If you combine these heart-wrenching news in the past few days, there is no doubt that "Imperfect Her" is a portrayal of social reality.
Domestic violence, the original family, childhood trauma, women's status and other very harsh social issues have all been rolled out in front of the audience, and the pain and injuries that women have experienced in the process of growing up, as well as the unfair treatment they have suffered, make a large part of the audience feel empathy.
For this kind of work that integrates female elements and realism, it often conveys more social significance than the series itself. Although some viewers cannot fully agree with the adaptation of "Imperfect Her", they cannot deny their thinking on the current social situation.
The little girl Mu Liansheng is a line, dragging Lin Xuzhi and others to slowly appear, so that the demons that have been hidden under the calm lake for a long time surface, and when this line is pulled longer and longer, when it is pulled in front of her mother Mu Jing, the audience's emotions are instantly ignited.
When Shangwu's violence against Liansheng was added, she did not take any action on the side; when Shangwu had trespassed on Liansheng, she chose to turn a blind eye...
As Mu Liansheng's mother, the only relative, she personally pushed her daughter into the abyss. We hate bad things, but we hate the accomplices who give knives to the devil, especially if the man is still a blood relative.
"Wicked", "unworthy of motherhood", etc., the audience cursed Mu Jing with all the words imaginable, and the hatred for her was real.
The later it goes, the more "bad" Mu Jing becomes, and the more the audience scolds.
There are also people who can change their minds to a more peaceful mindset to look at the reasons behind the bad. Is it in the desperate time to grasp the life-saving straw and do not want to let go, or in the final analysis, it is a selfish and not independent person, so it falls into the strange circle again and again?
From the opening to the end, the female character has been at the center of the storm.
1
Unqualified mother
Of course, Mu Jing was not even a qualified mother, but Cai Yatong was touching enough.
After watching many netizens 'scolding" Mu Jing, one of the comments that expressed understanding and distress to her was particularly eye-catching.
Without standing in the perspective of God or coldly analyzing the audiovisual language, but from the perspective of the general audience, "acting too really" is the best compliment for the actors and characters in just a few words.
There is no doubt that such "truth" is what Cai Ya wanted the audience to see at the beginning.
Before joining the crew of "Imperfect Her" and playing the role of Mu Jing, the executive producer told her what kind of situation she might face after acting. And she didn't say yes. Therefore, after getting the script, no one was sure that this role would definitely be handed over to Cai Yatong.
Reading the script and taking notes as usual, Cai Yatong began to slowly walk into Mu Jing's heart and fell in love with this imperfect mother.
Rather than the scolding she might face, her concern was that "I've never taken on a role of such complexity, and I worry that my performance will be less precise or thinner."
Mothers have thickness, and Mu Jing can't be bad for bad. Her motherhood does not conflict with her female self, "although it is selfish to say, but it cannot be erased from the rights she should have been because she became a mother." 」
The Weibo that Cai Yatong shared at the end
After reaching this consensus with the creator, Cai Yatong focused on how to make the transformation of the characters more logical.
Television art must not be perfect, there are some scripts that do not directly present the content that needs to be compensated by the actor's performance, and the performance of the two parties can be smooth.
It is necessary to enrich the level of the characters and conform to the logic of the characters' actions, which brings difficulties to Cai Yatong's performance. The scene where Mu Liansheng was abandoned by the sea made the audience unforgettable, and Cai Yatong let everyone see a tangled mother figure.
Sitting on the beach, Mu Jing didn't know what to do, but when she saw other people's fingernails, she couldn't help but look at them a few more times, and her eyes were full of loneliness.
It was this very subtle look that "betrayed" Mu Jing's mind at that time, and it turned out that when everyone criticized her for being irresponsible, few people would remember that she was also a woman.
Of course, this could not be the reason why she abandoned her child, and Cai Yatong also understood this. There is no deliberate trick in the performance, but to make up for the part that Mu Jing is not seen by the audience, and the arc of the character is as complete as possible.
2
Ordinary female Mu Jing
Chen Kun, who is both the boss and the brother, also gave her a lot of practical advice.
When filming the scene of the child on the beach, Chen Kun came to Dalian to visit the class, he sat by the monitor and watched Cai Yatong filming, "The suggestion that Brother Kun gave me in that scene was to lose the child more, but fortunately the child did not lose the luck" Just a few more eyes and movements, Mu Jing was full again.
Judging from the broadcast effect, this method works. What the audience sees is not a simple irresponsible mother, but an image of a woman who does not want to move forward and cannot retreat, but this character is not pleasing.
In the 4 months of living with Mu Jing, Cai Yatong's mood has also undergone several changes, and sometimes she often needs to jump out of the role to catch her breath under the squeeze of various emotions.
As a woman, she was irresponsible, "I didn't prepare enough to give birth to this child, but I either gave birth to a child or a mother." It is also the empathy of women, and she begins to feel the involuntariness of the characters.
When filming the scene where he met Lian Sheng in the detention center, Cai Yatong had a little more understanding of the role.
The little actor flashed his big eyes and said to her timidly, "You are not my mother", "My tears are swirling in my eyes at once, I feel that I can't do it", and the emotion is completely real.
The daughter she had worked so hard to find said such a thing to herself, and this feeling of tearing made her feel overwhelmed, until the later dubbing she did not come out of the emotions, and the tears could not stop flowing.
She also remembers her emotions when the crew recorded the video, facing the camera for several seconds without speaking, "the nose is sour and crying, this woman is not easy, I am very sad for her, she is actually such a woman who deserves to be loved." 」
With the passage of time, with each step taken by Cai Yatong, Mu Jing became more abundant, and finally became the appearance of making the audience hate and pity.
This may also answer the questions of some viewers after the start of the broadcast.
