The Taiwanese idol TV series "God of War", starring Zhou Yumin, Big S, Lai Yayan, etc., tells the story of a teenager who loves racing, and a young girl caught in a storm of feelings, because of their own persistence, find love and bright soul.
Stills from God of War
When it was broadcast, it swept across the taiwan strait and three places, and the handsome male protagonist image captured many female fans, and the lead actors Zhou Yumin and Big S also followed this drama.
And what no one may have found is that in this popular TV series of that year, there is a role of playing soy sauce, there are few scenes in the play, but the actor is a "big person".
The character who plays soy sauce is a police officer, played by Cai Yuexun, who is also the director of the TV series.
In addition to "God of War", Cai Yuexun's TV drama works include "Meteor Garden", "Leper Hero", "Late Night Canteen", etc., which can be said to be famous in the three places across the Taiwan Straits.
Interestingly, cai Yuexun seems to have become a habit of playing soy sauce in the drama he directed, in addition to making a cameo appearance as a police officer in "God of War", in the idol drama "Leper Hero" directed by him, Cai Yuexun also played the leader of a big villain.
In an interview, Cai Yuexun joked that the special effects had spent all the money, and he could not afford to hire a big actor to play, so he had to find a senior actor (Cai Yuexun himself) to play.
Stills from "The Leper Hero"
In 2017's "Late Night Canteen", Cai Yuexun and his wife Yu Xiaohui's son Fu Bao's family of three appeared in this TV series, cameo characters in the play.
Yu Xiaohui and son Fu bao (Cai Fengze)
Cai Yuexun, born in Taiwan on September 27, 1968, his father Cai Yangming is a well-known director in Taiwan, who just won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in 2021, and his tv drama works include "Fang Shiyu" and "A Curtain of Dreams".
Cai Yuexun's father came to Taipei from Beigang at a very young age, first ironing clothes, opening a laundry, and later becoming a film star, and during the downturn of Taiwanese films, he changed his career to directing. Cai Yuexun has three brothers, all in the film and television industry.
Cai Yuexun grew up living with his father in Taipei, self-deprecating that it was a "north drift", of course, this north is Taipei.
Cai Yuexun's father's personality had a great influence on him. When they were young, the place where they lived was very cold, the building manager was lazy, and his mother asked him to file a complaint, but his father stopped him from going, and said that the weather was too cold and the people were old enough to cut off people's livelihood. These details have a lot of influence on Cai Yuexun. After that, he followed in his father's footsteps, developed in the film and television industry, broke through the Taiwan film and television circle, and became a respected senior filmmaker like his father.
Taiwanese director Tsai Yue-hoon
In 1987, Cai Yuexun began to intern in his father's crew, starting from the work of scene notes and drama affairs, and gradually became an assistant director. After that, he starred in the film "Dumb" directed by his father.
In 1994, he participated in the costume TV series "Tang Taizong Li Shimin", playing Li Tai, the fourth son of Li Shimin.
In 1997, Cai Yuexun joined TVBS-G under the recommendation of Zhang Xiaoyan and began to produce and direct "Musical Love Story".
In 2001, Cai Yuexun and Chai Zhiping collaborated to shoot the Taiwanese idol drama "Meteor Garden", which became popular with the drama and the actors and production staff. Cai Yuexun also won the Taiwan Television Golden Bell Award for Director of Serial Drama with the drama.
After that, he filmed tv series "Leper Hero" and "Late Night Canteen", etc., and continued to win awards and continue to be hotly discussed.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > spent 5 million yuan to buy an airplane for a TV series</h1>
Once, Cai Yuexun had a very brilliant time in making idol dramas, at that time, there was a lot of investment, and the crew would also spend money.
When filming the movie version of "The Leper Hero", for the sake of film special effects, Cai Yuexun and the crew specially bought a plane and spent five million.
Why?
