Text | Wang Zhenyi
Edit | Noisy
In 1986, the 23-year-old Zhang Yaoyang auditioned at New Art City Film Company, and was appreciated by director Lin Lingdong, who partnered with Zhou Runfa and Li Xiuxian to star in the movie "Dragon and Tiger Storm".
From this movie, Zhang Yaoyang began his path as a villain in the film, and also began his "golden supporting role" road.
However, what people never expected was that in 2014, he was caught smoking contraband and became a prisoner.
Now that 6 years have passed, how is he doing? From the "golden supporting role" to the prisoner of the order, what has he experienced?
It all starts at the beginning of the story.
01
Zhang Yaoyang was born in Hong Kong in July 1963 to a very poor family, and he has six brothers and sisters.
In such a family, it is common to not have enough to eat and wear. But compared with these, Zhang Yaoyang has a greater misfortune, he suffered a car accident.
In the second grade of primary school, Zhang Yaoyang and his uncle were walking on the street together and were involved in a car accident, which caused Zhang Yaoyang to lose his memory before the age of 9.
After the car accident, Zhang Yaoyang, who did not like to talk, became quieter than before, and he often walked slowly up the mountain alone, looking at the scenery while thinking about problems.
Like many children from poor families, Zhang Yaoyang had to find a way to make a living as he grew older.
So after graduating from high school, he went to society, working as a cement worker and a porter until he found a stable job in an export trading company.
In this trading company, Zhang Yaoyang has been working for 2 years. In these 2 years, he grew into a tall and handsome handsome guy, and this changed his fate.
In 1982, 19-year-old Zhang Yaoyang went to a furniture store to inspect goods, and he was favored by the owner of the furniture store and invited to shoot a furniture advertisement.
Since then, he has embarked on the road of modeling and shot a lot of advertisements.
But the surprise that Heaven gave to Zhang Yaoyang did not end there, and in 1986, he met Lin Lingdong.
02
In 1986, Lin Lingdong was preparing to shoot the movie "Dragon and Tiger Storm", and he invited Zhou Runfa and Li Xiuxian to star. Due to the shortage of funds, in addition to Zhou Runfa and Li Xiuxian, he decided to use a large number of new people, and Zhang Yaoyang was one of them.
And Zhang Yaoyang's meeting with Lin Lingdong was purely accidental. Before this, Zhang Yaoyang had not filmed, and his friends thought that he had good appearance conditions and suggested that he could try to be an actor.
Zhang Yaoyang took the advice of a friend, and he ran to the New Art City Film Company to audition for "Dragon and Tiger Storm".
In the process of auditioning, Lin Lingdong did not say anything more to Zhang Yaoyang, but just asked him to go home and wait for the notice.
To Zhang Yaoyang's great surprise, he received a call from Lin Lingdong the next day, who asked him to star in the fierce "Joe JG" in "Dragon and Tiger Storm".
What Lin Lingdong did not expect was that this young man was very talented in acting, although he had no acting experience, he played "Joe JG" quite well.
Lin Lingdong decided to focus on cultivating this young man, zhang Yaoyang became Lin Lingdong's "royal supporting role", and successively starred in the villain role in "Prison Storm" and "School Storm" directed by Lin Lingdong.
With 3 villain roles, Zhang Yaoyang became famous in Hong Kong, and New Art City Film Company directly signed a 5-year contract with him. And in the process of filming "School Storm", Zhang Yaoyang met actress Li Lirui, and the two began a 4-year relationship.
At that time, in the eyes of the outside world, Zhang Yaoyang was proud of his career and love, but he was not happy.
03
Because playing the villain role is too successful, Zhang Yaoyang feels the "malice" of the outside world.
Many viewers will scold him after watching the movie. Once, just after the premiere of "Prison Storm", an aunt chased him on the street and scolded: "You see, this person's eyes are so fierce." ”
What is even more exaggerated is that Zhang Yaoyang is walking on the street, and a small came up to him and said to him: Brother Yaoyang, when will you accept me as a little brother? ”
The words of the little made Zhang Yaoyang cry and laugh, he hoped that they could go the right way, he said to them that he was a negative teaching material, and it was never a good end to be a bad person in the movie.
And in order to avoid this situation affecting the life of his family, Zhang Yaoyang chose to move out of the house and live alone outside.
At the same time, he must think about the question of whether he wants to insist on being an actor or not?
At that time, Zhang Yaoyang found that the actor's job was very insecure, and all the decisions were in the hands of others, which made him want to give up the industry many times.
But Zhang Yaoyang also found that once there was a drama, he would still rush to start work without hesitation, which made him realize that he really liked acting, even if the industry was unstable and insecure.
After thinking it through, Zhang Yaoyang strengthened his belief in being an actor. But at the same time, he also found that Lin Lingdong inadvertently solidified his play path.
Zhang Yaoyang is not satisfied with just playing the villain, he wants to try more roles, he wants to transform.
At that time, Zhang Yaoyang confessed to the media: "I am not bad looking, why do you always let me play a villain?" ”
After knowing Zhang Yaoyang's idea, his company did not stop it, and even in 1992, Zhang Yaoyang also got the opportunity to cooperate with Maggie Cheung in the literary film "White Rose".
In this movie, Zhang Yaoyang is not only the protagonist, but also a positive character. However, after the release of this movie, the response was not great. Zhang Yaoyang's other films starring or positive roles have not splashed in the market, but the films he plays as a villain have a good box office and great influence.
In the face of this situation, Zhang Yaoyang had to rethink his choice, he finally wanted to understand, he said to the media: "The most important thing is to see what the market needs, everyone has a role suitable for themselves, just like Zhou Xingchi is definitely funny, whether to change is his own problem, the boss uses you must be the sharpest knife." ”
After figuring it out, Zhang Yaoyang was more refined in the shaping of the villain role.
