In 1978, the Japan International Film Company invested in the filming of "Journey to the West", which was unexpectedly popular, and even produced an English dubbed version, which swept overseas. The news spread back to China, and many people were angry.
Because of this "Journey to the West" Japan has carried out magic reforms, Tang Monk is the Japanese national goddess Natsume Masako, the golden horn and silver horn king are husband and wife, Rulai Buddha is also played by women, and the three apprentices are flowing.
At that time, there was a lot of scolding in China, and a certain leader decided: We want to make our own "Journey to the West".
However, it is easy to make a plan, but it is difficult to shoot a scene. At that time, China was poor, and so was CCTV. This heavy responsibility was finally handed over to Yang Jie, who was 52 years old at the time.
The first thing Yang Jie did was to find "monkeys".
Looking and looking, finally, found a six-year-old child.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" >01 took the golden hoop stick from the second brother</h1>
Born in 1959, the six-year-old child was originally named Zhang Jinlai and was born in the "Monkey King" family.
His father, Zhang Zongyi, stage name "Six-Year-Old Boy", was famous for playing Sun Wukong, known as the "Monkey King of the Southern Sect". Grandfather Zhang Yisheng is "Sai Live Monkey", great-grandfather Zhang Tingchun is named "Living Monkey Zhang", the family has a deep origin, and the "Zhang's Monkey Play" lasts for a hundred years and is famous.
The six-year-old is the oldest in the family, with ten older brothers and sisters. However, he was the most noisy by birth, and his mother gave birth ten times, only when she met him. In the end, thanks to the doctor's experience, holding the forceps between his head, he was "pulled" out.
Because he was born prematurely and his mother was an elderly woman, his health has not been good. This in turn has led to his introverted personality from an early age, and he cannot leave his mother.
Among the ten older siblings, the six-year-old child likes the second brother the most.
The second brother Zhang Jinxing was a genius in monkey drama, and his father had high hopes for him, taking the name "Little Six-Year-Old Boy", which means his successor.
The second brother began to act in monkey dramas at the age of 3, and at the age of 8, he took the stage with his father and Uncle to perform "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" to Premier Zhou Enlai and Burmese Prime Minister Wu Nai Win.
At the end of the performance, Premier Zhou not only praised his father, but also turned around and picked up the second brother, holding the second brother in the air, and the two laughed. The prime minister said to his father: "The literary and artistic undertaking needs successors, and you must bring out the next generation and cultivate a few more children of six years old." ”
When the second brother was idle, he always played with the six-year-old children, catching crickets, pulling foreign pieces, rolling iron rings, and telling the story of "Journey to the West" to the six-year-old children.
Anyway, the good things in the world are not firm, and the clouds are easy to scatter and the glass is brittle. When the six-year-old child was 7 years old, he encountered the greatest problem and pain in life - life and death.
The twelve-year-old second brother unfortunately suffered from leukemia and died on the second day of his birthday.
Before the hospital bed, he asked the second brother in a confused way: "Brother, what is death?" ”
The second brother touched his hair and said sadly, "I will never see you again." ”
The sixth-year-old child cried out with a loud cry, grabbed the second brother's hand tightly, and asked anxiously, "Then how can I see you?" ”
The second brother patted him on the shoulder: "The day you play the monkey king Sun Wukong." ”
After the death of his second brother, his father was devastated. He lost his son and his best heir. However, the Zhang's monkey play cannot be left without a mantle. At this time, the father set his sights on the six-year-old child.
The six-year-old has no talent for acting, but he is willing to suffer. He took the golden hoop stick from his second brother and wanted to do a good job of Sun Wukong. He practiced three nines in winter and three volts in summer, and the people's square, bicycle shed, and hospital ward were all his "practice rooms" everywhere.
After graduating from high school, through hard work, he was admitted to the Zhejiang Kunqu Troupe Art School, and came from a serious class. He appeared in dramas such as "Three Forks" and "Fa Zi Du", and also played Sun Wukong for the first time in the Kun opera "Dragon Palace Borrowing Treasure" and "Wukong Borrowing Fan", fulfilling his wishes.
At that time, the Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe decided to adapt the main story of "Journey to the West" into a Kunqu monkey play within ten years and put it on the stage. The six-year-old child was overjoyed, thinking about his appearance on the stage, eager to turn over a few heels.
Later, an "accident" made him give up this opportunity.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" >02 Six-year-old children first encounter Journey to the West</h1>
On December 31, 1981, the six-year-old child was shouted by his father to go to Shaoxing Railway Station to pick up people.
He and his father pushed a bicycle alone, the cold wind was cold, and the mouth was spitting white gas, talking about this special "visitor".
