Chapter 1 Hey Man, Do You Want a Disc?

In the early spring of 2000, the weather in Beijing was even colder than in previous years.

Although it was already the end of March, the temperature had barely climbed to around 0 degrees, and there had even been continuous light snow in the past two days.

In the alleys of the Dongcheng Hutong in Beijing, there were fewer pedestrians than usual, and everyone was in a hurry, with only hot breath coming out of their mouths as they passed by.

At the corner of the alley, Wu Yuan, wearing a military coat and a military cotton hat, was squatting by the wall, sucking on the Daqianmen cigarette in his hand.

"Hiss~Ha~"

Although he had a cigarette in his mouth, his eyes were always on the pedestrians who were hurrying to and fro on the road.

When he saw some female comrades passing by, he glanced at them and stopped paying attention, but when he saw the figure of a male comrade, he would look at the person carefully.

"This one is not good, it looks like it belongs to a state-owned enterprise."

"Wow, this one is even more heavyweight, it looks like he is from the system."

While holding a cigarette, Wu Yuan was evaluating the pedestrians in his mind.

As a student of the 1998 directing department of the Film Academy, his behavior was not only to exercise his "eyesight" but also to find a target.

"This one is good, it looks like a college student!" Wu Yuan, who had been looking at it for a long time, finally found a target.

He took a deep puff of the cigarette, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stood up and crushed the cigarette butt a few times, relieved his legs and feet that were numb from squatting, and rushed out of the alley with a brisk step.

"Hey, man! Want a disc?"

The young man with glasses, who was walking quickly with his head down, raised his head in surprise, looking at the tall figure blocking his view, and asked in surprise: "What disc?"

"We have domestic, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Europe and America!" Wu Yuan unbuttoned his military coat with one hand, winking at the young man, his eyes were so ambiguous.

The young man, who was originally a little confused, immediately became sharp when he heard Wu Yuan's words. He pretended to be calm and adjusted the frame of his glasses. He looked around and made sure that no one was paying attention to them. Then he muttered softly: "Well, I don't like European and American movies, but Hong Kong and Taiwan movies are good."

"Eh, that's not right. There are still domestic movies of this kind?!"

"Why are there no more?!"

After unbuttoning his coat, Wu Yuan grabbed the clothes with both hands and opened them to both sides. He said proudly: "See You Tomorrow", "No One Can Be Less", "Party A and Party B", "My Father and Mother", are all movies by great directors!"

The lining of Wu Yuan's unfolded coat was covered with CDs. Each CD also had a small hand-painted "movie cover". The painting was not very good, but the movie name was written on it. It was simple and direct.

There were movies from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the mainland, and they were all new movies released in the past two years!

However, these movies obviously failed to attract this college student who was at the peak of curiosity. He shook his head in disappointment and muttered with a red face: "So it's this kind of movie."

"Why, are you not satisfied?" Wu Yuan frowned. College students are the largest group of pirated disc buyers. This is his carefully selected customer, and he can't let it go.

After a little thought, Wu Yuan suddenly realized and relaxed his brows: "I understand, do you want to watch some movies that can't be shown in the cinema?"

The young man, who was originally a little disappointed, immediately burst into expectant eyes, staring at Wu Yuan and nodding his head.

Showing an expression of "I really can't do anything with you", Wu Yuan carefully looked around, stretched out his hand to pull the young man to the corner of the alley, and then carefully lifted his flower sweater.

I saw that there was a circle of CDs wrapped in the sweater around Wu Yuan's waist.

"These are all my treasured films!"

"Wang Xiaoshuai's "Extreme Cold", Jia Zhangke's "Xiao Wu", and Anian's "Winter Love" are all films that cannot be shown in theaters!"

"My most recommended film is "Suzhou River", which is a film by Lou Ye. Do you know Lou Ye? He won the Best Director Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival!"

"His "Suzhou River" was shot two years ago and won the Best Film Award at the Paris International Film Festival!"

"The leading actress Zhou Xun also won the Best Actress Award at the Paris International Film Festival!"

"This is definitely a fine film!"

"But it has never been released in China. , I heard that it will be released in Hong Kong Island in the second half of this year. ”

“It was because he was my senior and the school had the tape of this movie that I was able to get the film.”

“You are also a college student, and you probably don’t have much money. If you really want to watch it, I will sell it to you for 10 yuan per film!”

“If you buy five at a time, I can give you another 20% discount!”

“With my price, you can go to all the audio-visual stores in Beijing, and you won’t find a cheaper one than mine!”

