Promotional photo for the movie "The Mountain Road" (1960), Lu Yan
In Lu Yan's acting career, she has played Cixi a total of 3 times on the screen. He first starred in Li Hanxiang's (1926-1996) films The Fall of the Country (1975) and Yingtai Weeping Blood (1976), followed by The Last Emperor (1987) by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (1941-2018) in The Last Emperor (1987).
In 2019, Lu Yan and Zheng Yunlong in the drama "Deling and Cixi" in the image - Cixi snatched the change presented by Guangxu and fell to the ground
She has performed Cixi three times on stage, although the same work, but has gone through three different eras, the first and the second time in 1998 and 2006 , the old version of the play "Deling and Cixi" on the Hong Kong stage, and the third time in the mainland in 2019, the re-arranged drama "Deling and Cixi" – this year she is 92 years old.
This age should be the oldest protagonist on the Chinese drama stage, and it is very precious to see her performance.
In 2019, Lu Yan's image in the drama "Deling and Cixi" - the relationship between Cixi and her friend Rong Lu
The professional who plays Cixi said in an interview in 2019 that the biggest change after so many years is that "when you get older, the performance will be closer to the character of Cixi." ”
"I'm very content, I'm 92 years old, I can fly all over the world, I can still stand on stage and work with young people. Although the white hair is also another kind of demeanor; although the steps are faltering, it will be more stable to walk slowly, right?
Lu Yan in childhood
Born in Beijing on January 19, 1927, Lu Yan, who is 94 years old, was originally from Zhongshan County, Guangdong Province, and grew up in Shanghai, his father served in the diplomatic circles, and his mother Li Guifen (formerly known as Li Dongzhen) was a famous veteran of Peking Opera.
Lu Yan said, "As a first-generation female student, it was a great thing to be able to pick a shift in that era. "Her mother is a famous actor in Peking Opera, her father appreciates Peking Opera, and has been influenced by her family since she was a child to be exposed to Peking Opera, calligraphy, painting and photography, but Lu Yan's interest in performance is not unrelated to Master Mei Lanfang.
Lu Yan (first from left) and Mei Lanfang (third from right) family
In the early 1940s, Mei Lanfang lived in seclusion on Mas South Road in Shanghai, while Lu Yan and her mother lived in the Mei family. In addition to going to school to study and study, Lu Yan often snuggled up to her righteous father Mei Lanfang.
Mei Lanfang regarded Lu Yan as her own daughter and personally taught her to sing Kunqu operas such as "Fei Zhen'e Thorny Tiger" and "Neon Guan". Lu Yan acted on stage for the first time, and Mei Lanfang personally attended the scene.
Mei Lanfang's inscription to Lu Yan
After the performance, Lu Yan asked whether the performance was good, and Mei Lanfang said, "Your body is all right, and your singing voice is still decent, but you have not yet arrived home..." These few words containing philosophical rationality have a great impact on Lu Yan's future studies in foreign theater.
Lu Yan studied at St. John's University and Jiaotong University in Shanghai. After living with her mother in Mei's house for 9 years, Li Guifen took Lu Yan, whose original name was Lu Yanchun, to the United States.
Stills of Lu Yan (right) in the campus drama "Thunderstorm"
After graduating from the University of Hawaii with a major in financial management, she followed the traditional path of marrying a human wife. As the old Chinese saying goes, "Thirty don't learn the arts."
In Lu Yan's view, opera has a deep impact on her future film performances, "the movie is the easiest, no one can help you when the drama stage curtain is opened, and Peking Opera is the deepest and most difficult, not only to sing well, but also to do well, to do well, but also to have a body, appearance and young skills, so Peking Opera actors should be most respected." ”
Lu Yan (back row, first left) family
But at the age of 29, Lu Yan was already a mother of three children. In that foreign relocation, her mind made waves again.
"My husband, Mr. Huang Xilin, is very knowledgeable, and he told me that you have liked acting since you were a child, so now you might as well try it, if you try it and don't succeed, you will have no regrets in the future." Lu Yan said.
In 1956, Lu Yan entered the Bassadena Theater School in California to study acting. People around me thought that this was the end of a long-cherished wish, but they did not think that this was the take-off of a legend.
