On the big screen, in the darkness, a yellowish moth, fluttering its wings, was flying toward a light spot. The light spot grew bigger and bigger. In the end, it turned into a fiercely burning flame! The moth flew into the flame decisively. The image suddenly grew very bright. A beautiful, idyllic view showed up, with blue skies and white clouds, green grasses and colorful flowers. A colored butterfly was dancing. The yellowish moth, whose wings were shining as if there were flames flowing on them, flew toward it. The moth and the butterfly danced together. Together, they flew up. Between them rose a flame, below which two words showed up—Flames Films.
Watching the twenty-second-long intro, Wang Yang took a deep breath. He vaguely saw some faces in front of him, which were alternating ceaselessly. Zachary, too happy to stop singing and dancing; Michael Pitt, whose eyes had turned red; Harry George, touching the camera with an obsessive passion; impatient call girls; the person limping out of the back alley; and himself, on the street of Santa Monica, too excited to control himself. Wang Yang closed his fist tightly. He believed all moths brave enough to fly into a flame would absolutely show their beauty to the world sooner or later. Absolutely!
Most people in the screening room felt curious or puzzled. They had different understandings about the intro. Jessica clapped her hands gently. She knew what the intro symbolized because she had asked Wang Yang about it. Wang Yang answered her with a big smile, “I’m the moth; many people are the moth. Some people are the butterfly; many people are the butterfly. But Jessica, no matter whether you are the moth or the butterfly, as long as you are brave enough to seek the light—brave enough to take that step to fly into the flame—you will transform. And then, you’ll be flying in a beautiful world. Be it a success or a failure, you will be happy. That’s the world for the dreamers.”
Looking at the big screen, Rachel suddenly recalled some long-lost memories. That day in the bar, she had said to Wang Yang, “You are like a moth flying into a flame. Very romantic!” She felt her chest tighten. She felt it hard to breathe. She said to herself, “A moth flying into a flame. Courage. Transformation. As long as you have the courage to quest for the light, you will find the beauty.” Turning her head to the left to look at Wang Yang, she thought, “Yang, is that so?”
After the intro, the beautiful, snowy view of the Wasatch Mountains around Salt Lake City appeared on the screen. A New Year’s party was going on at the resort. The atmosphere was quite lively. Then, the cast showed up on the screen. Starring: Tom Welling, Jessica Alba, Rachel McAdams, and Zachary Levi. Cinematography by Wally Pfister, Director: Wang Yang.
Wang Yang and Jessica smiled at each other. They secretly held their hands together with their fingers interlaced. The promise from their childhood had been realized. He was a film director, and she was a leading actress. And they were together.
At this moment, Gabriella, played by Jessica, showed up. The great New Year’s party seemed to have nothing to do with her. She was in her room, indulging in a book. Then, her mother walked into her room and tried to persuade her to go downstairs to enjoy the party. Then, there was another scene. Troy Bolton and his father were practicing basketball, and his mother asked them to stop practicing and enjoy the vacation and the dance party.
The students sitting in the screening room were looking at the big screen, full of interest. A freckle-faced, white, teenage boy was beaming. He had not been one of the top-ten winners of Show Your Talent, but he was one of the one hundred lucky people. This won him envy from his schoolmates, and he had become famous in the school this way. In the interaction session before the movie, he even got Gabriella’s signature. How exciting that was!
Soon, it came to the scene in which Troy and Gabriella had been pushed onto the stage. They were singing together helplessly, but they surprisedly found that their collaboration was quite smooth. As they sang better and better, they felt drawn to each other more and more. This also excited the young people around the small stage. They could not help but start to dance with the rhythm.
“This could be the start of something new. It feels so right to be here with you…” Their beautiful voices were echoing in the screening room. The student audiences were all talking about the song.
“It’s a great song!” the freckle-faced, teenage boy said excitedly. “My God. Jessica is so cute!”
