Chapter 7: Good Beginning
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Perhaps because the cost issue was solved, the shooting process became much faster. Nonetheless, there were still many difficulties—the fellow playing Big Chris, who was the only character that benefited in the movie. While he had a fierce look, he looked less like a douchebag than the original actor; Vinnie Jones, the football hooligan. Therefore, Adrian spent most of the time shooting helping the new actor develop his emotions. He had no choice because Vinnie Jones was about to set a record for the quickest yellow card, so he could not have acted in this movie. Besides, Adrian had no connections with the English Football scene.
On the other hand, Dennis had been of great help during this period of time. Not only did the disheartened former actor do his best to play his role, but he often checked on other cast members to help them adjust their emotions. He was a great role model. Adrian, who noticed what he was doing, was impressed. He had only invited Dennis for fun back then, but it turned out that he had potential.
In addition, they shared an interesting fact, which was that they both had British and Chinese blood. This saved Adrian the trouble of needing to arrange classes for Dennis to pick up the British accent, and it also gave him a cordial feeling. Maybe the almighty being who put him here wanted to make him feel better. Adrian’s grandmother was a British who also had Chinese blood, and Adrian often learned to speak the Chinese language from her. That being said, his grandmother was only half-Chinese and was considered a second or third-generation immigrant, thus her pronunciation was not very accurate. As such, Adrian was actually quite poor in the Chinese language.
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Of course, it was a perfect disguise for Adrian at that moment, and he naturally had a favorable impression of Dennis, who could not speak even a simple sentence in Chinese. This made him feel like he was still slightly connected to his previous life, making him feel less… Lonely?
‘If the movie really turns out great, I can think about making a new male celebrity famous.’ Adrian said to himself. Nevertheless, the thought disappeared very quickly because his current priority was finishing the production of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.’ The Venice Film Festival was going to take place in a month.
“What the f*ck is going on?” The two men uttered a long time after they saw the corpse in the corridor outside the room. It was one of the thieves who stole the antique guns.
“Oh Jesus, not again?” Dennis, who was playing one of the men, glanced inside the room with a bitter look on his face. They had just left an apartment that was filled with corpses, so they were still in shock.
After taking a look at each other, they entered the room carefully. Soon enough, three more corpses came into view, which were on the floor, office desk, and behind the door respectively. Among those, the one behind the door had eyes wide open and was the fat guy who had threatened and bribed them earlier.
“That’s it, I’m off.” One of the men shook his head as he wanted very badly to leave the place, but the character whom Dennis played quickly called out to him, “Tom, that’s our bag.”
He pointed at the office desk, where their case filled with money robbed from the drug dealers was placed. He tip-toed over to avoid the corpses, then picked up the canvas bag to take a closer look.
“Yeah, this is our bag!” Dennis grabbed the bag and was going to leave.
“Good!” Adrian who was behind the camera shouted, then looked up to announce, “Very well, fellas, this take is done. Now, set up the scene, quick!”
Just as the workers sighed a breath of relief, they sighed in despair again. Even so, Adrian urged them as he could not wait to shoot the next scene.
“Eddy, don’t be in such a hurry, we still have time,” Dennis, who had only rested for a few minutes, walked over to Adrian to persuade him, “This is a great movie, you’ll succeed.”
Though he sounded like he was bootlicking, it was the truth. The plot synopsis of the film: (Eddy, who was played by Dennis, was a cardsharp. He and his friends were small-time criminals who put together some money to play a card game against “Hatchet” Harry in the hopes of winning easy money. However, the game was rigged, because “Hatchet” Harry intended to take possession of a bar that belonged to Eddy’s dad.)
(Of course, Eddy and his friends lost terribly. Being massively indebted to the gangster, and unable to seek help from his dad, he and his three friends had to rack their brains to come up with the money. One day, they overheard their neighbors plan a heist on some weed growers, and decided to rob their neighbors after their heist.)
(Meanwhile, “Hatchet” Harry’s assistant hired two dumb thieves to steal two antique guns that Harry was interested in. The guns ended up with Eddy and his friends out of coincidence, who then used them to rob their neighbors. However, their victims soon realize that they were robbed by their neighbors, thus revenge was inevitable. Additionally, the weed growers who were robbed in the first place had a gangster boss who later led his men to seek revenge after finding out that he was robbed.)
(Following that was another series of coincidences. The two parties had a shootout in Eddy’s house, and people from both sides died. By the time Eddy and his friends got home, they saw that their house was full of corpses. Although one fellow managed to escape with the money and the antique guns, he was so unlucky that he was mugged by Big Chris on the way. Chris later brought the money and the antique guns back to “Hatchet” Harry but was stealthily followed by the two dumb thieves who were threatened by Harry. At last, the strange combination of circumstances caused another violent shootout, and everyone from both sides died.)
The outcome was that everyone except the four main characters—the drug dealers, the robbers, and the boss—died, and all rather dramatically. There was also another character who survived and even took all the money in the end, Big Chris.
Guy Ritchie probably wanted to use this method to “take liberty with” the traditional view of a good turn deserving another, because Big Chris was much more upright than every other character in the film. Firstly, he did his part as a bodyguard very well as he always carried out orders given by his boss diligently, and never had the thought of absconding with the money when he collected debts; Secondly, he was a good dad. Although he was a rude man who always swore, he never allowed his son to curse.
Putting the drug dealers, the robbers, and the boss aside, despite being a thug, Chris was a rather conscientious man compared to the four main characters who always daydreamed about being rich overnight but ended up in a trap. He even told the four main characters that the antique guns were actually worth a fortune, but unfortunately, one of them was already trying to get rid of the guns. It was no wonder that Chris was in possession of the money in the end.
Regardless of how Guy Ritchie thought, it was indeed an interesting story. While all characters seemed unrelated in the beginning, they became interrelated as the plot deepened, and the whole film became very dramatic. The second or third-rate actors were probably not as attached to the film at the start, but they eventually became attracted to the story even though the shots were scattered—this was the charm of a non-linear film.
Especially when the shooting was during the core and most enjoyable part of the movie—the incidents that happened at “Hatchet” Harry’s office and the four main characters’ apartment—after Eddy lost the money in the card game, one of his friends told him that Harry was a ruthless character, so he would die a terrible death if he could not clear the debt. In order to emphasize that, his friend even gave an example that a man who enraged Harry in the past was beaten to death with a d*ldo!
One could imagine how humorous it would be for an old man to hit someone with a d*ldo the size of an eggplant. Even Jeff Elbro, a second-rate theatre actor from a London theatre who was hired to play “Hatchet” Harry admitted that it was an interesting challenge.
“Honestly, I’ve never played a character like this.” The old man laughed out loud after shooting the scene and kept shaking the d*ldo around.
Owing to that, there were many NG takes during that scene because the cast members were either unable to hold their laughter or the props moved because they were trying too hard to not laugh. Adrian almost lashed out at them.
Despite that, it was true that everyone thought that it was a great film, thus Dennis used it to flatter Adrian and to help the others at the same time.
Just like before, Adrian stared at Dennis for some time before he turned to wave at the workers who were busy moving things around. “If you’re almost done with the setup in 30 minutes, you may rest for another 30 minutes.”
Sighs of relief were instantly heard, and the workers began working faster.
“Listen, Dan. Your performance is great, and you really helped me a lot, but it doesn’t mean that you can persuade me to help them every time, okay?” Adrian warned Dennis.
“I have a sense of propriety, Eddy.” Dennis waved his hand.
When Adrian finally left, the workers were finally relieved, but they did not notice the exchange of glances between him and Dennis before he left.
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