- Subtitle "Why It's the No. 1 Movie in History"

Han Zhou left the movie theater with Han Sisheng during the movie.

This time, the host of the scene is Mr. Tang, with his ability, he is enough to control any occasion, this is just a small scene.

But you can't run away if you ask him for a drink.

The reason why Han Sisheng and Han Zhou left was because they wanted to immediately find the most important link in the filming of the movie "Farewell My Concubine", a Peking Opera veteran.

Han Zhou wanted to invite this Peking Opera veteran and a writer to work together as the artistic director of the film.

It stands to reason that this link should be made by Han Zhou himself, but Han Zhou doesn't have enough time now.

Moreover, most of the content shooting is Han Sisheng's shooting, so Han Zhou needs someone to give Han Sisheng a hand.

This Peking Opera veteran is called Boss Chi, and this great writer is called Chen Hongjun.

According to the agreement, the two arrived in Fulong, a meeting room of a famous hotel that used to be very famous and is now ordinary.

And Han Zhou and Han Sisheng almost arrived on their front and back feet.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, he talked about work, after all, he was still presumptuous, but Han Zhou still brought a gift.

What was given to Boss Chi was a jade wrench, which was said to be the private collection of the previous generation of Peking Opera master Master Wei.

What was given to Chen Hongjun was a relatively commemorative thing, a gold-nib fountain pen of a Mi Army officer that was confiscated during the Peninsula War.

When the two arrived, Chen Hongjun was chatting with Boss Chi.

Chen Hongjun: "Boss Chi, I didn't expect you to come in person." ”

Boss Chi: "I'm just a singer." ”

"To be honest, Han Zhou has an indicator in his hand, a folk film shooting index, not to mention his polite invitation, even if he doesn't come forward at all and only sends an official letter, I have to come upside down."

Chen Hongjun was happy: "Who can force you, Le." ”

"If you don't want to come, don't talk about official documents, it's useless."

Boss Chi sighed: "At present, in the whole country, only Henan Opera does not need subsidies, and can survive by singing on its own." ”

"No one has watched Peking Opera all these years."

"Han Zhou is such a powerful director, if he shoots a Peking Opera movie, even if he doesn't have a box office of hundreds of millions, he has to break 100 million, right? Of course I have to come. ”

Boss Chi felt that this was a good opportunity to promote Peking Opera.

But in fact, the two points he thought were completely wrong.

First of all, "Farewell My Concubine" cannot only have a box office of 100 million.

Because of the previous life, in 94 years, when a Chinese movie ticket cost four yuan a piece, and a rice movie ticket only needed three beautiful knives, the domestic box office of "Farewell My Concubine" was 40 million, and the total global box office exceeded 100 million.

Under normal circumstances, for box office overlords, the number of moviegoers is more reliable than the total number of box office.

According to calculations, if Farewell My Concubine was released in this era, there would be a box office of about 2.8 billion at most.

Of course, whether Han Zhou can make "Farewell My Concubine" successful is another matter.

The second point is that before the filming of "Farewell My Concubine", it was the best era of Peking Opera, and after the filming of Farewell My Concubine, Peking Opera died thoroughly.

Among them, there are factors of the times, as well as factors of the overlord Farewell Concubine itself.

Many people remember such a line in Farewell My Concubine, 'The overlord is kneeling, how can it survive in Peking Opera?' ’

But this sentence can probably be understood as a smear against the creators of Peking Opera.

Because before this, the most popular Peking Opera was a model opera, and the most popular Peking Opera was "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", and the most powerful stage play was "Red Detachment of Women", in that era, mainstream European drama critics and dramatists said that the artistic value of "Red Detachment of Women" was on par with "Swan Lake".

Of course, when relations between China and Europe deteriorated, they flatly denied that they had said such things and took themselves as farts.

In that era, Peking Opera was for ordinary people and for the common people.

It's for the working people.

However, a retro trend was born after "Farewell My Concubine".

As the line says, 'He sang to the reactionaries, and he sang to the landlord Lao Cai.' ’

Originally, the lines were satirical Duan Xiaolou betraying Cheng Dieyi in order to survive.

However, this was precisely the mainstream trend of thought in the theater world of that era.

Lao Tzu used to only sing to dignitaries and nobles, and these mud legs are also worthy of listening?

