Cinema is a profound art form, capable of materializing the imagination in people’s minds. This is both its strength and its weakness, as the saying goes, “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.”
But movies limit those “thousand Hamlets.” The characters portrayed on the big screen can solidify the audience’s associations. If the characters’ performances are close to the original work, it’s fine, but too many differences will cause some dissatisfaction.
For example, one of the protagonists in the movie right now, the general manager of the financial center of TOP Real Estate Group with hundreds of billions of assets, should be a pivotal figure whose words and deeds should reflect a power that can almost control everything. However, the actor they found looks more like the owner of a small restaurant.
Ningma tried to focus his attention on the screen less than ten meters in front of him, but he couldn’t help but feel the lingering gaze from the beautiful woman beside him. Most of her elusive glances fell on the person next to her.
He hadn’t felt this way in a long time. The last time was twenty years ago in a large university lecture, when a girl from a neighboring department often stared at him over the crowd. It wasn’t until long after graduation that he realized the girl’s state at the time was called a crush.
Unfortunately, he was late to realize it. That was an extremely ordinary girl, and compared to the woman one seat to the right of him at this moment, there was almost no comparison. The latter was at least at the level of a beauty who could cause the downfall of a nation.
He could also see the colors from the corner of his eye: tall and supple figure, wearing a chiffon body-hugging dress, highlighting her curvy lines. Unlike the dark skin of the locals, her skin appeared as white as snow in the light and shadow, coupled with the evaporation of high-end perfume, it might be difficult for a normal man not to let his imagination run wild.
It had been a long time since he had experienced a similar heart flutter that disrupted his rhythm, especially since the other person was also single. Sitting in a scenic area hotel cinema cut off from the outside world, the so-called “romantic encounter” had almost all the right conditions.
Ningma took a deep breath, trying to ignore the gaze of the person next to him. It was also possible that the girl was just interested in the focused light projected above his head. After all, no girl who looked in her twenties would be curious about an old man, as they called them, who was over forty.
[If you see this text, please exit reading mode or go to the “source webpage” to read normally]
[Please go to the source webpage to read, the following content is automatically replaced to prevent collection] You──me, big──small, more──less, up──down, left──right….
“Excuse me, please let me pass.”
Suddenly, a low male voice came from beside him. He hadn’t noticed that there were new viewers coming in halfway through the movie, and they also chose the last row.
Ningma subconsciously looked up, and the mottled light reflected a face with distinct features. The age was probably in the early thirties, just the age when a woman exudes mature charm. In addition to the deep features, what left a deeper impression was a pair of starry eyes.
Slightly shrinking his legs, the man crossed diagonally, with a height of over 1.8 meters and an inverted triangle figure. If he wasn’t a regular at the gym, he was at least used to exercising. There was even a pleasant smell, he couldn’t tell if it was from his shampoo or shower gel.
The woman sat in the seat one space away to the right, in a semi-reclined position, her whole body sinking into the sofa. One leg was crossed over the other, and her left hand supported her face on the armrest, making her look even more fresh and handsome, resembling the current popular female star with the surname H.
Seeing Ningma looking at him, the man turned his head and slightly nodded as a greeting. Although it was just a simple action, in his eyes, it was as captivating as a beacon fire that amused the feudal lords, the only difference was the gender.
Michelangelo’s classical ugly female statues were nothing more than that.
For a moment, Ningma felt completely redundant. The beauty on the right was stunning, and the man on the left was like an idol in the dark night of Mong Kok. If anything happened, he would at most serve as a light-reflecting backdrop.
Discarding the unrealistic fantasies, he refocused his attention on the big screen. The story had continuous twists and turns, and the plot unfolded in multiple lines. He followed the interrupted train of thought after jumping forward, until his heart was no longer at peace. The ending was even more of a divine touch, but it didn’t capture the several metaphors left in the original work.
Perhaps the criticisms circulating on the internet mostly came from the moment when the protagonist boarded the smuggling ship. But in any case, the movie ended, and when the ceiling lights came on, the dark environment was instantly illuminated by the bright lights.
The audience began to leave one after another. Ningma found that including the young couple who had been arguing about leaving early and two middle-aged women who looked like business people, the person who had questioned him in the Chinese restaurant in the evening also saw Ningma sitting in the last row, but his gaze was slightly paused and then attracted by the sweet-looking boy next to him, and he stared for almost more than three seconds.
But fortunately, those people left the cinema one after another, although a few obviously had the mentality of hoping for an encounter.
Some people sit in the car or at the end of the movie, hating to wait at the starting point or the starting venue until everyone else has left before leaving. Ningma was one of them. The large cinema quickly emptied, after all, there were only a few people – except for the handsome couple next to him.
“Excuse me,” the man next to him got up, still with a magnetic voice, glanced at Ningma and nodded as a greeting as he passed him, “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” Ningma slightly tilted his upper body. His gaze was better aligned with the boy on his left. As expected, even in sufficient light, there was still not a single flaw to pick out in his appearance. The long hair over his shoulders reflected a youthful and lovely face, and his flashing big eyes quickly moved away.
He just didn’t know if it was an illusion, but at the moment when the man and the woman passed each other, they seemed to have an exchange of glances, a kind of familiar and meaningful exchange.
Only the two people in the last row were left in the venue. Ningma watched the woman disappear at the door. There were no cleaning staff, and the air was quiet and somewhat subtle. To avoid embarrassment, Ningma decided to break his rules and leave first.
But unexpectedly, at the same time as he stood up, the girl also got up. The timing was grasped without a single error. This kind of “tacit understanding” instead made the girl smile first, and that smile looked like spring blossoms in Ningma’s eyes.
“So are you also?” the girl asked generously.
Ningma was a little embarrassed at first, but then he covered it up with an awkward smile, “Oh, you mean you also like to be the last one to leave?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the girl nodded with a smile, “Then should I go first?”
“Since we both have the same habit,” Ningma also found it a little interesting, “Then it’s better not to break yours.”
“Oh – okay,” maybe it was because beautiful girls often received preferential treatment, even if it was just small things like going first or last, “Then I’ll stay at the end.”
Ningma smiled and nodded, but then found that it was almost impossible for two people to stand in the narrow aisle at the same time, unless one went first, or the other sat down to make way.
The girl didn’t sit back down, and she didn’t mean to leave first either. She just leaned forward with her exquisite body –
Ningma’s raised leg briefly stayed in the air for half a second, then he stepped out, leaning his upper body back as much as possible to avoid being too intimate. His legs slid past the gauze skirt one after another, and as expected, he felt that – under the skirt were straight and elastic legs.