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Regardless of his qualifications or education, You Benchang has already belonged to the “uncle” generation. You Benchang is 90 years old this year. He has been reclusive in the city since "Ji Gong" in 1986. From entering the world to being born, he experienced more than 70 roles.
With the popularity of "Flowers", the image of "Uncle Grandpa" has once again made young people aware of You Benchang. This character is omnipotent and omniscient, and instantly triggered nationwide reposting. Everyone hopes to find a "grandfather" in life. We approached "Uncle" and You Benchang with the problems of young people...
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"Wong Kar-wai is a good director"
Before participating in "Flowers", You Benchang had only watched one Wong Kar-wai movie, "2046". Regarding Wong Kar-Wai, You Benchang only knew a little bit about it, and he also knew that the actors used by Wong Kar-wai were all very good.
In "Flowers", You Benchang plays the role of "Uncle Grandpa". In Shanghai's secular culture, "Uncle Ye" is not only a respectful title for elders, but also implies many layers of rich meanings: the old master Kela who has eaten and met, is cunning but humane, has great abilities but hides behind the scenes. The city's "sweeping monk"... In short, he can be called the soul of the play. You Benchang's uncle is known as the most mysterious, aura and charming character in the whole drama. Especially the smile he looks back on in the last scene is said to "make the whole drama".
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In fact, regardless of his qualifications and education, You Benchang has long belonged to the "uncle" generation. Only after "Ji Gong" in 1986, he has been reclusive in the city. You Benchang is 90 years old this year. With his age and experience in mind, he has basically met all domestic directors - "Some of them don't know me well because I haven't shown anything for people to see. I am a stage actor. They I haven’t seen any of my stage works, and I’m not a worker, peasant, or soldier type, so I don’t have any popularity.” What’s even more terrible is that many directors have taken classes with You Benchang and want to call him “teacher.” "How can a director give orders when the actor he meets is a teacher?"
You Benchang said that he could understand it. "It's the rarest thing to make a movie and meet a good director."
When the crew of "Flowers" found You Benchang, he attached great importance to it. For auditions, it would have been enough to just send a video, but You Benchang was not willing. He likes to communicate directly face-to-face. He would rather spend money to go to Shanghai to have a try. "As a result, after I made this decision, an organization in Shanghai invited me to organize an event. All food, accommodation and transportation were taken care of. This is an opportunity, this is fate - you see, good people are blessed by God, let nature take its course, and follow the natural way, and it will be able to Mastery."
When he arrived in Shanghai and saw the script, he didn't even know what character he was going to play. After reading the novel, he found that it was about Shanghai, and he had an idea. Jin Yucheng, the author of the original novel "Flowers", was born in Shanghai in 1958. "I have been in Shanghai for elementary school, middle school, university, and work, so I just want to restore Shanghai dialect. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, I have stopped speaking Shanghai dialect. I do dramas, using Beijing Mandarin, just like Shanghai dialect. Insulation, this is a 'bug'." Let's study uncle again. This character is a small citizen. He has old business experience in old Shanghai. It is not surprising. You Benchang has seen many of the prototype characters of uncle in his life. Old Shanghai is You Benchang himself. accumulation of life. But when he heard that his uncle was Hu Ge's godfather, You Benchang immediately became interested. "I said yes, it depends on the portion, and I really want to give it a try." For You Benchang, the trial of
is not a trial, let alone a sketch, but a communication. "I don't care about doing sketches, because I do acting, learn acting, and teach acting, so I'm not auditioning, I really communicate." An exchange showed You Benchang's rich accumulation and understanding, which surprised the screenwriter and director In addition, there are many more applicable details.
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During the filming of "Flowers", You Benchang slowly picked up his Shanghainese - that is the original juice The original flavor of old Shanghainese. Later, Wong Kar-wai said that his uncle’s Shanghainese was the Shanghainese of his father’s era.
You Benchang said that Wong Kar-wai is a good director. "First of all, he is very familiar with Chinese movies; secondly, he understands actors too well and thinks more thoughtfully than me." Considering You Benchang's age, Wong Kar-wai said, let him put aside his worries, and he can slowly take it one shot at a time. shoot. "I can absolutely do this, then I'll be relieved - I can act the entire section and put all my energy into the performance and the role." Wong Kar-wai specially arranged to drive You Benchang's RV to the filming location , after shooting a scene, let him sit in a wheelchair and go directly to the RV to rest. But You Benchang seldom rests. He is afraid of ruining the performance. He hopes to stay in the feeling of the character, and he does not want to hinder other actors.
