On the night of December 30, the live event "Hu Ge, Ma Yili and Chen Long Celebrate the New Year Together" hosted by the Shanghai Library, East China Normal University International School of Chinese Culture, and Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House was held in the East Building of the Shanghai Library. Several actors from the TV series "Flowers" left the TV series and entered the Yuandu Theater. With "Flowers", they walked out of 2023 and entered 2024 together with readers and audiences.
During the actors' discussion session, East China Normal University professor and writer Mao Jian, who also served as the host, contributed many golden quotes. She said with a smile: "I feel a sense of national pride when I see Hu Ge. When I look at him, I feel that everything is going well." . Can you still imagine a second person playing 'Po'?" The audience shouted: No. The atmosphere at the scene was immediately heated up.
What is the relationship between Mr. Bao and the three women?
Mao Jian asked about the subtle differences between "A Bao" and "Mr. Bao" in the play. Hu Ge said that the difference between A Bao and Mr. Bao is not only the difference in hairstyle and clothing, but also the strong imprint of the times. A Bao has a wild growth, freedom and fearlessness, and infinite longing for the future; while Bao has something more complicated.
"Some people say that Shanghai in that era was a 'cocktail'. The bottom class was rustic in the 1980s, while the upper class had a sense of glitz and prosperity as the economy took off. This statement is also true for A Bao, but whether he is A Bao or Mr. Bao , he will always have Abao’s background in him.”
Hu Ge believes that the biggest similarity between him and Abao is "fighting for air": "I am the same as Abao. The more people say I am not good, the more I have to fight for air; when people say I am good, I can't stand it."
Ma Yili
Mao Jian also raised a question to Ma Yili, who plays the role of Lingzi, the proprietress of Night Tokyo. In the drama version of "Flowers", the relationship between the three women and Mr. Bao all showed a kind of "loyalty". In the past, Wong Kar-wai was recognized as the one who expressed female lust. Master.
This question is difficult to answer. Ma Yili pondered and then said: "Boss Bao and Lingzi are first and foremost partners, so 'loyalty' comes first. You said that Director Wang is a master of lust, but it just so happens that the emotions in many of his works are 'you can't get what you want' ’, ‘asking for something but not getting it’ will make you unable to let go and have room for aftertaste. Mr. Bao and the three women are all like this: restrained, complicated, unobtainable, and ambiguous, so they think about it left and right.”
This "contemplation" with the three women was put in front of Hu Ge. He smiled and said: "I asked the director countless times during the filming, who will I be with? I was also very scared and didn't know how to act. Until Once, I saw an interview with Ingrid Bergman. She also encountered the same question: Who do I love more?" As a result, the director's answer to Ingrid Bergman was: I don't know either. Where will this story end?
Hu Ge believes that it is precisely because of "not knowing" that Ingrid Bergman's eyes when communicating with the two male characters in that movie were full of ambiguous uncertainty, and you couldn't tell her Whose heart is more inclined to. "That uncertainty is exactly what makes the movie what it is, so that's how I played it in my performance."
"Flowers" stills
Thirty or forty NGs are not among the top ten here in Wong Kar-Wai
Talking about his collaboration with Wong Kar-Wai, Hu Ge laughed and said that at first he often couldn't hear the director talking about the drama. "His voice was very quiet when he directed the drama. Later, we all got used to leaning in very close to listen to him narrating the drama."
Ma Yili shared an experience that made her very frustrated. One time when she was making up a scene, she shot six or seven shots using her own acting method. Wong Kar-wai suddenly suggested: Act with a different feeling. But this kind of acting made Ma Yili doubtful. With this kind of doubt in her mind, she wore high heels from 11pm to around 2am, climbed up on a stool to change a light bulb, and took thirty or forty photos. Wong Kar-Wai I have always been dissatisfied and said: I can't see that "empty" thing in your eyes. Finally, Wong Kar-wai said: "Okay, that's it for today. Don't compete."
