Chapter 287: Super Pleasure

Xiao Ran seemed utterly unconcerned about this issue, focusing instead on his new work. His new film, “Reincarnation,” would have a three-day preview starting on June 14th—this was what truly caught his attention!
July and August were the prime times for film releases, but June was a dismal period. It was the time of various exams across the country, which clearly restricted the influx of the film’s target audience. Fortunately, Xiao Ran’s film wasn’t meant to be a blockbuster from the start.
June was undoubtedly the worst possible time for a release, and Xiao Ran’s choice left the planning team puzzled for a while. But Xiao Ran was equally helpless—there were so many big films releasing this year; could he really rely on his own risky film to take their place?
When the creative team quietly entered the theater and found their seats, it happened to be the moment between commercials and the trailer. This trailer was for “Mission: Impossible,” which Xiao Ran had initially planned to turn into part of the “Spy Change” series, but he gave up on that idea later. In this way, he could add another classic series to his portfolio.
Of course, it wasn’t Tom Cruise who starred in “Mission: Impossible” this time—it was Liu Hua. With his hair cut short, he really had the right look. The trailer was excellent and quite subtle as well.
The trailer began with sparks similar to those in the second installment, followed by countless exciting clips, including that classic heist scene. Liu Hua’s performance was much better than in previous roles. It was a shame that Xiao Ran had always wanted to work with him seriously but never had the chance.
As Liu Hua said in “Full-Time Killer,” there are only bad movies in the world, not bad trailers. A great trailer can determine whether a film’s box office performance meets expectations—this was why Xiao Ran tried to use Shuxiang Media to spread information about various films overseas.
After another trailer, the film finally started. There were still those prominent words “Xiao Ran’s Work” on the screen. Looking at them, Xiao Ran felt a strange sensation. He knew that it was only since “True Nature” that he truly deserved to bear that title.
Before those words could fade away, a muffled gunshot came from the excellent sound system, sounding like a heavy blow to the audience’s hearts. With the gunshot, the words disappeared like dust. Finally, a scene appeared: Liu Qingyun stared in disbelief at the blood hole appearing on the forehead of the police officer played by Wu Zhenyu beside him!
Suddenly, time seemed to slow down eerily. Time passed very slowly between Liu Qingyun and Wu Zhenyu, while in the crowd, Liu Qingyun stared blankly at Wu Zhenyu, with everything else around him moving at normal speed. This scene shocked the audience greatly, or even stunned experts—such a strong contrast effect was truly impressive.

Xiao Ran smiled slightly. He had actually advised the director back in “Legend of the Racing God 2” to use such a technique. The contrast between fast and slow movements has become even more pronounced thanks to computer effects, and this is precisely the revolution that technology has brought to cinema.

What followed was a chase scene, but this one took place on bicycles. The chase lasted only three minutes before ending, yet it left a deeply impactful impression on the audience. For Li Zhuotao, who was in another theater, it was even more astonishing.

He realized that Xiao Ran’s control over action sequences could be considered the best in the world. Just this short bicycle chase managed to convey a sense of intensity and ferocity, which was truly admirable.

In fact, Xiao Ran didn’t spend much effort controlling this scene; he finished it in just half a day. His approach relied on cleverness—using the camera controlled by Huang Yongheng to manipulate the confined space and add a sense of pressure and tension to the film.

Though this scene was indeed exciting, it raised a question in the audience’s minds: Why did the police officer and the thief look so similar, and why were they both played by Liu Qingyun?

Obviously, if the audience failed to quickly figure out this mystery, Xiao Ran and his team would be in serious trouble. It took his team a long time, thanks to his explanations, to understand what the film was trying to convey and its structure.

The key to the subsequent plot lay in the strength of the script. You Hai, a top-notch screenwriter who had never written a poor script, lived up to Xiao Ran’s expectations. Most of the dialogue, like that in “Gunfire” and “Suddenly”, was indirect, subtle, or convoluted. In any case, through these lines, the audience felt a sense of lingering curiosity—they knew there was more, but they couldn’t figure it out.

Creating a world is something like this. Xiao Ran carefully examined himself, observing every detail of the film, as he needed to keep improving through self-assessment. Without striving for progress, one would surely be left behind.

In fact, during action scenes, the shots are always cut very short to create a more intense effect, and this film was no exception. Contrary to his use of long shots in “True Nature” earlier, the action scenes here were composed of extremely short shots.

The film was undoubtedly intense, and given Xiao Ran’s exceptional skill in handling action sequences, achieving this wasn’t difficult at all. Moreover, don’t forget that Lin Daoyun’s music always kept the audience’s emotions high.

Finally, it came to that reverse-driving chase scene with the dead man. Xiao Ran felt that despite having made many films, none had been as challenging as this one. His inspiration even ran out at times, as he had never encountered situations like the dead man or having to stop filming before.

Watching the action scenes on the screen, listening to the inspiring music from the speakers, and feeling the heartbeat of the audience, Xiao Ran fell into memories. This scene was by far the most difficult to shoot—every car’s position, angle, and speed had to be precisely calculated by computer, and then the drivers had to remember their own positions and speeds. It wasn’t until the end that everything was filmed, and the difficulties encountered along the way go without saying. A single driver making a mistake in positioning could easily lead to crashes and deaths, making it one of the most dangerous action scenes in history.

