“Just like the movies I’ve filmed, I wish to let more people in the world know that our country’s different now, that it’s not the undeveloped and backward place they thought it was. In order to make themselves seem deep, many films always make their characters go down and dirty and travel to the remote and poor rural areas. As if the more they filmed how difficult life was, the more depth a movie would have. I’m not saying these places don’t exist and not to shoot such movies, but what I wanted was to integrate the conflict between the rich and the poor, the developed and the undeveloped. It’s something really charismatic when you change your angle on it.”
“Similarly, I also hoped to develop more outstanding young actors. New faces keep appearing in many shows. Their acting might be stiff, but if you think about it in another way, they had unpolished areas. Don’t let the audiences keep seeing the same faces over and over, it’d be boring.”
“So I came,” Deng Xu said.
Though some words were left unspoken, everyone knew in their hearts that what Deng Xu said was one side of the case, but if it wasn’t for Han Zhuoli, he probably wouldn’t have come.
There were many chances to develop new talents, and for great directors like Deng Xu, he never lacked young actors who were eager to try.
He didn’t have to especially find new talents when countless actors already wished he could notice them.
All in all, it was still thanks to Han Zhuoli.
“From what I know, this scene is from your new film, After Sunset, currently showing in theaters,” the emcee said, “so why did you choose this part for the performance? I’d gone to see it when the film first showed, and the whole movie was interesting and thought-provoking. There were even more intense and outstanding scenes. Why didn’t you choose those?”
Deng Xu smiled, saying, “When I chose the scene, I didn’t know there would be people from Broadway in the judging panel. I just felt that since the exchange team didn’t understand Mandarin, even if there were subtitles on the screen, the nuances in our language would be lost. It would even make our guests distracted by looking at the screen and not focus on the performance on stage.”
“So I chose this scene and discussed with the others, tweaking some more to further reduce the lines and focus on the expressions and movements. Even without speaking, these could portray another type of language and allow everyone to pay attention to their performance,” Deng Xu explained.
“Precisely because there were almost no lines, the audience would be more eager to understand the performance through their expressions and body language—what they’re trying to say. The audience would then be naturally immersed in the acting. This was also a great challenge to the students at the same time.”
The emcee said, “I was watching from the side and thought this was so difficult. Without the help of spoken lines, the audience had to guess many details, using the students’ acting to imagine it. But their imaginations might be wrong too, maybe from misunderstanding a certain part of the performance, and thus affecting how much they liked the whole skit. It’s plausible to dislike the performance because of misunderstanding it. This was such a high expectation for the students.”
“That’s true.” Deng Xu nodded. “If we wanted the best results, the performing difficulty had to increase. It’s great that the students are all hardworking and did well. But most of the difficulties fell on Lu Man’s shoulders.”
