In the box, waiters rushed in and brought some special Hong Kong-style refreshments and two pots of hot tea.

Wu Yuan and Zhang Guorong were not in a hurry to get to the point, but first talked about the film industry on Hong Kong Island and the mainland, and talked about some classic movies.

While chatting, the two were also looking at and testing each other.

In Wu Yuan's eyes, Zhang Guorong is a real person, who is definitely as gentle as jade, gentle and elegant, with the style of a gentleman, and he is very cheerful and talkative, and he is also witty and humorous.

If it weren't for the memory in his dream, he really couldn't believe that such an enthusiastic and cheerful person would leave this world because of depression in the end.

In fact, Wu Yuan also hesitated, he was afraid that he would not be able to change Zhang Guorong's future, but because of his intervention, his condition would worsen, which would make Wu Yuan's heart full of guilt.

So he actually persuaded himself in his heart.

If Zhang Guorong did not agree to this meeting and was unwilling to see him, then he may not need to rush to intervene in Zhang Guorong's life.

However, the fact is that as soon as Zhang Guorong heard that Wu Yuan wanted to meet him, he happily agreed.

Then Wu Yuan has nothing to hesitate, he can only say that the two are destined to have this fate.

"Zhang Sheng, I asked you to meet this time, because I have a script that I want you to star." Wu Yuan smiled and handed out a script from the satchel he was carrying.

Zhang Guorong had already guessed Wu Yuan's intention to meet him, and since he agreed to meet, he must be willing to read the script.

After the contact just now, Zhang Guorong also had a good impression of Wu Yuan.

became famous as a teenager, and his first film broke 10 million at the mainland box office, won the award of the B-class film festival, and was invited by Hollywood to direct the movie.

Replace it with other people, don't say that your eyes are above the top, don't put other people in your eyes, but you will definitely have complacent, self-inflated emotions.

But Wu Yuan is not, although he also has a high-spirited temperament, but he is still neither humble nor arrogant in dealing with people, and he is also very humble in his speech, and he does not feel that he has done anything great, he is very down-to-earth and calm.

took the script from Wu Yuan's hand, and Zhang Guorong read it on the spot.

"Undertaker?"

Yes, the script that Wu Yuan came up with this time was "The Undertaker", which killed RB's film industry that year and was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

The original movie was based on RB writer Shinmon Aoki's novel "The Diary of a Coffin Husband".

The movie is very well made, it is a typical Japanese healing style movie, and "death" is used throughout to explore the importance of "life", which is very literary.

However, Wu Yuan still had no idea of copying it.

Not to mention the large number of Japanese cultural backgrounds and plots in "The Undertaker", let's just say one thing, is there no mortician industry in Huaxia?

Since the release of this movie, I don't know why, there have been rumors on the Chinese Internet that this is an RB career.

Even searched for "mortuary", and the regular encyclopedia actually said that this is a profession that mainly appears in RB and later enters China!

What are you kidding?

"Burial" has existed since ancient times!

Similar to the industry of the mortuary as early as the ancient Chinese "Book of Three Rites" "Rites and Funerals", "Rites" and "Zhou Li" have been recorded, and as a very important part of the murder ceremony.

This profession in China can be traced back to the Xia and Shang periods.

For example, in the "Book of Rites: Asking for Funeral", "three days of death and then burial", people do not enter the funeral immediately after death, mainly to wait for the resurrection of the dead.

If they do not come back to life, a funeral ceremony is held to clean the deceased's body, cut his hair, and cut his nails, indicating cleanliness.

To this day, this ritual has not been broken.

For example, the "Mr. Yin and Yang" in the Northeast, the "material man" (a person who specializes in handling funerals and funerals for others) in the folk countryside, the barman (a worker who carries the coffin), and the "second leatherman" who sews the corpse.

In the beginning, this kind of thing was usually done by the relatives and friends of the deceased's children.

However, with the development of the ritual system becoming more and more complete, filial sons and grandsons no longer personally change clothes and wash the body of the deceased because of other things, so they need some special people to help.

So there is a professional mortuary.

At least in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was already common for the undertaker to change the life clothes of the deceased, take care of the appearance and appearance, and send it to the coffin.

Until now, most funeral homes have a team of professional undertakers to contour the deceased before cremation.

Why did Wu Yuan copy the Japanese version of "The Undertaker"?

The script he came up with is a combination of the core story line of the Japanese version of "The Undertaker", that is, "from the perspective of a novice undertaker, to observe all kinds of death, and gaze at the loving people around the deceased." and then integrate the Chinese background and the story of specific funeral culture.

After a while, Zhang Guorong, who had been reading the script silently, raised his head and clapped his hands with some excitement on his face: "Good script!" ”

"In Eastern culture, because death and life are opposite, the topic of funeral is actually a taboo, and death is more dark and negative."

"It's rare for a director to focus on this subject."