Wong Kar-wai is most famous for his love of tormenting people. He takes countless shots in one scene and requires each actor to show many states. This habit is often called "torture", but You Benchang said: "I especially like this, it's great It's great." Some actors reported that they didn't know how to act under Wong Kar-wai and panicked; You Benchang said that was wrong, that was not how he felt. "The more you shoot, the more you have, the more you dig, the more potential you have, the more you shoot, the better. This is what stage performance is like. The more performances you perform, the more you accumulate. But there is a situation where acting is good. Once it is raw, it will be cooked again. Once it is cooked, it will be better. It can produce seconds, and if it happens, it can produce ingredients, but it can also produce oil when cooked. This is the attitude, isn't it? I am a person who likes to perform, and of course I am willing to strive for excellence."
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performed in "Flowers", You Benchang said that he was well prepared for every shot. He would say this or that in one sentence. He would practice four or five ways to say it, discuss and deliberate with the director on the scene, and pursue clarity and accuracy. "It is absolutely not allowed to be generalized. If it is generalized, it will be a mass product. How can you do that? You just have to pursue excellence." You Benchang said that "Flowers" is very good. The screenwriter, director Wong Kar-wai and all the actors have put in a lot of effort and pursued excellence. These days, he is still recording and changing the lines in Shanghainese.
"It is an actor's luck to meet such a good director." When he met "Flowers" and Wong Kar-wai at the age of 90, You Benchang said, it was not that they met too late. "What's the use of being late? It's never too late. This is fate. I'm 90 years old, and all my classmates seem to have left. Why can I stay? Always be prepared, maintain my energy, and finally wait We're here."
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The back of his head can act
Before playing Jigong, You Benchang had been a bit player for more than 20 years and played 79 supporting roles.
You Benchang was born in 1933. He has loved watching Jigong, a famous commentator on Shen Xiaomei, since he was a child. He can still imitate a scene of eating glutinous rice balls. Because of his clear articulation, he often participated in speech contests when he was in elementary school, and his teacher asked him to lead the class in reading. In 1950, You Benchang, who was under 17 years old, played the male lead in the drama "Song of Victory" and won the first prize in the Nanjing Student Drama Competition. After graduating from high school in 1951, he was recommended to join the Nanjing Art Troupe. Later, he was transferred to the Shanghai East China People's Art Theater as an actor with the troupe. In the same year, he entered the Performance Department of Shanghai Theater Academy to study. After graduation, he was sent to make steel, work as a furnace worker, build houses in the countryside, and learn to grow crops.
After finishing his farming career and returning to China, You Benchang was already in his 40s, but he decided to go all the way to the dark side, so he joined the Central Experimental Repertory Theater to play a small role. At that time, he was sitting on the steps, watching others performing on the stage, thinking to himself: Oh, how sacred!
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Among the 79 characters played by You Benchang, there are army soldiers, parade crowds, and servants of royal nobles... Most of these characters cannot be named, and they don't even have a line. No. In the drama "Thunderstorm", You Benchang played a serf, with only ten seconds of the scene.For these ten seconds, he read 19 translations of the original work to understand the historical background of Russian serfdom. In the end, the lame and blind serf he played, coughed and passed by a nearby chair, "with a desire to rest in his eyes."
In the 1980s, Western pantomime had just been introduced to China, and there was no one to teach it. You Benchang read through all the books, imitated different characters and movements, and rehearsed alone in front of the mirror in a room of less than 6 square meters. At the premiere at the Beijing Social Welfare Institute, You Benchang performed 11 shows by himself and changed into 4 undershirts in one night. It was precisely because of pantomime that You Benchang ushered in a turning point and appeared on the 1984 Spring Festival Gala.
That Spring Festival Gala was called the most successful in history. It made Chen Peisi famous, who ate noodles from an empty bowl, and also made You Benchang famous for his pantomime "Bathing". It was because of this Spring Festival Gala that You Benchang was spotted by the director of "Ji Gong" and became famous at the age of 52.
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You Benchang said that the role of Jigong "spent half my life." No one has really seen Monk Jidian. After two episodes of filming, You Benchang still couldn't find the feeling, and the whole crew became anxious. Later one day, he fell asleep on the set and heard the director calling him from a distance. He hurriedly pulled on his shoes and ran back. Because he couldn't keep up with his feet, he ran bumpyly. As he ran, he suddenly realized : "This is the feeling of Jigong!"
Not only You Benchang himself, but also the director said that You Benchang was willing to spare his efforts. During the filming of "Ji Gong", You Benchang slept less than 4 hours a day. Even if he stayed up all night, he would go through the next day's scene from beginning to end in his mind. In order to make a beating scene more realistic, the 52-year-old You Benchang had enough He was beaten 12 times, and after one fight scene, he couldn't even stand up... It is this spirit of pursuing excellence that has made the 8-episode costume fantasy comedy "Ji Gong" an eternal classic in the history of Chinese TV dramas. The scene where You Benchang's "Ji Gong eats elbow" was even included in the performance textbook of Beijing Film Academy.
