CH 120 During Filming

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“Ahhhhhhhhh——”

In the dark torture prison, the underground party member who was tortured to extract a confession had completely turned into a blood-soaked scarecrow.

The barbed leather whip was dipped in salt water, and slapped at the flesh rhythmically.
When the shadow of the whip flew, one could even see the splattering of blood drops.

 

Bind the person’s legs to a bench and stuff bricks under their feet.
As the bricks were piled up, the bound knees were subjected to pressure and force, and eventually couldn’t hold up anymore and break directly.
But because there was no external injury, there would be no fatal crisis such as infection.

“…..But these legs are as good as crippled.” The Japanese military officer shook his head regretfully.
Looking down condescendingly at Su Dingbang who was so frightened that he went limp and collapsed on the ground.

“Su-san!” The Japanese military officer leaned down slightly and looked at the person in front of him with pity, one who had used to be a handsome and noble young master, but now was like a pool of mud paralyzed at his feet.

He had said before, the violent business of war and fighting, killing and bloodshed were not suitable for these rich children who only knew how to enjoy luxury and have never suffered.

The Japanese military officer leisurely picked up Su Dingbang’s hand, the originally slender and fair palm was covered in sweat and some dirty bloodstains: “I heard that Su-san likes to play the piano.
We have a punishment here, which is to fiercely insert sharpened bamboo sticks under the nails.
I wonder if these hands will be able to play the piano then?”

The hand caught by the Japanese military officer shook suddenly and clenched tightly into a fist.
As if hiding the fingers in the palm of the hand could avoid those terrible things.

A look of contempt flashed in the Japanese military officer’s eyes, oh, weak and cowardly Chinese!

He stood up and walked in front of the underground party member in an unhurried manner: “This gentleman, I admire your will.
Our great empire of Japan appreciates a talent like you.
As long as you agree to surrender.
I swear, you will enjoy the best medical treatment immediately.
Prosperity and wealth, or high official status, they are all within easy reach.”

“But if you continue to remain stubborn, then we will be subjected to electrocution next.” The Japanese military officer glanced at the bloody underground party member: “In your current state, if you sit in the electric chair, I’m afraid it will be difficult for you to survive.
However, before you die, you will endure the most unbearable pain in the world.”

The pain would be so painful that every time he took a breath, the underground party member would convulse involuntarily.
He knew that he couldn’t hold on anymore, and he would definitely not be able to survive the electrocution.
His eyes were dulled, and he moved them slightly to look at Su Dingbang, who had been paralyzed on the side even before he was tortured.

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This one would definitely defect.

The underground party member’s lips twitched.

“What?” The Japanese military officer moved closer to the underground party member.

“I surrender…..” A faint voice sounded.

There was a hint of disappointment in the Japanese military officer’s eyes.
He had wondered just how hard the bones of this Chinese man could be.
Turned out to be nothing more than that.

He stood up straight, took the towel his subordinate handed him to wipe his hands, and asked casually, “Name?”

The underground party member did not answer.
He was just twitching all over, crying and sobbing, and his lower lip kept trembling.
But there was no sound.

He was just too ashamed of his own betrayal.

The Japanese military officer didn’t speak, but waited patiently for the underground party member to calm down and asked again, “Name.”

“…..I…..need…..treatment.” The underground party member swallowed hard, barely breathing.

When the Japanese military officer saw this, he was also afraid that the underground party member would not be able to survive.
So he had to order his subordinates to take him to treatment, anyway, it was not like he could escape.

The freed underground party member allowed the Japanese to support him out of the torture room.
When passing by the Japanese military officer, everyone was wary that he would suddenly attack, but the underground party member only obediently allowed himself to be taken away.
Everyone subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, and it seemed that he was really going to defect.

No one would have thought that when the Japanese was passing by Su Dingbang while carrying the underground party member, the underground party member who had been obedient the whole time suddenly erupted into an attack.
After breaking free, he directly threw himself on Su Dingbang’s body, clasping Su Dingbang’s neck with both hands.

“Pull him off!”

However, the strength of the underground party member was too great, and his obsession much deeper.
He actually wanted to kill the Japanese more, but he couldn’t let Su Dingbang live.
This person’s temperament was too weak, he would definitely betray them.
At that time the organization would be at risk.

“Useless trash!” Seeing the group of people kicking and punching, yet still couldn’t pull away the underground party member from Su Dingbang, and Su Dingbang being suffocated to the point of rolling his eyes into the back of his head.
The Japanese military officer raised his gun angrily and fired two shots at the underground party member.

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The underground party member lying on Su Dingbang’s body froze, and his hands slipped away.
Before dying, he looked at Su Dingbang with regret in his eyes, his lips twitchinh.
It was a silent apology.

