While Meng Fan told Damei Workshop he was going to the Chocolate Factory, Wu Ji and others were on a flight back to China.
Initially, there were more than ten days of training scheduled at the MMA Asia training camp. After the group fight at the Kyoto Dome, however, everyone involved had to stop their training.
The rest of the people, who were doing group training at a dojo, also had to make changes. At the very least, more than half of the friendship games and the formal competitions couldn’t continue, so the group training’s effectiveness was greatly affected.
The MMA Asia training camp had been held for seven years, and this year’s session was undoubtedly the least effective.
“Ji Bro.”
Lao Hei switched seats and sat next to Wu Ji. He asked curiously, “Do you think Master Meng would agree?”
Wu Ji looked at Lao Hei sideways, “You call me Ji Bro and that kid Master Meng? What’s wrong with this picture?”
“Aye, I’m a moron.”
Lao Hei slapped his face and asked again. “Okay, Ji Bro, do you think your brother-in-law would agree?” He then chuckled. “Ji Bro, is this a better way to call Master Meng?”
Wu Ji didn’t want to waste time arguing with Lao Hei, but the older man’s question did annoy him. He thought and replied, “I doubt he’d agree. Meng Fan is afraid of pain. I had asked if he was interested in MMA fights before. He’s probably not interested in this challenge fight either. This fight is not a contract fight, but it is a formal MMA fight.”
Lao Hei seemed to agree, though he did look a little resigned. “Even though Master Meng is not a formal MMA fighter, he’s obviously really good. It was crazy how those professional Korean and Japanese fighters challenged Master Meng, an amateur fighter. I was really looking forward to Master Meng throwing down those two, especially that Korean guy. He was too cocky.”
“Too cocky? You better practice, so you can win one day!”
“Ji Bro, don’t provoke me. I really do want to beat him!”
…
“‘The Croods 2?'”
Meng Fan greeted a group of people when he arrived at the Chocolate Factory, then he saw the name of the Dreamworks film. His eyes lit up. “Is this ‘The Croods 2?’ It’s definitely playing?”
“The Croods” played in ’13; it had great ratings and reviews. This film was one of Meng Fan’s favorites from Dreamworks.
After the great box office and reviews, Dreamworks quickly started production of the sequel. But due to operational reasons, industry competition, and company mergers, the film was postponed from ’17 to ’18. Then the film was stopped by the producers. It wasn’t until one year after Dreamworks was acquired by Universal, and during ’17 that the project was relaunched and confirmed to air the following year.
After several cancellations, Meng Fan thought there was no chance the film would air the following year. But now, the Chinese voiceover schedule is out, so it’s pretty certain the film will air next year.
“Where’s the sample film?”
Meng Fan was excited and wanted to see the film.
Charlie chuckled. “There’s no sample, just a few clips. We’re still picking the cast, so we don’t have a sample. When we have finished casting, we’ll have a sample. As far as I know, this film would play around the Lunar New Year, so it’s two months away. There could be a sample film in a month.”
Meng Fan was a little disappointed. Well, at least he would have a few clips to watch, it was better than watching the trailer.
“Director Di was Ugga in the first Croods movie, she was the Chinese voiceover for the female lead’s mom. This time, she’d probably be the dubbing director for the whole movie. She gave me the voiceover schedule.”
Charlie took out the character cards and told Meng Fan, “When I was waiting for you, I called Director Di and told her you were here. She said some of the cast from the first film would be replaced and recommended you to be the voice for Guy, Ugga’s brother Tank, or the new villain in the second film. They’re all important characters.”
To be honest, Charlie was envious. Di Feifei really valued Meng Fan.
Meng Fan seemed eager. “Let’s watch the clips.”
While most young people liked to watch the original when watching films from overseas, Chinese-dubbed versions were still a big part of the market. There have been some classics with dubbed versions. Some of them were even better than the original, such as dubbed versions of animations from Disney, Dreamworks, and Pixar.
Take “Croods,” for example, Meng Fan watched the dubbed version during his first task when he couldn’t get the original. The quality was beyond his expectation. Even after he watched the original version while doing the second task, the voice of Grug was still Tony Leung and not the original voiceover actor, Nicholas Cage.
Of course, the voiceover for Guy was still quite different from the original voice. It wasn’t so much that Huang Xiaoming did a bad job, but that Ryan Reynolds was too good.
After they watched the clip and voiceover requirements, Meng Fan gave samples for all three important roles Director Di recommended him for. It would be up to Director Di and the Chinese producers to decide if he’d get any of the roles.
Meng Fan was efficient, so he got the samples done in very little time. While the other CVs were still hard at work at the workshop, he got to leave.
He rushed back to school to Hu Heng’s workshop just in time for Wu Tong. The two of them smiled at each other. Together, they walked toward the girls’ dorm. Wu Tong put her arm inside Meng Fan’s.
So he came all this way just to walk Wu Tong back to the girls’ dorm. There were less than 400 meters between Hu Heng’s workshop and the dorm, yet Meng Fan managed to turn the walk into 1,314 steps. If time allowed, Meng Fan could easily walk another 520 steps.
Of course, if Wu Tong allowed, Meng Fan wouldn’t walk to the girls’ dorm at all.
“What if you moved in?”
Meng Fan had wanted to say this for a hundred times but still didn’t dare.
“It’s getting colder. Go home.”
Downstairs from the girls’ dorm, Wu Tong closed Meng Fan’s collar and gave him her scarf. She said, “Let’s jog twenty minutes later than usual starting tomorrow. Do you have a hand warmer? Bring one next time, you’d feel warmer.”
Meng Fan grabbed Wu Tong’s hand, he chuckled. “This is my hand warmer. I do want to keep it with me all the time.”
“Stop fooling around. Go home already.”
Wu Tong rolled her eyes at Meng Fan and headed back into the dorm. She smiled at everyone who saw them.