At the door of Yang Ning's house, there was a very large tree, and he couldn't accurately call out the name of the tree, but he recognized the appearance of the tree in different seasons of the year. Since he was a child, he has loved to observe, like nature, and deeply believe that nature can give people energy and comfort. But if you say that you can have the opportunity to choose freely, he is not willing to really be a fish or a meteor, he still likes to be a person, alive, rolling in the waves of life or taking a nap, catching the sea in a typhoon day or quietly watching a sunset.
Yang Youning
UFO House with classical music
Just over an hour's drive from downtown Taipei in the direction of New Taipei, you'll reach a place called Jinshan, which is right next to the sea and was once Taipei's famous bathing beach. We went to the actor Yang Youning's hometown of Taipei, China to shoot, and we specially chose a seaside here, with few people and old houses.
Coincidentally, the sea was all too familiar to him, because when he was a child, it happened to be the place where his parents used to take him and his sister to play in the water. He remembered it vividly, his mother was very powerful, he could float on the water without swimming with the sea, he asked his mother to teach him, his mother would hold him horizontally, let him lie in the water, try to float up, but in fact, his mother's hands were always quietly protecting and supporting him in the waist and back. He also remembered that dad would often stand in the water and play with them. He always thought that his parents were very watery people, until a long time later, when the family talked together, he learned that his father was actually very afraid of water, so he always chose to stand in a very shallow place.
The old house by the jinshan sea is also very wonderful. This is a rich area in the early years of economic prosperity, rich people will buy villas and sea view houses here for them to vacation and stay, Yang Youning remembers that when he was a child, this mansion was called a flying saucer house. "The UFO House is really big, it's the shape of a flying saucer, round, one has four, 1234 is four UFO, combined into a house... This is really a very sci-fi place, and then it was inexplicably abandoned, isn't it more magical? He put up a finger, "If there are still a batch of flying butterfly houses for sale over there, I should buy one right away." He swore he was telling the truth, and he thought the UFO House was too cool.
Yang Youning has always been very fascinated by the "science fiction" thing, and science fiction movies should not be said. A few years ago, he began to drill into the bottomless deep hole of architecture and home decoration because of the purchase of a house, and after some research, he found that a major feature of American furniture in the 1960s and 1970s was that there was a strong sci-fi color in the design.
"At that time, it was the period of the global space explosion, and the United States and Russia were vying for who could go to space first, so the design at that time was very avant-garde, and the materials, colors, lines, were very futuristic." If you look at the furniture of that era now, you can see the imagination of the people at that time. ”
When it comes to architecture and home design, the corners of his mouth are always uplifted, sprinkled with foreignness. He loves Kazuyo Shima, a Japanese architect who said that she had designed an art museum, and the design concept came from a piece of paper. "Spread a piece of paper on the table to observe, the paper is floating, so she brought the concept into the façade of the building, very powerful. She designed a civil building, built with blocks as the main element, and finally formed a community with interaction and flow and harmony with nature. ”
When I went to work in the Czech Republic a few years ago, I took advantage of the filming break to go to Germany, and deliberately took time to go to the Jewish Memorial in Berlin, just to feel the experience of crossing through a deep tunnel and entering the memorial - "It feels like you have to go through a long and depressing atmosphere to enter history, and one of the buildings of the memorial hall has no doors, and you will think, why does it have no doors?" What does it tell you through this design? ”
What is art? What is an artist? Yang Youning has his own opinion: "An artist is a person who is very persistent in doing his own thing, and then doing the best thing within his ability." But it is not necessarily a matter of high and low, in order to be called an artist. ”
The source of Yang Youning's idea is closely related to his father's preferences. Since Yang Youning remembered, he knew that his father liked classical music, but he did not learn to play any instrument, he has been learning how to listen to classical music, learning for many years, until now, as long as he has time, he will find friends to come to the house and volunteer to teach everyone how to listen to classical music. It was Dad who said to Yang Youning: "Do you think classical music is art?" I tell you, as long as it can make people goosebumps, it is called art, as long as it moves you, it is art, no matter what it is. ”
Heaven and a grand sunset
Last year, when filming the TV series "Tianlong Babu" in Lijiang, Yang Youning always received a notice to leave work at 6 o'clock in the morning, and the sky in Yunnan was late, and when he went out, it was usually dark and the night sky was full of stars, so he habitually went out to see the stars. "I'll definitely look at it and think, 'Beautiful, okay, go out.'" Do it every day, do it every day, until one day he looks up, brushes, and a meteor streaks by.
His love for nature comes from the influence of his family.
"Because my mom loves the moon super, everyone knows that my mom loves the moon, so everyone who sees a beautiful moon will take pictures and pass it on to my mom." Our family's habit is also like this, one day suddenly walk away, see the moon just rose, very big, just anyone, whether it's me, my sister, my father, will call my mother, say: 'Quick, you hurry out to see the moon.' ’”
Therefore, Yang Youning said that he himself would be like this today.