No one understands the hardships of a single mother, no one tells the bitterness of life, and mu jing can only go to a more selfish and extreme situation in the suffocation of day after day. Reality and the indifference of the outside world forced her into a corner.
The topic of the interview will naturally start from performance to women, "everyone's understanding and tolerance of young mothers is not so enough", Cai Yatong admitted that she wants more people to see the importance and difficulty of mothers.
After filming "Imperfect Her", she watched "Home on the Slope" and "Her on the Other Side" by The Japanese writer Mitsuyo Kakuda, who is good at writing about the situation of contemporary women, and her thinking about the current situation of women also increased. "We should all be more independent, both economically and spiritually. Although some people have become mothers, they also have the right to pursue their own happiness, and everyone is the same."
3
Professionals in bitter love drama
Before Mu Jing, Cai Yatong's last play was "The Next Stop is Happiness". In it, she plays Yang Xiaoyu, who is still very bitter, a woman who was cheated on by her husband when she was pregnant with her second child.
After the drama was broadcast, Yang Xiaoyu received a very high degree of attention, and even the actors were noticed by more and more viewers. Everyone was also amazed by Cai Yatong's expressiveness when dissing scumbags.
Yang Xiaoyu is also a mother, but she is completely different from Mu Jing. She dares to love and hate, is well protected by family and friends, and is more like a sunflower chasing the sun.
Both mother figures impressed the audience, one growing in the sun and one born in a ditch, but in essence, they are both female figures who have been hurt.
Audiences who have seen two plays have difficulty imagining that these two roles are actually from the same actor, and some people lament how to change the role of Cai Yatong in the play is still so bitter.
The two characters do not have a halo to add, but let the audience see the essential difference at a glance, how does Cai Yatong distinguish in performance?
"Compared with Mu Jing, Yang Xiaoyu's innocent things will be more", the living environment and growth experience determine the difference between the two characters, what she has to do is to highlight their own traces.
But in fact, whether it is Mu Jing or Yang Xiaoyu, it is Cai Yatong himself who is performing. In the character she portrays, the audience sees the professionalism of an actor.
If you carefully observe Cai Yatong's acting path, you will find that she is mostly favored by some well-made works.
From the earlier "Step by Step" and "Strange Edge in the Wind" to the recent "Tiansheng Long Song" to the upcoming drama "Heartbeat Source Project", the role level is getting richer and richer, and she is getting more and more recognition.
Talking about this, she is very humble: "It may be that I am lucky to play these scenes, but it is also very good." 」 I prefer to take on more self-challenging roles, so that although the creative process may be more painful or stressful, the final result must be a progression of the self."
The result of forcing herself is that the progress is rapid, the performance is becoming more and more skillful, and Cai Yatong can see another possibility of herself faster.
After several consecutive plays, she began to break through the original way of acting, extending her tentacles farther and farther outward.
The deepest experience comes from Mu Jing, "From the performance point of view, she can break a lot of the framework of my previous acting. The logic and framework of the entire character will be completely re-established. The role of the mother didn't scare me so much, but it opened up a different perspective for me." She could clearly feel the change in herself.
4
Gentle and sassy
But looking forward a few years, Cai Yatong was not so calm, and she had also experienced days of waiting.
She still remembered the day when Yang Xiaoyu was on the hot search. She sent a message to Chen Kun, thanking everyone for their trust, but the other party's reply made her remember.
"Brother Kun said a word at that time, and I still can't forget it." He said that actors are very difficult, and there are many uncontrollable things, but the only thing that can be controlled is your performance, the camera will not lie, and a good performance will definitely be seen."
Don't worry, she heard this in her heart and began to immerse herself in the deeper world of acting.
And Cai Yatong's change Chen Kun also saw in his eyes.
After watching the film, Chen Kun found her and the two of them talked again, "Kun Brother can't believe that this is my acting, he feels very proud." The unbelievable meaning is that Cai Yatong brought performances that exceeded his predictions and had begun to have his own opinions.
This gives Cai Yatong enough strength, to know that usually others see her and she in the camera is almost like two people.
Born in Chongqing, the Sasshuang of the Sichuan-Chongqing region is not very obvious in her, but it makes her a little more calm, "I am very peaceful and slow, maybe my daughters are with my father, my father is also a person who is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, I am still quite like him."
Not obvious does not mean that there is no existence, Cai Yatong's clarity comes from the invisible life of the audience.
Unlike the bitter roles she has played, her life is firm and powerful, clear and transparent.
She planted a tree on the terrace of her home, watered once a day during the break, and the tree was very well looked after. When she's not in a good mood and when she's in a particularly good mood, she likes to sit under a tree, "I just lie in my chair and look at it, and I feel as if it can understand."
Moments like this make Cai Yatong feel peaceful, "The creation of the heart seems to have an extra clean place, a place that can provide my strength."
The more this experience, the more stable the mentality is trained, "The camera will not lie, and if you are impetuous in your heart, even if you hide it well, you will be seen by the audience through the lens." Now she understands more and more that acting is a lifelong thing.
Although she still has occasional anxiety, she is trying to adjust, reading books and movies, and everything that can help her performance is a source of nourishment.
Just like the Mandarin duck hot pot in my hometown, half of it represents a steaming life, and half of it is a clear and exquisite heart. This gives her performance a boost.
As Chen Kun said, good performances and actors will be seen by everyone, and after "The Next Stop is Happiness", Cai Yatong and Song Qian cooperated in "Heartbeat Source Project" (formerly known as: "Broker").
This time, the professionals of the bitter love drama in other people can bring what kind of performance no one knows, but there is no doubt that this drama will let the audience see another self.
The camera will not deceive people, Cai Ya is waiting for everyone.