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Wei Minzhi should be the first person to transform from a rural "pig feeding girl" to a "mou girl", and she should be the first in so many years to debut as a "mou girl" but did not become a star in the end.
In 1998, Wei Minzhi, a 13-year-old rural girl, rose to prominence in Zhang Yimou's movie "No One Less", and became popular all over the country overnight, becoming a hot "strategy girl".
However, Zhang Yimou publicly stated many times that "she is not good-looking, her figure is not good, and she is not suitable for being an actor", and persuaded her to quit the entertainment industry.
Zhang Yimou and Wei Minzhi
After becoming popular overnight, he was persuaded to quit by a famous director, and Wei Minzhi experienced a legend rarely known in the entertainment industry.
Time has passed, how is Wei Minzhi, the "ugliest girl" back then, doing now?
Wei Minzhi as an adult
The transformation of a pig girl to a maid girl
In September 1999, "No One Less" immediately caused a huge response after its release. This film not only helped Zhang Yimou regain the peak of his directing career, but also made 14-year-old Wei Minzhi popular overnight.
The transformation from a pig-feeding girl to a moist girl made Wei Minzhi sought after by all parties, and various Vanity Fair temptations followed.
However, what Wei Minzhi did not expect was that Zhang Yimou did not plan to cooperate with her for the second time.
Zhang Yimou believes that life in the entertainment industry is too unrealistic for Wei Minzhi, and advises her not to be carried away by the praise of the outside world, and to go back to school to study well, which is the path she should take in life.
So under Zhang Yimou's firm persuasion, Wei Minzhi finally decided to give up entering the entertainment industry, and at the same time she refused all kinds of announcements and chose to return home to continue living her previous poor life.
How can she get Zhang Yimou's favor as a peasant girl in a small mountain village?
Stills from "No One Less"
Feed the pig girl Wei Minzhi
Wei Minzhi was born in 1985 in a small mountain village in Chicheng County, Hebei Province, when her family was very poor.
Wei Minzhi has taken on a lot of household chores since she was a child, and the first thing she does when she comes home from school is to hunt hogweed, feed pigs, and help cook and do laundry.
Before the age of 13, Wei Minzhi lived only in his family's small mountain village and had never been to the outside world.
It wasn't until 1998 that an opportunity to change her destiny arose.
This year, in order to start anew, the famous director Zhang Yimou decided to shoot a film "No One Less" that tells the story of education, and he wants to call on people to pay attention to grassroots education through this film so that more children can succeed in learning.
Movie stills
In order to truly reflect rural life, Zhang Yimou decided to use a new cast, so the crew came to the countryside in Hebei to select actors.
When the crew came to Wei Minzhi's village, deputy director Hao Hong noticed the two Wei Minzhi sisters at a glance and felt that they were very suitable for the roles in the movie.
At first, Hao Hong was more optimistic about her beautiful sister, but her sister was too shy to step forward. On the contrary, Wei Minzhi took the initiative to ask for help, saying that he did not understand but dared to try, and also opened his mouth to sing and dance, which left a deep impression on the director.
Later, Wei Minzhi entered the final round of selection, PK with another girl who performed better. In order to decide the candidate, Zhang Yimou asked them to shout to the camera to see who was bolder and cheerful.
As a result, the girl did not dare to shout in public, but Wei Minzhi shouted out her dream with all her strength without scruples, and Zhang Yimou took a fancy to her cheerful personality and immediately decided to let her play the heroine's teacher.
A few months later, the movie was finished, Wei Minzhi returned to her familiar home, everything seemed to return to square one, she continued to feed pigs and hoe grass, living the same life as before.
At that time, Wei Minzhi could not imagine what kind of huge changes this movie would bring her.
A door to the wider world is about to open to this ordinary rural girl, but what everyone did not expect was that Zhang Yimou, who opened the "door" for her, closed this "door" with his own hands.
Break the dawn of dust
After being persuaded to retreat by Zhang Yimou, Wei Minzhi is no longer as naïve and confident as before, but she also slowly accepts the reality that she is just an ordinary girl who was discovered by Director Zhang with good luck.
Wei Minzhi, who wanted to understand this, did not take over the work related to acting and began to honestly return to the village to go to school.
At this time, Zhai Zhihai, the principal of Shijiazhuang Elite Middle School, was deeply moved after seeing this movie. He took the initiative to investigate and understand Wei Minzhi's family background, and seeing that her family was very poor, he sent a sincere invitation to sponsor Wei Minzhi to study in his school for free.
Zhai Zhihai not only exempted her from expensive tuition, but also provided 300 yuan a month for living expenses, and even helped Wei Minzhi's father arrange a job at school.
But studying in a strange big city is another new challenge for Wei Minzhi.
Because classmates at school had to communicate in Mandarin, Wei Minzhi made a lot of jokes because of this.
What impressed her so far was that once the teacher asked everyone a question in math class, and Wei Minzhi, who had previewed in advance, raised her hand very actively to ask for an answer.
But unexpectedly, Wei Minzhi's strong dialect and awkward Mandarin made it impossible for everyone to hear what she was saying, which caused everyone to laugh at her.
Her self-esteem was also greatly hit, so she studied hard and practiced Mandarin, and three years later, Wei Minzhi, who lived up to expectations, was admitted to the high school of the school with excellent results.
After entering high school, the students began to plan their future college aspirations, and after some consideration, Wei Minzhi plucked up the courage to say to her parents: "I want to be a director!" ”
It turned out that the movie dream from her childhood was still buried deep in her heart.