He knew that Su Dingbang was innocent.
But when the nation was in danger, he couldn’t allow the survival of an innocent person that would lead to the risk of the organization being exposed.

But he was powerless.

Su Dingbang, who finally escaped death, scrambled to put distance between himself and the underground party member, clutching his throat and coughing violently, sweat and tears streaming down his face.
He looked at his comrade-in-arms with horror.

The Japanese military officer put down his gun with special regret: “What an admirable enemy.
Send the body to the mass grave to feed the dogs.”

The Japanese military officer took out his handkerchief and wiped his right hand.
He walked in front of Su Dingbang with a polite but hideous smile: “Now, it’s your turn.”

“Cut!” The camera fixed on the tense and sinister smile of the Japanese military officer.
Zhou Hong shouted ‘cut’ with satisfaction, and the dead underground party member jumped up first, rubbing his hands and legs and putting on his military coat.
He couldn’t help it, it was too cold.
The ground was cold and damp, and his old bones couldn’t take it.

His arthritic legs had made themselves noticed.
So just now he was really feeling pain.
All the sweat was real.

Makeup artists and assistants hurriedly entered the set to touch up makeup and send over hot water bottles.
Gou Rixin helped Tao Mu get up and put on a military coat for him.
But he saw Tao Mu thoughtfully walking to the monitor, watching the playback over and over again.

His expression was not very good.

Even if he had won a best actor award, he could only say that his acting skills were just above the standard.
If he were to really talk about impressive acting skills, he might not be able to outperform veteran actors who perform all year round and could often create classic characters.
They could even be included in Beijing Film textbooks, but they were just too lazy to publicize all kinds of awards.

Tao Mu’s current situation was similar.
His acting skills were indeed above the standard, but that was about it.
Even Wen Bao, who was talented and just entered the freshman year, could overwhelm him when he was in his best form, not to mention the veteran actors who have integrated their acting skills down into their bone marrows long ago.

And the most criticized thing about Tao Mu’s acting was that he was too poised.
As the saying went, it was too deliberate and too forceful.
If this kind of acting was up against an average actor or script, then it was more than enough.
But if he came across a cast like “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, which had a rating of 1.0 even ten years later, and was known as the most classic Anti-Japanese War drama, a legendary drama that was a milestone in the Anti-Japanese War drama genre, then it was definitely not enough at all.

What was more, the addition of Tao Mu allowed the crew to no longer have the pressure on filming funds.
Since there was no worries, some incompetent actors who have been put in by the investors have all been fired.
The ones who remained were basically veteran actors who were in the habit of perfecting their skills even when it was already outstanding.

Under such circumstances, Tao Mu’s deliberate acting was like a public execution under a magnifying glass.
It was horrible when compared to the acting of the veteran actors.
Simply just coming across as awkward and unnatural.
Handsome in a very greasy way.

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Tao Mu squatted by the monitor and watched the playback repeatedly, Zhou Hong sat next to him with legs crossed, and asked with a smile, “Another take?”

Tao Mu pondered for a moment, then said, “Wait for me for a while.”

Then, Tao Mu walked out of the studio quietly.
Zhou Hong thought that Tao Mu just wanted to go to the restroom and didn’t care.

Only Gou Rixin followed.
Seeing that Tao Mu was going further and further, actually running to a place where no one was around, took off his military coat, and only stood in the shirt and trousers from the filming out in the winter cold.

“Tao Mu!” Gou Rixin ran over with disapproval and was about to put the coat back on Tao Mu.

“Shh!” Tao Mu motioned to Gou Rixin not to alert others: “Go get me a bottle of mineral water that’s cold.”

“You’re going to die!” Gou Rixin frowned fiercely.

“I’m young and full of energy, I won’t die.” Tao Mu urged Gou Rixin to get a bottle of mineral water and then poured it on his head.
When the northwest wind blew by, even his brains hurt from the freezing cold.
Tao Mu stood outside for more than half an hour before walking back to the studio with a pale face and trembling limbs.

If the acting skills were not enough, then the physical state must be up to par.
To a certain extent, Tao Mu was inspired by Teacher Chen Jianguo, who played the underground party member.

When Tao Mu came in from the outside wrapped in a cold air, the entire studio fell silent.
Basically, anyone with eyes could see what Tao Mu wanted to do.

Ruthless!

Several veteran actors looked at each other in dismay but said nothing.
The lights and cameras also quickly took their places, and Zhou Hong directly signaled to start shooting.

The same plot, the same scene, this time Tao Mu’s state was perfect, and he was no longer fading into the background.

He looked at the underground party member who had been tortured to the point of being washed in blood.
He was so frightened that he didn’t even dare to look, but he still trembled when he heard the screams of his comrade.
His face was ashen, which was due to the fear that began to tremble from the bottom of his heart.

