The gap between the new version of "Three Kingdoms" and the 1994 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is in everyone's eyes.
However, Pigo observed a particularly interesting phenomenon.
When mentioning the old version, everyone is praising Bao Guoan as Cao Cao, Tang Guoqiang as Zhuge Liang, Lu Shuming as Guan Yu how outstanding, few people will mention Liu Bei played by Sun Yanjun, in a number of roles, Liu Bei's sense of existence is very low.
When it comes to the new version, everyone is scolding the screenwriter for being unreliable, Chen Jianbin played Cao Cao as a "hooligan", Lu Yi played Zhuge Liang too young, Zhang Fei directly played Li Kui, but few people will be lower than Liu Bei, who is played by He Wei.
As a result, also starring liu Bei, Sun Yanjun became a "tall boy in the tall", Yu Hewei became a "general in a short child", and the two seemed to be able to break their wrists.
So who is more in line with the original work of Liu Bei, who played them, and where is the difference?
1. Sun Yanjun's performance
The most difficult character to play in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is Liu Bei, the reason is that this is a novel by Liu Shucao, the protagonist in a play is difficult to play, and the protagonist without shortcomings is even more difficult.
Let's say that Cao Cao, although he is a villain in the novel, he can give full play to his acting skills for the actor and interpret the layered sense of Cao Cao's adulterous male.
Let's say that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, although they are also decent protagonists, but they have some shortcomings, Guan Yu is very proud, Zhang Fei is a reckless person, this is the edge and corner of the role, so that the actor has a fulcrum to act, can play better.
Some people will definitely say that Zhuge Liang is also a decent protagonist with no shortcomings, don't forget how Lu Xun evaluates Zhuge Liang, "more wise and close to the demon", Zhuge Liang and Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West" and the Dingdang cat in "Doraemon", are god-like beings, and the sense of existence is also full.
And Liu Bei is a smooth circle, the actor can not act vigorously, the role has no growth, it seems that from the appearance to the end is a character, and there are few events to pave, the description of the expression is almost nothing, many people have such a feeling after reading the novel, Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu are all vivid and plump characters, only Liu Bei is like a paper man.
The difficulty of playing Liu Bei is also that he is the Emperor of Han Zhaolie, and he must have the spirit of an emperor in addition to being generous, which is rarely mentioned in the novel, and it all depends on the actors themselves to figure it out.
Lu Xun described Liu Bei as "thick and like a fake", and in the performance, he also had to perform the "pseudo" side, this shortcoming is not as innocuous as guan Yu and Zhang Fei's shortcomings, but touched the foundation, and must not be acted, otherwise Liu Bei would really become a hypocrite, the justice of the Shu state regime could not stand, and the whole drama would collapse.
Sun Yanjun faced such a "happiness trouble", he went to the crew to change into Liu Bei's costume, he was recognized by the director Wang Fulin, and was the first actor in the whole crew to be determined, but he did not want to act.
He has been familiar with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" since he was a child, the most annoying is the crying Liu Bei, the role he most wants to play is actually Cao Cao, but this role has been taken by his brother Bao Guoan, and finally the assistant director Cai Xiaoqing repeatedly advised him not to give up this opportunity, and he took over this role.
Many years later, Sun Yanjun confessed that the role of Liu Bei had suppressed him for three years, and his own nature was locked to death by this role, and his heart was very tired. He described himself as a bean sprout that could not be stretched, and once it was stretched out, it blocked Zhuge Liang.
So how did Sun Yanjun interpret Liu Bei?
First of all, on the outside.
Liu Bei in the novel "was born with different appearances, both ears and shoulders, hands over knees", in short, big ears, long hands and long feet, and a dignified appearance, which Sun Yanjun perfectly matched, which is why Wang Fulin set him so quickly.
Sun Yanjun was about 42 years old when he played Liu Bei, and Yu Hewei was about 38 years old when he played Liu Bei, and Sun's appearance was older, which was more in line with the image of Liu Bei's elder.
Let's compare the appearances of Sun Yanjun and Yu Hewei, who is more generous and benevolent, who is older and more stable, if you are in a chaotic world, who are you willing to run to, the answer is self-evident.
The image is established, the sense of justice of Liu Bei's role is established, he has failed so many times in his life, why so many heroes Haojie still follow him, do not need to spend too much ink, Sun Yanjun standing there is the answer.
Of course, the appearance alone is not enough, the actor controls this role or relies on acting skills, and this is sun Yanjun's most lacking.
Judging from the performance experience, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" crew of that year had a total of two national first-class actors, one was Bao Guoan, and the other was Sun Yanjun, before participating in this play, Sun Yanjun had been acting in dramas for 20 years, and his line skills and understanding of the role had advantages over Yu Hewei in the same period.
From the perspective of life experience, Sun Yanjun suffered from childhood, his father died at the age of 10, his mother died at the age of 16, and he worked as a worker in Daqing for several years before becoming an actor, and he tasted all the suffering in the world, which is very similar to the image of Liu Bei.s turbulent displacement.