Xiao Ran let out a soft sigh. Thinking of the lives lost because of him, he felt a hint of sadness. Although many people had died indirectly because of him on his path to success, Xiao Ran had never killed anyone himself, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to in the future. For this scene, he ultimately abandoned wide and long shots in favor of close-up shots, realizing that this shouldn’t be a grandiose movie with such a style. Of course, a few wide shots were still needed to convey how intense the chase was.

Huang Yongheng, seeing the two cars driven by Liu Qingyun weaving through traffic on the screen and recalling the difficulties of shooting those scenes, couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at Xiao Ran’s high standards. The scene was already hard to shoot, and Xiao Ran added the challenge of reverse driving, which made things even more difficult for Huang Yongheng.

In the end, Huang Yongheng and his cameramen had to get involved personally, holding cameras and trembling as they shot the required footage amidst the traffic. What scared Huang Yongheng the most was once when he had to shoot a diagonal shot himself. Due to the large scale and numerous evasive maneuvers, he had to sit in a car to capture this precious shot.

In fact, not only Huang Yongheng but every member of the crew experienced extreme stress during this shooting process. They could hardly imagine that Xiao Ran demanded shots to be filmed from over a dozen different angles, and that too in reverse traffic.

Lin Daoyun also suffered greatly. For this reverse-driving scene, Xiao Ran asked him to create a very special variation—almost like a musical arrangement. Moreover, this music was needed at the end and was crucial to the theme. He racked his brains for a long time before coming up with it through a sudden inspiration.

Those accustomed to Xiao Ran’s style could tolerate it, but those working with him for the first time were constantly sweating, fearing his gaze. They found him terrifying, as he demanded perfection even for a single action.

What was even more astonishing was that, with Xiao Ran’s relentless pursuit of perfection, the entire crew managed to complete this film in just four months, thanks to their mutual understanding. Such a pace wasn’t unheard of—Xiao Ran’s previous film, “True Nature,” was shot in only a week. But considering the difficulty, this speed was truly terrifying.

To the audience, this reverse chase scene is undoubtedly thrilling, but to an expert like Li Zhuotao, it’s something entirely different. What comes to mind is the news of casualties in that film crew; shocked, he thinks that in such a scene, it’s already a miracle if only one person dies.

Xiao Ran is very satisfied now. The concept for this reverse chase battle was inspired by The Matrix 2. Of course, this doesn’t mean he’s copying—it’s about bringing something new to the table. The Matrix 2 had special effects that are unmatched today, and that reverse chase was filmed using virtual photography.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Xiao Ran disdains that chase scene in The Matrix 2—not for any other reason, but because he believes that with such advanced special effects as virtual photography, the resulting visuals should be hundreds of times better than what was shown in the movie.

Xiao Ran is willing to bet his entire fortune that if he could use virtual photography, this scene would far surpass that in The Matrix 2. Sometimes, having technology alone isn’t enough; one also needs to know how to use it to create the greatest possible visual impact.

This chase scene in Reincarnation uses almost no computer-generated effects, not even for that spectacular scene with hundreds of cars crashing into each other—after all, the public is happy to provide cars for Xiao Ran to use. It’s unclear how much benefit this advertisement will bring to the public. If it weren’t for the long-term partnership between the public and Phantom since The Legend of the Car God, Mitsubishi’s offer would surely be unrefusable for Phantom.

Xiao Ran finds it hard to describe certain flaws in Hong Kong cinema throughout history, or rather, the flaws in most action movies, which all focus solely on emphasizing how grand and spectacular the scenes are. To do this, they even allocate extra shots during intense battles.

This approach is by no means pleasant. Xiao Ran believes that action movies are not meant solely to highlight the scale of the scenes. Imagine a scene with intense gunfights suddenly interrupted by other elements—the continuous flow is broken. Especially in Cheng Long’s earlier works, to emphasize how dangerous it is, they kept showing scenes from various angles. While this can be impressive, it often becomes boring.

This is one of the reasons why Xiao Ran is regarded as a pioneer of the new generation of action movies. In his films, action scenes are executed in one smooth burst after building up momentum, without any hesitation. It feels as though, in the space of a single breath, incredibly exciting scenes unfold, giving the audience no chance to get distracted. Instead, they rely entirely on visuals, action, and rhythm to engage the audience’s senses and emotions, even inducing a sense of climax-like pleasure.

Xiao Ran is very satisfied. He knows he’s succeeded—having surpassed previous chase scenes even without special effects. With effects achieved through traditional methods, extremely short cuts, and Lin Daoyun’s highly rhythmic electronic soundtrack, this purely skill-based chase scene far exceeds the one in The Matrix 2, which relied on special effects.

In this reverse-chase scene, Xiao Ran didn’t even hear any breathing in the theater that could hold four hundred spectators. Everyone unconsciously held their breath, holding it in until this scene ended before exhaling.
But it wasn’t over yet. After leaving the highway, the two cars raced wildly on roads less than thirty meters apart. Suddenly, a train appeared in the distance, and the cars sped even faster, like hurricanes.