Recently, the zombie Korean drama "Kingdom" and the first 10 million dark horse film "Extreme Occupation" in South Korea in 2019 have pulled the long-dormant Korean actor Yoo Seung-yong back to the audience's vision. The former is south Korea's first zombie Korean drama invested by Netflix to be made to a global audience, and the latter is a super dark horse comedy that has exceeded 10 million viewers with the third fastest result in history. According to the latest week's box office data, the cumulative number of moviegoers of "Extreme Profession", which has just achieved four consecutive weekend box office titles, has exceeded 14 million, and it is currently second only to the 17 million moviegoers of "The Battle of Mingliang", ranking second in the box office list of Korean film history.
In the comedy "Extreme Profession" and the thriller suspense drama "Kingdom", Liu Chenglong has dedicated a huge span of performances, one is a comedy image interpreted in the most natural state of life, and the other is a villain who is more terrifying than "zombie". Whether it is comedy or drama, Liu Chenglong's performance is easy to come by, and there is no sense of violation.
The cumulative number of viewers of "Extreme Occupation" has exceeded 14 million.
Netflix Korean Drama "Kingdom"
"Extreme Occupation" is Liu Chenglong's fourth "ten million movie" starring himself, but after "The Man Who Became King", "The Gift of Room 7" and "The Battle of Mingliang" for three consecutive years, he rarely came out in the next four years, basically in semi-retirement, which makes people wonder what he has experienced? Why did such a superb actor retire in his heyday, but create such a gorgeous comeback many years later?
Written by/sona
A and Huang Are Classmates, who have acted in "Random Fight" for five years.
In the 1990s, Yoo Seung-yong was admitted to seoul national university of the arts majoring in drama, and his classmates Hwang Seung-hyun, Jeong Jae-young, Ahn Jae-wook, and Shin Dong-yeol later became mainstays of Korean showbiz.
After graduation, everyone mixed together in Korea's most famous Donglang Theater Company to do musicals and dramas. Among them was the South Korean director Jang Jin, who later helped Yoo Seung-yong on the big screen.
He thought he would always perform in the troupe, but in 1996 he took the first turn of his career. That year, the troupe was invited to perform in New York, during which he watched many Broadway plays and was unexpectedly shocked by the pantomime performances, lamenting "why doesn't his country have such performances?" After returning to China, Liu Chenglong caught up with the audition for the unspoken musical "Nanta", and after a successful interview, he left the Donglang Troupe, and after becoming the founding actor of "Nanda", he acted for five years.
Liu Chenglong went on a world tour with "Nanta" that year.
"Nanda" is still performing in South Korea for a long time, and 2017 is the 20th anniversary of the premiere of the play, and Yoo Seung-yong was invited to participate in the special performance. Unlike traditional musicals in which the actors sing and perform, the performance process does not have a single line, and the actors use kitchen utensils to tap and beat to make music, telling the story of a commotion staged by several chefs in the kitchen.
In 2017, he participated in the 20th anniversary commemorative performance of "Random Fight".
Because of its unique form, the drama has gained super popularity in South Korea, and even went abroad, touring in the United Kingdom, the United States and China, and Liu Chenglong has also traveled the world with "Random Fight", and the photos of "Ten Thousand Fans" when he was young in the movie "Everything About My Wife" were taken by Liu Chenglong when he was on the world tour. Unfortunately, when the work was performed in China, Liu Chenglong had already left the troupe.
B Started doing odd jobs to play a "talkative" person
For Liu Chenglong, these five years have allowed him to accumulate a lot of important experience as an actor, including cooperation with others, performance rhythm, and control of explosive power, etc., but it is undeniable that he has also lost a lot.
For example, in the society and interpersonal relationships of the Korean local showbiz circle, compared with the actors of the same period, he can only be said to be a blank, An Jae-wook has become popular with "Star Dream", and he has not yet debuted in the domestic film and television circle. But the greater lack also comes from the contentment of artistic creation. This is also the main reason why he decided to leave, "I feel that artists are getting more and more accustomed to a stable life and becoming technical people."
After that, he found Zhang Zhen, a college senior who had already made several commercial works, and simply and bluntly stated his thoughts: "I want to act, the kind that talks." ”
Liu Chenglong, who left "Nanta", has no fixed income, and he temporarily returns to the drama stage, and he does odd jobs on the days without performances, delivering takeaways, decorations, deliveries, car washes, but not just for livelihood, but also to experience a variety of life and absorb nutrients for being an actor. It was also during this unknown season that he met his wife, who had been with him all his life.
Cameo as a robber wearing a pink mask in Courtship Coffee House.
In 2004, Liu Chenglong made a cameo appearance as a "robber" in the film "Courtship Coffee House" directed by Zhang Zhen and starring Zheng Zaiyong and Li Naying, when the 35-year-old first appeared on the big screen, but he was a supporting role in supporting roles for his college classmates. But as a character who was temporarily pulled to be a robber, the pink mask and bluff threat made people speechless to laugh. Later, he starred in two works directed by Zhang Zhen in succession, making cameo appearances in the comedy film "Rapids Retreat" and the action film "Great Genealogy", and really began to integrate into the big circle of movies.