Therefore, Liu Bei, who was exercised by Sun Yan, is the kind of person who is not salty or light at the rough look, but has a very good personality when he tastes it carefully.
The righteousness of fighting for Chen Deng, the humility when inviting Zhuge Liang, and the loss of reason when avenging Guan Yu are all strong evidence, so why can't the audience feel it?
Because Sun Yanjun is all acting in the collection, in his words, he can't stretch too much to rob Zhuge Liang's plays, and many of his scenes are minimalist, such as in episode 15, Zhang Fei killed Cao Cao's subordinates and came to announce the good news.
Liu Bei was afraid that this move would anger Cao Cao, and he was worried, so he did not show his face and gave Zhang Fei a look.
Zhang Fei's face immediately pulled down.
Throughout the play, the audience is easily attracted by Zhang Fei's expression changes, and ignores Liu Bei's finishing touch, most of the time sun Yanjun uses this auxiliary playing style to complete the performance, so his subtleties are difficult to be detected.
2. Yu Hewei's performance
In recent years, Yu Hewei has gained momentum.
After starring in "Three Kingdoms", he successively starred in Cao Cao in "The League of Military Teachers", Chen Duxiu in "The Age of Awakening", and Zhou Yi in "On the Cliff", winning many weighty awards and ranking among the first-line actors.
Although compared with these later roles, Liu Bei looks a bit ordinary at first glance, but in recent years, many hot stems about him on the Internet are almost related to Liu Bei.
For example, Yu Hewei's most out-of-the-loop stem is the sentence "then play music and then dance" said by Liu Bei, who he played, which was widely circulated, and Liu Bei, who indulged in wine, formed a strong contrast with him in the novel.
Yu Hewei's acting skills are of course outstanding, but they are not achieved overnight.
He is a typical late bloomer, after graduation, he has not been filming the dragon set, there is a drama filming is also always playing the villain, Liu Bei is his first positive role, and his real peak began in 2017, in 2010 his acting skills are not as mellow as in recent years.
Some people may say that Liu Bei's difficulty in acting is recognized, it is difficult for Sun Yanjun, it is equally difficult for Hewei, the new "Three Kingdoms" has been scolded, Yu Hewei can be alone, does not it mean that his acting skills are good?
That's to the point.
The old version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was completely based on the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and the characters in the play perfectly restored the characters in the novel.
However, the new version of "Three Kingdoms" has carried out a "magic change" on the novel, and many characters have no face, even though the acting school is gathered, but they are all biased by the script.
For example, Cao Cao actually urinated on the ground and talked like a madman; for example, Sima Yi shen shen shen naged like a god stick, and wrote "I am an internal traitor" on his face as soon as he appeared; for example, Zhang Fei was reckless, and there was no difference between him and Li Kui, and there was no bit of a martial posture.
I understand the screenwriter's intentions, he wants to innovate, make the play more popular, so that modern audiences can understand it at a glance, but the step has affected a group of good actors, and Yu Hewei has not been spared.
In other words, Sun Yanjun played Liu Bei in Luo Guanzhong's pen, and Yu Hewei played Liu Bei in screenwriter Zhu Sujin's pen.
Yu Hewei evaded the problem of "Liu Bei is difficult to perform", but fell into the pit dug by Zhu Sujin.
It turns out that the book said that Liu Bei was "moody and angry", and the screenwriter light understood the literal meaning, did not understand Liu Bei's hidden needle in the cotton, and simply and rudely shaped Liu Bei into a "paralyzed face" who did not make an expression when anything happened.
With such a script constraint, many of Yu Hewei's expressions during the performance are fixed, but through the auxiliary performance such as eyes, he still tries his best to save this role and accurately transmits a lot of information in different situations to the audience.
This was Pan Feng's expression after the accident, a squinting eye, and the murderous qi could not be hidden.
This was Guan Yu's expression after Wenjiu beheaded Huaxiong, very restrained, and his official position at that time did not allow him to be proud of his achievements.
This is the situation when the three Gu Maolu were still the same, but the tears in his eyes, you can believe that Liu Bei at this time is humble and sincere.
This is the expression of hearing about the death of Emperor Xian of Han, which looks extremely sad and also conforms to the setting of Liu Bei's character.
After being called empress, Liu Bei's appearance had some imperial aura, but he still couldn't see the sense of alienation from above.
This is also why, Chen Jianbin, Ni Dahong, who are recognized as actors with acting skills, have folded their lives in this drama, but Yu Hewei's version of Liu Bei has become another version of the classic after Sun Yanjun.
In the end, it is not difficult to conclude that Sun Yanjun and Yu Hewei's version of Liu Bei are very difficult to perform, but the characters presented in the end have their own characteristics. Both actors also used their own understanding of the characters to resurrect this historical figure in the image.
Both great actors deserve our applause!
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: A Chicken
© Original 丨 Article Copyright: Ppdianying
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization