"You carry the burden, I lead the horse... Smooth out the bumps, into the avenue..." Whenever this song follows the "Bells... clang...... Bells..." The music sounded, and countless children began to sit in front of the TV set again, waiting to watch the series "Journey to the West".
Over the past three decades, Journey to the West has been replayed more than 4,000 times and has become a childhood memory for generations.
The public is familiar with the actors who play roles such as monkey king, Tang monk, and eight precepts, but little is known about the soul of the play, director Yang Jie.
Journey to the West
On April 15, 2017, Yang Jie died of illness, and on the 21st, a memorial service was held in Babaoshan, Beijing, and many people held flowers in their hands and pulled up banners to pay tribute to Elder Yang.
Xu Shaohua, Ma Dehua, Wang Bozhao and other actors have come to bid farewell. Xu Shaohua's expression was solemn, and Ma Dehuai and Wang Bozhao were even more grief-stricken and could not cry.
Why can Yang Jie get everyone's respect? How did she finish "Journey to the West"? Why did she claim not to read Journey to the West for ten years?
Yang Jie
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > Yang Jie and Journey to the West</h1>
On April 7, 1929, Yang Jieyu was born in Macheng, Hubei Province. His father was a revolutionary martyr, and his mother was also born in Shuxiang mendi. Although Yang Jie was born in a turbulent era, she received a good education from an early age.
In 1945, Yang Jie was sent to North China Union University for further study and became an actor in the literary troupe. Later, because of his clear speech and crisp and loud voice, he stayed in Qingdao Radio station as an announcer.
In 1954, in order to facilitate the care of her mother, 25-year-old Yang Jie was transferred to Beijing and came to work at the Central People's Radio.
On Labor Day in 1958, CCTV was established, and Yang Jie had the honor of becoming the first generation of CCTV people. Yang Jie has loved movies since she was a child, especially in the content of choreography and directing.
Yang Jie (left)
She actively learned new knowledge, and since 1961, she has been single-handed, directing more than 100 opera programs such as "Xiangluopa".
In the early 1980s, China's television industry was just starting out, and there was a serious lack of excellent works filmed and produced by itself, and most of the TV programs broadcast were in Europe, America, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
CCTV decided to start with China's traditional masterpieces and shoot a number of influential TV series, and at that time it was determined that the first repertoire to be launched was "Journey to the West" and "Dream of the Red Chamber". This task was given to Yang Jie's Literary and Art Department.
Because I have had previous experience in directing traditional culture programs, and I just co-directed the first Spring Festival Gala of CCTV. As a result, the task of filming "Journey to the West" fell on the head of 52-year-old Yang Jie.
At that time, "Journey to the West" had already been filmed abroad, but these versions changed the original to a different face, and the Japanese version of Tang Monk was played by a woman, and the film actually fell in love with a monster.
The European version of Journey to the West was made into an adventure travelogue.
Yang Jie decided to make a classic TV series that is as faithful as possible to the original work and can reflect the real scenes of China's great rivers and mountains.
Stills from Journey to the West
In 1982, Yang Jie received 3 million yuan in funding and officially began the filming of "Journey to the West".
She led the crew and it took six years to finally shoot the 25-episode TV series. "Journey to the West" won the popular TELEVISION "Golden Eagle Award" and the TV series "Feitian Award", and has dominated the screen for decades since then.
Yang Jie also entered the field of vision and ranked first in the "Top Ten National Film and Television Directors in the New Era". Later, Yang Jie successively directed TV series such as "Jigong Living Buddha" and "Sima Qian", although it was not as sensational as "Journey to the West", but it was also widely acclaimed.
In 2000, Yang Jie filmed "Journey to the West Sequel", which drew a satisfactory end to this classical masterpiece.
Yang Jie's artistic achievements are obvious to all, ranking as the "Most Influential Director" of Chinese TV dramas, and won the "Outstanding Contribution Award" of the first Chinese TV drama directors.
