On March 20, the movie "The Legend of Yan Chixia Hunting Demon" starring Shi Xiaolong was released.
On the first day, it grossed 17,000 and soon launched a video website, but the effect of the webcast also did not arouse too much splash.
We don't know the quality of the movie, but because the lead actor is Shi Xiaolong, such an achievement is surprising.
Who would have thought that the box office of the former "hottest child star" would be "dismal" to this point.
Shi Xiaolong's popularity has to be traced back to 1994's "Laughing Forest Boy". This kung fu comedy is the beginning of the cooperation between Shi Xiaolong and Hao Shaowen.
In those years, relying on the funny of Shi Xiaolong Kung Fu and Hao Shaowen, this pair of living treasures was called the most well-known child star in the three places across the Taiwan Straits.
Now, it has been 27 years since the release of "Laughing Forest Boy", and the child stars of that year have also entered the year of standing.
The world has turned, and the two former "top streams" have changed from partners to friends and have also moved to completely different lives.
01
The righteous "Little Shaolin Monk" Shi Xiaolong is pregnant with real kung fu.
Born in 1988, Shi Xiaolong, formerly known as Chen Xiaolong, was born into a martial arts family in Dengfeng City, Henan Province.
When he was 2 years old, he worshiped the abbot Shi Yongxin as his teacher, became a disciple of the Shaolin layman, and was given the title of "Shi Xiaolong".
His father, Chen Tongshan, thought that Shi Xiaolong was a good seedling for practicing martial arts, so he was very strict with him.
Since the age of 2, every day at four or five o'clock in the morning, Shi Xiaolong will be forcibly pulled out of bed to practice basic skills.
Horse steps, lower waist, leg presses, running around the Shaolin Temple, these adults may not be able to withstand the high-pressure training, Shi Xiaolong at a young age to do.
How cruel is Shi Xiaolong's father to his children?
My father has been reluctant to look back at the videotape of that year:
"I turned it off when I saw it, and now when I look at it, my training for Xiaolong is too strict, too fierce, and I don't know how to hurt the child."
And Shi Xiaolong's mother, who couldn't screw her father, never dared to watch the training, and she hid on the side and cried in pain.
Fortunately, Shi Xiaolong was indeed a child with both talent and perseverance.
At the age of 4, Shi Xiaolong won two outstanding awards in the Martial Arts Festival, Shaolin Tong Arm Fist and Luo Han Stick.
Later, with the shaolin temple delegation, he went to Taiwan to exchange Buddhist culture and met a noble person in life, the director Zhu Yanping.
After Zhu Yanping saw the martial arts performance, he fell in love with this cute-looking and powerful Shi Xiaolong, so he invited him to shoot "Laughing Forest Boy".
When filming "Laughing Forest Boy", Shi Xiaolong was more than 4 years old, and compared with Hao Shaowen, who "played with his mouth", Shi Xiaolong's role was much harder.
In the first scene of the group, Shi Xiaolong was about to shoot the cornice and walk on the wall, so he was hung in mid-air by Wei Ya.
The director recalled that At that time, Shi Xiaolong was very scared, crying while running, and the tears were thrown on the director.
Chen Tongshan, the father of the onlooker, did not have the slightest soft heart, and only shouted from the side: "Shi Xiaolong, be a man!" ”
Director Zhu Yanping was stunned: "Only 4 years old, what a man." ”
The strictness that others could not see, Shi Xiaolong had long been accustomed to it, and thanked his father for his "fierce heart" many years later.
The success of "Laughing Forest Boy" after its release made the pair of Shi Xiaolong and Hao Shaowen a hit.
After that, they took advantage of the hot iron to cooperate in many comedies such as "Oolong Courtyard" and "Ten Brothers".
Shi Xiaolong became synonymous with the national "kung fu kid" and also began his own "golden age".
When he was a child star for more than ten years, Shi Xiaolong spent most of his time in the crew, he achieved success, but also lost the childhood that should have been in school, playmates of the same age, etc.
Until 2003, Shi Xiaolong, who was in the limelight at the time, announced that he would temporarily stop filming and go to the United States to study.
From the age of 2 to 15, Shi Xiaolong, who kept walking, finally lived the free life he longed for.
The 3 years of studying abroad are Shi Xiaolong's compensation for the shortcomings of his childhood, but it also inevitably becomes a watershed in his acting career.
After returning to China after completing his studies, Shi Xiaolong stepped into the show business circle again, and soon participated in many works.
However, as an adult, Shi Xiaolong disappointed many viewers, and some even listed him as one of the "Top Ten Disabled Child Stars".
From participating in "Ip Man 2" as a supporting role to starring in "The Legend of Yan Chixia Hunting Demons" this year, most of Shi Xiaolong's works have been unremarkable.
After returning to China, what triggered the most discussion heat was the relationship with He Jie.
However, although the restart of the career is not very smooth, but because his parents are good at business, they took the film remuneration to invest early, and now Shi Xiaolong's economic situation is very good.
Golf, racing, travel, fitness, is the daily routine he shares most often.
From the top stream of the past to the current is gradually forgotten, Shi Xiaolong actually thinks very openly:
"When I was a child, it may not have been my choice, but now it is clear that it is my hobby interests.
Acting has become an integral part of life. I would still choose this line if I did it again. ”
Maybe it has been over, maybe no one cares, but the kung fu boy of the past is moving towards the life he wants.
