Behind the scenes of "Armageddon": Chairman Mao's daughter cried when she saw Gu Yue, and the actor Chiang Kai-shek caused a sensation in Taiwan

In China's film and television circle,

has a special group - special actor , who shoulder the mission of playing important historical figures.

, especially in the traditional theme movies represented by the " battle " trilogy, gave birth to the "first generation" of special actors. They lived in a relatively recent era and history, and many witnesses are still alive, so The casting standards are very high, requiring the unity of form and spirit.

Among them are two old rivals, "Mao Zedong" and " Chiang Kai-shek ". Mao Zedong played by Gu Yue once made Li Ne cry, while Zhao Hengduo played Chiang Kai-shek, which caused a sensation in Taiwan. .

Gu Yue

The strongest chairman actor

After the death of Chairman Mao, an important task was placed on the table, that is, to find special actors to shape the glorious image of the chairman.

Ye Jianying, Chairman of the Military Commission, personally checked and selected hundreds of candidates from studios and cultural troupes across the country. Although there are many excellent actors, Ye Jianying, as Chairman Mao's comrade-in-arms for many years, must find the one in his heart. The actor most like the chairman. When

finally saw a photo of an unknown actor in the art troupe, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he drew a circle on his name with a red pen.

This is Chairman Mao's first and the best special actor Gu Yue at the moment.

Gu Yue, formerly known as Hu Shixue , was born in poverty. Both his parents died when he was 6 years old. He and his sister depended on each other.

Gu Yue

In 1949, when Guilin was liberated, the military art troupe found dozens of orphans lighting a fire to cook in a compound. It turned out that the staff of the orphanage escaped during the battle, and they had to fend for themselves. The leaders of the

art troupe decided to adopt them and cultivate them as art workers, which can not only solve their upbringing problems, but also serve the army.

Gu Yue and her sister were among these orphans. He was only 12 years old at the time. The conditions of the army were difficult, but he had the warmth of a big revolutionary family. Gu Yue's acting talent was not high, and he hardly ever appeared on stage when he was young. Paint and do some background work. The first time

discovered that he looked like Chairman Mao was during a condolence performance. At that time, he was setting up a stage, and the soldiers watching the performance came to help, and suddenly saw Gu Yue and blurted out: "This comrade, you How can you look like Chairman Mao!"

Gu Yue

After this reminder, everyone gathered to watch, and Gu Yue became a little celebrity in the art troupe.

In 1979, Bayi Film Studio was preparing to shoot "Xi'an Incident", and auditioned actors nationwide. The leaders of the regiment thought of Gu Yuelai and sent his photos and materials to the studio director. In front of him, the factory manager has a good eye, and reports Gu Yue's situation to Ye Jianying, which facilitates his acting career.

Due to the lack of basic skills as an actor, Gu Yue worked hard. On the one hand, he made up for the theoretical basis of performance science. On the other hand, with the help of the studio, he found a lot of photos and videos of Chairman Mao before his death, as well as the people around him. Memories and written materials, etc., carefully figure out the role of the great man. The first thing

needs to do is look like, Gu Yue's appearance is six points like Chairman Mao, but there are still gaps in some details, so he almost forced himself to do it.

Gu Yue's Chairman Mao

For example, Gu Yue's hairline is much lower than that of Chairman Mao. At first, he shaved off the hair on his forehead, but the stubble and blue hair affected the authenticity, so he simply used medical means to pull out the excess. s hair.

also has the chairman's unique living habits. Gu Yue found that Chairman Mao liked to put a cigarette between his knuckles when he smoked, and then covered his mouth to smoke, and he himself, like ordinary people, held a cigarette between his fingertips, so he Incarnated as a "smoker", he smoked one by one according to Chairman Mao's gestures every day, and he just practiced his muscle memory.

Chairman Mao also likes to knock the cigarette on the cigarette case before lighting the cigarette, and compact the shredded tobacco , and Gu Yue also learned the same way.

At that time, mandarin was not yet popular, if Chairman Mao on the screen spoke mandarin, it would make people feel awkward, so the director asked Gu Yue to learn Hunan dialect, Gu Yue went to Shaoshan to live in directly. In a few months, I learned to use Hunan dialect for daily communication.