04
In 1996, Zhang Yaoyang starred in the role of "Crow" in "Ancient Puzzle Boy 3" directed by Liu Weiqiang, he interpreted the greed, cunning, fierceness and brutality of "crow" to the fullest, and he killed the "little stutter" played by Li Zi in the movie, which became the "difficult to reconcile" in the hearts of countless movie fans.
After the release of "Ancient Puzzle Boy 3", Zhang Yaoyang ushered in a small peak of his career with the role of "Crow", which was extremely popular.
By 2003, Zhang Yaoyang's acting skills had received praise from the industry.
This year, he played an undercover JC in the movie "Infernal Affairs 2", although he did not have a line in the whole film, he conquered the audience with his acting skills, and the Hong Kong media praised him for "not making a sound from beginning to end and doing his best", and Zhang Yaoyang was also nominated for the 4th Chinese Film and Media Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
However, with the maturity of his acting skills, Zhang Yaoyang has become less and less "useful" in Hong Kong.
With the decline of Hong Kong cinema, many actors in Hong Kong did not shoot scenes. In order to live, they chose to go to the mainland where the entertainment industry is booming.
Zhang Yaoyang is one of them.
But it is also in this process, emotionally, Zhang Yaoyang has a bad scandal.
Before the bad scandal came out, Zhang Yaoyang had not only been in love with Li Lirui for 4 years, but also had a 3-year relationship with Taiwanese supermodel Ai Yongling.
After breaking up with Ai Yongling, in the Hong Kong media reports, Zhang Yaoyang no longer liked women, but men.
In 2006, Zhang Yaoyang and a bald man spread a scandal. At that time, Zhang Yaoyang had a bungalow with a sink in Sha Tau Kok in Hong Kong, and according to Zhang Yaoyang's neighbors, the former owner of the house was Zhang Ziqiang, the "Thief King of the Century".
After Zhang Yaoyang lived here, he did not talk to his neighbors and added a black cloth to the wall to cover the house. Until one day, Zhang Yaoyang opened the door in order to repair the couple's bicycle placed at the door, and the neighbor found a bald man of about 40 years old walking around the house.
Zhang Yaoyang was suspected of "cohabiting" with bald men.
After the bald man, Zhang Yaoyang and Cai Yijie of the Grasshopper Band spread a scandal, and they were photographed by the Hong Kong media as having a close relationship.
In response to this, Cai Yijie debunked the rumors, saying that he and Zhang Yaoyang were just good friends, and he also said that the "broken back" reported by the Hong Kong media was scribbled, and he said that he would not mind because he knew that the media wanted to sell some news.
For this, Zhang Yaoyang also denied it. Years later, when the matter was revisited in front of the media, Zhang Yaoyang said bluntly: "How can I be so grandfather?" ”
However, compared with the troubles caused by these scandals, an incident that happened in 2008 made Zhang Yaoyang cry bitterly.
05
In 2008, Zhang Yaoyang's life was greatly affected by an injury to his waist and spine while filming an action scene.
The doctor who treated him had proposed a radical cure, but because the location of the operation was extremely risky, a slight deviation could lead to general paralysis, and Zhang Yaoyang finally chose conservative treatment.
The process of conservative treatment was very painful, so painful that Zhang Yaoyang had the idea of taking his own life.
One day he pushed open the glass windows on the 20th floor of a building, ready to jump down to end his life. Fortunately, when he climbed the window sill, Zhang Yaoyang lost his courage and he survived again.
Although Zhang Yaoyang is no longer born lightly, such an illness makes him unable to shoot anymore, and he has to fade out of the screen.
Later, when his condition improved, he lived on a farm he had bought in Tai Po, Hong Kong, and lived a quiet life of reading, planting vegetables and planting flowers.
There is no longer any news of him in the media.
What the public did not expect was that in 2014, Zhang Yaoyang actually appeared in the public's field of vision in a shocking way.
He was caught smoking contraband at a hotel in Beijing and detained for 20 days.
Zhang Yaoyang used this move to turn himself into a "bad artist" and blocked his way back.
No one would have thought that Zhang Yaoyang would say goodbye to the actor in this way.
At that time, some people also sympathized with Zhang Yaoyang, believing that he smoked contraband for pain relief.
However, Xiong Xinxin, an actor from Wuxing, said bluntly in an interview with the media that he knew that Zhang Yaoyang's physical condition was very bad, but the injuries of people in Wuxing were all painkillers, and they would not be relieved by taking contraband.
I have to say that because of a wrong choice in life, Zhang Yaoyang completely broke his acting career with all his might.
06
Although Zhang Yaoyang can no longer appear on the screen, with the fame accumulated over the years, he can also earn gold through commercial performances and participation in opening activities.
And he also entered the BC industry, working under Chen Ronglian, An Yixuan's husband and known as the "Little Gambling King", and living a worry-free life.
Perhaps deeply aware of his mistake of smoking contraband, Zhang Yaoyang began to redeem himself, and he actively engaged in public welfare undertakings.
Today, Zhang Yaoyang has a job to do, and a young girlfriend, and when he has time, he can party with artist friends who have worked with him, and his life is also comfortable.
Just looking back on the past, Zhang Yaoyang felt sorry for Lin Lingdong, it was Lin Lingdong who discovered him and praised him, but he personally buried his own acting road.
In 2018, Lin Lingdong died, Zhang Yaoyang cried a lot, he cried Lin Lingdong, but also cried himself.
But there is no regret medicine in life, and the choices you make have to bear the corresponding price.