"Ji Gong" is a different figure from the previous image of the "Buddha", he eats meat and drinks wine, does not adhere to the set of monks, and the whole person looks confused, this character can be said to be a subversive existence.
With superb and natural acting skills, You Benchang has acted into the heart of the jigong who shakes the broken fan, wears a broken robe, and is cynical.
Anyone who looks at it thinks that this is what Jigong should look like.
01
In 1933, You Benchang was born in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, a family that could not be more ordinary.
You Benchang has been a sick seedling since he was a child, and because of his poor physique, he often runs to the hospital.
Parents who had no way to ask for help everywhere found someone to tell You Benchang's fortune, and as a result, their parents' hearts were half cold.
The fortune teller said that the child did not live to be thirteen years old, and some people suggested that the child be sent to a place close to the Buddhist Gate.
So when You Benchang was six years old, his parents sent him to a temple in Shanghai to worship.
Interestingly, You Benchang came into contact with the Jigong Biography at a very young age.
Although he took refuge in Buddhism and worshiped his teacher, You Benchang's studies did not end, and he still went to school like other children.
At that time, there was a very famous commentator in the local area to tell the "Jigong Biography", You Benchang's first thing after school every day was to listen to people tell stories, at that time, You Benchang was young but ran to the tea house every day, that was as strong as other children running to the Internet café as soon as school was over.
If you don't listen enough, You Benchang will also memorize the content and perform it for his parents when he returns home.
Gradually, You Benchang was very interested in acting, and through various actions and expressions and lines, he could restore a story.
In You Benchang's heart, a bud that loves acting is quietly sprouting in his heart.
In 1948, You Benchang was fifteen years old, and the original prophecy of "not living to be thirteen years old" was self-defeating, so You Benchang returned the custom.
Such a young man with a great future should not be trapped in front of the Green Lantern Sutra.
After graduating from high school, because he was very interested in acting, under the recommendation of the Nanjing Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, You Benchang entered the Nanjing Literary troupe.
A year later, You Benchang was admitted to the Shanghai Theater Academy and became the first student of the theater.
Four years of study in the class have given You Benchang a new understanding of acting, and he is also determined to make some achievements in the industry.
After graduating from acting, You Benchang was assigned to the Central Practical Drama Theatre.
02
You Benchang feels that his deductive path is beckoning to him, and he is looking forward to his bright future in his heart.
Unfortunately, the reality is always cold, although You Benchang's professional course results are the first, but his appearance does not have an advantage,
Despite his good looks, he was thin and small.
At that time, there were many very strong students in the drama theater, and some of them had already become famous, in contrast, You Benchang was unremarkable, and the protagonist could not play him at all.
Therefore, You Benchang is not a lucky person who has a big role as soon as he graduates, and graduation has opened up his decades of "running dragon sets" road.
For more than two decades, You Benchang stayed in the repertory theater, playing small roles that were not important and almost unnamed.
But You Benchang never slackens any role, and he will seriously eat through each role before he starts acting, which has become the purpose of his acting.
At that time, the troupe was rehearsing the classic tragic play "The Great Thunderstorm", and You Benchang was given the role of a servant.
This role has no name and performance space, and all the scenes are only a short paragraph, that is, the servant played by You Benchang, from this end of the stage to the other end of the stage, and then the performance is over.
For others, this role has no need to be studied at all.
But for You Benchang, even if there are no lines and no more scenes, he still has worked hard.
For such a short segment, You Benchang read more than a dozen other translated versions of the script of "The Great Thunderstorm", just to better understand and get closer to the characters in this story, and then in order to understand the background of the era behind this story, You Benchang also read the novels of the period, even the oil paintings of that period.
In this way, a flash of character, You Benchang used more effort than the protagonist, and studied the role incomparably thoroughly.
This meticulous acting attitude runs through the seventy-nine small roles played by You Benchang in his decades-long career.
In 1981, the movie "A Q Zheng Biography" was selecting actors, and You Benchang was eager to try it out and wanted to get the role.
But he has a lot of worries in his heart, one is that he is embarrassed to introduce himself, and the other is that although he has a lot of acting experience, he is a small role, and he has not acted in a movie.
