Chapter 124: Shooting Begins

He Hongsheng, the king of gambling in Macau—perhaps it’s more accurate to call him the underground emperor of Macau. Here, no one dares speak a word against him, for everyone knows that even the most secret matters will eventually reach his ears.

Macau has long been known as the Monte Carlo of the East—a true goldmine. Each of the three major gangs in Hong Kong is extremely powerful, with tens of thousands of followers at their command with just a wave of their hand. Yet, no one dares to mess with He Hongsheng, nor to do anything improper on his territory.

In Macau, He Hongsheng is everything—the sky above the people of Macau. With just one word from him, everyone in Macau can become fierce warriors. Anyone who comes to Macau must follow He Hongsheng’s rules, without exception. Even when the mainland government took control of Macau, it had to appoint someone connected to the He family as the chief executive to maintain stability, highlighting his immense influence.

In Hong Kong, film crews don’t need to pay respects to local gang leaders during shooting, but in Macau, they must order Yu Jiayu to do so. Xiao Ran didn’t want any problems arising during filming, nor did he want anyone to die for no reason.

Of course, He Hongsheng isn’t a gang leader, but his power far exceeds that of any gang boss. With just one word, the two major gangs in Macau could be purged at any time. Unfortunately, when Yu Jiayu returned, he told Xiao Ran that He Hongsheng was on vacation and wouldn’t see anyone.

Xiao Ran had no choice but to give up the idea of meeting this legendary figure. In fact, the character of “Elder Hong” in the movie “Dark Flowers” was based on He Hongsheng. It was truly a pity he couldn’t meet him.

The next day, after the ritual, Xiao Ran announced that shooting would officially begin. Makeup artists and stylists immediately got to work. An hour later, Fa Ge and Su Renyao appeared before Xiao Ran, fully made up.

But something was wrong. Xiao Ran frowned and rubbed his nose as he approached Fa Ge. Su Renyao was fine—his bald head and tattoo gave him a strong resemblance to Liu Qingyun.

The problem seemed to lie with Fa Ge. Seeing Xiao Ran circling around him, Fa Ge knew something wasn’t right. “Ah Ran, what’s the issue?”

After circling him a few times, Xiao Ran finally figured out what the problem was: Fa Ge didn’t look tired enough. Ever since deciding to shoot this movie, Xiao Ran had already asked Fa Ge to lose weight. By now, he had become as thin as in “The Heroic Spirit.”

There were no issues with the costumes or styling. Xiao Ran had aimed to replicate the original version as closely as possible, since the character had once been coached by Zhang Shuping. But now, Fa Ge simply didn’t convey the image of a corrupt police officer—cold and ruthless. And that was the biggest problem.

“Ah You, go call Teng Furen and Zhang Shuping!” Xiao Ran ordered his assistant director, You Zhi, with a frown. Then he said to Fa Ge, who looked puzzled, “Fa Ge, your appearance doesn’t match the character I have in mind. This is a corrupt police officer—cold and ruthless. You don’t seem like him at all.”

“No, I think this is great!” Brother Fa glanced at his appearance in surprise, thinking it was quite good. “But since you’re the director, you decide!”
Teng Furen was a makeup artist and a newcomer promoted by Phantom Company—young and imaginative. Xiao Ran had used him in “The God of Gamblers” and found his makeup skills to be quite strong.
When Teng Furen and Zhang Shuping hurried over with You Zhi, Xiao Ran greeted them and signaled Brother Fa to pose. After seeing Brother Fa’s pose, Xiao Ran stared at the two of them and asked, “Do you think there’s anything wrong? It doesn’t seem to match what I asked for.”
“It’s really good!” Zhang Shuping and Teng Furen replied in surprise, believing it matched the effect Xiao Ran wanted.
Xiao Ran shook his head. This was definitely not the image he wanted. Staring at Brother Fa’s bright eyes, he suddenly had an idea. Brother Fa’s gaze was too straight; it needed some change. As for the makeup, he thought more of a decadent look was needed.
“Can we make his eyes a bit hazy and add more stubble? That should do it!” Xiao Ran instructed them, then watched as Brother Fa went to adjust.
Half an hour later, when Brother Fa came out of the makeup room, Xiao Ran still felt something was off. Watching Brother Fa and Teng/Zhang approach, he seemed to get an inspiration and quickly shouted, “Stop! Don’t move!”
Brother Fa and the others were startled and stopped in their tracks. Xiao Ran seized on the idea—Brother Fa’s steps were too large. With his already imposing presence, that made him even more direct. Realizing this, Xiao Ran smiled happily. “Brother Fa, try walking with smaller steps!”
Zhou Runfa seemed to understand what Xiao Ran meant and adjusted his steps. But Xiao Ran wasn’t satisfied. After a few more adjustments, he exclaimed, “That’s it! But walk faster—I think that’ll work!”
Brother Fa quickly embodied what Xiao Ran wanted. Walking up to him, he asked with a smile, “Are you satisfied now? Everyone’s waiting for you. There’s no need to be so serious!”
Xiao Ran shook his head. Making a movie required seriousness to achieve good results. If even such details weren’t paid attention to, the actors’ performances would seem out of place. Anyway, Brother Fa’s image now perfectly matched what Xiao Ran wanted.
He shouted at the crew around him, and they immediately got busy. Xiao Ran looked at the sky, seeing it gradually darken. Knowing filming would start soon, he quickly called over Huang Yongheng, the cinematographer.
It wasn’t that Xiao Ran didn’t want to use Duke Feng—it was just that Huang Yongheng was better suited for this kind of film. After talking to a few photographers, Huang Yongheng came over to Xiao Ran and asked, “Brother Ran, is there a problem?”

