Zhang Xiaofei plays a supporting role, which is more interesting than her big heroine
The box office of "Hot and Hot" broke 3 billion. It's not just Jia Ling who is popular, but also Zhang Xiaofei, who finally became a "bad woman".
In the play, she and Jia Ling played a pair of sisters who were opposed to each other and competed with each other. If Le Ying played by Jia Ling is the embodiment of female power that re-releases anger and self under all kinds of contempt, then Le Dan played by Zhang Xiaofei is synonymous with another stubborn, complex and pungent market woman.
▲ "Hot and Hot" trailer
In the eyes of the audience, Le Dan is selfish and inevitably mean. She not only beats her sister, but also dislikes her sister who has been lying at home for ten years to "gnaw at the old", whenever Le Ying wants to avoid seeing people, she will use all kinds of tricky words to ridicule her sister for being a "rice borer" who does not grow.
She is also worried about her sister's real estate, borrowing the name of "children must have a hukou to go to school", and wants her mother to persuade her sister to transfer it automatically. In her heart, it seems that no matter how much her sister sells, it is "deserved". It can be said that in the first half of the play, it is almost impossible to see the warmth of her sister in her.
Ledan's "evil" is not innocent. To some extent, her evil is a driving force behind Le Ying's spiritual predicament. As a result, many viewers put her in the position of the villain, and were willing to compare her sister's counterattack with her sister's loss at the end, trying to distinguish "who is superior and who is inferior".
▲ "Hot and Hot"
But "Hot and Hot" is not a story about victory, it's a story about how women transform. The turnaround behind Jia Ling becoming the big heroine is of course wonderful, but the spiritual crack that Le Dan was repaired by her sister is more worth recalling.
Le Ying and Le Dan can be said to be two typical women. Compared with her sister, Le Dan has always lived a step-by-step life, she is beautiful, confident, and extremely adaptable to the rule of "charm is value". She also used this set of rules to identify herself and measure her sister, and repeatedly internalized this value as a standard of life.
In this standard, she has never lost, so she naturally does not understand Le Ying's depression. Therefore, when she was debunked by her sister and couldn't get child support because she cheated, she would refute "That's because I'm attractive", and the raunchy Le Ying may not even be qualified to enjoy love.
▲ "Hot and Hot" trailer
When Le Ying lost 100 pounds, she still felt that "finding a man to marry is the only way to win". She didn't understand Le Ying's anger, so much so that when her sister gave up all her strength to fight in the ring, she was so shocked that she muttered "I'm sick, why do I have to fight if I can't win?" The hot search picture circulating on Weibo with "half compassion and half contempt" with tears in her eyes is just the proof that a crack has been broken in Le Dan's spiritual world.
A comment described it accurately, at this time, Le Dan did not resent, but had unwilling admiration in his heart, "a kind of awkward respect was born". Ledan's awkwardness is the collapse and reconstruction of world cognition.
At the end, all the audience wondered what she was thinking about her silence, which may have been a kind of self-enlightenment that had been refreshed—she realized that girls don't have to please, don't have to be kitsch, and don't care about the consequences, and can still have a variety of ways to "win".
In fact, compared with Jia Ling's big reversal, Le Dan, who was "beaten", is more like a vivid ordinary person. She is every less "powerful" real-life woman who has experienced change and enlightenment.
▲ Stills from "Hot and Hot".
She is complicated, jealous of her sister's love for being able to get the property given by her grandmother, and disgusted with her sister's inaction.
But on the other hand, there is still a natural love hidden under her selfishness, otherwise she would not have tolerated her sister for ten years without working, and the supermarket operation and housework at home were all taken care of, and when the clip of her sister's interview was maliciously edited and broadcast, she would quietly press the TV remote control shutdown button.
Zhang Xiaofei keenly captures the subtle points of sisterly kinship. Many people say that after "Li Huanying", they finally saw Zhang Xiaofei's acting skills. And this kind of reality is precisely what you have when you play a supporting role.