After "Jigong", You Benchang played Jigong again in several dramas, and of course, he also appeared in the Spring Festival Gala from time to time. But there were too many invitations for similar roles, and he was unwilling to repeat himself. In addition, his wife was seriously ill. After becoming popular, he unexpectedly fell silent. This silence lasted for more than ten years.
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In 2000, his wife recovered, and You Benchang, who was over seventy years old, returned again. He used all his savings to set up a company and directed and acted in hundreds of episodes of the pantomime series "Mr. You Smiles Silently" and "Liaofan". Because pantomime is relatively niche, TV stations are unwilling to risk buying the rights, and You Benchang lost everything. After losing money, You Benchang did not stop. When he was 76 years old, he saw a drama script about Li Shutong. He did not hesitate to sell his house to buy the copyright and filmed "Master Hongyi".
Of course, this is all old news. These things have never been forgotten, and they are all on him. When filming opposite Hu Ge for the first time, Wong Kar-wai commented that "Teacher You can act with the back of his head." After hearing this, You Benchang couldn't answer, and he wasn't happy at all. "This is normal. In the past, we often said that Zhou Xinfang had a drama behind his back. How could there be a drama behind his back? I didn't show anything, so how could the back of my head act? There was no way to act. In fact, I was always in the middle of the drama. My teacher Gai Jiaotian , he took photos of him during the performance, and it looks good from any angle. This means that he is a drama, both inside and outside, including his back. His state is right, the whole state is right, every angle is right, and the person is Everyone should be like this, and all actors should be like this. In fact, this is a passing level."
Everyone seems to have Buddha nature, and there seems to be some connection with Jigong and Li Shutong. You Benchang said, this is what actors are, everyone has an emotional palette. "I myself have more colors, but my personality is somewhat different from the character. When I play a role, there may be fewer colors in a certain palette, so I need to cultivate it.How to cultivate? Learning, supplementing, recalling, and enriching it are like cultivating a new seed. Starting from me and working hard to get close to the character, the character and I are a new seed. The result is the work. This process requires professional efforts. Professionalism means correctness, effectiveness, proportionality, logic, and distinctive features. This is an artistic image. "
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So-called artistic image, You Benchang cited the example of Repin's masterpiece "Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son": "Ivan beat his son, his head bleeds, and his hands covered Standing, blood is flowing from the hands, so classic - you should watch more classics. "
Talking about the methods, good and evil of "Uncle Ye", You Benchang said that actors still need to learn some philosophy. "Philosophical thinking in our traditional culture is Tai Chi, Yin and Yang, and contrast, but now they are all treated as techniques, no. , performance is a specialized category, it is systematic, just like fine arts. Look at the transformation of Picasso. He used to paint very similar pictures, but he finally transformed. Some of us just saw the transformation and thought it looked like Master Hongyi's calligraphy. Why does it look like a child's handwriting? Try it yourself. This is the inner skill... I watched Mei Lanfang's "Mu Guiying Takes Command" with my own eyes. I was sitting at the front desk and I was dumbfounded. Just looking into his eyes, oh my god! These eyes are simply the most beautiful eyes in the world. They are amazing and shock me. "
In his own life, You Benchang said that there are too many roles like uncles. "The problem is, it's not that you have to wait for an elder or an uncle. In fact, you have an uncle in your heart, and you have an uncle in your heart. Elder, then you can find the elder, and if you find uncle, you will chase him. A lot of people didn't notice it, right? You yourself are the best in the world, can you find the elders? There are people outside the world, and there is a sky outside the world, right? "
titanium magnetic clip dual-purpose frame girlgards , if you don’t like it, you really don’t like it. The Shanghai audience is applauding and cheering, with a clear attitude. I like this kind of audience, they know the goods - now this uncle is paving the way for me. "
Whether it is Jigong, Master Hongyi, or uncle, up to now, You Benchang said that his favorite parts in his acting career are still his bit parts. "For me, there are no bit parts, they are all living characters. There’s a lot of room for creativity…I hope I’m free. "
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Entering the world and reborn again, without any hesitation
After the broadcast of "Flowers", You Benchang's social network fans quickly climbed to 12 million. Young people like uncle because of the homophony, and they like to use uncle's stills to pray for blessings on New Year's Day. , the video of You Benchang praying for everyone at Yunju Temple in Beijing has more than 37 million likes.
This matter is said to be mysterious. When it comes to wisdom and origins, You Benchang does have a lot. He is the only male in the family, and he has five He has a sister who was frail and sick since he was a child. When he was 6 years old, his parents listened to the advice of an expert and said that if they were not sent to Shanghai Fazang Temple for foster care, they would not live to be 13 years old. So he lived in the temple for several years with the Buddhist name "Chengpei". He was taken home after the "catastrophe".
