In 2010, Zhang Fengyi once revealed an interesting story about himself during the filming of "Farewell My Concubine".and said that at that time, everyone felt that Leslie Cheung was too embarrassedBecause Leslie Cheung is too deep in the play, one look can make people's hearts hairy, which makes Zhang Fengyi unbearable.
When Chen Kaige was preparing to film "Farewell My Concubine", who would play Cheng Dieyi became the first problem he wanted to solve. Because the character image of Cheng Dieyi is too special, not only is his feelings complicated, but it is difficult for ordinary people to play his essence. In the end, after repeated selection, Chen Kaige decided to let Leslie Cheung play the role.
At that time, Leslie Cheung was at the peak of his career development, and many film and television dramas he filmed were very popular. Therefore, Chen Kaige believes that Leslie Cheung will be able to play this role well. And Leslie Cheung was also very interested after seeing this script, and immediately agreed to Chen Kaige's invitation to play the role of Cheng Dieyi. Because in "Farewell My Concubine", many Peking Opera elements are integrated.
Therefore, in order to better integrate himself into this role, Leslie Cheung came to Beijing half a year in advance and began to learn the hand-eye-body steps of Peking Opera, and also practiced Mandarin hard, striving to make himself perfect. When everyone saw Leslie Cheung, they were stunned by Leslie Cheung, after half a year of study, Leslie Cheung seemed to be reborn, just like a famous Peking Opera singer. After the official start of filming, Leslie Cheung's performance was even more unexpected than everyone expected. He completely devoted himself to this role, and many scenes that were very difficult in Chen Kaige's opinion, Leslie Cheung was always able to shoot successfully, and the results showed far exceeded Chen Kaige's expectations.
At that time, considering that there were many opera performances in the movie "Farewell My Concubine", Chen Kaige also specially prepared a Peking Opera stand-in for Leslie Cheung. Unexpectedly, after half a year of study, Leslie Cheung had initially mastered the essentials of Peking Opera performances, and he successfully completed the filming of relevant sections without using a stand-in at all. This amazed many of the crew's staff, and they all praised: "Mr. Leslie Cheung has put a lot of effort into filming this movie well."
But soon, the crew found out that something was wrong, because Leslie Cheung was too deep in the play. When they first came into contact with Leslie Cheung, they didn't find anything unusual about Leslie Cheung. But as the filming progresses,Leslie Cheung's every move is more and more like Cheng Dieyi, and even his sitting posture has changed, whether it is in or out of the play, it seems that Cheng Dieyi is standing in front of everyone. During the filming process, what impressed Zhang Fengyi the most was the scene where Leslie Cheung wanted to hold himself from behind.
When filming that scene, Leslie Cheung entered the play very quickly, and when he hugged Zhang Fengyi from behind, Zhang Fengyi was furious in his heart and didn't dare to move, as if Cheng Dieyi was really hugging himself from behind. Although there are only a few dozen seconds of footage, it still leaves a lot of psychological shadow on Zhang Fengyi. After that, Zhang Fengyi began to avoid Leslie Cheung intentionally or unintentionally, in Zhang Fengyi's words: "At that time, as long as I looked at Leslie Cheung more, I would feel furious."
It can be said that when filming "Farewell My Concubine", Leslie Cheung was definitely Zhang Fengyi's nightmare. Even Leslie Cheung himself said in an interview: "After filming "Farewell My Concubine", I haven't come out of this role for a long time, and I haven't filmed again for a year or two." However, it is precisely because of Leslie Cheung's full devotion that he has created the classic character image of Cheng Dieyi. And "Farewell My Concubine" has become a classic precisely because of the addition of Leslie Cheung.
It can be said that it was Leslie Cheung who made "Farewell My Concubine", and "Farewell My Concubine" also made Leslie Cheung. Now, so many years have passed, "Farewell My Concubine" still stands out among many film works and is regarded as a classic, which is enough to see how good a movie it is.