Tencent Entertainment and Movie Island Awards jointly launched the exclusive dialogue column "Film Appreciation SP: Narrations from Filmmakers" - listen to them talk about themselves, movies, and love.
We invited actor Simon Yam to listen to him tell his story with "Temporary Heist".
Ren Xianqi, 58, will usher in a new acting attempt at the beginning of 2024. In the movie "Temporary Robbery", he plays Murong Hui, a typical "bad guy". The welfare home he runs is in trouble. He is in debt and has no choice but to join forces with his good brother Aizang to rob. But how? He didn't even know the beginning of the robbery, and accidentally fell into a more dangerous situation.
Such a role is something that Ren Xianqi has never come across in his more than 20 years of acting. When he first started working in the field of Hong Kong films, most of what Yan Xianqi was exposed to were sugar-coated films, and he often had the image of an "extinct good man". Later, he cooperated with Galaxy Image and created one popular gangster character after another, and he also won an award for "The Big Tree" Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. But Murong Hui's character seems to be in a gray area between these two extreme images. It is not an easy task to not only show the "goodness" of a good person, but also show the bad nature of this person.
But Ren Xianqi likes challenges. Ever since he became popular throughout Asia with "Heart Is Too Soft" at the age of 30, Ren Xianqi has been working and living with a "return to zero" mentality. Singing, acting, filming documentaries, and driving racing cars, he is willing to challenge more possibilities in life, and has made achievements in every field with a humble and diligent attitude. Under the guidance of this mentality, Ren Xianqi successfully became an evergreen tree in the music and film circles - from "the idol of his parents" to "the idol of young people".
Ren Xianqi in real life is actually not very similar to the image on the screen. He is very kind, and will take the initiative to say "good morning" to people he meets, and even cares about how much the other person wears today. At the same time, he is also very sensible, and remains calm to any praise or praise; With a high degree of prudence, we not only consider the benefits to ourselves, but also think about whether we can help more people. During the epidemic, he quarantined more than ten times, just to fight for more job opportunities, and held concerts non-stop for a whole year last year. For him, today's life not only needs to be meaningful, but also has a lot of responsibility and responsibility.
Of course, from my contact with Ren Xianqi, what impressed me most was that age can grow, but curiosity about the world cannot stop. He likes to listen to other people's opinions and stories very much, and then make supplements on this basis. At the same time, he has also participated in many variety shows for young audiences in the past two years, whether it is stage competition or singing reality show, he They are all willing to draw nutrients from young people.
Next, whether as a singer or an actor, I believe that Ren Xianqi, who "never lies flat", will bring us more surprises.
The following is the autobiography of actor Ren Xianqi. He shared with us his story with the movie "Temporary Robbery":
1
This is the first time I have encountered a character like Murong Hui in "Temporary Robbery". I first acted in popular romantic comedies, such as "Star Wishes", "Summer Tea", "Extinct Man" and "Marry a Rich Man", which were joyful and open-minded. Later, I started to play gangsters, such as "The Big Affair" and "The Big Tree". This time, Murong Hui is a very typical bad guy, kind-hearted, and wants to do everything well, but he has no ability, so I wanted to try I'll give it a try, because in the movie I'm almost always in a submissive state, so I find it quite fun to be able to express myself in any way. I am a singer by profession, so I still hope to have more experience in performing.
But to be honest, the role of is not easy to play. Tom Hanks once said that a good person cannot be played perfectly, he must have flaws, so I played him very life-like, holding on and not wanting to let go. , He still has to carry on despite his lack of ability. The most important thing is where is his bottom line? There is a scene in where Jiadong and I have a quarrel and fall out under an overpass. These are all very humane. When filming, I thought of a lot of people around me, because I have also met people with similar personalities, how much they can tolerate, and how they will explode. So it’s really difficult to play a good guy. For a bad guy like a gangster, I just need to bring out all my coldness and fierceness. On the contrary, it’s hard to find a good guy, so I have to work harder to figure it out.
A very interesting thing is that I have collaborated with Jiadong in "The Big Tree Catches the Wind" before, and we both played "The King of Thieves", but we only had the last scene in the same frame. At other times, I knew that Jiadong Lam was filming and Jordan Chan was filming. But I didn’t know what they were filming, and we didn’t know each other in the movie. The interesting thing about the last scene was the editing. It turned out that we finally achieved the convergence of the story lines in this way, which made us all particularly amazed. Jiadong and I are actually very familiar in life. We have mutual friends and often discuss movies together. He is a person who really loves movies. I have observed some details of him. For example, when I was filming "The Big Tree Catches the Wind", I He is the kind of "King of Thieves" who is very flamboyant, but he is very mysterious and low-key, and his eyes are very gloomy. He can completely blend into the dark environment. Sometimes we will look for him on the set: Huh? Where is the family building? It turned out that he had already blended in with the crowd while holding a cigarette, and his performance was very detailed.
