Rivalry

“Absolute Secret Order” was a commercial drama film.

Interpol received a clue that the world’s largest terrorist organization would plan a huge bombing in Las Vegas. Their mission was to disguise themselves and sneak into the largest casino in Las Vegas to find and prevent the terrorist organization’s criminal activities. The people who accepted this task were members of the Eagle Group. Their leader, Jo.Li¹ , was Chinese and was known as the best Interpol policeman in history.

At the same time, an informant provided clues that the largest fraudster in the country and his accomplices came to Las Vegas to continue their high-end fraud. Special policeman Xiang Fei, who was on vacation in Las Vegas, received a secret order to find and catch them, then escort them back to the country, preferably without alerting the local police.

Due to a strange combination of circumstances, the two parties mistakenly regarded each other as the target of the mission, and began a series of battles. In the end, of course, the misunderstanding was eliminated and they completed the mission together.

The veteran Interpol officer Jo. Li was played by Han Yuan, while Lu Yan played the up-and-coming special police officer Xiang Fei. The two had a lot of rivalry scenes in the play, from the initial tit-for-tat testing of each other to the final sympathy and cooperation, there was always confrontation.

“Ghost talent” director Xu Wei was best at making such dramas. With veteran actor Han Yuan and newcomer Lu Yan joining the cast, the film had already attracted much attention even before filming began. Fans were also looking forward to the collaboration between the two.

This was not the first time Lu Yan met Han Yuan. Before his rebirth, he had played a minor role in a movie shot by Han Yuan. He was just a very inconspicuous small role. However, being able to film with the master-level Han Yuan still made Lu Yan very excited at the time, even though there was no rivalry between them.

This was not the first time the two met after their rebirth. In addition to attending the Baicao Award Ceremony together, they also participated in a business event together, but they didn’t get on with each other.

But no matter what, this made it so that when the two met for the first time on the set, Han Yuan did not show a “who are you” expression, instead said hello politely.

Privately, Han Yuan was a quiet, gentle person, and could even be said to be a bit introverted. When there was no role for him, he mostly sat alone and quietly, rarely taking the initiative to talk to others, but if someone took the initiative to talk to him, he would respond politely. But because of his reputation as a super actor, most people thought he was very cold and didn’t dare to bother him. Only friends who were familiar with him knew that he just didn’t know how to take the initiative to communicate with others. Few people could imagine that Han Yuan, who made countless comedies in his early years and brought countless laughter to the audience, was actually a very quiet person.

However, once he stood in front of the camera, the whole person changed. Funny and humorous, serious and cold-hearted, laughing and scolding, domineering and handsome… He became whatever the character given to him was. In front of the camera, he was no longer Han Yuan, but the person in the script. His good friend in the industry, the famous director Wang Yi, said about him: “He was born to do this.” Lu Yan respected and admired Han Yuan quite a lot. He had watched every one of Han Yuan’s films, including those early ones that were dismissed as “bad movies” by many film critics, and he looked for the step-by-step transformation and growth trajectory of the great master Han Yuan. It can be said that even Han Yuan himself was not as familiar with his works as Lu Yan. Therefore, Lu Yan understood Han Yuan under the camera better than anyone else.

When he learned that he would be cooperating with Han Yuan, Lu Yan was only excited, not afraid. He was not worried about being suppressed at all. Know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger. Lu Yan has an extremely deep understanding of Han Yuan, but Han Yuan could be said to know very little about Lu Yan.

As Su Mo thought, what Lu Yan showed in the previous movies was not his true ability. It was not that he had any reservations, but many times, the display of your strength actually depends on your opponent. If your opponent is weak, even if you KO him in minutes, it still won’t show how strong you are. And if your opponent is very strong, even if you are slightly behind, you can still show your strength. The only person who can push you to the limit and show your true strength can only be an evenly matched opponent.

For Lu Yan, Han Yuan was both a senior and someone to learn from, as well as an opponent. Every bloody man longs for a hearty battle, no matter what form it takes. And an evenly matched opponent is sometimes more rare than ten loyal and reliable teammates.

Han Yuan didn’t know anything about Lu Yan. He only knew that Lu Yan was the Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer at the Baicao Awards last year. Although the Baicao Awards were a crowd award, there were also many people who really knew something among the masses, it was not all about looks. Director Li Ran, who had always been known for his harshness, also praised Lu Yan highly, which showed that this handsome young man was indeed very capable.

The first scene between them took place in a bar.

With the sound of a gunshot, the originally noisy bar immediately fell silent, with only soothing music still flowing slowly. Two masked gangsters suddenly appeared in the crowd that suddenly dispersed. One of them was holding a gun with the muzzle pointed upward and still smoking. It was obvious that the sound just now came from him.