When threatened by the Japanese military officer who had a grip on his right hand, he tried his best to retract it, so harshly he tugged that he almost broke away from the Japanese military officer’s restraint.
The blue veins of the right hand that had clenched into a fist popped visibly, and even if just from the frequency of the constant shaking, one could see the fear in this person.

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The scene of being strangled by the underground party member was even more classic.
Teacher Chen Jianguo used his hands to squeeze Su Dingbang’s neck tightly.
Tao Mu held Teacher Chen Jianguo’s hand with both hands, and seemed to be trying to pull them off hard, but in fact, he was secretly pressing his thumb to a position on his throat, and he really rolled his eyes from real suffocation.
Frightening Teacher Chen Jianguo into trying to use his little finger as a padding.
As the two struggled and interacted, one was sweating from anxiety while the other was suffocated blue, both adding to that kind of tension-inducing tug o’ war between life and death.

Finally, after the underground party member was shot and killed, Su Dingbang clutched his neck and crawled out from under the underground party member’s corpse, covering his neck with his hands, kneeling on the ground and coughing violently, and because the indoor temperature on the set was much higher than that outside, and there was an electric hot air conditioner in a place that the camera couldn’t see to keep everyone warm.
Tao Mu actually wanted to sneeze under the alternation of hot and cold temperatures.
But he couldn’t.
So he opened his mouth wide and sniffed fiercely, his eyes were crimson red, the white of eyes bloodshot, tears were rushing out from the corners of his eyes, and even snot was about to come out.
He was gasping for breath, trembling uncontrollably all over his body, staring straight at the dead underground party member, retching and speechless.

Zhou Hong really didn’t expect Tao Mu to go out on for awhile, then come back and be able to perform in such a way, as if he had broken the bottleneck in cultivation and was reborn into Nirvana.
He could barely hold back his shout of amazement during the filming, taking close-up after close-up, from the close-up of the face to the close-up of the hands, to the close-up of the whole body, and even the curled up heels when hunched over added to the overall explosive feeling of the scene.

Simply wow!

It was as refreshing as drinking a glass of cold beer on a high summer day at noon and as comfortable as eating hotpot on a deep winter night.

When Zhou Hong slapped his thigh and shouted ‘cut’, the entire crew couldn’t help applauding.
Tao Mu finally couldn’t hold it in and sneezed seven or eight times in succession.
Gou Rixin rushed into the studio holding tissues and a military coat.
When Tao Mu blew his nose, he was still shivering from the cold in his bones, and the hand holding the tissues really looked like he had Parkinson’s disease.

He still couldn’t help coughing either.

Teacher Shao Ming, who played the role of the Japanese military officer, quickly came over with his own thermos cup filled with a large helping of indigo woad root, and had Tao Mu take some sips.

“You must have caught a cold.” Teacher Shao Ming reached out and touched Tao Mu’s forehead, it was cold and sweaty.

“It’s alright.” Tao Mu blew his nose without any care for his image, and said with a stuffed nose: “I’ll go back and drink a cup of liquid medicine, I’ll sweat it out with the blanket, and I’ll be fine tomorrow morning.”

But the result was that Tao Mu was not well at all the next morning.
Due to a fever of 39.3 degrees celsius, Zhou Hong wanted to give Tao Mu a day off for him to rest.
But it was Tao Mu who disagreed.

Insisting that he was in a very good condition now, especially suitable for the scene of being shot to death by the male protagonist.

When wrapped in a military coat to wait for the scene, Tao Mu, who was still blowing his nose constantly, his nose even becoming visibly red, tried to find the silver lining: “I think my current state is very suitable for playing a opium addict.
Ai, you say, if noble young master Su Dingbang becomes big drug addict Su Dingbang, and is then shot by the male lead later.
Wouldn’t it be particularly dramatic?”

Tao Mu was just talking casually, but Screenwriter Fan, who was passing by, heard it and fell into thought.
Immediately, he made a phone call to the original author.
After some communication, it was actually decided that yes, they would change the script——

Su Dingbang, who finally defected to the enemy under torture from the Japanese, almost didn’t survive his injuries.
During the treatment, he became addicted to morphine.
On the one hand, it was to endure the pain, on the other hand, because he couldn’t get over his guilt, so he started smoking opium to paralyze his senses.

Later, when he was used as bait to lure the male protagonist to appear, Su Dingbang cooperated very willingly under the temptation of opium.
However, in the end, the ending where he should have died under the gun of the male protagonist turned into Su Dingbang commiting suicide by swallowing a large quantity of opium after hearing the news that the Su family had been destroyed from the male protagonist.