In 2021, on the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, while the Shanghai Theater Academy promoted a number of creative performances, teachers, students and alumni also participated in major performance activities in the country and Shanghai, and the alumni of Shanghai Opera participated in a number of film and television dramas with party history themes created by the theater alumni.
Yu Hewei, Ma Shaohua, Mao Weining and other actors and directors who came out of the play, in the red-themed film and television dramas they participated in, such as "The Age of Awakening" and "Meritorious Service", created many classics and left a deep impression on the audience.
Yu Hewei: With "The Age of Awakening", the circle is out of the circle
On the evening of June 10, 2021, the 27th Magnolia Awards came to a perfect end, and all the awards won by "The Age of Awakening" are well deserved. Yu Hewei won the Best Actor Award for his vivid portrayal of Mr. Chen Duxiu in the play.
Yu Hewei was born in Fushun, Liaoning In 1971, in 1992, he gave up his job at the Fushun Repertory Theatre, a state institution, preferring not to have an "iron rice bowl" and applied for the Shanghai Theater Academy. After entering the school, he often soaked in the library to read various professional books, often learned and felt world-class excellent movies, through these years of exercise, his acting skills have been greatly improved, laying a solid foundation for him to create various character images in film and television dramas.
In 2003, he played the deputy political commissar of the Qilin Mountain Military Subdistrict of the New Fourth Army in the anti-war drama "The Sky of History" directed by Gao Xixi; on April 6, 2007, he participated in the anti-war drama "Sentinel under the Neon Lights", in which he played hao Tie Egg, an actor in the frontline literary and labor troupe; in the same year, he played the good-hearted deputy commander Tang in the military romance drama "Battlefield Romance" directed by Zheng Fangnan; in 2010, he participated in the anti-war drama "Special Warfare Pioneer" and the modern revolutionary drama "Ice is Sleeping Water". For red film and television dramas, he has rich acting experience.
In 2011, Yu Hewei co-starred with Gu Zhixin, Li Qin, Xu Baihui and others in the modern revolutionary drama "China 1921", in which he played Chen Duxiu, who was the dean of liberal arts at Peking University, so "The Age of Awakening" is not the first time he has created the image of Chen Duxiu. In 2017, he participated in the movie "The Great Undertaking of Building the Army", playing Chen Duxiu for the second time - plus "The Age of Awakening", and he can also be regarded as Chen Duxiu's professional household.
In the dark night, the Communist Party of China is about to burst out like a red sun, illuminating the ancient Shenzhou. The TV series "The Age of Awakening" runs through the publication of "Youth Magazine" in 1915 to the publication of "New Youth" in 1921, showing the magnificent historical picture from the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement to the establishment of the Communist Party of China, telling the social customs and life of the Awakening Era.
Before starring in "The Age of Awakening", Yu Hewei had done a lot of homework on Chen Duxiu's character characteristics, personality, intellectual background, ideal ambitions and shortcomings, and had a deep personal understanding, which became a prerequisite for him to successfully shape this role. But in fact, when the "Age of Awakening" crew first found Yu Hewei, he refused. If nothing else, he has played Chen Duxiu twice before, and for an actor who wants to challenge himself, not repeating past roles seems to be the default premise. However, "The Age of Awakening" is very unusual, after understanding the role, Yu Hewei immediately felt that this is a very objective historical drama, saving the people and saving the country in the turbulent years, which anyone who sees it will be instantly infected. When reading the script, Yu Hewei even shed tears several times, and in the end, he played the role of Chen Duxiu again.
Yu Hewei in "The Age of Awakening", basically with the soul to perform, the audience believes that Chen Duxiu himself appeared on the screen, which is the highest praise for the talent and professionalism of the actor, but also pushed Yu Hewei's reputation to the peak. This "acting school" has gone out of the circle again with "The Age of Awakening".
Ma Shaohua: "Cai Yuanpei" played Deng Xiaoping
"The Age of Awakening" is a collection of stars, and Yu Hewei is not the only one who shines. In episode 37, when Chen Duxiu was released from prison and everyone came to his house to celebrate, a "long-lost" figure appeared - netizens issued a barrage: "Principal Cai has finally returned." ”
"It has been four months since I left Peking University, and when I see you today, my initial heart is still there, and my initial ambition has not been extinguished." In the courtyard full of high friends, "Principal Cai" once again sighed and gave a speech.
I don't know how many viewers recognize it, this "Principal Cai" is the actor of Deng Xiaoping in "Deng Xiaoping at the Turning Point of History": Ma Shaohua.
