Li Luyang
The hit of "Meng Hualu" not only triggered the "tide" aesthetics of Song Dynasty, but also made Chen Xiao one of the reasons why many audiences chased the drama.
He endowed "Gu Qianfan", the protagonist of ancient puppet drama who was easy to make a face, with vivid emotions and six desires, and was regarded by many netizens as "an ancient puppet ceiling with both appearance and acting skills".
In all fairness, as an academy actor who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, it is not too much of a challenge to handle a Mary Sue male lead in an ancient puppet show. Combing through Chen Xiao's past roles, we can easily see that Gu Qianfan is not the most outstanding performer. character of.
However, the success of this role, despite the generally worrying environment of actors in costume idol dramas today, may be more or less related to Chen Xiao's suitability for costume roles.
His acting career began in Tsui Hark's film "Di Renjie: The Empire of Heaven", in which he played the villain Lu Li; what impressed most audiences was the infatuation in the costume sadomasochistic drama "The Legend of Lu Zhen" Emperor Gao Zhan; his acting skills are highly recognized for playing Shen Xingyi, an unruly and devoted son of a wealthy family in the boutique legendary drama "The Flower Blossoms That Year"; Back on the cusp of attention.
Started as a costume drama, but was shortlisted for the Hundred Flowers Award for Popular Movies with the role of "Guardian"
Unlike many actors who graduated from Chinese opera, Chen Xiao has hardly set foot in stage performances, and since his debut, his main focus has been on the creation of film and television fields.
Film and television performances focus on the sense of camera and reality. Compared with theatrical stage, actors need to express the emotions of the characters in terms of micro-expressions and action details.
This requires actors to grasp the proper sense of proportion between relaxation and control when performing. If the control is too much, the performance will be cramped, and if the relaxation is too much, the performance will collapse.
In some earlier costume dramas, Chen Xiao's performance was obviously immature, too forceful and a little deliberate. This is the case with the pure and affectionate Yunxi in "Palace Lock Bead Curtain".
Chen Xiao's Yunxi was engraved with the distinctive ancient costume drama brand at that time. The performance was too revealing, negligent and slightly embarrassing.
"The Legend of Lu Zhen" was a turning point in Chen Xiao's acting career, and he began to be able to control himself freely.
The gentle and affectionate King Changguang is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become Chen Xiao's first representative role. The emotional drama between the characters is also advancing layer by layer. He expresses the emotional drama between Prince Gao Zhan and Lu Zhen through delicate performances. Sincerely touching.
Judging from the three meetings when the two met for the first time, each time they met, one of them was in trouble, and the other offered a helping hand. The first two meetings, the two were only grateful. On the third meeting, Lu Zhen rescued them. After taking care of the injured Gao Zhan, the two had a more in-depth contact. Gao Zhan was moved by Lu Zhen's kindness and relieved because of her persuasion.
When Gao Zhan saw that Lu Zhen was injured in order to save himself, Chen Xiao accurately interpreted Gao Zhan's emotional concentration towards Lu Zhen under the sense of distance through a series of micro-expressions between his eyebrows People's further emotional scenes have paved the way.
There must be a gap between the actor himself and the role, and how to combine the two on the screen is a particularly test for the actor.
Performance theory includes "experience school" and "expression school". The former is represented by the Stanislavsky system, which requires actors to fully live in the role when performing; Get out of it, look at the characters objectively, and think about how to express them.
Chen Xiao is very good at combining these two theories and methods, using the "expressionist" method to understand and design characters outside the play, and using the "experience school" performance method to enter the role in the play.
Shen Xingyi in "The Flower Blooms and the Moon Is Full" is a character who is quite different from Chen Xiao's own character. It's an action scene, constantly scrutinizing and polishing the accuracy of movements and facial expressions, and finally Shen Xingyi has become another representative role in Chen Xiao's acting career.
After the broadcast of "Menghualu", many netizens called Chen Xiao an "eye skill school".
In fact, Tsui Hark discovered the potential of expressing his emotions through his eyes very early on.
In "Di Renjie: The Empire of Tongtian", there are often close-up shots to frame the eyes, which restores Chen Xiao's ability to shape the character to the greatest extent.
