Chapter 10: Astonishing Acting

They were filming a night fight scene right now. The studio’s doors and windows had all been shut, and then covered over with black cloth.

Some fake trees and plastic props had been set up in the background, and once the lights came on from both sides, the outdoor night scene was perfectly recreated.

Shooting like this put a high demand on the lighting crew, but clearly the TVB gaffer was capable enough that such a small job was no trouble for them.

Wu Chenggang was working as an assistant to a lighting man named Yao Jiang, handling setup, equipment operation, maintenance, and the like.

For someone with more than ten years of lighting experience, being an assistant was a waste of talent.

But reality was like that. Whether a person could rise did not depend on talent alone.

Jade TV had once been one of Hong Kong’s three major television stations, and at one point its drama ratings even outperformed TVB and RTV. Both in front of and behind the camera, it was full of talent.

Last year, Jade TV collapsed, like a luxury football club dissolving and the other clubs rushing in to snatch its coaches and star players.

TVB got the biggest share. It didn’t just take the talent, it also bought the broadcast rights to all of Jade TV’s dramas.

That was how Wu Chenggang had moved from Jade TV to TVB, but unfortunately his situation was awkward.

TVB was not short of excellent lighting men, and on top of that Wu Chenggang had no connections there, so for now he could only act as another lighting man’s assistant.

Kang Jianfei had already changed into his costume. After Wu Chenggang finished adjusting the lights, he came over during the break before filming and quietly encouraged him. “A Fei, do your best. Try to make a name for yourself soon.”

Kang Jianfei winked at him. “Don’t worry. I won’t screw it up.”

Before his transmigration, Kang Jianfei had only studied for a few years, and his educational level was not very high. He knew nothing about finance, technology, or literature, but he still had a lot of other skills.

Luckily, back when he took the Beijing Film Academy’s cinematography entrance exam, the department did not place much emphasis on Chinese language. If he had waited a few more years, he might not even have passed the academic subjects.

When Kang Jianfei had been drifting with his thief-master, he learned pickpocketing and Crane Fist. In the children’s welfare home, he learned to play the xun and read simplified notation from the old director. After spending four years as an extra in Hengdian, his acting had been trained to a passable level. Then he drifted to Beijing for another five years and kept working as an extra, during which time he learned guitar from a friend and sang on the streets of Xidan for a while. After that came self-study, passing into the Beijing Film Academy’s cinematography department, and then seven years as a cinematographer, during which he became extraordinary with a camera.

In other words, before his transmigration Kang Jianfei had spent a full nine years as an actor. Although most of that time was as an extra, he had also played quite a few supporting roles with lines, and he was more than capable of standing in for Zheng Shaoqiu.

Zheng Shaoqiu had come too, but he was no longer on an IV drip. His girlfriend, Feifei Shen Dianxia, came with him to the set and then spent the whole time resting with her eyes closed on a chaise lounge.

This scene was from Chu Liuxiang, Hu Tiehua, and Su Rongrong rushing to stop Chu Liuxiang’s senior brother Ding Tiegan from robbing a gold transport ship, and Su Rongrong being stabbed to death by Ding Tiegan while trying to help Chu Liuxiang.

Ding Tiegan was played by Bai Biao, who looked brutish and menacing with a face full of flesh. It was hard to imagine that just two years earlier he had been Jade TV’s leading young star, and had played Guo Jing in the 1976 versions of The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes.

Unfortunately, Bai Biao was like Kang Jianfei’s maternal uncle: after Jade TV collapsed and he moved to TVB, his glory days were over, and he could only obediently play supporting scenery for TVB’s red-hot stars.

Li Jiading held a sword and stood facing Bai Biao, gesturing as he explained to Kang Jianfei, “A Fei, you lunge with the sword like this, A Biao ducks aside and counters with his own blade, then you hold your sword vertically in front of your chest to block it... Got it?”

Bai Biao was an old hand, so Li Jiading’s instructions were mainly explaining the action work to Kang Jianfei.

“Got it,” Kang Jianfei said with a nod.

