CHAPTER 470: CHAPTER 371: NO WAY OUT (PART 2)

Zhou Yun nodded.

After breakfast, Song Chi tidied up the table and went to the study.

Zhou Yun took the script and sat on the balcony.

The sun was out today, the balcony was filled with golden sunlight.

She lazily read the script on the balcony.

"Falling Leaves" was really well written, and so was the character Wan Duoyan.

Among the roles Zhou Yun had played before, only the shampoo girl in "Warm Little Horse" bore some similarity to Wan Duoyan.

But in that play, she was just a supporting character with limited room to perform, whereas in "Falling Leaves," there was ample space to showcase Wan Duoyan.

The core essence of this story is actually reflected in the title itself.

There is a phrase called "falling leaves return to their roots," which essentially refers to the multitude of stories and the deep-seated words in the heart of the character Wan Duoyan, who went abroad to the United States when she was very young, and one day returns to her homeland of China.

Such stories are most afraid of being overly melodramatic or having the ’correct’ set of values.

It’s not that this kind of filming is wrong, but when done this way, it only moves the one who creates it.

Not everyone experiences the pain of leaving their homeland, but everyone surely has moments when they can’t help but feel deeply for their place of origin.

Compared to the emotions in teenage love, in marriage, or other common stories and feelings we see, this kind of "big" emotion is often hard to convey.

It’s hard to describe in words without becoming sentimental rhetoric.

It’s hard to portray in pictures without becoming forced propaganda posters.

It’s also hard to depict in films without becoming a PowerPoint that touches you and me.

The preciousness of "Falling Leaves" lies in the fact that on the surface, it tells a series of ordinary events that happen to a young woman after she returns to her country: nothing much develops, she meets a handsome man, realizes she’s been duped by him, has conflicts with relatives she’s blood-related to, impulsively decides to leave after a fit of anger, and may even melodramatically get stuck with a man waiting by her door for revenge. If you take this story as a slice of life, it could very well stand as such, but behind these series of events, Zhou Yun could very keenly feel an emotion similar to yearning from Wan Duoyan.

This emotion actually runs through the entire script from beginning to end.

Throughout the story in the script, Wan Duoyan never says "I love" or "I will stay"; she’s not someone who can express her feelings openly.

Yet in those moments when she cannot express herself, Zhou Yun understands what Wan Duoyan is trying to say.

In "Falling Leaves", Zhou Yun’s favorite parts are actually these unexpressed, unsure moments.

When Xue Qin made a phone call to Zhou Yun and heard her say this, Xue Qin was silent for a long while.

Zhou Yun thought she completely missed the mark with Xue Qin and asked, "Did I get it wrong?"

It was then that Xue Qin spoke up, "No."

Zhou Yun frowned in surprise.

"I thought that aside from myself, no one would understand these awkward, tongue-tied moments on Wan Duoyan like I do," Xue Qin suddenly said with a low laugh.

Hearing this, Zhou Yun thought that Wan Duoyan must carry a lot of the shadows of Xue Qin herself.

"Director Xue, did you also grow up in the United States?"

"Yeah." Xue Qin said, "When I was very young, I immigrated to the United States with my parents."

"So you have American citizenship now?"

"Yeah."

Just as Zhou Yun was about to speak, Xue Qin suddenly interrupted her again and said quickly, "Don’t ask me how much of ’Falling Leaves’ is adapted from my own experiences, I won’t answer this question, I don’t like to."

Creation, to some extent, always involves excavating from one’s personal experience.

Some creators are willing to share those stories behind their work, while others are not.

Zhou Yun understood what Xue Qin meant and said, "Alright, I won’t ask."

Xue Qin then asked somewhat nervously, "Zhou Yun, do you understand this story?"

"I can’t say that I understand the story," Zhou Yun said, "but I can understand the meaning behind every action and every word of Wan Duoyan." Zhou Yun continued, "I can also see my own reflections in her."