Depressive Screenwriter

June 23rd.

The tenth day of filming for Rurouni Kenshin.

Because the broadcast slot was scheduled for late July, Shi Peihua's filming schedule wasn't too rushed.

In these past few days, Gu Qingyuan, having received the entire script for Rurouni Kenshin, repeatedly studied it while the crew filmed other people's scenes.

Originally, she thought this work was a short drama primarily focused on national sentiments, with romance as a secondary element.

But after reading the script, her view completely changed.

National sentiments were indeed present, but the majority of the story revolved around the love-hate entanglement between Yukishiro Tomoe and Himura Kenshin.

If you had to define the core of the Kenshin's Reminiscence arc, it was quite simple.

A woman who lost her fiancé falls in love with the man who killed him.

However, when such a simple story features Himura Kenshin and Yukishiro Tomoe, two extremely charismatic characters, the story's appeal increases exponentially.

And most importantly, there's the ending of the story.

Gu Qingyuan still remembers how she felt after reading the script for the fourth episode of Rurouni Kenshin.

It felt as if her heart had been hollowed out; she felt uncomfortable and wanted to say something but couldn't.

She felt unwell the entire day, and even dreamt about the characters that night.

The next day, upon seeing Su Yan at the film set, an indescribable sense of melancholy arose.

What exactly is going on in this guy's head?

Of course, while waiting for her scenes to begin filming, the shocks this low-budget web drama production brought her were far more than just that.

Shi Peihua's directing ability goes without saying. Although she used to offend TV station leaders, resulting in a lack of opportunities and remaining relatively unknown, her skill level became apparent to everyone on set as early as the third day of filming.

From top to bottom, the planning after the movie started filming, the control of the crew, the lighting, and the scheduling of the cinematographer—Gu Qingyuan couldn't find a single fault.

And the producer, Shinozaki Ikumi, who was about the same age as her, although not necessarily very skilled in her work, managed to keep everything on set organized.

But the most freakish, the most shocking thing of all...

Was undoubtedly Su Yan.

Forgive her for using the word 'freakish' to describe the screenwriter Su Yan.

Because not just her, but everyone on set probably had similar thoughts.

Firstly, Rurouni Kenshin has a large number of fight scenes.

It could even be said that a large portion of the crew's budget was used to find martial arts extras who could perform these fight scenes.

On the first day of filming, the first scene of Rurouni Kenshin was Kenshin's nighttime ambush of an important Kyoto official in the story.

This was a sword fight scene where Kenshin ambushes and kills a group of people, including Kiyosato, Yukishiro Tomoe's fiancé.

Before filming this scene, Su Yan looked at the action choreography storyboard he had designed and remained silent for a long time.

Then he said to the group of martial arts extras:

"Let's not choreograph. Try to attack me with the fastest and most flashy moves you can manage during the shoot."

"Then, we'll improvise."

At first, everyone thought Su Yan was showing off, including Shi Peihua, who frowned.

Who do you think you are?

Even with choreographed scenes, martial arts actors often get injured.

If they improvised, and someone didn't know their own strength, how could they film anything?

But Su Yan insisted, and after producer Shinozaki Ikumi curiously and excitedly agreed.

Shi Peihua couldn't say anything, but reminded the martial arts actors to be gentle and that it didn't matter if the scene had to be re-shot, but they absolutely shouldn't hurt anyone.

When Shi Peihua shouted "Action!" at the camera.

Gu Qingyuan witnessed a gorgeous live-action fight performance.

A fight that could be called art.

The moment filming began, Su Yan pushed off with his calf, accelerating his body. His long black hair danced in the moonlight, and his ancient costume fluttered because of the speed.

With a single swing of his sword, the closest actor felt a slight pain in his abdomen. The blood from the blood pack instantly soaked through his clothes, and he reacted quickly, falling down to play dead.

The expressions of all the martial arts extras changed the moment Su Yan made his move. They knew that the screenwriter of this production had real skill, and they no longer hesitated to attack him together in a real brawl.

But Su Yan's speed, flexibility, and physical explosiveness during the fight were like that of a human-shaped cat. The martial arts actors recruited by the production, who had been training since childhood, couldn't keep up with Su Yan's speed at all and couldn't even touch him.

The blunt prop sword in Su Yan's hand often stabbed towards their chests, abdomens, and throats from unbelievable angles.

The moment Su Yan's prop sword clashed with their blunt longswords, the force transmitted to the extras' hands made their palms tingle, and their swords almost slipped out of their grasp.

It wasn't just ruthless; these actors, who had learned some basic martial arts, could tell that the swordsmanship Su Yan was using with that prop sword formed a system of its own. The attacks he launched didn't fully unleash their destructive power. Often, Su Yan would deliberately reduce his power at the end to make the movements look better.

After all, this was filming.

The scene was over in just ten seconds.

Director Shi Peihua, who was always scolding everyone on set, was stunned, her mouth open, unable to say a word.

How could she comment?

Did she have the qualifications to comment?

Without any wires or cables, Su Yan jumped up and down in that dark alley for ten seconds, bounding back and forth on the eaves of buildings two or three meters high three times without even panting.

What kind of physical fitness was that?

And Su Yan ultimately felt unsatisfied with this scene because the extras were a bit stunned at first and didn't react quickly enough, so they re-shot it twice.