Gu Yue

Her hard work paid off. During the official audition, Gu Yue placed a mole on her chin and walked slowly to the judges.

I saw him calmly took out a cigarette, the lit match was hanging in the air, his eyes were bright, and he spoke a famous saying of the chairman in strong Hunan dialect. Before

finished speaking, the judges burst into applause. The director rushed up excitedly, took his hand and said: , you are the "Chairman Mao" we are looking for!

"Xi'an Incident" caused a sensation as soon as it was released. It was not long before Chairman Mao's death. The audience saw Chairman Mao's screen image for the first time and exclaimed that Chairman Mao had come back to life. Certainly, many enthusiastic people wrote letters to Gu Yue, encouraging him to create a better image of a great man.

The image of Chairman Mao in the movie

This is pressure and motivation, Gu Yue continued to polish his skills, and successively starred in the image of Chairman Mao in films such as "Four Crossing the Chishui" and " Founding Ceremony ".

, especially "The Founding Ceremony", is a high-profile gift film. After watching it, the senior leaders of the central government also praised Gu Yue's performance as being almost real, and he also won the " Hundred Flowers Award " Best Actor Award. The

"Armageddon" series is a masterpiece of the main theme created by the central government with the power of the whole country, which provides a bigger stage for Gu Yue, allowing him to vividly interpret Chairman Mao's leadership of commanding thousands of troops. When the crew of

rushed to Xibaipo for the real shooting, Chairman Mao's daughter Li Ne also came to watch the filming scene. , actually burst into tears.

Li Ne held Gu Yue's hand, helped him sit on the sofa, and said excitedly: "Your hand feels the same as my father's hand." Yue stroked her shoulder and said affectionately: "I understand, I understand." This scene of touched everyone present.

Gu Yue

For example, in "Battle of Liaoshen", when he received a telegram from Lin Biao to change to Changchun, Chairman Mao played by Gu Yue threw the telegram and said angrily: "Just ask Lin Biao to go to the Military Commission. Hey, I'll go to him!"

showed Chairman Mao's decisiveness and distinctive personality in one sentence. In

" Huaihai Campaign ", Chairman Mao mobilized before the battle and waved his hand: "If you eat it, you must eat it." In the more than 20 years of Gu Yue's acting career, he has played Chairman Mao 87 times, devoting his whole life to this matter.

Gu Yue's performance is skillful and full of charm. Everyone who has seen his screen image admits that he is the most like Chairman Mao.

On July 2, 2005, Gu Yue passed away due to myocardial infarction at the age of 68, and can no longer show us the great style.

Gu Yue

The sensational Taiwanese "Chiang Jieshi"

"Chiang Jieshi" is the biggest supporting role in 's main theme film and television . The difficulty of performing is not lower than that of the protagonist. First of all, we must stand firm, not deliberately elevate the characters, and at the same time, we must affirm his historical achievements. Especially out of the need for cross-strait dialogue, it should not be overly uglified.

Chiang Kai-shek first appeared on the screen in the 1979 film "Ji Hongchang". There was only one shot and lacked representation. Therefore, strictly speaking, "Dadu River" released in the same year was his debut. .

And in these two earliest works, the special actor who played Chiang Kai-shek was Zhao Hengduo.

Zhao Hengduo was born in a poor peasant family in Queshan County, Henan Province.Like most of the fellow villagers in Henan, suffering from floods, droughts, wars, and lack of food and clothing for many years, this did not stop him from his passion for art.

Zhao Hengduo

Zhao Hengduo has loved to watch and listen to operas since he was a child, and is familiar with Henan Opera , Henan pendant traditional opera. When

was nineteen years old, troops from the Tongbai Military Division passed by Queshan , and accidentally found Zhao Hengduo who was talented in acting. "In order to be able to eat steamed buns."

is also a real person. He worked hard in the art troupe and was transferred to the General Political Repertory Troupe. Later, he changed his career from the army and worked as a worker in a factory for nearly ten years.

thought that his whole life would pass by like this, because he used to be popular in the army, and when he was auditioning for Chiang Kai-shek's actors across the country, the General Political Repertory Theatre thought of this old comrade-in-arms and recommended him to participate. Zhao Hengduo, who was 49 years old at the time, was close to the old Chiang Kai-shek in image and had certain performance skills, so he was finally selected.

