The classic characters in Journey to the West turned out to be played by women, which is surprising!In the 82 version of Journey to the West, there are beautiful women, but there are several male roles played by actresses. These characters are heroic, small and exquisite, and they are very successful.
The first anti-string character: Nezha.
When director Yang Jie first started looking for Nezha's actors, because the actors interviewed did not meet the requirements, she decided to use women to play the role. Ai Jinmei is a Peking Opera Wudan student of Hebei Art School, with real kung fu, and was selected to play Nezha. Although Nezha is a male character, her face looks like a woman. And Ai Jinmei just meets this requirement, plus she has martial arts skills and can be competent in fighting scenes with Sun Wukong. Therefore, Director Yang asked her to play Nezha, and successfully created the image of the heroic and small and exquisite third prince of Nezha.
The second anti-string character: Bright Moon and Breeze.
In the episode Stealing Ginseng Fruit, the little Taoist boy next to Zhenyuan Daxian is reversed by two women. Mingyue is played by Wang Yang, an actress from the China Children's Art Theater, and Qingfeng's actor is called Cai Lin. Wang Yang was 30 years old when he played Xiaodaotong, but he looked like a teenager, born with a baby face, very cute. In order to stimulate Wang Yang's performance effect, Director Yang specially allowed her to use swear words to scold Sun Wukong. Although this scolding was later silenced, Wang Yang's performance was indeed outstanding. Judging from the feature film, Director Yang's strategy is very successful, and Wang Yang's performance is very outstanding.
The third anti-string character: Burning Fairy.
When Sun Wukong was locked in the gossip furnace and burned, the boy who fanned the wind on the side was played by Xu Qing. At that time, there was a lack of two little Taoist children during the filming of this scene, Director Yang and Xu Qing's father knew each other, and it happened that he had two daughters at home, so he invited Xu Qing and her sister to play the fairy child together. However, Xu Qing's sister was too tall to play the fairy, so she found other actors to play the fairy, and let Xu Qing's sister play the maid next to Lishan's mother. Now Xu Qing is already a well-known actor and actress-level figure.
The fourth anti-string character: Xiao Tang Seng.
At that time, when filming the scene of Miss Yin throwing the little Tang monk in Zhenjiang, there was a lack of a baby actor. It just so happened that someone in the crowd of onlookers was holding a baby girl, so Director Yang invited this little baby girl to play the role of Little Tang Seng. In order to consider the safety of the baby girl, the crew arranged for the crew to stay by the water, holding a rope under the wooden basin. A real baby girl was used in the close-up shot, and a doll was placed in the long shot. Due to the limited funds of the crew, the baby was not paid, and the doll was given to her after filming to express her gratitude. The baby girl who played the role of Xiao Tang Seng was called Hu Wenqian, and she only learned that she had played Xiao Tang Seng when she grew up.
The fifth anti-string character is the eunuch.
When the Tang Dynasty sent Tang monks to the west to learn scriptures, a large number of extras were needed. Due to the lack of manpower, Director Yang asked Ma Lizhu, the field reporter next to him, to play a eunuch. Ma Lizhu rarely showed her face during the whole process, and the audience could only see her back. We can only see this reversed character from the stills. Ma Lizhu also played Guanyin and Princess Tianzhu.
Although these actresses and actors have not been on the scene for a long time, their performances are very exciting. Their dedication and hard work add a lot of color to this classic.