There is a saying in Hollywood: "Men have Bruce Lee, women have Zhou Caiqin." ”
Zhou Caiqin, who is also?
She is Jia Mu in the new version of "Dream of the Red Chamber"; Auntie in "Memoirs of a Geisha"; May's mother in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."...
At the age of 20, she swept through London's West End and became the most dazzling Chinese in London; at the age of 40, she killed back to Broadway from the identity of a waitress; at the age of 80, Zhou Caiqin was still playing with Jay Chou in "The Amazing Monster Group 2".
Spanning three continents, Zhou Caiqin's three "springs" are also three eras, constantly climbing, constantly rising, and her life has always been in progress.
Some people say: life is like a drama, drama is like life, it is Zhou Caiqin.
In fact, Zhou Caiqin's life is far more exciting than the drama, and only such a life is worth director Chen Miao's painstaking interview and shooting for 6 years to achieve a life documentary about Zhou Caiqin.
This biographical documentary is "Daughter of Shanghai", released on July 2, directed by Chen Miao, which tells the story of Zhou Caiqin's life ups and downs.
Zhou Caiqin's life has many gorgeous labels:
Daughter of Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang
The first Chinese student in the history of the Royal Academy of Drama
The "Sussie Yellow" actor who resounds all over the world
Hollywood Chinese superstar
The first Chinese singer to publish a record in the UK
The first Chinese "007 Bang Girl"
......
Zhou Caiqin, who has such experience, can be called a "legendary superstar".
Zhou Caiqin's life, in her own words, is to experience three different periods of spring.
Her first spring began in 1959 with the role of "Su Si Huang", and Zhou Caiqin became famous for this role, swept through London's West End, and quickly swept the West.
The media chased her, people imitated her, Zhou Caiqin became the focus of the crowd's chase, and everyone began to understand this legendary woman from the East.
Zhou Caiqin is a child born in a theater box, his father is a generation of Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang, his mother is The chief celebrity of Shanghai Beach, Qiu Lilin, Zhou Caiqin was born on the way to Zhou Xinfang's tour.
It is said that the dragon gives birth to the dragon and the phoenix, and the children of Zhou Xinfang and Qiu Lilin are all dragons and phoenixes, but the most legendary is the third daughter Zhou Caiqin.
In the acting world, she has waded through the mire, repeatedly immersed in pain and despair, still able to shake off the mud, waving goodbye to the past to seek the true self, when she returns to the stage of life, everyone is welcoming the legendary superstar.
Zhou Caiqin's relationship with "actor" should start from her 16 years old.
At the age of 16, Zhou Caiqin was sent abroad by her parents to study, and she became a member of the Royal Academy of Drama with her talent and hard work, and from then on, Zhou Caiqin began her lifelong entanglement with the role of "actor".
As an oriental, Zhou Caiqin could not avoid being looked down upon.
Her Western classmates told her: "You can never get a show, you don't need an Oriental face on the stage in London." ”
Even a good friend advised her: "You are a foreigner, it is difficult to break out of the world." ”
But Zhou Caiqin did not believe in fate, she preferred to break in.
By chance, Zhou Caiqin got a chance to host a Peking Opera show, and it was this opportunity that made Zhou Caiqin, a girl who looked like Audrey Hepburn, become the focus of everyone's discussion overnight.
It was also at this time that the famous producer Donald Albury called Zhou Caiqin and asked her to play the heroine Sushuang in the stage play "Sushuang's World".
Wearing Shanghai's signature cheongsam, she conquered London, the center of the popular world, with the temperament of a Shanghaiese woman, and everyone cheered for this oriental girl.
"That day was the only time I was jealous of her, and I knew she was going to succeed." Zhou Caiqin's close friend later said in an interview.
During that time, the cheongsam was the most fashionable dress in London, straightening and dyeing black hair and painting almond eye makeup was the most popular dress, and Zhou Caiqin's "SuSi Yellow" sensationalized the whole of London.
