About 500 kilometers east from Xining, you will reach the city of Delingha in Qinghai Province, a large no-man's land and a favorite place for Yang Xiucuo in western China. "The energy, or emotion, that nature gives you, may only be expressed through works of art." Whether it is an endless plain, a steep cliff, or a very ordinary tree, it has experienced thousands of years of wind, frost, rain and snow, enough to make people tiny. Growing up in Si, this land gave Yang Xiucuo the most powerful nourishment, and she also brought this nourishment into the image, leaving the silhouette of the western female character on the plateau.
Yang Xiucuo has been constantly debugging his relationship with his surroundings. In other words, she once grew up on the western land, and after a short absence, she recognized her own needs for the environment. Now that she knows what kind of nutrients she can get from nature and the ability to keep herself calm in the crowd, the occasional "jumping out" is no longer a problem. When she can move in and out freely in silence and noise, she holds the power of self-control firmly in her hands.
Recently, Yang Xiucuo did not keep himself away from the crowds, but spent a lot of time in the city. In addition to her role as an actress, she is also a singer, and when she is usually idle, especially in the summer when the west is particularly precious, she participates in various local music festivals and performs her own Tibetan songs.
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At these times, the bustle in the crowd is not a consumption for her, but will become an extra closeness. "In fact, every detail of our lives is quite literary, such as family gatherings or various local parties and banquets, and on that occasion, we will sing and dance. For singing, I am both naturally fond of it and influenced by the environment around me. ”
These "liberating nature" activities will continue until the moment she takes over the script - every time she prepares for the role, she will disappear from the audience's sight, until a month or two later, she will come out of the "closed" state and become the next person to play.
"There is a saying in our Tibetan language to the effect that every ravine has the dialect of every ravine, and every ravine has the culture of each ravine, and they are completely different."
Since becoming an actress at the age of 14, Yang Xiucuo's works are not many, but every time before starting the camera, she will put down everything at hand and wholeheartedly figure out the role.
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"It's important that I get to my destination early, feel the local dialect, the culture, and delve into the character's heart." It wasn't the director's order, it was what she was asking of herself. When preparing the movie "Tharlo", which made her known to many people, in order to play the heroine Yang Tso, who expressed her rebellion by cutting her hair short, smoking, and drinking, she simply let herself "become" Yang Cuo: "I am not going to play such a role, but I feel that I am living in such an environment." I would think about what she should be, and live in that environment in advance, turn off the phone, and not contact the outside world. Now that six years have passed since the release of the film, yang Xiucuo can still remember the extreme investment at that time when he mentions this role that is crucial to him, "Even after filming, when I go to the next scene, I am still in YangCuo's state." ”
Sometimes in the crowd of enthusiastic songs, sometimes hidden in a person's corner and gradually become a role, this is Yang Xiucuo's way of getting along with performance. All kinds of just the right distance changes, so that she will not break away from the soil that gave birth to her, but also grow into an independent individual. Like the tree she had seen in no man's land, it was silent, but every day it would be a little more exuberant than before.
Looking back on his film path, Yang Xiucuo's experience is also like the growth of a tree, which has gone through a long journey of many years. From being ignorant and lucky to be chosen by the director at the beginning, to becoming an actress who cannot be ignored in Western movies, she knows the movie at the same time, and also integrates into the movie.
"At that time, when I went to shoot, I didn't understand it at all, and when I went there, I knew that the original filming was not a one-shot to the end, and it had to stop many times in the middle." Born in 1991, Yang Xiucuo's first chance to appear in a film was due to director Wan Ma Tse-dan going to her art school to select actors. She was 14 years old and loved to sing and dance, but she had never been exposed to film or television performances, and she didn't even know what movies were. Occasional opportunities to watch movies are limited to watching open-air movies with the whole village while at home. "When I was a child, I didn't have the current Western movies, and I watched a lot of Hong Kong films, but in fact, I couldn't understand them, that is, to join in the fun." In the memory, what impressed me was not even the movie, but the TV series "Journey to the West". ”
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With a little "fearlessness of the ignorant", Yang Xiucuo had the first role in his life in "Quiet Ma Ne Stone". As an actress, she also plays an actor in the play. For her, the most important thing about that experience was to complete her own first experience, skip other people's explanations, and directly understand what it was like to make a movie through her own perception.
"The set was in the ravine, and I remember one afternoon, I ran from this side of the ravine to the ravine over there to play, and then I found out that the whole crew was looking for me. When I came back, I knew Wan Dao was angry, but I never saw him lose his temper. That time he looked at me for half a day and asked me if I could just go and play like this? I just learned that the original film had to wait on the set. ”
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Becoming the heroine of Wan Ma Tse-dan's film again is ten years after that play. At that time, the director returned to the local area to select actresses for her new film, and Yang Xiucuo was not the only candidate, but after reading the script, she felt that this role was none other than herself, so she plucked up the courage to introduce herself to the director. "It was a coincidence that we were both flying from Beijing to Xining, and for two hours on the plane, I kept telling him how I understood the role."
