In the 1990s, I watched the Taiwan version of the TV series "Drama About Cixi", and others in the main roles were good to say, and when Su Shun, played by Ma Jingtao, came out, the author immediately abandoned the drama, and at that time, I felt that there was some gap between this Su Shun and the previous Hong Kong version of Su Shun, and it was even more incomparable with the Su Shun in the movie "Burning Yuanmingyuan".
However, ma Jingtao is indeed a bit harsh, after all, the mainland version of SuShun is played by a famous villain performance artist, Xiang Kun.
This article is about this veteran artist who is good at portraying villains.
1. Shandong people born in Hebei
Xiang Kun, born in 1915 in Shandong Dezhou OR Hebei Cangzhou, his hometown was still Shandong Dezhou when he was born, and now it is Wuqiao in Cangzhou, Hebei, so he is a Shandong native born in Hebei, or vice versa.
Xiang Kun has three children, of which the eldest and third are surnamed Wang, and Xiang Kun's wife is the movie star Ruan Fei, Er, so why is the child's surname Wang?
Quite simply, because Xiang Kun's original name was Wang Xiangkun, one of the reasons for changing his name was that he had been in prison when he was 20 years old, and of course, he was arrested because he ran to the newspaper at a young age to publish articles in the newspaper calling for resistance against Japan and attacking the evils of the authorities.
Wang Xiangkun, a classmate who originally studied at shandong First Normal School, was rescued and released from prison and renamed Xiang Kun, and then left his hometown to be admitted to the Nanjing Drama College, and since then, China has lost one less literati or teacher and one more actor.
Second, the appearance of a movie star
Xiang Kun's appearance can be said to be a talent, he was quite valued by his teacher Cao Yu when he was studying in Nanjing, and soon got the opportunity to star in a drama, he did not live up to Cao Yu's expectations, not only appeared on the drama stage, but also began his film career in Chongqing in 1940.
During his time in Chongqing, drama was also the main stage for Xiang Kun, who was paid attention to by the media for his successful role as the Guangxu Emperor in the drama, and even praised him as the "Emperor of Drama".
After liberation, Xiang Kun joined the Shanghai Film Studio and began his career as a villain, he successively played the role of a villain officer in "Shangrao Concentration Camp" and "Southern Expedition and Northern War", especially zhang Junchang, who played in "Southern Expedition and Northern War", which left a very deep impression on the audience.
In 1957, Xiang Kun was transferred to the Shandong Film Studio after his reputation was damaged during the movement, where he could only work as a drama manager and commentator, but Xiang Kun did not complain at all, and won the trust of comrades with his excellent work, in 1961 he began to serve as the director of the drama department of Shandong Art College, and the school also did a lot of work to restore his reputation.
In 1964, Xiang Kun re-transferred to the Beijing Film Studio, and continued to play his best villain officer role in the films "After the Armistice" and "Eternal Life in the Fire" and succeeded.
In the 1980s, Xiang Kun took over the star-studded classic movie "Burning Yuanmingyuan", in which he continued to play the villain role of Sushun (of course, a relative villain), as mentioned at the beginning of this article, this version of Sushun, whether it is temperament or acting, is almost impossible to copy.
Third, use "dog" to define the role
Xiang Kun is not one of the famous five villains (Chen Qiang, Liu Jiang, Fang Hua, Shu Shu and Ge Cunzhuang), which may be related to the fact that the number of villain roles he has played is not so much, and it is also related to the villain he plays that is somewhat different from the villain, he will always show some other aspects of the role, so that the audience can see a more three-dimensional role.
One of the most famous techniques for Xiang Kun to portray the villain character is to use "dog" to define different character types.
For example, in the "Southern Expedition and Northern War", the proud and complacent Zhang Junchang, Xiang Kun defined him as a "big wolf dog", so when shooting, he portrayed Zhang Junchang's tall and unsmiling body, and indeed had a sense of "black back".
In the movie "After the Armistice", Xiang Kun played the Kuomintang negotiator Li Guoqing, this role has several characteristics, he is arrogant to his opponents, but he welcomes the American representatives, and he also pays great attention to personal appearance.
Therefore, Xiang Kun defined the role of Li Guoqing as a "pug", with a delicate appearance, and could bluff to outsiders, but would only wag his tail and beg for pity on his master.
The author believes that xiangkun's most classic role is not Xu Pengfei of "Eternal Life in the Fire", the role of this secret agent leader actually belongs to the kind of looking good acting (big deal is sinister and cunning face), in fact, it is difficult to perform the features, after all, it is a villain and it is also a hateful villain, the face is shallow, too vivid and easy to cause disgust.
When considering how to portray the role of Xu Pengfei, Xiang Kun noticed a stray dog on the street, this dog is not large, but it is very fierce when competing with other stray dogs for food, and its fierceness is mainly reflected in the stalking, even if the fight is lost, it must continue to find ways to entangle. Xiang Kun's image of this dog is defined as: a dog that has lost its family, panics all day, but it is very difficult, and it is a complete leper dog.
Therefore, Xiang Kun transplanted the image of this "leper dog" to Xu Pengfei, highlighting his embarrassing appearance of being afraid all the time, being strong inside and outside, and having no way to fight the underground party.
I have to say that Xiang Kun's performance experience is indeed very effective, and the villain role he has created is always very personal, so that decades later, even a powerful actor like Chen Baoguo can't escape Xiang Kun's "shadow" in performance.
The author is very interested to know, if Xiang Kun also uses "dog" to define Sushun, what kind of dog will it be?
Fourth, it's not just the villains
The reason why Xiang Kun was not selected as one of the five villains may also be that he played fewer villain roles in the late stages of his acting career, on the contrary, he even played the underground party in the movie "General Sabre", in addition, as mentioned above, Sushun is not a villain in a certain sense.
It is worth mentioning that Xiang Kun has a young and handsome co-actor in the movies "The Vibrato of Life" and "General Sabre" and other films, this actor was originally named Wang Zhizhi, that is, the second son of Xiang Kun and Ruan Fei, probably for the convenience of his acting career, Wang Zhizhi is still called Xiang Zhizhi more often.
The handsome and dashing Xiang Zhi has a fatherly style in performance, not only has a brilliant appearance, but also has quite good acting skills, and is also very experienced in shaping negative roles.
It's just a pity that Xiang Zhizhi didn't achieve greater achievements in movies like his father. In 1995, Xiang Kun, who is not old in the sword, wrote and directed a 30-episode TV series "Oriental Awakening Lion", but when he was just halfway through the filming, there was a problem with funds, and Xiang Zhizhi ran around to find investment and sponsorship in order to fulfill his father's wish, and unfortunately suffered a car accident and injured both eyes. This incident has also become a double regret for Xiang Kun's family and career.
In 2009, Xiang Kun died of illness at the age of 94. In 2015, his former unit, the Shandong Academy of Arts, held a centenary commemoration for him.
Finally, let's talk about Anecdote about Xiang Kun, he played three different Kuomintang officers in "Southern Expedition to the North", "After the Armistice" and "Eternal Life in the Fire", and the shooting time span reached more than ten years, but I don't know if you noticed that in these three movies, Xiang Kun actually wore the same military uniform.