“A star is born.”
Zhou Caiqin thus became a celebrity.
She enjoyed the joy of fame and continued to soar all the way to the pursuit of her theatrical dreams.
Not satisfied with her ambitions, Zhou Caiqin launched an attack on the big screen.
In just a few short years, Zhou Caiqin became the bang girl in "007 Thunder Valley".
Sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy, Zhou Caiqin ushered in the trough of her life.
Zhou Caiqin, who failed to invest, almost lost all her savings, and coincided with the economic crisis, and Zhou Caiqin, who had no savings, also lost all opportunities to perform.
Suffering always followed, and there was no chance for Zhou Caiqin to breathe: she learned from others that her father Zhou Xinfang had committed suicide.
Since then, Zhou Caiqin has begun to have frequent nightmares, worrying about her mother and herself.
She seemed to have been thrown into pain and despair, immersed in it for a long time and could not get out.
Under multiple blows, Zhou Caiqin chose the path of suicide, and timely rescue saved Zhou Caiqin's life, lying in a hospital bed for a full 17 days.
The trunk was cut down, but the big tree couldn't fall.
With this belief, Zhou Caiqin made an important decision: to go to the United States.
When she first arrived in the United States, she was as bleak as a blank slate, and her previous resume was not worth mentioning in front of many Hollywood actors.
Zhou Caiqin, who used to shine in London, successively applied for secretaries, typists, librarians and other jobs, working for her brother's restaurant, and her experience in the United States was even more depressed than that of ordinary blue-collar workers.
The tedious assembly line work made her tired, and she knew that these were not her own stages.
After waking up, she decided to return to her original intention: to go back to London that week, to return to the stage, to hear applause.
"Picking celery means going to school, and I think I'm going back to school." She said to herself.
She returned to school, immersed herself in stage drama, found herself in her day and night studies, and sought new students on her favorite stage.
This time, fate did not fail Zhou Caiqin, she successively played the heroine in the drama "Orestea" and "Red Letter", which once again blew up the stage and let people re-recognize this legendary oriental woman.
Finally, she ushered in the "second spring" of her life.
Before going to London to study, his father Zhou Xinfang once said to Zhou Caiqin: You must always remember that you are a Chinese.
This sentence has always influenced Zhou Caiqin, and it has become thicker and heavier in her long life trajectory.
Zhou Caiqin, who is in a foreign country, has always been worried about the motherland in her heart.
Having regained her life in Hollywood, she heard a call from her hometown of Shanghai.
In 1981, Zhou Caiqin, who was wandering overseas, was invited by the Chinese artist Cao Yuli to return to China and taught at the Central Academy of Drama for a period of time.
After a few months, she returned to Shanghai, where she said goodbye to her father, Zhou Xinfang.
In the empty room, when she saw a picture of her father hanging on the wall, Zhou Caiqin involuntarily knelt down.
This is her completion of her self-knowledge, the attribution of roots.
Her father Zhou Xinfang's influence on her was profound and thick, precipitated in every corner of her life, and Zhou Caiqin also hoped more and more that she could reach her father's artistic realm.
Under such influence, her acting skills, the character images she shaped, and her heart also became more and more plump and three-dimensional.
The 2010 version of "Dream of the Red Chamber", directed by Li Shaohong, won the popularity of actresses such as Yang Mi, Zhao Liying, and Li Qin.
In fact, there is also a very important character in it - Zhou Caiqin, the actor of "Jia Mu".
The role of "Jia Mu" is the role of 75-year-old Zhou Caiqin, who is widely known by domestic audiences, and when the drama was broadcast, most Chinese people began to really know Zhou Caiqin.
"Jia Mu" symbolizes that Zhou Caiqin is well known to the Chinese people, and also means that she has completed the peak of her life interpretation career.
For this role, Zhou Caiqin said: "Life, there is a lack of this part. ”
She returned to the embrace of her motherland and completed a classic work in her native language for the first time.
