Ma Yili is indeed not a "big beauty" in the standard sense, but she has a kind of ability to link to the characters and can project her female perspective onto the characters.
Author|Lian Lu, Editor|Yi Shi
After the broadcast of "Dragon City", Ma Yili, who was in the drama circle, was harshly criticized by the audience - she was old and not beautiful enough.
The original fans who chased the "Dragon City" trilogy, after watching the trailer, said that they couldn't believe their eyes - Zheng Dongni, who is amorous and crazy and playful, and Ma Yili, who has big waves with bangs and a red leather jacket, seem to be not very consistent.
A Douban netizen wrote a comment: "If you don't wear a wig with bangs, you are not middle-aged, and middle-aged people play like children, and they feel no youth and only embarrassment." ”
■ In "Dragon City", Ma Yili plays Dongni
Indeed, Ma Yili has always given everyone the impression that she lives a varied life as an urban woman in a reality-themed drama. And on social networks, her motherhood has gone beyond that of an actress. The audience can't understand, why did Ma Yili pick such a role?
So, Ma Yili, who chose "Dragon City", really won't choose the script? Not necessarily. Halfway through the series, Zheng Dongni's character core gradually revealed. As an independent domineering eldest sister, she and Zheng Xizhi (played by Bai Yu) worry about the affairs of a large family, full of fireworks.
This suddenly makes people realize that Ma Yili is indeed not a "big beauty" in the standard sense, but she has a kind of ability to link to the characters and can project her female perspective onto the characters. In fact, this is also the choice she has made as an actress for many years.
Soft power
When Ma Yili participated in the recording of "Women 30+", she said a word between meals with the staff. She said, "I'm not over-promoting women's topics, it's okay to be women, but you have to have a good will." Over the years, many of her realistic works have paid deep attention to women.
Before "Dragon City", her most recent work was the movie "Love Myth". Ma Yili plays Miss Li in the film, a 38-year-old single mother with a child. She pursues a refined and decent life, but she is huddled in a small old house with her daughter and mother. She is a collection of contradictions, longing for romance but with a little calculation, she will also indulge herself without worry, but refuse to face it when she is sober.
When she encountered the movie, Ma Yili was returning to her single life, and this work deeply touched her. She feels that few people focus on life after divorce, and many times adults have few other than career and children's lives, but there are soft things in this work, people have the right to pursue love and have the right to talk about their desires.
Movie "Love Myth"
When filming "The Myth of Love", her favorite scenes were the doorway and stairs of Miss Li's house. From the outside of the doorway, I thought it was very nice inside, but when I walked in, it was a closed walkway with fluorescent lamps without lampshades. This is where she sees Miss Li living, no matter how embarrassing the space she lives in, but the outside is still bright and beautiful.
In fact, starting from the movie "Find You", Ma Yili began to pay attention to some ordinary little people and understand the multiple samples of more female characters. In the movie, Sun Fang, played by Ma Yili, has a tragic life, her husband is drunk, domestic violence, her daughter suffers from congenital diseases, in order to treat her daughter, Sun Fang has eaten all kinds of hardships, and even sold her organs and body.
To say that in recent years, the role that made her most famous is Luo Zijun in "My First Half of Life". This is a not very pleasing woman, she relied on her husband in the early stage, she will not be considerate of her husband in life and career, and she is completely out of society in life. Later, after experiencing the many tribulations brought by life and reality, she finally shattered the past and started a new life.
If it is 20-year-old Ma Yili, he can't understand such a "useless" role as Luo Zijun. On the magnolia podium, Ma Yili said: "Today I understand, understand her perspective, her compassion and desolation. ”
Ma Yili has also analyzed her own changes, and finally came to the conclusion that she has the ability to understand and empathize. Once she loved Charlene, who was decisive and seemingly flawless in "Struggle", now she is more able to empathize and understand the lives of Sun Fang and Luo Zijun.
Therefore, return to the work of "Dragon City" and take a closer look at the character of Dongni to detect the true color of the character.
Dongni has the scars of her original family, and her father suspects that she is not biological, and she has often scolded her mother since she was a child. Whenever relatives saw this scene and wanted to take her to hide, Dongni always calmly covered the door of the house and left it in the family whirlpool.
