Shanghai Rom-com

Comedians are offen depressive people. It's overcompensating. Those really depressive ones go for screwball comedies. That's almost like laughter overdose. Remember what the Joker said -- Why so serious?

Got feedback of my script from Rob on Monday. I was happy. The screwball part scares me a little. Maybe from now on, I shall focus on the romantic part in the "Romantic Comedy".

"Wow, you've written a screwball comedy, which is about the hardest thing to write. I think it's what they're looking for, if they only knew what they're looking for. I think it's well done. But it's weird to me that you wrote it in English because, although the form is American, what makes your script so interesting and endearing is that it's set
in China.

A project like this depends so much on casting. I see it as a latter-day screwball, like a Doris Day-Cary Grant project, only he's a slob and she's a cold, tough cookie and they're Chinese. Who's the big Chinese comic star? Somebody broad, with an elastic face, like Red Skelton, say.

I think you need to establish that he's from Bejing and she's from Shanghai, and play that for comic effect. Make a list of the different (opposite) qualities of people from those two cities and play that for all it's worth. They should be opposites in every way possible.

You have a bad habit of avoiding difficult scenes. The worst case of this is how you get them onto the ship - you get him drunk, then cut to them on the ship. Which feels like a cheat. You do the same thing when he jumps overboard. In the next scene, he's back on board and nothing's said about it. But I like him jumping overboard. In fact, I'd like it if the ending was him jumping overboard and her jumping after him. And the last shot is them together in a rubber raft, like James Bond and Pussy Galore, with the ship leaving them in its wake. (The opening shot should be a cruise ship pulling into Shangahi and a zoom back to the window on the 88th floor.)

I made a lot of little corrections in the script. I feel silly correcting your English, which is very good by the way. Most of my corrections are typos. Where should it?

Rob"

One of my favorite writers, Gulong（古龙）does the same thing. He always skips the big battles, giving you only the lingering aftermath of the story. Anyway, that's no excuse. I did kill myself for this script, first time in English, then in Chinese.