C Won two years in a row, three million movies plus
Although in the years since, Liu Chenglong has received small roles. But a sentence that Enshi said after watching his play of supporting roles for An Zaixu gave Liu Chenglong great courage, "You are a big instrument late, flowers not only bloom in the spring, but also bloom in the autumn, even if you think you have acted enough, you must continue to act until after the age of 40." ”
Movie "The Final Weapon: Bow"
The 2009 horror film "Inferno Believe in Hell" was his first starring appearance. In 2011, four films starring Yoo Seung-yong, "Final Weapon: Bow", "Highland Warfare", "Children" and "Pyongyang City", were released, and "Final Weapon: Bow" topped the annual box office with more than 8 million viewers. The full Manchu lines in the film make people who have watched the film can't help but admire his line skills and language talent. With the role of the Qing army general in the film, Liu Chenglong won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Qinglong Film Awards that year.
The following year, Yoo Seung-yong won the Blue Dragon Award for Best Supporting Actor again for his role in the comedy film "Everything About My Wife", which won the award for two consecutive years, the first time in The history of The Awards in South Korea and the awards.
Movie "The Man Who Became King"
Movie "The Gift of Room 7"
He also ushered in the first "ten million people's film" of his personal acting career in this year, "The Man Who Became king", but what everyone did not expect was that this was just the beginning, in the subsequent 2013 and 2014, Liu Chenglong's "Gift of Room 7" and "The Battle of Mingliang" have broken through the mark of tens of millions of moviegoers. Three "tens of millions of movies" added to the body, so that Liu Chenglong was in the limelight for a while.
D "Loved" Lee Min-ho and played greasy love saint
There are very few actors who can play the small characters of comedy and the vicious villains at the same time, whether it is the exaggerated and greasy mass charm in "Everything about My Wife", or the vicious Japanese general in "The Battle of Mingliang", Liu Chenglong is not a face-to-face interpretation of each role.
Looking back at the representative role of Liu Chenglong's comedy performance, the most famous in the supporting role era was the uncle of Lee Min-ho in the 2010 TV series "Personal Orientation", which was the first love scene in his acting career. A character with an artist's temperament and delicate mind, his face is rosy and his eyes are evasive at the moment of his confession to Lee Min-ho, which is recognized as one of the most memorable scenes in the play.
The first love scene of Yoo Seung-yong's acting career was dedicated to Lee Min-ho.
In 2012, Liu Chenglong played the role of Saint Zhang Shengji in "Everything About My Wife" directed by Min Kuidong, which can be called his most representative starring role. In the film, he plays a character commissioned by Li Shanjun to seduce his wife Lin Xiujing, and constantly switches between the exaggerated expression of "Ten Thousand Charms" and the naturalistic performance of life. And that kind of greasy performance with butter all over the body, I believe no one can interpret it better than him.
In fact, at first, director Min Kuidong was not optimistic when he finalized Liu Chenglong's starring role, but the director had his own considerations: "I want to show the true face of Liu Chenglong, who is delicate, gentle, and will not let go of any details during dialogue, in the movie." After meeting Liu Chenglong, director Min Kuidong wrote "Ronaldo's thighs, Liang Chaowei's eyebrows" in the memorandum, and then further completed the role according to this feeling, and this role also opened Liu Chenglong's "dirty sexy" era.
Greasy uncle in "Everything About My Wife".
Two of Liu Chenglong's first three tens of millions of films were comedies. In "The Man Who Became King", he and Li Bingxian, who is equally skilled in acting, staged a wonderful opponent scene. Although it is difficult for Li Bingxian to play two roles alone, Liu Chenglong, who wants to play with him in different states, has also completed a rare performance. The two found a balance between comedy and seriousness, compared with the later "Gift of Room 7", the role of only a 6-year-old child with IQ who helped him win the Baeksang Art Award, "The Man Who Became king", which won the Green Dragon Award for Best Supporting Actor, is obviously more representative of his acting strength.
E In order to show the fierce temperament, the whole performance does not blink
In addition to his comedic performances, Yoo Seung-yong is also known for his many rough villains. One of the earliest villains appeared in the 2008 black thriller Secret. The character played by Liu Chenglong is the leader of the gang known as Jackal (Jackal), in order to avenge his dead brother, he and the policeman played by Che Shengyuan are opposed, from the appearance to the expression, the lines are permeated with a thick dark temperament, in order to give the character the same vicious temperament as the "snake", he can let himself not blink when performing.
Movie "Secret"
Although not a villain, in the 2011 film "Highland War", he played the role of North Korean squadron leader Han Jeong-yoon, who also showed a tough guy side. The appearance is extremely oppressive, with a firm belief in the battle of him, the appearance again with a huge scar, after the baptism of battle, he looks tired, although it is a supporting role, but this character is the most accurate transmission of the core theme of "Highland War", is the most direct display of the contradictions and tragedies of the war.