A black-haired white girl next to him covered her chest with her hands. She exclaimed with excitement, “Wow, Troy is so handsome. He is a great singer!” Soon, the romantic scene of the two leading roles watching fireworks together made her exclaim again. “Wow, how I want this to happen to me…”
As the New Year’s dance party at the beginning of the movie ended, then came the first scene in East High. The Wildcats’ joyful song was being played. The melody sounded so bright that the current image seemed to be full of sunshine. The distant view of the spacious, beautiful school—skateboard masters, basketball players, cheerleaders—energetic, youthful figures were everywhere. The school bus came. Troy jumped off the bus. Everyone came up to him. He walked toward the school with them surrounding him. They kept repeating, “What team?!”
“Wildcats!”
“What team?!”
“Wildcats!”
By then, all of the movie critics were kind of surprised. They stopped looking down on the movie. The images of the movie were great. The color was wonderful, and they had a brightness that approached dazzling, but the youthful feeling was deeply rooted in them. The music was great, too. It played a perfect role to add some special touches to the story and the image. The acting was not as childish as they had imagined at all. A great part of the acting was subtle and imperceptible, like how Troy jumped off the school bus—enough to make the roles alive.
“Okay. Let’s take the time to enjoy it!” The movie critics and journalists all turned serious. As the story developed, the student audience was also deeply absorbed in the movie. They only commented or exclaimed to themselves very occasionally.
Wang Yang had seen this 100-minute-long movie many times. He knew every shot in it well. He knew how those shots had come about—shooting, editing, film tinting… despite all this, he was still enjoying it. He would never get bored with it. Looking at the images on the big screen, he said quietly with a smile, “This is where the true expression of the artist is realized…”
On the stage shown on the big screen, Ms. Darbus was acting in a dramatic way. She said in an intoxicated tone, “This is where the true expression of the artist is realized—where inner truth is revealed through the actor’s journey…”
The first-round audition started. There were a few singing and dancing performances in a row. After the arrogant performance of Sharpay and Ryan, who were sister and brother in the movie, played respectively by Rachel and Zachary, it was Troy and Gabriella’s duo. After the audition, the news that Troy and Gabriella had gotten into the callback audition shocked the students of East High. Then, it was the scene in the pantry. The students, encouraged by the shocking news, opened up and spilled their guts to each other. It turned out the muscular, black basketball player liked to bake, the gentle and quiet fat girl liked hip hop and breakdancing, and the skateboarder wanted to be a cello player who played in auditoriums in a coat and tie.
Looking at the spacious luminous pantry, many students kept exclaiming, “Cool. This school is so cool. Their pantry is awesome…” Everyone on the big screen was dancing. They jumped onto the tables placed in the pantry. They sang in a loud voice. This made the screening room full of exclamations. The students looked at each other with interested, eager smiles.
“They are having a party in the pantry!”
“That’s crazy. When can we do the same?”
“I actually want to be a pilot…”
“Dead Poets Society?” a movie critic murmured, scratching his head. But this was apparently not as serious as Dead Poets Society. Everything was so positive. It might not be so profound, but it was approaching the same topic: what kind of person do you want to be? Are you willing to be fettered by the rules of the society, the judging look of your friends, and the expectations of your family? Or do you want to do what you are really interested in and be the person you want to be?
This topic was being approached in a joyful and relaxing atmosphere. There was no preaching involved. Nothing was heavy. Everything gave people a comfortable feeling. Sometimes it was even a little funny. On the screen, Sharpay walked down the stairs aggressively. However, Gabriella slipped. The box of French fries, drizzled with sauces, flew into the air and ended up smashing onto Sharpay. That brought the singing and dancing in the pantry to a sudden halt. Everyone looked at Sharpay, astonished. Sharpay screamed at the top of her lungs instantly.
The screening room burst out in raucous laughter. The student audience was all gloating. Even Sharpay’s fans were laughing.
Seeing herself so embarrassed, Rachel laughed happily as well, showing her cute dimples. After complaining to Ms. Darbus, Sharpay was so pissed off that she really needed to vent her anger on someone, so she punched Ryan, who was standing next to her, in the chest. Then, she left, feeling mad.
Zachary, sitting beside Rachel, frowned. Touching his chest, he said, “Ouch, Rachel. That punch really hurt. I almost fell down.”
Looking at him, Rachel said with a smile, “I’m sorry. But it’s Yang who designed this. You should seek your revenge against him.”
