Chen Qi arranged for these scenes to be shot among a cluster of hutong alleys.
The Red Lantern clashed with the foreigners, Ji Chunhua fought Yang Yugan, the Qing soldiers battled the fake Boxers, and the fake Boxers preyed on the commoners. That made five factions in total, numbering around a hundred people. Staging it on a vast open flat would look like utter chaos, so Chen Qi used the intersecting alleys to partition them, letting each group have its own brawl.
At the end, a sweeping long take would showcase the spectacle of a hundred-person melee.
Put simply, it offered both fine detail and the big picture.
Great Wall had borrowed two cameras, bringing the shoot to three cameras in total. As a former cinematographer himself, Li Wenhua understood better than anyone how difficult such a sequence was to capture, and the pressure weighed heavily on him. Chen Qi was helping direct traffic when he turned his head and caught sight of Tsui Hark sneaking in. "Director Tsui, come to watch the show?"
"Just having a casual look, just looking around!"
A bit embarrassed, Tsui Hark clasped his hands behind his back, intending to slip away. Chen Qi grabbed him with a grin. "Since you're already here, let me introduce you around."
With that, he pulled Tsui Hark before Li Wenhua, made proper introductions, and then dragged him over to Li Lianjie. "Xiao Li, this is Tsui Hark, a big-shot director from Hong Kong. He studied film in America, has formal academic training, and oozes talent. You should take every chance you get to ask him for pointers!"
"Hello, Director Tsui!" Li Lianjie greeted him promptly.
Blushing at the lavish praise, Tsui Hark waved his hands repeatedly. "You exaggerate too much. I've only made a few films."
Then he scrutinized Li Lianjie. This was his first time seeing him up close, and his eyes practically lit up. His directorial debut, *The Butterfly Murders*, had been a wuxia piece, and though he had directed many other genres since, his love for wuxia ran deep in his bones. Seeing Li Lianjie was like an old brothel patron laying eyes on a pristine courtesan—pure perfection! He couldn't resist the urge to drag the lad into the business.
Next, he caught sight of Ji Chunhua. "Now that's a strikingly unconventional face!"
Then he saw Ge Chunyan. Tsui Hark sighed inwardly with regret. A woman with such crisp, beautiful martial arts technique, yet blessed with only average looks. If she were a beauty, he would definitely groom her into the Chinese world's premier female action star.
Next came Zhen Zidan. "Mm!"
Finally, his gaze fell on He Qing and Tao Huimin. He found them quite young, though they possessed pleasing features, fine presence, and great promise. Immediately after, he noticed their styling and costumes. Stunned, he asked, "What roles are they playing? Why are they dressed so strangely?"
"They're from the Red Lantern—you know the Boxers, right? They're holy maidens from one of their sects. Born as conjoined twins, used to put on supernatural pretenses and revered as the Two-Faced Bodhisattva."
Chen Qi had them stand back-to-back and explained, "Their backs are joined together, two faces on one body, sharing a single heart and mind. Their choreography is also bizarre, swift, and elusive. Come on, you two, show him!"
Stepping back a few paces, Chen Qi watched alongside Tsui Hark, who folded his arms with keen interest. The girls spun around, revealing He Qing in the front and Tao Huimin at the back.
He Qing held a fan, exchanging a few moves with a stuntman. When she struck forward, the stuntman dodged to the right. Suddenly, from beneath her left rib cage, a slender longsword shot out, thrusting straight into the stuntman—it was Tao Huimin at the back, striking with a reverse-grip thrust.
Immediately after, the two began to whirl in circles.
Both were trained in traditional opera, light on their feet and graceful in motion. Pressed back-to-back, they spun remarkably fast. Their broad crimson skirts flared into motion, blending with their makeup to create an uncanny, mesmerizing beauty.
*Hiss!*
Tsui Hark shuddered all over, his kink instantly triggered—er, pah! His aesthetic sensibility was struck right in the bullseye.
He loved nothing more than strange, eerie, mystical concepts, and having two lovely young girls pressed together only doubled the impact.
