Author | Huang Jingfang
The thing about "liking Wu Zhenyu" is different from liking other actors.
His character and real personality are sometimes blended and sometimes split, and you need to confirm from time to time, do you like his character or himself? If it's a character, which one?
When the question goes deeper, I can't help but wonder myself: How can I like this person?
After all, he has played many vicious gangsters, with a crooked mouth and a flirtatious look, and he can make people hate them as soon as they appear;
▲ Stills of "Ancient Puzzle Boy"
Of course, he has also played the gentle captain of the affectionate gentleman, extremely rational, extremely gentle, and at the age of 50, he can still capture the hearts of teenage fans;
▲ Stills of "Rushing into the Sky"
There are also marginal characters in between: in the literary film "Juliet and Liang Shanbo", Wu Zhenyu freely switches between these two identities, causing people to cry several times.
▲ Stills of "Juliet and Liang Shanbo"
In the entertainment news, the actor's bluntness and violent temper are almost a little nervous, he will smash the microphone for his son's injury, see unpleasant things, and will see uneven roads.
Zhang Jiahui, a good friend, said that he likes to shoot with Wu Zhenyu, because "there are things that can't be seen on the scene, and when we all want to endure, Wu Zhenyu will be faster than me, and he is already mad." In this way, the problem is solved, and I don't need to make a sound, I am very happy. ”
Wu Zhenyu's debut path was not smooth, and his experience of being born in the wooden house area in the 60s made him sensitive, introverted and insecure.
However, just like Liang Chaowei, who was reticent since childhood, and Zhou Xingchi, who only lay on the windowsill to observe passers-by when he was a child, it is these honings that create the rich heart and keen grasp that an actor should have, as long as the right role comes, the highlight moment is destined to come.
Peeling back layer after layer of fog, Wu Zhenyu appeared.
Bad guy professional household
Actors are inseparable from the catalysis of the times, and Wu Zhenyu's fate is closely related to the ups and downs of Hong Kong films.
Hong Kong is a fertile land for gangster films. In 2002, the Hong Kong film market in the downturn was in a slump, and a gangster movie that did not talk about fighting and did not advocate the aesthetics of violence broke out of the siege, and "Infernal Affairs", which combined the theme of police and Buddhist ideas, opened up a new genre.
▲ In "Infernal Affairs", two undercover agents face off on the rooftop
Hong Kong directors who are known for shooting police and bandit themes have made many similar attempts, such as Du Qifeng is also good at portraying the inner transformation of the police-bandit relationship, his films have selfish policemen, there are positive bandits, and the evil ghosts in the depths of human nature are presented in different forms in his films.
"Infernal Affairs" is a step further, and the beginning is to say that "the best of the eight great hells is called the endless hell, which means that the infinite suffering is great, so it has this name." "Three films with different angles disrupt the timeline and reorganize a story of power on the surface but desire in reality.
In the second story, Ni Yongxiao, played by Wu Zhenyu, interprets this sense of fatalism to the extreme and has become a godfather-like classic in many people's hearts.
Family status gave him the task of filial piety, and family affection became a bond. Because he loves his family too much, even when he learned that his younger brother Chen Yongren (played by Yu Wenle) was undercover before his death, his first reaction was to hide his communicator; because of his underworld identity, in fact, no matter how hard he tried, he could not guarantee the absolute safety of his family, and finally the whole family died after he was killed.
▲ Stills from "Infernal Affairs 2"
For Ni Yongxiao, he cares about things that can never be confirmed, and his life is like living in an endless hell, accepting the cycle of fate and identity.
What is Hell? It is not the nihilistic punishment after death that people fantasize about, but it is clear that they are alive but they are like staying in a cage, losing control of their own destiny.
Wu Zhenyu once explained the role, "Although [Ni Yongxiao] has such a high-quality personality, the gangster is about who is more despicable. He reduced the arrogance, murderousness, and arrogance that a gangster boss should have into his body, all reduced to suits and shoes and gentle elegance, and the tension that was invisible was revealed.
Then, he expressed the tragic fate of Liu Weiqiang's statement that "I have never done a single wrong thing in this life".