No one knew why these two gangsters were so confused that they went to the bar to rob, but things have happened and they must be solved. The drinkers gathered in the corner under the threat of the gangsters, and the Interpol and the new special police officer who had disguised themselves and arranged to meet with the informant were no exception.

The gangsters began to force guests to hand over money and valuables, and the special policeman and the criminal policeman were silently thinking about how to subdue the gangsters without harming innocent people. There were two gangsters, and they all had weapons. What was even more difficult was that they were leaning against each other very alertly. If they couldn’t be subdued at the same time, it might cause a bigger commotion.

Both of them were observing the movements around them and thinking about plans. Suddenly their eyes met in the air. Out of an instinct, they both understood that what the other wanted to do was the same as their own, so they compared each other without being able to discuss. They made a few gestures, and then moved their hands in unison.

The two gangsters were quickly subdued with the joint efforts of two police officers. The crowd swarmed up and tied them up. Before the police arrived, the two men left quietly.

The most exciting and important part of this scene was naturally the part where the two of them worked together to subdue the gangster. There was no dialogue at all when the two people’s eyes met and gestures were exchanged. Even during the whole scene, there was no dialogue between the two, but the undercurrent was always surging, whether inside or outside the scene.

Han Yuan guessed that Lu Yan’s acting skills were good, but he didn’t expect that he would be so good. Before the filming started, he was already prepared for the possibility of NG. He was even thinking about how to comfort the other person appropriately without hurting his self-esteem if he showed a frustrated expression, and from what angle to remind him that he could do better. He still had a very good impression of Lu Yan.

As a result, after filming started, Han Yuan found that all the preparations he had made before were unnecessary. Lu Yan’s sense of drama was beyond his expectation. His originally reserved acting skills completely exploded when Lu Yan looked over. He realized that this might be an evenly matched opponent, and he didn’t even need to think about it. Realizing this made Han Yuan very excited. He had not performed heartily for a long time.

After that, the two of them worked hard, and every scene was full of sparks. Soon, the other actors who acted with them and the surrounding staff felt this energy. The first one to feel it was director Xu Wei.

This was not Xu Wei’s first time filming with Han Yuan, and he was quite familiar with Han Yuan’s condition. In recent years, he had rarely seen Han Yuan so excited when filming, as if he had been given a shot of blood. Just like a martial arts master, when one reaches a certain level, the heart will calm down, and it is difficult for anything to make one excited. Han Yuan’s acting skills were impeccable, but it always felt like something was missing. Now that Xu Wei thought about it, he realized there was a lack of passion.

But now, the passion was back. This Han Yuan was simply perfect.

Xu Wei soon realized that Han Yuan’s change was triggered by Lu Yan. He was a little surprised at first. This young man, facing the master-level Han Yuan, did not feel timid nor performed abnormally. It was already rare that he would not fall behind in the duel between the two, but he could actually arouse Han Yuan’s enthusiasm. It was simply incredible.

To be honest, Xu Wei was a little hesitant at the beginning when he decided to find Han Yuan to replace Gu Yang, who was unavailable. After Gu Yang recommended Lu Yan to him, he went to look for his information and felt very satisfied after understanding it. Moreover, he also watched “Blade” that the two filmed together, and the rivalry scenes were quite exciting. He could see their tacit understanding, so he was very confident that they would play the male lead together.

Unexpectedly, the plan couldn’t keep up with the changes. Gu Yang temporarily said no, and Xu Wei was really worried. Seeing that filming was about to start, one of the male leads was gone. What to do? Time was tight, and it wasn’t easy to find the right candidate and have a schedule. He happened to hear that Han Yuan was free recently, and after contacting him, the other party was also very interested. But Xu Wei was a little embarrassed.

He was quite optimistic about Lu Yan, but he had to admit that in his mind, Lu Yan and Han Yuan were not the same weight. He was also afraid that Lu Yan would be suppressed and unable to perform well. After all, he was still a newcomer who had just debuted for a little more than two years.

But in the end, Xu Wei decided to find Han Yuan. After all, it was not easy to invite such a great god, and there were so many considerations. If it didn’t work, it would just be a double male lead turned into male one and male two². If Lu Yan was not strong enough himself, he could not blame anyone.

Who would have thought that there would be such a surprise? Xu Wei was almost in awe of his brilliant martial arts performance.

Notes

1. In the original text its written Jo.李 ↩︎
2. Male one and male two: when two important or main male roles are played by two male actors respectively. The one with the most important role is called “male one”, the one with a smaller role is called “male two” ↩︎