Sentence |
Edit|South Candle Spring Evening
"There is no grandmother without a minister, and there is no grandmother without a minister for the rest of the year."
This is what Zhao Liying said to the old lady of the Sheng family in the TV series "Do You Know".
Cao Cuifen, the actor of the old lady of the Sheng family, just passed her 80th birthday this year.
Cao Cuifen, who is in her old age, is also a little old lady outside the play.
Many film and television works and roles she has participated in in her life have become classics.
Cao Cuifen, who was rated as a "national first-class actor", was asserted by the famous director Zhang Yimou in middle age that she could not become popular.
Looking at the current Cao Cuifen, you can understand that some things cannot be said too early.
Half a century into the industry, her life is legendary.
01
In 1944, Cao Cuifen was born in an ordinary family in Shanghai.
When she was six years old, her family moved north to Beijing to earn a living.
Cao Cuifen has had a strong interest in literature and art since she was a child.
Even though her family background is ordinary, her parents still help and encourage her interests.
Cao Cuifen has understood what she wants since she was a child.
She worked hard and was born with a talent for the arts.
After graduating from high school, Cao Cuifen was admitted to Beijing Film Academy to study acting with excellent results.
After four years of tempering and practice in school, Cao Cuifen is full of enthusiasm and ready to realize her ambition on the stage.
It's a pity that the times are not good, and as soon as she graduated, she caught up with the special period of ten years.
For three years, Cao Cuifen planted rice in the countryside.
It's the exact opposite of her life plan, but there's nothing she can do.
It is said that "art comes from life, but it is higher than life".
Cao Cuifen understands this truth very well, and has a deep relationship with the villagers during the rice planting period.
She fully understands the emotions and lives of rural women, and understands their firewood, rice, oil, salt, and ups and downs.
This experience brought great help to Cao Cuifen's acting career later.
29-year-old Cao Cuifen not only ushered in a turning point in her life, but also opened the road of her dreams.
1973 was a crucial year in her life.
Thanks to her three years of rural life, the director of the movie "Southern Expedition and Northern War" decisively chose Cao Cuifen and let her play the role of Yonggui's sister-in-law, a rural woman in the movie.
"Southern Expedition and Northern War" is the first film Cao Cuifen starred in, and this film made her officially an actor.
This role led Cao Cuifen into the film and television industry, but it did not open her career path.
She's always been anonymous, wandering on the edges.
In 1990, Cao Cuifen, who was 49 years old, finally ushered in a turning point in her career.
02
Cao Cuifen participated in the casting of "The Red Lantern Hangs High" directed by the famous director Zhang Yimou in this year.
This opportunity was almost lost because of her looks.
Cao Cuifen's appearance can be regarded as dignified, but she is not outstanding at all in the entertainment industry where there are so many beautiful women, and she looks ordinary and ordinary.
Zhang Yimou's first impression of Cao Cuifen was: a very ordinary person, not like an actor, very ordinary.
There is no way to change her appearance, Cao Cuifen finally impressed Zhang Yimou with her superb acting skills and successfully won the role.
She portrayed the second aunt too "Zhuo Yun" on the surface and the sinister image behind it vividly.
Cao Cuifen used her strength to break the obstacles brought to her by her appearance: how can she not be a good actor without good looks.
At that time, Cao Cuifen was already considered old, and she did not have any achievements in the film and television industry.
Zhang Yimou asserted Cao Cuifen: "She can't be popular."
I didn't expect the movie to explode as soon as it was released.
In 1991, Cao Cuifen won the "Performance Society Award" of the 4th China Film Performing Arts Society with this role.
Cao Cuifen broke Zhang Yimou's perception of her step by step, and gradually walked towards the "altar" in middle age.
"If you don't donate, you will succeed", Cao Cuifen perfectly responded to this sentence.
When she was young, she accumulated too much energy, but she didn't have a chance, and she couldn't radiate it.
But with the explosion of "The Red Lantern Hangs High" and the display of her own strength, she was gradually seen by the public.
At the age of 52, Cao Cuifen finally ushered in the first protagonist in her life.
03
"Orphan's Tears" can be said to be Cao Cuifen's first well-known business card in her acting career.
She played the second daughter of Geng in the movie "Orphan's Tears".
This character is an authentic image of a rural woman, and this image is simply deeply rooted in Cao Cuifen's soul.
In the film, she perfectly showed the simple and kind Geng Ernu with delicate and moving acting skills.
Cao Cuifen has experienced decades of turmoil in life and has profound experience.
It is precisely because of this that her performance in the movie has immersed countless audiences and moved them to tears.
The film "Orphan's Tears" starring Cao Cuifen lived up to expectations and led her to win the Best Actress Award at the Chinese Film "Huabiao Awards".
This 53-year-old middle-aged woman won the first heroine award in her life.
Cao Cuifen, who is over half a hundred years old, really used the strength she has accumulated for many years to fulfill her original dream at this time.
Looking back at the past, we will find that "there are antecedents before there are consequences".
At that time, Cao Cuifen was young, and her three-year life of growing rice in the countryside seemed extremely precious at this moment, as if it was fate.
All her subsequent honors have too much to do with this experience.
At that time, Cao Cuifen may be in a hurry, thinking about when she can act and how long it will take to become famous.