Mother and teacher advised her to recognize reality and not have illusions, Wei Minzhi understood their concerns, but the movie was like a sweet spring found in the desert for her, and she couldn't give up.
Finally, under her repeated pleading, her father reluctantly agreed to give her a chance.
With Wei Minzhi's unremitting efforts, on the eve of the college entrance examination, the Western Film and Communication School of Xi'an Foreign Chinese University threw an olive branch to her, and said that if she could pass the professional examination and reach the admission line, she could study the choreographing major for free.
In order to seize this rare opportunity, Wei Minzhi began to prepare day and night. She asked her father to buy her a flashlight, and every day after the lights were out in the bedroom, she curled up in the quilt to read and review, and did not sleep until her eyelids were fighting.
Three months before the college entrance examination, she replaced three broken flashlights. In the end, she was admitted to the Western Film and Communication College of Xi'an University of International Chinese with an absolute score of 200 points above the admission line.
The dawn of her dream was lit up, and Wei Minzhi finally saw the infinite possibilities that belonged to her.
Love and career are both fruitful
After Wei Minzhi entered the Western Film Media Academy as she wished, she began to seriously learn the knowledge of acting and directing, and with the support of her teachers, she independently directed her first TV series "Mother's Wish" in her sophomore year.
In 2006, Professor Chen Ergang of Brigham Young University invited Wei Minzhi to study in the United States. But Wei Minzhi's English was very bad at the time, and Professor Chen gave her two years to improve her English.
So Wei Minzhi began a long road of English learning, getting up early every day to memorize words, practice pronunciation, and she also bought a large number of CDs related to English learning and insisted on listening practice.
She passed the English test with the highest marks and was awarded a full scholarship to Brigham Young University.
After coming to the United States, Wei Minzhi continued to study film and television, and at the same time worked in the school's TV station, accumulating rich experience in film and television production.
Wei Minzhi has also served as an assistant director for several documentaries, and has worked with the team to shoot many feature films on the theme of China. She is skilled in all aspects of film and television production, whether it is screenwriting, shooting or post-editing, she can easily understand the road.
During her studies at school, she met Chinese-American Liu Jinhui, the two fell in love at first sight, and after two years of dating, they successfully entered the palace of marriage in 2008, and the two gave birth to a cute baby after marriage.
At this time, Wei Minzhi can be described as a double harvest of love and career.
In 2010, after returning to China, Wei Minzhi said excitedly in an interview with reporters: "I have not come to Shijiazhuang for four years, and I am very cordial when I come back here." ”
Family
This time, in addition to several Brigham Young University teachers in the United States, Wei Minzhi's husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law accompanied her to Shijiazhuang to recognize her relatives.
Before Wei Minzhi confirmed her relationship with her husband, she let her parents know this young man through the Internet, and only after obtaining her parents' approval did the two enter the palace of marriage.
After filming the movie "No One Less", Wei Minzhi was lucky to get the help of the principal of Shijiazhuang Elite Middle School, and her family came to Shijiazhuang with her at that time.
Until now, her parents are still working in elite middle schools, and the house they live in is specially arranged by the school.
Although Wei Minzhi went abroad to contact his family through phone and the Internet, Wei's father and Wei's mother couldn't help but shed tears when they saw their daughter who returned home from the United States not far away.
Shortly after returning to China, Wei Minzhi filmed the documentary "Miracle Daughter" to express her gratitude to those who helped her. In the film, she said with tears in her eyes: "Without the support of Principal Zhai Zhihai, I would not have had the opportunity to get to where I am today." ”
At the same time, she also hopes to inspire more young people who struggle through her story.
Meet Yimou again
In 2010, 25-year-old Wei Minzhi participated in the 30th International Film Festival in Hawaii with her latest work, and at a press conference, she once again met director Zhang Yimou, who brought a turning point to her film career.
Unlike a dozen years ago, she is now also a filmmaker.
At the Hawaii Film Festival press conference, Wei Minzhi introduced herself in fluent English and expressed her gratitude to Director Zhang for giving her the opportunity to perform.
Through her wonderful speeches, she showed her excellent professional ability, which made the filmmakers present impressed her.
Zhang Yimou said that he had not seen Wei Minzhi grow up for many years, which gave him a feeling of being in a world away. He said that the young girl had grown into a professional in the film industry, which made him very emotional.
In a subsequent interview, Wei Minzhi once again expressed his gratitude to Zhang Yimou. She thought that if she hadn't acted in that movie, she might have ended her studies early, returned home to farm, or got married and had children, and then entered an ordinary life.
When asked about the lives of the children she starred with at that time, Wei Minzhi said with a little regret that most of the children did not have the opportunity like her, and most of them dropped out of school early to work abroad or stay at home to farm.
For more than ten years of life, Wei Minzhi said that it is a full and happy day, she has been moving towards her ideal goal, and she is also lucky to have the support of her family and friends.
Wei Minzhi believes that no matter how high she flies, she is still simple in her heart, and she will continue to work hard to contribute to the Chinese film industry in the future.
epilogue
Wei Minzhi started from an unknown rural girl, starting from chance and eventually reaching the peak of her life, and she must have experienced many struggles and choices in the process.
However, what is more thought-provoking is that each of our lives is also full of various accidents, what makes Wei Minzhi ultimately successful? Is it talent, intelligence, or persistence and perseverance?
Could Wei Minzhi just be lucky? What if we all had the same opportunity?
There doesn't seem to be a standard answer to these questions.
But Wei Minzhi's story undoubtedly shows us the complex relationship between fate and self-improvement. Life is difficult and difficult, and as for whether you can finally reach the other side, perhaps only time will tell.
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