Because in the United States to rent a studio shooting, a day, artificial + lighting, etc., get 100,000 US dollars. At the end of the shooting, it cost more than three million, and finally they decided to buy it, only one million more than renting a studio, but after taiwan and even Asia have aircraft studios, no need to rent the United States. Soon after, Cai Yuexun spent NT$30 million to build Asia's first aircraft studio. At that time, the TV series spent 6-7 million yuan on more than 1,000 special effects, and a special effect of less than 3 seconds in "Leper Hero 2" cost 200,000. It seems that at that time they were not short of money, spending money lavishly.
It is reported that the production cost of "Leper Hero" cost 70 million yuan, and "Leper Hero 2" cost more than 100 million.
However, when filming the TV drama version of "Leper Hero", the special effects spent all the money, and Cai Yuexun could not afford to invite a big star to play the villain in the play, so he had to fight in person. It is said that this idea was proposed by his wife, Yu Xiaohui.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > pioneer of Taiwanese directors</h1>
Shooting idol dramas, Cai Yuexun is a pioneer among Taiwanese directors.
2002's "Meteor Garden" can be said to be the ancestor of Taiwanese idol dramas, and by the time of "Leper Hero", idol dramas finally gained a foothold in Taiwan. The reason why Cai Yuexun originally chose to be an idol drama director was because he wanted to shoot some TV series that resonated more with young people, and judging from the market feedback of these dramas, he was indeed successful.
In 2017, the new drama "Late Night Canteen" directed by Cai Yuexun was broadcast. The reason why this TV series was selected to be adapted into a TV series was due to the several books that Cai Yuexun bought at the airport bookstore, and those books were the original Japanese manga of this TV series. At that time, he was invited to adapt, but he was busy shooting "Leper Hero" at that time, and there was no schedule. Later, he politely resigned from his friend, so he had to buy the original comic to read when he was in a hurry to catch a plane at the airport. Soon, he was touched by the comic and decided to adapt it into a TV series.
However, after the adaptation of the manga, there are interesting tidbits.
For example, there are too many implanted advertisements, and the audience reflects that the bubble noodle implantation is like watching the advertisement, which is not as natural as the previous work. In this regard, Cai Yuexun was very helpless, he said that he did not even have the right to reduce the advertising implantation. Too many advertisements are implanted, which is a kind of "pain" in the hearts of directors. Cai Yuexun laughed at himself that his wish as a director had finally come true, because he had always dreamed of becoming a director of commercials, and now he was a success.
But he implanted whiskey and car ads in previous TV series, which are very natural, the audience did not think that it was implanted ads, thinking that the characters in the play just liked and used those items, which shows that in the early TELEVISION works, Cai Yuexun was a master of advertising implantation.
Although "Late Night Canteen" is not as well received as the previous TV series, after all, the number of viewers is huge, and it is difficult to take care of everyone's preferences. To be able to adapt a comic that touched him is also a wish to be fulfilled. However, it can be seen that this drama was completed under the pressure of friendship, and compared with dramas such as "God of War" and "Hero of the Leper" that were filmed out of love and voluntariness, the audience's comments were also different.
Perhaps, the first few are idol dramas, this is a food drama, the theme is different, the audience is different. Although this TV series has a lot of stars, compared with the idol dramas filmed before, the idol drama pays more attention to the feeling of star-making and love, and this food drama is completely different. Perhaps, this is why audiences have different evaluations of this new drama.
But perhaps, this is just a fun work of Cai Yuexun. Perhaps, the TV series he wants to make has already been filmed, and he wants to try a different subject.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Cai Yuexun's movie dream</h1>
Cai Yuexun also has his own film dream, his dream out of Asia, the vision of the world.
After filming a number of popular TV series and winning multiple Taiwan Television Golden Bell Awards, Cai Yuexun was not satisfied. His dream is to become a big director like Spielberg, and he hopes to be like him, always keep a childlike heart, constantly create new characters and imaginations, and have a film factory to support more young people to make movies.
He also said that when his movie dream came true, he would go to Kenting to buy a piece of land and live happily. It seems that Cai Yuexun also has a dream of returning to the peach blossom source after becoming famous.
Text/Entertainment E Week
(Figure from the network)
Like this article, please follow @Entertainment E Week