Aaron Kwok's appearance in the movie this time is very subversive. We often laughed while filming, not only because of the appearance, but also because of the knowing smile. In this absurd robbery, the two stupid thieves, Ah Zang and Murong Hui, are very busy, so there must be a very subversive combination. Only such a combination will be interesting. Aaron Kwok plays a paranoid, he has his own Principle, it is like a "hand of fate" driving the development of the entire story. Everyone knows that Aaron Kwok is very handsome. When we were reading the script, he had already begun to adapt to the dentures and worked very hard. It was a good attempt. But I don’t think this can be used as a gimmick or selling point. If is too exaggerated or unnatural, it will be difficult for the audience to accept it, because he tried on several pairs of dentures. Some of them are really like those funny movies, which are very nonsensical, but that kind of thing is just It’s not a movie that’s close to ours anymore, but the undertone of black humor is still real.
This movie was made during the epidemic. The control in Hong Kong was very strict. Tests were required every day, and work had to be stopped as soon as there was any situation. At that time, everyone was in a relatively big predicament. Many companies could not operate normally, and shops had to be temporarily closed. People still had to continue their lives. At that time, my mood was really like Murong Hui's, and I was a little helpless because I was also a boss. Employees cannot be fired at will, and I insist that there is no salary reduction, because it is not easy for every family. It is indeed very similar to the situation of Murong Hui running a nursing home. So as long as there is a job opportunity, I will fly there immediately, even if I am quarantined many times, to ensure the basic operation of the company. I felt a lot during that time. I always felt that I was very lucky. After I became famous, my work went very smoothly. But when all the pressure and problems came this time, the hard work was very hard for me. test. So I held concerts throughout last year. On the one hand, it was indeed a long time since I sang for everyone offline and met my fans and friends. On the other hand, I also had to work hard to make up for the lost years.
2
Looking back, I also encountered moments of confusion like Murong Hui's when I was growing up. I was signed before I graduated from college, and I made my debut in 1990. That was the year my first album was released, but it kept improving for the next few years, until 1997 when I sang "Heart Is Too Soft" 》 was confirmed.During these seven years, I also needed to maintain my livelihood and do different jobs, so I hosted programs. I tried animal programs, children's programs, and game shows. I also worked as a DJ and performed in stage plays. In short, I just strived for opportunities. But before a person becomes famous, the conditions are definitely not very good. At that time, I thought: Why can everyone succeed, but not me? If I win the lottery one day, I can go shoot a music video. So I am particularly sympathetic to the character Murong Hui, but I just thought about it, and in the end I realized that I still have to rely on my own efforts. I have never bought a lottery ticket, and I still don’t want to place my hopes on such illusory things. Moreover, if a windfall really comes from the sky, it will definitely be lost very quickly according to my personality at the time. Being down-to-earth is still the most important thing.
My success mainly comes from luck. I have the right time, right place and right people. If "Heart Is Too Soft" were sung today, it wouldn't have the same effect as it did back then. The music environment at the time of was relatively pure. Everyone listened to music very seriously. They had to queue up at the video store to buy CDs and even copy the lyrics of a song. After the reform and opening up, some people have become successful, some are still waiting, some are still brewing, and some will ask me why I haven't succeeded yet? Am I too soft-hearted? It just so happens that this lyrics has sung the voices of many people, and it has expanded into a social-level phenomenon. Its popularity has surpassed ordinary pop music. Generally, young students listen to the song, but at that time, this song was popular among the elderly. , children, and even people working on the street can sing it, which provides a kind of self-relief comfort. In addition, I will also work very hard to learn how to sing and find my own style, because I am not a vocalist. Every singer must have recognition and characteristics at that time. I didn't have that at the beginning. I just want to learn and imitate other people's singing styles. I have tried them by Jacky Cheung and Stephen Chow. These singing styles are very nice, but they are not yours after all, so I keep exploring. I had been waiting for seven years at that time and was already thirty years old. The bottom line I gave myself was that if it didn’t work out, I would just do another job. This industry is amazing. It doesn’t mean that you will succeed just because you work hard and have talent. I needed an opportunity and happened to encounter "Heart Is Too Soft", so I was lucky.