It turned out that at that time, Yang Jie was already in danger and was looking for actors all over the world. She has been looking for Sun Wukong's candidate for a long time, and she has also discussed with Li Wanchun, the "Northern Monkey King", but still has not found a satisfactory candidate.
Later, I heard that there was a "little six-year-old child" in the "Southern Monkey King" who was particularly famous and was just right in age, so he came thousands of miles away.
Sure enough, as soon as Yang Jie arrived, she asked where the "little six-year-old child" was. Father Zhang Zongyi said darkly, "The little six-year-old child has passed away, but this six-year-old child also meets your requirements." ”
Yang Jie looked at the shy and handsome six-year-old child, not particularly satisfied, so she did not directly agree to it. Instead, he asked Zhang Zongyi for a lot of information about his students and returned to the guest house to study.
This research really found a favorite object, a young man named Liu Jianyang jumped into view. She thought, tomorrow I will ask the two of them to compete.
As a result, the next day, Yang Jie explained his intentions, but Zhang Zongyi took care of him. When she asked, she kept repeating the two sentences: "No hurry, no hurry." He will, and so will my son. No, I can also teach. Yang Jie faced this situation, and Taili was in a hurry, so he could only go back to report the situation first.
Within a month of waiting for the notice, Zhang Zongyi seized the time to give the six-year-old children a "make-up lesson", not only taking the six-year-old children to the park to see the monkeys and explain the essence of Sun Wukong, but also taking him to visit the Master of Chinese Painting Cheng Shifa, the master of animation and the director of "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" Wan Liming, the comic strip master Zhao Hongben, and the author of "The Wanderings of Sanmao" Zhang Leping, an old predecessor of the art world, to learn from the strengths of each family.
A month later, the six-year-old "went to Beijing to catch the exam". The guest house became a temporary examination room, and the six-year-old children played extraordinary and won the recognition of the director. The personnel selected, and the six-year-old children will follow the crew to the north and south of the river to shoot a drama.
His father, Zhang Zongyi, told him "about three chapters of the law": "Don't miss home, unite colleagues, and don't fall in love." ”
Unfortunately, these three six-year-old children only achieved the first one.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="41" >03 The 9981 difficulties of Journey to the West</h1>
In July 1982, the "Journey to the West" "Eliminating the Demon Black Chicken Country" officially began filming in Yangzhou. As soon as the shooting began, everyone found a problem: when the six-year-old child was filming martial arts with people, he always injured people.
Yang Jie wondered, isn't it a martial arts student who specializes in school, just this? There was no way, she could only try to arrange a stand-in for him.
At this time, the six-year-old child was not happy, and he said to the others: "I can do these actions!" ”
Yang Jie called out to the six-year-old child to know that he had 700-degree myopia. Later, the six-year-old child brought contact lenses to solve this problem.
However, this problem was only the simplest problem faced by the crew at that time. Filming "Journey to the West", like the Tang monks to learn the scriptures, had to overcome 9981 difficulties.
First, there is the question of funding.
At that time, the country was poor, and CCTV had no surplus grain. Taili only allocated 2 million to the crew, and later they saw that they were too bitter, and added another 1 million.
But which 3 million is enough? You have to go everywhere to shoot the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, you have to shoot and edit, you have to do special effects, and you have to pay wages. Therefore, the crew eats a box lunch every day, and Sun Wukong and other starring actors get the highest remuneration, and an episode is only 70 yuan.
Therefore, the main actors in the play often play multiple roles by one person, such as six-year-old children who have played 16 roles, including but not limited to little monks, small Road children, calf spirits, grandmothers, etc., and the same is true for pig eight precepts and sand monks, all of whom have played at least 10 roles. The most is Li Jiancheng, who has played more than 20 roles.
Even so, after the first eleven episodes of Journey to the West, they still ran out of food, thanks to the centipede spirit played by Li Hongchang, who had a way to contact the Eleventh Engineering Bureau of the Ministry of Railways, and it took a loan of 3 million yuan to shoot 25 episodes. The full version of these 25 episodes was only aired in 1988.
Second, there is the security issue.
When filming "Journey to the West", the funds were not enough, the technology was not enough, and there were many safety problems. In the scene "Sun Wukong vs Red Child", the six-year-old child did not do any protection, and wore a cotton dress and took the real fire. The fire behind him was extinguished, and he himself was burned unconscious. If it weren't for Yang Jie finding out earlier that something was wrong, it would really be life-threatening.
There is also Hanging Weiya, because it is a temporary learned Hong Kong craft, a six-year-old child once accidentally fell from the sky and fell directly to the hospital. Not to mention encountering torrential rain, clashing with local people during filming in Zhangjiajie, almost being beaten up, and so on.
Then there is the issue of actors.
