19 Director's Nightly Routine

This is not scientific!

Yuan Ge lies in bed, frowning and thinking about the whole incident. In fact, after a hectic day, he is feeling a little tired. It was already late when he arrived home, and tomorrow is another packed day, but he find it hard to sleep due to the unexpected sudden appearance and disappearance of "Rong Qiuchen".

Thinking back to the boy's waist-length hair, he initially thought it was a high-end wig, purely to show off the ancient costume to impress him the film director, but when he helped the boy into the crew lounge, he paid close attention and made a point of touching it, and found that it was indeed his real hair.

But the boy looks like he has just come of age. Yuan Ge unconsciously touches his own hair, still feeling baffled - a man's hair only grows a dozen centimetres a year, and it would take at least six or seven years, if not more, to grow to waist length. He is only a boy. How early does he need to start planning to grow his hair that long? But that length would be quite suitable for playing Rong Qing if it was plaited in the Qing Dynasty style …

Yuan Ge considers himself to be an artist with a rational mind. Once he thinks about an issue, not only must he have a clear thought process and a unique perspective, he must also be able to give a rational explanation backed by logic and reason. He would never allow himself to make intellectual mistakes.

The most plausible explanation for this "Rong Qiuchen" business is that the boy might have been a student at the National Academy of Theatrical Arts (NATA). It is hard to say if he is studying pop music or opera, but he certainly has a good voice. He must have heard somewhere that Dragon Dreams was making a new film and that it was in the middle of casting, so he came up with this porcelain bumping idea of wearing an ancient costume in the middle of the night to make an unusual impression on the director to increase his chances of getting a part in the film. The boy does look good and has a nice body, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is one of the rare beauties in the world, but instead of coming to the audition in a proper way, he used this unorthodox method, which is a bit low.

Yuan Ge shakes his head. This kid is quite meticulous and has put a lot of thought into creating this "accidental encounter". Yuan Ge doesn't know where he had gotten a copy of the Flowers of the Opera Stage and actually found out that Rong Qing's real name is Rong Qiuchen.

Kids these days are very resourceful and will really do anything to get what they want!

Yuan Ge rolls over in bed and idly picks up the script. His perfectionist nature has made it a habit for him to read through the script every night before going to sleep, using the trance between reality and dreams to sort out the emotional development of the story, while putting himself in the shoes of each vivid character, imagining how the actors should recreate and interpret the scenes, and how the camera should tell and present them.

Although the film is about a story set in traditional theatre circles, Yuan Ge has resisted presenting conventional plots and ideas that people are used to seeing in such films. What he wants to present is the main character Rong Qing, a superb actor with the spirit of the moon and the character of jade, a noble and lofty soul who uses his life savings to support a scholar to gain a position of power, but unfortunately his love and trust are betrayed and he eventually dies a tragic death.

In this life, my long-cherished wish is not fulfilled. But in the next life, on a lotus leaf platform, we will be together.

A fragile love, in a wrong era.

In a two-hour film, in order to convey a proposition that goes beyond the traditional theatre circles and presents a reflection of an era, every scene has to be carefully arranged and every shot used with precision.

Yuan Ge finally drifts off to sleep in a state of exhaustion. In a trance, it is as if he was back in the Rong Mansion again, walking aimlessly and somehow coming to an elegant little garden.

It is late autumn and the misty morning fog has not yet lifted. A tranquil pond meanders before him, rustic and natural, with three stone bridges over it. Long corridors and pavilions are scattered around the waterside, some leading to exquisite artificial mountains made of Taihu rocks, others connecting the pavilions by the pond, but none leading out, so this ancient garden, which cannot be entered from outside, has become the true inner courtyard of the Rong Mansion. The walls are lined with old vines and the roots of the walls are planted with flowering trees, and with the rockery sheltering the garden, it is secluded but doesn't feel confining. Yuan Ge looks up and sees a plaque hanging above an octagonal carved moon gate, which reads "Yi Qiu Garden"[1] in an ancient style.

The garden looks a little bleak in autumn, and the water's edge feels even colder. The faint sound of singing, accompanied by the early morning mist, is lingering in the air as if it were a fairyland, drawing Yuan Ge closer to the pool of water in the garden.

--------------------

[1] The name of the garden, Yi Qiu, is made up of two Chinese characters that literally mean "to please the autumn" or "the pleasures of autumn". Here "Qiu" also refers to "Qiuchen", so the name of this garden has a double meaning: "to please Qiuchen" or to enjoy the pleasures that Qiuchen brings.