In the modern history of Chinese, Shanghai is definitely the most legendary city. In this standard cosmopolitan metropolis, in the past 100 years, Chinese too much sour, sweet and bitter. Here is a business card of China to the world, an important window for communication with the outside world, here is the pride and glory of the entire nation, and here is also the sadness and misfortune of a country. However, through the vicissitudes of time, the taste of old Shanghai has quietly become an inseparable and extremely colorful part of the entire Chinese civilization.
Old Shanghai has long been associated with movies, and in the world of light and shadow, the enigmatic city of Shanghai is still full of legends. Among the film and television works about Shanghai, the most impressive ones are "Shanghai Beach" starring Zhou Runfa and Zhao Yazhi, "Ma Yongzhen" directed by Zhang Che, and "Jingwumen" starring Bruce Lee. These legendary stories make the audience full of nostalgia for Shanghai, a city that is both young and timeless, with a national complex. Especially in the old Shanghai, that period of history that wanted to talk about rest and could not stop, has made countless Chinese people haunt their dreams.
However, the films that really have a Shanghai flavor are not the "Shanghai Beach Battles" series mentioned above. These films show the ambitions of men in an era, and people who have really seen the face of Shanghai and listened to Shanghainese will find that these stories really do not conform to the temperament of the city.
In the 1930s, Shanghai was the earliest Film Base for Chinese, where China's first generation of movie stars were born. Among these stars, Ruan Lingyu and Zhou Xuan are represented. Among them, in addition to starring in movies, Zhou Xuan is also a famous singer, and her representative works "Night Shanghai" and "Tianya Dancer" have become people's impression of Shanghai in that era, which is most in line with their inner resonance. And in 1949, a loyal fan left Shanghai and settled in Hong Kong, when she was only 18 years old, she was the protagonist of today's article Pan Dihua.
According to Pan Dihua herself, she followed her mother, who was only 16 years older, to Hong Kong because her father had an aunt, and in those days, her father had to make a choice. Her mother gave up the opportunity to stay with her father and took Pan Dihua to Hong Kong to make a living. In Jia Zhangke's documentary "Legend of the Sea" about Shanghai, pan Dihua, who is nearly 80 years old, appeared on camera, and when he talked about his life experience, he still couldn't help but cry and sigh a lot. In the last two minutes of her interview, she sang songs from old Shanghai, which are her hometown complex and her main means of making a living in Hong Kong.
When Pan Dihua first arrived in Hong Kong, her life was initially taken care of by her mother, but soon their lives were threatened, and in order to earn a living, Pan Dihua had to start singing to support the family. She started her career in nightclubs, and because of her beautiful voice and unique understanding of music, she was able to quickly and successfully start her singing career. She was the first Chinese singer to sign a contract with EMI Records, and by the 1960s she had sung songs in the United States and the Middle East, and was known to fans as the "Oriental Nightingale".
Pan Dihua's success, in addition to her own talent, the more important factor is her understanding of old Shanghai music. She added these old Shanghainese music to English lyrics and sang the English versions of "Rose Rose I Love You" and "Second Spring". With the success of her career, she also hopes to further use her strength to open up the Music Market in Hong Kong, so in the 1970s, she also created a musical called "White Lady", but because the concept was too advanced and did not get good market feedback, she lost more than 1 million yuan.
What really makes the public familiar with Pan Dihua's "star" is because of Wong Kar-wai's films. In Wong Kar-wai's film "The Legend of Ah Fei", Pan Dihua and Zhang Guorong played each other, playing the adoptive mother of Xu Zai, the protagonist played by Zhang Guorong, who has an authentic Shanghai accent. Authentic Shanghai accent, superb acting skills, let the fans remember this "old Shanghai".
Since then, Pan Dihua has continued the frontier with her dream hometown of old Shanghai in the light and shadow of the screen. In an interview in "Legends of the Sea", Pan Dihua has always stressed that he is an authentic Shanghainese who was born and raised in Shanghai. Although in reality, she only lived in Shanghai until the age of 18 after she was born, she spent most of her life in Hong Kong. But she always believed that Shanghai was her hometown, and in Hong Kong, she was always a passer-by.
And this inner Shanghai complex, which constitutes her unique career, in the first half of her life, she made a living by singing the music of old Shanghai, and after she was 60 years old, she found the temperament of old Shanghai on the screen. For a wanderer, Pan Dihua's hometown complex for Shanghai is invaluable, and it is precisely because of this complex that the temperament and taste of old Shanghai take root and sprout in the depths of Pan Dihua's heart, diffuse, and give her the skills to make a living from it.
After "Ah Fei Zheng Biography", Pan Dihua's authentic Shanghai tone made her quickly establish a reputation in the film industry, and she later participated in wong Kar-wai's "Fancy Years", Hou Xiaoxian's "Sea Flowers", and also taught Tang Wei to play mahjong in Ang Lee's "Color Ring". He also appeared in the documentary "Legend of the Sea" about Shanghai directed by Jia Zhangke.
The reason why Pan Dihua was able to perform the temperament of an old Shanghai woman in the film is inseparable from her experience. She left Shanghai in 1949, and since then, the appearance of Shanghai has been frozen in the depths of Pan Dihua's soul with her hometown at that moment. In the depths of her soul, she sealed the hometown complex and the humanistic style of old Shanghai, and after more than half a century, she brewed on the screen, the image of this sophisticated and shrewd Shanghai woman. And in this image, it also has the literary and artistic flavor of old Shanghai. Pan Dihua's interpretation of Shanghai women is not only a real restoration, but also a unique temperament in the bones. The roles of these Shanghai women, under the interpretation of Pan Dihua, although they are shrewd and sophisticated, but they do not lose their human touch, after years and vicissitudes, they still maintain the tone of old Shanghai.
In his short film career, Pan Dihua conquered the audience with his superb acting skills and rare authentic Shanghai tone. After seeing almost all of her Shanghai-related roles, the audience can easily feel her unique Shanghai feelings in her heart, because if it is not deeply rooted in the soul of the attachment, she can not interpret such a strong old Shanghai atmosphere. In the film, although Pan Dihua is only a supporting role, she is responsible for bringing the atmosphere of the entire film from modern Hong Kong back to the old Shanghai space.
In shanghai-related films, wong kar-wai is so keen on pan dihua as an actor because of her strong old Shanghai atmosphere, which can help the director easily build a space full of age and literary sense. After living in a foreign country for more than half a century, it is still possible to maintain such a strong sense of hometown, which is a good dramatic element in itself. In pan dihua's heart, there is a clear dividing line between other places and foreign countries, so she will always be just a "passer-by" in Hong Kong, so she herself will always be the "daughter" of Shanghai.