On the one hand, Ni Yongxiao is a qualified successor, he is calm, and he will kill the bloody storm of his father's succession in the cradle; on the other hand, he is fierce enough, his eyes do not blink when he should kill, and when he encounters an ambush, he can also oppose the general's army, and put the police who are tracking him in a disadvantageous position.
This is an evil horn, Wu Zhenyu deduced it out of the positive magnetic field, he always wears a suit, looks grand in front of a group of big bosses, he speaks quietly, and then the poisonous means have a kind of tenderness in it; it should be a role that is spurned, Wu Zhenyu makes people see that he has to do it inside, but has a lonely courage.
"Infernal Affairs" came out, giving the local film market a shot of strengthening, at the same time, in the face of the popularity of the role, Wu Zhenyu was blunt and modest, "I tried to play the gang boss in the most gentle way, and some film critics said that I created a new way to play the gangster characters, but I couldn't understand what this method was." ”
But there is no doubt that he has his own acting methodology, Wu Zhenyu is not a person who cannot be played to the extreme, before filming "Infernal Affairs", his role of "Liang Kun" in "Ancient Puzzle Boy" has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Before filming began, he met a stuttering and fierce man on a singing k, and this image of an evil person with a little exaggeration and laughter gave him the inspiration to create and gave him the tone of his character.
Unlike Infernal Affairs, which explores the distortions of the heart and human nature, the "Ancient Puzzle Boy" series of films features direct fight scenes and brotherhood, because the characters are well interpreted, and since it was broadcast in 1995, imitating Gu Puzzle Boy has become a trend, and the crime rate of Hong Kong teenagers has risen sharply.
As one of the negative characters, the protagonist Chen Haonan's opponent Liang Kun is extremely vicious, "saying that killing your whole family is killing your whole family", so that the audience understands what is murderous and vicious.
Playing the bad guy, Wu Zhenyu has undergone a process of exploration and progress.
When asked in an interview with Lu Yu a few years ago how to play a bad person, Wu Zhenyu said that first of all, he had to understand why this person became bad, and there would be a process. No one is born bad, and when they understand their mental journey, the bad guys are no longer so simple bad.
From a pure bad guy to an impure bad guy, it is just the actor's way to the self, to the high order.
In 1982, Wu Zhenyu graduated from the 11th TVB Artist Training Class and subsequently became a male artist, and his classmates were Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xingchi and Ouyang Zhenhua, who later became famous stars. Like almost all of his peers, he also ran a dragon suit after graduation, appearing in famous or unnamed episodes until 1992, when he ended his 8-year contract with Wireless, and Wu Zhenyu decided to fully devote himself to the film industry.
▲The 11th wireless artist training class was taken together
Wu Zhenyu is a talented person, he understands that accepting pain is a compulsory course, "the most important thing for actors is to enjoy hardship, if you don't enjoy it, it will be very troublesome."
He understood that being an actor is like peeling that onion, and when you're in tears, you're really inside the onion.
Wu Zhenyu said that he enjoyed the moment before the death of the villain, that is when the actor can get the most play, you have to think about his emotions and reactions according to the character's personality, "that feels very funny."
Director Liu Weiqiang mentioned that the most fortunate thing about the infernal affairs series is that Wu Zhenyu was unable to participate in the first Han Chen because of the schedule, otherwise, "he is just a 'Liang Kun' who wears a coat, and there will be no ni Yongxiao, who is unique now."
Domineering and tender
Wu Zhenyu has always been an outlaw, which is not only related to the many negative roles he has played, but in real life, he speaks bluntly and has no scruples.
Open his Weibo, you can see that he is a star with a difference. He would complain on Weibo about the noise of the hotel downstairs in the early morning, and said with a little sarcasm, "It turns out that it was possible to build at three o'clock in the morning in Ningbo"; he would pop out his own women's clothes photos; and he would also put his avatar P on the tangyuan to wish everyone a happy Lantern Festival.
▲ Wu Zhenyu posted a complaint
Only at some point will he become different.
Wu Zhenyu talked about his mother, a woman who gave him a lot of wisdom in life. His mother had no formal education, but had a unique experience in coping with life's hardships.