What level of art appreciation do you have, what level of culture do you have, and you are also worthy of listening to your master's Peking opera?

In the changes of the times, the development of Peking Opera has encountered a huge dilemma, and young people do not like Peking Opera anymore.

Before fighting for life with innovation and retreating to liberation, they chose the latter.

However, Peking Opera is not the focus of Farewell My Concubine.

Farewell My Concubine, replacing "The New White Lady" with "Shiro Looking for Relatives" and "Su Sanqi" is the same thing.

It won't have any impact on the movie itself, the reason why it's still "Farewell My Concubine" is just a little bit of Han Zhou's own feelings.

And the trauma of the times shown in the second half of Farewell My Concubine is just superfluous, and it is not the key to the popularity of "Farewell My Concubine" at all.

When Han Zhou and Han Sisheng walked in, Boss Chi and Chen Hongjun were still chatting.

Seeing Han Sisheng, both of them got up.

"Happy New Year, Fourth Master."

Han Sisheng: "Hahaha, good New Year, Happy New Year, I'm sorry to let you run for the New Year." ”

Han Zhou stepped forward and stretched out his hands: "Hello Teacher Chen, hello Boss Chi." ”

After a short greeting, Han Zhou talked about the work that his film needed two people to do.

The two of them also listened attentively.

Han Zhou has a deep understanding of the movie "Farewell My Concubine".

It is said that 94 was the most glorious year in the history of film in the previous life.

Many of the top 100 classic movies in global film history came from this year.

There are "This Killer Is Not Too Cold", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump", "Vulgar", "East Evil and West Poison", "Sunny Day", "The Lion King", "Night Interview with Vampire", "Strange Heroes in Disguise", "Burning Years" and so on.

However, the absolute king of this year is, "Farewell My Concubine".

This year, "Farewell My Concubine" swept all the top awards.

There is only one exception, and that is the Oscars.

This year, the Oscars have two strange shady scenes, one is that "Forrest Gump" won "The Redemption of Xiao Shengke", and the second black curtain is that in order to let "Forrest Gump" win "The Redemption of Xiao Shengke", the Oscars directly did not choose "Farewell My Concubine" to participate!

That's right, if "Farewell My Concubine" is selected, "The Redemption of Xiao Shengke" or "Forrest Gump" will have no chance.

However, there are two sides to this story.

If Han Zhou is a native of the United States, Han Zhou will also choose "Forrest Gump".

In fact, in the United States, Rotten Tomatoes, the highest-rated movie is the super magical patriotic drama "Top Gun 2", this movie is on Rotten Tomatoes, and 99% of people gave it a score of more than 3.5 points.

"The Shaw Redemption" scored a pitiful 65 percent of people gave it a score of 3.5 or more.

Many people say that there is no patriotic education in the United States, and the people of the United States do not shoot the main theme, and let out the fart, the main theme of the movie in the United States accounts for eighty percent, and the fans of the United States are also good at this.

In other words, it is understandable that "Forrest Gump" can win "The Redemption of Xiao Shengke", after all, it is a rice country.

However, "Forrest Gump" or "The Redemption of Xiao Shengke" can't win "Farewell My Concubine" at all, once "Farewell My Concubine" participates, no matter what kind of selection method is used, they can't win.

After all, at that time, the people of the United States were still in the stage of asking for face, and they had not yet reached this point.

Therefore, they chose the easy way and directly did not let "Farewell My Concubine" run.

After the Oscars, a staff member of the Farewell My Concubine crew asked the insiders of the Oscars why they didn't let "Farewell My Concubine" run.

The reply was, 'We thought you had won all the international awards and A-category film festival awards, and you didn't need an Oscar.' ’

The other party's answer was that his confidence was weak to the limit, and he did not hesitate to use the subtext 'The Oscars are far inferior to the Golden Globe and Cannes' to explain why "Farewell My Concubine" did not run for the Oscars.

Of course, on a certain movie website where a well-known foreign movie adds one point and domestic movies subtract one point, the Chinese movie "Farewell My Concubine" ranks second in the history of the rating list, in fact, the conclusion can be seen.

In fact, with a little analysis, you can know the difference in the confidence of the three films in winning awards.

"Forrest Gump" is a fictional period of history, and some real historical events are added to Forrest Gump alone, to show the partisan thinking of the conservatives in the United States, "God loves honest people".