At the end of the film "The Woman of Shanghai", Zhou Caiqin said this sentence: "I have seen the sky, so I know that I will never rise so high, but this is not also my motivation." 」 ”
Her time is not the best, but she must be a legend in her time.
20 years old, 40 years old, 60 years old, across three continents, through three eras, Zhou Caiqin once again and again to shake off the mud and usher in a new life.
Legendary, but that's it.
Because of this, director Chen Miao was attracted to her and did not hesitate to complete a documentary about Zhou Caiqin's life, "Daughter of Shanghai", after 6 years of painstaking interviews and filming.
Of course, 90 minutes is difficult to interpret the life of this "pioneer woman", but this legend is worth tasting with heart.
On June 30, director Chen Miao came to Suzhou with "Shanghai's Daughter", which caused a heated discussion among the Suzhou audience.
After the screening, in order to better understand the film and its behind-the-scenes story, Yu Sister and the audience visited director Chen Miao together.
【Interview Transcript】
Host: How did you meet Ms. Zhou Caiqin, and how did you start shooting this film?
Director Chen Miao: I really knew her 20 years ago, when I happened to be working in Los Angeles, and one day at a party, I was responsible for sending the old lady home and using her as a temporary driver. At that time, I only knew a little about her, but I was full of curiosity about her, until I read the book "Daughter of Shanghai" written by her, she was very well written, many details were particularly able to hit the reader's heart, and the mind that wanted to shoot began to sprout.
The film officially began filming in January 2017, but in fact, in terms of preliminary preparation and authorization, we spent about 4 to 5 years to convince her, which actually began in 2012. During this time, she was actually testing me, which means that it means that you can see if you can do it, why you can shoot this film. I showed her my previous films, like "Children of the Stars", from which she learned about me, and she was touched by my sincerity in art and agreed to it.
Yu Sister: In the film "Daughter of Shanghai", Teacher Zhou Caiqin talked about the influence of her parents on her. Which of her parents do you think Ms. Zhou Caiqin is closer to, and who is more influenced by?
Director Chen Miao: In fact, I have discussed this issue with Caiqin, Caiqin's parents have brought her a profound and heavy influence, not to one side, the influence of her mother is to teach by example, and the influence brought by her father is what she realized little by little, which is deeply buried in her blood. Her achievements are not given by anyone, her father and mother have brought influence to Caiqin, but she has broken out of the world with her own strength, her parents have given her nourishment, and Caiqin is her own achievement. Due to the relationship of time, this film only presents a scene of Caiqin and her father reunited, the mother-daughter relationship is not well reflected in the film, if there is a chance, we also hope to make a feature film and make more fuss about the mother-daughter relationship.
Audience: This film is called "Daughter of Shanghai", but there are almost no scenes in Shanghai in the film, why did you name it "Shanghai"?
Director Chen Miao: When I was screening in Shanghai, some audience members asked me: "Why don't you put a shot of the Oriental Pearl?" There is nothing in Shanghai in the film. The real reason is not the word "Shanghai", it is a symbol, this place is of great significance to Zhou Caiqin, and it is the embodiment of Zhou Caiqin's lifelong "searching for roots". My trade-off is to use the emotions of father and daughter as the most basic clue, and at the end of the film, I may be able to achieve a certain state of fusion.
This film is about the relationship between father and daughter, and it is also dedicated to both father and daughter. After the daughter and her father were separated at the age of 17, they never saw each other again in their lives, and Caiqin held her father's name, but this name could not help her. I think this time it helped her fulfill a wish. The old lady was also very grateful to me, and I was also grateful to her, because we had completed the father-daughter reunion on a spiritual level.
Through this post-screening exchange, the audience understands the experience of Zhou Caiqin, a legendary woman, and understands the film to a higher level, the 90-minute film cannot accommodate Zhou Caiqin's life, but the audience can still feel her ups and downs and independent personality from these 90 minutes.