However, her emotional path is full of twists and turns. Her first marriage lasted only ten years, and the two broke up. Yang Jie's second husband, Wang Chongqiu, is 14 years younger than her, and Wang Chongqiu is also a videographer for Journey to the West.
In 1966, Yang Jie was alone with three children, and the situation was very difficult. At this time, Wang Chongqiu walked into her life. Although the sibling love affair was opposed by almost everyone around them, the two broke through the world's prejudices and married in 1969.
Yang Jie, the first generation of directors and the first female producers of China's television, broke the previous tradition of major works produced by male unification. Yang Jie's life, as she wrote in her autobiography, has gone through hardships and twists and turns, and finally her merits have been completed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="102" > the front and backstage of "Journey to the West" shooting</h1>
In "Journey to the West", in order to obtain the True Scriptures, the Tang monks and disciples slept in the wind and went through the "nine-nine-eighty-one difficulties".
In order to shoot this classic masterpiece, Yang Jie and the film crew have also experienced many difficult problems such as casting, scene selection, and funds. The sour, sweet and bitter spicy in it makes people sigh endlessly.
Yang Jie is "eclectic" in casting, from film school students, drama actors to passers-by on the street, as long as they conform to the character image of the script, they are all within her line of sight. She is an advocate of "auditions". This approach gathers talent in a very short period of time, but also increases the difficulty of management.
Yang Jie led this patchwork team, and everyone worked together to complete the TV series under the condition that funding and technology were very scarce.
The role of Tang Monk, the leader of the Western Heavenly Scriptures in "Journey to the West", made Yang Jie think hard, and finally Wang Yue, Xu Shaohua and Chi Chongrui relayed the filming.
Stills of Tang monks
The first Tang monk, Wang Yue, was a student at the Film Academy at the time. He only acted for three episodes before he hurried out of the crew to make a movie. Wang Yue's episode "Three Dozen White Bone Essences" well explains the characteristics of Tang Monk's compassion, pedantry, and cowardice. He is now a professor in the Directing Department of the China Academy of Drama.
Xu Shaohua, who took over, stayed in the crew for two and a half years, because he was slightly thin, he gained nearly 10 kilograms before he could prop up the set of robes. Later, he left because he was admitted to college and only shot six episodes. Xu Shaohua is handsome and beautiful, very Buddha-like. The temperament and appearance are very much in line with the style of the holy monk in the original work, and the popularity is very high.
Some of his later works were far less than the height of Journey to the West. Xu Shaohua is now the vice president of the Shandong Provincial Drama Theatre, and his figure has been seriously blessed, and he no longer has the image of the male god he once was.
The tang monk actor who finally got the True Scripture was Chi Chongrui, who was elegant, Sven, and had a very good temperament.
Xu Shaohua's version of Tang Monk
Chi Chongrui later married Chen Lihua, a super-rich woman who was ten years older than him, and has since retired to the jianghu, but his legend has always been in the newspaper, which makes people talk about it.
The most brilliant actor in "Journey to the West" is Sun Wukong's actor, a six-year-old child, Zhang Jinlai.
Yang Jie originally wanted to find her brother Xiao Liutong to play Sun Wukong, but unfortunately his brother died at that time. His father, a six-year-old child, recommended a six-year-old child to the crew. At that time, the 24-year-old six-year-old child could not take care of himself, and even the bath water had to be prepared by his father, and Yang Jie was very worried.
The Sun Wukong in the play is a fire-eyed golden eye, but the six-year-old child in life is a highly myopic of six hundred degrees. Therefore, the actors who played against him were not less beaten by the golden hoop stick.
Stills of Monkey King
The goku gene and his own dedication to the six-year-old child's family have made the Sun Wukong he portrayed a great success. The six-year-old child also became famous in one fell swoop, and presented himself as the full-time actor of Sun Wukong.
