Cong Shan and Zhu Shimao
preface
She, from the "Wrangler" fire to the "Good Family Woman", but just when the stars were perfect, she suddenly crossed france, studied hard under the Eiffel Tower for 5 years, and married and had children, and transferred to French nationality.
In 1992, she turned to Taiwan. The first performance of "Dumb" was quite well received. Subsequently, at the invitation of "China Television", he starred in the 60-episode TV series "Joke about Cixi".
With the passage of time, many young people may no longer know her, but when it comes to her name, many middle-aged and elderly people are very familiar with her.
Years later, when Zhu Shimao, the male protagonist of "Wrangler", was asked about the actress he admired the most, he blurted out only two words: Cong Shan.
Cong Shan, Zhu Shimao
He became famous in one fell swoop, but he studied abroad at the most popular time
The special cultural atmosphere and good environment of the ancient capital of Beijing have shaped Cong Shan, who was born and raised in Sichuan, into a pure and sweet girl.
In 1981, shortly after Cong Shan entered the Central Academy of Drama, she met a famous director Xie Jin to select film actors.
One of the hundred, Cong Shan's good quality immediately attracted Xie Jin, and immediately made a decision, starring Cong Shan in the heroine Li Xiuzhi in "Wrangler".
Because Cong Shan was a newcomer, and Zhu Shimao was already a very experienced actor at that time, Cong Shan was very nervous every time she played with Zhu Shimao.
Stills from Wrangler
During the filming, there was a scene that required the two to hug, cong shan was very nervous and shy, and could not get into the state, so that they all cried later. Years later, Cong Shan recalled the scene and said, "When I saw Mao Ge's chest hair, I was particularly scared. Zhu Shimao couldn't cry and laugh when he heard this.
After the movie was released, "Li Xiuzhi" was a hit, and Cong Shan also became a hit. As a result, she won the second "Little Hundred Flowers" Best Actress Award of Shanghai Film Studio, and won the crown of "Your Favorite Youth Screen Image" sponsored by China Youth Daily.
After "Li Xiuzhi", Cong Shan played the apricot fairy in the movie "Good Family Woman", Liao Jingwen in the TV series "Xu Beihong", and the female college student in the drama "Rubik's Cube", and her acting skills became more and more skilled. Her pure and simple temperament, easy-going style and fresh performance all left a deep impression on the audience. In particular, she starred in "Good Family Women", which won the Grand Prize and The Film Critic Award at the 25th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the Best Film Award at the 18th Atlantic International Film Festival in Spain.
Cong Shan
These works and awards made Cong Shan suddenly become a national eye-catching star figure. However, due to various inexplicable reasons, Cong Shan has twice lost the crown of the most eye-catching "queen of the film" in the film industry.
In the early 1980s, Chen Chong, the "Hundred Flowers" actress who was flourishing, took the lead in crossing the Pacific Ocean and starting a new life. This has set off a movie star going abroad fever that has influenced so far: Zhang Yu, Gong Xue, Lu Ling, Luo Yan, Li Yun, Si Qinggaowa, Zhao Yue... Each one is like a flower, and each one has been famous for a while.
But most of them went to the United States across the ocean, except for Cong Shan, who went to France.
Why did she fall in love with the mysterious art world of France?
Harassed rudely by a foreign man, Cong Shan cried all night
In 1986, Cong Shan accompanied the Chinese film delegation to Paris to participate in the César Awards ceremony and the premiere of "Wrangler". French friends suddenly recognized Cong Shan with a "oriental beauty" face as the kind and simple "Li Xiuzhi" on the screen. This cute character left a deep impression on the passionate, romantic, elegant, and noble French, and the French people's fanatical admiration for movie stars also left an unforgettable impression on Cong Shan.
Soon, Cong Shan received an invitation from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was willing to fund her to study at the École Supérieure de France for two years. At this time, Cong Shan seemed to feel a little exhausted, and should find an opportunity to calm down and reflect on it, and make further improvements through learning. So she resolutely accepted the invitation of the French side and flew alone to a foreign country with no relatives.
When Cong Shan first arrived in France, in order to make her have a good French environment and not be disturbed by the outside world, the French side sent her to Royan, a small town on the Atlantic Ocean, on the second day of her arrival in Paris, to let her receive "listening and speaking" and train her ability to accept French. This is really painful for a french-less person who has no foundation in French and can only use a few words.