"The Redemption of Xiao Shengke" tells the story of how a person uses his ingenuity to escape and complete self-redemption after being wronged.

"Farewell My Concubine" tells the story of four different eras, from feudalism, to capital, to Xinhuaguo, and then to modern Xinhuaguo, which tells the story of a kind of art in the changes of the times, and about a person's magnificent and miserable life in this change.

From the perspective of the movies themselves, the three movies all tell their themes very well, and it can almost be said that they are 100% presented.

However, in the case of the same 100% presentation of the theme, the theme itself is high and low for the film awards.

It's like a chef making a plate of fried potatoes and another chef making a Buddha jumping over the wall.

Both of them are top chefs, but no matter how expensive your fried potatoes are, there is a cap of 100 yuan, and the Buddha jumps over the wall, and the materials cost more than 10,000 yuan.

The shredded potatoes are fried to the limit, which is only the limit at low difficulty, and the limit of Buddha jumping over the wall represents the limit of culinary art.

In terms of the performance of dramatic tension, the two movie themes are destined to be not at the same level at all.

In addition to this, Farewell My Concubine is very different from the other two movies.

First of all, the theme of Forrest Gump is a mainstream theme in the United States, and countless people have filmed it.

And, the story of "The Redemption of Shaw Shengke" is not an original story, in 60 years, the great director Baker filmed a movie called "The Cave", the plot and "The Redemption of Shaw Shengke" cannot be said to be exactly the same, it can only be said that "The Redemption of Shaw Catch" paid tribute to this movie on a large scale.

And "Escape from Yakara" in 79 is even more ...... If the movie is a building, it is basically "Escape from Yakara" with a different occupant in the same building, and some pots and pans have been moved.

If this is left in Huaguo, it was filmed by a Chinese director, and if you don't spray you for 20 years of plagiarizing dogs, count your dog's life, and you still want to win the award?

And the theme of "Farewell My Concubine" is the first in the history of film.

From the perspective of the theme of the movie and the groundbreaking nature of the movie, "Farewell My Concubine" is the king of 94, and it is "The Lion King" that can barely compete with "Farewell My Concubine".

Therefore, Han Zhou is now going to come up with "Farewell My Concubine".

Although for this era when movies are gradually becoming boring, "Farewell My Concubine" won international awards, which belongs to the cannonballing bacteria.

But there is no way, the current people of the United States are more shameless than the people of the United States back then, and the Europeans of today are even more shameless than the Europeans of the past.

It's not absolutely crushing, and you are a pipe dream to win a prize.

As long as you shoot it, you can win the prize.

Now the only question is...... Did you shoot it?

Boss Chi gave his own advice: "I heard that the role of Duan Xiaolou is played by Wu Li, you personally play Cheng Dieyi, and Ju Xian is played by Zhao Ziyu?" ”

Han Zhou nodded.

Boss Chi: "My suggestion is that Duan Xiaolou's singing part should be performed by professional theater actors. ”

"Also, your Peking Opera part ......"

Han Zhou: "Boss Chi, you may not know, I wasn't sure when to shoot "Farewell My Concubine" before, but I have already told Wu Li about this matter. ”

"Wu Li has turned off all his work, and he has been practicing singing all year long."

"As for me, I have no problem singing."

Boss Chi thought deeply: "A movie is a movie after all, if Wu Li studied singing for a year for this role, then ...... It's really better than being a theatrical actor, okay. ”

The four of them talked for a long, long time about this movie.

After today, Han Zhou has no time to talk carefully about his understanding of the movie with the main creative team.

This chat is from morning to night.

At nine o'clock, Boss Chi was dazzled, and he shouted that he couldn't do it, so everyone broke up.

After they dispersed, Han Zhou hurried to a movie theater in the East Third Ring Road.

By the time someone found someone to get the ticket in, "Nezha: The Demon Boy Descends to the World" had already been broadcast for half an hour.

Han Zhou found his seat and sat down.

An Lancai next to him grabbed Han Zhou's hand: "I'm so busy this year." ”

On the first day of the Lunar New Year the year before last, I was in a daze in Houhai, and I was in a daze at Qianmen last year.

This year, it's been a busy day's work.

