The Director’s Cut

"Firstly, you need to prepare yourself physically for crying, for example by taking a deep breath in, quickly allowing your jaw to fire and creating a feverish sensation at the base of your nose and lower eyelids when you exhale. More importantly you need to release your emotions and force yourself to fully immerse yourself in the drama, becoming the character, thinking and directing your actions with the logic and emotions the character should have. Also use emotional memories, such as a sad experience to help draw out your first wave of tears, followed by intensifying your emotions and completing the crying scene. As the old saying describing actors goes, 'shed your own tears in someone else's story'."

Just as Yuan Ge speaks, the rims of his eyes, especially the tail ends of them, suddenly turn red, and without warning, a clear teardrop falls from the corner of his right eye, as if oblivious to the noisy surroundings and onlookers, his eyes look into the void, his brow furrows, as if the endless pain in his heart is falling silently and heavily with that single crystal clear teardrop...

"Wow! That's so impressive! I'm convinced! The instant redness of your eyes, plus a single teardrop falling from one eye, your acting is divine!" Sean is the first to exclaim in admiration.

Chestnut, Stephen and the actors who come around to watch are all impressed by Yuan Ge's performance. It's true that a director must have the ability to hold the audience in check, and anyone who can't be a good actor can't be a good director.

However, several big-name actresses waiting on the side have turned their noses up at this crash course.

"Where's the crappy little company coming from, trying to sharpen its spear before going into battle!"

"Toads want to eat swan meat[1]! Some Z-listers want to get a piece of the pie from King Guan's big production - dream on!"

Chow Mingrun is pretty pissed off when he heard these cutting remarks, but he doesn't want to speak out directly against these big names from well-known companies, so he pulls his actors aside and quietly told them, "Listen to your director and concentrate on the performance. Don't worry about what these people say. These people think they're great, but if you ask me, none of them have their hearts set on acting. They all see this audition as a perfect opportunity to get up close and personal with the second heir to the Guan family. They thought that if they could find favour in the eyes of King Guan, they would have a chance to marry into the Guan family. Just look at them, all dressed up in fancy outfits, touching up their make-up every few minutes, waiting to meet King Guan in person and hook up with him."

Yuan Ge never cares what others thinks and he is glad to see that Chestnut is unaffected by others and continues to practice while concentrating on what he has to say. He asks Chestnut to try that suicide move again.

Chestnut isn't shy about it. She picks up a small stick from the ground and makes a fierce slashing gesture at her neck.

Yuan Ge corrects her, "It's still not tragic or decisive enough. The huge difference in duration between films and TV dramas dictates that actors in films must fully reveal the psychology of their characters in a very short period of time, so the action must be strong and explosive, and in such scenes, the acting school's approach is not as appropriate as the experiential school's."

Seeing Chestnut's bewildered look, he continues to explain patiently, "Let's figure out the logic behind the scene mentioned in this round of audition. Although we don't know the exact backstory, if it's a pregnant woman who has to fight an enemy army, then she's probably the wife of the general guarding the border. Although she is highly skilled in martial arts, her actions are restricted by the child in her womb. She is outnumbered and deeply besieged. If captured, she could be defiled and ravaged, losing her husband's honour, or she could become a pawn in the enemy's threat. In both cases, given the values of ancient women, it would have been preferable for her to commit suicide to avoid humiliation and preserve her dignity. To show the intensity of this scene, therefore, this suicide move has to be clean and crisp. You see, you have to cut down the back of the neck and let the blade take the tangent line so as to ensure that the veins and arteries are cut at once, in order to show the determination of the character to die, because it is a decisive way to die. It's an attitude."

With that, Yuan Ge takes the stick from Chestnut, drops to one knee, his face full of grief, anger and defiance, slashes at his own neck in the manner he has just described, and then falls down on the ground, causing many of the actors around him to laugh. "The fierceness of this slashing action would surely have taken his own head off in one movement."

"I understand now!" Chestnut nods deeply, her eyes brightening, "Thank you director. I'm sure I can act well!"

Chow Mingrun pulls Yuan Ge up from the ground and says, "Okay, okay, that's enough, you drama nerd. Let's stop teaching, shall we? If you keep doing it and giving away all your secrets selflessly, what if Stephen and Chestnut are surpassed by others later!"

Yuan Ge brushes the dust off his clothes, completely unconcerned that others are stealing his technique, and smiles as he asks Chestnut and Stephen, "Do you guys want me to demonstrate how to spit blood?"

He is completely oblivious to the commotion around him and the whispers that erupted from the crowd - "Master Guan! It's King Guan! King Guan is coming out!"

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[1] This is a Chinese figure of speech to describe wishful thinking or unrealistic aspirations.