Royan is a place with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate, but she can't see a Chinese, can't hear a Chinese word, can't eat a Chinese meal, and Cong Shan can only adapt little by little.
The French teacher only lectures and never explains. To be honest, even if she explained it, she couldn't understand it, and she could only rely on herself to read the dictionary word by word. And even a European elementary school student only needs to spend an hour of homework, she also takes three hours.
One evening, Cong Shan was reading a book by the river near her house and reviewing her lessons. Then a young French man came up and talked to her. Cong Shan naively thought that he could use this opportunity to practice French with him, but he did not expect that this guy suddenly hugged Cong Shan and became rude with his hands and feet.
Cong Shan was frightened, desperately trying to break free of him, and ran out with his legs, but the guy laughed profusely in the back. After returning to the residence, Cong Shan remembered this, felt aggrieved, was afraid, and couldn't help but cry all night.
At that moment, Cong Shan said that she really wanted to return to China. Back to your parents. It is worth comforting that after hearing about Cong Shan's encounter, the comrades of the representative office of China Film Company in Paris quickly sent someone to drive to Luoer City to comfort Cong Shan.
They told her that this situation was very common abroad, asked her to pay attention in the future, not to sit alone by the river, not to talk to strangers casually, and encouraged her to continue her efforts. The "first three kicks" of speaking a foreign language are difficult to kick, but after the first three months, they will be fine. It was Sunday, and everyone pulled Cong Shan to drive together to enjoy the natural scenery of the ancient castle in Tours. Passing by the door of royan language school, everyone offered to take a picture of her. Cong Shan began to refuse, saying that her eyes were crying and swollen, and it was too ugly. Hello everyone said, she just put on the sunglasses and came to one.
On this day, everyone had a very pleasant day, and the uneasiness that hung over Cong Shan's heart was dispelled. When they were separated, she clinged to it and wanted to go to Paris with everyone. Because as soon as everyone left, she was going to be alone again, and she felt that this taste was very uncomfortable.
Cong Shan's study conditions in Royan were difficult. She lived in a moderately attic room with extremely simple furnishings, and a bed was laid on the floor, which was Cong Shan's habit. She said it was comfortable to sleep like this. The rent was not cheap and took up more than half of her scholarship. But Cong Shan thinks it is worth it, because the environment is quiet, conducive to learning, and it is close to the school, which can save the fare, and it is worth it.
After several months of living independently, Cong Shan learned how to use the scholarship. One has no car, two has no motorcycle. Usually, her dress is also very simple: half new and half old flat-heeled leather shoes, cloth shoes, jeans, a few clothes brought in China, and a full student outfit.
After 7 months of studying French, Cong Shan finally successfully entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Dramatés de France to study drama. The teacher was amazed that she had reached such a high level of French in just 7 months, especially her spoken language, which was more pronounced than that of English and American students. Despite this, Cong Shan still carefully recorded the professional lessons on the tape and returned to the dormitory to slowly memorize them.
It's a whole new life. Within two years, Cong Shan was completely insulated from her beloved film performing arts. Whenever night fell, she looked up at the full moon in a foreign country, and when she thought of her current lonely situation, she couldn't help but have mixed feelings.
However, Cong Shan is strong. She believes she can change her life. Sure enough, a cast agent found Cong Shan and opened up a path for her to engage in stage performance.
Cong Shan: I didn't work in France
The French stage is a free world full of artistic imagination and artistic passion. Only by recognizing this can we understand how Cong Shan can participate in the performance of many plays such as "Ayus", "Marco Polo", "Sam's Guest", "Liezi" and so on.
Cong Shan joined the professional theater troupe in France and toured major cities in France and Germany. The almost "absurd" consciousness of the French nation made Cong Shan from the East addicted to the stage. She has played a princess, a giraffe, Confucius, and even played a "wooden board", all of which seem to make the Chinese people a little unimaginable.
Playing Liezi's master in the absurd drama (an anti-traditional drama genre) "Liezi", Cong Shan skillfully kneaded the beautiful singing segments from several classical famous dramas "Peony Pavilion" taught to her by her parents when she was a child, which made the big-nosed foreigners marvel. After this, Cong Shan opened up the situation.
