Chapter 6: The Achilles' Heel of Fat Bing

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On September 4th, the various location scouting and prop model production for "Shark Beach" were progressing smoothly. In fact, before the explosive success of "Infernal Affairs" brought a brilliant afterglow as a "salvation piece," the Hong Kong film industry was truly at rock bottom, with countless professionals unemployed and out of work.

Li Wenyu, a rookie director lacking prestige, had his dignity overshadowed once Zhang Guorong took the lead, as Brother Rong’s presence dominated the crew… Still, the behind-the-scenes teams cherished any opportunity to work and earn a living.

The crew’s progress was rapid.

In a large villa on Hong Kong Island, Li Wenyu, who had stacked his fitness level to a commendable 70, was learning to swim in the pool under the guidance of several swimming coaches. Pang Bing was learning as well.

Regardless of past experience, for entering the sea—even shallow water swimming and surfing—this training was essential. The male coaching team watched in surprise as Li Wenyu quickly transformed from dog paddling to proficient backstroke, butterfly, underwater swimming, and freestyle, surpassing the standard and continuing to improve rapidly.

He caught on instantly, mastering everything at lightning speed!

The coaches were somewhat bewildered. Meanwhile, the female coaches applauded excitedly on the side.

After finishing another round of freestyle training, Li Wenyu sat on a poolside lounge chair and complained to Pang Bing, who was approaching, “You need to learn more efficiently. We’ve signed the contract and will start filming soon. Poor swimming skills will slow down production.”

Pang Bing looked invigorated. “Don’t worry, Director Li. Sister Hua helped me push through a screenwriting project with Teacher Huang Baiming, covered the breach of contract penalty, and even went to toast and apologize to him on my behalf.”

“That’s a big deal. I can’t chicken out even if I wear myself out.”

Though the project’s director wasn’t very experienced, he was still much stronger than Li Wenyu.

Huang Baiming’s screenwriting credentials were also formidable.

This was a choice Zhang Guorong made after a phone call and reviewing the script on the night of the 26th, biting the bullet after understanding the project. It wasn’t a complete sacrifice; everyone knew Huang Baiming was a king of bad films, and that movie clearly drained the pull of the “Return of the Pearl” troupe, featuring Su Youpeng and Jin Suo.

One of the mediocre films of the twilight era of Hong Kong cinema.

Seeing that both male and female coaches were at a distance, Pang Bing raised an eyebrow and teased, “Ah Yu, when will you let me nag you again? Just once, and I’ll be the lead actress? You’re really a good guy. I’m surprised—if it were Boss Wang or Director Feng, they’d never let someone off without turning them into a fool for a project.”

“I’ve heard stories about the older generation,” Li Wenyu replied dumbfounded, “So when they tried to fool me, I was torn apart inside. It’s not fear; I should’ve been playing supporting roles in big-name crews instead of muddling through Huang’s bad films.”

Li Wenyu was speechless. “When working on a project, they address me by my title. I’m learning to swim for shooting at sea. If you fall in, I need to be able to save you. Even with professional lifeguards, I have to work hard, including learning underwater filming techniques.”

“Alright then, let’s shoot a solo scene of yours first, using a digital camera for the test shoot.”

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The villa with the pool was borrowed by Zhang Guorong from a friend so they could learn swimming and store various props for the crew. Among them was a buoy tower placed directly in the pool for the lead actress to perform a few scenes—not a bad idea.

It was a kind of rehearsal. “Shark Beach” had only one director, plus the cinematographer, props, and behind-the-scenes team—just a small crew to work through with Pang Bing alone.

That scene was quite exciting: the lead actress, after a surfing accident, drifted into shark feeding grounds, traversed dead shark backs to reefs, then floated to the buoy tower, fought off a great white shark, was bitten, and climbed the tower to use an old signal gun to call for help.