Han Zhou pinched An Lan's palm: "It's okay, it's normal to be busy." ”

Han Zhou didn't want to wait for the middle of the night to come to An Lan.

However, he was about to go to the Yanjing garrison for military training, and Han Zhou really couldn't find time.

An Lan: "Are you okay?" ”

Through the light of the movie screen, Han Zhou saw An Lan tilting her head to look at herself.

Han Zhou: "I'm fine, what's wrong?" ”

An Lan hesitated: "I read your new movie script...... It's a ...... gay？ ”

Han Zhou: "Cheng Dieyi is not gay, it is a gender recognition disorder. ”

This point, the lines show clearly, the sentence "The little nun is twenty-eight years old, and her hair was cut off by the master in her youth, I am a female Jiao'e, not a man......"

At this time, the young Cheng Dieyi said every time, 'I am a man, not a woman.'" ’

Because of this sentence, I have been beaten I don't know how many times.

In the end, Cheng Dieyi's heart thinks that she is a woman, not a man.

An Lan and Han Zhou whispered, and many fans looked back unsatisfied.

An Lan didn't expect that on the first day of the Lunar New Year, at ten o'clock, "Nezha's Demon Boy Descends to the World" would still be full, and finally simply pulled Han Zhou away.

In fact, early spring is still a winter night on the streets of Yanjing.

The two men walked aimlessly.

An Lan suddenly said thoughtlessly: "Actually, I am like Cheng Dieyi, and you are not like Cheng Dieyi." ”

Han Zhou was happy: "It's just acting, if I really want to be like Cheng Dieyi, I will definitely not act Cheng Dieyi." ”

An Lan: "I'm afraid this movie will be very ...... I remember a paragraph that I thought could be changed. ”

Han Zhou looked back suspiciously: "Which sentence?" ”

An Lan: "You wrote a paragraph, our army entered the city to listen to the play, Cheng Dieyi was dissatisfied with them, thinking that they were not worthy of listening to the play, so they were not ready, resulting in a broken sound on the stage. ”

"I think it can be changed to, it's just an accidental sound."

Han Zhou shook his head: "It's not logical. ”

In fact, the previous life's version of "Farewell My Concubine" is exactly the version that An Lan wants to change.

And Han Zhou chose the version in the original book.

Why change?

Because this paragraph is not logical.

Our army entered the city, never disturbing the common people, and in just one night, the fame spread all over the city.

Cheng Dieyi will never be afraid to cause a sound breaking mistake, which is the biggest loophole and bug in "Farewell My Concubine" in the previous life.

In addition, this movie is not to show a good person, and Cheng Dieyi is not a person who understands the righteousness of the nation.

At the beginning, Cheng Dieyi went to sing for the Sakura Army in order to save Duan Xiaolou, and when he came out, he said, "There is a man named Qingshan, he knows how to play...... Duan Xiaolou still showed no mercy and 'tui' him, thinking that even if he died, he should not sing for the Sakura Army.

That paragraph fully shows that Cheng Dieyi only loves Duan Xiaolou and doesn't understand what national righteousness is.

The latter paragraph is purely to show the high quality of our army, and did not turn his face to the actors because of broken sounds like the previous warlords, the Sakura Army, and the great lords of the feudal era, but sang a song to the two characters together.

The movie version of "Farewell My Concubine" is honest, in order to win the award, it is desperate, and there are traces of changing the hard and black of the bridge.

And for Han Zhou, this is not a shameful thing.

Han Zhou is confident that as long as it is filmed, he will definitely win the award, and he doesn't need to play with these things.

Moreover, even if he has to play these things in order to win the award, Han Zhou disdains this award.

Therefore, in Han Zhou's processing, many parts used the original version.

Han Zhou was like this, on the street of Yanjing, telling An Lan what kind of person Cheng Dieyi was.

The difference between the two treatments is huge.

In the original work, Cheng Dieyi just looked down on our army, and was later reported and criticized, so there was no such thing as wronging.

In the movie version, Cheng Dieyi looks very wronged.

Han Zhou believes that it is true that those things that engage in criticism and fighting are not good things, but there is no need to write Cheng Dieyi as a good person to compare those who engage in criticism and fighting.

This kind of diode thinking is generally a well-known thinking.

