Chapter 4: The Devil's Journey to the West
Apart from their studies, the only topic the three of them could talk about was novels.
Liu Zhenyun said that half of the students in the Chinese Department had a dream of becoming a writer, just like the later students who were a little bit more eye-catching had a dream of becoming a star.
This is the pursuit of the times, just like scar literature.
In November 1977, People's Literature published Liu Xinwu's "Class Teacher", which tells the story of a middle school class teacher Zhang Junshi accepting a gangster transfer student Song Baoqi as the clue to the story, which aroused discussion in the entire literary world. Some people think that the novel exposes the harm to young people in that decade, while others think that the novel is calling for saving the harmed young people. In this way, it expresses a profound sense of history and is full of a strong spirit of enlightenment.
From then on, novels of this type emerged in large numbers, until Lu Xinhua published the novel "Scars" in Wenhui Daily, and this type of literature was defined as scar literature.
Most of the early "scar novels" regarded going to the countryside to work as a nightmare that was too painful to look back on. The works were filled with sufferings and tragic life transitions in the past years, ugliness, mutual deception, oppression, and mutual exploitation, betrayal and deception of the beautiful emotions of mankind. The basic tone was a venting of indignation and resentment. All of this showed a strong sense of negation and criticism of the previous ultra-left lines and policies. When it came to personal experience and emotions, there was a relatively strong sentimental emotion. The works were filled with confusion, loss, depression and hesitation about the present and the future.
During this period, Liu Hongmin read novels that had a strong social impact. He did not understand the artistry, so he did not discuss it. From the perspective of writing style, it was not as good as "Young Justice Bao".
Liu Zhenyun is somewhat introverted and is not willing to make negative comments on other people's works.
Zou Shifang also had no feelings about scar literature. He started working in 71 and was an editor. He knew less about going to the countryside than Liu Hongmin.
Because of this, the two can chat about literature. One is a "young master" in the city, and the other is a "hothouse flower" from the future. Neither of them has experienced too much suffering, so naturally they don't have too much pain.
The two chatted for a while, and seeing that Liu Zhenyun was a little reserved, they dropped the topic.
"I heard that the Japanese filming of Journey to the West was suspended?"
The topic raised by Liu Hongmin instantly made Zou Shifang and Liu Zhenyun excited.
"It should have been stopped long ago. What kind of crap is this? A woman is playing the role of Tang Seng. It's just ridiculous."
"I don't know what the people above are thinking. The Japanese have only learned a little bit from us. They know nothing about Journey to the West."
The two men became angrier and angrier as they talked, and were very dissatisfied with the Japanese for messing up Journey to the West.
After the guests nearby heard their topic clearly, they also joined in.
"That Tang Monk even kissed Sun Wukong. It's simply shameful to watch."
"The Buddha Tathagata is actually a woman. The Japanese are really perverted!"
We can’t blame the people for being so dissatisfied; it’s really because the Japanese were too reckless.
Although a friendly treaty had just been signed, the lower classes still generally hated the Japanese. Only the middle-level personnel wanted to comply with the policy, so this version of "Journey to the West" was born. Fortunately, the leaders and the masses were very excited, so only three episodes were broadcast, and the Japanese version of "Journey to the West" was stopped.
Liu Hongmin knew more information than the other two. Although this version of Journey to the West had aroused great enthusiasm in China, in Japan, the TV series was extremely popular and even had English dubbing, spreading all over the world.
Perhaps it is because they learned that the Japanese's fabricated "Journey to the West" had spread all over the world, so they wanted to shoot a normal version to restore the reputation of "Journey to the West" and our country.
It can be said that if there was no Japanese version of "Journey to the West", there would be no 86 version of "Journey to the West". Of course, Liu Hongmin would not thank the Japanese. The real men in Northeast China have only one attitude towards the Japanese: Kill them!
"When will we be able to make our own version of Journey to the West? It will definitely be much better than the one made by the Japanese."
"That's right, only we can film a classic like Journey to the West well."
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "We must film Journey to the West. Otherwise, the whole world will think that Journey to the West was filmed by the Japanese devils, and we will be in a passive position."
"Then we have to shoot it as soon as possible! We can't let the Japanese destroy our four great classics."
“There’s no rush for this!”
Liu Hongmin comforted everyone, "There are too many gods in Journey to the West, many special effects, and grand scenes, so the cost of filming will be very high. Don't look at the Japanese version of Journey to the West and don't praise it, but it is said that the cost is as high as 10 billion."
"One billion? Our money?"
"The exchange rate between our money and the Japanese money is about 125, which means our money is about million."
"Such a high cost? Is it true?"
Liu Hongmin spread his hands, "It should be correct. You have to know that the Japanese are a developed country, and their labor costs are much higher than ours. This amount of money is not a lot. If we want to shoot Journey to the West in the future, it will cost millions."
Everyone expressed regret, "Where can we get so much money?"
Zou Shifang poked Liu Hongmin with his hand, "Are you telling the truth?"
"Of course!" Liu Hongmin said with a smile, "But don't worry, our country is so big, it's no problem to raise a few million. And we don't necessarily need to take it out all at once, we can split it up into several years for filming. So, don't worry, as long as we can raise the money, we will definitely film Journey to the West."
When everyone heard this, they immediately became excited again.
"I really hope I can watch our own version of Journey to the West right now!"
Zou Shifang said in surprise: "Hongmin, I didn't expect you to know about TV drama filming?"
“I don’t understand, but I have learned some relevant knowledge.”
Of course Liu Hongmin couldn't tell them that he learned all this from short videos from the future.
Liu Zhenyun looked at Liu Hongmin with envy, thinking to himself: No wonder Liu Hongmin can write novellas, it turns out that his knowledge reserves are sufficient.
Thinking of this, he decided to read more books and study more after he returned. Only when his knowledge reserves were sufficient, writing novels would become a natural thing.
Many years later, when Liu Zhenyun talked about how he could write so many good works, he said that he was inspired by Liu Hongmin. But Liu Hongmin denied it. He even wondered why Liu Zhenyun said that. With his mediocre writing ability, why did he guide Liu Zhenyun?
Stop joking, Liu Zhenyun is a great writer, okay?
(End of this chapter)
