A classic is always evocative, but sometimes the hidden story behind the classic is tearful, each film has its own theme, and as a story about Yue opera actors, "Stage Sisters" can be described as second to none.
Released in 1965, 55 years ago, "Stage Sisters" has experienced many right and wrong and change in these long years, and the same is true of the actors who presented it with wonderful performances.
"Stage Sisters" tells the story of Yue opera actors Zhu Chunhua and Xing Yuehong, two stage sisters who were oppressed and oppressed in the old society, but were reborn in the new society.
Yue opera is the second largest genre of drama in China, known as the second national drama, originating in Shengzhou, Zhejiang, and was initially mainly popular in the form of male Yue opera in Zhejiang and Shanghai.
It was not until the early 1920s that women's Yue opera began to appear, and in the next 10 years, Yue opera used Shanghai, a big stage at the forefront of fashion, to make women's Yue opera sweep the country and prosper.
No matter which industry, there are few leaders of the times, but also less than the pioneers of change, so during this period there have been many great figures, the most famous is undoubtedly Danjiao "three flowers and one juan and one gui", namely Shi Yinhua, Zhao Ruihua, Wang Xinghua, Yao Shuijuan, Xiao Dangui.
Xiaosheng has Tu Xinghua, Zhu Su'e, and Ma Zhanghua; among the young actors, there are also Yuan Xuefen, Yin Guifang, Fan Ruijuan, Fu Quanxiang, Xu Yulan, etc.
This "Stage Sisters" is a film created based on Yuan Xuefen and Ma Zhanghua after interviewing many Yue opera actors, and behind everyone's scenery, there is a story that belongs to their own unspeakable.
Like the two of them, they have their own different life directions, and they also have their own stories full of blood and tears, but they have been popular in both of them.
Yuan Xuefen and the famous Xiaosheng Ma Zhanghua, because they have successively starred in new plays such as "Hengniang", have been highly praised, one is known as "Yue Opera New Queen", and the other is known as "Lightning Xiaosheng" and "Yue Opera Emperor".
According to these two outstanding Yue operas, the two characters of Zhu Chunhua and Xing Yuehong in the film were created, and Zhu Chunhua in the film was played by Xie Fang, and Xing Yuehong was played by Cao Yindi.
In the film, the Yue opera actor Zhu Chunhua is a child bridesmaid, but the misfortune of childhood has not crushed her, she is straight and kind, her temperament is high, and she is not willing to be complicit.
In the face of all kinds of suffering, she honed a more stubborn and decisive character, black and white, she has always been clear and clear, and eventually became a literary and artistic worker in the revolutionary team.
However, Xing Yuehong's life is diametrically opposed, she is also a Yue opera actress, she and Chunhua are sisters, but they are simple and childish, weak in character, but they love vanity.
In such a life as Shanghai, how can Xing Yuehong not be lost? She fell into temptation and was insulted, but fortunately Haruka and other sisters did not give up on her, and after all the tribulations, she finally found the right direction again.
Xie Fang, who plays Zhu Chunhua, has written in previous articles, so I will not repeat it here, and today I will talk about Cao Yindi's past.
Cao Yindi, born in 1939, a native of Shanghai, in 1954, at the age of 15, Cao Yindi was admitted to the Yue Opera Actor Training Class of the East China Opera Research Institute, which later became the Yue Opera Class of the Shanghai Opera School, focusing on Hua Dan.
In 1959, after graduating from the Academy of Drama, she transferred to the Shanghai Yue Theater and began to reprise her role as Xiaosheng, and successively starred in Jia Baoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", Xue Meiting in "False Concubine Riding the Dragon", and Ximen Qing in "Wu Song Kills His Sister-in-Law".
She is beautiful and handsome, whether it is appearance or singing, after starring as a small student, she has passed the level and broken through the stages, breaking out of her own achievements.
At the same time, it also got the opportunity to go from the Yue opera stage to the screen, and the 62nd version of "The Red Chamber" believes that many people know that this Yue opera version of "Dream of the Red Chamber", after its release in 1962, also caused a huge sensation.
Whether it is Xu Yulan's Jia Baoyu or Wang Wenjuan's Lin Daiyu, they are stunning, can be described as a classic in the classic, and Cao Yindi also starred in this film and played Qi Guan, although her role in the play is not much, but it is unforgettable.
It is said that there were audiences who ran the theater to see this "Dream of the Red Chamber" more than 30 times in order to see her, although her fame at that time was far less than Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan, but she became popular very fast, which made many people moved.
Because she often staged a small student on the stage, the appearance is very handsome, so that many people do not know the girl, she is regarded as the Prince Charming in her heart, and various love letters appear endlessly.
Cao Yindi once said: I became a leading actor from graduation, and at that time I would receive a large number of love letters from the audience every day. How popular was Cao Yindi at that time?
Fans often stood in front of the theater waiting for her, so that the bus had to temporarily set up a stop in their backstage just to make her travel smoothly.
Because of her wonderful performance in the play, she entered the eyes of director Xie Jin, and deliberately ran to the theater to watch her perform, and then invited her to star in Xing Yuehong in "Stage Sisters", and even the audition was directly skipped.
Her performance is real and touching, playing Xing Yuehong is very beautiful and likable, and after the film was broadcast, it quickly gained a lot of fans, even compared with the big star Xie Fang.
She was very involved in the filming, especially the scene where Master Xing died, Cao Yindi was highly concentrated in her thoughts and brewed emotions, so that after the director shouted "stop", she was still immersed in the role and could not extricate herself, the more she cried, the more sad she was, and she was even jokingly called "crying champion" by her colleagues in the crew.
In 1965, after the film was released, it was well received, but the times but the storm came too quickly and caught people off guard, not only "Stage Sisters" was trampled from heaven to dust, but the actors in the play were also affected a lot.
Cao Yindi, who originally intended to step into the film industry, failed to achieve her wishes, and what is even more poignant is that Shen Hao, who played Shen Jiamu's mother, Shangguan Yunzhu, who played Shang Shuihua, and Deng Nan, who played the monk Ah Xin, all died lightly during this period.
Missing the most beautiful years, at the end of the 70s, Cao Yindi returned to the stage of Yue opera again, and at this time, her voice and singing voice had undergone some changes, so the predecessor Yuan Xuefen suggested that she change to the Lu School.
At the age of nearly 40, she gladly accepted this challenge, and lived up to expectations to perform her own style, not only inheriting the characteristics of the Lu Pai, but also carrying forward its characteristics.
In 1996, at the age of 57, she reunited with the audience in the Yue opera TV series "Meng Lijun", which made the audience shine and once again ushered in the peak of her career.
During the filming of "Stage Sisters", Cao Yindi also encountered her own love, when her studio was next to the shooting location of "Sentinel under Neon Lights", and the actors on both sides also established a friendly relationship.
She and Yuan Yue, who played the eighth class leader Zhao Dada, because they were both acting in feature films for the first time, they established a deep friendship in mutual help and became partners.
Their talent and female appearance, husband and wife were once enviable, but unfortunately they could not accompany each other for a lifetime, for various reasons, after Yuan Yue was more than half a hundred years old, the two parted ways.
After that, Yuan Yue, the elder Cao Yindi' 7-year-old, walked the second half of his life alone and died in 2018 at the age of 86.
Cao Yindi, after her retirement, still works hard for the cause of Yue opera, dedicates, and cultivates many new people for Yue opera, and although Cao Yindi is 81 years old, she is not old at all, but she still shops online like many young people.
She said: A person, as long as you have a young mentality, you will be young. Bless this artist, happiness and well-being, forever young!