In Han Zhou's version, there are no saints in "Farewell My Concubine", there are no absolutely good people, and the love and hatred shown are more complex and closer to real life.

Art comes from life and is higher than life?

Fart, art does come from life, but it can never be higher than life, because art is just a small thing in life.

In the original version of "Farewell My Concubine", Duan Xiaolou is like a star now, he is a fake overlord, but he still understands the national righteousness, but he is afraid of death.

Juxian is the real overlord.

Cheng Dieyi is the real Yu Ji.

However, Zhen Yu Ji is not a drama role, and Zhen Yu Ji is also a person, so just this change has cut Cheng Dieyi's fairy spirit by three points, but the overall authenticity of the movie can be doubled.

Han Zhou thinks that it is very cost-effective to change it like this.

……

Late at night, Han Zhou sent An Lan home and left under Liu Jianxi's eyes.

After leaving, Han Zhou returned to the new world.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Yang Hong was busier than Han Zhou.

Previously, Han Zhou spent one billion yuan to buy a building in Yanjing, basically smashing half of New World's profits last year.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone in the film industry is paying attention to the Spring Festival stalls.

But no one paid attention to the fact that New World, silently, moved its headquarters to Yanjing.

The new building is still buzzing with people at this time.

For this industry, there is no such thing as the New Year, only the Spring Festival.

When Han Zhou returned to the company, the employees on the scene basically shut up and didn't speak, and they all stared at Han Zhou.

That's because, the good news needs to be told by people with status.

Yang Hong pushed Liu Tiantan.

Liu Tiantan stepped forward and handed over a piece of paper.

Han Zhou glanced at it.

"Nezha's Demon Boy Descends to the World", the box office on the first day of the new year was 348 million.

Rival? Where did the opponent come from? It doesn't matter anymore.

Han Zhou turned on his mobile phone and flipped to the top of the hot search at this moment.

#"Nezha" breaks the record! #

Click in to take a look, it was posted by the central notice network: ""Nezha: The Demon Boy Descends to the World" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, winning 348 million box office on the first day, breaking the box office record in the history of Chinese animation films in China, and only one step away from becoming the top of the historical box office list of animation films in the Chinese market! ”

A diagram is listed below.

Before "Nezha: The Demon Boy Descends to the World", the highest-grossing Chinese animated animation film was "Northern Capital Fairy", with a box office of 190 million.

"Nezha's Demon Boy Descends to the World" broke this record in just one day.

In the Chinese film market, the highest-grossing animation film is "Story-Forest", which was introduced to Hollywood, with a box office of 353 million.

Under this Weibo, netizens were stupid.

"Huh? Breaking the Chinese language history in a single day? It's so close to breaking the record of the introduction film? Almost broke the all-box office record of all animated films and anime movies in history in one day? ”

", why haven't you heard of this movie, is it so popular?"

"This is a fan of "The Flood" movie, and today it is all players who go to see it."

"If you don't know upstairs, don't talk nonsense, "Nezha" is not a fan-oriented movie, it is a family movie."

"Damn, let me tell you, when Nezha transformed, he looked !! handsome"

"One thing to say, the special effects are no different from Hollywood movies, and the storytelling is still above Hollywood cartoons, which is a bit strange, we actually have this level of anime movies?"

"The rise of Guoman, the light of Guoman!"

That's right, "Nezha: The Demon Boy Descends to the World" is one record short, and it almost broke all the box office records of anime movies in history on the first day.

But you are not stupid, until early tomorrow morning, the record will be broken.

Han Zhou fell into deep thought.

Han Zhou thought at the beginning that without the foundation of "The Return of the Great Sage", "Nezha" might not reach the level of the previous life.

But at present, his own publicity seems to be more important than the foundation of "The Return of the Great Sage".

If "Nezha" reached the box office level of its previous life, it wouldn't be ...... Will it become the top box office list in the history of Chinese films?

The top of the all-time list is an animated film? It's unreal.

You can't ...... "Nezha" has become this world's version of "Wolf Warrior 2", right?!

But if you think about it carefully, this seems to be a little better than "Wolf Warrior 2", at least when they spend money to buy the Navy Black, they can't be black in real people, black anime, how can it be black?

Black Nezha's Chaotian Aya is red and not blue?

Or is Black Nezha's Qiankun circle like a U-shaped lock?