02
Unlike Shi Xiaolong, who grew up in the Shaolin Temple and had a martial arts body, Hao Shaowen was considered to be a god who appreciated rice to eat.
Hao Shaowen was born in Taiwan in 90 years, and at the age of 3, he filmed a juice advertisement because of his cute appearance, and then he was photographed by the director and began acting.
Pleasing in appearance, Hao Shaowen played a funny little monk with a witty ghost horse, which can be described as handy.
In those years, Hao Shaowen's image of "stinky fart text" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, bringing countless laughter to the audience.
According to media reports, Hao Shaowen, who was a young child star, earned tens of millions of assets for his parents early on.
The turning point occurred in 2003, when his mother believed that only reading books would give him more choices in adulthood.
So 13-year-old Hao Shaowen, at the peak of the rapids, retired, bid farewell to the entertainment industry, and returned to school.
Her mother is seriously considering Hao Shaowen's life, so Hao Shaowen is completely isolated from the show business circle and enjoys the school time of ordinary children.
Unfortunately, the carefree campus time didn't last long.
Due to the failure of his parents' investment, when he arrived at Hao Shaowen High School, the family not only lost all their savings, but also suffered from debt, and his mother suffered from depression.
In order to reduce the burden on the family, Hao Shaowen began to work and study half time, selling ice, making sushi, cleaning, and various part-time jobs he tried.
After being admitted to college, Hao Shaowen chose the Department of Transportation Management, which had nothing to do with acting.
But his path to study is not smooth, perhaps it takes too much energy to go out to work, 4 years of college, he studied for 6 years, and finally because of insufficient credits, he could not graduate.
After leaving the show business circle, Hao Shaowen did not live a comfortable and carefree life, but gradually fell to the "bottom".
As a result, many media often like to use words such as "downfall" and "decadence" to describe him.
But in fact, is Hao Shaowen really that miserable?
It is true that the parents are not good at management, resulting in a decline in the family's economic situation, but the heart of the beloved son has never been false.
When I was a child, if someone said something like "you are very red" to Hao Shaowen, my mother would dissuade him:
"Don't say something like red is not red in front of a child, that's not a concept a child his age should have. ＂
Later, when I quit the circle to study, I also made a decision from the position of my parents and planning for the future of my children.
Therefore, although he worked everywhere, Hao Shaowen did not complain, let alone give up on himself because of the gap.
Later, on the show, I was asked where the tens of millions of dollars earned that year went?
He just said lightly: "Don't talk about it, my mother will be sad to hear it." ”
After many years of absence, Hao Shaowen returned to the screen, naturally no longer the grand occasion of the year, and most of the scripts that came to the door were small supporting roles.
In recent years, the deepest impression on the audience is still the classmate who had a crush on Shen Jiayi in "Those Years, the Girl We Chased Together".
The "child star law" was fulfilled in Hao Shaowen, and people felt sorry for him, but from another point of view, Hao Shaowen's life is already out of reach for many people.
Popular in childhood, famous throughout the country, after adulthood, academics are not smooth, return to the stage, still variety shows, dramas continue.
Compared with those actors who have been hovering eighteen lines for many years and can't afford to buy a house after decades of filming, he is lucky enough.
Judging from the dynamics released by Hao Shaowen on the social platform, his life is quite self-satisfied, and the malaise and decadence speculated by the outside world are more like nothing.
Life will always rise and fall, the past is brilliant, the present is bleak, does not mean that life is only sad spring and autumn.
As talking about the past glory, Hao Shaowen expressed the attitude:
"That's a thing of the past, and people always have to look ahead."
"Wouldn't it be too tiring to always live in the past and sigh and lose?"
The glorious "stinky fart text" of the past is gradually drifting away, and now Hao Shaowen is whimsically churning in his own life.
03
Have you found that if the child star is still filming and does not become popular after he grows up, regardless of his real life, he will always be labeled as "long disabled" and "depressed".
These labels are similar to branding child stars with "failure".
Why is that? Probably because we are all too afraid of the ordinary.
Writer Liang Xiaosheng went to a university to give a lecture, and a first-year male student publicly stated:
"If, before the age of thirty, and at the latest before the age of thirty-five, I cannot detach myself from the ordinary, then I will commit suicide."
Liang Xiaosheng couldn't understand:
Is it really that frustrating to be an ordinary person?
If you are destined to live an ordinary life, is it really better to commit suicide before the age of thirty-five?
This slightly pejorative word carries its own sadness, especially for young people to avoid.
But in fact, the vast majority of people will eventually go to the ordinary.
The failure of child stars to "turn red" is not as miserable as we think; life is destined to be ordinary, and there is no need to panic too much.
As Zhou Guoping said:
Everything in the world is extraordinary, and in the end it must return to the ordinary, and its value must be measured by ordinary life.
Great, wonderful, successful is nothing, only to live an ordinary life truly well, life is complete.
27 years have passed since "Laughing Forest Boy", With Shi Xiaolong to the left and Hao Shaowen to the right.
The best partner who was once embarked on a completely different life, but they all went the same way and created their own full life.
Resources:
New Man Outfit: "Hao Shaowen: I'm Not the Little Monk Who Loves to Play Rogues"
Beijing Youth Weekly: "Shi Xiaolong: I am precocious, but 29 years old means growing up"