In addition to acting in stage plays, Cong Shan also took over a few TV films such as "The Berlin Wall", and also served as a judge of Paris Horror Film Week, serving as an emcee in a TV column. She also often uses some of her free time to travel around the world and has twice gone to London to learn pure English.
While in France, she acted in 4 major plays and television series. Cong Shan said: "I have not worked in France, and I mainly rely on the income from performances to survive. ”
To this day, Cong Shan is still fascinated by the 5 years she spent in Paris. Not because she got a passport in Paris, not because she graduated from the drama school in Paris, or because she was snared by a professional theater company, but because she studied and lived in Paris. For Cong Shan, it is a "holy day of flow".
In Cong Shan's impression, France is a relatively free and loose country. Students can eat and drink casually during class and joke with the teacher. At that time, the lectures were all famous French directors, and the students would openly refute the teacher, who not only did not remember hatred, but also seriously pondered the students' statements.
During her 5 years in France, Cong Shan consciously gained a lot, not only has she mastered French proficiently, but her stage performance has also been well received by some French critics.
Returning to the motherland and starring in "Cixi"
During the world-famous Cannes International Film Festival in France, Cong Shan met Wu Nianzhen, a great Taiwanese screenwriter who had become one of the great Taiwanese screenwriters who had become one of the international film scenes with realist works such as "City of Sorrows" and "Ketu Autumn Hate". Cong Shan is an excellent actor with good qualities and potential in his eyes. Based on this, Wu Nianzhen told her: "I recently wrote a script called "Dumb", and you can be the heroine of the play. ”
As 1991 was about to pass, Cong Shan, who had already granted French residency, suddenly received an invitation from the relevant authorities in Taiwan, formally inviting her to attend the 28th Golden Horse Awards ceremony and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival that year. This is taiwan's biggest annual event.
Due to the complicated procedures for the Taiwan authorities to approve Cong Shan's entry, Cong Shan was unable to attend the meeting in Taipei as scheduled. Despite this, on December 9, 1991, when Cong Shan finally stepped off the plane gangway and walked into taipei airport, the magnesium light of taiwan's major newspaper reporters still blinded her eyes.
There, Cong Shan was invited to lead the starring role in the movie "Dumb". In a cold and objective tone, the film explores a series of changes in the difference between provincial nationalities and gender relations through the tragedy of small people in the underworld. In the film, Mrs. Lin, played by Cong Shan, is the wife of a triad leader, while the male protagonist Ah Duan is her family's personal driver. In order to make "Dumb", Cong Shan gave up her private plan to return to Beijing to celebrate the Spring Festival with her family.
After the grand release of "Dumb" in Taiwan, it caused a great sensation, with strong reactions from all walks of life and great concern from newspapers and media. Some authoritative figures wrote praise: "Coming from a drama family and strict theater training, Cong Shan's body language is full of strong drama! ”
"After all, Cong Shan is Cong Shan, and her words are really unique, and her personality is outstanding like a thorny rose."
At this point, Cong Shan has become another mainland movie star who has become popular in Taiwan.
Cong Shan became popular in Taiwan, and the film came one after another. Cong Shan deliberately chose the 60-episode TV series "Joke about Cixi" and played Cixi. This is another Qing Palace drama film made by Taiwan's "China Television" after "Joke About Qianlong".
So, after five full years of leaving Beijing, Cong Shan returned to the land where she was born and raised.
"I've found that Beijing has changed so much!" Cong Shan said in a nostalgic tone.
Back in Beijing, Cong Shan really wanted to ride a bicycle around the city of Beijing and try the bean juice she loved to drink when she was a child, but she didn't have time, she was too busy.
In a not-so-luxurious but cozy hotel in Beijing, Cong Shan lives in a large suite with a living room. The room was obviously not very well furnished and had a temporary nature. What is eye-catching is that the table is full of bottles and cans, and Cong Shan relies on them to play Cixi.
From the middle of summer to the middle of winter, Cong Shan devoted herself to playing Cixi for several months, and during the filming, the ligaments in her ankles were sprained. Cong Shan said that due to poor health, her hair fell badly, and she was so frightened that she quickly ate supplements such as Ganoderma lucidum and slowly nourished her body. The various tonics taken every day really brought enough physical strength to Cong Shan.
Cong Shan plays Cixi
Cong Shan plays Cixi, from the age of 17 to 73 years old, with a wide range of ages. It is said that the camera photographed her very beautifully, which is probably nothing wrong, otherwise how could Cixi be selected from an unknown woman as a showgirl, thus laying a solid foundation for the future plot to seize power in the DPRK?