Stills from the movie Flying Tiger Chia Doll (1958), Lu Yan and Victor Victor Mature
When he graduated, he performed the drama "Crescent Tea Society". During this period, Lu Yan also worked as a reporter for the Honolulu Advertising Newspaper, doing a weekly overseas Chinese news broadcast on the radio station, and working as a middle school Chinese teacher at the Monteli Army School.
In 1958, at the age of 31, Lu Yan graduated from school. Academy Award director Frank Borzage (1894-1962), who shot "Flying Tiger Baby China Doll" (1958), was recruiting actors, and on the recommendation of the principal, this "elderly graduate" went to apply.
Originally, director Frank Bausaki felt that she was not suitable for playing an oriental bar girl, and then finally agreed to let her play this role, and Lu Yan has never left the screen since.
From that role onwards, Hollywood knew that if a role of an oriental woman was needed, it would go to Lu Yan.
Chinese actresses who made films in Hollywood in the United States in the early days included Huang Liushuang (1905-1961), Li Lihua (1924-2017) in the 50s, and Lu Yan and Guan Nanshi in the 60s.
Stills from the movie Mountain Road (1960), Lu Yan and James Stewart
Poster for the Italian version of the film Mountain Road (1960).
In 1960, Lu Yan co-starred with Hollywood superstar James Stewart (1908-1997) in The Mountain Road (1960), a beautiful, sharp, fluentLysy Chinese woman named Samui, who spoke fluent English. In revenge, Samui helped the American army cross the difficult mountains and delayed the Japanese attack.
An American film critic wrote that Lu Yan acted "calmly, naturally, cutely and vividly." It has changed people's old concepts of Chinese women in the past, and I hope to see more of her plays in the future."
Location of the film Cyclops (1961), Lu Yan and Marlon Brando
In 1960, among the eight outstanding actors selected by the American "Screen Quarterly", Lu Yan ranked third. Lu Yan later took over the filming of "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961) and "Manhunt" (1962). Although in these films, her role stays too short.
Then, Lu Yan was appreciated by Marlon Brando (1924-2004) by Marlon Brando ( 1924-2004 ) , who hand-picked her to play opposites in the movie "One-Eyed Monster", but in the 120-minute film, Lu Yan was deleted with only two shots, and the living space of Chinese actors in Hollywood was ultimately very limited.
Stills from the movie "The Star Tracker" (1962), Lu Yan and Steve Pike Steve Peck
Poster for the American version of the movie "The Star Tracker" (1962).
Marlon Brando warned Lu Yan: "Your acting skills are very simple, don't let Hollywood change it." ”
In those days, Hollywood's appointment of Asian actresses was always "wearing colored glasses" and gave them very little room to play.
In 1968, Lu Yan went to Hong Kong to take over Tang Shuxuan's debut film "Mrs. Dong" (1970).
Images of Lu Yan and Wen Xiu (left) in the film Madame Dong (1970).
The film tells the story of a young widowed Lady Dong in the Ming Dynasty, who was widowed for twelve years, raising her daughter, respecting her mother-in-law, and enthusiastic about public welfare, and the villagers set up a chastity arch for her.
Later, she met an officer, Lieutenant Yang (played by Qiao Hong), who developed love for her, and Mrs. Dong was almost unable to sustain herself, and after a painful struggle in her thoughts, she was calm as ever.
Lu Yan's image in the film Madame Dong (1970).
Lu Yan profoundly and delicately expressed the mentality of traditional Chinese women, so she won the Best Actress Award at the 9th Golden Horse Awards in 1971.
The film not only caused a sensation in Hong Kong, but was highly acclaimed when it was screened at international film festivals such as Cannes and Rocarno, and was also screened in the best theaters in Los Angeles and other places.
Images of Lu Yan and Qiao Hong in the film Madame Dong (1970).
The famous American writer Henry Miller praised Lu Yan's acting skills, saying that her style and the vulgar artificialization of Western movie stars form a strong contrast.