But the test also started from that time. What should I do after "Heart Is Too Soft"? I can no longer sing "The feet are too soft" and "The liver is too hard". I have gained a reputation far beyond my expectations. At that time, I was also a little carried away. I would ask anyone who walked in front of me to get out of the way. Some people would think that I If you get lucky, you will become famous immediately, and then you will fall from the altar. I have a very good teacher named Xiaochong. He told me that you should settle down and not float up. You should be in awe of anyone and anything. You should sing every song seriously and learn how to sing it. Return to zero. These words are very important to me. I adjusted my state. Many new songs came out one after another, which laid my foundation. In addition, the direction I chose is quite right. I want to act and enrich myself. My life would be a bit dry if I kept doing music, so acting would be a good choice at this time. Of course, while acting, I also had to sing theme songs. I acted in a lot of martial arts dramas at that time and sang a lot of theme songs. This helped me broaden my singing style and started doing martial arts and ethnic styles. Looking back now, I The choices are all correct.
When I act now, I mostly help out, and I don’t care too much about the size of the role. I really want to experience the pain of filming, because filming is indeed very difficult, and there is inevitably a lot of cruel torture in the process of polishing the characters, but sometimes creation requires bursting out energy in such a difficult environment. For example, when I acted in a martial arts film, I really felt like I had entered the world of martial arts, where I could enjoy grudges and adventures, and I could feel what it was like to be free. I am very grateful to Teacher Xiaochong. The songs he wrote such as "Heart Is Too Soft" and "Ren Xiaoyao" are very close to me. My own creations are all relatively sketchy, such as "Spring Flowers Will Bloom" and "The Waves Are Blossoming". These complement each other. The music of "My Music" has made my acting career colorful, and I hope my acting career will be the same. I can act in comedies, romance films, gangsters, or a character like Murong Hui who has been destroyed by life. Teacher Xiaochong has always told me that love comes from the heart. If you don't get into the soul of that person and just use skills to express it, it is still not vivid enough. It is necessary to feel and experience life. So in addition to being a singer and actor, I also have the identity of a documentary director. I often shoot documentaries to experience different humanities and customs, and there will be many wonderful gains. For example, I wrote small tunes like "Flowers and Full Moon Night" , it’s all because of exposure to many ethnic music and musical instruments that I know how to make good use of them. The emotions and images produced by each instrument are different. It's the same when I'm a racing driver. The sportsmanship makes my blood boil. In short, experiencing different lives can really help me devote myself to my work better.
I participated in the filming of Hong Kong movies in the 1990s. At that time, there were a lot of talents in Hong Kong movies. I was accepted as a singer first, and then I had the opportunity to get involved in movies. The angle of the character I entered at the beginning was also very close to the style of my songs. , such as Onion Tou and Mo Mo Cha. It was only after I met director Johnnie To that I began to change. In the past, my acting was very simple and easy to understand, and I wanted the audience to see what I was thinking at a glance. But after working with Director Johnnie To, I needed to practice not to be able to tell what I was thinking through my expressions. The audience never guessed what I was going to do next, and gradually I got the hang of it. At the same time, I also began to understand audience psychology. There is actually a blur between black and white in the scale of characters in movies, which is a gray area. This is also the reason why many villains are still attractive. This is especially true for the characters in the story "Temporary Robbery". As small characters, they must have their own motives for doing these things, and these motives can often resonate with the audience. Of course, when playing such a character, we must pay more attention to the construction of his character. We must understand why this person has become the character he is now? What is his outlook on life and values? These are all problems that need to be solved in the early stage of script reading. Movies are artistic creations that need to be made more vital. They are also commodities and must eventually be sold in the market. So after making movies for more than 20 years, I still feel that movies are a difficult thing, but also very interesting.
I have made a lot of new friends and young actors in the past few years, and I really hope to collaborate with them on movies to explore some new possibilities. For example, Yi Yang Qianxi, I watched him when he was young. Now that he has grown up, in his subsequent dramas, I feel that he has put aside the baggage and acting style of a teenage idol when he was growing up, and has a very good performance. With his transformation, he will have more possibilities. I am very happy to see many excellent young actors appearing, and Zhu Yilong is also very good. Nowadays, the subject matter and production level of Chinese films are getting better and better. I really hope that they can better go global and be seen by more audiences.