With tense and thrilling music, every moment showcased the lead actress’s charm—cool yet tragic, beautiful in a morbid way, with sharp camera cuts. It demanded some acting skill.

By that scene, the lead character had gone without food or water for a long time, her makeup showing sickness and despair, yet within that despair, she discovered a rusted, locked emergency box, opening it to find the signal gun—a moment born of hope.

With the gun in hand, signal flares fell one by one into the sea, surrounded by sharks that had bitten her…

Heavy emotional performance, testing depth!

At this stage, Pang Bing, still a leading actress, could carry this “ornamental bottle” role. Later actresses like Yahua or Xia Jie had no hope of this.

Pang Bing’s eyes brightened. “Great, shall we try it right here? Digital cameras don’t waste film, and we’ll use film cameras for the official shoot.”

During the learning phase, it was normal to alternate between swimming and acting practice.

Over half an hour later, the floating buoy tower was set in the pool, wobbling like a water-toppling toy. Li Wenyu signaled the cameraman to start filming, called “Action,” and Pang Bing began climbing the buoy tower swiftly and shakily, as if evading shark attacks.

That tense, fearful expression showed on her face... a few minutes of a long solo scene, after firing the signal gun twice, Li Wenyu finally said, “Cut, rest for twenty minutes, then do it again.”

During the break, he had Pang Bing watch her performance on the digital camera, smiling afterward: “How do you think you did?”

Pang Bing thought for over ten seconds. “There are many shortcomings. When we start shooting for real, I’ll probably mess it up.”

Li Wenyu smiled. “Then do better next time.”

…

Several hours later, Li Wenyu called out again, “Cut, rest for twenty minutes, then one more take.”

Pang Bing walked back to the poolside lounge chair, slumped down for ten minutes, then got up and gritted her teeth. “Director Li? The thirteenth take? It’s already dark.”

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Li Wenyu calmly sipped his juice. “Think about Liu Jialing shooting ‘Days of Being Wild,’ wiping the floor twenty or thirty times. You’re nowhere near that yet. Back then, film cameras didn’t let you review your performance immediately.”

He was tough on Pang Bing to exhaust her state. The slow bird flies early and arrives sooner; practice makes perfect.

Indeed, with her level 69 acting skill, grinding it out eventually reached the original level.

Pang Bing opened her mouth but didn’t know how to retort. The Jialing Li mentioned was already a big predecessor nominated for, and even winning, Best Actress.

Pang Bing was about to tease Li Wenyu for comparing himself to the King of Sunglasses, but he lightly patted her shoulder. “You don’t want Yan Zi and Aru laughing at you all your life as a maid, do you?”

That hit Pang Bing’s weak spot!

She stood on tiptoes to bite back. This wasn’t about losing out; it was about revenge—practice makes perfect.

After a few minutes of witty banter, a car arrived at the villa gate. Pang Bing hurriedly let go. “Is Brother Rong and the others back to check progress? It’s really Brother Rong’s car. Li, you wait. I’ll rest a bit and then perform again—I refuse to fail this scene!”

Many, including Manyu, Jialing, and Brother Hua, had developed some acting skills under the King of Sunglasses’ tough and tricky training. Li Wenyu’s challenge at least gave a clear performance standard to aim for.

The script clearly outlined the shifts in emotional states!

Unlike the King of Sunglasses, who didn’t even know what he wanted from the actors, just shooting casually and relying on editing later. One shot, one scene, actors clueless about how to perform, and the director uncertain of the desired effect, repeated endlessly.

Slowly, one learns.

Li Wenyu generously set a broad standard, specifying the acting, movements, emotions for each segment. After dozens of takes, one naturally becomes proficient.

As Pang Bing went to rest, Li Wenyu quickly approached Brother Rong.

At this moment, Zhang Guorong’s car had already parked. He stepped out, accompanied by Joey Wong. Li Wenyu’s eyes lit up—at 34, Joey Wong wasn’t in her prime but remained a stunning beauty indeed.