There are also many clips in "The Flower Blooms and the Moon Is Full". Among them, Shen Xingyi sneaked into Wu's East Courtyard late at night and wanted to take Zhou Ying away. It is very typical: when he expresses his intentions, his eyes are clear and sincere. , revealing the love that was not expressed in the speech; when Zhou Ying's design smashed and splashed tea and woke up, he found himself tied, his eyes revealed consternation, and then he was unwilling; in Zhou Ying's language and slap double Under the attack, he glared angrily; before leaving, he rolled his eyes and shouted: "Zhou Ying, I must accept you in my life", revealing the arrogance that is inevitable and the cunning of the prank success.
Just a small clip presents a series of complex emotional changes such as excitement, astonishment, anger, unwillingness, and pride, vividly depicting Shen Xingyi's naughty and naughty boy-like, the eldest young master's self-esteem and domineering, and his obsession with his beloved woman. With the multi-faceted characters such as tenderness, the performance has a strong sense of hierarchy, creating a three-dimensional and vivid character.
At the same time, in this 74-episode long drama, he accurately grasped every transformation of the character, and gradually grew from a stubborn playboy to a mature man who has experienced vicissitudes of life.
The filming cycle of TV dramas is long, and the actors are usually prone to fatigue. It is not easy to follow the changes of the plot and grasp the changes of the characters.
However, after being immersed in the filming of costume dramas for a long time, it is easy to have some stylized movements of costumed characters in the gestures, and it takes a lot of effort to get rid of them.
In the film "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom", also directed by Tsui Hark, Chen Xiao tried to get rid of the costume drama's performance routine, played the guard Gao Bo, and created an honest, reliable, brave and fearless image.
When filming a scene of the shootout, Tsui Hark asked Chen Xiao not to act impatiently when raising his gun, but to act naturally.
Undoubtedly, he is a perceptive actor who made a successful transformation under the guidance of the director, and also won the Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 33rd Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Films for this role.
Chen Xiao is like a sponge, absorbing moisture from the director and senior actors and filling himself.
Try multiple completely different roles for more plasticity as an actor
The development of the career path of most actors is often faced with a choice: that is, to continue to play the same type of role to deeply integrate their image and role to increase the audience's awareness; or to explore a completely different role, and hide yourself in the role middle.
For example, Wang Yaoqing and Jin Dong both chose the former: one is a professional household of commercial predators; the other is framed in the style of "veteran cadres" no matter what role he plays.
Chen Xiao chose the latter. After being honed by a series of different types of roles, he has gradually lost his childishness. Coupled with the successful practice of the role of guard Gao Bo, he took the initiative to seek transformation and jumped from costume dramas. After coming out, he started a rich and diverse attempt in modern dramas and theme themes.
He has played the characters of Qu Qiubai and He Jingping in two revolutionary works successively. His acting skills and lines have become mature, and he has successfully created the image of a revolutionary martyr with faith in his heart.
In "Smelting into Steel", Chen Xiao plays Qu Qiubai, not only interpreting Qu Qiubai's gentleness and elegance, but also showing the blood and character of a proletarian revolutionary, which not only makes the audience excited by the character's revolutionary belief, but also for the relationship between Qu Qiubai and his wife affectionate and moving.
Especially in the last scene, Mr. Qu is about to be executed. He is tall and straight, his eyes are indifferent, he slowly takes off his glasses, and caresses the buttons his wife sewed for him. The spirit of the martyr, the image of the martyr came alive under Chen Xiao's interpretation; but when Chen Xiao played Qu Qiubai again in the variety show "China in Stories", the effect was not satisfactory. The performance in the TV series pursued details, It is an internalized performance method, which lacks a little tension when applied on stage.
In the drama "Ideal Shines on China", a tribute to the founding of the Communist Party of China, Chen Xiao restored the suffering of the "poet behind bars" He Jingping in Zhazidong concentration camp in Chongqing and his steadfastness in fighting for his faith to the last moment of his life.
In the film, Xiaolu, played by Chen Xiao and six-year-old actor Fu Yisheng, is particularly highlight.
He Jingping taught Xiaolu to read poetry and literacy, reciting the verse "We are born rebels" that he wrote in prison, pointing to the verse on the paper, every word, with patience in his words and pity in his eyes; Before Gun died, he fell to the ground and struggled, trying to show a smile to Xiaolu. This was the last hope he left to this young inmate.
The actors carefully figured out the psychological changes of the characters and accurately designed the details, creating a flesh-and-blood, weak but unyielding scholar martyr.