Just when You Benchang hesitated in every way, someone had already taken the lead, this person was no one else, it was his own apprentice Yan Shunkai, and You Benchang regretted it for a while.
03
In the 1980s, a new form of performance emerged, that is, pantomime.
This imported form of comedy was rarely known at the beginning, so this art did not have a good soil for development.
By chance, You Benchang learned about the pantomime performance, and in the absence of lines, he made the audience laugh with a funny and humorous action performance.
Because he was very interested, You Benchang searched for relevant materials everywhere and read all the books that could be bought on the market that were related to "pantomime".
As an audience, most people will not choose to turn a play over and over again, and when the actors rehearse it over and over again in order to perform.
After figuring out the pantomime, You Benchang began to practice repeatedly, how to make the jokes to the fullest, he pondered and modified while acting.
After three years, I finally had a relatively complete work.
Therefore, when doing a public welfare performance in a hospital in Shanghai, You Benchang tried to act mime for the first time.
What the audience sees is a funny little show, but behind it is You Benchang's three years of day and night efforts.
The hospital premiere was very well received, so Yau Benchang boldly found a theater and said that he wanted to perform mime here.
The people in the theater worriedly said, can a performance without sound be more popular than a sound? But unexpectedly, as soon as the theater announced the ticket information, all the tickets were sold out in less than two hours.
And it is these mime performances that make You Benchang on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
Because in the process of You Benchang's performance, I didn't know that someone on the stage was the general director of the Spring Festival Gala.
The director saw that the new form of performance of pantomime was very popular among the audience, and he himself found it interesting to watch You Benchang's performance.
Therefore, in 1984, You Benchang appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage with the pantomime program "Shower", which made the national audience aware of the name "You Benchang".
Although the response of the show was not as good as expected, the appearance of the Spring Festival Gala gave You Benchang the opportunity to appreciate him.
04
After the Spring Festival Gala, someone suddenly contacted You Benchang, who was the director of "Jigong", Zhang Yi, saying that he was invited to play "Jigong".
You Benchang also came into contact with literary and artistic works related to Jigong in the early years, so he took over the role.
At this time, You Benchang, who was already fifty-two years old, finally ushered in his first protagonist.
A small role You Benchang has to work hard to study, and it is even harder to play the main role. Before entering the group shooting, You Benchang began to study materials related to Jigong.
At that time, the character image of Ji Gong was not very clear, so You Benchang studied one by one from appearance to clothing to appearance.
During the filming process, You Benchang also actively discussed with the director and screenwriter, constantly adjusting the details and his own performance, and later contributed the eighty-five version of Jigong to the audience.
After decades of experience, You Benchang's attitude towards performance is serious and correct.
During filming, there was a scene in which Ji Gong was holding a pig's elbow and eating, but the outdoor shooting temperature was very high at that time, and the props had long been lost.
However, You Benchang had no complaints, and as soon as the director shouted to start shooting, he nibbled on the pig's elbow and ate it very fragrantly.
When the play was complete, You Benchang spat out the flesh in his mouth.
Such professionalism is something that few actors in today's entertainment industry can do.
As soon as "Jigong" was broadcast, it caused a strong response across the country, and You Benchang became a hit, which was inseparable from the solid foundation laid by those seventy-nine characters.
But such glory is a little too late for an old man in his fifties.
05
After "Jigong", You Benchang still maintains his own artistic requirements, never picks up some scripts he does not like because of film remuneration, and always keeps a low profile and concentrates on creating good works.
In 2009, You Benchang announced his official renunciation, and it can be said that he has been associated with the Buddha all his life.
In order to put the drama "Master Hongyi" on the stage, You Benchang sold his family property to set up a troupe, and this work did not fail to live up to You Benchang, who was already eighty years old at the time, and the drama "Master Hongyi" even became popular abroad.
Today, You Benchang is already eighty-seven years old, but his mental head looks quite good, still active in the audience's field of vision, occasionally playing roles in some movies, and the audience feels intimate when they see him.
Although You Benchang is old, the Internet is very good, and the fans on his personal website are as high as tens of millions.
You Benchang often updates some daily videos on the Internet, tells netizens about his situation, and affectionately calls young people "dolls", and he himself is the "Grandpa Jigong".