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You Benchang once told Hu Ge, what is the play "Flowers" about? It is about entering the world and being born. "Flowers, flowers of prosperity, actually write about ordinary people, ordinary flowers, ordinary people, so they are men and women who eat and drink. Flowers are blooming for ordinary people. What do ordinary people show?" The troubles and troubles are also the troubles of ordinary people. "
You Benchang was born in the world and reborn in the world. If his mind was not in or out of the world, he would have nothing to say about the world. He studied the "Book of Changes" and practiced Zen. He taught the three volumes of the "Heart Sutra", "Diamond Sutra" and "Sixth Patriarch's Altar Sutra" The scriptures, some verses in it say, aiming for the moon will always hit higher than aiming according to the book. One mountain after another, mountains are connected, one ridge after another, ridge after ridge. He lived a long time. , after a lot, now he doesn't have many friends, but he is not lonely. There is no arrangement in daily life, he can do whatever he wants.For example, he admired Kissinger: "You work so long every day, you still eat, you play when you need to play, and you work when you need to work. Everyone has his own life state, and the life state makes it obey your life purpose."
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You Benchang still has many things he wants to do, movies he wants to see, plays he wants to see, and exhibitions he wants to see. He hopes that he will always maintain the desire to learn, fresh things He likes everything. Qin Wen, the screenwriter of "Flowers", a young man (a young man for You Benchang) sent her a photo of doing yoga on WeChat. He said, "I will think of you every day" because he wanted to learn, I am also learning, "As soon as I learn this pose, I will think of her." Finally one day, he learned it and took pictures and sent them to Qin Wen, who said, "You are so awesome." You Benchang has many young friends. You Benchang said that young people are the future. Not only young people, but also young people’s children are also interested in You Benchang. You Benchang’s daughter is teaching children to perform. You Benchang wants to find children like him, such as left-behind children in rural areas, whose parents have gone to the city to work. He wants to do something to create opportunities for these children. "This is our paranoia. We have to do what others don't do. Why do I, the director, like me? Because I am serious, and seriousness is very important. I have to be serious in everything I do. If you recognize the truth, you will not be fooled. False is also true.” The only thing
never thought about was retirement. "First of all, what are you living for? What did you come to this world for?" You Benchang said, "Lie down, you have to rely on this society to support you. Farmers grow food, workers weave cloth, everything you have is eating, drinking, sleeping. It is provided by others, everyone works for you, you lie down and you starve to death, have you thought about it? What is this? The human heart? Can it be like this? If this is the case, can people still live?"
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Life is like mountain climbing. In May 1980, You Benchang climbed Mount Tai. At that time, he was performing in Jinan. After the performance, everyone said they wanted to climb Mount Tai, so a group of people set off in the middle of the night. As a result, he got enough sleep, had breakfast, took a bus to the foot of the mountain, and then took a bus to Zhongtian Gate, where he saw the climbers Young people keep falling by the wayside. The last six or seven people who climbed to the top were all over 40 years old. Some had heart disease and some had high blood pressure. These old guys took their time, took a break when they were tired, drank a cup of tea when they were thirsty, and ate a bowl of noodles when they were hungry. Then I admired the inscriptions of famous people, listened to the waves, and took my time while admiring it, and unknowingly reached the top. "So don't complain about suffering. Everyone is really suffering, but all the suffering is rewarded. Life is suffering, why is it suffering? Always thinking about getting to the end? No, thinking about doing your best. Always thinking about reaching the top, and seeing that it is still so high, Is it a step forward or a step back?"
In the new year, You Benchang said that the message he wants to give to young people is: only learning can make progress. There must be a desire to learn, a pursuit of progress, and a desire for progress. The desire to learn, learning comes first. "The traditional Chinese character for 'xi' has a feather on the top, which represents wings, and a sun on the bottom." He was deciphering the character, "Follow the light." The bottom of 'xue' is a zi, children and students, the more they learn, the more talented they will be. Only when you have feathers can you fly. Then, you have insights and can see. Learn the word "jue" at the bottom of the prefix, which is 'jue', and you have wisdom... right?"
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Photography/Chen Man
Producer/Wang Xiaobai
Image/ Wang Hao
makeup and hair/Li Xinyuan
interview and writing/Wang San
editor/Xuedan
design consultant/regardez
video production/studio6pro
video planning/Wu Keyi
costume coordinator/xixi
publicity/Zheng Haoming
producer/Han Jiangyu
art/ Alien Studio
Assistant/Han Jiangyu, Ji Kai, Mu Ci
Costume Assistant/Kangkang, Fangfang
