CCTV's 1986 TV series "Journey to the West" is a classic drama that is recognized by the Chinese people as insurmountable.
The filming time of the drama was as long as 6 years, although there were only 25 episodes, but during the filming period, it experienced ups and downs, and the actors of the protagonist Tang Monk alone changed three actors.
Wang Yue, the original tang monk actor selected by the crew, left the crew after participating in 4 episodes, and director Yang Jie chose Xu Shaohua to take over to continue filming.
Xu Shaohua was praised by Hong Kong newspapers as "China's first little student", and was favored by Yang Jie for starring in the movie "Fine Change", becoming the second Tang monk to play.
Pi Ge also introduced the movie "Fine Change" in the previous article, and the role of Yuan Feng played by Xu Shaohua in the film is a silly boy with a cute attitude. Although he had just debuted at that time, Xu Shaohua used his many years of drama experience to interpret the characteristics of the role very well.
Therefore, director Yang Jie only took a fancy to him at a glance and thought that he was a more suitable candidate than Wang Yue. Unfortunately, Xu Shaohua did not persist to the end in the end, but quit the crew in the middle of the way, and was replaced by Chi Chongrui and finally completed the entire series.
Although Chi Chongrui is a "halfway out of the house", he has been conscientiously persevering to the end, so he has become the "Tang monk" with the best audience popularity. The public's impression of him is that he is kind and kind-eyed, a bodhisattva heart, and it is difficult to imagine that such an actor, before participating in "Journey to the West", also played a warrior talent who "can draw a bow like a full moon" and "has a good hand written by a full belly".
Netizens said that Xu Shaohua's version of Zhang Liao (in the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms") has seen a lot, and the martial general played by Chi Chongrui has really never seen it! Not to mention, there is really such a movie, the title is called "Pen in love".
Moreover, "Little White Dragon" Wang Bozhao is his brother-in-law in the film; "Elder Jinchi" Cheng Zhi is his elder brother-in-law.
As the name suggests, "Pen in Love" is a film with the theme of calligraphy art, telling a love story, but using calligraphy as a guide, calligraphy brings out the philosophy of life and presents the subtle beauty of ancient Chinese culture.
The film is produced by Shanghai Film Studio, written by Jiang Xun and directed by Yan Bili, and its casting, framing, and costumes are extremely elaborate, and it is a rare domestic film masterpiece.
01、
The story takes place during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Jiangnan talent Zhao Xuzhi (played by Wang Bozhao), intelligent, talented, and calligraphy, he has a high self-esteem, and writes a "Jiangnan Peerless" wine banner for the hotelier, flaunting himself as "Jiangnan Peerless".
Qi Wenjuan (played by Zhao Jing), the eldest daughter of Taiwei Qi Shen (played by Cheng Zhi), passed by this place and saw the words on the wine flag and also developed a love for Zhao Xuzhi.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Qi Taiwei invited all the talents of the city to the palace to watch the lights and admire the moon, and chose a wife for Wen Juan.
That night, the talents all arrived at the Taiwei Mansion, and only Zhao Xuzhi did not admire the magnates and avoided seeing them.
Seeing Zhao Xuzhi's absence, Qi Taiwei turned to the "think tank" Xu Anmin (played by Ding Jiayuan), who lured Zhao Xuzhi with the true handwriting of Zhong Xuan in the Tai Wei Mansion.
When Zhao Xuzhi heard this, he immediately came to the Taiwei Mansion, and he saw that there was the authentic handwriting of Zhong Xuan in the hall, and in order to obtain the most precious treasure, no one was around to observe it; while using his finger dipped in wine as a pen, he copied and studied on the ground.
This scene was seen by Wen Juan, who admired him even more, and Qi Taiwei was also very appreciative, so he chose Zhao Xuzhi as the eldest son-in-law.
