Many years ago, Guo Degang, who became famous, hosted a variety show "Tonight There is a play".
Once, the program team invited a special guest.
In front of him, Guo Degang, who has always liked to gag and joke, has become solemn and serious.
The guest was an actor who had a narrow playing path and had "only played one role" in his life, but with this role alone, he was remembered.
He is the actor of "Living Buddha Jigong" - You Benchang.
In the program, Guo Degang, who once said that the stand-up comedy "Jigong", asked the old man:
"I also like Jigong, and I also want to play Jigong, but you see me so fat, where is it like Jigong, do you say that I can play Jigong?"
After hearing this question, You Benchang laughed and said to Guo Degang:
"Before me, the Chinese films of the 30s had Ji Gong, called You Guangzhao, who was so fat... If I teach, I will teach a Jigong who is different from me, and I will act like you. ”
The old man summed it up at the end: "That's why I say, a bodhisattva is phaseless." "
"Bodhisattvas are phaseless", on this sentence, people sighed, many netizens left a message: At that moment, I think that the old man with kind eyebrows is JiGong.
In 1933, in an ordinary family in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, a boy was born, and some people said that this child could not live to be 13 years old, and that he could only survive the disaster by worshipping the Buddhist monks, because he was worried that when he was 6 years old, his parents would send him to Shanghai Fazang Monastery to worship Master Xingci as a teacher.
This child is You Benchang.
Because his parents loved opera, the young You Benchang was often carried to see the opera until he grew up.
Once, when You Benchang heard a commentator telling the story of "JiGong" in a teahouse, he was immediately fascinated, and since then he has run to the teahouse every day after school to listen to a paragraph.
Later, he learned that the artist was Shen Xiaomei, a famous critic in Suzhou at that time, who was known as "Jiangnan Huojigong".
Many things, fate may have already done the prompt.
In 1984, You Benchang, who was filming in Dalian, received a call from Shanghai Television station inviting him to play the role of "Jigong" in "Living Buddha Jigong".
That night, You Benchang stayed up all night, and he was excited and worried.
Excitedly, after graduating from the drama, he ran the dragon set for more than 20 years, he had played 79 "small roles", and he did not expect to receive the main role when he was 52 years old.
What is worried is that this time, he wants to play the "Jigong Living Buddha" that he has in mind.
When trying out the play, the director thought that You Benchang's acting skills were superb and his acting was very good, but he always felt that something was missing, and the director could not say what was missing.
On the third day, You Benchang was napping on the set, when he suddenly heard the director shouting at him, he was confused and half-opened, pulling on his shoes and walking forward, the director saw it, patted his thigh and exclaimed - this is the feeling.
"The wind swings the lotus leaves, the feet step on the cotton", the lazy and sloppy Jigong, isn't it like this!
It felt right, but the shooting conditions were very difficult: it was the middle of summer, the weather was hot, and You Benchang, who was more than half a hundred years old, slept almost only 4 hours a day, and in the shooting, he pursued excellence, and came several times more than once.
In the play, Ji Gong was "tortured with a cane", that scene, a total of 12 times, although the actors gathered their strength, but one stick after another hit down, after filming, You Benchang has long been unable to stand up.
Such a hardship, even the wife and daughter who came to visit the class could not help but cry.
And then there's the famous "dog meat eating scene":
The props team prepared meat in the refrigerator the day before, and took it out of the refrigerator the next morning to shoot on the mountain, only to start shooting at five or six o'clock in the afternoon.
You Benchang took a bite and found that the meat was already smelly, but the director did not shout to stop, he had to eat it "big and fast", knowing that the director shouted the card.
You Benchang ran to the side, and together with the acid in his stomach, he spat it out at once.
This shot of eating meat has also been included in the performance textbook of the Beijing Film Academy.
Such superb acting skills, in the later "small fresh meat" stars, has never appeared, ridiculously, there are still people who think that their staring, cut-out acting skills, is worth 80 million.