They did not intentionally lower their voices while speaking, so Wang Yang overheard them. Turning his head to them, he said, “Hey, Rachel, I only wanted you to give him a push. The credit of that punch certainly goes to you.”
Rachel said with a smile, “The instruction I got was ‘very, very angry’. That’s why I punched him. The credit actually still goes to you.”
Wang Yang smiled. He was about to refute, but he suddenly held his tongue and only said, “Okay.” Then, he looked back at the big screen.
At this moment, it was the scene of the rooftop garden, where Troy and Gabriella opened up to each other. The students were watching quietly. Many people were instantly touched by this beautiful episode of pure, teenage love. It was beautiful, wasn’t it?
Thinking of how the close-up shots for this scene had been shot, Wang Yang and Jessica exchanged a look and smiled at each other. That was why editing was said to be wonderful magic that could con the whole world. Smiling, Wang Yang put his index finger against his lip, making a shushing gesture to Jessica. He said quietly, “Don’t tell anyone!”
With a pretend nervousness, Jessica said, “Okay. I will keep it a secret!”
The journalists and the movie critics intuited something unexpected. This was not a terrible movie at all. It was not what people had imagined—something with a boring and childish plot, roles with lunatic personalities, abrupt and immature singing and dancing scenes, shaky DV shots, and images with terrible colors… no, it had none of these. These comments had nothing to do with this movie! This movie turned out to be quite okay. Maybe… it could even recoup the cost? Look at those students. They had completely lost control of their own emotions. It was the movie that was eliciting emotions in them.
Yes, the students focused all their attention on the movie. They were here to watch it. And they were the ones who were most absorbed in it. When they had seen Troy and Gabriella misunderstand each other because of their friends’ attempts to sabotage their relationship, and thus canceled the callback audition—despite knowing the movie would not end like this, they just could not help but shout “Come on!” in the screening room, unhappy with what had happened in the movie. Then, they quieted down again when they saw Gabriella singing with a broken heart. When those friends reflected on their doings and realized they should support Troy and Gabriella in pursuing their dreams, they helped the two clarify the misunderstanding. Seeing this, the students jumped for joy for them in spite of the rules of the cinema. They cheered in loud voices, “That’s the way to go!””I knew they would be fine!”
Those voices did make Wang Yang feel relieved. He was extremely excited and satisfied. Looking at Jessica, he said with a big smile, “Looks like Miranda will be surprised, again!”
Jessica also felt very happy. Nodding, she showed a sweet and beautiful smile. She said, “Yang, everyone will be surprised by you again.”
Shrugging and smiling, Wang Yang said, “Well, that won’t be good if a teen musical turns into a thriller.”
The story came to the last part. Due to Sharpay’s scheme, the callback audition of the musical, the playoff game of the basketball team, and the scholastic decathlon coincided. To enable Troy and Gabriella to take part in the audition smoothly, all of their good friends helped.
On the big screen, the colors of the images suddenly changed. The bright colors disappeared, and a dark shade dominated. In a small room, stacked with sundries and devices, a decadent, teenage boy was clicking away at his computer. As soon as he hit Enter, it showed on the computer screen that data had been sent. He said into the cell with an evil smile, “Cracked.” The music here was very interesting, while the image looked really cool. There was nothing weird. Instead, the combination of the music and the image had a wow factor.
“Wow, this guy is so cool and handsome. Who is he?” All girl students started to wonder, feeling curious.
Seeing himself on the big screen, Michael Pitt was so emotional that he trembled. He closed his fists tightly. His eyes turned red. Looking at Harry George, he murmured, “That’s me. I’m on the big screen. That’s me…”
Harry George said to him with a frustrated face, “Hey man, don’t speak to me. My take was deleted. My take…”
Smiling at him, Michael Pitt said firmly, “Harry, you will see your takes on the big screen one day. It will happen.”
Harry nodded. In high spirits again, he said, “Yeah, man. I think so too.”
With their friends’ help, Troy and Gabriella managed to attend the callback audition of the musical. In the scholastic decathlon that resumed later, Gabriella led the East High team to win the championship. In the playoff basketball game that resumed later, Troy shot a buzzer-beater as time expired, so the team won the championship! Then, it was the last singing and dancing scene of the movie—a chorus and a group dance in the basketball gym. The basketball players, the cheerleaders, the students, the audience, everyone was dancing, expressing their joy and showing a youthful vibe.