In addition to Sun Wukong, the most popular character in Journey to the West is the Eight Commandments of Pigs. His actor, Ma Dehua, was born in Beijing in 1945 and grew up loving martial arts and Peking Opera. When Yang Jie chose the important role of the Eight Commandments of the Pig, she was impressed by his two specialties.
Ma Dehua is also one of the hardest actors in the "Journey to the West" film, he wears a bulky latex makeup, and when a scene is filmed, he covers up a prickly prickly.
Ma Dehua vividly explained the characteristics of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, which are delicious and lazy, stupid and lustful. The image of the Eight Precepts of the Pig he created has not been surpassed by anyone so far.
Stills of the Eight Commandments of the Pig
In the eyes of ordinary people, the highest paid actor in the crew of "Journey to the West" should be the actor of the Tang monks and apprentices. Not really. Wang Bozhao, the actor of "White Dragon Horse", is paid more than the sum of the four of them. After graduating from the Shanghai Theater Academy, Wang Bozhao was assigned to work at the Beijing Film Studio.
Yang Jie had seen the movie that Wang Bozhao had starred in before and decided to invite him to play the role of "White Dragon Horse". Wang Bozhao was in his early twenties and unwilling to take on supporting roles, so he offered a sky-high salary of 1,000 yuan. Unexpectedly, Yang Jie, who was thirsty for talents, agreed. At that time, the highest paid six-year-old child performed an episode of less than eighty yuan.
Wang Bozhao may not have thought that the small supporting role he played in the lion's big mouth would become the peak of his acting career.
In the process of filming "Journey to the West", Yang Jie faced the biggest difficulty was the problem of funds. In order to find the right scene, Yang Jie almost fell off the cliff.
White Dragon Horse Stills
She and the crew slept in the open, traveled to more than 20 provinces, and they tried to save every penny under difficult conditions.
When filming in Guangzhou, the local 6 bowls of dumplings cost more than two pieces, and the standard of each meal of the crew was only 5 dimes, and Yang Jie had to pay for everyone to eat.
The rope of hanging Weiya was getting thinner and thinner, but there was no money to replace it, and once Yan Huaili fell down and directly stunned the cameraman Wang Chongqiu.
In order to save labor costs, the actors and staff in "Journey to the West" are all in several positions, such as Yan Huaili, the actor of the sand monk, who plays nine roles such as the Dragon King of the West Sea and the Taishang Laojun.
Because the crew was only given a camera in the station, it was impossible to shoot from multiple angles at the same time, and the shooting progress was very slow, which was one of the reasons why "Journey to the West" was filmed for six years.
When 15 episodes were filmed, CCTV refused to invest any more funds, and "Journey to the West" faced a premature death.
The filming scene of "Journey to the West"
Yang Jie was anxious and tried her best to fight. In the end, the superiors agreed to go to the sponsorship herself.
Under the guidance of Li Hongchang, deputy director of production, China Railway Eleventh Bureau sponsored 3 million yuan. Because of the shortage of funds, Yang Jie had to reduce the original 30 episodes of the script to 25 episodes. This is the 86th edition of Journey to the West that we see on TV. It is also a pity to discount the script because of financial reasons.
Yang Jie led the "Journey to the West" crew to overcome all kinds of difficulties that were no less than those of the Tang monks, and finally presented this classic masterpiece to the public.
Although the scenes and special effects inside are far less beautiful than they are now, they have made up for some shortcomings with performance and responsibility as much as possible.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="109" > Yang Jie's later life</h1>
After retiring, Yang Jie and her husband lived in an ordinary residential building on the outskirts of the capital, except for their families, and only interacted with some good friends. If it were not for the occasional invitation to participate in some TV talk shows, Yang Jie almost withdrew from the public's sight. Her later years lived quietly and harmoniously.
After retiring, Yang Jie spent a lot of time practicing calligraphy, and the words she wrote were atmospheric, calm, and quite a demeanor.
Producing TV features was another great pleasure for Yang Jie in her later years.