This made Ma Yili even start to doubt herself: this number of NGs and this director's reaction were unprecedented in her previous career. But Wong Kar-wai persuaded her instead: "Thirty or forty points, I didn't even make it into the top ten NG ones here. They are all still alive and well in the top ten!"
That night, Ma Yili didn't even fall asleep. She tossed and turned and finally figured it out, "I think it's because I don't accept his way of acting in my heart that I can't do it." After understanding the problem, the next day, after only five or six The article passed. Ma Yili lamented: "He is very good at discovering things in actors that he may not even realize."
Another live host, Li Weichang, deputy president of Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, shared another anecdote about filming. Jin Yucheng, the original author of "Flowers", has a guest appearance in the series. What is said is that his uncle has passed away for a long time, and Abao revisited his old place and met Jin Yucheng here.
That day, Wong Kar-wai took more than 40 close-ups of Hu Ge's face until about two o'clock in the night. The two of them were so engrossed in it that they completely forgot about Jin Yucheng next to them.
Jin Yucheng couldn't stand it anymore, so he spoke in the 42nd paragraph: "Director, it's okay this time." Hu Ge and Wong Kar-wai turned to him at the same time and asked: "Why?" Jin Yucheng said with great certainty that the Hu Ge just said Ge's expression and the lines at the corners of his mouth all sent a strong signal that what he was thinking about at the moment was not his brothers or women, but his uncle. I don’t know if Wong Kar-Wai was convinced, but he did another take and the scene was over.
The three actors unanimously mentioned Wong Kar-wai's "threat" to them - "If the performance is not good, I will cut it off", which prompted them to "roll up" in the crew.
Ma Yili was very honest and said: "I think my acting is pretty good, but I don't know if the director will cut it. To be honest, I just want to act until the director can't cut it." Chen Long said with a smile: "Being 'abused' by the director is a blessing."
Hu Ge, on the other hand, has already figured out the ability to know that Wong Kar-wai is dissatisfied just by hearing the word "card" on the spot, and even vividly imitated the difference between satisfied and dissatisfied "card" on the spot.
The three actors are all old acquaintances, and they were naturally relaxed during the lecture. Upon hearing this description, it was obvious which of the three was strong, honest and smart.
Hu Ge
What was it like in the 1990s?
Li Weichang also asked the three actors about their experiences and memories of the 1990s. Ma Yili talked about some of the boss ladies she met on the Yellow River Road when she was a child. They were very capable: "Seven aunts and eight aunts all worked in her shop. One person supported a family and became a team."
Chen Long mentioned that his grandmother used to live in the Jinxian Road area, and she was very familiar with the alley market when she was a child. His mother took him to a restaurant for dinner and gave him two big steaks. At that time, a watermelon was expensive, so she bought a cut piece and ate it on the way home. ""Flowers" really brought me back to that... era."
Hu Ge said emotionally that during the filming of "Flowers", he understood his father more and more. "I was in primary school in the 1990s. I remember that some of my father's friends often came to my house and talked about big deals, but I never saw him making any money. Fortunately, he didn't lose any money either."
In the play "Flowers", little Ningbo clamored to jump into the Huangpu River, but he couldn't tell the difference between the Huangpu River and Suzhou River and jumped into the Suzhou River. Mr. Bao jumped to save others, but was saved by little Ningbo instead. A scene that made the audience burst into laughter had just been filmed. When watching the playback in front of the monitor, Hu Ge was extremely moved.
"Director Wang has a habit of playing music when watching replays. That day he played the music of "Once Upon a Time in America". When I watched it, I was particularly moved and thought of my father." He said, "I used to think that what my father said was not relevant to him. My friend’s stories were ridiculous and funny, and I didn’t believe them at all. But at that moment I believed them, and I thought, just because I haven’t experienced them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
Hu Ge said that "Flowers" added to the jigsaw puzzle of his parents' youthful years, and was no longer just a fragment of his childhood narrative. "In the past, the media often asked me, 'Why did I take on "Flowers"? I think it's because part of my life is in "Flowers."