There was a very big tree in front of his house, and he didn't know the name of the tree, but it changed obviously throughout the year, and he knew it well, and he liked to observe the changes in the leaves and branches in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Nature will give him energy.
Surfing, which is already almost well known as Yang Youning's love, even with his strong friendship with Zhang Xiaoquan, has also made this pair of surfing brothers. After playing surfing for more than a decade, Yang Youning said that he has now bid farewell to the initial stage of wanting to seek excitement from it, and there is not much desire to seek handsomeness, exaggeration, and a big wave, and he enjoys the feeling from planning to surf to finally blending into the sea.
The trip to the Philippines two months ago was actually a "failure" by the usual standards. The weather is bad, it rains heavily, the waves are not good, and in general there are no waves to rush. Yang Youning also thought about whether to simply forget it, but since they all came, "it is better to go down and soak in the water." He rode over on his motorcycle, parked it on the side of the road, and walked about 800 meters on foot, through a thick coconut grove, before actually reaching the sea. It was already raining heavily, and he was lying on the board, soaking in the sea, and the rain was hitting him. "Just like the opening scene of "Generation Grandmaster", the rain is crackling, and the water droplets are very large." He was floating in the rainy sea, looking at the row of coconut groves on the shore in the distance, empty in all directions, only he and he could not tell whether it was rain or a sea of seawater.
"Do you know what that sea is called?" Called Paradise, Heaven. I thought, today I don't have to wash a wave, I am here like this, it is cool enough. ”
What is surfing for? "Surfing is so that it can take me out of real life." He also witnessed for the first time in the sea in Southern California a grand sunset, with the sun falling below sea level. "The moment a ball really touches the sea level, I learned later that it's actually quite hard to see... A sun, touching the sea level, will deform, will change from round, below to flat, slowly pulling out a line. "At that moment all the surfers would stop and sit on the surface of the sea, tacitly, watching the sunset together. Another surf, the same scene appears at sunrise. "You sit on the surface of the sea and wait for the sun to rise, and when the sun is about halfway out, you can start surfing again."
In fact, in life and reality, there are not necessarily any terrible things that need to be escaped and endured, Yang Youning said, not so complicated. "I just see a tree, I like it, I will always look at that tree, the starry sky is the same, you can leave the original state of life, for a moment, I will try to remember that picture, that's it." 」
After more than an hour of talking, we spent too much time talking about the sun, the moon, the sea and meteors, which seemed useless, but this was indeed an aspect of Yang Youning, which was composed of many, many moments, and another huge reality beyond these moments was that in the past few years, he had actually been working, non-stop. He was a little afraid to stop, he was afraid of being forgotten. Sunset and sunrise are romantic, but they are also fleeting, and no matter how much you love, you have to face the long night and day outside that moment.
Yang Youning understood these truths thoroughly.
Q&A：
What exactly are you after for work?
Yang Youning: The pursuit of work... In fact, it is quite difficult to answer such a question. I think the actors are waiting, waiting for the script, waiting for the opportunity, a good script will make me have a lot of things to play on, to create, I think I may pursue only this excitement. Because I really can't tell you what I'm after now, I can't set a goal. Do I have to say "I hope to become a movie emperor in three years", this thing is too unreal, what role do you have to play to become a movie emperor? I just want to be able to play a good role that can make me fully give, even if I am exhausted, and that is my pursuit.
Are you afraid of being forgotten by others?
Yang Youning: The market itself is very cruel, because I have really experienced a similar period of things before. When the soldiers came back, I had always felt that I was completely O K, only a year, the audience would not forget me, but in fact, the audience forgot you faster than you thought... The market is constantly improving, and you seem to be waiting in the same place, which will make me panic.
Why can't you completely relax like your good friend Zhang Xiaoquan?
Yang Youning: I know that I am a person who is not very relaxed, and I don't like myself like this; I know that I am a person with more frames, and I don't like myself like this. So I'm going to force myself, break certain boxes, or not be limited by anything. When I find myself confined to a box again, I say to myself, "No, no, no." However, due to my personality, I am a very "turtle hairy" person. I realize that when I limit myself, when I am drilling the horns, I will try to pull myself.
What's the most important thing for you right now?
Yang Youning: Home, for me, is the most important thing. The year before, our restaurant was closed for business, and we didn't know where and when the next store would open, but at that time, our store had been open for more than 20 years and we made a lot of very, very good friends. I remember when I was filming, I asked for a leave of absence, saying that the day our family finished, there was a p a r t y, I must go back to participate. That night was very touching for me, 4 of us, taking turns talking, all crying. My parents stood at that table talking to all the good friends, saying that they were both crying, and I was crying below. Human feelings are important. Affection is important.
Will you always be an actor?
Yang Youning: I really don't know. Because I'm honest, when I was very young, I had a very good wish in my own heart, that when I was old, I could settle on an island where I could surf, and then be a priest over there. I can surf during the day, have parties in the afternoon, and be with everyone in church on Sundays, and I think this is my ideal old age.