When it comes to the title of Mou Girl, I believe many people will think of Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Dongyu and other very well-known actors, but among these Mou Girls, there is a person who is very special.
She was the only actor who was returned by Zhang Yimou, but with her tenacious will, she finally stood on the same stage as Zhang Yimou.
So who is this Mou girl, and how did she stand on the same stage as Zhang Yimou?
From a rural girl to a girl
The name of this Mou girl is Wei Minzhi, Wei Minzhi was born in a small village in Chicheng County, Hebei Province in 1985, because the family is poor, so Wei Minzhi began to help the family work and feed the pigs very early.
Originally, if nothing else, she would be like many girls in the village, working to earn money after a few years of study, getting married and having children, and living her life plainly.
But the appearance of a director completely changed Wei Minzhi's fate, when Zhang Yimou was filming the rural-themed movie "No One is Missing". In order to make the film more realistic, Zhang Yimou went to a poor area to find a suitable amateur to play the role in it.
In order to find the heroine in his heart, Zhang Yimou asked the staff to divide into multiple ways and began to look for suitable actors in the village, but the emotion was that the assistant director Li Hong did not take a fancy to Wei Minzhi, but her sister Wei Congzhi.
Because compared to Wei Minzhi, Wei Congzhi's appearance is a little more pleasing, but after Wei Congzhi saw Li Hong, the whole person looked very nervous, especially when Li Hong asked her if she could sing and dance, Wei Congzhi hid directly behind Wei Minzhi.
Wei Minzhi, who had no choice, could only comfort his sister for the first time, although he took the initiative to stand up and sing and dance, wanting his sister to show herself, but it was this move that made Li Hong change her mind, he asked Wei Minzhi if he dared to make a movie with him, Wei Minzhi agreed without the slightest hesitation.
In this way, Wei Minzhi, who was only 13 years old at the time, participated in several rounds of interviews held by Zhang Yimou with tens of thousands of competitors, and in the end only himself and a girl who had acting experience remained.
At that time, Zhang Yimou was actually very entangled, professional girls were not as natural as Wei Minzhi in terms of shooting effect, and Wei Minzhi's image was much worse than that of professional girls, which made Zhang Yimou very entangled.
So he came up with a plan, that is, to let two people shout on the street, and the professional girl immediately became nervous after seeing the crowd on the street, and she couldn't open her mouth at all.
On the other hand, Wei Minzhi didn't care about the crowd at all, and shouted directly, but this shout made Zhang Yimou have goosebumps all over his body, because from this voice, he heard the desire of a mountain child to rush out of the mountain, so Zhang Yimou immediately made a decision and made her the heroine of the movie.
You're not fit an actor
After several months of filming, the movie "No One is Missing" quickly completed the filming task. Wei Minzhi also returned to her home and continued to go to school to cut pigweed and feed the pigs.
On September 7, 1999, the movie "No One is Missing" was released, which immediately attracted widespread attention, and many people were deeply moved by the rural teacher played by Wei Minzhi.
This movie also raised Zhang Yimou's reputation to a higher level again, and this movie won more than 10 awards at home and abroad that year, and Wei Minzhi, as the heroine, naturally became the focus of attention, and Wei Minzhi also became a hot star.
In an instant, many art academies and film and television companies sent invitations to Wei Minzhi, and even many companies offered high prices to sign a contract with her, which also made Wei Minzhi confused, she didn't know whether she would accept the invitation to become an actor, or continue to study and fight for her future.
It's just that such a choice is a kind of torment for a 14-year-old child, she knows that as long as she agrees, she may be able to become a hot star and help her family live a good life, but if she can't become famous, she may be trapped in fame and fortune for the rest of her life.
It was at this time that Zhang Yimou's words woke up Wei Minzhi and made her choose to give up becoming an actor and continue her studies.
Zhang Yimou's words changed Wei Minzhi's life
After learning about Wei Minzhi's recent situation, Zhang Yimou specially told her, and he told Wei Minzhi that you can't be a star as a child, and everything will be zero from now on.
The reason why Zhang Yimou said this is mainly because he knows that Wei Minzhi's current popularity is not how good he is, but more about the success of the movie, and starring in this movie is just an experience in life for Wei Minzhi, not the whole of life.
And Zhang Yimou understands very well that with Wei Minzhi's image, she is not suitable for entering the entertainment industry at all, and being admitted to a good university is the most important thing she needs to do.
After listening to Zhang Yimou's words, Wei Minzhi immediately understood his deep meaning, decisively rejected all the companies that wanted to sign a contract with her, and continued to finish his studies.
From actor to director
Although she failed to enter the showbiz smoothly, the flame of film in Wei Minzhi's heart has never been extinguished, so in her third year of high school, she had the idea of applying for the directing department, but her idea was not supported by the people around her, and even parents and teachers persuaded her to consider other majors.
After all, with Wei Minzhi's grades, she was able to go to a good university, and Wei Minzhi's character was not a director, but in the face of the resistance of her family and teachers, Wei Minzhi still decided to give it a try, but unfortunately Wei Minzhi finally fell off the list.
This failure also made Wei Minzhi suffer a lot of doubts, and even many people ridiculed her for becoming famous just by relying on a movie, and it was a fool's dream to become a director, and this questioning also made Wei Minzhi's self-confidence suffer a big blow.
But fortunately, before the college entrance examination, Zhang Yimou's hometown of Xi'an University of Foreign Chinese Media and Communication School handed her an olive branch and promised him that as long as she could pass the school's art examination, she could be exempted from tuition.
And this time Wei Minzhi, who knew her ability, decisively chose a relatively easy choreographing major, and finally successfully passed the exam, and in the next cultural class, Wei Minzhi did not relax, in order to be able to pass the written exam, she studied very late every day, and finally was admitted to the university with a very excellent result.
After going to college, Wei Minzhi also fulfilled her dream of directing, directing the TV series "Mother's Wish" in her sophomore year, and then she directed and acted in the movie "Fairy Tale of the Night" with her own experience.
Later, Chen Ergang, a professor at Brigham Young University in the United States, found Wei Minzhi, and he admired Wei Minzhi's directing ability very much, so he decided to let Wei Minzhi come to his school to study, and this suggestion was also approved by Wei Minzhi, and then Wei Minzhi went to the United States to study.
At the 2010 Hawaii International Film Festival in the United States, director Zhang Yimou came with his new work "The Love of the Hawthorn Tree", and standing next to him was Zhou Dongyu, a girl from Hebei like Wei Minzhi, who had become an outstanding filmmaker at this time.
When she asked Zhang Yimou in the audience, Zhang Yimou couldn't help but sigh that the once 14-year-old child has grown up now, and Wei Minzhi has never forgotten this teacher, if it weren't for him, maybe Wei Minzhi would be like many girls in the village, trapped in the mountain village forever.
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Information source: Baidu Encyclopedia Wei Minzhi