Reporter/Ni Wei
At 3:50 a.m. on December 12, Tu Men, who won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, died of illness at the age of 61. Last month, Tu was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer.
Tu Men was born in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, and as a descendant of the Evenk people, they were associated with horseback and grasslands throughout their lives. He played the most roles as the Steppe Prince, the first role was the general in "Genghis Khan", and the directorial debut in his later years also told the national story of the Evenk people.
However, what made him shine was several roles in his later years about the profound interpretation of the hearts of the elderly - he won many honors with "Farewell" and "Old Beast".
Poster for the movie "The Old Beast"
After Tu's death, a number of entertainers who had worked with him posted tributes. Hui Yinghong, an actress who won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress in the same year as him, said, "I would rather believe that the old beast just fell asleep..."
"Old Bastard"
Tu's entry into the public eye in recent years began with the 2017 film "Old Beast", which won him honors such as the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor. This is his transformation after entering middle age at the age of 55.
In 2015, in the movie "Farewell", he played the story of the last moments of the life of Mongolian director Seif. To play Sef, who was cancer-cured, he shaved his hair and eyebrows. Director Zhou Ziyang was attracted by Tu's performance and immediately invited him to star in "Old Beast".
Lao Yang, played by Tu, once tasted the taste of Chafu in the wave of market economy, and then went bankrupt and wandered all day. His wife was bedridden for many years, but he stole the operating fees that the children had paid for her, and the children who could not bear it tied him up, and he took the children to court. "Old Beast" was originally called "Old Bastard", and Tu felt that Lao Yang had a lot of shadows of the people around him, "I think he is representative, the economy is developing rapidly, all thinking and emotions are transferred to money, and what is lost is the emotional level." In the third- and fourth-tier cities where he is located, the image of the old beast is still a lot."
The image is from a screenshot of the web video
On the night of the Golden Horse Awards, the camera filmed Tus snoozing in their seats, and when he woke up, he won best actor. He was 57 years old. The Reason for the Golden Horse Award for his award was: "Playing the old man who no longer has the scenery but is still fighting the beast, his wonderful performance is the soul of this film." After taking the stage, he accepted the trophy with a smile, "I won the prize all by luck."
"The Old Beast" brought him a lot of trophies and praise. The Ninth China Film Directors Association also awarded him the actor of the year, and the award speech read: "No trace of raising hands and feet, immersive inner shaping, an old man in a strange madness, a projection after an era of galloping." ”
In "Wuhai", released this year, Tu and Zhou Ziyang cooperated again. It's also a family story stuck in a lot of contradictions, tus make a cameo appearance as the father-in-law, and his silent performance creates a strong sense of oppression, "Thanks to each movie and different roles, gave me a 'new life'." He said of the re-collaboration with the director.
"Not willing"
"The steppe princes, princes and nobles, Genghis Khan, Zuo Lengchan, and so on, also brought me some distress. We love movies that will kidnap you and turn you into a genre. In an interview after winning the Golden Horse Award, he said of his distress, "I also pondered for a long time, how to jump out of here, whether I can try other characters, expand some drama." ”
In the first half of his acting career, he was indeed almost overwhelmed by The Mongol characters. Born in 1960 in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, he was put on horseback at the age of six. In 1985, when he was a junior at the Shanghai Theater Academy, he participated in his first film "Genghis Khan" and entered the acting industry. He played Genghis Khan twice in "A Generation of Heavenly Glory Genghis Khan" and "Stop Killing Order", and also played Mongolian characters such as Detheptemul in "Zhu Yuanzhang" and Jieli Khan in "Zhenguan Changge".
"Everyone is willing to be a royal nobleman, but if as a profession, only one type of work, or not willing." He once confessed.
In 1996, the film "Sorrowful Brooke" made him gain attention and won the Collective Performance Award at the 16th Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Film and the nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Southeast Asian International Film Festival. Directed by Mongolian director Seif, "Sorrow brook" tells the tragic story of the Mongolian herdsmen defending their homeland against the invaders after the "9.18" incident.
Sef died in 2005, and ten years later, Sef's daughter Degna wrote "Farewell" based on her late father, inviting her father's old friend Tu Tou to play it. He had his own concerns, but eventually took over this "most uncomfortable in his life" play, "Playing a deceased friend every day, it is better not to know." He sees the acting experience as a "mental ordeal."
And this movie opened up the long-awaited turn for him. He had turned into an old man with a decadent and melancholy temperament, from the domineering and exposed "Prairie Prince's Professional Household" in the past half of his life.
"Don't be pessimistic"
However, after filming several transformational works, Tus returned from the city to the grassland.
In June 2019, he made his debut director, dedicating his debut to his people, the Evenks. This "Hulunbuir City" tells a legendary story about the "survival and survival" of the Evenk people. He said that the reason why he chose such a strong epic theme as his directorial debut was because he had a deep love for his motherland and the nation, and he also had many words to say through this film for the Evenk people, who were first called "fighting peoples".
His last appearance was in last month's variety show "Director Please Advise". In a short film, he plays an old widower who sells a villa, using the villa as bait to wait for his son's killer, and finally succeeds in revenge. For most of the time, he lay in a rocking chair without making a sound. A suspenseful story, stained with a lonely temperament that coordinates with him.
Most of his characters are as taciturn as he is, and he once said that his character is lonely, and that the world he is alone in is his own world.
In an interview three years ago, he said that the fragility of life is a natural law, and there is no need to be pessimistic. In response to a question about which is greater, life or film, he said, "What does it have to do with the passage of life and the absence of something left?" Do I have to stay? It's okay not to stay. Love the person you want to love well, and don't hurt it. ”