Recently, the TV series "Ask the Cangmang" directed by Wang Wei and starring Wang Renjun, Ning Li and others came to an end.
As a key drama to commemorate the 130th anniversary of Chairman Mao’s birth, the drama has received an overwhelming response since its launch on CCTV. In terms of ratings,
has exceeded 1 for 14 consecutive days and won 7 prime time ratings championships, with the highest rating of 1.62.
In terms of reputation, Douban scored 8.7, and many netizens rated it as the best in 2023, with strong storytelling and beautiful pictures.
Some people even praised it as being comparable to "Age of Awakening".
Even the mainstream media such as People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency also praised this drama, praising it for bringing a new trend in the creation of main theme film and television dramas.
With the popularity of the TV series, many viewers have also traveled to Changsha to follow the footsteps of young Mao Zedong.
The success of "Ask the Cangmang" is inseparable from the excellent quality of the series itself.
From the plot point of view, the play follows "The Boy Who Came Together" and "The Age of Awakening" and tells the story from 1921 to 1927.
Mao Zedong, who returned from the First Congress of the Communist Party of China, worried about where the Chinese nation will go and explored the correct path of the Chinese revolution. The
drama series uses delicate and realistic writing techniques to vividly and three-dimensionally present a series of historical events on the screen.
made many viewers sigh that this is a real and vivid "history textbook".
From the perspective of actors, "Ask the Cangmang" explores younger people in its casting.
Young actors such as Bai Ke, Wei Daxun, Niu Junfeng, and Zheng Yecheng all fit in with the word "youth", giving the main theme work a younger expression.
As the most important soul figure Mao Zedong in "Ask the Cangmang", the actor Wang Renjun even contributed an unforgettable performance.
was praised by the audience as: the best young Mao Zedong actor at present.
It is well known that historical greats are difficult to act. The fact that Wang Renjun can receive such high praise is enough to show the brilliance of his performance.
Now I will talk to you about Wang Renjun's performance in the play based on the plot of "Ask the Cangmang".
Compared with past film and television dramas about Mao Zedong, "Ask the Cangmang" uses a different perspective to tell the story of the great man. The
timeline selects 1921 to 1927. There are not many works about Mao Zedong during this period.
"Ask the Cangmang" just fills in and enriches this period of history. It is also the first film and television work to comprehensively and deeply reflect the story of Mao Zedong in this historical period.
In terms of character creation, Mao Zedong is no longer a great man who guides the country as soon as he appears, but is instead portrayed as an early backbone of the Chinese Communist Party.
From a follower of advanced ideas to a pioneer of the revolutionary road, the young Mao Zedong of this period had richer expressions under Wang Renjun's interpretation.
He has a sense of passion.
The story of "Ask the Cangmang" begins with young Mao Zedong swimming.
In his opinion, swimming can not only exercise the body, but also temper the will.
However, swimming was not completely safe due to the turbulent floods, so the old fisherman said bluntly:
You bastard, you are going to die! There has just been a heavy rain, and the river is so strong that instead of taking a boat, you have to swim.
But the young Mao Zedong, played by Wang Renjun, smiled and answered calmly:
Don't care how urgent the water is, as long as you know his temper, there are still ways to control it. It's a boring place to travel.
In just a few sentences, Wang Renjun established the image of Mao Zedong, a young man with high spirits and high morale.
Later, when the workers' strike in Huashi failed and the workers began to waver about the strike action, Mao Zedong stood up and gave a speech.
He told the workers that only Marxism can make our shouts, strikes and struggles achieve final victory.
In this speech, Wang Renjun's lines were sonorous and powerful, and he was full of emotions, demonstrating the passion and appeal of Mao Zedong in his youth.
After Huang Pang's death, Mao Zedong held a grand memorial service for Huang Pang.
Mao Zedong said in his speech, We fight for justice, we fight for justice, and as long as we persist, victory will definitely belong to the laborers.
Wang Renjun's passionate and tragic power in his speech vividly demonstrated Mao Zedong's unafraid of evil forces and his firm belief in revolution.
He also has a sense of compassion.
In the play, in order to better mobilize the workers' movement, Mao Zedong went deep into the mining area to understand the real living environment of the workers. After
arrived at the mining area, a miserable and desolate picture of the miners appeared through Mao Zedong's eyes.
works in a dark mine that collapses at any time, eats rotten rice, and lives in a bed of fleas.
What made Mao Zedong even more angry was the incident involving the wife of an Anyuan coal miner.
After the woman's husband died in the mine, the mine did not pay any compensation, so she had to live with her three children collecting vegetable leaves.
In order to prevent everyone from getting close to her and sympathizing with her, the mine made up a story that she was a devil. In the end, the woman and her child, who was not yet one month old, died under the wheels of a train in the mine.
