Chapter 5

A group of people checked into a mid-range hotel in the county town, two to a room. Chu Qing shared a room with the Hong Kong photographer, Yu Liwei.

This man was the oldest in the crew, his Mandarin not very standard, but he was very warm-hearted. Chu Qing, half guessing and half understanding, chatted quite well with him.

Yu Liwei had been studying abroad for a long time and had been in the industry for several years after returning to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, he had hit a downturn in the Hong Kong film industry and had not participated in any significant productions. He had been working as a camera assistant on low-budget third-rate films, ghost films, and crude comedies.

These films, from pre-production to shooting to post-production, could be completed in just a few weeks. They would then be released in theaters, usually running for less than a week before being taken off, earning tens to millions of dollars with a clear conscience. They didn't care about the bad reputation, as they were just doing one-off deals.

Is this even called a movie?! Yu Liwei angrily said the same thing Chu Qing had thought when he first read the script for "Xiao Wu."

He had always been very interested in the mainland and had always wanted to come and shoot something. Two years ago, he received a grant from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and came to the capital to shoot a short film about a wandering artist, "Beautiful Soul," which won an award at last year's Hong Kong Independent Short Film Festival.

It was also at this short film festival that Yu Liwei met Jia Zhangke, who had won an award for his short film "Xiao Shan Returns."

The two hit it off immediately, admiring each other, and formed a small film company together. Yu Liwei also helped Jia Zhangke secure the funding for "Xiao Wu."

In their conversations, Chu Qing saw in Yu Liwei the same thing he saw in Jia Zhangke: a pure and sincere love for cinema.

"Director, where did you find these clothes?" Chu Qing asked with a wry face.

"Borrowed from a local family. Don't ruin them; we have to return them," Jia Zhangke said with a grin.

It was an oversized suit. Chu Qing was very slim and tall, and the suit, at least two sizes too big, made him look like a bamboo pole carrying a piece of clothing, swaying as he walked, creating a breeze.

Before shooting, Jia Zhangke had Chu Qing shave his beard, wear a pair of non-prescription black-rimmed glasses, and keep his hair in a messy nest.

This look made him seem to be in a very peculiar stage of life, looking young but hard to pinpoint his exact age.

"Everyone in position!" Gu Zheng shouted.

Jia Zhangke didn't sit behind the monitor because he didn't even know what a monitor was. He just stood with his arms crossed in a place the camera couldn't see.

"Camera ready!" Yu Liwei said.

"Action!"

Gu Zheng, who was also the clapperboard operator, excitedly clapped the board, the sound echoing.

His mood was the same as everyone else's on set: Damn it! I'm making a movie too!

The camera panned over the dirty, messy street, then gave a close-up of a plate of tea eggs on the table.

Chu Qing looked at the plate of eggs and felt a strange mix of emotions. He silently counted them: 1, 2, 3...

Six eggs, which in the future could probably buy two large houses with yards!

He extended a long, slender hand, picked up an egg, and tapped it on the table.

"Cut!"

Less than a minute into the shoot, Jia Zhangke called for a stop.

"Qingzi, come over here," he called.

Chu Qing ran over and asked, "What's wrong, Director?"

"Extend your hand," Jia Zhangke said.

Chu Qing didn't know what was wrong and raised both hands high, like a Japanese soldier surrendering in an anti-Japanese drama.

Jia Zhangke's head was filled with three black lines. "Not like that, lower, lower!"

Didn't you tell me to extend my hand?

Chu Qing thought and lowered his hands a bit.

Jia Zhangke looked at the hands for a while and then said, "Why do you have such beautiful hands, a man?"

Chu Qing rolled his eyes, thinking, "I can't help it; I don't even know why I look like this."

His hands were really beautiful, with well-proportioned bones, tight skin, and long, slender fingers that didn't look thin. His hands were like finely carved works of art, full of beauty.

When he extended his hand, Jia Zhangke felt something was off. These weren't hands for peeling tea eggs; they were hands for holding noble wine glasses and sipping fine wine.

Jia Zhangke looked around and found a spot. "Go, mix some mud there, and don't keep your nails so clean; they should be black."

Chu Qing glanced to the side and saw a low-lying area on the road nearby, filled with water and sand, emitting a "come and bite me" aura.

His eyes twitched, but he didn't say anything. If he was told to do it, he would do it. He walked over, scooped up a black, muddy clump, and rubbed it on his hands until his nails were full of dirt.

Then he dried his hands with a towel, and they became black and yellow, looking like they hadn't been washed in a year.

There was no makeup artist in the crew, and even the lead actress, Zuo Wenlu, did her own makeup, so they couldn't do this kind of hand makeup.

