"Mao Tou" is the nickname of former actor Mao Yongming of the Film Studio, derived from his role in "Little Moon Building" "Yang Maotou".
Born in Shanghai in 1954, Mao Yongming joined the army after graduating from junior high school in 1970 and became an actor in the Shanghai Garrison District Warrior Performance Team in 1972.
In 1974, the Shanghai Film Studio remade "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River" and went to the Shanghai Garrison District to select actors, and as a result, Mao Yongming, who played a small soldier in the drama "Journey of Ten Thousand Miles", let him play a guerrilla in the film.
At that time, the branch secretary of the Shanghai Film Theater Troupe was Iron Bull, he felt that Mao Yongming smiled and two dimples, and he looked quite similar, although there was no shortage of young actors in the Shanghai Film Troupe, but most of them were handsome young students such as Guo Kaimin and Wang Weiping, and the comedians were young and yellow, just like that, after filming "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River", he turned to the film studio and worshiped the comedy star Han Fei as a teacher.
In 1979, Mao Yongming first starred in "The Two of Them and Them", and one played a pair of twin brothers, which was well received after the release of the film, and he became a pillar of the Shanghai film comedy.
Then, he played a Yue opera actor in "The Flying Son-in-Law", in which he studied and sang in person.
In this way, when the Suzhou dialect drama "Little Deyue Lou" began filming, the director of the Shanghai Film Factory designated Mao Yongming to star. "Little Deyue Lou" is adapted from the Suzhou Burlesque Troupe's burlesque play of the same name, which is the sequel to the popular "Satisfied Don't Be Satisfied" drama in the 50s, telling the story of Yang Maotou, the secretary of the Deyuelou Restaurant, in order to solve the problem of Chinese and foreign tourists "eating difficulties" in Suzhou, leading a group of young people to open a semicolon "Little DeyueLou", showing the contradictions and conflicts between the new and old generations of waiters in the Deyue Building in the 80s and the new people on the commercial front. The play was once elected as an outstanding play of the "Hundred Flowers Award" of Jiangsu Province Drama.
"Satisfied Don't Be Satisfied" was adapted into a comedy by the long film studio in 1963, "Satisfied or Dissatisfied", which was a great success, but the Suzhou Burlesque Troupe was a little dissatisfied, because most of their actors in the film were replaced, so this time they asked to use the original performance team. But The studio also has its own plans, after all, a film that speaks the Suzhou dialect has limited coverage, and if there are no more actors familiar to the national audience to support the stage, the chances of success are too small. For commercial reasons, they agreed to keep the original team, but the lead actor must be Mao Yongming, who is already well-known in the domestic film industry.
Starring in "Little Moon Building" is a big challenge for Mao Yongming, and the first thing to pass is the language barrier. At that time, he practiced Mandarin hard in "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River", and now he has to go back to learning the Suzhou dialect. The first day the group and the burlesque actors were paired with words, which caused a lot of laughter, because he didn't even say well the most commonly used Suzhou dialects "倷, 伲, 俚笃" (I, you, he), often reversing the meaning, and jokes were full of jokes. Fortunately, he is smart and studious, and basically mastered the characteristics of Suzhou dialect soft cavity soft tone with slightly curly tone. When dubbing, although his pronunciation is mixed with Shanghainese in Suzhou dialect, it has received unexpected comedic effects.
DeyueLou filming scene
In order to play the role of "Yang Maotou", he lived in Suzhou for more than a month, and went to Deyue Tower and Songhe Tower every day to deliver dishes and experience life. Deyuelou Restaurant is also one of the locations of the film, it was originally just a fictional noodle restaurant in the movie "Satisfied or Dissatisfied", because after the release of the movie, there were tourists constantly looking for DeyueLou in Suzhou, so shortly before the filming of "Little DeyueLou", Suzhou Catering Company changed the cooking school practice base originally named Suzhou Restaurant in the eunuch lane next to Guanqian Street into Deyuelou Restaurant.
The landscape workers hung a signboard for Han Bi Lou with a small Deyue Lou
However, at the time of filming, the "Little Moon Building" as the semicolon of the Yue Lou in the film was not there, and the film crew chose thousands of choices, and finally selected the Han Bi Lou in the East Park of Suzhou. The East Garden is a new type of modern garden with landscapes as the main landscape using the ruins of Jiang Taoyuan, the ruins of the ancient city wall and the inner city river. At the time of filming, Han Bi Lou had just been completed, initially as a tea room and food commissary in the garden, because its architectural style of Chinese and Western style was obviously different from the "Deyue Lou" of the garden-style building, so it became the filming location of "Little Deyue Lou".
Today, Han Bi Lou has become a floating restaurant specializing in Su Bang cuisine in East Garden, and every time you eat here, the waiter will tirelessly tell you the story of "Little Moon Building" filmed here.
It's just that few young people know about Mao Yongming now. After filming the movie "Do The Head" in 2005, Mao Yongming gradually faded out of the show business circle, and like many popular movie stars in the past, he chose to go to the sea to do business, and later moved to the United States.
In recent years, Mao Yongming has occasionally returned to China to participate in the filming of some film and television dramas, and now at the age of 65, he is obviously blessed, and he is no longer the handsome and capable "Yang Maotou" of the past.