The singing voices were echoing in the screening room. “We’re all in this together. Once we know that we are. We’re all stars. And we see that. We’re all in this together. And it shows when we stand hand in hand. Make our dreams come true. We’re all in this together. When we reach, we can fly. Know inside we can make it. We’re all in this together. Once we see there is a chance that we have, and we take it. Wildcats sing along. Yeah, you really got it going on. Wildcats in the house. Everybody say it now. Wildcats everywhere. Wave your hands up in the air. That’s the way we do it. Let’s get to it. Time to show the world. Come on everyone!”
The joyful scene and the pleasant song, along with the seemingly motivating lyrics, made the students quite thrilled. The freckled boy could not help but whistle. Applauding, he got to his feet. The atmosphere was suddenly very lively. Everyone stood up, one after another, waving their hands and shimmying, singing with the movie characters “We’re all in this together”. Everyone in the screening room stood up. The crew stood up. The journalists and the movie critics stood up as well, smiling. They kept clapping their hands as if this was a grand party.
“Wildcats sing along. Wave your hands up in the air.”
Wang Yang got to his feet with his eyes shut. He waved his hands up, feeling that feeling again as if he were embracing the whole cinema. The audience was happy and mad because the movie that was showing on the big screen made them so, due to the crew and the cast’s hard work and efforts. This was the world inside the flame. It was so beautiful. He loved everything here.
Next to him, Jessica, Rachel, Tom Welling, Wally Pfister… they had all gotten to their feet, applauding with a big happy smile, proud of the fruit of their joint work. Everyone contributed to it. Everyone gained something from it. The applause and cheers belonged to the whole crew and the whole cast.
When the last scene of the movie had ended and the icon of Flames Films had appeared again, the students in the screening room were still excitedly cheering, and the thunderous applause remained very loud. The journalists and the movie critics looked like they could not believe this was true. It seemed this movie might reach a great box office gross. They had started to consider how to put the title of their reports and how to predict the box office gross. The Surprising High School Musical? Magic Yang, a Bright New Directing Star?
The crew and the cast of High School Musical hugged and congratulated each other. Wang Yang hugged Jessica, Tom Welling, and then Rachel. Looking at Rachel’s clear eyes and smiling face, he said in a low voice, “Thank you!” Then, he let go of Rachel and hugged Zachary.
“Thank you. Thank you, everyone!” Wang Yang hugged everyone from the crew and the cast. He took the microphone the staff of the cinema had prepared and walked back to the middle. Gazing at the audience, he said toward the microphone with a big smile, “Hey, guys!” The audience quieted down gradually. Everyone was looking at Wang Yang. Smiling, he went on, “Thank you for your support. This is a great premiere. Today is also our pretty ‘Gabriella’ Jessica Alba’s birthday. She is eighteen years old today. This is one of the most important moments of her life. Guys, please, let’s congratulate her together, all right? Everyone, say it with me: Jessica, happy birthday!”
Jessica was astonished. Covering her mouth with both hands, she heard everyone in the screening room shouting before she could come to herself.
“Jessica, happy birthday!”
Everyone was clapping their hands and smiling, giving her their best wishes. Somewhere in the audience, Mark and Cathy Alba were both smiling, feeling happy for their daughter. Next to them, Joshua was cheering, waving his fist. He shouted in a loud voice, “Jessica, happy birthday. You owe me a thank you!”
“Jessica, happy birthday,” Wang Yang congratulated Jessica in a gentle voice after walking up to her and putting down the microphone.
Gazing at him, Jessica felt her heart beating extremely fast. However, she felt she had a lump in her throat. She had imagined many times how her eighteen-year-old birthday would be like, but she had never expected it to be so pleasing and joyful. She could not help but open her arms. Hugging Wang Yang tightly, she said to him, “Thank you, Yang!” Closing her eyes, she said to herself with a pious heart, “Dear Lord, I thank you for all the good things you have given me. You have made my last year’s birthday wish come true. Now I only hope all this can remain unchanged. My merciful Lord, please grant me that…”
Wang Yang pushed her away gently after the quick hug. There were too many journalists here, and their relationship should not be exposed in such a moment. Looking at the audience again, he picked up the microphone. He said with a smile, “Would you sing Happy Birthday with me together?”