Yang Xiucuo in life is not a person who will take the initiative to say too much, but she likes the story of "Tharlo" too much, and feels that this is depicting her hometown, and characters like Yang Tso also really exist around her. At that time, she was no longer a little girl running around the set, after shooting some scenes, she gradually understood what acting was, so when she really met the opportunity that made her have the impulse to create, she did not hesitate to show her yearning: "If a role can make me feel sure, then I will definitely take the initiative to express my ideas." 」 ”
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A few years later, the same director Wan Ma Tse-dan began to prepare for a new work, Yang Xiucuo was already excited on the night he received the script of "Balloon": "That night the director sent me the script, I was busy in the early morning, when I read it, I was very moved, I especially wanted to shoot." ”
From 2005 to 2019, three films that have been important in her life, 14 years apart, the big screen records her changes, and she has grown up little by little in these three films.
As he became more and more aware of what movies and performances really were, Yang Xiucuo also began to make more and more stringent choices. When she finds that she enjoys the creation itself, rather than the other aura that comes with her identity as an actress, she goes straight to the goal and only wants to spend her time to complete the performance she most desires.
"My hometown, or the whole region of western China, is actually very rich, and each region has its own characteristics and is completely different from each other. What you see through movies or the Internet is not all of the West, and I hope there are more types of movies to show this land. ”
In fact, Yang Xiucuo is not without a chance to come out, on the contrary, she is more firmly stationed in the Western movie after the choice. Rather than becoming a person who can be replaced outside, she wants to show the unique beauty of herself and her hometown in her own world.
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"Once, when filming, the crew found actors from three major Tibetan areas, but in fact, the dialects are completely different, just like the difference between Cantonese and Sichuanese. In that play, the actor who played my father spoke Lhasa, and I spoke Amdo, but I felt that the father and daughter must speak the same dialect. Although the director said at the time that this was not for the locals to see, I think that after this came out, it was all our work! ”
It was also in those years that Yang Xiucuo frequently traveled to Beijing, Shanghai and his hometown of Qinghai because of his work. If she set out thinking "the outside world is wonderful," she realized how important it was to find a spiritual comfort zone after the actual experience. "Every time I go home, it's a complete 'crossing' feeling, when I arrive in Beijing, I will be anxious, and the daily work schedule will be accelerated, but I still can't fit into that state, because the cultural differences are too big." Later, when I returned to my hometown, I found that, wow, people can be so free and relaxed in life. ”
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So she began to extend outwards into more energy to "look inward". At that moment, her hometown was still the land where she grew up, but with experience, Yang Xiucuo could understand the uniqueness of this region. "This is originally a place where the land is vast and sparsely populated, so the contact between man and man, the contact between man and nature, and the contact between man and animals are all equal. Here, the relationship and feelings between man and nature are completely different from those in the city, and I think this is the most colorful place in the west, and it is also my favorite place. ”
Yang Xiucuo's hometown of Qinghai has endless scenery, if you drive non-stop forward, sometimes pass through the vast grassland, sometimes through the desert, sometimes you can see the scene of the Yadan landform or the Danxia landform. In such a world controlled by nature, Yang Xiucuo does not amplify her ability as a "person", but feels the smallness of life more deeply, and in this smallness, seizing the fleeting time to complete the limited achievements is her mission and yearning.
"The biggest feeling is not to take yourself too seriously. Being able to make a few pure works in a lifetime is already very remarkable. ”
As if dependent on each other, she and the film are nourished by the land of the west, and she is also giving back to her hometown through the film, which is her mission as a filmmaker and her instinct as a westerner.
M.C.
In your observations and perceptions, do Western filmmakers have any common traits?
Y To be honest, I haven't been in contact with too many filmmakers from other places, and my feeling is that Western filmmakers are more able to endure hardships, because we make Western movies, which are done in a very harsh environment. Western filmmakers, no matter what nationality they are, are carrying there, especially.
M.C.
What kind of nourishment do you think the land of the west provides to filmmakers?
Y There are not many filmmakers on our side at present, probably because of environmental reasons, everyone shoots things that are inseparable from the environment here, either more difficult, or more pessimistic, maybe some works are more similar. In fact, in my eyes, the western people I learned are very humorous, and our humor is completely different from the humor in the city, which is what I hope to present through the art form of film.
M.C.
Finally, please recommend a few movies about western China to your readers.
Y Western movies are not many, I highly recommend "Quiet Ma Ne Stone", when you watch it, you will find that the pace of that play is very slow, but that is the real West, our living state at that time, but now it is not like that. The works of young directors, like "A Thousand Miles to Send a Crane", are also supervised by director Wan Ma Tse-dan, which I think is particularly good. In recent years, everyone's mentality has been relatively nervous, and after watching this very warm movie, I feel that people really should maintain a childlike heart.
Editor/Chen Baiyan Chico Chan
Photography / Ghost Ma Yi
Styling/Joe Wang
Written by/Fan Zhang
Makeup and hair / Yang Changxiu
Styling assistance / Yang Xiaotian
Styling Assistant /Li Jingwen
Editorial Assistant/ Mou Zhibai, ERIC
Design/enkit
Typography/Lili Mouse