Ma Shaohua also graduated from the Shanghai Theater Academy. In 1978, he was admitted to the acting department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, studied comedy, and returned to the Guizhou Provincial Repertory Theatre after graduation. In 1986, he entered the Wuhan Drama Theatre. Starting in 1996 as Liu Guitian in the anti-corruption criminal investigation drama "Heroes Without Regrets", Ma Shaohua has created many characters with different personalities in many film and television dramas, but to say that he is really known and well known to the audience, he still plays Deng Xiaoping in the major revolutionary historical theme TV series "Deng Xiaoping in the Turning Point of History".
"Deng Xiaoping at the Turning Point of History" is a TV series organized and directed by the Literature Research Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the CPC, and jointly produced by Beijing Huaying Wenxuan Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd. and CCTV. The play depicts Deng Xiaoping from 1976 to 1984, mainly from 27 days after the death of Comrade Mao Zedong in 1976, until October 1, 1984, when Deng Xiaoping inspected the National Day parade from the top of Tiananmen Square, and the college students in the parade spontaneously unfurled a banner representing the voice of hundreds of millions of people, "Xiaoping, hello!" So far, after smashing the "Gang of Four", ending ten years of turmoil, and rectifying chaos, the country has embarked on the road of reform and opening up, which is of epoch-making significance to China.
When starring in "Deng Xiaoping at the Turning Point of History", Ma Shaohua encountered a little trouble. He was from Guizhou, while Deng Xiaoping was from Sichuan. Although Guizhou dialect and Sichuan dialect are very similar, there are still subtle differences in the pronunciation of some words. In order to be able to interpret the rural-spoken Deng Xiaoping more vividly, Ma Shaohua often "asked" the two authentic Sichuanese in the crew, Gao Chengsheng and Wu Ziniu, to "teach" Sichuanese. Under the "tuning" of the two "professional Sichuan dialect training instructors", the Sichuan dialect spoken by Ma Shaohua in the play is quite standard, so that the Sichuan News Network reporter who watched the film for the first time almost mistakenly thought that Ma Shaohua was an authentic Sichuanese.
In order to get closer to Deng Xiaoping, Ma Shaohua turned off his mobile phone and television for more than a month after he decided to star and start up, in addition to studying Deng Xiaoping's relevant materials and documentaries, that is, gaining weight. More than 20 pounds of fattening in more than a month. As we all know, Deng Xiaoping loved to smoke, and in order to play this role, Ma Shaohua, who had quit smoking for many years, was once again "a failure to quit smoking".
With such efforts, in the end, Ma Shaohua, who has both form and god, brought Deng Xiaoping to life, and won the Best Actor Award at the 18th Beijing Film and Television Chunyan Awards and the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 21st Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards with this drama, which is also the best affirmation for him.
Mao Weining: Let young people like the main theme
In 1982, Mao Weining, who was still in middle school in Mianyang, Sichuan, had a literary dream. By chance, he saw an advertisement for the Shanghai Theater Academy in a newspaper in the newsstand, and he realized that this was the path he was going to take in the future. He told his father, who was so surprised that he said, "You're going to sing? Are you going to sing and go to college? His father mistakenly thought that the Shanghai Theater Academy was a drama school and did not understand his son's choice. He also had no way to explain to his father that he went to Chengdu alone to register for the shanghai theater academy's admissions examination, and finally successfully admitted. It wasn't until he was admitted that locals learned that there was such an art school. And he also learned that the 1982 Shanghai Theater Academy's current enrollment was the second enrollment after the smashing of the "Gang of Four", and he would have to wait another four years if he missed it.
After entering the Shanghai Theater Academy, he felt that he was improving and growing every day, and this feeling lasted for four years. His class teacher, Rong Guangrun, and Mr. Yu Qiuyu, "gave us a lot of nourishment in the 1980s." Mao Weining told the Xinmin Weekly reporter: "The most important four years of my life were spent at the Shanghai Theater Academy. The formation of my worldview and the formation of aesthetics were all brought to me by the drama school, and if I had gone to another university, I am afraid that the road of my life would not have been like this. And I finally chose the profession of TV drama director, which is also related to the Shanghai Theater Academy. The school is very supportive of us, in the third year of college, I wrote a script "Immortal Dad", took the script to Sichuan to find investment, made a TV series in the name of student internship films, and after the filming was made, it was released on CCTV and Sichuan TV, so after I graduated, Sichuan TV specially sent me to go. At that time, the Xinmin Evening News also reported on this, and this was the first time my name was published in the newspaper. So I am very grateful to the Shanghai Theater Academy. I have always said that without the Shanghai Theater Academy, there would be no me today, and I would not have all the achievements I have made. ”
When he was in college, Mao Weining's script "Memories in the Little Rain" was favored by Huang Jianxin, who was a student at the Beijing Film Academy at the time, and made a movie. He worked with the group for more than a month, and from that time on, he decided to be a director. So he began to do a lot of directing homework.
