Qin Yi was born in Shanghai in 1922.
In August 1938, Qin Yi ran away from home and went to the front line of the War of Resistance.
Childhood Qin Yi
After the fall of Wuhan in October, Qin Yi came to Chongqing, the rear area.
She was 16 years old.
Qin Yi, 16, lives in the Youth Women's Association, and it is imperative to find a job to support herself.
Coincidentally met a nobleman, yin and yang mistakenly became an actor
One night after dinner, Qin Yi and Zhu Jiadi went to see the rehearsal of the Chinese Long Live Theater Troupe's new play "Eight Hundred Heroes".
After watching the performance, Zhu Jiati went to the bathroom, and Qin Yi waited in the foyer of the theater.
Two middle-aged men with extraordinary temperament walked out of the field, and saw Qin Yi standing in front of the entrance hall, involuntarily walking towards her.
"Little girl, are you waiting for someone, where do you work?"
One of the two men, with a thin face and a head in a mid-split suit, asked. The other stared at Qin Yi up and down.
Qin Yi saw that the two middle-aged men were polite and courteous, not like bad people, and said shyly: "I just arrived in Chongqing, and I haven't worked yet." ”
"Then come to us!" We're acting, you come to the drama. ”
Qin Yi shook his head continuously. She loves art and went on stage as a student, but she never wanted to be an actress.
Seeing that the persuasion was ineffective, the two middle-aged men no longer insisted, said goodbye and turned away.
Young girl Qin Yi
Qin Qia would never have imagined that this accidental meeting would determine her future life.
"Do you know them?" Coming out of the bathroom, Zhu Jiadi saw Ying Yunwei and Qin Yi talking, pointed to the two distant backs, and asked Qin Yi in surprise.
Zhu Jiati told Qin Qia that they were the famous directors Ying Yunwei and Shi Dongshan, and the one who spoke to her was called Ying Yunwei, and it was not easy for him to be favored by him and participate in their performances.
Ying Yunwei (1904-1967) major film works: "Plugged in the Wind", "Song Shijie", "Chasing Fish" and so on
Friend Xu Ke worked as a fixture in a Chinese film studio. With his persuasion and help, and the approval and support of Ying Yunwei and Shi Dongshan, the Chinese film studio agreed to hire her.
4 months ago, when she ran away from home, Qin Yi wanted to be a field nurse on the front line, but unexpectedly mistakenly joined the 22nd Group Army and was used as a vase; she risked escaping from the 22nd Group Army and came to Chongqing, the capital, with the purpose of doing anti-war work in the rear area.
Shi Dongshan (1902-1955) is the main director of the works "Eight Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons", "The Legend of the New Children's Heroes" and so on
48 years later, in 1986, when talking about how to become an actor in the article "My Artistic Career", Qin Yi wrote the following paragraph:
I was eager to resist and always look forward to the news of victory. When I am alone and alone, I will decide everything by myself.
When I saw the dramas depicting the War of Resistance, I developed a kind of respect and trust for those who engaged in drama. This kind of thinking pushed me to make a choice: to be an actor.
Qin Yi's original name was Qin Dehe, and after officially becoming an actor in a Chinese film studio, Xu Wei thought that the name was too awkward and it was best to change it. "Dehe, Dehe, how ugly! And do you know what dehe means in the Beijing dialect? That's the meaning of finishing. Must change. ”
"You can help me change one."
Xu Ke was very serious, he moved his brain, and then looked up the dictionary, according to Qin Yi's quiet appearance and beautiful image, he took a single name "Yi", and the surname was called "Qin Yi", which was both beautiful and loud.
The name was changed, and 16-year-old Qin Dehe became Qin Yi.
Shu Xiuwen is not like a big star
Life has turned a new page, and everything that is displayed in front of Qin Yi is very fresh.
Qin Yi is a "Medium-made" trainee actor, and the probationary salary is 30 yuan per month. In the era of soaring prices, the 30 yuan wage was lower, but the factory managed to eat and live, and another cotton coat was issued. The cotton coat is black, the collar is studded with fluff, very chic, and it is very atmospheric to wear on the body, like an actor.
Qin Yi's first drama on stage, "Long Live China", is an anti-Japanese drama that encourages the masses to join the army, directed by Ying Yunwei and starring Shu Xiuwen. Qin Yi played a hot-blooded young man who asked to join the army to resist the war.
The character's whole action is only one: turning his back to the audience, raising his fist, standing up and saying a line, four words: "I'm going too!" "Showed the determination to participate in the War of Resistance as well."
For actors with a little stage experience, playing such a mass role does not need to have any burden, nor does it need to rehearse, and can be performed on stage. But for Qin Yi, this is her first time on stage, the mystery of the actor has not been eliminated, adding a lot of pressure out of thin air, and has been in a state of nervous and ridiculous preparation.