Doesn't that seem like a bad idea?

When Han Zhou was thinking, none of the senior executives of film distribution companies in various film companies across the country could sleep.

How...... Anime actually has this kind of explosive power?

This is not scientific!

How can anime be more appealing than a real person? This is the only country in the world where the cherry blossoms are located, right?

What's going on?

Han Zhou probably wanted to figure out what was going on, and Han Sisheng also knew that at this time, some of the senior executives of the film company had already thought of it.

In the past year, the film market has actually exploded, but so far, no movie has been able to drain the box office and consume the enthusiasm of passers-by and fans.

Therefore, during the Chinese New Year, the box office market pool was too large, and a monstrous flood broke out at this time.

And "Nezha" caught up with this benefit.

The rise of anything made in China is a very important thing for this country and can attract a lot of support.

Many people say that "Wolf Warrior 2" is good luck.

Actually, it's not true.

What year and month is the United States and Europe not in the Black Country?

At what time is everyone's patriotic enthusiasm not excited?

In fact, any time "Wolf Warrior 2" appears, it will inevitably be popular, because he is the first real 3D commercial blockbuster in China.

And "Nezha" has become the world's first 3D commercial blockbuster in China.

Even if it's an anime, it's going to explode!

It's just equal to the two outbreak opportunities for the rise of Guoman and the rise of domestic commercial blockbusters in the previous life, in this world, the order has fallen one by one.

In the second year of junior high school, Han Zhou stayed in the company for half a day, and went to find Wang Xiya in the afternoon.

Every year for the Chinese New Year, I play alone with An Lan, and this year Wang Xiya's Tianle finally has no movies in the Spring Festival file, and she happens to be free.

As for Han Zhou, after the results were calculated, he didn't care much about the box office.

The two went to Ocean Park for a day together, and although Han Zhou wore a hat, sunglasses and mask throughout the whole process, Wang Xiya was still very happy.

In the evening, a news that blew up the entertainment industry came out again.

"Nezha's Demon Boy Descends to the World" had a box office of 400 million on the second day of the Lunar New Year, becoming the first movie in the history of the country to break 400 million at the box office in a single day!

Last year, "Kung Fu" was less than 200 million in a single day!

This year, "Nezha" lasted for two days, 750 million!

The next day it was still skyrocketing, because those game fans were afraid that the movie was fooling.

As a result, the people around me who were playing games were discussing the beauty of the movie, so they rushed out.

Next, it is to attract passers-by and fans, and this Spring Festival stall has actually been eaten up.

It's just that the daily box office will not be counted until a day has passed.

Everyone knows that there are no other movies in this Spring Festival file, and other movies are all made up!

"This box office ...... Terror! ”

"Is this serious, the box office is so terrifying?"

"This box office ...... It even topped the global single-day box office charts, three times more than the second Duotemo! ”

Players in North America are in a hurry.

Damn, "Nezha" has won the top spot at the global box office, and you won't show it to us!!

Because of the mass protests from players, Twitter, and sound waves, many non-gamers have noticed one thing.

A Chinese movie won the top spot at the single-day box office, with a single-day box office of nearly 70 million US dollars.

Are Chinese movies so awesome?

Even if no one goes to publicize it, soon everyone knows the news that the screenwriter of "Nezha" is Han Zhou.

The three guns were really miserable, and they finally raised their eyebrows, and their reputation was robbed to Han Zhou.

However, in China, Liu Tiantan became famous overnight.

Countless reporters ran to interview him.

A lot of stories, inspirational stories, and past histories, have been dug up.

Liu Tiantan's raunchy appearance has occupied the news page of China in the past few days.

And Han Zhou is also happy to be relaxed and undisturbed.

Alone and silently came to the Yanjing garrison.

Under the red flag, Han Zhou took an oath, and then joined the training system of the reconnaissance company of the Yanjing garrison with special procedures.

In the past six months, Han Zhou has to train in the military camp from Monday to Friday, and he is an iron-blooded real man, exposed to the sun every day.

On the weekend, I had to leave the barracks and go to the set to play Cheng Dieyi or Yu Ji.

This feeling is a bit subtle.

————

Ask for a commuter pass!

Everyone can also see that the early stage is completely over, and the book has entered the middle stage, and I hope that the later writing will be smoother.

(End of chapter)