"Dragon City" stills
When she grew up, she was rebellious, flamboyant, and crazy, but she had a broken heart that always touched people's emotions. She is not an urban strong woman, she is just a woman who wants to compete with life, she is imperfect and flawed, but she also has a steady stream of vitality.
Peeling off the shell of public opinion that has been added to "dog blood" can actually feel the bitter and impermanent reality. The role of Dongni, condensing the complex life situation, will inevitably attract Ma Yili.
Feminine awareness
Before softening, Ma Yili is sharp.
In 2002, Ma Yili was selected from tens of thousands of people to participate in the filming of Qiong Yao's work "Huan Zhu Gege Part III: Heaven and Earth". When she first met the audience, she was soft-spoken and soft-spoken, with a flower-like face, interpreting Ziwei's weakness and infatuation with Erkang. Ma Yili's Ziwei is not the same as Lin Xinru's version, but it has a unique taste, and it is still classic to look at it now.
But when "Huan Zhu Gege" was filmed, Ma Yili herself did not recognize Ziwei. In an interview with the media, she said, "I don't like Ziwei, I am very disgusted, even hateful. She felt that Ziwei was gentle but very traditional, and that this woman's whole world revolved around a man. That, she can't do. Ma Yili wants to play a Ziwei who "actively pursues happiness", and she hopes that Ziwei has personality and has her own independent judgment and processing ability.
Ma Yili plays Ziwei
Her sense of the female self is keen. During college, her teacher asked her to play the naïve Four Phoenixes in "Thunderstorm", but what she always wanted to try was the prosperity of tragic fate. She has a kind of ability to link to the characters, and can project her female perspective onto the characters.
In an interview with "Global People", Ma Yili told her experience when she starred in "Qiao's Courtyard". At that time, Ma Yili was once dissatisfied with Jiang Xueying's character in the play, and in the script, Jiang Xueying loved Qiao Zhiyong (played by Chen Jianbin) deeply, and was a person who forbeared sacrifice and silently dedicated. She felt awkward and said that if she acted according to the script, then she must hate Jiang Xueying while acting. Later, director Hu Mei changed the play, and Jiang Xueying, while loving Qiao Zhiyong, also took revenge on this man who failed her.
Her earliest sense of mission was established in Struggle (2007), in which Ma Yili played Charlene, and for many years afterwards, Ma Yili often mentioned this role, saying that it was the woman who most resembled her. She is stubborn and courageous, has a stubborn vitality in her, knows what she wants, and approaches her goal.
In fact, when she first saw the script, Ma Yili was very impulsive. At that time, in most TV series, female characters were relatively single and traditional, and she felt that Charlene was a plump female character who was rare in modern dramas at that time - she had some achievements in her career, believed in the beauty of feelings, was thoughtful and independent, but because she was not married, she was controversial in society.
The director of this drama is Zhao Baogang, his works are sharp and spicy, and he has never lost a shot in the market, such as "Addiction" made Wang Zhiwen and Jiang Shan popular all over the country, and also excavated stars such as Lu Yi in "Never Blind" and "Like Wind and Rain and Like Fog", known as "actor's dream factory". "Struggle" reflects the real life of young people after the 80s, and after the broadcast of this drama, thousands of people were empty, which also allowed Ma Yili to enjoy the taste of red again.
"Struggle" is a turning point in Ma Yili's career, and she finds that she can show everyone the different values and ways of life of young girls.
She quickly realized the power that stars have. In the entertainment industry, many people regard artists as idols, and Ma Yili does not want to be a material vane, on the contrary, she feels that it may be more meaningful if she can use her identity to guide women and pay attention to women themselves.
■ In the TV series "Struggle", Ma Yili plays Charlene, who dares to love and hate
After "Struggle", Ma Yili walked through more and more realistic works, and also brought a variety of female characters.