From a young age, Wu Zhenyu learned the fastest way to learn the principle of "never bully people, nor can you be bullied" in his mother.
She is self-employed, will help the textile factory to make fabrics for a living, how much this job to do how much to earn, Wu Zhenyu's mother is fast, when she earns more, it attracts jealousy. In the face of those gossip, the straightforward mother felt very troubled, so she ran to the gossipers with scissors, inserted herself on the table, and asked "what do you want to do", no one dared to look for her stubble again.
▲ Wu Zhenyu and his mother in the variety show "After School"
When I was a child living in wong Tai Sin's wooden house area, the family was waiting for the public house to "go upstairs", and when she was waiting in line, her mother pushed Wu Zhenyu, who had just been born not long ago, to the front of the crowd in order to grab a good position, and then hugged him back after a few minutes, saying that he had always been in that position, and then drilled to the front. "It's not right to cut in line, but it's a kind of wisdom."
When telling these stories, Wu Zhenyu is no longer hard and neurotic, and the gentle and weak side of his personality has peeled off.
Family is Wu Zhenyu's weakness. In 2015, he took his son Feynman to the variety show "Where Does Daddy Go" and was called "Wu Ma", the kind of fighting with his son, the strict education style, and the cute interaction with his sister Grace let people see the other side of Wu Zhenyu.
▲ Wu Zhenyu and his son Feynman in "Where Daddy Goes"
When facing his son, his worries and caution will be revealed. He said he was 53 years old, and his son was only 5 years old, and by the time Feynman was 18, he was almost 70 years old, so if his son didn't become independent sooner, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to take care of his son for so long.
In his acting career, Wu Zhenyu's tenderness is sometimes more touching than his obedience.
In 2000, he co-starred with Wu Junru in a low-budget literary film "Juliet and Liang Shanbo", directed by Ip Wai Shin. This is a story about two marginal characters, Wu Junru played by Judy is an ordinary hotel front desk attendant, because of illness, she has half of her breasts cut off, usually live in a suburban village house, and live with her grandfather who suffers from mental illness. In her life, she already firmly believes that there is no possibility of being loved.
Until one time, she met a clueless old boy. The character played by Wu Zhenyu is more than fierce, sloppy, and has a murderous spirit, but he accidentally takes care of the illegitimate son of the gangster big brother with Wu Junru.
In the dilapidated village house on the outskirts of Hong Kong, the picture is quiet and warm, and the turning point in the relationship between the two occurs when Wu Zhenyu, who is looking for diapers, accidentally sees Wu Junru's underwear and discovers her secret. In the process of eating noodles between the two people, Wu Junru had helplessness, embarrassment and a hint of fear of disappointment.
During the tens of seconds of eye contact between her and Wu Zhenyu, the feelings of the two were directly confronted, and finally, Wu Zhenyu said the sentence "It doesn't matter", which firmly conveyed his feelings through the eyes. This scene with only one line is the finishing touch to the whole play.
▲ In "Juliet and Liang Shanbo", Jotun, played by Wu Zhenyu, learned of the other party's secret and resolved the embarrassment with one sentence
Wu Zhenyu is an actor with a wide range of dramas, he is not willing to be confined to the framework, he wants the audience to see his own possibilities.
Before filming "Rushing into the Clouds", he said that he knew that everyone did not believe that Wu Zhenyu could also act in love films, so he had to prove to everyone that he was equally good at making love films. In 2003, "Rushing into the Clouds" was a big fire, and the "Tang Yichen, the first captain of the Chinese" played by him, is still a deep and affectionate man who can never forget.
Take control of your own destiny
The success of the actor has brought Wu Zhenyu to the fork in life. In recent years, he has tried to regain the identity he wanted to change as a teenager and once again be the helmsman of his life.
Influenced by Takeshi Kitano, as early as 1998, Wu Zhenyu directed and starred in his film debut "9413". Wu Zhenyu plays a policeman with psychological problems, because his boss often lets him do some unseemly things, he suffers from indescribable psychological pressure, temperamentality, and has an environmental complex that others cannot understand.