She and her husband edited and sorted out the previous video materials and photos taken on the trip, added subtitles, accompanied by commentary and music, and the two were happy to be in it.
After 2004, Yang Jie began to summarize her life and write a memoir.
In 2013, Yang Jie published her memoir "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is", and the following year, her autobiography "My Ninety-Nine Eighty-One Difficulties" came out, making a memory and summary of the filming process of "Journey to the West" and her own life.
In the book, she described in detail the hardships of the filming process, saying that if she could choose at that time, she would definitely choose to shoot "Dream of the Red Chamber".
Yang Jie is not in good health, is plagued by diseases, and has problems with her heart and lungs. She was in a coma for several days from a viral infection. Under the careful care of her husband, Yang Jie's health in her later years has improved. Usually, the housework at home and the socializing outside are taken care of by the husband in Zhang Luo.
The two of them frothed each other, supported each other, and lived happily in their later years.
On April 15, 2017, Yang Jie died of a heart attack at the Armed Police General Hospital at the age of 88.
On the 21st, a memorial service was held in Babaoshan, Beijing. People from all walks of life and friends in the circle came to mourn. Everyone expressed their respect for director Yang Jie and gave her a high evaluation.
a memorial service
Her husband, Wang Chongqiu, was so sad that he wrote a touching long letter to remember his wife Yang Jie. Chi Chongrui had been visiting Yang Jie before her death, saying that there was no pain when she died, which was her accumulated virtue.
Ma Dehua choked up and said: "Without Yang Dao, there would be no Journey to the West, and there would be no Ma Dehua today, and we deeply miss her." ”
Wang Bozhao was even more sad at the scene and cried uncontrollably. Xu Shaohua, played by "Tang Monk", Zhao Xinpei, who played the role of "Red Child", and Zhu Lin, the "King of the Daughter Country", also came to mourn successively, with solemn expressions and sad looks.
Zhang Jizhong, the director who remade "Journey to the West" in 2011, used "tenacity" at the memorial service to evaluate Yang Jie, who believes that Yang Jie is a mountain of the times.
Chi Zhongrui
The six-year-old child and his wife also appeared at the memorial service that day. He told reporters that Director Yang Jie is not only the greatest female director in China, but also his artistic mentor.
However, the six-year-old child then changed his tone and sold his upcoming movie "Journey to the West" to reporters, causing an uproar and criticism.
Yang Jie did not watch "Journey to the West" for more than ten years before her death, and as long as she saw it, she turned off the TV.
It is said that when Yang Jie was nervously preparing for the sequel, the six-year-old child privately took several main creative staff to the cave to find gold, which made Yang Jie very angry. Later, several people reviewed and admitted their mistakes, and the matter came to an end.
Yang Jie (middle)
Unexpectedly, after the filming was completed, the Singapore side invited the crew to visit and exchange, and the six-year-old child directly found the leader of the station and excluded Yang Jie from the list of visits.
This made the fierce Yang Jie suffer greatly, so she has always refused to forgive the six-year-old child.
Six-year-old children
Today, the actors of that year have aged, and Yang Jie, Yan Huaili and others have returned to the west.
But the classics they left behind have always accompanied us. Under extremely difficult conditions, director Yang Jie persevered and completed the classic masterpiece "Journey to the West", which is a feat.
She puts art in the first place, is determined to inherit traditional Chinese culture, and provides spiritual food for everyone. Her dedication and sense of responsibility to the cause deserve our respect and learning. As an ordinary person said: "'Journey to the West' has brought us infinite joy, and director Yang Jie will always live in the hearts of the audience." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="112" > reference:</h1>
[1] Yang Jie, "Yang Jie's Self-Description: My Ninety-Nine Eighty-One Difficulties", Chinese Min University Press, April 2014;
[2] Yang Jie, "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is: My 30-Year Journey to the West", Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, January 2013;
[3], "Farewell to Director Yang Jie on the 21st, 4 masters and apprentices to send the "last journey"", NetEase, April 19, 2017.