Chapter 81 - Body Language
"Lights and camera in position. Attention all please. Let's get ready to roll."
The director's assistant shouted into a megaphone to the set. When "Action" was called, the camera began to slowly zoom in. Yuan Ge sat quietly in a chair behind the monitor and watched.
In the camera lens, Qiuchen was leaning back in a small chaise longue within the set, seemingly tired after having just returned from performing on stage. Liang Zitang was sitting by an oil lamp flipping through the pages of a book, lifting his brush to write from time to time.
Yuan Ge frowned as he watched Yin Fenghua's performance. After the first few days of conditioning, he had finally stopped pinching his voice to say his lines, and his voice sounded much more natural. However, his eyes were still soulless, without a trace of clarity. Around Liang Zitang, he was neither like a companion nor a lover, always with some inexplicable frivolity..
Yuan Ge could not bear to look at this scene any longer. The melancholy, affectionate gaze that had appeared in his dream kept flashing before his eyes, and in a trance he could taste salty tears at the base of his tongue. He wanted to call a halt to the performance, but considering that it was, after all, an intimate and emotional scene, he was worried that it might affect Stephen's emotion. And was it really possible to train the expression in one's eyes?
As the play progressed, the scene had changed into Liang Zitang trying to have physical relations with Qiuchen.
"Liang Zitang" could no longer hold back his lust, walked over to the chaise longue and pressed his body against the seemingly sleeping "Qiuchen". He mumbled a string of sweet words as he tried to kiss him. "Qiuchen" opened his eyes in horror, his eyes filled with panic and shyness as he trembled slightly, avoiding Liang's intimate movements, a blush appearing on his cheeks.
Stephen's Liang Zitang kissed Yin Fenghua in his arms with slight compulsion; although Yin Fenghua's arms were pushing outwards, his legs, which were pinned under Stephen, have unconsciously parted…
"Cut!"
Yuan Ge shouted in annoyance. He ignored Stephen, who stood up awkwardly, and said sharply to Yin Fenghua, "May I ask why you are changing my script without asking me again! What are you trying to show? Is he willing or unwilling?"
Yin Fenghua looked confused, "What's wrong with my act? Why cut? Isn't it clearly written in your script that Qiuchen was unwilling?"
Yuan Ge lowered his voice and said, "Being reluctant on the surface, but showing willingness in your body language will only make the other person more excited."
Yin Fenghua looked down at his body and didn't notice anything wrong with the performance.
"How am I reluctant on the surface, but willing in body language?"
Yuan Ge had no choice but to explain patiently, "Spreading your legs open is an unguarded gesture. Although Qiuchen is the most renowned opera singer in the capital at this moment, he still maintains his chastity. Even in front of someone he likes, he would not express his feelings so unreservedly."
As soon as Yin Fenghua heard this, he immediately acted like a know-it-all veteran and snickered, "If he wants to be chastity, why does he go into someone's bedroom late at night and falls asleep? Isn't this a clear case of seduction? I thought there was something wrong when I first read the script. Today I'm just acting according to the correct interpretation!"
Hearing Yin Fenghua's misunderstanding of Qiuchen, Yuan Ge was actually feeling quite upset. He couldn't bear to see Qiuchen being wronged, even though he was only a character in his film, so he explained again, "Qingqing is infatuated with Liang Zitang and believes too much in his character, and he doesn't know anything about homosexual relationships, so he often visits him late at night when he returns from his stage performance. You could interpret it this way; Qiu Chen is experiencing his pure first love and knows nothing about sex. Your performance should be closer to that feeling. Let's do it again."
With that, he turned around, patted Stephen on the shoulder and returned to his seat.