"I get it!" He clapped his hands, his excitement mounting. "Either one can face an opponent on her own while the other assists from behind, or they can fight on both sides simultaneously. They can switch positions at any moment, swapping weapons and moves to keep the enemy utterly off-guard."
He paused, getting even more carried away. "How about this: they've never seen each other's faces. In the end, they're severed right down the middle and collapse to the ground, seeing each other for the first time. Add a line of dialogue—'Sister, I can finally see you'—and then they embrace tightly as they die..."
"Er, well, that's just a suggestion."
Seeing Chen Qi's half-amused, knowing smile, Tsui Hark felt horribly awkward. Chen Qi said, "Since you have so many great ideas, why don't you direct this segment?"
"No, no, no, how could I steal Director Li's rice bowl? My side is about to start rolling anyway. Farewell!"
He scurried off again.
Having delivered three consecutive box-office flops, Tsui Hark had been unable to find investors and had joined Cinema City merely to make a living. He liked money, of course, but creative freedom and unbridled imagination held far greater allure for him. Chen Qi curled his lip in amusement: *Let's see how long you can hold out!*
***
"Cut!"
Li Wenhua called a halt once more and asked, "What happened? Weren't those foreign actors supposed to flash contemptuous smirks after firing their volley? And the one playing the foreign envoy, and the one playing the commander—your lines don't seem right!"
"Director Li, you understand English?"
"I don't. But the script only has two or three sentences, so why did they rattle off a whole paragraph?"
"I'll go talk to them!" The interpreter hurried over.
Li Wenhua felt somewhat dejected. After a moment of hesitation, he called Chen Qi over. "Xiao Chen, filming this is proving quite difficult!"
"How so?"
"It's not that I can't shoot it, but we only have ten days. If we waste all our time on staging and communication, we might not finish. These crew members are from Hong Kong and totally unfamiliar to me, and those foreigners have to be directed through an interpreter. It's just too cumbersome..."
Li Wenhua was not one to stubbornly act tough; he genuinely felt the set slipping beyond his control.
Back at Beijing Film Studio, an entire production had only a single camera. Here, he had three cameras running at once; he had never fought a battle with such lavish resources before.
"Can you think of a way to help?" he asked proactively.
"I'll see what I can do. For now, focus on shooting the isolated scenes."
Chen Qi agreed and promptly slipped over to the neighboring soundstage, where the day's quota was already wrapped and everyone was packing up.
"Master!"
Qiu Shuzhen ran over happily, whining coaxingly, "Why did you only come over now? You haven't shown up at all these past few days."
"I had other business to attend to. How have you been doing?"
"I've been working really hard! Everyone praised me!"
Chen Qi patted her head. A thought struck him, and he smiled. "They're shooting next door, too. Opportunities like this don't come often—do you want to do a cameo?"
"A cameo for what?"
"A period piece. You'll play a commoner girl who dies a tragic, innocent death in the riot. Just a few seconds of screen time."
"Sure, no problem!"
With Qiu Shuzhen on board, Chen Qi found Tsui Hark and explained his purpose. Tsui Hark was still feigning reluctance. "This isn't very proper. Directing *Orphan* was already a stretch for me; how could I help you shoot another film?"
"What do you mean, a stretch? You look like you're having the time of your life! Come on, let's go. Just a few shots—consider it doing me a favor."
He dragged Tsui Hark and Qiu Shuzhen back. Qiu Shuzhen went off to get styled, while Tsui Hark—despite saying no with his lips—conversed merrily with Li Wenhua. He voluntarily took charge of the foreign actors' scenes, able to communicate directly in English.
Since the foreigners were fighting the Red Lantern, He Qing and Tao Huimin were right there as well. His wish had come true; he could finally shoot the two young beauties pressed together...
The Yuen Brothers split into two teams as well, one assisting each director.
Between the leads, extras, and crew, nearly two hundred people were involved. Add in the folks popping in and out from *Orphan* next door, as well as Liu Xuehua's horror film, and the entire studio lot seemed to boil over with vibrant clamor.
"..."
Fu Chi dropped by to visit the set. He watched quietly from outside for a while, then slipped away without disturbing anyone. As he walked, a smile spread across his face.
"It hasn't been this lively in a very long time!"
Chapter 242