Sun Xinqi
The moment Feng Xiaoqin stepped on the battery car and twisted the handle, I knew that Haiqing had picked another play, or in other words, another play had picked her right.
In the entertainment industry where dresses are standard, she may be the only first-line middle-aged actress who wears the uniform of a deliveryman without feeling disobedient.
The fit between Haiqing and Feng Xiaoqin is obviously "freezing three feet is not a day's cold".
Starting from Hu Lijuan in "Double-sided Adhesive", to Guo Haiping in "Dwelling", Edamame in "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law", and then to Tong Wenjie in two consecutive "Little" TV series, she has been like a day for more than ten years It maintains a distinctive and difficult-to-reproduce temperament, so that we can say without exaggeration that there is a special type of film in domestic dramas - TV dramas played by Hai Qing.
For Haiqing, the sensational "Dwelling" 13 years ago pushed her to the front line.
And "House of the Heart", which is currently on the air 13 years later, not only echoes the former in name and subject matter, but is more like a time-space dialogue between Feng Xiaoqin and Guo Haiping, two foreign daughters-in-law.
Haiqing, who "plays two corners", looks back at the past and at the present.
The "national daughter-in-law" in the comfort zone
"Textbook-like acting" is an appropriate evaluation of Hai Qing.
Because every time she takes on a play, she seems to be adding fresh lesson plan material to "On the Development of "National Daughter-in-law".
Looking at the many wife roles she has played, it is not difficult to find that Haiqing has indeed worked out a set of "standard formulas" for shaping Chinese daughters-in-law——
A sharp mouth, a careful mind, a hard-working heart, an honest husband and a group of extremely difficult relatives, is about equal to a "Haiqing-style" Chinese daughter-in-law.
In the words of the fan circle, Haiqing is a very "good" actress, because she has achieved many pairs of "classic CP": Anna and Wang Gui, edamame and aftertaste in "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law", "Mind Art" Mei Xiaohu and Huo Simiao in ".
These happy enemies either turned from resentment to love, or from ambiguity to love.
When it comes to "Little Farewell" and "Little Joy", the rivalry between Haiqing and Master Huang Lei has shown the kung fu of the mouth to the hall level.
The noise and chatter of the Fang family's husband and wife are rare in all domestic dramas.
Fast speech and high pitch are what Hai Qing portrayed; careful thought is the core of "national daughter-in-law".
In "Snail House", Guo Haiping and her husband Su Chun live in a 10-square-meter attic. They need to save long-distance calls when talking to their parents. They need to be careful when sharing facilities with their neighbors. Before entertaining their sister Haizao, they need to deduct their own meals.
In order to raise money to buy a house and raise a daughter, she had to plan the use of every penny day after day, and babbled on the blueprint of her life.
In "Home in the Heart", although Feng Xiaoqin's living conditions are relatively well-off, she is dependent on others and is solely responsible for taking care of the daily life of "two old, one big and two small".
As the general manager of a large family, she not only has to keep an eye on her husband and children's studies, but also is always ready to rummage for clothes for her family, and she also takes the old lady's advice to "fry toon sprouts with less salt" to heart.
In "Little Farewell" and "Little Joy", Tong Wenjie, who has a more prosperous life, not only did not choose to stock her children, but turned into a "chicken baby" mother, devoting this calculating strength to her children's supervision.
In stark contrast are their respective husbands.
Su Chun (played by Hao Ping), Fang Yuan (played by Huang Lei), and Gu Lei (played by Yao Yiqi) have one thing in common, although their family and professional backgrounds are very different.
In these small families, strong women and weak men constitute complementary personalities, and the combination of red and white faces can barely maintain a balance in children's education.
What breaks the ecological balance of small families is the hardships from large families.
In "Beautiful Era of Daughter-in-law", edamame struggles between two in-laws' families and her own, and faces troubles that may be caused by her uneasy younger brother at any time; The separation of Lijuan and Yaping would almost lead to a fatal tragedy; although there is no mother-in-law role in "Home of the Heart", it is replaced by the equally realistic and deadly conflict between aunts and sisters.
In the scene where he decided to sue the neighbors, Feng Xiaoqin and Gu Qingyu turned their faces completely, and Hai Qing used hysterical roars and grimacing grins to push the family-shattering drama conflict to the extreme.