Li Mei in "Marriage Defense War", because her husband left and began to carry the whole family, and while her career was booming, Li Mei had to face the marriage crisis. In "Bei Shang Guang Don't Believe in Tears", Pan Yun, who was forced by the pressure of reality and chose to marry incognito, struggled with fatigue in love, career, and life. Jiang Yinan of "Chinese Relations" redeems himself after losing his marriage and career.
In an interview with Southern People Weekly, when asked about this, Ma Yili said, "The values presented by these women in the play are the same as mine, because I think we have a certain guiding role." Most of the dramas I play are modern dramas, which are more realistic and needle-proof things. If I'm conveying the wrong way, I think women will be misled. ”
She hopes to play what she thinks "women should live for everyone to see".
Life nutrients
Ma Yili is a native of Shanghai and has lived in a fireworks alley since she was a child. Her parents are dual-career workers, and her education is "I am me, I have life choices, I don't belong to anyone, I belong to myself". The father does not want his daughter to be weak, he wants her to be strong.
There has long been a tough side in her character. Her mother ran the whole family, and often when she slept with her father, her mother would turn on a small lamp and knit sweaters.
Ma Yili understood things early on and began to share for the family. At the age of 15, she joined the Shanghai TV variety dance team and earned money to subsidize her family. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the Shanghai Theater Academy and was able to pay his own tuition early. When she filmed "Struggle", she injured her foot, and what she was most worried about was not her foot, but the fear of being replaced.
After giving birth to her second daughter, she returned to work in less than 3 months. As a mother, she also had her own small lamp. In order to take care of her daughter without affecting her child's rest, she set up a desk lamp in the bathroom. After that, almost all the scripts, she read under that small lamp.
When choosing a script, Ma Yili is very picky. If it weren't for her own recognition and convinced, she wouldn't let go and act. Some classmates and friends once came to find it, but Ma Yili also refused one by one. In her eyes, there are two criteria for a good character: one is good looking, and the other is authentic. Good looking does not mean looking good, but means that the story is good-looking, and the real must conform to reality, not levitate. Every role she plays is a quiet growth after experiencing life's various pulls, setbacks, choices, or running to where they will eventually go.
She has always believed that these characters grew out of real life, not floating in the air for others to see. The same is true for acting, someone once asked her how to ensure continuous learning for actors, and the answer she gave was "an actor must be a person who can live", and life is the classroom where actors learn.
On ordinary days, Ma Yili likes to go out and look at people coming and going on the street, even if two people quarrel, she feels that she can learn something new. At every opportunity, she walked to Shanghai's alleys to chat with the surrounding residents. After becoming a mother, she came into contact with school and found that parents had their experiences and troubles. These small and diverse life scenes are the most important material for actors.
Over the years, Ma Yili has not high requirements for the frequency of filming, and after filming a scene, she will not immediately connect to the next crew and become another person. She thought that at least she would stop and spend three or four months putting herself back into life and experiencing a new round of nutrient absorption.
Being the master of life is undoubtedly a very important thing. Between life and work, she has never lost herself.
In 2019, she posted a short text on Weibo to end her marriage. Almost no one realized that she was at the Xining First Film Festival at that time, focusing on the new generation of Chinese filmmakers with Haiqing and others. They also brought women's voices over.
A month before the divorce, on her 43rd birthday, Ma Yili posted a photo on Weibo after waking up early. There was no foundation on her face, no lipstick, no retouching, no swelling of her eyes, and the imprint of the blindfold pressure was still on her face, but she was full of vitality. Most of the time, she went out with just a tissue to wipe the sweat and oil off her face.
In that Weibo, she wrote: "This year's filming face is obviously sunburned, for decades without sun protection and makeup to go out, it is indeed a warning, girl, no matter how confident you are, you can't resist the warm sunshine." However, this year, countless female characters on the screen are showing the beauty of the years and inner strength with unadorned faces, and I was born unafraid, so why should I resist? ”
So, back to "Dragon City", Zheng Dongni has experienced family ups and downs since she was a child, making her always a "drifter" character. Her beautiful face and cold and touching are not only on the outside, but also have a bonus of character, which is displayed from the inside out. Therefore, her active entry into the WTO is because she has already seen through all aspects of life, and perhaps Ma Yili, who understands life, sees this point.