"Director, do I need to eat the eggs later?" Chu Qing asked cautiously.

"Eat, of course you have to eat!" Jia Zhangke said.

"Action!"

Chu Qing peeled an egg and held it with his dirty hands, his face calm but hesitating inside.

He steeled himself, opened his mouth, and stuffed the whole egg in, chewing a few times before swallowing it.

"Cut! Take it!" Jia Zhangke shouted.

He didn't say anything, just patted Chu Qing on the shoulder.

Chu Qing didn't say anything either. This was filming; eating an egg was nothing, and saying anything would make him seem pretentious.

...

"Xiao Wu" had few shots, filled with long and empty scenes. Jia Zhangke divided the shots into twelve groups, with limited funds and a tight schedule.

Chu Qing didn't know how to act, and Jia Zhangke hadn't given him any direction, only telling him to remember that he was playing a thief.

What kind of lousy director is this!

Chu Qing had to figure it out himself. How should he act as a thief?

He remembered the large farmers' market in his hometown, which he often visited. There were many thieves in the market, but with his skills, he had never been stolen from and had even caught a few thieves.

As a result, whenever he appeared, the whole market became peaceful.

He recalled the appearance of those thieves and found a common trait: they all hunched their shoulders, never kept their hands hanging straight, and had wandering eyes.

The wandering eyes weren't just looking around; it was the head moving, not the eyes.

He also remembered practicing with his grandfather, where his body remained still, but his eyes had to focus on his grandfather's movements, following his hands wherever they went, or he would get hit.

Chu Qing tried to recapture this feeling, his eyeballs moving back and forth in his sockets, looking scary.

He played around for a while, feeling it was quite good and reliable.

So, when shooting the next scene, Jia Zhangke saw this:

A young man in a grayish suit, hunched shoulders, fingers always spread, wandering around the small street, looking at shoe vendors here and fruit vendors there. In a turn, he already had an apple in his hand.

Then, the eyes behind the black-rimmed glasses flickered, looking quite pleased.

Jia Zhangke forgot to call for a cut until Yu Liwei reminded him. He looked at Chu Qing with suddenly intense eyes.

There were two reasons why Jia Zhangke didn't give him direction.

First, he had almost no experience directing actors and didn't know how to make them perform better.

Second, he wanted to use non-professional actors to capture an extremely realistic image, one that didn't have any trace of acting.

But this was just a wishful thought of many directors.

Whether actors or non-actors, once exposed to the camera, they would inevitably have a performative quality. Even the most realistic documentaries were the same.

The camera lens was like a magic field, where everyone's latent acting cells would be activated. Even the most real person would unconsciously become different in front of the camera.

If not themselves, then it was a performance.

Chu Qing's performance, intentional or not, gave him a new idea. The liveliness seemed to inject a vitality into the lens, especially when contrasted with the numb small county, creating a strange contrast.

This made him feel that this kind of performance was also good.

To be honest, Chu Qing's performance was very raw. He was simply imitating the behavior of a thief, but his every move unconsciously revealed his own characteristics.

Jia Zhangke's strongest impression of him was his calmness.

His speech, actions, eating, and even walking all exuded a sense of calm.

This calmness, combined with his raw performance, created a very natural state.

He found a balance between deliberate and stiff.

A bit smug, but overall numb and boring, it seemed that Xiao Wu should be this way.

This undoubtedly gave Jia Zhangke a pleasant surprise. While raw, natural films were indeed real, this kind of natural performance made the images more full and three-dimensional.

"Qingzi did a good job!" Jia Zhangke praised.

He and Yu Liwei were both novices and didn't know what a monitor was, so they leaned in to look at the camera's viewfinder for the playback.

Yu Liwei was also very satisfied with the previous shot. "The image is great, and there's a sense of contrast when you look closely. Really good!"

Jia Zhangke gave him a lot of creative freedom, and his control of the lens was very distinctive, simple and calm, not showy, capturing the most original state of things.

This film was a combination of Jia Zhangke's ideas and Yu Liwei's content.

The next scene was a series of shots: Xiao Wu wandering through the county town, passing by people waiting indifferently at the bus stop, the billiard tables on the street, the TV, dance hall, and video hall filled with the popular song "Heart Rain"...

Long, medium, and wide shots, and street crowd scenes, under Yu Liwei's control, all presented a yellow-green hue. The bustling extras acted on their own, as if they didn't even know the camera was there.

This most real urban movement was not due to scheduling but belonged to the county itself.

Jia Zhangke stared at the viewfinder, his whole body trembling.

He knew very well that for a director, this was the rarest and most fortunate thing!