Chapter 256 - One Person, Seven Roles (2/2)
It was easy for women to dub men’s voices, but it was way too hard if it’s the other way around! He’d nailed each character so precisely, and it sounded natural, too!
“I want to go home!”
When Zhou Xun’s slightly drunken, caustic, and bright voice came on, the audience went wild.
Two female voices! And he’d managed to separate them, too!
When Takeda — played by Huang Jiaozhu — appeared, Zhou Xun pointed in confusion: “Who’s that?”
Her drunken demeanor could be heard clearly through these two short words!
“Long time no see. No wonder you’re a professional. This is the original copy, can we begin now?”
For Takeda’s part, he first mimicked the character speaking Chinese with a Japanese accent, then bellowed out in authentic Japanese.
The scene ended here, and Meng Fan concluded his performance.
Meng Fan took off his headphones and let out a deep breath. He was a nervous wreck! His voice had been a bit shaky in the beginning, but thankfully he was able to control it.
He opened a bottle of iced cola. The other voice actors at least tried to protect their throats and would drink mineral water no matter what, but Meng Fan was not like them. In one breath, he downed half the bottle and happily burped. Only then did he feel relieved.
The audience and guests — who were surprised by Meng Fan’s voice acting — laughed, intrigued by Meng Fan’s actions.
Meng Fan was only thinking about calming his nerves and didn’t realize he was still being filmed. He wasn’t trying to get attention or be arrogant. This was quite embarrassing.
“Isn’t he incredible?”
On the main stage, Uncle Kai had an exaggerated expression of astonishment on his face as he asked his audience: “Just now, I asked everyone to pay attention. Did you notice how many roles Meng Fan was dubbing?”
“Seven!”
“Yeah, he dubbed seven roles!”
Uncle Kai gestured a ‘seven’ with his fingers and returned to his boastful expression. “He voiced seven roles in one take, and it included two female roles and two languages as well! He matched each voice to its character; this is a difficult feat indeed! It would make people inevitably think of Han Xiaoxue’s reenactment from ‘Inside Out,’ where she voiced eight roles, male and female. But in my opinion, Meng Fan’s version was no less difficult than Han Xiaoxue’s performance.”
He then paused. “Han Xiaoxue’s clip had a faster rhythm and more characters, but Meng Fan’s clip was much more complicated. However, most importantly, we are all very familiar with the seven actors in this segment, how they sound like, and what their unique characteristics are. But Meng Fan was able to make it feel unobtrusive! This is talent, ah!”
The audience nodded in agreement with Uncle Kai’s objective and rational analysis. The contestants backstage agreed as well.
“Have you not heard enough from him?”
Uncle Kai asked once again, “Do you want to hear this clip again? Then please log in…”
Suddenly, an advertisement popped up.
Then, Uncle Kai announced: “Next, please welcome Meng Fan and his ‘Classic Voice’ segment, a scene from ‘Da Zhai Men.’”
He didn’t announce it was Meng Fan’s second clip, nor did he emphasize the redundancy. This was because once they aired the episode, it would be easier to edit and trim the clips.
Uncle Kai was particularly looking forward to the next segment. State Strategist Zhang*, the annual show’s big shot director sitting with the audience, was also looking forward to Meng Fan’s performance. He also did a cameo on “Da Zhai Men.”
*’State Strategist’ refers to the famous Chinese director, Zhang Yimou