1949's "Sanmao Wanderings" is the earliest version, and it is also the most well-known version for the audience, it is the first film after the founding of New China.
Sanmao is a street child in Shanghai, he is home from all over the world, no friends and no family, in order to survive, he has sold newspapers and helped others push rickshaws, but the money he earns is not enough to eat a full meal, and he is always bullied by children older than him.
After the film version of "Sanmao Wanderer" was broadcast in 1949, it attracted great attention in the society at that time, and after a few months of broadcasting, many people still came to watch.
With the successful release of the film, Wang Longji, the actor of Xiaosanmao in the film, also quickly became the object of attention of the audience, and Wang Longji became the first and most influential child star.
"The Wanderings of Sanmao" has left a strong mark on the history of Chinese cinema.
When Wang Longji filmed Sanmao, he was just an eight-year-old boy, how did he successfully portray the role of Sanmao? Why can a film with a child's theme achieve such great success? This has to start with the comic version of "Sanmao Wanderer".
On June 15, 1947, the Ta Kung Pao began to publish the third edition of the newspaper, serializing the cartoonist Mr. Zhang Leping's work "Sanmao Wandering", and before the film version of "Sanmao Wanderer" began filming, Sanmao had become a veritable comic star.
Many people wake up and read the newspaper for the first time: how is Sanmao today, is he hungry or frozen?
In 1949, Shanghai Kunlun Pictures decided to put "Sanmao Wanderer" on the screen, so that more people can understand the real and tragic life of street children.
However, if you want to find a small actor who plays Sanmao, it is even more difficult than ascending to the sky, Mr. Zhang Leping's Sanmao, round nose, big head, only three hairs on the bright brain door, it looks cute and spirited, but if you follow a few comics to find someone, it is too difficult.
But the emperor did not pay off, one day, the director Yan Gong passed by a small alley, heard a noisy sound coming from the alley, he walked over, it turned out that three children in order to play marbles, quarreled, two slightly older children lost the trick Lai Pi did not recognize the account, the youngest child is theorizing with them.
After some quarrels, the little boy found that he could not solve the problem, so he fought with two big boys, and it was this skinny boy who subdued the two big ones.
These two big obediently took out the marbles, Yan Gong looked very interested, just looked at this little boy, the little boy has a big head, a very thin neck, Yan Gong feels a bit like Sanmao's temperament, and people are very screwed and very Geng, and finally Yan Gong let him try the shot.
The little boy Yan Gong met was named Wang Longji, only eight years old, with a big head and a thin neck, a pair of round eyes, and a personality that did not accept defeat, wasn't this the Sanmao that Yan Gong had been looking for?
What is more coincidental is that this Wang Longji is actually a colleague of the company, the son of the composer Wang Yunjie, just like this, the protagonist is fixed, but many people do not understand, why did they choose him to play Sanmao?
In director Yan Gong's autobiography "As Real as Poetry", the reason for choosing Wang Longji to play Sanmao was mentioned, and it was written that some newspapers and periodicals only emphasized Wang Longji's stubborn personality and the appearance and body shape were very similar to Sanmao, in fact, as a director, we think it is more important that he has a similar life experience with Sanmao.
Could it be that Wang Longji has also wandered the streets? But wasn't his father the composer Wang Yunjie?
Although Wang Longji's father was a famous composer, in that era, the artist did not have a good life, because the family was poor, his parents had twice endured pain to send him to people, and finally because he was reluctant to hug him back, Wang Longji when he was a child, because he had no money to eat, he was hungry.
After the actors are determined, the film is ready to start shooting, but at a young age, he has played the protagonist of a play, how Wang Longji played Sanmao to life.
This has to start from the styling, in the comic, there are only three hairs on the head of sanmao, in reality, you keep three hairs, not to mention the long-range, even the close-up view is not visible at all, and in the comic, when sanmao is angry, the hair will stand up, and the stylist will be deep in meditation on the hair for a while.
So Wang Longji's three hairs, what should I do with this hairstyle?
Finally the stylist thought of a "good way," he shaved Wang Longji's hair, used two erasers, took three copper wires and coiled them, three copper wires with three pinches of hair, and then put it on the head, three hairs angrily with his hands, three hairs stood up.
In addition to the three hairs, the three hairs also have a very large nose, and now it is very simple to make up such a round nose, as long as it is pasted with a special skin wax.
But in the 1940s, how did Wang Longji's big round nose come out?
At this time, the stylist thought of a "magic trick," using bubble gum to make a false nose, because there was no bubble gum in China at that time, and Wang Longji's nose in the film was made of imported bubble gum, how to do it, first use a basin of boiling water to put the bubble gum in the water, and then pinch the bubble gum into the shape of the nose after this saccharification is removed, and then give it some color, so that the round nose of the Sanmao logo is made.
