Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 64: Singing Peking Opera
Subtitle of this chapter: Is plagiarism really that easy?
"Chinese opera?" Mr. Louis Baker asked with interest, "Do you have opera in China?"
As a leftist, Holmes naturally had sympathy and curiosity for all "backward nations". In later generations, a European and American person like him would probably drop out of school to distribute mosquito nets in sub-Saharan Africa. Hearing that the "backward nations" in the Far East also had opera naturally aroused his curiosity.
"Of course we Seres have our own opera art. This is a long story, and you probably don't know that we Seres actually had Nuo opera five thousand years ago..."
Foreigners, whether a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now, like those exotic things. "Chinese Opera" naturally aroused great interest among foreigners. At first, there were only two listeners around him, a man and a woman. Mr. Griffith naturally immersed himself in the script of "Chocolate". Later, the guests in this side hall saw that our Master Yuan was talking lively and gradually came over.
The "junior amateur" was originally prepared to be a Chinese cultural ambassador, so he began to talk eloquently, from five thousand years ago all the way to the arrival of the Huiban troupe in Beijing... At this time, he actually forgot his identity as a disciple of the Hongmen.
More and more people gathered around, and Yuan Yanshu became more and more excited. Seeing so many people surrounding him, his stage-crazy nature broke out again, and he even sang a song on the spot.
Unfortunately, he knows very few Peking Opera pieces, and most of them are like "My cousin can't count them all."", "Willing to shed blood and write the history", "This woman is unusual", "The north wind blows"...These eight model operas are not within the system's authority.
So Zhao Zilong, one of the Five Tiger Generals, did not sing "Changbanpo" but sang a passage from Zhuge Kongming's "Empty City Strategy", which is "I stood on the tower to watch the mountain scenery, and heard the commotion outside the city..." Although the tune was actually off-key to the Nantianmen, it was enough to fool these foreigners .
After seeing such a wonderful performance, everyone present was immediately interested and surrounded Yuan Yanshu with questions. Our Master Yuan was drunk and his excitement became even more intense.
He improvised and made up a bunch of nonsense, saying that Yu Tang Chun was the Chinese version of La Dame aux Camélias (both are about prostitutes), Ganlu Temple was the Chinese version of Le nozze di Figaro (both are about weddings), Farewell My Concubine was the Chinese version of Othello (both are about how a couple died), and Havoc in Heaven was the Chinese version of The Ring of the Nibelung (both are about the collapse of the heavenly palace)...
Our Master Yuan talked and sang for half an hour. He was really tired and had to stop the performance.
Thus, he laid the groundwork for a grand event in the Chinese Peking Opera world...
When the crowd dispersed, Cleopatra came up and said, "You are so annoying. Sit down quickly. You are sweating all over. Let me wipe it off for you."
"Lillian, thank you so much." Enjoying the service of the beauty half leaning on her arms, Yuan Yan swallowed hard and said, "Oh, it's too stuffy here. Why don't we go somewhere else to get some fresh air?"
Miss Gish nodded a little shyly and said, "Oh, your suggestion is really..."
"It's really great!" Director Griffith jumped up excitedly, waving the script in his hand and shouting loudly: "This script is really great!"
Nonsense, how can it not be great?
The original novel of "Chocolat" was written by the famous British female writer Joanne Harris. It achieved huge success after its publication and immediately topped the British "Sunday Times" bestseller list.
The film script was also written by the female author herself. Lasse Hallström, a famous Swedish director who was nominated for an Oscar twice, was invited to direct the film. The director also has two famous works, "A Different Sky" and "The Cider House Rules". The male and female protagonists are Johnny Depp, the most box office-appealing actor in Hollywood, and Juliette Binoche, the best supporting actress at the Oscars.
The 2000 film earned Joanne Harris an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay and a British Film and Television Arts Award for Best Screenplay.
Of course, our Master Yuan really didn’t take this novel and movie too seriously. Come on, what’s there to say about a movie script that didn’t even win the Oscar for Best Screenplay that year?
In order to conform to the political correctness of the times, Yuan Yanshu modified the time and moved the story forward to after World War I, so the heroine became a war widow, so that her identity as a single mother was more acceptable to people in the 1920s. He also changed the male protagonist, no longer a gypsy in the original book. If a gypsy were the male protagonist, he would be criticized by the American and European people, so he was changed to an American officer who suffered from war trauma and wandered in France instead of returning home.
Moreover, this change actually gave the work a bit of humanistic care and anti-war color.
The works that the time travelers didn’t care much about and casually changed were already stunning in David Griffith’s eyes!
He said excitedly: "Neo, no, Mr. Yuan, can you let me shoot this script? I promise..."
Damn it, I need to go get some fresh air ahhhhhhhh!!! Who cares about the script???
But there is really no point in ignoring it. After all, this was bought with B coins and cannot be wasted.
"David, don't be anxious. Since I've shown it to you, I'll naturally let you shoot it. But..." Yuan Yan raised her hand and interrupted him, "Don't you find that my script has a big flaw?"
"Flaw?! No... This script doesn't have one... It seems like there is a flaw!" The director was about to retort, but was stunned. He thought about it and finally understood.
Our Master Yuan said calmly: "You have also discovered that my script has a fatal flaw, which is..."
"Nonsense... well, too much dialogue."
Griffith thought of something, opened his eyes wide and asked in surprise: "Could it be that..."
Yuan Yan nodded and said, "You guessed it right. This script is for a sound film. I even conceived a storyboard script with music in my mind."
Actually, there aren't many dialogues in this script, but this was the silent film era, and the script for a talkie certainly seemed to have too many lines for the actors.》Would a purely dialogue-based film like this be made in 1920? Would the director just let the audience sit in the cinema and watch the dialogue?
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