Who knew that Zhao Xuzhi had the arrogance of a reader and was unwilling to cling to the magnates, which made Qi Taiwei very unhappy. Fortunately, Xu Anmin offered a plan, first on the grounds of the calligraphy collection in Qi Fuzhong, he left Zhao Xuzhi in fuzhong to study calligraphy, and then secretly prepared the engagement ceremony, hoping to force Zhao Xuzhi to obey.
Near the day of the engagement, Zhao Xuzhi secretly escaped after learning about it, making it difficult for Qi Taiwei to ride a tiger.
In the face of the guests who came to congratulate the palace, Qi Taiwei also had no choice but to do anything, but Xu Anmin had a clever move and proposed that Zhao Xuzhi's brother Zhao Haozhi (played by Yao Peide) be engaged to Qi Xiaojuan (played by Zhu Biyun), the third daughter of Qi Taiwei, which resolved the embarrassing situation in front of him.
Zhao Xuzhi was a person who was kind and charitable, and when he saw that the fan in the hands of Grandma Lu, who sold fans, could not be sold, he wrote an inscription on the fan, which opened the sales channel of the fan.
Wen Juan passed by, also bought a handful, and commented on the words on it, pointing out the shortcomings of the font, which surprised Zhao Xuzhi and also developed a love for Wen Juan.
When he learned that Wen Juan was the daughter of Qi Taiwei, who had previously wanted to recruit herself as a son-in-law, Zhao Xuzhi couldn't help but sit on the spot, regretting it.
That night, Zhao Xuzhi secretly came from the back door to the Qi Mansion to ask Wen Juan for her guilt, Wen Juan was overjoyed in her heart, but on the surface she still pretended to be unreasonable, and she did not turn her head back to ask the maid to pass the word, letting Zhao Xuzhi go to ask Lady Yu (played by Zhu Manfang), who was teaching in the city.
It turned out that Lady Yu was the teacher of Zhao Xuzhi and Qi Wenjuan, that is to say, Zhao Xuzhi and Qi Wenjuan were brothers and sisters of the same disciple, and they were also the best students under Lady Yu's teaching. But Zhao Xuzhi graduated earlier than Qi Wenjuan, so the two did not know each other before.
Qi Wenjuan had already placed a brush of her promise letter in Lady Yu's place, and after Zhao Xuzhi got the brush, he took it to Qi Taiwei's mansion to propose marriage.
Unexpectedly, the protector general Heng Shu (played by Chi Chongrui), the son of Princess Nanling Chang, also came to the Qi mansion to propose marriage, and Qi Taiwei faced a dilemma, and at the suggestion of Xu Anmin, let the two test calligraphy in the hall, and then Wen Juan made a choice.
Although Hengshu was a military general, his calligraphy also had unique features, and Wen Juan had difficulty making a choice for a while, so she had to agree with the two to choose again in the spring. Zhao Xuzhi was accompanied by Xu Anmin downstream to lijiangnan to learn the calligraphy of the famous artists of the jianghu in order to make progress.
When he learned that Wen Juan had made an agreement with him so that he could learn with an open mind and make progress in calligraphy, he knew that Wen Juan was a painstaking heart.
So Zhao Xuzhi traveled for three years, traversed the rivers and mountains of the motherland, and then found Lady Yu's sister Yu Da Niang (played by Li Rongrong) through the guidance of Lady Yu, and realized from Yu Da Niang's sword method that calligraphy and sword law are derived from the famous mountains and rivers, if you want to learn good characters, kung fu is outside the words. Zhao Xuzhi finally had an epiphany and created a set of cursive characters for dragon flying phoenix dance.
On the appointed day, Zhao Xuzhi and Huan Shu came to Qi Mansion again to test calligraphy, and this time Zhao Xuzhi's set of self-created calligraphy shocked the four seats, making the game completely lose suspense.
At this time, Huan Shu's mother, Chang Chang (played by Sun Jinglu), suddenly arrived, and she was bent on protecting her son and using force to force the marriage.
