The excellence of actor Yan Bingyan makes me feel that "Mr. Sheng's Flowers", which was born out of Ha Jin's novel "Pension Plan", has replaced the theme of "pension" with a worry about the fate of the "flowers".
Some actors use one role after another as a stepping stone to become a star, and some actors rub their star temperament into one role after another. Yan Bingyan belongs to the latter.
This recognition of this less noisy actress began with a movie called "Teeth of Love." Completed in 2006, "Teeth of Love" tells the story of the attitude to love in the society we live in over the past few decades through three experiences related to love by a woman.
And Qian Hongye, the heroine played by Yan Bingyan, is the spokesperson for this attitude. From the wood awareness of love, to the love like a moth to the fire, and then to abandon love out of the married life, the money leaves floating in it also go from green to blooming to heart like water.
This kind of connotation-rich role is not easy to play, but Yan Bingyan is able to control it with ease, especially the scene where the back is injured by the male classmate who has a crush on her with a brick, Yan Bingyan interprets the process of a girl who does not understand the emotional life of sudden enlightenment, and interprets it in every detail.
The character setting of the intellectual makes Qian Hongye's appearance very elegant, if the heroine of "Teeth of Love" is a role favored by actresses, then Li Baoli may not be.
Based on the film "Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart" adapted from the novel of the same name, the heroine Li Baoli was once a humble woman. After tracking her husband's affair, Li Baoli made a reasonable but unreasonable choice, which made her husband give up his life, and also let her mother-in-law and son see it as a thorn in her eye from then on. After Li Baoli, who was ashamed, used a "bar" to provoke the heavy responsibility of adopting her mother-in-law and raising her son, she was still not forgiven by the grandparents.
So we see that Yan Bingyan on the screen is gaunt, thin, and outdated clothes and pants walking through the alleys, she plays Li Baoli, out of the house is a hard-working lollipop woman, back home but also despised by the mother-in-law and son, such a character who is not pleasing to the image, who is willing to spend so much effort to ponder Li Baoli's ups and downs of the inner world? Yan Bingyan is willing, and the degree of completion is almost perfect.
Unfortunately, after the release of "Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart" in 2012, the traffic stars became more and more dazzling, and the two movies starring Yan Bingyan, "The Teeth of Love" and "Ten Thousand Arrows Through the Heart", could only be shooting stars across the sky, and the moment was dazzling but could not attract the attention of the public.
It's not without acting! I thought that after 2012, Yan Bingyan would suddenly wake up and devote herself to the ranks of popular drama shooting, but I did not expect that she was still keen on those literary and art films on female topics, this time, it was "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" released in 2016.
The film "Mr. Sheng's Flowers", which localizes the Novel "Pension Plan" by The Chinese-American writer Ha Jin, locates the heroine Cotton as a woman who was born in Gansu, where the expression of flowers is expressed, and was driven out of the house by her husband because she could not have children. Cotton, who could not stay in his hometown, followed his fellow villagers to Beijing to work, and met He Shun, a man who left his wife and children in his hometown and ran around Beijing alone.
Soon after being with He Shun, Cotton got a good job looking after Mr. Sheng, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Yes, such a lonely family is not easy to take care of, but Mr. Sheng's daughter Sheng Qin promised a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan plus a package to eat and live, and Cotton felt that this was a job worth paying for, so she dragged her luggage and lived in Mr. Sheng's home...
That is, the story of the female nanny and the somewhat demented old man, how can "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" be positioned as a film with female themes? The film uses the character relationship between Cotton and Mr. Sheng to focus on at least the following female topics:
Is inability to procreate a woman's original sin?
What kind of pain does it hurt women to leave their homes for a big city to be so stubborn?
Who should Sheng Qin, who is alone in an empty house, ask for the lost pleasure of life?
Should the dying Mr. Sheng deserve the punishment he deserves for hurting women when he was young?
Wait a minute.
Of course, the film is only presented rather than solving the problem. From the perspective of presenting the problem, Yan Bingyan vividly performed the connotation to be expressed in "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" through the role of cotton.
After deciding that he could not have children, Cotton did not think about taking measures when he and He Shun were together, who knew that the accident had happened. Sheng Qin took Cotton to the hospital for a routine physical examination, and the result was that Cotton was pregnant.
After Sheng Qin knew that she was pregnant, Cotton hurriedly left the hospital building and rushed into the blue sky, at this time, the sun was shining brightly - I have to say, this scene, Yan Bingyan's performance is simply perfect. She first looked up at some strong sunlight, and the grievance appeared on her face.
What grievances? The grievances suffered in my hometown for so many years because I could not have children, and the grievances of being forced to divorce because I could not have children. Soon, the grievances on that face in the sun disappeared and were replaced by a proud smile.
Proud of what? A woman who can procreate is a complete woman, and this old social concept has accumulated into Cotton's brain and body, making her feel that she is a useless woman who should be abandoned without resistance, but a paper of pregnancy test results instantly washes away her original sin, can Cotton not be proud?
And the tears that followed were grateful for her fighting body, hating her ex-husband who had abused herself, feeling that she had sought perfection before, and feeling that the sun was opening up for herself for the first time, so she was overjoyed at the sun again. This is a passage that makes bad actors helpless and good actors play to the fullest, obviously, Yan Bingyan is a good actor.
The excellent performance of the good actor Yan Bingyan, not only in this scene! Most of the scenes in "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" are the antagonists of Yan Bingyan and Wang Deshun, the actor of Mr. Sheng.
Because Mr. Sheng's character is set as an Alzheimer's patient, Mr. Sheng is either nonsense or humming, and their opponent play is always Yan Bingyan alone in terms of dialogue, but she can make us feel that Mr. Sheng has never been absent from the dialogue with her.
Yan Bingyan's excellence makes me feel that "Mr. Sheng's Flowers", which was born out of Ha Jin's novel "Pension Plan", has replaced the theme of "pension" with a worry about the fate of the "flowers". Lo and behold, he Shun, who never skimped on sweet words, didn't he cowardly hide after hearing that Cotton was unexpectedly pregnant? It reappears, also to persuade Cotton to give up her children.
From Cotton crying with joy after learning that she was pregnant, to He Shun's anger after learning that Cotton was pregnant, "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" clearly tells us that it is more concerned about the fate of cotton than who takes care of Mr. Sheng, who is elderly and dementia, that is, how women will communicate with the world today.
Unfortunately, the film does not find the best means of communication with the world for cotton. At the end, the style of "Mr. Sheng's Flowers" takes a turn: the cotton carrying the child leaves the metropolis and returns to the hometown where she was raised. It is the best season in my hometown, the sun is shining, the cotton is in full bloom, the smile on the cotton's face is brighter than the sun, more blooming than the cotton - what is this scene hinting at?
It seems to me that it is cotton who proudly declares to those who once despised herself that she is a fertile woman, and that she can rightfully return to her hometown and live with her brow raised. Such an ending is somewhat disappointing, but fortunately, with a good actor like Yan Bingyan, her excellent performance from beginning to end makes a flawed movie almost perfect.
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Source/China Women's Daily (ID:fnb198410)
Author/Mei Wu
Photo /@ Mr. Sheng's flowers
Editor/Chen Xiaobing