Shangguan Yunzhu created a classic character with distinctive personalities in films such as "A River of Spring Water Flows East", "Ten Thousand Family Lights", "Hope in the Human World", "Crows and Sparrows" and other films, and traveled with the drama stage all over the country. Although her romantic experience in life is breathtaking, her dedication to acting and her attitude of active pursuit of progress have also added the characteristics of the times to her acting career.
Birthplace: Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province
Former name: Wei Junji, Wei Yajun
Work unit: Shanghai Film Studio
From photo studio ticket tellers to movie stars all over the beach
In 1920, Shangguan Yunzhu was born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, and his original name was Wei Yajun. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Wei Yajun fled to Shanghai with her husband's family. She worked as a ticket teller at the Ho Photo Studio on Xiafei Road. The photo studio manager bought her fashionable clothes, asked her to wear them for photos, and put the photos in the window as a signboard. During her two years at the photo studio, she had frequent contact with the stars who came to take pictures and developed a strong interest in acting. In 1940, she trained and studied in the training classes of Shanghai Huaguang Drama School and Xinhua Film Company, and debuted on the stage of drama.
In the one-act drama "Rice", Wei Yajun's acting talent was favored by Zhang Shankun, the boss of Xinhua Film Company, and she was determined to play the heroine Wang Xiuying in "Wang Tiger Robs Relatives". Director Bu Wancang gave her the stage name "Shangguan Yunzhu" and hoped that she would be as bright and beautiful as a pearl.
In 1941, Shangguan Yunzhu and Xie Jin starred in the drama "Thunderstorm" and received praise. In the same year, she also starred in her film debut "Rose Drifting Zero", and later filmed many films such as "National Color Tianxiang" and "Flower Moon Night". With the films of these talented and beautiful people, Shangguan Yunzhu has a certain popularity, but she has also been ridiculed by many people as "having a smell of aunt and wife".
In the summer of 1946, the film "Paradise Spring Dream" that was being prepared was temporarily missing the female number two, and the male protagonist Lan Ma recommended Shangguan Yunzhu to the director Tang Xiaodan, and when she came to audition, she was fixed to play the female number two on the spot. The release of the film caused a sensation, and the mean and demon "Gong Wife" played by Shangguan Yunzhu made her famous.
In 1947, she played the windy "Shi Mimi" and the debauched "Receiving Lady" in "Long Live the Wife" and "A River of Spring Water Flowing East".
Shangguan Yunzhu played He Wenyan in "A River of Spring Water Flows East".
In 1948, Shangguan Yunzhu, who was already regarded as a "professional villain", played the role of a virtuous wife and mother Lan Youlan and a female worker Jin Mei in the films "Ten Thousand Family Lights" and "Li Ren Xing", which was refreshing; but at the same time, she played a prostitute Xiao Cabbage in "Group of Demons", with cigarettes in her hands and confused eyes.
It is these characters with personality that make Shangguan Yunzhu improve his acting skills. She herself explained the reason for everything, "Because I don't have enough experience, I want to try any personality role." 」 ”
The famous film director Zhai Junjie once commented on Shangguan Yunzhu: "She is eating drama, she was born to be an actor, so she has a kind of aura, she has a sense of an actor."
Affectionate, meaningful, and rhythmic performance
In the late 1940s, after Shangguan Yunzhu came into contact with a group of progressive and artistically outstanding film and drama artists, she shot a number of progressive films in the Kunlun Film Company led by the "left-wing" cultural movement, such as "Beauty Walk", "Ten Thousand Family Lights", "Crows and Sparrows" and other films shot during this period, Shangguan Yunzhu vowed to become a real people's artist, so she began to become self-respecting and self-cherishing in the choice of roles. At that time, when rehearsing "The Crow and the Sparrow", it was originally scheduled to let Shangguan Yunzhu play Yu Xiaoying, the concubine of the Kuomintang bureaucratic villain in the film, and Huang Zongying played Mrs. Hua, but she made it clear that "I no longer want to play a social flower or a social grass." This decision allowed her to play the role of Huang Zongying in "The Crow and the Sparrow" and get the opportunity to play Mrs. Hua, and she also lived up to her expectations, vividly portraying a woman who was trapped in chai rice oil and salt but lost her grace.
Shen Fu, director of "Ten Thousand Family Lights", said that although Shangguan Yunzhu is only one meter and five meters tall, she can suppress the field as soon as she goes on stage, "She understands movies, has a sense of lens, is affectionate, has a long meaning, and her performance is measured and rhythmic." He once invited Shangguan Yunzhu to star in "Ten Thousand Family Lights", playing Lan Youlan, a woman with a difficult life and a tragic situation, in the film, which raised her performance to a new height and also stepped out of the previous "vase" role routine.
In 1955, when the shanghai film studio was preparing to start filming the film "South Island Storm" praising the anti-Japanese guerrillas, Huang Zongying recommended to the director shangguan Yunzhu as the heroine Fu Ruohua, a guerrilla female caretaker who stayed in the rear during the revolutionary war to take care of the wounded. Shangguan Yunzhu, who had previously played the role of Mrs. Rich and a social flower, was like a joke to many people at the time. However, she took the initiative to go to Jinhua Village in Wenchang, Hainan Province, to live in depth, to get along with the guerrilla nurses day and night, to go to the fields, water, herd cattle, to do all kinds of farm work, often discuss the role with the director until two or three o'clock in the morning, change the courtesan flower and Mrs. Kuo's image of the willow leaf eyebrows on the screen, and play the heroine of the image of a Red Army revolutionary hero who has experienced all kinds of difficulties and dangers convincingly. In particular, through several "tears", she truly and naturally showed her fear and uneasiness when she left the large troops and relatives, the grievances when she was reprimanded by the wounded, the sadness when she heard about the sacrifice of her comrades, and the excitement when she learned of the return of the troops. Fu Ruohua's image of a heroine who broke through the symbolization of the time can not only be seen as Shangguan Yunzhu's superb acting skills to complete her own "rebirth" style transcendence, but also allowed her to consolidate her almost fluttering star status.
Life is elegant and has no shelf, and the personality is stubborn and miserable in his old age
In the 40s of the last century, Shangguan Yunzhu's eating and wearing degree was the standard of female stars at that time, she must be carefully dressed when she goes out, and the cheongsam and shawls, cardigans, and handbags must be properly matched, and after decades, there are still many people who remember her elegant and decent figure.
In the golden age of his acting career, Shangguan Yunzhu sent ties, foreign cigarettes, and chocolates to photographers, and accompanied his colleagues to dance and eat and spend the night after work, "playing" the perfect social flower. And many of Shangguan Yunzhu's collaborators also recognize her as a star without shelves, usually with fewer requirements and good cooperation. For all kinds of gossip about her private life, she often chooses to remain silent. Shangguan Yunzhu's self-contained personality and several unfortunate married lives have actually been negatively affecting her acting career.
In 1965, Shangguan Yunzhu suffered from severe tracheitis and breast cancer, and was later diagnosed with brain cancer, and her brain function was impaired, so that she once lost her ability to read and write. She tried to relearn to speak, to relearn writing with a stroke of a pen.
During the Cultural Revolution, Shangguan Yunzhu was repeatedly persecuted and beaten by rebels. On November 22, 1968, Shangguan Yunzhu was summoned for the last time by the rebels, and she was asked to write "confession materials" and slapped violently. At 3 a.m. the next day, Shangguan Yunzhu jumped out of the window in his favorite warm green thin woolen tweed suit at home, dying at the age of 48.
Beijing News reporter Li Yan
Edited by Huang Jialing Proofreader Xue Jingning