On the 2023 Spring Festival Gala, the song "Mom, Is Daughter" sang the complex and tender intergenerational relationship between mother and daughter. In the just-concluded Yishu drama "Cheng Huan Ji ", Yang Zi and He Saifei sang this song again, interpreting the real conflict and attachment, twists and turns and comfort between Chinese mother and daughter. In the play, He Saifei, who plays the heroine's mother, brings to life the paranoia, forbearance, strength and affection of traditional Chinese mothers. She can live a humble and miserable life, but she cannot let her daughter make the same mistakes as herself; all her unbearable and dishonorable experiences are just so that her daughter can live a happier life than herself.
He Saifei's performance makes "The Legend of Joy" not only the sweet love between Yang Zi and Xu Kai, but also the warm mother-daughter relationship. Before the show even ended, the topic #HeSaifei caught Liu Wanyu’s soul# was trending on Weibo. He Saifei truly captured the obsession of the mother named Liu Wanyu in Yi Shu's novel, making this imperfect character truly touching and realistic.
Liu Wanyu, played by He Saifei, is the epitome of a Chinese mother.
Liu Wanyu in "The Story of Cheng Huan" is a character who is not very likable, but also not annoying.
On the one hand, she is very strong. She interferes with her daughter's thoughts, ignores her daughter's privacy, and always wants to arrange her daughter's life according to her own ideas. Liu Wanyu in the play is also very vain and materialistic. She initially prevented her daughter from dating her boyfriend, but after learning that her daughter's boyfriend was a rich second generation, she immediately diligently matched the two.
On the other hand, she does love her daughter as much as life. She protects her daughter unconditionally. When her daughter is wronged, her sky falls. Her philistineness and vulgarity only stem from her humble background and narrow vision, but her love for her daughter is no less than that of others. However, it is precisely because she has no vision and knowledge that she always does things that put her daughter in a dilemma with the intention of "being good for her daughter".
In the original work, Yi Shu described Cheng Huan's mood when he looked at his mother:
Liu Wanyu like this is a mother image that almost everyone of us is familiar with. She was once young and beautiful, but eventually she entered a rough and embarrassing life, working hard for her children and husband until she grew old and died. Her harshness, forcefulness and arrogance are all the cocoons she has carved out in her life, and they are the marks of the years that she cannot escape.
If we are willing to look at our mother for a while longer and understand her better, we can gently peel off this hard cocoon and see her soft heart - even if time has washed her into an old woman. People, but her love for us never changed.
Actually I really want to put the lid on the pot and say, Teacher He Saifei is so beautiful and elegant! So much so that just looking at the stills, I feel that she and Liu Wanyu are not very close to each other... because Liu Wanyu in the original book "The Story of Cheng Huan" is a very ordinary, slightly fat, vicissitudes of life, and even not so good-looking image of a housewife and mother, day after day. The trivial life of the day was rubbed into darkness. And He Saifei really stood there as if his whole body was glowing. But Teacher He Saifei's acting skills are so good that it directly covers up the subtle sense of dislocation in appearance, and makes the audience believe that she is Liu Wanyu herself.
The Yi Shu female supporting role in the drama, the Yi Shu girl outside the drama
In this Yi Shu drama, He Saifei plays a supporting role. But outside the play, He Saifei is a genuine "Yisu girl". Her life perfectly fits the standards of the heroines in Yi Shu's novels: beautiful, smart, independent, and strong. She has the courage and tenacity to risk everything, as well as the sincerity and willfulness to cherish herself.
He Saifei was born in Zhoushan, Zhejiang. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lived with her father. The life of father and daughter is very poor and miserable. The father is always working outside, while He Saifei has been cooking and doing housework by himself since he was 6 years old. The difficult and difficult childhood became the first experience in her life, which laid the foundation for her character of being motivated, rational and independent.
Despite the family's financial difficulties, his father always wanted He Saifei to have a skill so that he would not have to sit in the countryside waiting to get married, but could be self-sufficient and settle down. Under the guidance and training of his father, He Saifei understands the importance of self-reliance. Although she had no innate foundation, she had acquired diligence; she learned musical instruments and Yue opera in turn, and was able to enter the Zhejiang Daishan Troupe. In just one year, she got the opportunity to star in the heroine of the big drama " Lifetime Events" , has emerged since then. Later, He Saifei was selected into the Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Troupe and became a mainstay. In 1984, He Saifei was selected to star in the Shaoxing opera film "Five Women Paying Birthday", which started her acting career.
After that, she successively starred in Miaoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions", the third concubine Tai Meishan in "Raise the Red Lantern", Xiaoe in "红粉", and "Feng Yue". Sister Xiuyi, Xiao Hongyun in "Enemy Lines"... There are many different characters, but He Saifei's seriousness and solemnity are consistent. In order to play the famous Peking Opera actress Mei Shan, she practiced Peking Opera day and night. In order to play the role of drummer Xiao Hongyun, she repeatedly practiced the "drum with lanterns", which is to hold a candle-lit lamp stand with her mouth while singing the tune. She can be 100% committed to any role, even if she is on the same stage with famous actors such as Gong Li, Liu Xiaoqing, and Leslie Cheung, she is not inferior at all.
After making a splash in the film industry, He Saifei came into contact with TV series again, and most of his roles are classics. The epic "Mansion Gate" created many immortal characters, including Yang Jiuhong, a famous prostitute played by He Saifei. She dared to love, hate, and was brave and resourceful, but was gradually devoured by the cannibalistic old society. She is as beautiful as she is. Miserable. Under He Saifei's interpretation, Yang Jiuhong became the most impressive character in the play besides Bai Wenshi and Bai Jingqi.
At the same time, because He Saifei was so successful in portraying beautiful and complex characters such as Mei Shan and Yang Jiuhong, she earned the nickname "Professional Wife".