In 1973, Lu Yan starred in Hong Kong as the song dynasty female general, able to fight a good war, the legendary elderly She Taijun in Cheng Gang's "Fourteen Female Heroes" (1972), and won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 11th Golden Horse Awards in 1973.
Lu Yan's image in the film Fourteen Female Heroes (1972).
Lu Yan's characters on the screen, she said at the time that her favorite was Empress Dowager Cixi in "Falling into the City". In order to play this role well, Lu Yan specially went to the Oriental Library of Harvard University and California State University and borrowed dozens of Chinese and English books on Cixi, such as "Prequel to Cixi", "Jade Bead Curtain", "Mother and Child Monarch" written by Mr. Gao Yang, and concentrated on reading. Speculate on the study.
At first, Lu Yan felt that the characteristics of this complex historical figure were difficult to grasp, and for a long time, she was completely immersed in the creation of this character.
Images of Lu Yan and Dillon in the film Falling Into the City (1975).
After deep thinking, she had a "divine friendship" with this "Lafayette", so she decided to use humane and life-like methods to portray this powerful empress dowager.
Lu Yan, who has a firm and gentle personality, plays the moody and vicious Empress Dowager Cixi in the film, which is spicy but not pungent, cold and threatening, and does not lose her identity as a curtain listener, and her measure is very appropriate.
Li Hanxiang originally wanted Li Lihua to play Cixi, but because the conditions were not close, he asked Lu Yan to play.
On the set of the movie "Falling into the City" (1975), Li Hanxiang (center) gave a play to Lu Yan, Dillon (right) and others
In the early stage of shooting, Lu Yan shot a shot more than 40 times, Li Hanxiang was always dissatisfied, Lu Yan was not impatient, patiently interpreted Cixi from different angles, and finally learned that Li Hanxiang deliberately "made it difficult" for her, wanting to force Shao to change to Li Lihua to play Cixi.
In the end, Lu Yan's dedication and superb acting skills convinced Li Hanxiang, "Among them, ""Falling into the City" was filmed in Hong Kong in 1975, not filmed in the Forbidden City, but the two studios were connected to set up for shooting, and all the costumes and accessories were designed by director Li Hanxiang himself. At first, I didn't think it was suitable for Cixi because my own personality and her were too far apart, but suddenly one day I sat there, and director Li Hanxiang laughed and said that as soon as you sat down, you were Lafayette. ”
Lu Yan's image in the film Yingtai Weeping Blood (1976).
Lu Yan's role as Empress Dowager Cixi was highly praised by Chinese and foreign film critics and audiences, and in 1975 she won the Best Actress Award at the 12th Golden Horse Awards for Cixi in "Falling into the Country". After watching the film, the Queen Mother invited her to a meeting in London.
In November 1975, the International Film Festival was held in Tehran, Iran. As a director of Hong Kong Starfish Pictures, Lu Yan brought the documentaries "The Wheel of the Maritime Academy" and "Energy and the Current World" produced by the company to entertain film industry people from all over the world.
Stills from the movie Eternal Love (1978), Lu Yan (right)
For almost the entire 1970s, Lu Yan shot Chinese and Cantonese films in Hong Kong and Taiwan, until Tai-Pan (1986) in the 1980s, when she once again set off a Chinese theme in Hollywood.
Due to the relationship between the living environment, Lu Yan can not only speak local languages such as "Beijing Film", Shanghainese, Cantonese, etc., but also has a good English cultivation. She is also good at Chinese stage plays and Japanese dances.
Lu Yan, who has a strong interest in Peking Opera, maintains regular contact with the Angel National Opera Company in Los Angeles in the United States. She has translated 7 Peking Opera scripts, including "Picking Jade Bracelet", "Wu Jia Po", "Fishing and Killing Family", and "Chunxiang Noisy Learning", into English.
She also wrote in English details of the action, costumes, makeup and faces of the actors, some of which have been published. In order to promote Peking Opera, Lu Yan often and her friends gave exemplary performances of these plays at american universities.
Lu Yan's image in the film The Last Emperor (1987).
In order to make it easy for foreign audiences to accept, when performing, she made a bold attempt, singing lyrics in Chinese, dialogue in English, and English subtitles, which made the performance work very well.