In Kang Jianfei’s eyes, though, the choreography Li Jiading had designed was extremely crude and basic, the standard action blocking of a Shaw Brothers wuxia film from the sixties or seventies.

Still, he did not want to say much. If they shot action the way he imagined, not only would they need wirework, the camera crew would also have to make major adjustments. It would be far too much trouble, and Wang Tianlin would never agree to it.

Li Jiading handed the prop sword to Kang Jianfei. “All right, then. Run through it once the way I just said.”

This was only a rehearsal, and the camera was not rolling, mainly to save film stock. Kang Jianfei nodded at Bai Biao to signal that he was starting, and Bai Biao nodded back to show he was ready.

The nine-year acting career Kang Jianfei had lived in his previous life, together with the skills he had trained through Crane Fist, immediately showed itself.

The moment he took the sword, he spun a dazzling flourish and his whole bearing changed. He seemed to go from a mere stunt double into the Smiling, Proud Wanderer himself, stabbing out with a sword in a style far more graceful than Zheng Shaoqiu, who had no martial arts foundation at all.

Li Jiading’s face lit up with delight. It was the first time he had ever seen Kang Jianfei in this state, since before this Kang Jianfei had always been stuck doing bit parts, playing roles that fell over and died without even showing their faces, so there had been no chance for him to display his real talent.

Wang Tianlin was also stunned. He had originally thought Kang Jianfei had the potential to work behind the scenes, and had only let him become a stunt double because Zheng Shaoqiu recommended him. He had never expected Kang Jianfei to be so photogenic, and his skills seemed pretty good too.

After they ran it once, Wang Tianlin called over seven or eight extras, including Hu Juncai, and had them sprawl all over the ground to pretend to be corpses.

They did not even bother smearing tomato juice on the corpses’ clothes. They were clean all over, and who knew where they were supposed to have been injured and died. It was truly careless.

“Chu Liuxiang, Scene 829, Take 1, action!”

As soon as the clapperboard came down, filming finally began in earnest.

Kang Jianfei and Bai Biao fought in front of the camera. The opening moves of the fight were completed very smoothly.

After Kang Jianfei finished the fight scene, Zheng Shaoqiu, who had been resting the whole time, also stood up and came before the camera to reshoot a small amount of dialogue and dramatic material with Bai Biao.

Actually, there wasn’t much dialogue left for Zheng Shaoqiu. There were only a few frontal shots of his face. Most of those dramatic sections had already been filmed by Kang Jianfei, using foreground framing or hidden-camera angles so the audience could only see the back of the head or half a face. As long as some close frontal shots of Zheng Shaoqiu were cut in later, it would be completely convincing.

Next came the wire work. Wire techniques were still not very mature at this time, and Li Jiading did not demand much from Kang Jianfei either. He only needed to be hoisted up for a somersault to show Chu Liuxiang’s extraordinary lightness skills.

At first Li Jiading had worried that Kang Jianfei would not be able to adapt to being on wires, but when they shot it, he passed on the first take.

Li Jiading walked over to Wu Chenggang and said quietly, “Your cousin by marriage was born to work in martial production. I’m set on taking this disciple. Once Chu Liuxiang wraps, I’m going to formally take him as a student.”

“Cut! Great, excellent.” Wang Tianlin stood up from his chair and clapped with a laugh.

Wang Tianlin was always strict on set, and seldom praised anyone like this. That left the extras who had been waiting to see Kang Jianfei make a fool of himself greatly disappointed.

Hu Juncai rolled over and got up from the floor. He had been lying there pretending to be a corpse for more than half an hour without moving a muscle, only stretching for two or three minutes in between, and his limbs were aching.

As soon as he got up, Hu Juncai gave Kang Jianfei a thumbs-up and said proudly, “A Fei, you’re something else. You didn’t embarrass the people of Bao’an!”

Kang Jianfei smiled at him, and was about to speak when Wang Tianlin was already waving him over. “A Fei, come here for a moment.”

“Director, what do you need?” Kang Jianfei ran over and asked.