It is the actor's precise interpretation of the character that enables the audience to understand the intrinsic motivation of the character's behavior and empathize with the character, so that when they were finally killed by a mass shooting, the audience was moved and admired by everyone's calmness and firmness.
From Gao Bo in "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" to He Jingping in "Ideas Shining in China", Chen Xiao's image of revolutionary fighters has gradually become abundant, and his performances have become increasingly mature.
Chen Xiao's attempts in modern dramas are often unexpected, and the roles he has portrayed span all walks of life, including investigative reporters, anti-drug police, marine tank soldiers, radio hosts, etc. Among them, he is particularly special in Shen Yan. The director's main theme work "Breakthrough" plays the investigative reporter Qin Xiaochong.
In previous works, the characters he created were either noble sons, officers or elites, and most of the characters had their own halo.
In this play, he truly and delicately portrays the complex psychological activities of a lower-level character when he is struggling for survival and running for justice, and at the same time, he creates the character's affectionate father image with restraint.
For example, Qin Xiaochong pretended to be in a video with his daughter abroad, with slight tears in his eyes, deliberately raised the tone of his speech, and spoke to his daughter in a tender tone, his face trembled slightly, and when he hung up the phone, his hands drooped, showing loneliness.
A series of actions and micro-expressions are delicate and delicate, and the image of a father who misses his daughter but can't meet because of his hardships is vividly presented.
It is worth mentioning that this role is not heavy in the whole drama, it is a supporting role, but the character has a distinct personality, has inner dramatic tension, and gives the actors enough space to display.
From this, it can also be seen that Chen Xiao's criteria for choosing roles.
Indeed, Chen Xiao's appearance is excellent, but he is not willing to rely on his superior appearance to be a traffic idol.
He does not receive reality shows, and rarely shows his work outside the publicity. Instead, he focuses on the role, honing his acting skills in one after another breakthrough role, constantly expanding the boundaries of his acting career, trying to explore The road of transformation from "idol" actors to "powerful" actors.
"Gu Qianfan" is a safe choice for Chen Xiao
After exploring a series of modern dramas, Chen Xiao returned to ancient costume idol dramas with "Meng Hualu", this time with the mature and calm after precipitation.
At this time, nine years have passed since Chen Xiao's first male lead in the costume drama "The Legend of Lu Zhen", and Chen Xiao's costume image is still pleasing to the eye, which also reflects his professionalism as a professional actor to manage and control himself.
In this play, he plays Gu Qianfan, the commander of the Imperial City Division. We can see his accumulation of performance experience and maturity in performance skills. After years of performance practice, he has become more and more natural and relaxed, and the rhythm of performance feel in place.
On the one hand, he was confident and determined when he created the character, which we can appreciate from the character's first appearance. A long-range shot is zoomed in. He is half-leaning on the couch, knocking sticks and playing with chess pieces, although he seems to be leisurely. , did not personally participate in the interrogation of suspects, but a cold look made the title of "Living Yama" real, showing the cruel and cruel side of the character.
On the other hand, he can also control the performance of the characters in weak situations. For example, in a scene, Gu Qianfan finally woke up after being in a coma for many days. He immediately took a carriage to find Zhao Paner. The eyes wander, the lines pause for a while, and then the eye circles turn red. The details show Gu Qianfan's complex psychology that he cherishes too much and is afraid of losing it, but is even more afraid to face it. The sense of substitution is very strong, and the audience can't help but feel pity for the character.
In addition to his personal play above, what must be mentioned is the emotional play between Gu Qianfan and Zhao Paner.
Whether it was the famous parting scene of "You are on the bridge and I am on the boat" when it was obscure in the early stage, or the moment when Zhao Paner was injured and Gu Qianfan treated her wound after the two gradually fell in love... This drama has produced many classics The candy-sprinkling clip of the film makes the audience immersed in the screen, which is inseparable from Chen Xiao's accurate grasp of the emotional changes of the characters and his familiarity with the expression of the camera; In order to accurately tease and impress the audience with sweet pets.
However, although Chen Xiao's portrayal of Gu Qianfan was successful on the whole, there is still room for discussion in his understanding and handling of the character in some segments.
In many opposite scenes with Liu Yifei, he used excessive internalization to make the performance lack tension.