At first, Qin Yi kept practicing the line "I want to go too", thinking about which word the accent should be placed on; then practicing the action of raising his fist, thinking about when it was most appropriate to raise his fist. Whether it was eating, walking, or sleeping, as long as he thought of the drama, Qin Yi would raise his fist and say the four-word line, to the point of going crazy.
Shu Xiuwen gave her a lot of help. This big actor who is technically oppressive and famous in the mountain city is approachable in life, does not have the arrogance of a famous character, and never poses with a shelf.
Shu Xiuwen loves Qin Yi like a little sister, analyzing the script and studying the role with Qin Yi.
Shu Xiuwen (1915-1969)
"You're a smart kid, you're going to do it well." Yingyin's eldest sister, who lives in the same dormitory as Qin Yi, is also a famous actor, and found that Qin Yi was overly nervous, and smiled and encouraged.
In the first performance of the official performance, Qin Yi dressed well, because it was with her back to the audience, and her face did not need makeup. The lights dimmed in the theater, and the audience stared at the stage with bated breath. A Japanese officer crashed into the house and talked to Shu Xiuwen, who played the heroine. Qin Yi looked at them intently.
According to the plot regulations, the actor who played the Japanese officer slapped Shu Xiuwen's face with a slap, and Qin Yi was startled and almost forgot to say the four-word line "I also want to go". Because Shu Xiuwen had never been really beaten during the rehearsal, and the first performance appeared to be really beaten, Qin Yi lacked ideological preparation.
Fortunately, the audience did not notice that she was shocked, and she also said the line, otherwise it would really be foreign. Because the long hair cut in Wuhan did not grow out, Qin Yi was still a suit head with short hair, and the audience did not know whether the role she played that day was a boy or a girl.
His debut novel "Japanese Spy" appeared in only a few tens of seconds
Shortly after the performance of "Long Live China", Qin Yi participated in the filming of the movies "Good Husband", "Protecting Hometown", "Light of East Asia" and "Japanese Spy".
"Japanese Spy" is Qin Yi's film debut. But it's less than a minute.
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Interestingly, in the film she also raises her nose and makes a cameo appearance as a foreign girl.
"Protecting Hometown" is directed by He Feiguang, and Qin Yi plays a mass role.
This feature film that exposes the atrocities of the Japanese invading army and praises the heroic resistance of the military and the people, from the title to the story, is not much different from the "Defend Our Land" and "Blood and Loyal Souls" filmed a year ago, and the last two films received a good response after their release, and the factory believes that "Protecting the Hometown" will also be successful after shooting.
There are two reasons, one is that the film encourages the anti-Japanese resistance and shouts out the voice of the people;
Second, the film has two famous actors, Ying Yin and Chen Tianguo, who have appeal to the audience.
Chen Tianguo (1912-1967)
The mystery of Ying Yin's suicide
Qin Yi is very happy to be able to shoot a scene with Yingyin.
As soon as she entered the "Chinese system", Qin Yi and Yingyin lived in the same dormitory.
At the beginning, Qin Yi's excessive pursuit of material enjoyment for Yingyin, the lifestyle of drinking coffee and eating eggs in the morning, wearing a flowery and green cheongsam during the day, wearing gold bracelets and gold chains on her feet was very inconspicuous.
Ying Yin (1916-1942)
Over time, Yingyin's kind and bold nature has been fully revealed.
Yingyin regards Qin Yi as a little sister and gives warm help everywhere. For poor friends, Ying Yin is generous and generous, and as soon as she has money, she will take it out to solve problems for poor friends.
Yingyin was not very pretty, but her acting skills were quite superb, which was rare among actresses at that time. Being able to make films with Yingyin, Qin Yi saw it as a good opportunity to learn from Yingyin.
Surprisingly, shortly after the filming of "Bao Hometown", Ying Yin did not quit and quietly flew from Chongqing to Hong Kong, and then returned to Shanghai.
The director of the Chinese factory sent a letter to the Hong Kong and Shanghai newspapers to this end: "Ying Yin action is romantic, and has been expelled. For a time, Ying Yin became a peach-colored character, and the press tried to portray her as a love elopement.
Probably to wash the sewage that had been spilled on her body, Yingyin told people that she had been invited to Shanghai to make a movie. In the next two years, she did participate in the filming of "Sai Jinhua" and "Children of the World" and other films.
What is even more surprising is that on the afternoon of January 20, 1942, Yingyin committed suicide by taking poison in room 708 of the Shanghai International Hotel, leaving a "suicide note" saying: "I am sick, I have become a wasted person, I stay in the world, it is useless, so I need to rest all the time..."