Wang Tianlin called Zhao Yazhi over as well and said, “The next scene is your confrontation. This is your first time working together, so I’m giving you fifteen minutes to talk it through and figure out how to coordinate with each other.”

Zhao Yazhi was wearing a dark red ancient-style costume at the moment, with a half-traditional, half-modern bun done by some unlucky hairstylist, and all over her body there was an elegant, classically gentle air.

The two of them walked to a corner of the set. Zhao Yazhi said, “Um... how about we go over the lines first?”

Kang Jianfei said, “Why don’t we rehearse it once first?”

“That works too.”

Zhao Yazhi nodded.

Kang Jianfei had left a deep impression on her yesterday, first with the clever advice he gave Wang Tianlin, and then with his outrageous claim in the tea restaurant that he would open a film company within a year.

And today, Kang Jianfei had again shown his strength as an actor. Counting all that up, Zhao Yazhi already felt a tremendous curiosity about him.

“I’m starting now,” Zhao Yazhi said. After saying that, she turned a few times on the spot, then suddenly fell as if struck by a sword.

“Rongrong!”

Kang Jianfei rushed over and caught Zhao Yazhi’s upper body in his arms. The moment he touched her, there was a soft, jade-like warmth, but right now he could not indulge in it. He had to look into Zhao Yazhi’s eyes with deep sorrow and affection.

Kang Jianfei acted with great intensity, even more intensely than Zheng Shaoqiu. That came from the habit he had developed during his years as an extra, always demanding that he explode with performance at every moment in order to catch the director’s attention.

Pinned by Kang Jianfei’s scorching, affectionate gaze, Zhao Yazhi actually panicked and did not dare meet his eyes. But she quickly recovered and looked at Kang Jianfei. “Chu... Brother Chu...”

Kang Jianfei asked with a look of intense grief, “Rongrong, why did you do this?”

Before she knew it, Zhao Yazhi had been pulled into the scene. Leaning against his chest, she said, “Don’t ask anymore. I did this... for you...”

While the two of them were rehearsing, quite a few extras were sneaking looks from afar. The moment they saw Kang Jianfei holding Zhao Yazhi in his arms, they were instantly consumed by jealousy and wanted to rush over and beat him up.

More than ten minutes later, they began filming officially. In front of the camera, Zhao Yazhi “died” in Kang Jianfei’s arms, while Kang Jianfei himself was in tears, his eyes and nose both red from crying.

That fiercely committed performance left even Wang Tianlin staring dumbfounded. Based on what he had just seen, Kang Jianfei’s acting was far more advanced than Zheng Shaoqiu’s.

It wasn’t that Zheng Shaoqiu’s acting was bad. It was just that television dramas did not require such forceful performance, otherwise filming would be exhausting.

In movies, a shot might be taken repeatedly, even dozens of times, and if it did not work today, they could reshoot it tomorrow. Of course you had to put your heart into the performance.

But television dramas were basically shot to pass in one go, especially productions that were filmed and broadcast at the same time. They simply did not have the luxury of dragging things out.

A single TV series could run into thousands of minutes. You could not possibly demand that the lead actor perform at movie-level intensity all the time, could you? That was almost impossible.

There was one fellow, though, who always acted with tremendous intensity in television dramas, and that was Ma Jingtao. As a result, whenever he played supporting roles in TV dramas, he would always steal the spotlight from the lead, to the point that the lead would even threaten to quit...

Kang Jianfei’s performance at the moment was basically the same as Ma Jingtao’s.

The difference was that Ma Jingtao was stealing the scene, with a supporting actor stealing the lead’s thunder. Kang Jianfei, on the other hand, was just wasting his effort, because no matter how well he cried, it would never be broadcast on TV. It would only be cut out and replaced with Zheng Shaoqiu’s frontal close-ups.

But precisely because Kang Jianfei was acting so hard, Wang Tianlin realized that this man was a born performer, and he found himself torn over whether he should cultivate Kang Jianfei for behind-the-scenes work or support him as a leading man.