Director’s Notes

Drama Diary EP02

Let’s talk about episode two, it’s a bit shorter.

The scene where Ye Haitang’s father abuses her and takes her class fees was the first scene she filmed when she joined the set. Looking back now, it’s a bit scary. The two actors were really immersed in their roles, and their emotions got a bit out of control. When Lulu was thrown onto her back, I was really scared and didn’t dare to shoot another take. But later, I overheard the camera crew say that when filming close-ups, she asked the cameraman to throw her again before starting the scene. I guess she didn’t want to act out the pain, but rather wanted to act while actually feeling it. I admire her dedication, but I won’t let actors do that again in the future.

The scene where Ye Haitang picks up a chair to smash her father—that was something I added last minute. The props team didn’t prepare enough chairs, so we had to keep fixing the chair during filming. Every time we shot, the chair would break. The chair you saw in the final take was patched up numerous times.

The rain scene was real too. Meizhou had been raining non-stop, which worked perfectly with the atmosphere.

For this scene, I really liked having the actors eat something while acting. I felt like the characters’ lives were really tough, so they should eat more.

Zhou Yiran’s eating scenes are absolutely top-notch. You’ll see him eating all sorts of things in the following episodes. I think he understands his character as someone who’s been hungry and is most afraid of being "hungry," so he cherishes every opportunity to eat. Even when he finishes eating bread and licks his fingers, that was something he designed for himself.

The bald, chubby guy next to Ye Yibo in the casino scene is our assistant director, who often plays extras in the background. The several assistant directors all have good acting. The little stealing motion by the thief at the end I thought was interesting, but actually has nothing to do with the plot. After thinking about it, I decided to leave it in and not cut it. This scene was quite expensive to shoot because we had to hire a lot of extras.

We spent a long time discussing how Ye Haitang should hold the knife. Looking back, it’s kind of funny.

For the fight scene on the two-person bridge, I made a big movement plan with a very long route, which resulted in the cinematographer having to run alongside them the whole time. We prepared four knives as props, but when Zhou Yiran got excited, he threw one of them into the river. By the time we were down to the last one, I was ready to tie a fishing line to it. He promised me that he wouldn’t throw it, but when filming, he got excited again and threw it. Luckily, that take passed.

In the scene where Tang Yixun buys toothpaste, a village dog came over to join in.

For the character of Pearl, I hadn’t really figured out what her look should be. One day, I saw Huang Erchun’s WeChat Moments, where she did a retro look for a CCD shoot, and I thought it was perfect. So I contacted her to play the role. I heard that before she joined the set, she wore mismatched slippers every day to get the feel of a slight limp.

The scene where the rat gets beaten—I think the chair was too neatly sawed, which looks a bit fake. It should have been more irregular.

A few of Aqiang’s brothers were our stunt team. I thought if they could act a little, I’d have them play Aqiang’s subordinates. But they all said acting in a dramatic scene was much more tiring than in an action scene.

I think Zhou Yiran looks really cool in the scene where he’s lying on the sofa in the video room, sleeping. After the rat gets beaten, he’s too afraid to go upstairs, afraid Pearl will see him.

The Cantonese songs in the OST here aren’t old songs; they are custom-made. But the Cantonese songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s are really nice.

For the reference music used in editing, we used BEYOND’s “It’s Wrong, but Still Not Divided,” which is a track from *The Heavenly Love*. We couldn’t afford this song, so we asked someone to write another one for us. When we filmed *Upstream*, we bought a BEYOND song once, and it was super expensive.

I really enjoy working with actors I’ve collaborated with before. We’ve had time to mesh, build rapport, and I generally know what they’re capable of. There’s a sense of security between us. Teacher Tan, the bookstore owner, Pearl, Zhou Peng, and Officer Liu—they all acted in *I Really, Really Miss You*.

Drama Diary EP03
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* **Shen Cheng’s entrance scene** was filmed at a small airport near the hotel where the Meizhou crew was staying. It only took about 20 minutes to shoot. That day was really rushed.

* I auditioned a lot of actors for **Shen Cheng’s role**. Ren Youlun was the only one that moved me that day. The audition scene was the one in the morgue. He actually auditioned for the character Jue Mei when I was filming *"Miss You So Much"*. This time, I finally found a role that really suited him, and we got to work together.

* **Tang Yixun is extremely afraid of Tan Xin**. Tan Xin’s mother raised Tang Yixun in the welfare center since he was a child.

* **Ye Yibo deliberately came to the school to provoke trouble.** His goal was simply to scam some money to spend.

* Most of the **school scenes** were shot during the students' holidays. The classmates in the classroom are all regular background actors with the crew (we avoided using temp actors to ensure continuity). Honestly, looking back, the school scenes feel a bit lacking. Not enough people or environment. It feels a bit empty — I’ll fix that next time.

* **Wang Shuo**, who plays Shen Xiaojun, messaged me yesterday saying fans were DMing him insults. That proves he did a great job with the role. When I was casting, I thought he was perfect after his audition, so I didn’t look at anyone else. He lost over 10 jin (about 5 kg) for the role. I think his side job is selling essential oils? Not sure if he still does it.

* The scene where **Brother Cha smashes a mug on Tang Yixun** was originally written by the screenwriter to be done with a billiard ball. I guess she hasn’t played pool in a long time — if it were a billiard ball to the chest, that’d be the end of the show right there. I rarely saw **Mr. Jia**, who plays Brother Cha, eat anything on set.