Yingyin's suicide by taking poison is another suicide incident of movie stars since Ai Xia and Ruan Lingyu, causing a social sensation.
How can you commit suicide by being "sick in your body"? The cause of Ying yin's death became a mystery for a while.
However, most people believe that Ying Yin committed suicide for martyrdom.
When the news reached the rear, Qin Yi was quite sad and regretful, and he always missed Yingyin.
Many years later, the mystery of Ying Yin's suicide was explained.
It turned out that after filming "Protecting Hometown", Yingyin returned to Shanghai from Chongqing and had a special mission. She was sent to Shanghai by the Kuomintang intelligence agencies, and as a film actress, she entered and exited social places to assist relevant personnel in spying on the enemy and cracking down on Japanese and traitors.
In January 1942, the Japanese invaded the Shanghai Concession, and Yingyin, as a film star, could not escape safely in an emergency and was forced to choose to sacrifice her life for the anti-Japanese resistance, and died at the age of 26.
Knowing the truth about Yingyin's suicide, Qin Yi admired and missed this good big sister who used to live in the same room.
Chen Tianguo was fascinated by her
As for the male protagonist Chen Tianguo, he was originally an actor of Shanghai Xinhua Film Company and made some films.
Chen Tianguo was born in Shenyang in 1912 in Anhui.
After the September 18 Incident, he began to engage in theatrical activities. In 1933, he went into exile in Beiping. Later to Shanghai.
In 1935, he joined the Tianyi Film Company and starred in "Sea Burial" with Liu Liying and Tian Fang.
In 1936, Chen Tianguo joined the Xinhua Film Company. He has participated in the filming of "Little Orphan Girl", "Youth March", "Yellow Sea Thief", "Sable Cicada" and other films.
Chen Tianguo looks like a human talent, with a long and charming body shape, a well-defined face, quite a manly style, he has a wide range of plays, and is known for his hard school.
Chen Tianguo in "Youth March" directed by Shi Dongshan
In Chongqing at that time, Chen Tianguo was a first-class actor, and many people worshipped and pursued him.
According to the introduction, when Qin Yi knew Chen Tianguo, she heard that he was living with a woman, and there was another woman chasing him, so although she was in the same crew, she always tried to avoid Chen Tianguo.
Chen Tianguo, on the other hand, tried to find an opportunity to get close to Qin Yi.
Because he didn't understand movies, several films were filmed, and Qin Yi found that he had not grown at all.
She was like a puppet all day, and the director did whatever she wanted, mechanically performing moods and sorrows. For example, if the director makes her sad, she has to frown; if the director makes her afraid, she has to stare wide-eyed, and there is little room for personal play, far less energetic than acting in drama.
The literary and art circles are a place where things are wrong, and there are many people who have no drama to act and no drama to shoot, so it is inevitable that there will be many cold words behind their backs. "What's the use of not acting with just a pretty face?"
The discussion reached Qin Qia's ears, and she concluded that she was not the material for being an actor, and that going on stage to perform dramas or make movies was the wrong way, and she gradually lost her creative enthusiasm.
Later, when Qin Yi recalled this experience of initially practicing art, he wrote such a sentence: "The first time I became an actor, I ended up failing. ”
Immediately after, a sudden crazy love made Qin Yi involuntarily and had to temporarily bid farewell to the stage.
Spring came, the spring of 1939, the first spring after Qin Yi arrived in Chongqing. The weather is slowly getting warmer, and it's time to remove the winter clothes and change into spring clothes.
17-year-old Qin Yi took off a long and large cotton coat wrapped in a winter, a beautiful hair, making that youthful and energetic face more beautiful and moving.
In the same film crew of "Protecting Hometown", Chen Tianguo approached Qin Yi more conveniently than others, and he cared for Qin Yi like a big brother, helping Qin Yi rehearse the play together and correcting Qin Yi's pronunciation.
Just stepped into the gate of the Palace of Art, someone is willing to help herself artistically, Qin Yi has endless gratitude, she treats a brother and an artistic forerunner, respects and admires Chen Tianguo, but never thought of having a private affair with him.
Chen Tianguo played the violin in "Yingying Flying In the Human World"
Chen Tianguo was not satisfied with the fact that Qin Yi was just a general contact, he moved his true feelings.
Qin Yi was naïve and innocent, and he had no idea about the love between men and women, Chen Tianguo constantly looked for opportunities to take the initiative to attack, and he wanted to pour out his love to her in person.
That year, Qin Yi was 17 years old and Chen Tianguo was 27 years old.
This article is based on film publications such as "Beauty Across the Century", "Running Dragon Set", "Looking for My Grandfather: The Golden Flame of Chinese Film Emperor", "Popular Film", "Qingqing Film", "Lianhua Pictorial", "Electroacoustic", and Qin Yi's oral history interviews.