In addition to "Double-Side Tape", most of the wives played by Haiqing experienced a turning point in their lives after many disturbances, and finally achieved a happy ending.
Behind the similar turning point is the tolerance of the "national daughters-in-law" and their efforts to realize their personal values.
Tolerance, hard work, perseverance, and consistent life wisdom, provide a catalyst for the reunion of the broken family life in the TV series, and it has also become a weapon for actors to capture the hearts of the audience time and time again.
Of course, from another point of view, Haiqing has been running the image of "national daughter-in-law" on the screen for more than ten years, which is actually delineating a comfort zone for his acting career.
Some audience members think, "Hai Qing is Hai Qing in everything he plays." They obviously confuse virtual characters with real characters too subjectively, and take it for granted that the down-to-earth performance method is equivalent to acting in true colors.
But this kind of view is endless, reflecting from the side the audience's aesthetic fatigue for the same type of characters, and this is exactly what Hai Qing was worried about when filming "Home of the Heart".
Haiqing also tried to jump out of his comfort zone and challenged different styles of acting.
For example, playing the role of the war reporter Xia Nan in "Operation Red Sea".
In this film with male hormones overflowing the screen, Haiqing is undoubtedly quite eye-catching, but it is a little regrettable that her performance is not dazzling, but because of her talkative upper body several times, the overall tight rhythm is slightly obvious does not match.
Another example is the middle-aged Mary Sue TV series "Sweet".
Although she has maintained a stable performance in the play, the old-fashioned plot of repaying the debt for the husband and the "silly white sweet" character are still not enough to be pleasing.
In a sense, the "national daughter-in-law" is to Haiqing what a 10-square-meter attic is to Guo Haiping.
In this small space, she can live an orderly life, but when she occasionally walks into the spacious and bright commercial building, she can't help but feel strangely uncomfortable.
The middle-aged anxiety that time persuaded to descend
Actors, especially actresses, are not easy to age.
Whether they like it or not, time will carve their unique appearance at different stages of their lives.
For example, the 61-year-old Song Dandan, who was a professional mother-in-law ten years ago, has now become a naughty grandmother, acting as a mother and child with 51-year-old Zhang Jiayi.
Another example is the 59-year-old Zhang Kaili, the former young and beautiful Liu Huifang has grown into a kind and kind Secretary Qu, and Bai Zhidi, who is more than old, plays husband and wife in "The World".
But it is undeniable that the screen is like a magic mirror. Many actors may not be handsome, but they always consciously or unconsciously find their age-fixed time in front of the magic mirror.
For example, Yang Mi, who is 35 years old, can still be "active" in the 25-year-old flowering season.
Another example is Chen Jianbin, who is 51 years old. When he was filming "The Legend of Zhen Huan" 11 years ago, people could vaguely see the 55-year-old Yongzheng.
The 45-year-old Haiqing seems to be frozen at the age of 35 on the screen.
In 2009, "Dwelling" was launched, and she played Guo Haiping, 31, at the age of 32.
In 2022, "Home of the Heart" will be broadcast, and the 45-year-old will play the 38-year-old Feng Xiaoqin.
The 13 years in the real world are only half over in Haiqing's screen world.
In contrast, Hao Ping, who was her partner and husband in "Dwelling", will star in "Trident" in 2020 as the "big troll" Pan Jianghai, who is about to retire.
Different from the relative monotony of the characters, in the time dimension, Haiqing, with its unique advantages, has drawn a fairly generous comfort zone.
It is quite safe to say that 5 or even 10 years later, she will still be able to play Feng Xiaoqin without the aid of medical beauty or filters.
The time in film and television can be frozen or delayed, but the real time will not lie.
The widening scissors gap between the two may not always be an advantage for Hai Qing, and more middle-aged actresses.
They may face a practical problem: when will a daughter-in-law become a mother-in-law?
On the one hand, from Guo Haiping, who was working hard for the first time, to Feng Xiaoqin, who was rooted in Shanghai, she only needs to accompany the birth and growth of her children.
However, from Shanghai daughter-in-law Lijuan to Shanghai mother-in-law Su Wangdi and Hua Yongyu, the difficulty of transformation may not be entirely determined by time.
On the other hand, staying in the same age range for a long time and playing the same type of role is bound to fall into a more intense front and back squeezing over time.