Although Lu Yan has already achieved high achievements in art, she is not satisfied. In terms of acting, she feels that acting is really a profound science, vast and endless, and must constantly enrich her acting skills to have depth. She regards the stage as her hometown, and in her lifetime, she will grasp every minute to do her best to decorate her beautiful hometown.
Lu Yan and Qin Yi
Lu Yan's husband, Mr. Huang Xilin, was also running the Lilin Garden restaurant in Los Angeles at the time, and many Hollywood movie stars were regular customers of the restaurant. Mr. Huang Xilin is very supportive of his wife's acting career.
In addition to doing housework, Lu Yan also helps take care of the restaurant business in her free time. Her cooking skills are very good. Their daughter, Huang Hanqi, was adept at singing and dancing and was elected Miss Chinatown in Los Angeles in January 1978.
Images of Lu Yan and Pan Hong in the film The Last Nobleman (1989).
In 1989, she was invited by director Xie Jin (1923-2008) to appear as Pan Hong's mother in the film The Last Nobleman (1989), and has since formed a friendship with Pu Cunxin in the film.
When filming "The Last Nobleman", the two made an appointment with the "mother-child covenant", and there was also the opportunity of the drama "Dream in the Garden", but this wait was 30 years, and finally reached the "mother-child covenant" in "Deling and Cixi" in 2019.
In 2019, Lu Yan and Pu Cunxin stills in the drama "Deling and Cixi"
The Joy Luck Club (1993) in 1993 was the insurmountable peak for Chinese-American actors. As a film that is completely chinese as the protagonist and tells the story of the Chinese community, it has achieved extremely high box office results.
"Happy Luck Club" gathers the best Chinese actors that can be found in the United States at that time, including Wen Mingna, Lu Yan, and Zhou Xinfang's daughter Zhou Caiqin.
In 1960, in "Mountain Road", Lu Yan's acting talent had been affirmed by mainstream film critics, but after "Mountain Road" and before "Happy Luck Club", she could never find a more important and in-depth display of Chinese female characters in Hollywood than in these two films.
Stills from the movie "Xifuhui" (1993), Lu Yan (second from right), Zhou Caiqin (fourth from left)
In 1994, at the age of 67, Lu Yan became the first Chinese-American actor to serve as a lifetime judge at the Academy Awards in the United States.
Lu Yan said that she has been a judge for so many years and has always hoped to see Chinese directors win at the Oscars. She was excited to see Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990) for the first time, and it was so well filmed.
She regrets the most that Ang Lee's "Wedding Banquet" (1993) and Chen Kaige's "Farewell to the King" (1993) were nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the same time, and the votes were split.
Stills from the movie "Color Ring" (2007), Lu Yan (second from left)
There is a custom in British films, in a film to arrange a grand old actor to perform a cutscene to show "tribute". In Chinese films over the years, Lu Yan has been frequently "homaged" to Mrs. Shui in "Auntie's Postmodern Life" (2006); In "Sex Ring" (2007), Wang Jiazhi returns to her aunt's house in Shanghai, and between the wives playing mahjong, there is a Lu Yan, who has only one line: "You still let her read." That sentence, the top ten thousand sentences.
Stills from the movie "Reunion" (2010), Lu Yan and Ling Feng
After that, she accepted Wang Quan'an's invitation to star in "Reunion" (2010), a rare film with an average age of 80 years old actors as the protagonist, she played Qiao Yu'e from the old Shanghai, and played the kindness and affection for the two men very well and brilliantly. It was also her last film to be the heroine.
In Lu Yan's mind, the status of the Oscar lifetime judge does not mark her acting height. The establishment of the "Lu Yan Film Foundation" to help the younger generation of filmmakers to realize their dreams, when her name is linked to the future of film, is her art longer.
In 2013, when she starred in the elderly Gu Xianglan in Lai Shengchuan's drama "Like a Dream" at the age of 87, Lu Yan's sentence made the listener quite sentimental, "I know that I don't have much time." ”
Now, 8 years after saying this, she still flies over the world, and energy and physical strength do not seem to be the biggest problem for her. As long as her life does not stop, she will continue to act.
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