The deceased | Old artist Wei Wei passed away, and the sun still warms the "spring of a small town"

According to the official account of the Beijing International Film Festival, on November 2, Wei Wei, the leading actor and veteran artist of the classic "Spring in a Small Town" in Chinese film history, died in Hong Kong on November 2 at the age of 101. Wei Wei played Zhou Yuwen in "Spring in a Small Town" and is a household name. In addition, her representative works include "Nightclub", "Great Reunion", "Children of Jianghu", etc., which have been evaluated as the "living fossils" of Chinese films.

Wei Wei, formerly known as Miao Mengying, was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province on May 17, 1922, and his ancestral home is Zhongshan, Guangdong.

In 1941, Wei Wei joined the Shanghai Professional Repertory Troupe, became a theater actor, and appeared on the theater stage. In 1947, he starred in his first film "Nightclub", in which he played a small cameo role.

The following year, she participated in "Spring in a Small Town" directed by Fei Mu, which was her first film as a heroine, playing the enchanting Zhou Yuwen. Zhou Yuwen and Wei Wei himself have completely different personalities, and director Fei Mu directed her to show a completely different side in the film. "Spring in a Small Town" tells the story of a married woman who sees her former lover again when her husband is too sick for a long time. The film reflects its modernity with multiple meanings and interpretations, and its subjectivity and objectivity are always intertwined, and such a complex narrative method appears for the first time in Chinese film history. In addition, it draws on the tradition of classical Chinese poetry, borrowing objects to allude to people, lyrical scenes, and full of poetic feelings, showing the artistic characteristics of director Fei Mu.

"Spring in a Small Town" has won one of the 10 classic works in the 90-year history of Chinese films, the first place in the Top 100 Films in the Past 100 Years at the Academy Awards, the fifth place in the Top 100 Chinese Films voted by the Golden Horse Film Festival, and the nomination for the restoration unit of the 4th Beijing International Film Festival. In addition, the famous director Zhang Yimou once commented on it: "As far as Chinese films are concerned, I like 1948's "Spring in a Small Town" the most, I think this film reached a considerable height at that time, and we still think it can't be compared with it today." ”

"Spring in a Small Town" movie poster

In the 50s of the last century, Wei Wei went to Hong Kong and participated in Hong Kong movies such as "Children of the Rivers and Lakes", "A Year's Plan", "Between Fire and Water". "Children of the Rivers and Lakes" is director Fei Mu's posthumous work, the film tells the story of a series of efforts made by the members of the Zhongyi Technical Group to enable them to continue to operate, as well as a series of stories that happened in it, Wei Wei plays the heroine Lotus. It is reported that the filming cost of the film that year reached 300,000 Hong Kong dollars. By the 60s, Wei Wei gradually faded out of the screen after marriage.

"Children of Jianghu" movie poster

It wasn't until the 90s that the film and television value of "Spring in a Small Town" was rediscovered, and this classic of oriental aesthetics re-entered the public eye, at which time many films began to invite Wei Wei to make cameo appearances, and Wei Wei also starred in the 2010 documentary "Legend of the Sea" directed by Jia Zhangke, about the relationship between the city and his own life. Until 2011, Wei Wei still performed on the screen, and his last work was the film "The Drunkard" shot in Hong Kong.

In the 80s of the last century, "Spring in a Small Town" was rated as the first of the "Top Ten Business Cards of Chinese Films" by overseas film critics, and won a worldwide reputation for Chinese films. Wei Wei will also remain the business card of Chinese films and will always be remembered by the audience.