Haiqing, who is middle-aged, has already felt the pressure of competition.
In 2019, she sighed at the film festival, "We are a group of actresses who are very hardworking and keen to perform. We have been insisting in this industry. Basically, there is no sugar daddy or parents. We have been relying on our own efforts since childhood. Go big. And like you, we love movies very much. But to be honest, most of us are passive, and the limitations of the market and subject matter often keep us away from some excellent works, even from the very beginning. isolated."
Her anxiety and sincerity reminded me of Feng Xiaoqin, a middle-aged woman who worked hard and raised money everywhere.
It's not that Feng Xiaoqin doesn't know the attitude of the Gu family towards her, and it's not that she doesn't understand that the possibility of Gu Lei's awakening is almost zero, but she still insists on putting down her face to ask someone to borrow money, and desperately looks at the house to buy a house, because she wants to get rid of the people who depend on others. Insecurity, longing to take root in a big city in a real sense.
In the same way, Haiqing's voice for his peers is definitely not an impromptu or reckless act, nor is it "low emotional intelligence" in the outside world.
She saw that the comfort zone that she had worked hard for more than 20 years was being eroded at an accelerated rate, and she saw a severe crisis that was approaching step by step.
Different from many actresses who follow the fate of Buddhism, Haiqing is not comfortable with the status quo in the comfort zone, and is not comfortable with the passive rhythm of filming and resting when there is no drama. Just as Guo Haiping and Feng Xiaoqin never gave up their obsession with the house, they also Such as Tong Wenjie has never slowed down the encouragement of children.
In this regard, they are fundamentally different from the little daughter-in-law Zheng Juan in "The World".
Liang Xiaosheng said that Zheng Juan is the kind of woman who "as long as she has a promise, her happiness will be sustainable", and her awareness of fulfilling her promise is very weak, almost zero.
In contrast, Feng Xiaoqin is obviously not easily satisfied.
Maybe Gu Lei can make her feel better by learning a few piglets, maybe the 500,000 pension money borrowed from her father-in-law will make her happy for a while, but when the night is quiet and her husband and children are sleeping, she will still be there. Will frown tightly, worrying about repayment.
It seems that as long as the house is not available, as long as the mortgage is not settled, her heart will never settle.
The house is not the ultimate destination, and the "national daughter-in-law" will not be the upper limit.
Whether it is Feng Xiaoqin or Haiqing, they are in anxiety, what they long for from the bottom of their hearts is the peace of mind they have found with their own hands.
A clear bottom line in the human world
Take another look at Hai Qing's face in the TV series.
On these faces, you can see their thoughts, and see that they are uneasy because of real problems such as house, children, mother-in-law, aunt and sister-in-law.
However, in these portraits, it is not seen that they seek shortcuts due to the compulsion of life and excessive anxiety.
She is well versed in the world without being sophisticated, skilled in calculation but not scheming, and eloquent without being acerbic. It is the temperament of Haiqing's face that is not easily noticed by the audience, and it is also the unique temperament of the "national daughter-in-law" prepared with firewood, rice, oil and salt.
"National daughter-in-law" may not have a full-time job, but she is by no means a housewife who only does housework and does not know about the world.
On the contrary, they have an account of profit and loss and expenses, and a sophistication account hidden in their hearts.
In "Dwelling", Haiping told Su Chun to borrow 40,000 yuan from her parents in her hometown, and when the latter put 60,000 yuan in front of her, she excitedly thanked "our mother".
Su Chun's thoughts at this time were, "40,000 is your mother, and 60,000 is our mother. If you don't borrow money, it may be your mother." In "House of the Heart", Gu Xin and the director's daughter Ge Yuedi When he came to the door, Feng Xiaoqin immediately stepped forward to get close, and entrusted her sister Feng Qianqian's work and marriage to her.
The four big characters "Sophisticated" were almost written on their faces.
Beneath their shrewd exterior, they have strong self-esteem.
It is precisely because of the strong self-esteem and clear moral bottom line that when frequently tested by reality, a very strong sense of frustration and grievance is stimulated.
As Haiping said, "Many times I have principles. I don't want to cut corners, and I don't want to be opportunistic. But whenever I see those who are not as good as me because they cut the queue to get tickets before me, those who are not as good as me give up because of I'm really not convinced by the principle of saving more than ten years of struggle."