Later, she successively performed classic roles such as Hai Lanzhu in "The Secret History of Xiaozhuang" and Yazhi in "The Bloody Sun". During filming, He Saifei was injured many times due to her serious commitment. A director said that she "has a 'bourgeois' face, but she is better than a nanny." This ruthlessness and tenacity to devote herself to her career have also made He Saifei a success. Her performances always win praise from everyone.
Although he has already carved a niche for himself in the film and television industry, He Saifei has never forgotten his original intention. She always remembered that she was an opera actor, always running around, cultivating successors for the Yue opera genre, giving charity classes to children, and always participating in Yue opera performances. It is precisely because of this cherishment of opera that she famously spoke out angrily for grassroots folk art workers with meager incomes.
Recently, He Saifei won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress for his movie "Chasing the Moon". Over 60 years old, she wore a beautiful costume designed by herself, with a still clear voice, and stood on the podium with a bright smile, waving the trophy. When talking about the exciting part, He Saifei choked up with tears. She said: "Our (actor) profession is very hard. Sometimes it hurts the body, sometimes makes us sad, which affects our health... But no matter what, I still want to continue to work hard and continue to suffer. I would rather live a few less years." , I also want to create some characters to dedicate to everyone."
Since "Chasing the Moon" has not yet been released, the just-completed Yi Shu drama "The Story of Cheng Huan" is the latest work of He Saifei that we can see. In "The Story of Cheng Huan", He Saifei is no longer the bright-eyed and white-toothed Shaoxing opera star in the past, nor the glamorous concubine who dared to love and hate. Instead, we see her as an ordinary mother image that is different from the past. Although she is only a supporting role in the play, outside the play, she is the one who is closest to the core of "Yishu Girl" because she acts beautifully, lives beautifully, and looks beautiful.
Qiong Yao was hot 20 years ago, and Yi Shuchao was 20 years later.
Although "Cheng Huan Ji" has ended, its popularity remains unabated.The most popular drama 20 years ago was the touching and graceful Qiong Yao drama. Nowadays, the Yi Shu drama with self-reliance and self-improvement as its core has obviously become the mainstream. In the Mainland, Yishu has come into the public eye twice. The first time was in the 1980s. It was said that "Taiwan has Qiong Yao and Hong Kong has Yi Shu." However, Yi Shu's attention at that time was obviously not as good as Qiong Yao's. The second time is contemporary. From "My First Half of Life" to " Golden Years" and then to "The Story of Cheng Huan", the dramas adapted from Yi Shu's works are all hits. Unconsciously, this "Yishu fever" has been going on for a long, long time.
From Qiong Yao's love to Yi Shu's posture, it is a microcosm of the slow transformation and growth of the entire society in the process of urbanization. Yi Shu's brother Ni Kuang once said: "Yishu's novels are excellent literary works. The social awareness in her novels is much stronger than those works that are generally dull, loaded with nouns, euphemistically called serious literature, and claim to be authentic. , I don’t know how strong it really is.”
It is true that although Yi Shu’s works are devoted to women, they do not focus too much on romantic and pathos love stories. Instead, they focus on describing urban women who are smart, courageous, free and generous, and full of ambition and desire. The female characters in Yi Shu's works always have endless vitality. They value personal value above all else. They do not have illusory illusions about love, but firmly believe that self-help is the only way out.
In the novel "City Story", Yi Shu emphasized: "People are always unforgivable for emotional troubles." In "Rouge", Yi Shu wrote: "My destination is health and talent. After all, a person can be trusted. , It’s just him, and he is the one who can be proud of him. What destination do I want? I have found myself, and I am my destination.”
This passage was probably related to the idol dramas and dramas at that time. Qiong Yao Opera is incompatible with the mainstream culture. But 20 years later, with the development of society, economic growth, and the improvement of women's education and asset capabilities, Qiong Yao's supremacy of love has long become part of the outdated values. Wang Baochuan has become a negative teaching material for "digging wild vegetables", and Xu Qin's "white porridge theory" has caused ridicule across the Internet. However, Yi Shu, who has always focused on portraying an independent, self-fulfilling and individual female image, has resonated with more and more women.
The drama version of "Cheng Huan Ji" adapted the original work, and added a scene in which Mai Chenghuan helps her mother realize her dream of performing in an opera. This is more warmth and comfort than the original work. When Liu Wanyu put on the costume and sang her favorite tune with a smile, the mother on the stage and her daughter on the stage completed their self-exploration and reconstruction together.
Of course, Yi Shu's work itself has many limitations. For example, her works are good at exporting the concept of human nature, but the treatment of specific plots is weak, and many plots are often brushed off; in addition, she comes from a good family and lives a sophisticated life, so she does not understand the cruelty that real ordinary people need to face. The truth of life, when describing how the heroine struggles, it is inevitable that there will be a sense of suspension from real life. But the flaws do not hide the merits. The sober and independent core of artistic works can transcend time and space and accurately touch the pulse of the current era. Just like this "Cheng Huan Ji", whether it is the sunny Mai Chenghuan in the play or the transparent and independent He Saifei outside the play, they are all manifestations of the outstanding character of the Yi Shu girl. No matter when, the Yishu girl spirit of self-reliance and self-reliance will never go out of style.
Conclusion
The popularity of "Cheng Huan Ji" not only allows us to see a more different and more plastic purple girl, but also brings the veteran drama star He Saifei back into our sights again. Time never defeats beauty, but captures youth and makes it true. I wish Teacher He Saifei to continue to be beautiful and shining freely, and I also hope that more and more women will have the clear mind and tenacity of the "Yishu Girl", and embrace a more joyful and beautiful life with an independent and courageous attitude.