Zhao Hengduo

In the propaganda of the first three decades, Chiang Kai-shek has always been a reactionary and traitor, and it is quite a face.

benefited from the trend of ideological emancipation in the early days of reform and opening up, and also to improve the relationship with Chiang Ching-kuo authorities, Bayi Studio is ready to present a more three-dimensional and fuller image of Chiang Kai-shek to the audience.

Zhao Hengduo's appearance is only three-pointed like Chiang Kai-shek, so it is necessary to go deep into the inner world of the character, accurately grasp Chiang Kai-shek's character characteristics, and strive to pursue the divine resemblance. For this reason, he applied to read a large amount of undisclosed materials, and also visited former senior KMT generals Song Xilian, Du Yuming and others, and asked them about Chiang Kai-shek's living habits and behaviors, and recorded everything in his notebook. After the release of

"The Dadu River", people saw a gentle and introverted, even somewhat refined Chiang Kai-shek for the first time, which caused some discussions.

Zhao Hengduo

However, the times are progressing. In 1981, in the "Xi'an Incident" starring another Chiang Kai-shek special actor Sun Feihu , Chiang Kai-shek began to appear in a more positive image, and slowly everyone began to accept the design. Certainly.

Zhao Hengduo became popular because of his wonderful performance in " Bloody Battle of Taierzhuang " in 1986. Chiang Kai-shek not only appeared as a positive character in the film, but also one of the main characters. The film shows Chiang Kai-shek's political status as the supreme leader of the war of resistance and , and he was also given a lot of credit for being in danger when encountering Japanese air raids.

After the film was released overseas, the response was good. It is said that Chiang Ching-kuo was very moved after watching it, and felt that Zhao Hengduo was very similar to Chiang Kai-shek himself.

The epic "Armageddon" provided a bigger stage for Zhao Hengduo, and the "advantage lies with me" stalk in "Battle of Huaihai" made Chiang Kai-shek's blindly confident and masterful personality traits at a glance.

Zhao Hengduo

And at the end of "Battle of Pingjin", "Chiang Jieshi" made a confession on the eve of his departure from Nanjing. He was unwilling, nostalgic, and the vicissitudes of life. This is a real historical figure with flesh and blood.

In 1997, Zhao Hengduo had retired. At that time, Taiwan was preparing to shoot a TV series with Chiang Kai-shek as the protagonist, and he immediately thought of him.

Zhao Hengduo was invited to Taiwan. During the filming event, he looked like Chiang Kai-shek and caused quite a stir. Many celebrities came over excitedly to shake hands and take photos, among them the popular actress Brigitte Lin and .

is similar to Gu Yue. Zhao Hengduo only played the role of Chiang Kai-shek in his life. He worked hard to improve and perfected Chiang Kai-shek's complex character, making the audience feel that Chiang Kai-shek should be like this.

He also wrote and acted a small drama "The Monologue of Chiang Kai-shek", which made the face-to-face audience hooked.

Zhao Hengduo

Zhao Hengduo is just by virtue of his talent and hard work in acting, he successfully took the role of Chiang Kai-shek on the screen, and because of this, he shined brightly, making people on both sides of the strait remember the Chiang Kai-shek he played .

In fact, there are more than these two special actors who appeared in "Armageddon", Deng Xiaoping played by Lu Qi , Lin Biao played by Ma Shaoxin , Su Yu played by Xie Weichang, etc., all presented us with a visual feast. Bring historical figures to life. The professionalism and professional attitude shown by

in them are worthy of learning from today's performing arts industry and jointly create a new artistic peak.


References

"Ye Jianying's Wisdom to Select Film and TV Actors". Literature and History Monthly 2008 Issue 07

"The Changes of Chiang Kai-shek's Image in Mainland Film and Television Works". Tencent Culture