After solving the problem of hair and nose, Wang Longji dirty face, wearing a torn sack, barefoot, one by one live Sanmao appeared in front of the audience.
When director Yan Gonggong made "Sanmao Wandering" into a test film for the original author Zhang Dongping, Zhang Dongping said excitedly: This is Sanmao, and Sanmao is him.
Because too much time was wasted in the selection of actors, after the personnel were settled, the film crew began to shoot nervously, but when shooting, there were still many flaws.
Camera position The lighting is all ready, but the protagonist Xiao Sanmao is gone, the crew is in a hurry, and it is difficult to find him in a corner of the other venue, and the director knows that he is for several matchboxes.
It turned out that the adults used the remaining matchboxes, and in Wang Longji's hands, they could make cars, small tables, sofas and other toys, and they had a hard time saving a lot of matchboxes, and finally found that they were all gone.
For the eight-year-old Wang Longji, playing is much more important than making a movie, did not find a matchbox Wang Longji resolutely did not shoot a play, the director had no way, quickly asked someone to buy a pack of matches, throw away the matches inside and leave the matchbox, which was leveled.
Wang Longji's stubborn personality is very similar to the Sanmao of the crew, but what the director did not expect was that Wang Longji's temper was also very hot, and his fiery temper also achieved a classic bridge section in the movie "Sanmao Wandering".
In order to make the three hairs on Sanmao's head stick, the stylist shaved Wang Longji's head every day, and after shaving, he shaved back and forth with a razor several times, and the makeup time was longer than that of other actors, at which time Wang Longji could not sit still.
Eight-year-old Wang Longji was at an active age, and the makeup artist patted and scratched him, and said: Little Red Guy, how do you always move around, Wang Longji is not willing to show weakness: Nong Old Red Guy, and then the two of them quarreled.
Yan Gong and Zhao Ming, the two directors, saw it and did not come forward to stop it, they watched silently next to it, and after watching it, the two directors transplanted this feeling and atmosphere into the plot of "Sanmao Wandering", which is the scene where the noble lady and the noble woman's husband quarrel.
In order to make Wang Longji obediently shoot the scene, the director Yan Gong was also painstaking, he took Wang Longji to his home, ate and lived with him every day, and invited Zhang Leping, the author of "Sanmao Wandering", to tell Wang Longji the real Story of Sanmao.
Now everyone's impression of Sanmao is a wandering street, poor enough to only have hair left, in fact, Zhang Leping originally created Sanmao but this is not the case, initially just a neighbor child, a little naughty, more kind heart and a little sense of justice, do just make adults a little crying and laughing.
So how did Sanmao change from a naughty child to the Sanmao who everyone remembers wandering around and being bullied?
One cold night in 1947, Zhang Leping was at the mouth of an alley and saw several teenage stray children, dressed in torn sacks and bare feet, tightly surrounding a stove that baked sweet potatoes during the day, and at night they could only rely on the residual heat of this stove to keep warm.
The next morning, Zhang Leping walked to the child's roasting position again, saw that the two children had frozen to death there, he saw such a scene, his heart was only angry and powerless, and then there was "Sanmao Wandering".
In the process of filming "Sanmao Wandering", Wang Longji often and Zhang Leping together, every time he tells the story of "Sanmao Wandering", Zhang Leping's eyes are always red, and he always listens with tears, since then, Wang Longji secretly vowed in his heart that he must play the role of Sanmao well.
So, how to act? Wang Longji did not have a bottom in his heart, and at this time the director thought of an idea.
Director Yan Gong took Wang Longji to truly experience the life of a street child, and with the encouragement of Yan Gong, Wang Longji and the street child made friends, pushed the cart on the bridge together, and even went to the back door of the restaurant together to grab leftovers to eat.
After these things, Wang Longji also had the same dissatisfaction as Sanmao, laying a solid foundation for shaping the role of Sanmao.
When "Sanmao Wanderer" was filmed, it was also in time for the coldest time of the year, in order to truly restore the life of a wandering child, Wang Longji always wore very little clothes, and the clothes on his body were torn, the whole film was filmed barefoot, and finally a layer of calluses was grinded on the feet.
In the play, Wang Longji approached Sanmao step by step from the appearance and inner experience, and outside the play, this acting experience also left an unexpected impact on Wang Longji.
After filming "Sanmao Wandering", Wang Longji's mother bought him a pair of leather shoes, but because of the barefoot habit, this pair of leather shoes Wang Longji never wore, this habit continued until after the opening.