The judges present were unwilling to succumb to the obscenity of the eldest princess, or insisted that Zhao Xuzhi's calligraphy was better than Huan Shu's, and Huan Shu was not willing to marry Wen Juan, who had already exchanged swords with Wen Juan's second sister Yu Juan (played by Zhang Wei). In the end, it was Xu Anmin who offered a plan for the eldest princess, so that Huan Shu and Yu Juan would become husband and wife.
Zhao Xuzhi and Qi Wenjuan went through ups and downs and finally came together. And Huan Shu and Qi Yujuan, Zhao Haozhi and Qi Xiaojuan also matched a pair.
At the end of the movie, Zhao Xuzhi and Wen Juan came to the liquor store in the bamboo forest, and Zhao Xuzhi took down the previously pretentious "Jiangnan Peerless" wine banner, and the two also looked at each other and laughed.
02、
Chi Chongrui graduated from the Shanghai Theater Academy, he is a bit of a late bloomer, and he was 30 years old when he starred in this film. But he is 180cm tall, tall and mighty, with a heroic spirit between his eyebrows, and his image temperament is very good.
Although the protector general Hengshu played by him is a supporting role in the film, he is a unique role that competes with Zhao Xu's form of literature and martial arts, so the film also designs many scenes for him alone.
For most of the film, Hengshu appears as the image of Zhao Xu's love enemy. However, although Hengshu was a military general, he was gentle, talented, and charming, and he had a calm and self-assured heroism between conversations, which Zhao Xuzhi did not have.
And Qi Wenjuan likes Zhao Xuzhi, who has talent and learning to concentrate, and no matter how good Hengshu is, she can't look at it, but the second sister Yujuan has a special love for him.
Under Xu Anmin's design, Yu Juan, who dressed as a man, assumed the pseudonym Jia Sizhen (consonant "false as true"), and HengShu would hunt in Taishan.
The plot of the two exchanging swords and forming a righteousness after the contest is obviously borrowed from the plot of zhan zhao and Ding Yuehua's marriage to the competition in the classical masterpiece "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", and exchanging the giant que sword for the sword of Zhan Lu in Ding Yuehua's hand.
Hengshu's mighty shape of bending the bow and shooting geese is a rare image of a young general in Chi Chongrui's acting career.
Later, after "Journey to the West", Chi Chongrui also played the "master of crossing the sea" Jian Zhen in the TV series "Jian Zhen Dongdu", and he himself was also devoted to the Buddha, and he no longer had the kind of heroism of this period.
Chi Chongrui's works are not many, and since he married Chen Lihua, a wealthy Chinese businesswoman who is 11 years older than him, in 1990, he has been in a semi-retired state, not worrying about food and clothing, and he is also happy to get away with it.
Maybe Chi Chongrui is the temperament actor who was delayed by the "Tang Monk", if it were not for the "Tang Monk", perhaps his play path would be broader.
On the contrary, "Little White Dragon" Wang Bozhao has been developing well in the show business circle, participating in nearly 100 film and television works, and has been struggling since his youth.
We all know that although the little white dragon played by Wang Bozhao in "Journey to the West" is also a member of the sutra team, he usually appears in the form of a horse, and Wang Bozhao himself only participated in 2 episodes.
However, Wang Bozhao is the absolute protagonist in this film, and he has just graduated from the acting department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, and he is full of spirit, and he interprets Zhao Xuzhi's unruly, wild and unruly, kind, frank and straightforward personality very well, making people feel that he is Zhao Xuzhi and Zhao Xuzhi is him.
Wang Bozhao also developed a strong interest in calligraphy because of the film, and has been practicing hard since then, and has been practicing well for more than 30 years. It is a point of hard work, a point of harvest, so diligent Wang Bozhao, can always maintain the state, is still active in the film and television circle, shaping a classic role, in the "Journey to the West" crew, is undoubtedly a more successful one.
There is also an actor in "Journey to the West", who plays Cheng Zhi, the elder of Jinchi, the lord of the Guanyin Temple, in episode 6 of "Disaster Guanyin Temple", and plays the taiwei Qi Shen in the film.
