People often say: life is like a play, and a play is like life. You know, it's not just an empty phrase. It not only contains the true meaning of "drama comes from life and is higher than life", but also reflects the essence of "drama is to bring emotional resonance to the audience". And people often play a variety of roles in real life, only by trying to do a good job of themselves, can we make the "life" drama more wonderful and complete.
In Hong Kong, the best at handling the relationship between "drama and life" is Du Guowei, who is known as the "golden screenwriter of the drama industry". He has written "I Have a Date with Spring", "Nanhai Thirteen Lang", "There is Love in the World", and such classic scripts as "The Vicissitudes of Life". Especially in "Nanhai Thirteen Lang", which was still performed on a large scale until last year, the protagonist Jiang Yujun's bumpy experience of "writing a good script, but not writing his own life" cannot help but make the audience feel compassion and sigh.
In 1996, the film "Hudumen" directed by Shu Qi was also adapted from Du Guowei's stage play of the same name.
This is a buried masterpiece in the history of Hong Kong cinema, and Douban film friends also gave this film a high score of 8.3.
The film takes the contrast between traditional Cantonese opera and modern life as the starting point, and it is the same as the theme of "Nanhai Thirteen Langs", which is to interpret "Is life as complete as a drama?" However, unlike the gloomy and gray background of "Nanhai Thirteen Lang", the story of "Hudumen" has a warm inspirational component, full of "self-consolation" style of undead spirit.
The story revolves around leng Jianxin (Played by Xiao Fangfang), a Cantonese opera writer and martial artist who has been traversing the opera scene for thirty years. On the stage, she behaves in a dashing manner, and her eyebrows are full of heroism, which makes her deeply loved by fans. In real life, she is arrogant, generous and generous, and is loved by fans. Although Leng Jianxin has a successful career, in the family, due to her neglect of management, her daughter not only has homosexual tendencies, but also faces the fact that she cannot recognize her own son. Coupled with her husband Chen Yaozu's decision to immigrate to Australia with his family, Leng Jianxin is also facing the problem of whether to give up his career.
The film supports the whole story with a large number of life-like situations and stage dramas, although bland but by no means mediocre. Leng Jianxin on the stage plays different heroes and heroes, and in real life, she also has to play different roles such as mother, wife and so on. The cold sword heart in life has a contradiction with the cold sword heart on the stage, and the female identity has a contradiction with the male characters in the opera. It can be said that in the history of Hong Kong cinema, there has never been a character as complex as Leng Jianxin.
According to Lei Chuxiong, the artist of "Hudumen", in the original script of "Hudumen", the role of Leng Jianxin was originally printed dan, but under the suggestion of Xiao Fangfang, she was changed to Wen Wusheng. This proposal also gives the role a richer sense of layering. Therefore, the dramatic conflict of the whole movie comes from leng Jianxin's own role conflict. There is such a scene in the film, Leng Jianxin in order to play Di Qing well, she must ensure that she is not disturbed by any chicken skin trivia, because once disturbed, Di Qing will no longer have the heroic courage of the righteous thin cloud sky. When she saw her own son sitting in the audience but could not recognize each other, she borrowed the scene of agarwood saving her mother to vent her sadness and sorrow, so she burst into tears. At this time, her tears seem to be a true portrayal of a weak mother.
She shows her a scene in the photo album left by Sister Lan in Ming's sister-in-law, and when she sees that her own son has transformed from a child to a teenager, she must also hold back tears to show her strength.
Xiao Fangfang's every move of Leng Jianxin is very precise in scale, and the transformation between character personalities is comfortable. Mastering the demeanor and gait of the Cold Sword Heart is not just to draw a tiger according to a cat, but to achieve both god and form. When she has always shown her heroic image, when she stood on the stage for the last time and said goodbye to the audience offstage, she rarely revealed her inner vulnerability: "I hope you don't forget me so quickly, an artist who has struggled on stage for thirty years." I have a cold sword heart, and I have no regrets in this life."
Xiao Fangfang has achieved the highest realm of "human drama unity".
When the audience saw Leng Jianxin, it was inevitable that they would think of Xiao Fangfang.
It is as if the Cold Sword Heart is the embodiment of Xiao Fangfang, or rather, the Cold Sword Heart is Xiao Fangfang after being dramatized.
Another additional theme of the film is the spirit of the contract in "Hudumen".
The so-called "HuduMen" refers to the special term passed down by word of mouth in Cantonese opera, which is an abstract concept that divides the front and back of the stage. Once the people step out of the Hudu Gate, they must forget themselves and devote themselves to the role until the end of the song. As the saying goes, "bitches are ruthless, drama is meaningless", but it does not apply to this film. The virtues of patience and integrity and keeping promises are precisely what people in modern life lack.