Zhang Yang's performance absolutely blew Deng Chao's out of the water.
Deng Chao had merely managed to complete the moves Gu Xuanzhao had designed. The only impressive thing was that they looked difficult, but they weren't pretty.
If the movie's pacing were faster, the audience might not notice anything wrong with that scene. But anyone who knew their stuff would see that Deng Chao was only pretending to fight.
Now that wuxia films were in decline, a considerable portion of the people willing to pay to see movies in theaters were theory buffs. That could detract from their viewing experience.
By comparison, Zhang Yang's moves were flawless, without a trace of acting. It was as if he naturally fought that way. The wires had served only as a safety measure throughout, not as something he used for leverage.
And Zhang Yang hadn't just performed the moves beautifully; he'd improved on them, too. The move that was supposed to involve two midair spins became three. The motion of lightly touching the ground with one hand while spinning 360 degrees, then rising and charging forward, had been split into two: he spun 180 degrees in midair, inverted, and struck toward the ground, then spun another 540 degrees, landed upright, and charged forward.
Anyone could see that an ordinary person couldn't pull off those moves. More importantly, they looked fantastic and suited Leng Xue's elite fighter character even better.
"I knew A'Yang was good, but I didn't know he was this good."
"Man, I really made a fool of myself this time."
Deng Chao suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.
Seeing the undisguised smile on his face, everyone understood that he wasn't angry. He was showing off.
After all, if they had a stunt double this useful, someone who could add highlights to their roles, they'd be happy, too.
"Good." Chen Jiashang was beaming, with no sense of having been shown up at all. "These moves look great. We'll use this set."
The Four Great Constables was a wuxia action film, so the action performances were naturally the most important part.
That was why Liu Yifei had to be the female lead, while the male lead went to Deng Chao, who was both popular and willing to work hard.
"Chao, come watch the playback and pick a pose you want to strike." Chen Jiashang raised his megaphone. "A'Yang, come over too and give him some pointers."
Zhang Yang had designed moves better than Gu Xuanzhao's and performed them flawlessly. He was qualified to be an action choreographer, which meant Chen Jiashang's production had just gained two top-notch action choreographers.
No wonder Lin Feng next door had been discussing action scenes with Zhang Yang. He'd assumed Lin Feng was trying to slack off, but it turned out Zhang Yang was simply that good.
"Brother Deng, please." Zhang Yang gave Gu Xuanzhao a friendly smile.
He wasn't foolish enough to think Gu Xuanzhao couldn't design better moves. It was obvious that, as an old friend of Deng Chao's, Gu Xuanzhao knew the limits of Deng Chao's action performance and had designed the moves accordingly.
But now that an expert like Zhang Yang was here, Gu Xuanzhao could let loose, too.
"You don't mind if I raise the difficulty?" Gu Xuanzhao came over to Zhang Yang.
"As long as an ordinary person can do it, go ahead." Zhang Yang let a hint of his edge show.
"Good!" Gu Xuanzhao nodded. He'd already acknowledged Zhang Yang's abilities, and now he admired his character even more.
He wasn't arrogant, but neither was he servile.
Everyone gathered behind Chen Jiashang to watch the playback on the monitor.
The same scene could look very different in person and on a screen.
Sometimes the fighting looked good on set, but the footage came out mediocre. That was a real test of the director's and cinematographer's skills.
But this time, nothing went wrong. The camera captured Zhang Yang's moves perfectly.
Calling them perfect wasn't an exaggeration. Zhang Yang's moves were not only attractive and convincing, but also avoided showing his face at just the right moments. When it couldn't be avoided, his hand just happened to cover it. His face stayed hidden the entire time, right up until the final shot.
That saved Deng Chao a great deal of effort with posing, and made the editing much easier.
And that took more than just knowing where to stand.
"You know about directing, cinematography, and editing?" Chen Jiashang looked at Zhang Yang, his eyes full of admiration.
He didn't believe it was all a coincidence.
"I know a little. I took a few electives at school." Zhang Yang didn't deny it.
"That's more than a little." Chen Jiashang felt that Gu Xuanzhao's assessment of Zhang Yang had been right. He was a little monster.
But he didn't say more. With a wave of his hand, he said, "Chao, all you need to do is a set of moves where you charge forward and throw a punch."
After watching the playback, Deng Chao knew what he needed to do. He nodded to show he understood.
With Gu Xuanzhao's guidance, he quickly finished filming the final shot.
The scene wrapped up without a hitch, and they moved on to the next one.
All afternoon, Zhang Yang handled every action scene involving Deng Chao.
At first, Gu Xuanzhao still asked Deng Chao what he thought. But after a few times, he went straight to Zhang Yang to discuss and design challenging but beautiful moves together.
The joker Deng Chao wanted to join in, too, but Chen Jiashang held him back. "Just focus on your dialogue scenes. Don't bother trying to figure out the action scenes."
But Deng Chao was still trying to have his cake and eat it, too. "But Director Chen, I feel guilty taking the full pay like this. I don't feel involved at all."
Before Deng Chao could say anything, Zheng Zhongji suddenly spoke up from the side. "Director Chen, why not replace my stunt double with Yang Zai, too?"
Zheng Zhongji, nicknamed the Hong Kong Circle Crown Prince, had a lot of connections in the entertainment industry. He played Zhui Ming in the film.
In The Four Great Constables, Deng Chao played Leng Xue, and Zhang Yang was now handling the action scenes for him.
Liu Yifei played Wuqing. Because of her character, her action scenes weren't too demanding, and she performed them well.
Zou Zhaolong played Tie Shou. He was a disciple of Sammo Hung and a martial artist in his own right, so his fight scenes were excellent.
That left Zheng Zhongji, who was afraid he'd end up as little more than a background character.
"That won't do." Deng Chao spoke before Chen Jiashang could. "A'Yang's already exhausted from doing my scenes. Let's not trouble him again~"
Chen Jiashang was tempted, but he also felt it might be too much. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'll ask Zhang Yang what he thinks in a few days."
Zheng Zhongji added, "I'm not asking him to do it for free. Work deserves pay. If that doesn't work, I can introduce him to auditions for movie roles."
With that, Deng Chao couldn't say anything more without seeming to stand in Zhang Yang's way.
Zhang Yang had no idea what they were discussing. He was completely focused on the fight scenes.
His attitude toward work was simple: either don't do it, or do it well.
That attitude earned him the approval of many people.
By the time the boxed meals were handed out that evening, the crew members and actors, big and small, were all much friendlier toward him.
"What's going on?"
When Liu Xiaoli and Liu Yifei returned to the set, mother and daughter exchanged a puzzled look.
After Liu Yifei had been examined at the hospital, they'd found nothing seriously wrong. But the doctor had recommended a few bottles of IV fluid to prevent inflammation from weakening her resistance and making her sick, so Liu Xiaoli had agreed.
As it was nearly time for dinner, Liu Yifei had worried that Zhang Yang was alone on set and didn't know anyone. She suggested they return early to look after him, so they'd left when she'd only finished half of her last bottle of glucose.
Now it seemed they'd worried for nothing.
"Is A'Yang really good at making friends?" Liu Xiaoli asked, surprised.
Although Zhang Yang had been quite talkative that morning, she'd still thought of him as a shy young man.
"Something must have happened. There's definitely something fishy going on." Liu Yifei called over her assistant, Xiao Qin.
"Why does A'Yang seem so popular?"
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