Those who were not convinced were their younger sisters, Guo Haizao and Feng Qianqian.
At the beginning of "Dwelling in a Nest" and "Dwelling in the Heart", both of them are ignorant girls who have not yet been deeply involved in the world, and are full of curiosity about society.
With the development of the plot, Haizao broke free from Xiaobei's hand and fell into Song Siming's arms, while Feng Qianqian and Gu Xin fell into an incestuous love.
Compared with Haiping and Feng Xiaoqin, they are more outstanding in appearance and have a relatively high starting point. However, under the temptation of interests, they gradually lost their principles and lost their bottom line, and were involved in the complex vortex of the human society.
Guo Haiping and Guo Haizao, Feng Xiaoqin and Feng Qianqian, the contrast between the two pairs of sisters makes the "shijing" and the "philistine" in the same big family distinct.
The same pyrotechnic gas can be seen in Mei Xiaohu in "Mind Art".
Break out of Haiqing, who is short of parents, and endow her with all the external characteristics of "national daughter-in-law".
She and Huo Simiao ruthlessly joked with each other, and the doctors and nurses shrugged shoulder to shoulder, chatting and laughing, bringing a relaxed reconciliation to the unavoidably heavy hospital atmosphere.
But the identity of the angel in white has put a sublime coat on the quirky Mei Xiaohu.
In the face of medical disturbances and injustice, she stood up and spoke with justice; in the face of patients with financial difficulties, she claimed to be relatives and forcibly "opened the back door".
In Mei Xiaohu's body, the fireworks gas has surpassed the scraps in family life, and has risen to the realm of caring for patients and serving the people.
The pyrotechnic atmosphere that is detached from the philistine is the background color that Haiqing paints for the character.
Strictly speaking, Feng Xiaoqin in the novel version of "Home of the Heart" is not a standard "Haiqing-style" little daughter-in-law.
She has plans other than love for marrying into the Gu family, and she controls the relationship with Boss Shi on an ambiguous scale. These undercurrents have polished Feng Xiaoqin into a woman with a more complex and subtle personality, and she has no scruples for her. 's lending behavior provides a relatively rational interpretation.
In the drama version of "Home of the Heart", it may be the resetting of the director or the screenwriter, or it may be Haiqing's own temperament, which makes Feng Xiaoqin's philistine spirit fade away, and the relationship between her and Gu Lei becomes pure. The line with Boss Shi became clear.
In this way, Feng Xiaoqin has been tailored to become another "national daughter-in-law" who realizes the reversal of her life. The actor and the role have once again achieved a high degree of fit, but the emotional connection between the daughter-in-law and her husband's family naturally lacks a layer of reality. Her mentality of borrowing money also made the audience an extra layer of confusion.
Actors and characters, like young couples living their lives, are always in a dynamic balance process of their own adjustment and mutual adaptation.
In order to play a role well, some actors do not hesitate to subvert the previous image; some roles make fine adjustments between the book and the script in order to adapt to the characteristics of the actor.
Haiqing and the "national daughter-in-law" are the representatives of the latter, but they are not the only ones.
In 2003, Haiqing officially entered the public eye with the role of Zhong Ning in "Jade Guanyin".
At that time, she had a ruthless energy that dared to love, dare to hate, and an impetus to dare to think and do.
At that time, she should not have thought that today, 19 years later, she and the label of "little daughter-in-law" are tightly bound and inseparable.
Just like her role as Anna, the pretentious young lady would never have thought of forming a family with the tyrannical Wang Gui, let alone spending this life with him indifferently.
Sometimes, people find their own position and enter the comfort zone of life unconsciously.
But what is different from Anna is that now Haiqing is eager to step out of his comfort zone, use more diverse roles to broaden his acting career, participate in competition with more three-dimensional acting skills, and get rid of anxiety.
To take this step, Haiqing needs to put in more efforts than just fine-tuning the roles from Anna to Feng Xiaoqin.
Perhaps, it is more necessary for her to turn her attention to another Anna - Anna Karenina.
The innocence, rebelliousness and staunchness of women belonging to this type are the character aspects that the "national daughter-in-law" lacks, and it is also the original driving force for Hai Qing to tear off the label and break the circle and be reborn.
For Haiqing, Anna is like a boundary monument, with everything familiar behind her, and everything unknown in front of her.