Soon, everyone in the screening room started to sing the Happy Birthday song together, as if in one voice. The staff of the cinema brought a giant cake. Beaming, Jessica blew out the eighteen candles on the birthday cake.
When the premiere had been officially over, the crew and the cast of High School Musical and their families and friends went to a hotel for a dinner party. It was also a birthday party for Jessica. Wang Yang did not go back to his apartment until very late. His parents had come here from San Francisco especially for the premiere, but they were not staying with him. Instead, they were staying at a fancy hotel.
Wang Yang got Mark Strong’s call as soon as he got home. He sounded very excited. “Yang, the attendance rate at the test screening schools in Los Angeles tonight was pretty good. The response we received from the audience is great. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see some box office figures. That being said, boss, there is a great chance we will succeed this time!” Laughing, he said, “We might be able to evoke a craze for singing and dancing for real. We should start to think about releasing the original soundtrack!”
Wang Yang showered after the call. Then, he went to bed, intending to get some sleep. However, he just could not shut his eyes. Staring at the ceiling, he had a lot of things on his mind. He achieved making a movie and then making his first film movie. He became the youngest-ever director and a multi-millionaire. He owned a film studio, had a pretty girlfriend who he liked, and she liked him back. He realized his dreams. All this happened in one year. All of this could drive people crazy.
He, a moth, was flying farther and farther, and higher and higher… Wang Yang let out a long sigh. Why was he a little afraid? Why was he feeling that there was nowhere for him to land? Was he scared that he would fall onto the ground, be picked up, and be pressed into a book as a specimen? Or, was he afraid he would lose sight of the initial flame as he flew farther and higher? What was that flame?
“Wow, the people in there are huge. Mum, are they giants?” he asked his mother, who was next to him, in surprise. Looking at the big screen, he felt he had found a new world.
“Haha, this is my movie scene!” He was looking at the sun, the lawn, the house, and his parents and himself holding hands together on the paper, quite pleased.
“My dream? Well, maybe I can be a movie director. I will have the chance to see those deleted scenes as a director. Oh, yeah, I want to be a director!” he said to Jessica confidently.
…
“D*mn!” Wang Yang suddenly sat up. He got off the bed and walked out of the bedroom barefoot. He felt the ground under his feet very cold. Walking into the living room, which was completely dark, he turned on the home theatre. He pulled a drawer of the TV cabinet open and looked for something in it until he found a DVD, the cover of which was printed with a smiling boy looking at films—Cinema Paradiso.
He put the DVD into the DVD player. Then, he sat down on a cane sofa, pulling his knees up to the chest. Breathing deeply, he looked at the TV screen, where Cinema Paradiso was being played.
“Now I’m older, Alfredo, and I’m in the fifth year. I’m not asking to go into the booth, but couldn’t we at least be friends?” Toto said to Alfredo.
“When the cinema is full, you hear people laughing, and that makes you happy. It makes you feel good. Like you’re the one who makes them laugh and makes them forget their troubles,” said Alfredo.
“And when she smiles, you feel… I don’t know.” Toto looked he was bothered.
Alfred said, “Love!”
“Go away! Go back to Rome. You are young. The world is yours. I’m old. I don’t want to hear you anymore. I want to hear about you… whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little boy,” Alfredo told Toto.
Then, Toto went to Rome. The relationship between him and Elena ended somehow. Many years later, he became a great director. He went back to his hometown—a place that had changed so much that he could not even recognize it.
He hadn’t realized it, but Wang Yang’s eyes had turned red. He was trembling. Seeing Toto going to watch the deleted films Alfredo had left him, Wang Yang held his breath. He was so emotional that he did not even know where to put his hands.
He saw black-and-white films alternating on the TV screen. With his head in his hands, tears welled up in his eyes. This was what he had always wanted to watch. This was what he wanted to quest for…
Soon, the movie ended. Wang Yang sniffled. He picked up the remote and pressed a button to rewind the movie. The relaxing music came again. Looking at the scene of those films, he wiped tears off the corner of his eyes and broke into a smile.