After that, Yoo Seung-yong successively starred in Kim Han-min's "Final Weapon: Bow" and "Battle of Mingliang", appearing as a Qing general and a Japanese general respectively, as a character with some historical color, although he was a villain, he was also a rare real tough guy role with a very leader temperament, especially the lines in full Manchu and all Japanese, and Liu Chenglong was also perfectly digested.
Movie "Battle of Mingliang"
Speaking of language, Liu Chenglong also spoke Spanish and French in "Everything About My Wife", and for non-native language performances, he also revealed his own tricks: "I relied on crazy memorization, to the point where even the agent around me could write down the pronunciation and recite it, and use the size of the font to mark the tone, which was a bit embarrassing to say." ”
F The low point of life, learn to spoil from death
In 2013, in an interview with "TV Korea", Yoo Seung-yong talked about his original intention as an actor: "At the beginning, it was because of curiosity, after trying, I felt that kind of selfless realm, that kind of inspiration like a fountain of enthusiasm and challenge, which made me feel very accomplished, I did not have any other purpose to become an actor, what I liked was the performance itself." However, once this feeling was disturbed by factors other than the performance (box office), Liu Chenglong, who felt that he had lost himself, had to choose to leave temporarily.
In 2014, after starring in the highest-grossing movie in Korean history, "The Battle of Mingliang" (17 million viewers), The Guest, "Peach And Lee Flower Song", "Nian Li" and "Seven Years Night" starring Yoo Seung-yong were not ideal at the box office and word of mouth, and it seems that overnight, the appeal of "tens of millions of actors" disappeared.
At the same time, because the younger actors starred in entertainment programs and described Liu Chenglong as "the actor who has changed the most after becoming famous", it was revealed that he changed his phone number, and rumors about him were everywhere for a while.
It was also during that time that Liu Chenglong decided to leave the actor's life for a while, and the free soul who had traveled the world with "Random Fight" seemed to have stayed in the greenhouse for a long time and needed the nourishment of nature, choosing to walk into the green mountains and rivers and the middle of the crowd. He followed the youth camping organized by the Korean weekly "Fact In" and spent three years traveling to the mountains and rivers of the South Korean islands, and even to the Caucasus Mountains and the Kamchatka Glacier.
In a later interview with The Truth magazine, Liu Chenglong confessed: "The successive failures of "Nian Li" and "Seven Years' Night" made me lose the happiness that the performance brought to me, and even doubted it. ”
For the gossip about the character of others that year, Liu Chenglong revealed that the brokerage company asked him to change the number, and for his own silence, he finally confided his heart: "Stigma, misunderstanding, grievances are the most difficult things to deal with in interpersonal relationships, if you deny, it is not necessary for others to believe, silence is a way to deal with it." ”
What's even more unfortunate is that during that low point in life, many people around me left. When sorting out the relics of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Liu Chenglong began to think more deeply about death: "Life will not be as you wish, when I accepted this reality, but learned to face it calmly, my heart will be easier." "Obviously, now he has learned not to be insulted.
"It's like climbing to the top of the mountain, only to find that you are unprepared, have no cold clothes, no food, and are afraid of heights, and then you are left on the mountain by the big capital to receive treatment, and then you are ready to go up the mountain again, but now I don't have to go up the mountain again, I think the process is more important than the goal." 」
G Live a suffocated life, it is better to choose to give up
Whether Yoo Seung-yong wants to or not, with Netflix's Korean drama "Kingdom" and the new comedy "Extreme Career", he seems to have climbed to the peak of his career again. Interestingly, both of these films are related to "zombies", the former is a suspense thriller full of real zombies, and in the latter's story, he is the "zombie captain" who is called "never dead" by the members of the anti-drug team.
Li Bingxian, the director of "Extreme Career", is very proud of choosing Liu Chenglong: "He has to take care of the team members, take care of his family, take care of his work, he is himself a busy and tired parent of a small citizen, but at the same time he has a leadership temperament, such an actor is only Liu Chenglong." ”
For "Kingdom", Liu Chenglong has a different kind of feeling. He admits that he has always had a hard time getting satisfaction with acting, and has been looking for such a role, but fortunately, "Kingdom" has given him a little bit of satisfaction: "This work that can be seen by audiences all over the world is a huge glory and opportunity. I felt the pleasure of performing in a whole new way in an environment I had never been exposed to before. ”
Today, Liu Chenglong has left the agency and returned to freedom, to which he explained: "Becoming a star will gradually be isolated, and the life of protection is too humiliating." I was really touched when I came out of a prison without bars. Compared to a little inconvenience, there are too many to get. ”
Liu Chenglong and his works.
Liu Chenglong, who advocates freedom, usually does many public welfare activities to comfort the civilian victims of the Vietnam War, and also goes to Africa every year to carry out assistance activities. He has recently become obsessed with carpentry, owning a studio in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, which takes two hours by car from Seoul and five or six hours of sanding and painting work. The day before the media audition of "Extreme Career", he sawed a day of wood in the studio, and he confessed that when he was with wood, he was very happy, time passed very quickly, before the test screening, he would only think wildly at home, and here he forgot everything.
Beijing News Editor Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin