The TV series "Flowers" directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Hu Ge, Ma Yili, Tang Yan and others, was officially launched last night under the widespread attention of the public.
In the first episode of the TV series, the audience unexpectedly saw a character who was both surprising and full of story, that is, the 90-year-old living Buddha "Jigong" - You Benchang.
Judging from the current situation, the audience has different evaluations of "Flowers" and several actors in it, but You Benchang's acting skills in the play seem to have won universal praise from everyone.
Looking back on You Benchang's journey from his debut to the present, there are legendary stories behind it.
At the age of 87, he participated in the performance of "Flowers", and his excellent acting skills shocked the audience.
You Benchang plays the role of Ah Bao's (played by Hu Ge) noble uncle in the TV series "Flowers", as he describes in his narration: "If business is regarded as an art, then this man is undoubtedly an experienced mage. ”
This story is set in Shanghai in the 90s, which coincides with the stage of rapid economic growth in China.
Since the eighties of the last century, China began to officially carry out the first issuance, and in the nineties, the first market showed a crazy trend, triggering a round of ** trading boom".
Driven by the east wind, many people want to be able to accumulate wealth, and Hu Ge's Ah Bao is also one of those roles. He has loved business since he was a child, but because he has no regular job, he has never survived, and later he found that there is an opportunity to become a boss and make more money. Therefore, Po approached his grandfather in the hope of working with him and learning business skills.
The role of the uncle played by You Benchang, in each of his lines, deeply analyzed the skills of doing business and the current market situation, and successfully deterred Bao, a person who is full of enthusiasm but knows nothing about business.
In order to help Bao better understand the hardships of **, Uncle Grandpa decided to let Ah Bao borrow 6,000 yuan in one day, and then invest all of it in the one he designated, and then sell it all two weeks later.
After Po acted according to the instructions, he suffered a lot of losses.
About this, my uncle told Po: It takes an hour for the Empire State Building in New York to run from the bottom to the roof, but it only takes 8:8 seconds to jump from the roof.
This incident completely eliminated Bao's edge, and at the same time made Uncle realize Bao's honesty and plasticity.
Uncle was originally a member of Bao's think tank, but when Bao became the well-known and majestic President Bao, he always stood silently next to Bao, providing him with the necessary support and protection.
Although You Benchang was 87 years old when the filming of "Flowers" began, in the play, he showed the image of a sixty-year-old young man, with a deep temperament, and his lines were full of power, like a needle that fixed the sea.
In the work "Flowers", Uncle is not only an outstanding character, but also a master who is both rational and unfathomable. Despite his advanced age, he is still in good spirits, growing older and more sensitive to the tactics and methods of the enemy.
Many netizens said: "Whether in the Mandarin version or the Shanghainese version, the role of the uncle played by You Benchang seems to be so perfect, giving people the impression of being the godfather who seems to be watching Marlon Brando, but You Benchang is more integrated into the subtlety and Zen of the East, which is a unique style of Chinese." ”
From the popular "Jigong" in the 80s of the 20th century to the current 90-year-old You Benchang, who is still active on TV screens, his acting career has experienced countless ups and downs.
After a 20-year career as a supporting actor, he played 79 minor roles and rose to fame at the age of 52 for World War I.
On September 16, 1933, You Benchang was born in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, he had five older sisters, and he was the only boy in the family.
When You was only 6 years old, the monk insisted that he would not live longer than 13 years unless he chose to convert to Buddhism. Therefore, his parents decided to send him to Fazang Monastery in Shanghai, where he was taught by Venerable Xingci, whose Dharma name was Chengpei.
Yau Benchang had a keen interest in cinema since childhood, and he had a soft spot for the works of Chaplin and Shirley Temple, so he was particularly envious of actors who had the opportunity to perform on the big screen.
After completing his drama studies, You Benchang was arranged to go to Beijing and worked as an actor in the ** Experimental Theater.
After You Benchang entered the theater, he often played some non-mainstream roles, but he never succeeded in shaping the protagonist.
His actions are not based on his professional skills, but because he does not like to snatch the role of others and does not like to say nice things to please his superiors.
Despite this, You Benchang did not lose confidence, he only had a small role in his heart, and there were no other small roles.
Fortunately, fate favored him, and in 1983, he met Huang Yihe, the director of the first CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
At that time, Huang Yihe happened to go to the theater and was attracted by You Benchang's performance, so he invited him to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Rat in 1984.
Therefore, at the Spring Festival Gala in 1984, You Benchang brought a pantomime called "Shower". His performance caused quite a stir at the time, and the audience applauded him. Although the whole performance lasted no more than four minutes, You Benchang's popularity has increased significantly.
After the Spring Festival Gala, Zhang Ge, the director of "Jigong", found You Benchang, hoping that he could try the role of "Jigong".
Zhang Ge carefully observed You Benchang from a distance, and found that his expression and emotions when communicating with people were completely consistent with his inner imagination of Jigong.
Regarding participating in the performance of "Jigong", Zhang Ge did not reserve too much preparation time for You Benchang, only a month, which made You Benchang's heart full of uncertainty.
Until one day, he happened to see a statue of Jigong in a small street stall in Hangzhou, which immediately inspired him to create, so he imitated the shabby clothes that Jigong was about to wear, and cut the fan into pieces.
Before the start of filming, You Benchang studied a lot of literary works about Jigong, and after the filming began, he continued to reflect on his acting skills.
One day, in the process of crossing the bridge, You Benchang kept running on his feet due to the excessive size of his shoes. After running in these shoes for a while, he suddenly felt that this wobbly gait was like what Jigong did. He walked over and saw an old man standing there, pounding a stone with one hand. He immediately walked up to the director and excitedly declared, "This is Jigong!."”
You Benchang, who was 52 years old at the time, knew that opportunities were not easy, and he worked harder than many young actors.
In the work "Jigong", there are several memorable scenes, one of which is the plot of "Jigong eating meat", which is included in Nortel's teaching materials.
At the photography scene, You Benchang ate large pieces of meat wholeheartedly and ate them with relish, so that the audience couldn't help but salivate.
However, in that summer, when the temperature was as high as 39 degrees, the elbow meat that You Benchang was biting had already begun to stink. After eating, the director took him to an open-air stall and asked him to chew the rest of the meat along with the bones. Despite the terrible smell of the meat, he pretended that it was fragrant, and the director did not stop, but chewed it repeatedly.
After the shooting of this scene, You Benchang felt so nauseous that he vomited all over the place.
During the filming of the TV series "Jigong", You Benchang did not mind any form of remuneration, the cost of one episode was 120 yuan, and the last episode was 150 yuan, and he earned a total of 990 yuan after the filming.
During that period, Lin Qingxia's salary had risen to 250,000 yuan.
However, "Jigong" undoubtedly brought fame and fortune to You Benchang, and in order to further promote this role, he also produced two film and television works, "Jigong Living Buddha" and "Jigong Travel".
You Benchang won the Best Actor Award at the 4th China TV Golden Eagle Awards for playing the role of "Jigong".
So far, at the end of the first episode of "Jigong", he looks at the house he burned down, and thinks of punishing the ** housekeeper. He first smiled with relief, but in the following episodes, half of his face was filled with a hint of sadness, laughing and tears streaming down his face.
The performance was still hotly debated by the audience, and his outstanding performance skills were impressive.
However, the good times didn't last long. In 1991, Yau's wife was diagnosed with cancer, so he gave up his job to take care of her wholeheartedly.
You Benchang refused many invitations, which led to a gradual reduction of contact with him in the industry, and such a free time was as long as 20 years.
Despite this, Yau Benchang, who is passionate about theater, has not given up his relentless pursuit of art.
In his later years, he lost all his family property and pursued only art, not fame and profit.
In 1982, our country welcomed a group of foreign pantomime masters, whose performances won wide acclaim from the audience.
As a result, You Benchang developed a strong interest in pantomime, and in his later years, he deliberately pushed pantomime to a higher level.
He invested in the large-scale pantomime series "Mr. You Smiles Dumbly", but because the content of the pantomime was too niche, no TV station was willing to buy its rights, which led to the failure of Yau Benchang's work to be released, causing nearly a million economic losses.
A few years later, You Benchang was deeply touched by the life of the Ming Dynasty philosopher Yuan Lifan, so he directed a TV series called "The Story of Lifan". This drama received high praise after it aired. However, such non-commercial TV series, despite their fame, do not bring any financial benefits.
In 2009, 76-year-old You Benchang felt that he had a deep connection with Buddhism, so he was ordained a monk at the Daguang Temple in Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province, and was given the Dharma name Dingchang.
In 2011, Yau began planning the drama "Master Hongyi - The Final Victory", but this work did not have much commercial potential and did not receive investment support.
Therefore, in 2014, after obtaining the consent of his wife, You Benchang decided to ** his real estate in Beijing, used these funds to buy the copyright of the work, and leased the theater, and then established a group called "You Benchang Art Troupe", and paid labor fees to start rehearsals.
You Benchang, an 80-year-old man, seems to be back to 20 years old, full of endless vitality.
In the context of the lack of commercial opportunities and sponsorship, he was very attentive and thoughtful from script writing, casting casts, venue set-up to the final rehearsal session, sometimes even taking only 4 hours off a day.
In the first year, "Master Hongyi - The Final Victory" had only 3 performances, but nearly a million in venue and labor costs were invested, and in the second year, despite 7 performances, it still lost money.
In the third year, it received a better response, not only at the invitation of the Hong Kong and Taiwan theater circles, but also performed more than 60 performances in the United States and Canada.
As of 2017, "Master Koichi – The Final Victory" can be performed 130 times in a year.
Yumoto Changdu rehearses with a group of young actors almost every day, and even if they break a bone due to a fall, they will firmly wear bandages on stage to perform.
Although compensation is needed to make the movie, You Benchang never regrets it.
You Benchang, a late-blooming artist, participated in the performance of "Flowers" at the age of 87, and in March of this year, he participated in the 2023 TV Drama Quality Festival at the age of 90 and won the title of "Quality Master".
When accepting the award, he humorously laughed at himself that he had entered the "post-90s" society, and for actors, the greatest joy and happiness is "lifelong learning and continuous work".
When the host of the show asked You Benchang what he wanted to say to the younger generation, he responded: You are really happy, because you were born in a glorious era, and I really envy you.
What he gave to young actors is only 7 words - touching people's hearts in a literary and artistic way, which also reflects his beliefs and pursuits.
Jigong's philosophy of life is "no worries, no worries, no worries, no worries, no worries, no
Although he is 90 years old, You Benchang still hopes to be like Jigong, wandering in the world and continuing to shine for drama.
Don't forget to "observe" a little.