▲ "9413" movie poster
After meeting a psychiatrist named Cavan, the latter tries to help him open his heart and live a normal life. "9413" is the harmonic sound of nine deaths, the film's street style is strange and confused, desperate and anxious, and the confrontation between the police is cold and realistic, Wu Zhenyu hopes to reveal the environmental changes and social material alienation to bring about the shackles that people cannot get rid of.
From the picture of the movie, it is not difficult to see Wu Zhenyu's strange ideas, he is indeed a director with rich ideas, the style of the picture, the construction of the framework and the combination of the plot have his ideas, but the market response is general.
▲ Stills of "9413"
In recent years, Wu Zhenyu has frequently appeared in mainland variety shows as a director, often with more critical voices than appreciation, and those voices are saying: his path to directing has been "repeatedly defeated", "there is no way to have ideas", "is a good actor, but don't be a director easily".
However, what is special about Wu Zhenyu is that he has never been and disdainful of being a good gentleman. He's not neurotic, he just thinks it's ridiculous to be someone who pleases everywhere—it's easy to please, it's hard to be yourself. He doesn't listen much, he doesn't listen to the market, he doesn't necessarily listen to the audience, and if he's obedient, he's characterless.
In the variety show "Director Please Advise", Wu Zhenyu continued his dream of directing and participated in the show as a member of Wang Jing's production studio. In the eighth episode, Wu Zhenyu made a work called "Ah Ying", which is a story about his wife who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and searches for memories. The idea of this short film is that the wife who has lost part of her memory (played by Yu Nan) has a memory part, and it is the husband who has lost his memory because of drinking broken pieces.
▲ Stills of "Ah Ying"
This is a romantic literary film, with beautiful scenery, a large section of drifting bottle close-up, and with this object as a clue, strung together the process of Yu Nan's retrieval of memory.
In the review link of the film, the audience who understands and does not understand form two factions, some film critics say that he pays too much attention to details, ignores the local coherence, and the pace is too slow and too slow; others think that the film does not express the real plight of Alzheimer's patients, and even does not point out the fact that his wife is ill, the connotation is too obscure.
At the scene, Wu Zhenyu didn't seem to care much about these negative comments, and his explanation impressed me, saying that he had photographed all the details that the teacher needed, but "all cut out." "In fact, it is not trying to talk about this disease, it is to use this disease to highlight that although 'Alzheimer's disease' is an amnesia, people who do not have this disease will forget some important times."
And for those who described him as procrastinating, pretentious, and incomprehensible comments, he did not comment, "When you were a child, you would look at the drift bottle for a long time, but now look at this bottle for 30 seconds you will feel very long, this is the disease of people who are not sick." ”
This is to some extent like Wu Zhenyu's philosophy of life, in a mental hospital, people who are not sick are sick, just like he is often scolded for being sick, but no one knows whether the sick person is him, you or me.
Wu Zhenyu is the kind of interview subject that people like and can't hold, because he rarely gives a full score answer to interview questions, often does not answer according to the interviewer's intentions, and always goes his own way. For example, the reporter asked him, "Do movies need to be understood?" He replied, "Movies are not meant to be understood, so why should they be used to understand?"
Although actors and directors are two cross-border fields, there are many core qualities that are common, such as the unique understanding of art and ideas, such as some stubbornness and indomitability. Wu Zhenyu obviously had thought about life problems very early, and the director's work gave him an outlet.
On different occasions in the early years, Wu Zhenyu revealed his desire to be a director. He is best known for saying that "I have acted in some bad films, but not a bad role", he believes that actors can only decide that part of themselves, and the quality and style of the whole work is not determined by the actors, it is the director and the producer. His original intention as a director was to change the aesthetic taste of the audience and change the market through the films with ideas.
Singing and acting, acting and directing, seems to be the trend of the entertainment industry in recent years, Wu Zhenyu on this road of transformation does not seem to be called success, but also gained more questions than during his time as an actor.
But he didn't care, this year's Wu Zhenyu is 61 years old, the wrinkles on his face are more and more, the eyes no longer look so unique, more tired and even friendly, but he is still so out of place, still do not like to look at other people's faces, so everyone remembers that there is such a unique person called Wu Zhenyu.
Edit | Xu Guan
Typography | Benin