Over the years, Zhang Xiaofei's popularity has been accompanied by doubts. In 2021, a "Hello, Li Huanying" not only made Jia Ling the best director, but also made Zhang Xiaofei a first-line actress with a box office of 5.4 billion and a Golden Rooster Award actress, achieving a unique "mother" character.
▲ "Hello, Li Huanying"
The supporting role, which had been unknown for ten years, suddenly rose to coffee and became the leading actor, but then ushered in another fall.
Although he has the endorsement of a luxury brand, filmed the movies "Saving the Suspect" and "Exchanging Lives", and also played with Huang Xiaoming and Zhang Jiani, and acted in the revenge drama "Good Things Come in Pairs", no matter which one it is, the reputation is not as good as "Hello, Li Huanying".
Some people say that Li Huanying's dividends are gone, and if she can't afford the heroine anymore, what will she do? No one knows what Zhang Xiaofei plans to do, but "archaeology" her life and art experience, you will find that this restrained and tough girl is actually never afraid to play a supporting role again. Her life started with a "supporting role".
▲ "Exchanging Lives"
Grassroots supporting roles, Zhang Xiaofei has played a lot. "Woman to the N Power", which was broadcast on the Beijing Spring Festival Gala many years ago, was her first stage sketch debut. It was also this drama that made her and Jia Ling get married.
She plays a housewife in it, trying her best to please her husband. Her husband loves rock and roll, so she stands on the broom in Michael Jackson's pose and asks "when will I come home".
She was so busy with housework that she had no time to dress up, so she was dumped by her husband. The pitiful and humorous wit made a lot of viewers laugh.
▲《Female N-jikata》
On the back side of comedy is tragedy. If there is any secret to playing grassroots, it must be that the actors themselves have also experienced such a sad "grassroots history".
Before she became famous, Zhang Xiaofei often described herself, "like a cage of hot buns, as soon as you open the lid, it will slowly get cold", this sentence is used to describe the first half of her acting career, which is indeed not an exaggeration.
Zhang Xiaofei was born in the winter of Anshan in northeast China. The long winter coincided with the wave of layoffs in the Northeast, and her parents' expectations for her not only grew up safely, but also had a dream of their children becoming famous.
Since she was a child, she was taken by her mother to various training classes and practice dancing. In 1997, she left Anshan and went to Minzu University of China alone to learn dance. After that, she was also admitted to the Beijing Film Academy steadily, and became roommates with Yang Mi, Yuan Shanshan, and Jiao Junyan.
▲Zhang Xiaofei dances "Hong Yan"
Zhang Xiaofei is a typical "three good students" embryo: there is always her share in the hard-to-get scholarships; before graduating, she was selected to make her first movie "The Beacon Years".
At the time, it seemed that it was the group of people who had a "bright future".
▲ Group photo of Zhang Xiaofei, Yuan Shanshan, and Yang Mi
But for the "supporting characters", the slip is also an instantaneous thing.
Although she has acted in a lot of dramas, Zhang Xiaofei's appearance is still a gentle and gentle Tsing Yi who was very optimistic in the early years, but at that time, the wind of costume idol dramas blew, blowing her from the mainstream to the "niche".
In 2009, Yang Mi became famous overnight with "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" and "Palace Lock Heart Jade". The following year, roommate Yuan Shanshan also filmed "Palace Lock Bead Curtain" under Yang Mi's recommendation, although she was frequently ridiculed and hacked, but at least it became popular.
At that time, Zhang Xiaofei, who graduated from Beijing Film Academy with the first grade in professional classes, fell into the dilemma of "having a meal but not a meal".
▲In the anti-Japanese drama "The Expendables".
Zhang Xiaofei, who plays the second female lead
According to Zhang Xiaofei himself, once he went to an interview, he was secretly poked and accused by the producer of not looking good: "Do you feel that there is something wrong with your face?"