Speaking of acting, in addition to the scene of "eating meat", the most shocking thing about You Benchang is that two expressions appear on one face at the same time:
Half of the face is crying, half of the face is smiling, there are no tear marks, but there are half a life vicissitudes, although laughing, it is difficult to hide the desolation of the bottom.
This is the "acting god".
In the semi-final of the first season of "Happy Comedians", before the performance, Shen Teng insisted on changing his work to a "silent film" without lines despite the objections of the team members, he said:
"I'd rather throw away a few baggage than show one of the most classic Chaplin periods."
In the end, Shen Teng's sketch had no jokes, no lines, but won the most applause.
From here, everyone saw Shen Teng's reverence for comedy, he is not blindly pleasing, a real actor, must have his own persistence in his heart.
In fact, very early on, You Benchang had carried out silent film creation, and on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in 1984, You Benchang also presented his own program "Shower".
Perhaps it was also because of his performance on the Spring Festival Gala stage that he got the role of "Jigong", but after the fire of "Jigong", You Benchang "disappeared".
Standing in front of the popular camera, few people can stay awake like You Benchang, although "Jigong" has brought him countless flowers and applause, but he has not relied on this role to frantically pick up the film.
In YauMoto-chang's mind, he divides his works into three categories:
The first category is nutritional products, which are beneficial to people; The second category is boiled water, which is just to quench thirst; The third category is "poison", which is harmful and useless.
For the toxic kind, You Benchang will definitely not pick up, in his mind, only if it meets several standards and can be worthy of the audience, such a work can be filmed.
Because of this personality, You Benchang "offended" many people, but in You Benchang's view, he was just guarding the "conscience of art".
Because of this perseverance, he lost a lot.
In 2002, You Benchang himself planned the pantomime "Mr. You Is Dumb and Smiling"——
Such an approach, like Shen Teng's temporary change of his program in the semi-finals, for such a practice, many people will not understand, after all, this means too many variables, but in the hearts of people who are finally artistic, this is the insistence on the dream.
In 2006, the 73-year-old You Benchang prepared a tv series "Zhifan", in which he played the role of "Yungu Zen Master", it was this Zen master who gave Yuan Fan great guidance, and finally had "The Four Trainings of Fan".
Because of the filming of these two dramas, You Benchang almost lost all his family property.
Many people regret for him: it is really stupid, why not rely on the reputation of Jigong to pick up more drama and make more money, but instead shoot these thankless things that are doomed to lose money.
For these news, You Benchang always laughed after hearing it.
In 2011, You Benchang sold his house to prepare for the drama "Master Hongyi", at the beginning, this drama was only performed two or three times a year, the income was very small, and the high venue fee and labor fee made You Benchang lose blood, and he also undertook great pressure in his heart.
At this time, the outside world spread the news that "Ji Gong" lost all his family and sold his house to get out of the family, and many netizens also expressed their feelings: Why did he fall to this point?
In the face of various rumors from the outside world, You Benchang did not give up, he has always insisted, three years later, "Hongyi Master" has become a classic play, more and more performances, and even fire abroad.
At this time, Grandpa You Benchang finally showed a smiling face.
After 36 years of starring in Jigong, some people say that You Benchang is "crazy", and some people say that he has become a "Jigong" in real life.
"The shoes are broken, the hats are broken, the robes on the body are torn, you laugh at me, he laughs at me, everyone laughs at me..."
Whenever such a song sounds in the ears, everyone can't help but think of the image of "Living Buddha Jigong" played by You Benchang.
After so many years, the 87-year-old you old man is still living energetically, in order to be close to the young audience, he also opened a short video platform, every time, the phrase "dear dolls" as soon as he opened his mouth, it made people feel more intimate.
In a video broadcast by You Benchang, netizens asked him what he was doing? The old man replied very kindly: "I have been creating."
Such a scene has to make people sigh, the same is the old artist, some people like to sell books everywhere, everywhere claim that the role they play is the "most authentic", others are spoofs.
But there are also people who have become real artists.
Finally, I wish Grandpa Ji good health and happiness for the rest of his life. #Jigong ##游本昌 #