Judging from a typical clip with high popularity on the Internet, the two told each other about the past. After the previous plot, this is a small climax of the male and female lead's emotional drama. The emotional concentration is very high, and it should show affection. , Affectionately, and he looked at each other with no expression on his face and his eyes fixed. Even with the blessing of the characters, this kind of performance is still a little stagnant.
In addition, his understanding of the character's emotions in some clips is somewhat biased, resulting in a lack of realism in the performance and sudden changes in the character's emotions.
For example, Zhao Pan'er met with Gao Hu to explain that he was engaged to Ouyang Xu. After Gu Qianfan came out to save the siege, he took Zhao Pan'er's hand and left, showing a bright smile, and then in the next scene, he scolded Zhao Pan'er not to ignore it. Anwei came alone, and the facial expression processing in front and the plot in the back were in the same linear time, and there was a sudden conflict, and the emotions before and after were separated, making people wonder why.
At the same time, in this plot, confessing, solving misunderstandings, and entrusting one's wealth should have been a series of complex performance actions and progressive emotional changes, but Chen Xiao's handling was too frivolous, presented in a playful tone and playful expression He came out, contrary to the mature image of this character, but with the simplicity and innocence of a teenager who did not match his age and identity.
As for the comments in the later stage of the plot, that Chen Xiao gradually lacks a sense of existence as the male lead, which may not be able to view the performance in isolation.
"Meng Hualu" is the main female theme material of "Save the Wind and Dust". In order to deduct the theme at the end, the last third of the plot focuses more on the stories of the three women's respective growth, joint struggle and the establishment of female friendship Lines and emotional dramas are relatively weakened, resulting in relatively less space for the male protagonist to play.
In fact, the showbiz has never lacked good-looking actors. Zhu Yilong, Zhang Ruoyun, Li Yifeng and others who are in the same age group as Chen Xiao are very eye-catching.
The uniqueness of Chen Xiao is that he is both righteous and evil, tough and affectionate. If played properly, he can be highly recognizable, but the role of Gu Qianfan only shows his good looks and basic performance qualities. , did not inspire his traits.
It is easy for Chen Xiao to shape the role of reaping the heart of a girl. He continues the experience accumulated in costume dramas over the years, and understands how to show his charm in front of the camera and exude attractiveness just right across the screen.
Gu Qianfan's image of a domineering president in ancient costumes just fits with the current trend of young audiences who are keen on looking good and CP.
For Chen Xiao, this is not his best work, but it is the most popular work since his transformation.
This is probably due to the fact that there are only a handful of excellent works in the current film and television market, and the few large-scale productions blindly pursue visual beauty and actor flow, while ignoring the quality of the script and performance itself.
Especially with the penetration of Internet culture, too many shoddy FMCG works flooded the market, people are also accustomed to "chasing and abandoning" film and television works in a short period of time, and the standards and requirements of artistic aesthetics are constantly reduced and shallow. Albino, we have rarely been able to taste the fun of "grass-grey snake line, a thousand miles of pulse" in genre dramas.
The ancient puppet drama is the most typical industrial assembly line product in the current film and television environment. The micro-expressions and body movements of the actors are cut into very small pieces, and even in some dramas, there will be "performances" like taking magazine photos (just ask You can look good in front of the camera), relying on editing to connect the dynamic poses in series, and the artistry of the performance is castrated.
Actors also no longer have the time and opportunity to immerse themselves in the characters to savor and figure out the emotional motives of the characters, and to ponder the character arcs and psychological changes of the characters.
As a result, there is a continuous stream of products, and the best is better than nothing.
Under such a background, the release of "Meng Hualu" was also jokingly called "relying on peers to set off", and Chen Xiao's choice of ancient puppet drama again is a safe choice in the face of the market.
However, the setting of Gu Qianfan's Mary Su character itself lacks dramatic tension, and has a limited effect on the tempering of a transitional actor. As mentioned earlier, Chen Xiao's uniqueness lies in "good-looking "Beyond plasticity.
The audience's higher expectations for Chen Xiao require him to break through himself, remove the old and make new ones. Only by stepping out of the safe zone can he achieve more growth.
Zhu Xi once said: "If the determination is not firm, it will not help in the end."
In the process of growing up, a powerful actor always has to go through countless active and passive choices. Only by being firm at the countless forks in the career path, not arrogant or impetuous, and shaping each role step by step, can it settle in the years. Transform in character.
Walk slowly, but it will be faster and more stable.