Zhang Xiaofei, who has no drama to film, has been ridiculed for her temperament and has no idol potential, she is like those ordinary people who have not caught up with good opportunities, so she can only change careers silently in the struggle.
▲《Youth Society》
Before making the movie, Zhang Xiaofei experienced several transformations. She first joined the cross talk comedy class established by Feng Gong under the introduction of the teacher, followed various cross talk actors to the Spring Festival Gala, and then moved to the comedy circle with the help of Jia Ling.
Although there is the support of nobles, the predicament is still not so easy to break through.
It is more difficult for a beautiful girl to get into the field that belongs to "men". In many cases, beauty can become a crime. She and Feng Gong went to the Spring Festival Gala, and because the combination of "beauties and old artists" was too eye-catching, they were frequently ridiculed for whether they used any "unspoken rules", and they were ridiculed with bad intentions inside and outside the words.
▲Zhang Xiaofei and Feng Gong were on the same stage at the Spring Festival Gala
At that time, Zhang Xiaofei, although he had attended the Spring Festival Gala, was still in a very low position in the industry.
She spoke for herself on "Actors Please Be in Place", hoping that the directors could find more for her to film, but because she was not famous enough, she was dragged to only 2 hours of practice time by the old actors on the grounds of writing the script, and failed to give a better performance.
▲ "Actors, Please Be in Place"
Zhang Xiaofei was interrupted from practice
Perhaps it was the hardships of the road to "becoming an actor" that made her gradually hone her sensitivity to life.
She filmed the stubborn Li Huanying, and the deep and shallow Le Dan with gray haze, which is always a little more sophisticated and flavorful than the flat heroine of the cool drama.
▲ Stills from "Hello, Li Huanying".
Zhang Xiaofei's life and her supporting role are stories of mutual achievement.
The vividness of the supporting roles lies in the vividness of the actors. In fact, the supporting role is not a specific "supporting role", it is those forgotten marginal roles, the women in the market who are not put on the screen, and the people who have been frustrated and not enough to become the big heroine.
In the world of supporting characters, there are all kinds of ordinary people, and they are not just elites.
I remember her acting in "Runaway Block", in which she interpreted a harley quint, combing a wig of the same style as Marvel, showing people with an arrogant and occasionally cowardly appearance, and finally was shot to death in order to maintain the orphanage. This soft-hearted "problem girl", the original intention of being a bad guy is just to protect the children in the orphanage from being bullied.
▲ "Runaway Block"
Many people say that Zhang Xiaofei, who is not good in the follow-up, is coming to an end. But I think it's not popular, it's a choice for her.
In the most popular years of Li Huanying, Zhang Xiaofei made a decision - to disband the fan support club. The rigidity of the bright is the fan circle that does not play with data and is coerced by traffic.
It's not so much that Zhang Xiaofei can't afford the big heroine, it's better to say that such a script is ineffective for her. She's not crazy enough, and she's not ambitious enough. Zhang Xiaofei, who has always said that he is a "passive personality", is better at working silently like ordinary people.
▲ Passive Zhang Xiaofei
After becoming popular once, she rarely appeared in variety shows. When asked how she felt when she stopped, she said, "Dare to stop, it's another meaning of 'on the road'".
I think Zhang Xiaofei's "on the road" is actually a practice of another level of life. Compared with before, she is more concerned about how young people can be redeemed and save themselves.
At the FIRST Youth Film Festival, Zhang Xiaofei, who watched "Galaxy Writer", once expressed his opinion. She said that what she admires most about the director is that she uses very few scenes to show the situation of the two young people in the trough period vividly. The characters in it are very realistic and do not grow, but they give her hope. I think she must love to see such marginal "supporting characters".
The supporting characters are the champions of the objective world, and what they see and interpret is a world that is larger than the protagonist. If there is no Le Dan's sarcasm, then Le Ying's counterattack will not be able to interpret how the different personalities of the sisters are shaped by the environment.
"Supporting role" Zhang Xiaofei is still promising.
▲ Xiaoqi
Content Editor: Feng Bai Ka