Zhang Guorong shook his head and sighed: "But we just need a movie that tells the concept of life and death under oriental culture." ”

"Death-related behavior in the Western world often involves religion, but we in the East are different."

"The attitude of the Oriental towards death is not relaxed, relieved, and it is not to go to some beautiful paradise."

"For the living, death represents a deliberate remembrance and is heavy, while for the deceased, death is another new life, the beginning of a new cycle."

"And the concept of rebirth, reincarnation, is not found in Western religions."

"Christ does not speak of new birth, nor of the afterlife, but of salvation, waiting for the so-called Last Judgment."

"Westerners believe that death is to throw into the arms of God, to enter heaven and enjoy a happy life, to be a kind of salvation, to God what is God, and to Caesar what is Caesar's."

"So at the funeral of Westerners, you can even see family members chatting about the story of the deceased in a relaxed manner, and there is no lack of humorous ridicule and ridicule."

"This is impossible to see at funerals under Eastern Confucian culture, this kind of behavior is disrespectful to the deceased, but also disrespectful to death."

"Because in the Confucian concept, death is the continuation of life, the beginning of another new life."

"Confucianism pays attention to the pursuit of the end prudently, that is, to handle the funeral of relatives prudently and worship the sages sincerely."

"Death in the Eastern concept means that although the body dies, the soul will never die, and the dead are using another identity to bless the living relatives."

"Therefore, we should treat the dead with the same importance and respect as when we were alive, and we should always pay tribute and worship."

"It's called the death of the great."

The script expounds this unique view of life and death in Eastern culture very well! A lot of the plot is very moving! ”

Zhang Guorong summed it up very well, and Wu Yuan nodded in surprise.

is worthy of being a talented actor, and his ability to review scripts is indeed extremely high.

The movie "The Undertaker" is actually a story that uses the perspective of "the undertaker" to tell the story of the Oriental concept of life and death, as well as the funeral culture.

The story itself is easy to understand, with jokes and sensationalism, with the help of the stories of the deceased one by one, showing the family affection in different family relationships.

The core of the story seems to be talking about different deaths throughout, but in fact, it is a reminder to the living that they can live better if they are not afraid of death.

This is also the most important part of the Confucian concept of treating death, that is: the dead are like this, and the living are gone.

Death is not terrible, everyone will eventually die, and the living only need to have respect for death and enjoy the process of living.

In fact, Wu Yuan's version of the script, except for changing the story background and funeral form to pure Chinese, is almost the same as the original film of "The Undertaker" in other places.

Then this became a very authentic movie full of Chinese cultural charm.

That's the sad part!

The core of the story of the original "The Undertaker" is all Confucian connotation culture, which is part of the classical Chinese culture, but after countless Chinese people have seen it, they feel that it is novel and respectable.

This is called "Overseas can talk about ancient things, and seek the wilderness when they are polite." ”

Huaxia's own cultural concepts, on the contrary, should be understood and learned from foreign films...

And after finishing learning, I have to praise others for being amazing...

It's part of our own culture...

The concept of life and death under the oriental culture, we Chinese people can also shoot it ourselves!

Therefore, Wu Yuan wants to shoot this "The Undertaker" by himself, so as not to let the small day be beautiful!

Of course, the more important reason is that if this movie wants to be played well, the actor must integrate into the profession of "mortuary" to experience life seriously.

If Zhang Guorong wants to shoot, he must stop all the work at hand and go to some funeral homes in the mainland to experience this job in depth as an intern mortuary, at least for two months!

To say that it is to experience life is actually to reduce the burden on him, take him out of his busy work, and have a respite from it.

In the subsequent filming, Wu Yuan will definitely not let him play, he has to stay in the crew honestly.

In this way, half a year before and after can be regarded as a vacation for Zhang Guorong to recuperate.

Yes, for Zhang Guorong, the work of only one movie shooting in half a year is already a holiday.

Provided that he is willing to make such a sacrifice.

"Zhang Sheng, this script is good, isn't it?" Wu Yuan looked at Zhang Guorong with a smile, and said slowly: "This actor is for you." ”

"But if you want to act in this movie well, you must give me the next six months."

"You are not allowed to go to concerts, you are not allowed to release new albums, and you are not allowed to receive other movie announcements, you only need to do one thing for the whole half a year, and shoot this "The Undertaker" well."

"The promise I can give you is that if you follow the group seriously for half a year, I believe that the finished film we make will be able to bring you a Cannes actor."

"You have reached the pinnacle in the music industry, and you have won all the awards you can get."

"And in the film industry, you still lack a heavyweight enough trophy for Best Actor."

"I heard that you want to be a director, and you don't want to do front-of-camera work so often."

"Before that, I thought that using a Cannes Best Actor trophy as the curtain call of an actor's career was the perfect farewell ceremony."

"What do you think?"