However, Wu Yuan’s sales promotion did not impress the young man in front of him at all. Instead, he was very disappointed and felt that he had wasted ten minutes of his time.

He was too lazy to pay attention to Wu Yuan anymore. The two people’s brains were not on the same frequency at all. He waved his hand with little interest, broke away from Wu Yuan’s hand on his shoulder, and left the alley without looking back.

"Hey, you have quite a picky taste. You're still not satisfied with all these movies?!" Wu Yuan scratched his head in confusion. He was still determined to win this client. When he was about to take a step to catch up, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder and held him down.

Immediately, Wu Yuan's whole body stiffened.

Selling pirated discs, especially for guerrillas like Wu Yuan, who shoots and changes places, what they fear most is being caught on the spot during the transaction.

A smile that was uglier than crying appeared on his face. Wu Yuan turned back stiffly and explained continuously: "I am a student at the film school, and all the discs I brought are teaching materials for the school..."

Before he finished speaking, Wu Yuan swallowed back the second half of his explanation.

The person standing behind him was not the market manager or street administrator he imagined, but a man who looked to be around thirty years old, looked a bit naive, had ear-long hair, and exuded an artistic atmosphere. Older youth.

“Boy, you’re selling pirated discs here again!”

"It's you, senior brother, you scared me to death."

Jia Zhangke pointed at Wu Yuan's head and said with annoyance: "Isn't school started for you kid? If you don't study hard in school and you go here to sell pirated discs, you are picking sesame seeds and losing the watermelon!"

"And you're getting more and more outrageous, and now you even dare to sell your senior brothers' movies!"

"Among the 98 students in the school's directing department, you are the most popular among the teachers. They all say that you are the most spiritual among the 36 students in this class."

"1998 is a big year for the directing department. In the first two years, there were no undergraduate students. You are still the one that the teachers are most optimistic about. Is this how you treat the teachers' expectations?"

Although Jia Zhangke is not Wu Yuan's direct senior, he really can't say anything wrong when faced with the teachings of this senior who has already started making movies and has achieved great results.

"I'm not short of money. How can I make my own movie if I don't have money?" However, Wu Yuan couldn't help but defend himself.

"You haven't even reached your junior year yet, why are you so anxious?!"

"I'm not in a hurry, so isn't this just a step-by-step way to accumulate funds for filming!"

Jia Zhangke opened his mouth, but was choked by Wu Yuan's words. After taking a deep breath, his expression relaxed and he said earnestly: "Xiao Wu, even if you are short of money, there is no need to do this. "

"Look at your appearance, your height of 183cm, and your appearance are not inferior to Chen Kun's. If it doesn't work for you, you can find a few crew members to do some work as an actor first."

"Look at Jiang Wen, Lao Mouzi, and Feng Xiaogang, haven't they all been actors? Your appearance is much better than them."

However, Wu Yuan, like the young man just now, also refused to listen. He shook his head: "Brother, there must be a crew looking for me to act!"

"Besides, how can a director endure being told what to do by another director?"

"Senior Jiang Wen, most of them direct and act themselves, and they rarely take on external roles."

Jia Zhangke laughed angrily: "How old are you? You've never made a feature film, so you think you're a director?"

Wu Yuan smiled and shook his head, but did not answer.

"Yeah, I'm not your father or your mother. I'm too lazy to care about you. Just do whatever you want." Jia Zhangke curled his lips and stopped trying to persuade him.

"Hey, then let's get out of here and wish my brother in advance that your new movie will punch Cannes and kick Berlin!"

Wu Yuan cupped his hands with a playful smile. After wrapping the general's coat again, he turned around and planned to leave.

"etc."

"I just heard you say that you have a CD of "Suzhou River" in your hand?"

"Yes, Senior Brother Wang came to school and held an on-campus preview screening for us. Later, he said that he didn't expect to get a public screening permit, so he kept a copy of the screening in school so that we can watch and study at any time."

"I just recorded it right now..."

Jia Zhangke nodded: "Okay, give me the CD of "Suzhou River"."

As he spoke, Jia Zhangke took out ten dollars from his pocket and stuffed it into Wu Yuan's coat pocket.

"Brother, you must have seen this film." Wu Yuan scratched his head, a little confused.

"You don't care whether I've seen it or not." Jia Zhangke glared at Wu Yuan, took out the disc plate of "Suzhou River" from his arms, turned around and left without saying a word.

"You are selling CDs. I buy the CDs and go back and watch them slowly. Isn't this normal?"

Looking at Jia Zhangke's walking back, Wu Yuan smiled and shook his head.

"Knife mouth, tofu heart."

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