Two more artistic battles.

The martial arts extras looked somewhat dazed after the performance, and they began to doubt their professional abilities.

From that day on, Shi Peihua didn't interrupt the martial arts scenes at all, letting Su Yan do as he pleased.

Until today...

On this full moon night, the crew had already prepared water trucks to simulate rainfall.

Before that, after filming Yukishiro Tomoe's lonely scene of drinking alone in a tavern after arriving in Kyoto.

The next scene to be filmed was the fight scene in the rain between Himura Kenshin and the masked man using chains.

Looking at the original Rurouni Kenshin manga, anyone who isn't instantly killed by Kenshin can be considered a master.

And this chain-wielding man not only fought Kenshin to a standstill in a short period of time, but even slightly suppressed Kenshin, who was at his most bloodthirsty at the age of fifteen, during the fight.

Unfortunately, in the Reminiscence arc, he doesn't even deserve to have a name.

But filming this kind of continuous fight scene requires choreography, otherwise, others simply can't react to Su Yan's sword moves.

Everyone on the set watched Su Yan and the martial arts actor they had hired at great expense from outside the filming area.

At least the money spent on hiring him was higher than the main actor fees for Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan combined, and he was only filming two scenes.

This fight in the first episode, and the scene in the snowfield forest in the fourth episode, where he would play another masked character ambushing Kenshin.

One night of filming...

This scene had already been re-shot for the eighth time.

The moves had been designed and choreographed in advance, but because Su Yan was too fast, even with the choreography, the other party couldn't react easily.

"Mr. Su Yan, have you ever thought about not being a screenwriter and switching to being an action actor!"

After filming another failed take, the martial arts actor, who had fought Su Yan eight times, looked at Su Yan with a glint in his eyes, panting for breath.

"With your strength, given time, you could definitely become one of the best martial arts superstars in Xia. I'm just too ugly, so I can only be a stunt double for others. That's always been my regret, but you're different. Your movements, reactions, speed, and physical fitness are all better than mine, and most importantly, you're handsome."

"Not interested," Su Yan said.

These past few days, using the system's swordsmanship to film scenes could be considered familiarizing himself with the skill.

Although it was a bit uncomfortable to stop at the last moment when he was about to exert force and injure someone.

The other party's suggestion was indeed very interesting.

But the system required him to earn emotional value through his previous works to exchange for other works and skills. So, being a martial arts superstar sounded great, but it was far less valuable than the system.

"What a pity," the other party shook his head.

The water trucks' artificial rain began again, and water droplets fell from overhead, slightly obscuring Su Yan's vision.

Su Yan gripped the sword in his hand, and with Shi Peihua's shout of "Action!" from outside the set...

Su Yan and the other party's ninth fight scene began.

The other party was also someone who had practiced martial arts since childhood. Although he might not have learned assassination techniques, his speed and strength were definitely far beyond ordinary people, so he could keep up with Su Yan's intentionally slowed movements.

First, there was a series of tentative fighting, conventional choreography, back and forth. Although neither side was fighting for real, those watching this scene from outside the set didn't dare to breathe loudly.

Because the fight was so beautifully executed, they were afraid of making any noise that would affect the two's performance.

Then the battle became intense.

Standing on the roof, the masked man swung the chain in his hand in a circle, flying it towards Su Yan like a lasso, and Su Yan was also smart enough to get caught.

The other party also pounced down from the roof according to the planned choreography.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed, and a hint of murderous intent spread across his face.

The entire series of movements was completed in two seconds.

Clang!

The prop lightning flashed, illuminating the two of them and adding a solemn atmosphere to the fight scene.

Su Yan, playing Kenshin, twisted his wrist, reversing the direction of the sword he was holding. Although his body was bound by the chain, he broke free of part of his body the moment the other party pounced, and the blade lightly brushed across the other party's body from head to toe.

The prop team, which had been prepared for a long time, scattered some blood-red objects from a height.

With some editing and special effects in post-production, a shot of a real person being cut in half could be produced.

And as Su Yan swung his longsword in front of him, killing something in two segments.

Rain mixed with blood formed an arc and flew forward.

The cameraman's lens slowly shifted.

There, a woman in white, with a detached expression, peerless and independent, and so beautiful that it took one's breath away, appeared holding an oil-paper umbrella.

Her body, face, and clothes were covered in blood splattered from Kenshin's sword.

Her stunningly beautiful white face was stained with blood.

In the heavy rain, the umbrella-holding woman and the man looked at each other.

The whole scene was like a work of art.

Everyone on the filming set was staring motionlessly, and Shi Peihua had an especially solemn expression.

Yukishiro Tomoe, played by Gu Qingyuan, stood for a few seconds before slowly opening her mouth and saying the line that Kenshin and Yukishiro Tomoe said when they first met.

Thank you for the rewards from Super Electromagnetic Cannon hitting Leaning Eaves Fireworks, Moonlight Burial Requiem, Assault Rifle Rabbit, and Tang-style Wandering. Thank you, bosses.

Thank you everyone for the monthly tickets and recommendation tickets.

I hope everyone will try to follow the updates on Tuesday and Wednesday as much as possible.

Because Qidian's recommendations are based on the tracking data of the updated chapters on those two days. Whoever has higher data gets the recommendation. It's a pure data PK, simple and clear.

Thank you all.

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