Compared with the greedy and funny image of Elder Jinchi, the Qi Taiwei in the film is much more solemn and serious, and Pi Ge did not check the cast list, and he really did not dare to confirm that it was him.
It is said that in order to show the style of the character, Cheng Zhi borrowed the skills of Peking Opera performance and designed the behavior of Qi Shen himself.
Cheng Zhi borrowed the common character looks in opera performances, which greatly enhanced the comedic color of Qi Taiwei, and such an excellent actor who is willing to work hard for the role is worth learning from each of us.
The elderly Cheng died of myocardial infarction as early as February 14, 1995, at the age of 69. His voice and smile have always been preserved in the film and television works he has participated in, so that we can see the style of Cheng Lao through these works.
03、
The film is adapted from the story "Bamboo Forest Society" created by Jiang Xun, and the character of the calligrapher Zhao Xuzhi is a combination of those famous calligraphers in ancient times, and his name is taken from the names of the three calligraphers Zhao Mengfu, Zhang Xu and Wang Xizhi.
The scene of Zhao Xu's practice of writing also draws on the fame story of the three calligraphers.
When filming, director Yan Bili thought of Wang Shigu's "Wind and Rain Returning to the Boat", and she hoped that the film could present the simple and elegant, subtle and concise artistic effect in the painting.
She strives to restore the original appearance of history from the subtleties and show the unique charm of the ancient literati, so we have seen such a perfect work from story to picture.
In Pigo's view, the "beauty" presented in the film has the following aspects, which Pigo calls the "four beauty".
The historical background of the film is the Eastern Jin Dynasty, whose architecture is in the Style of Han and Wei, and Fuhua Road also has the characteristics of the rich and simple Wei and Jin Dynasties. Its location is in the East Lake of Shaoxing, which has not been developed in the 1980s, and the beauty of the landscape also adds a lot to the film, which is the beauty of the costume road and the scene.
Director Yan Bili in the casting, requiring the actor's posture, image and temperament to be close to the image of the role, Wang Bozhao, Chi Chongrui, Zhang Wei and Yao Peide are just graduated newcomers, but because the image meets the requirements were selected. The actors are also very hardworking, Wang Bozhao and Zhao Jing are diligent in practicing calligraphy for the role, and Zhao Jing has also learned the guqin skills.
It is thanks to the efforts of these young actors that this film was made. In the process of watching the film, Pigo more than once praised the high appearance and elegance of the protagonists, which are the beauty of the character temperament presented in the movie.
Although the film is based on the love of Zhao Xuzhi and Qi Wenjuan as the main line, the main theme of the film is not love, but the traditional Chinese cultural skills of calligraphy as the carrier, using Zhao Xuzhi's growth story to interpret the philosophy of life such as "full of losses, humble benefits" and "walking thousands of miles, breaking ten thousand books", which is the beauty of the theme shown in the film.
Although Zhao Xuzhi was clothed, he did not admire the magnates, did not seek fame and fortune, and defended himself with virtue; although Qi Shen was a lieutenant, he was able to honor the corporal, and when recruiting a son-in-law, he did not covet wealth and nobility, and only studied by looking at the character of the other party; the judges and readers present at the calligraphy competition still supported Zhao Xuzhi under the pressure of the eldest princess.
The shaping of these character images shows the characteristics of the ancient readers who are "poor and unyielding, mighty and unyielding, rich and noble", and give the audience in front of the screen a positive positive education, which is the beauty of the ancient character restored by the film.
It is precisely because of this "four beauty" that this 96-minute domestic movie is full of romantic mood and youthful atmosphere, which makes the audience feel refreshed. Chi Chongrui, Wang Bozhao and Cheng Zhi were given the opportunity to participate in the big production "Journey to the West" that year because of "Pen in Love".
Now this movie has also become a "lost" work, and there is currently no Blu-ray restored version in China, only a DVD version produced by Dasheng Culture. Pi Ge looked for many days, only to get a clearer source from a netizen. To be able to see such a beautiful and good movie is a great blessing in life.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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