later, the ratings of the drama even after countless rounds of rebroadcasts still broke 1%. But such an impressive drama was rumored that there was a shortage of funds when it was first preparing to be filmed, and the conditions of the crew was particularly poor during the filming. At one point, they were so poor that there were only two horses used when shooting a cavalry company, and by the later stages of the filming their funds were not enough to continue filming, to the point that the male protagonist gave up his own salary for the crew to use in filming.
So…..
Tao Mu’s dark and clear eyes landed thoughtfully on Director Zhou and Screenwriter Fan.
These two people not only wanted to trick him into playing a traitorous character that lasted less than three episodes, but also wanted to trick him into investing in the crew?
Talent!
Noticing Tao Mu’s admiring expression, Director Zhou and Screenwriter Fan looked at each other a little embarrassedly. Director Zhou rubbed his hands together and explained very embarrassedly: “This script of ours, because the images of the characters are not quite the same as the previous Anti-Japanese War drama, so not many are optimistic about it. Originally, it was already not easy to attract investment for war dramas. Nowadays, those coal boss investors would rather invest in idol dramas than war dramas because they feel that war dramas are old fashioned and won’t attract viewers. But I really want to film this drama well. Old Fan and I have been working on this script for seven to eight years. Really, I just want to film a good war story. All the characters have flesh and blood, possess human traits, points of struggle…..”
“Of course, you may also not be optimistic about this subject, CEO Tao…..”
“How much?”
“…..But I really hope you can think about it…..ah?” Director Zhou said, suddenly realizing that Tao Mu had just said something, and raised his head in a daze.
“I’m saying I’m very optimistic about this drama. I also think the script is very well written.” Tao Mu also looked a little strange. He really didn’t expect that the money would fly over by themselves while he was just sitting at home.
“Tell me, how much investment do you want?”
Before Director Zhou even came back to his senses, Screenwriter Fan spoke quickly as if he was afraid that Tao Mu would regret it in the next moment: “I have done the math with old Zhou. About 300,000 yuan per episode is enough, and we’re planning to shoot 30 episodes which is less than nine million yuan in total. Now we have already brought in five million yuan of investment funds. CEO Tao, you only need——”
“I’ll give you nine million!” Tao Mu directly interrupted Screenwriter Fan’s words: “But I have a request. After the filming of the TV series, my BulletScreen.com will have exclusive network broadcasting rights——”
“No problem!” Without waiting for Tao Mu’s voice to fall, Director Zhou agreed directly. So eager he was that he couldn’t help but hiccup.
Tao Mu blinked: “Deal.”
Wen Bao, who was sitting next to him and had watched from the beginning to the end had a dazed expression: What’s the situation? Didn’t we come to audition?
#The roommate who auditioned with me immediately became the biggest investor in our crew. What to do! Waiting online! Extremely urgent!#
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