* In the scene where **A-Tang and A-Xun drink sweet soup beside the mailbox**, if you look closely, the river current is very fast. Who knew the area would flood in June — Sunshine Bookstore, the billiards hall, and the whole street were submerged, water reaching the 3rd floor. I hadn’t even finished filming at the time. It was devastating. We had to relocate some scenes to new locations.

* In the 90s, places like **"Brothers Billiards"** were common — yard billiards outside, a VCR inside. You could watch movies all night for 3 yuan. I’ve been to places like that. The 2nd floor of Brothers Billiards was decorated based on a place from my childhood memory.

* **Sun Miaomiao** is the only friend Yuning still keeps in touch with from the Northeast. They grew up together. Loyal, always stands up for others, used to help Yuning in fights when they were kids.

* I originally wanted to play the **taxi driver** who picks up Yuning when he arrives in Pushui, but they had to shoot at 6 AM. I would’ve had to get up at 5 to get hair and makeup done — I chickened out.

* The **scene at the police station** where Shen Cheng and Yu Nian meet was shot at a real police station in Fujian. That night, there was a heavy storm, with mudslides and landslides. We were stuck on the highway all night before making it back to the hotel. The slogan “*Endure for a moment, and the sea will calm down*” in the mediation room was already there — I found it funny, so I kept it. I laugh every time I watch the argument scene between Shen Cheng and Yu Nian.

* The **train station scene in the Northeast** with Shen Cheng and Yu Nian was the very first scene shot for the whole production. It was really windy that day. We had one shot every 15 minutes — because a train passed every 15 minutes.

* The scene where **Zhang Quan falls into the flower bed by the mailbox** was improvised after the shoot started. He didn’t realize it was 1.5 meters deep. Almost knocked the wind out of himself — luckily he was wearing thick clothes.

* In the scene where **A-Bao slaps his own brother at the pool hall**, if you watch closely, there’s a chubby kid who lowers his head after getting slapped — because he was laughing. We did three takes and he laughed every time. I got a little mad and asked him why he kept laughing. He said the sound of A-Bao’s slap on his face was different from everyone else’s. For others, it was a crisp *pia pia*, but for him, it was a dull *thump thump*, and he couldn’t help laughing. I still don’t understand his logic to this day.

* **Wang Hai**, who plays A-Bao, is a street dance master — he’s actually won a world championship in a dance style (I forgot which). Also, we share the same birthday.

🎵 **This episode ends with the song "Don’t Bully the Poor Young Man" (莫欺少年穷)**

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**Drama Watching Diary EP05**

When the letter arrived for the first time, Tang Yixun heard a sound from the mailbox and hit it, and Ye Haitang followed and knocked on it too. This part is so adorably silly—I laugh every time I watch it.

This scene took a long time to shoot, with a lot of different shots. Various angles, jib shots, circular tracks... We filmed everything we could. I wanted to edit this scene in a more fragmented way to show the panic and confusion of the two teenagers.

The set of chants that Zhang Quan recited while waving the peach wood sword was all prepared by actor Zhang Baiqiao himself—he came up with the whole thing.

The line where Yu Nian’s family tells Shen Cheng to go to the bathroom and look in the cabinet for his mom—that was something I made up on the spot. I saw that it looked like someone could hide there and just went with it.

I love watching the two of them bicker. They constantly question each other but are still forced to work together—neither can do anything about the other.

The file folder that Yu Nian prepared didn’t actually fit into the mailbox slot at all. It took ages of folding to finally shove it in.

When Shen Cheng discovers the letter, that scene where his worldview shatters was shot with a bit too much camera spin—it feels too intense now in hindsight. It should’ve been a little gentler.

Tang Yixun has a line at the school gate: “A-Bao took all the money Brother Cha saved to buy a boat.” This line is *extremely* hard to pronounce. You guys should try saying it out loud.

Across from the billiard hall is the river—it’s also where our production team parked. There were several nights I was too lazy to go back to the hotel and just slept in the car by the river. The mosquitoes at night were pretty bad.

Tan Xin genuinely likes Li Chadong. But Li Chadong is just awkward and stubborn, can’t say anything properly. Even I get anxious watching him. If he had even half of Haozi’s sweet-talking skills, he’d have married Tan Xin a long time ago.

When Haozi tells Zhenzhu, “You can do anything,” it’s very heartwarming and touching for her. Back in that era, it was extremely difficult for people with minor disabilities to survive. Haozi really has high emotional intelligence.

I want Haozi and Zhenzhu to be the most fashionable, best-dressed couple in the small town.

For the video hall scene, we found an old TV. But right before the actual shoot, it broke. Couldn’t fix it, and couldn’t find a similar replacement. So all the footage of the video playing ended up being done with special effects.

The scene where Ye Haitang receives the letter herself was actually incredibly difficult to pull off. That’s when the orange cat **DERDA** gave an Oscar-worthy performance—first circling the mailbox, then jumping down when Ye Haitang arrives, and slowly walking out of frame. This was *so hard*! The cat’s performance coach-slash-agent nearly lost their voice shouting commands, and who knows how many treats were used up to get this shot.

Actually, when we first cast for the cat, I had my eye on one that was really talented. But just as we decided to go with it, the agent told us the cat unexpectedly got pregnant and couldn’t perform. So the production team had to find another one.

Oh, one more thing—who do you guys think is responsible for preparing the cat actor? The assistant director or the props department?

Did you notice Zhou Peng and Zhou Hai are played by the same actor?
One always hangs out with Shen Xiaojun, the other with A-Qiang. In the story, they’re twin brothers.

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