Tang Monk, one of the important protagonists of the crew, has changed people many times during the filming process.
The first Tang monk Wang Yue was afraid that the drama road was getting narrower and narrower, and he could only play Tang Monk in the future, and took the initiative to quit after acting for three episodes.
The second Tang monk, Xu Shaohua, did not have this concern, but he happened to be studying, and as soon as the university notice arrived, he also chose to leave.
The third Tang monk, Chi Zhongrui, was honest and honest, and only then did he stay quietly.
There are also many problems for six-year-old children, when he first played Sun Wukong, he only had movements in place, but his face was obscured by a latex mask, and there was nothing in his eyes. He became more and more awkward, and even played a retreat drum.
Fortunately, director Yang Jie did not give up on him. He invited the old artist Zheng Rong, and then helped with assistant directors Xun Hao, Ren Fengpo and others, so that the six-year-old children could rub the action and spirit of the drama into their lives.
Yang Jie also encouraged him: "To play a monkey well, you must first observe the monkey's every move." Tomorrow the crew buys you a monkey, and you carry it every day. "This area has been with you for 6 years.
Later, the eyes of the six-year-old children gradually became dramatic. Yang Jie once said: "I am very fortunate that Zhang Zongyi persistently recommended him. ”
In the end, the main creative team of "Journey to the West" spent 4 years and after many hardships, finally finished the first 11 episodes of the 86th edition of "Journey to the West". As soon as these 11 episodes were broadcast, they immediately caused a sensation, and adults and children rushed to watch "Journey to the West", with a rating of 89%.
The Journey to the West crew became famous, and "Sun Wukong" became famous.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="66" >04 "Monkey King" also has love</h1>
Sun Wukong became famous, and the first thing he naturally did was get married.
Yes, the six-year-old violated the three chapters of the covenant law and talked about love in the crew. In order not to let her father and director Yang Jie know the opposition, it is still a fashionable "underground romance".
The woman who can fall in love with "Sun Wukong" on the way to the scriptures is naturally not Bai Jingjing or Zixia Fairy, but the "mother of the Princess of Tianzhu Kingdom" - Yu Hong.
In the summer of 1983, Yu Hong went to the Westward Journey Crew to make a scene record. The first time the two met, they were full of gunpowder.
The six-year-old child complained to his colleagues: "Didn't our crew have a record, and here comes another one, I'm afraid it didn't come in through the back door, right?" Colleagues kept giving him a look, and when he looked back, he found Yu Hong standing behind him.
Yu Hong is a big girl in Beijing, from a military family, and the conditions for choosing a mate are "three don'ts": myopia is not wanted, short people are not, and southerners are not. It just so happens that three of the six-year-old children are all occupied. Originally, it was impossible for the two to walk together, but who called us "Goku" would be touched.
Once, the crew came to Shenzhen to rest. Yu Hong wanted to make a big deal of shopping, and specially took 1,000 yuan to prepare for a big purchase. But at that time, the security situation was difficult to say, things had not been bought, and money was lost.
Yu Hong could only hide in the house alone and sullen. Just then, someone knocked on the door and opened it to see that it was a six-year-old child. The six-year-old said to Hong seriously, "I have 700, give you 600." "After saying that, drop the money and run."
When the six-year-old child was a child, his family suffered great changes, and the family was very poor, so he developed the habit of saving. The first 11 episodes of the 86th edition of "Journey to the West" were filmed for 4 years, and each episode of six young children received 70 yuan. This 600 yuan is his income for 3 years.
Yu Hong also knew this, and she saw him carefully count the notes in one or two cents. The sudden generosity of the six-year-old child made her very moved. The relationship between the two gradually changed.
Later, the six-year-old child hanged Weiya and fell into the hospital, and Yu Hongtian brought his own soup to talk and chat with the six-year-old child. The relationship between the two quickly warmed up, and Yu Hong had a monkey in her heart.
The two are afraid of affecting their work, and have not chosen to be open, maintaining a secret love. Almost no one in the entire crew discovered the underground love affair between the two, except for Ma Dehua, who played the eight precepts of the pig.
Ma Dehua once lived with a six-year-old child for a while, and Yu Hong often knocked on the door under the guise of work: "Where are the monkeys?" I asked him about the field notes. Ma Dehua looked in his eyes and remembered it in his heart, and it was not until many years later that he said that he also had "fire eyes and golden eyes".
Near the end of the long filming of "Journey to the West", Yu Hong secretly found a six-year-old child and gave him a photo.
On the back of the photo reads: "I will always look at you affectionately." The six-year-old also made a vow to Hong: "When I am successful, we will get married." ”
On June 12, 1988, the six-year-old won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actor.