Faced with the bad conditions in the mining area, Mao Zedong said angrily that those who said she was an evil ghost were worse than evil ghosts.
After Mao Zedong returned to his hometown of Shaoshan, Hunan from Shanghai, the people he came into contact with changed from workers to farmers. After
communicated with farmers in his hometown, the cruel exploitation of landlords and the lack of land for farmers once again deeply hurt Mao Zedong's heart.
Regardless of whether he was facing workers or farmers, Mao Zedong's heart was also fissuring layer by layer.
From shock, sympathy to compassion, the workers and farmers were called on to stand up and their will to seek a new life became more urgent and firm.
He has more fireworks.
To the audience, many historical great figures portrayed by actors have a sense of distance, but Mao Zedong played by Wang Renjun has an extra spark of fireworks.
A lot of details about Mao Zedong’s life have been added to the drama.
For example, the plot of winter swimming in farming, the interaction between family members, and the plot of doing laundry while working in Shanghai.
and his wife Yang Kaihui went out to take classes, and as a novice father, he was in all kinds of panic with his children.
Compared with the cold names of historical greats in textbooks, Wang Renjun in the play makes Mao Zedong full of emotions.
During the labor movement, Huang Ai and Pang Renquan were persecuted. Mao Zedong was obviously stunned when he heard the news.
After confirming the news, his eyes were full of sadness, and even turned red in an instant, with tears in his eyes.
My wife wanted to take a family photo, but due to organizational regulations, no private photos could be left, so Mao Zedong was not allowed to be in the photo.
Facing his wife and children taking pictures alone, Wang Renjun released his guilt, understanding and affection for his family through his movements and expressions.
Jiang Xianyun died heroically. When Mao Zedong saw the final letter sent to him, tears fell on the paper.
And after the Mar-Japan Incident, the revolutionary situation became increasingly severe. Mao Zedong stood by the river and vented his depression with the song "Bodhisattva Man·Yellow Crane Tower".
Through these daily and emotional performances, Wang Renjun better showed the side of great men as ordinary people and shortened the distance between great men and the audience.
In addition, Wang Renjun also performed the young Mao Zedong’s determination and tenacity, and his spirit of never admitting defeat.
In the play, Mao Zedong proposed to establish self-study colleges to develop more patriotic and ambitious young people. However, many comrades were in trouble when faced with problems such as lack of space and lack of funds.
Only the young Mao Zedong was determined not to give up, and actively thought of ways to finally turn the self-study university from a blueprint into a reality step by step.
In order to mobilize the workers' movement more broadly, Mao Zedong proposed a proposal to unite and reorganize the Hunan Labor Union. People on the sidelines admitted that this was a "hard nut."
But Mao Zedong was not afraid. He first went to meet Huang Ai and Pang Renquan alone.
After the other party asked, "Have you ever been a worker?", he went to Anyuan Coal Mine for on-site investigation to learn about the workers' living conditions.
After the Huashi strike failed, he spread Marxist ideas more clearly and vividly to the workers at the labor union conference.
In the end, the working class in Hunan quickly awakened and ushered in the first climax of the Hunan labor movement led by the Communist Party of China.
And under Wang Renjun's wonderful interpretation, Mao Zedong's character also came alive in each historical moment.
also allows the audience to see that only such Mao Zedong can overcome all obstacles and lead the poor and weak old China to stand up and run towards the new world.
It is worth mentioning that "Ask the Cangmang" is not the first time Wang Renjun has played Mao Zedong.
has played Mao Zedong as early as in "Gutian Bugle", "1921", "Midstream" and "Blood and Glory".
Counting this time, Wang Renjun has played Mao Zedong five times.
From the time when Mao Zedong was questioned for the first time in the movie "Gutian Bugle" to now being recognized in "Ask the Cangmang", it all depends on Wang Renjun's dedication and hard work.
In Wang Renjun’s view, creating characters is not imitating them.
The image materials and works of great people are an important basis for shaping characters, but if you stagnate on this basis and only imitate the accents and signature actions of great people, you will not be able to convey the spirit of great people.
So after watching a lot of Mao Zedong materials, Wang Renjun began to figure out his own way of presentation through his works.
It is precisely because of these accumulations and precipitation that Wang Renjun's performance in "Ask the Cangmang" can be more layered and profound.
played the young Mao Zedong so vividly, successfully taking over from Gu Yue and Tang Guoqiang, and injecting new vitality into the image of the chairman.
Wang Renjun once said: playing the role of young Mao Zedong is the greatest honor of his life, and the shaping of the character is also a process of his self-growth and experience.
Wang Renjun, now 40 years old, is in his prime as an actor.
hopes that he will show us a more vivid image of a leader in his future works with his original intention and spirit.
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