Cong Shan thinks that she is not good at handling the world and is not sleek enough, and Cixi is just a woman with a deep city government, so it is not easy to get close to the role. At the beginning, she had studied 10 copies of Gao Yang's "The Complete Biography of Cixi", and she felt that she was a modern person who was shocked by the cultures of the East and the West, and did not know much about the history of the Qing Dynasty.
"When filming this kind of historical drama, there is a large list of people's names and place names, and I can't remember them." Cong Shan said frankly.
Coupled with the problem of the span of time, it is even more difficult to master the charm and mental journey of Cixi from the young girl Cixi to the elderly Cixi.
In order to cope with the challenge, Cong Shan locked in the hotel room after each play, continued to figure out the role, and hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside the door, so that she was accused of being too lonely.
Once, Cong Shan was interviewed by a reporter at the North Shadow Studio. In the studio, there are "full set of Qing Palace" scenes such as the Taihe Hall and the Yangxin Hall. That is when the Italian director Erruzi came to China to shoot "The Last Emperor", he spent a huge amount of money to build and produce, and now it has become the unique filming cost of the North Film Studio. Taiwan's "China Television" rented some scenes and is expected to shoot for more than half a year.
Cong Shan believes that although the length of 60 episodes is too long, it is a large capacity after all, so the character personality is also very rich. "Some people think that my appearance is gentle and more than enough, and my fortitude is insufficient, and I am afraid that I will not be able to play the sinister and vicious role." But I think that as a living woman, this kind of insidious and viciousness is not something that Empress Dowager Cixi will show at any time and every moment. ”
Cong Shan said that cixi starred thanks to the lobbying of producer Zhou Linggang. Zhou Linggang took more care of her, wrapped up a level of the restaurant, and let her live in the best and eat the best. But Cong Shan did not dare to eat more, for fear of accidentally gaining weight, if a round-faced Cixi appeared on the screen, it would not be majestic enough. So she eats vitamins.
"Joke about Cixi" filming is very hard, from every morning to three or four o'clock in the night, up to 16 hours, the food is mostly fast food or convenience food, tired Cong Shan finished filming the day's scene and lost his mind, back to the hotel to pick up "The Complete Biography of Cixi" without looking at it twice and fell asleep.
Stills from "Joke about Cixi"
This is Cong Shan's first time acting in a costume drama, and it is also the first time to act in such a long TV series. She is not very accustomed to multi-camera shooting, coupled with the first 10 episodes of cross-shooting, the middle spans many years, the character change is jumpy, and it is still difficult to act. Although everyone's understanding of Cixi may be different, Cong Shan still has to play according to the author's intentions.
Cong Shan admired the fast pace and high efficiency of Taiwanese film and television production, the desperate strength and professionalism of the actors; but she did not like the pursuit of aesthetic and external performance, ignoring the connotation of characters, and the slightly rough artistic treatment brought about by emphasizing commerciality. But in any case, she will do her best to reproduce Cixi's mentality at different ages.
Take off the costume, the shawl hair, the pure eyes, the sweet smile, Cong Shan's beautiful face is still the same, but I feel a little thinner than before, a little more vicissitudes, a little more mature.
Back in Beijing, Cong Shan was happiest than being together with her parents and sister, and she was eager to stay at home all day. But after all, she was too busy, the drama was densely arranged, there was no free time, even many good friends in the past did not have time to call and contact them.
French, American, and Korean films are waiting for her, and Chen Kaige also invites Cong Shan to perform in his next play. Taiwanese veteran director Li Xing is more interested in asking her to play an important role in the stage play "Thunderstorm". Cong Shan's prospects are not brilliant.
But Cong Shan said that she would not be an actor for a lifetime, and being an actor was a dream of childhood, and once it was realized, it would be finished.
When she said this, Cong Shan was a little lazy and a little lonely. It is said that some people chased her in France, and there were also people chasing her in Taiwan, and with her delicate beauty, there must still be many people chasing her. But after all, the dream is still the motherland.
Today, Cong Shan is 59 years old. Because of the explosion of the "Wrangler" clip on the short video platform some time ago, she has returned to the public vision and continues to engage in acting. Whether it's family or career, she's living seriously in her own way.