On the same day, he announced: "Comrade Yu Hong and I chose to get married today and have a good marriage!" ”
The whole world is congratulating, except for his "mentor" Yang Jie.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="85" >05 Journey to the West has a falling out with the past, and the "changed" Sun Wukong</h1>
At the end of November 1987, the Journey to the West crew received an invitation to perform in Singapore, and Yang Jie gladly agreed. In order not to lose face in the world, Yang Jie set a stipulation to set up a "performance group abroad", and more than ten people, including four masters and apprentices, should pay close attention to rehearsing programs.
As a result, during the Spring Festival, the four masters and apprentices, except for tang monk Chi Chongrui, all took leave, and the rehearsal could only be postponed. Later, Yang Jie heard from a friend that the four masters and apprentices went to Jinan for a business performance.
She didn't believe it at first, and after reading the propaganda poster, she realized that it was indeed four masters and apprentices, but Tang Monk was another Tang monk, Xu Shaohua. For this matter, Yang Jie severely criticized the trio at the meeting: "Leave everyone to make money, let everyone eat instant noodles at home and wait for you, should you?" ”
Should it? Of course not. But as Yang Jie said in her autobiography, they worked hard for several years, became famous, and blossomed, how could they resist flowers, applause and money.
What's more, six-year-olds are preparing to get married. He may be disgusted that the Supreme Treasure is stepping on the colorful clouds to marry the Purple Xia Fairy, but he is definitely not willing to fulfill his promise with his bare hands.
Yang Jieming knows human nature, but always challenges human nature. Because of this, she and the cave trio got into a very stiff fight. Later, she had a conflict with the leaders in the stage and was completely kicked out of the crew. Her family has also changed from a busy traffic to a doorkroach.
Yang Jie said: "The show is popular outside, the actors are outside with flowers and applause, and I am alone. ”
The leader of the platform came to persuade her, and she said: "Whether I go to heaven or hell in the future, I will not walk with them." ”
The biggest contributor to "Journey to the West" was reluctant to watch "Journey to the West" for nearly ten years. Until 1994, Taili planned to make a sequel, and needed Yang Jie to direct, and the cave trio came to apologize, and several people got back together.
On April 15, 2017, Yang Jie, at the age of 88, passed away in Beijing. Most of the Journey to the West crew showed up to send off, and the four masters and apprentices were no exception, including several Tang monks and the Eight Precepts. However, at this memorial service, the six-year-old child did something that could make people black for a lifetime.
In an interview, he was fine in the front, and a sentence suddenly appeared in the back: "Only with the Film of Journey to the West that I will start in the second half of the year, and making it well, can we comfort our director Yang Jie." ”
No one would have imagined that in such a solemn, mournful moment, he would meet and pin the needle to promote his film. This kind of behavior can be understood as disrespecting his mentor Yang Jie, and it can also be understood as his utilitarian heart is too heavy.
Sun Wukong originally has the saying "heart ape", which represents the deep desires and distractions in people's hearts. If you can't surrender, you can't get the right results after all.
I don't know if Sun Wukong has changed, or the times have changed, or if we have changed. The six-year-old child, "Sun Wukong", gradually became an abomination in the eyes of the people who watched him grow up.
He incarnated as a "Western Scholar Fighter" and shouted out the slogan of "jokes are not nonsense, adaptations are not random arrangements", and greatly criticized other adaptations of the Western Journey.
Perhaps it is the age of birth, the education is different, and the ability to accept is also different. He can't accept other people's alternative interpretations of Journey to the West and Sun Wukong. But he forgot that what he was doing was to become authority, and the spirit of Sun Wukong was to rebel against authority.
Coupled with the Wu Cheng'en Former Residence Museum incident, more and more negative news has been exposed, and he has changed from Sun Wukong in the eyes of young people to "six teachers", and his quotations have become "six learning". His series of remarks were not understood by the young people, and the more he defended, the weaker he became.
Why do these thankless things? For fame and fortune, or for righteousness?
In 2013, Sun Wukong was a guest on CCTV's "Chief Night Talk" program.
He said to Lega, "Out of a thousand spectators, there are a thousand Hamlets. But at that time, I hoped that after my image of "Journey to the West" came out, there was only one Monkey King in the minds of a thousand viewers. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="106" >06 epilogue</h1>
In 2018, the six-year-old was interviewed by Lu Yu.
Lu Yu said: "You can't get old, the audience will collapse when you get old." ”
He said: "The most touching time I went to school was when a small child held up a sign. It says 'I have not grown up, you are not allowed to grow old'. ”
Once, he said an interesting story about his daughter: "When my daughter was young, she always thought that I was Sun Wukong, and asked me, Dad, who is stronger than Superman?" ”
Perhaps, only in the eyes of children, Sun Wukong is always Sun Wukong.