In 2002, he filmed the TV series "Oath of Silence" for the Shandong Film and Television Production Center. After the fire of "Oath of Silence", it triggered a boom in Chinese spy dramas, and then there were such popular spy dramas as "Latent" and "Dark Calculation", so "Oath Of Silence" can be said to be the first to open up the atmosphere. By 2010, when Mao Weining felt that there were no new ideas in spy dramas, he began to try other theme works, and filmed many period dramas and main theme TV series such as "Ordinary World", "Hundred Refining into Steel", "Ten Send the Red Army" and so on.
In 2004, CCTV prepared to start filming "Here the Dawn Is Quiet" to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory of the anti-fascist war. CCTV looked for a director from all over the country, and before Mao Weining, there were already 6 directors who had talked about creative ideas. During his studies in theater, Mao Weining took a special course on Soviet cinema, and he was particularly impressed by Soviet cinema. Therefore, in the face of such an opportunity, he also went to CCTV to participate in the director's defense. In the end, CCTV thought that Mao Weining's understanding of this drama was more suitable for the director and chose him.
The show was originally intended to be filmed in Russia, but because of the differences in culture and work habits between the two countries, considering the shooting cycle and budget, the team finally chose to set up a scene in Heihe, Heilongjiang, China, and invited all the actors from the Blagoveshchensk Theater and a drama school in Russia across the Heihe River.
Mao Weining is a literature fan and has to read books everywhere he goes. More than 30 years ago, he read Lu Yao's "Ordinary World", but never thought that he would be the director of "Ordinary World". His fate with this drama is also related to the Shanghai Theater Academy, because the producer of this drama is Li Na, a graduate of the Drama Department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, who found him through Mao Weining's teacher. Mao Weining knew before that this drama had been preparing for many years and attracted much attention, and when this task fell on him, he thought that he must make this drama well. And most of the main creators of this drama are graduates of the drama, such as the lead actors Liu Wei and Yuan Hong, so when the TV series was finished, they also returned to the drama to hold a symposium. Mao Weining said: "It can be said that every play I have the participation of students who have graduated from the play, from the actors to the producers behind the scenes, the artists, a large number of partners are from the play. For example, in "Xiaguang", which has just been broadcast on CCTV, the lead actors Liu Wei and Ding Jiali are also graduates of the drama. Liu Wei was an 80-level student in the theater, and there were more than 300 students in the whole school at that time, so I was very familiar with them, and in "Xiaguang", I used nearly half of the students in their class. Isn't it amazing that the students in this class actually reunite in a play 30 years after graduation? That's my drama complex. ”
In September 2021, Mao Weining co-directed the broadcast of "Meritorious Service", which was well received, he said: "I feel that our war dramas have reached the international first-class level, which is the result of our continuous efforts in war dramas. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television began to prepare for the filming of 8 meritorious figures in 2019, when the general director Zheng Xiaolong found me, he said that he chose Tu Youyou, the remaining 7 people you can choose one, I did not hesitate to choose Li Yannian. Because my father was a soldier and my wife was also a soldier, I can say that I am a dual military subordinate, and I have a special complex for the army and war dramas. Li Yannian is the only combat hero among these 8 characters, and the only one who is not familiar to the audience. So I'm willing to shoot him out. ”
Now THE TV series pays more attention to the viewing experience of young people, Mao Weining said: "Because the audience is iterating, we are people born in the 60s (of the last century), in fact, before the 80s, all the Chinese grew up by reading texts, in other words, they grew up reading books, only the audience after the 80s grew up watching TV, and now they grew up watching videos." All audiences born after the 80s are different, and how they treat film and television has a lot to do with the success of film and television works. Now that the post-00s and post-10s have also begun to enter the audience, we must fully consider their acceptance habits and aesthetic habits. In my films, I pay a lot of attention to the acceptance of young audiences. Like "100 Refining into Steel", we use 8 stories to connect the 100-year history of the Communist Party of China. It is to let young audiences know the history of the Chinese Communist Party. The focus of our shooting has become mainly post-80s. (Reporter He Yingyu)