Now she should be especially grateful for those three years of experience, which allowed her to learn a lot and be able to experience the real life in the countryside.
I would also like to thank myself for "looking up at the starry sky while keeping my feet on the ground".
Cao Cuifen, who won the highest honor, did not stop moving forward because of age.
04
In the following ten years, Cao Cuifen has participated in many TV series.
Because of his age, he has always played the role of an elder.
For example, Chen Yuying in "Sweet Troubles", Ding's mother in "Deep Night", Qian Shuhua, the stubborn old lady in "Happiness Knocks on the Door", and so on.
Each of the characters she portrays in these works stands up to scrutiny.
Cao Cuifen has been working hard for her career, and there are not a few works she has participated in, but she has never received much attention.
Until 2018, Cao Cuifen, who had been low-key for nearly 20 years, became popular again because of her role as the grandmother of the Sheng family in "Know".
Her wonderful performance in the play has attracted much attention and is known as the "national grandmother".
Cao Cuifen's role seems to be tailor-made for her, dignified and elegant, wise and calm.
Let the audience think from the bottom of their hearts that Mrs. Sheng should be like her.
There is a scene that hits the soul of the audience and highlights Cao Cuifen's strong ability.
In the play, Sheng Minglan's biological mother died of persecution and childbirth, and she was slaughtered like a little lamb in Nuoda's Sheng Mansion.
Mrs. Sheng raised Minglan in her own house, when Minglan cried bitterly because of the loss of her mother.
She hugged Minglan in her arms and said loudly, "We are Ming girls, someone hurts."
After that, your grandmother will take care of you as you grow up.
It's a shocking show with a lot of penetrating power.
Cao Cuifen's voice reached the audience's ears through the screen.
Let the audience who saw this burst into tears and resonated, as if the old lady of the Sheng family was not only Sheng Minglan's grandmother but also her own grandmother.
evoked the memories of his loved ones, which can be described as "deceiving" enough tears for the audience.
Cao Cuifen once again reached the peak of her acting career at the age of 74 with the role of the grandmother of the Sheng family.
Zhang Yimou asserted that "she can't be popular" because of Cao Cuifen's appearance in his early years, which now sounds like a joke.
Too many actors are in the midst of youth, which is normal in the eyes of the public.
But it is not only in the age of twenty or thirty that there is a possibility of fire, and as you get older, this hope seems to be slimmer.
Cao Cuifen is no, she uses her strength to break stereotypes and prove to the audience that she can also be a "late bloomer" in the entertainment industry.
Cao Cuifen has worked hard all her life and left too many classic works for the film and television industry.
"National First-Class Actor" is the highest evaluation of Cao Cuifen.
A lifetime of dedication to art, she deserves it.
A person's success may always have to give up something, and Cao Cuifen does have a little "regret".
05
Cao Cuifen, who has the title of "National Grandmother", can't experience the happiness of children and grandchildren in real life.
She was childless for the rest of her life.
Cao Cuifen and her husband Tan Tianqian have been together for 57 years.
It's not that the couple didn't think about having a child when they were young.
But because of the conflict between family and career, Cao Cuifen resolutely chose the career she loved.
Her husband, Tan Tianqian, respects any choice she makes and has been silently supporting her behind the scenes.
At that time, they were still relatively young and had the opportunity to have children.
Maybe it's a trick of fate, whenever Cao Cuifen's career enters a stable period and she wants to return to her family.
She can always win various honors such as the Feitian Award and the Golden Rooster Award, and has ushered in the spring of her career many times.
This made Cao Cuifen have to continue to ride the wind and waves on the road of her career and could not stop.
But the best age for a person to have children is only a few years.
Before she knew it, she had missed this best age to have children.
Every time she thinks of this, Cao Cuifen feels regretful.
On the contrary, her husband Tan Tianqian enlightened her many times.
There are always regrets in life, which constitutes a colorful life, sweet and sour, as well as bitter and spicy.
All kinds of colors and emotions are intertwined to form a perfect life individual.
At that time, if she had chosen a family, Cao Cuifen might not have achieved such a high level of success in her career, "you can't have both".
Cao Cuifen and Tan Tianqian have been together for decades.
After going through ups and downs, they have become indispensable people in each other's lives.
Children are regretful, but it does not affect the deep affection between them.
Cao Cuifen, who is now eighty years old, and her husband Tan Tianqian are already old husbands and wives.
But they are still in love, and Tan Tianqian supports Cao Cuifen's career as always.
epilogue
Today, Cao Cuifen is still at the forefront of her acting career.
Cao Cuifen's life is her love and dedication to her acting career, her brave choice and deep understanding of life.
She did not change the trajectory of her life because of society's expectations, nor did she give up her dream because of professional challenges.
On the contrary, she uses her own experience to tell us that even in the face of difficulties and challenges, as long as we stick to our love and live with our hearts, happiness will come inadvertently.
I hope that Ms. Cao Cuifen can have a happy old age with her husband in the field she loves.
Some references:
TV series "Do You Know"|Cao Cuifen
The Silver Lion Award of the 48th Venice Film Festival "The Red Lantern Hangs High" |
"Look at This Family" Interview with Cao Cuifen: Carry out the performance to the end|Sohu