Author 丨 Half-Hearted
Recently, I was struck by this heartfelt performance in "Actors Please Take Place".
In just ten minutes, I actually had red eyes several times. It is a remake of "I Am a Passerby" directed by Er Dongsheng.
01
In fact, such a life exists everywhere in Hengdian, China.
Every morning in the Actors Guild, a large number of extras are gathered, waiting for the crew to choose people.
Many people have a hard time or even run out of food every day, but they still don't want to leave here.
Are they for a living? Or is it for dreams?
In 2013, after eight months of data collection, director Er Dongsheng filmed a documentary "I Am a Passerby" with the theme of extras in Hengdian.
Among the actors of passers-by, Kou Jun and Lin Chen came together because of the drama.
The clip at the beginning of the article is exactly the remake of their clip in passers-by.
In fact, when filming this scene, they were already in a relationship.
That's why the interpretation of the characters in the play is so realistic.
Because Lin Chen's plot in the play is exactly the same as the emotional life outside the play:
Lin Chen felt that as long as he could make money, whether he was an extra or not, he could do it.
But Kou Jun always wants to ascend to the sky one step at a time, from a mass actor to a first-line actor.
No one knows what day they will go in the future.
02
In this magical place of Hengdian, there are only two kinds of people.
Big stars and little people.
Hengdian Film City has about hundreds of thousands of extras, all of whom are small people.
But everyone here is not eating and waiting to die, walking dead.
Their clothes are barren, but there is light in their eyes.
So when Erdao asked, "What do you want to get if you insist here?" ”
Everyone's answer is different.
03
Shen Kai, his age is not small.
With a 6-year-old daughter, he still decided to give up his catering job and hide his wife and children from going out to chase his dreams.
Face all kinds of accusations and incomprehension in the family.
The pressure on his heart was enormous.
Er Dongsheng's "I Am a Passerby" selected him.
This was the first important opportunity in his life, and he desperately wanted to play the role of "minister".
Obviously so complicated lines, lying on the bed, I have memorized the rotten melon.
But when it was time to shoot, he was nervous and unable to speak, and he kept forgetting words.
Delaying the progress, Er Dongsheng held his anger.
Shen Kai could only apologize all the time.
In full view of everyone, a man did not dare to collapse.
I don't dare to cry like other actresses.
But in that instant, his despair took a step closer.
Asked why he was, middle-aged, still coming to Hengdian?
He confessed that he wanted to change the status quo of the family.
Give your wife and children a better life.
So, in the whole Hengdian, he took on any role.
Just to see the director more and let more people see themselves.
But when I heard director Er Dongsheng say that sentence in person: "You have disappointed me too much." ”
Shen Kai, who had endured for a long time, finally collapsed.
"All I can say is that I'm sorry for my daughter, and she won't recognize me as a dad in the next life."
04
In Hengdian, there are many horizontal drifts like Shen Kai.
Doing extras is basically 200 yuan a day, and sometimes I can't borrow a play.
Everyone wants to succeed, but it's not that easy.
Xu Xiaoqin, 25, is a rural girl from Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
She dropped out of school at the age of 17 and went out to work.
Coffee shop clerk, beauty salon consultant, restaurant waiter, almost no grassroots occupation she had not done.
Her parents didn't care about her since childhood, and they didn't care about her, so she could only grow up in her grandmother's parents.
Her parents had only one request for her: if she married, she could just give her more money.
So, she was on her own.
Xu Xiaoqin said to herself: "I will fight here until I am 30 years old, and if after five years, I still achieve nothing, I will leave." ”
Ask why she fought so hard?
She said that she only wanted to give her parents a better life.
Give them an early retirement.
As a rural girl from a poor background.
Xu Xiaoqin knows that if she returns to a small city in Wenzhou, she will not have a high education and no background.
At most, find an ordinary job, find an ordinary person to marry.
In this life, that's it.
She was really not reconciled.
05
In Hengdian, there are also extras dragging their families and mouths.
Xu Zhi and his husband, because they lost money in business, came to Hengdian by chance.
The two men with their daughters have been living in a broken van for many years.
The husband and wife, driving in the car during the day, took turns to play the extras, and when they saw that the crew had a box lunch that they could not eat, they brought it back to their families to eat.
With the due date of Xu Zhi's second child arrived.
She was anxious.
This unexpected arrival of the child has had to be born.
But the 500 yuan of the tire cutting line, she really couldn't get it.
Because the second child was born, they could not continue to live in the car.
The husband found a 260 yuan monthly rental house, and the family was ready to move in.
In order to earn more living expenses and between filming, they began to push carts to set up stalls.
They are all looking forward to one day being able to take on more plays and earn more money.
Can bring a better life to two children.
06
Director Er Dongsheng said that he had seen a rainy set, and there was a person crouching in the rain eating a box lunch.
He passed by and said to the man, "There's a chair over there, and you go and sit down."
But he only cared about wolfing, not caring about the rain, and did not hear anyone speaking.
At that moment, Er Dongsheng knew that this person had not eaten for at least a day.
And such a scene is already strange in Hengdian.
Many people see them and may find it incomprehensible.
Mediocre look, no rights, no background.
What confidence do they have? When exactly will I wake up?
Go to other places to do some work, it will not be so bitter, do you want to be an actor crazy?
But not everyone is content with mediocrity and voluntarily accepts their fate.
Not everyone is willing to wash dishes in a restaurant or find someone to marry and be a housewife for the rest of their lives.
We can't laugh at those who have dreams.
As Zhao Wei said:
There are so many people in China, but there is only one Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo.
But how do you know you're not next?
In the end, even if everyone can't become the next Wang Baoqiang, wait until the day they leave Hengdian.
They would all laugh and say, "I've been here, but I've never regretted it."
That's enough.
And the same is true of us in life.
In the different "Hengdian" that we are struggling with, I hope that you can also become the person who uses all your strength, tries to move forward, and does not recognize your fate.
Napoleon Hill said he spends half an hour a day thinking about his ideal future.
What about you?