“Problems? No.” Xiao Ran chuckled. There weren’t that many problems. “I think you need to pay attention to capturing the light source in certain shots to create strong contrast. Also, tell the lighting crew to set the lights properly. Lighting is extremely important in this film!”
The first scene was the one set in the restaurant. Zhang Shuping directed his team to arrange everything there for a long time before discussing it with Huang Yongheng. Xiao Ran stayed at the camera position, slowly moving it around. Zhang Shuping was truly a master, organizing every aspect of the space to create a high sense of depth.
They finished quickly. Xiao Ran glanced at Su Renyao and Fa Ge. “Are you ready? This is live recording, so we need to do it well!”
Live recording is a very precise method of audio recording. Nowadays, the Hong Kong film industry relies on dubbing in post-production. Live recording slows down filming significantly, while dubbing saves time.
With dubbing, actors don’t even need to speak their lines; matching their mouth movements is enough. They can even say other things on set—like in the scene in “Gunfire” where Wu Zhenyu slaps Huang Qiusheng on his birthday. Wu Zhenyu kept saying “Happy birthday!” while slapping him, but it’s completely unnoticeable in the final film.
“Action!” After confirming that everyone was ready, Xiao Ran shouted through the speaker. When the camera started rolling, he stepped forward to observe the performance area.
Fa Ge led his team into the restaurant, glanced around, and headed straight to one of the tables… Just then, Xiao Ran shouted, “Cut!”
Everyone stopped. Xiao Ran waved at Su Renyao at another table. Su Renyao, a manly-looking man, clearly knew he had made a mistake and shakily approached Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran smiled slightly. “Ah Su, what were you doing just now? I said, don’t be nervous. Your character’s personality is to act as if nothing happens to you, no matter what. Understand?”
It’s natural for a debutant actor to feel nervous, and Xiao Ran fully understood that. So he didn’t scold Su Renyao much and comforted him for a while. Xiao Ran called for a restart, but soon called for a stop again.
This time, not only was Su Renyao having problems, but Fa Ge’s performance was also a bit off. Xiao Ran ignored Fa Ge for now and went to Su Renyao’s table, waving him away. Then, he signaled Fa Ge to continue performing there, while he himself stayed there, head down, continuing to drink his soup, standing out sharply among the customers.
After the demonstration, Xiao Ran asked Su Renyao, “Do you understand? Now try it yourself!”
When it was Fa Ge’s turn, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed that such violent movies were indeed very rare these days. No wonder even Fa Ge hadn’t fully grasped the essence of them.
Smiling at the extra, Xiao Ran took the prop wine bottle from Fa Ge’s hand without even looking at him. “Fa Ge, watch carefully.”

The wine bottles kept hitting the hands of those extras, yet Xiao Ran’s expression didn’t change at all—purely showing a disregard for human beings. Zhou Run was so stunned he stared blankly; wasn’t such acting a bit too cold? Seeing Brother Fa’s expression, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but burst into laughter and handed him the wine bottle. “That’s right, this is exactly the effect we want. Can we start now?” Brother Fa smiled indifferently. “I suddenly think you’re really a genius—being able to come up with such a cold and intense acting style!” Xiao Ran chuckled but said nothing. These days, actors’ performances tend to be quite conventional, with few showing such uniquely personal styles as in the future. In fact, when shooting this film, Xiao Ran never thought it would be a box office hit. After all, what’s popular now is the passionate style of Wu Yushen, not this calm one. Looking at all the villains of this era, it’s hard to say they’re all identical, but they all share the same menacing appearance. What people don’t realize is that this kind of hidden ferocity is what truly scares people. Xiao Ran wasn’t sure if the film would be a hit, as it went against the trends of the time. The issue was that he tried to lead the way with this approach, or rather, spend money to pave such a path for Hong Kong films. He was willing to do this, and with Brother Fa as the lead, even if the box office was poor, it would still be hard to fall below ten million. Actually, filming was quite boring. Half a month passed slowly because neither the actors nor the crew could adapt to this unique and innovative style, so progress was quite slow. Fortunately, as everyone gradually got used to it, the pace picked up. That day, Xiao Ran called all the key crew members over for a meal. In a private room in a restaurant, almost every head of department from the crew was there. Xiao Ran raised a glass filled with water and toasted everyone. “Progress has been slow these past half a month. I hope after this meal, things will speed up, but quality still comes first!” Everyone knew Xiao Ran didn’t drink alcohol, so it wasn’t seen as disrespectful. As they chatted and laughed, time passed quickly. When everyone had eaten most of their food, Xiao Ran gently tapped the table twice, and the noisy atmosphere gradually quieted down. Glancing at the people looking at him, Xiao Ran smiled slightly. He wanted to give some less prominent departments more attention at this moment, instill some ideas in them, and have them spread them. After organizing his thoughts, Xiao Ran said with a smile, “Actually, each of you here is very important to the crew…” “Take the lighting technician, for example!” Xiao Ran’s gaze fell on lighting technician Dou Wenbao, who became a bit flustered. “Everyone thinks lighting technicians are useless, just people who turn on lights casually. Now, with this film, I think Dou knows it’s not that easy to do lighting!” Although Dou Wenbao was initially embarrassed, he was proud that Xiao Ran used him as an example—not for anything else, but because he had indeed felt more like an artist than a lighting technician these past days, and that feeling was undoubtedly very pleasant.

*****
Go vote for my book “The Legend of the Gambling God” – it really needs everyone’s support!
I also recommend two new books: Sima’s latest work “Shaolin Basketball”, http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=43207, and Ye Liaoyuan’s “The New Legend of the White Snake: I Am Xu Xian”, http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=42107.