"Later Us" created a phenomenon that is rare in the history of Chinese films-
A film with a stain can also be crowned as the king of the box office.
Even if the negative news of the pre-sale continues to ferment, people are panicked. On the other hand, the box office of "Later Us" has been soaring, as if it was not affected at all. With this film, Liu Ruoying has far surpassed Xue Xiaolu , the director of "Beijing meets Seattle 2" , and has become the first box office female director in the Mainland.
But almost no one came out to criticize director Rene Liu, and everyone chose to believe her.
In fact, Liu Ruoying is quite similar to Zhou Dongyu in the film.
In the MV of the first album "Crazy for Love", Rene Liu wore a man's coat with innocent and stubborn eyes.
She was 25 years old that year.
Look at Fang Xiaoxiao, who is played by 26-year-old Zhou Dongyu in "Later Us", how similar his eyes are.
In the scene at the subway station, Fang Xiaoxiao saw Lin Jianqing rushing over, and understood his intention to keep him. The subway door is still open, you can step out...
But she just stood there, staring straight at him, her teeth clenched. Her eyes didn't blink, but the circles around her eyes were slightly red.
The similarities in the eyes are just appearances.
If you know enough about Rene Liu, you will find that the character Fang Xiaoxiao is actually born out of Rene Liu himself.
Not the well-known, sweet and warm "milk tea"; but the other side of Rene Liu, a rebellious, stubborn, and funny older girl.
Although Liu Ruoying came from a famous family, she had a bleak youth similar to Fang Xiaoxiao.
I wanted to make music, but I couldn't get the support of my family, so I had to be an assistant, and the salary was so low that I didn't have the money to dress up. After working for more than three years, the best time for a young girl, she was disgraced.
In 1994, when she met Zhang Aijia , who was cast for the new film "Girl Xiaoyu" , she was wearing a very earthy black gauze dress. He blushes without saying a few words, and doesn't look like he is in the entertainment industry at all.
It's just that the innocence forced out by this embarrassment has become her advantage, so Zhang Aijia immediately decided to play Xiaoyu.
Zhang Aijia added a detail to Xiaoyu in the movie that was not in Yan Geling's original work - the red dress.
The bright tones of the skirt, matched with Xiao Yu's pale face and timid eyes, made this girl who was wandering in a foreign country more vulnerable and sad.
As a result, Rene Liu, who was acting for the first time, won the Best Actress at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Actress at the Golden Horse Awards.
Zhang Aijia once said this to Rene Liu: "When the filming of "Girl Xiaoyu" is over, after her stubbornness comes out, you will find that her brilliance starts slowly."
From Fang Xiaoxiao, you can see what "that stubbornness in the bones" really means.
She can act like a spoiled child in front of the person she likes, or she can swear with true temperament.
But she would never cry in front of others easily.
This is the stubbornness presented by director Rene Liu, and it is also the secret of her ability to survive in the entertainment industry for many years.
She is a singer and has never received performance training, but she can win the Golden Horse, Asia Pacific, Tokyo and other actress awards, and she must have a good "suffering".
Two details may give us a glimpse of her struggle history-
One was Rene Liu and Guangliang in Rolling Stone Records that year, and Mayday Ashin was called "three difficult singers". They dig into the details of their songs and make the staff frustrating. When Shi Rencheng wrote the lyrics for "Later", Rene Liu asked him to drink coffee eight times and told him about his emotional history.
There is also a passage from the grandmother who raised Rene Liu since childhood in "One Person's KTV": "People only see Rene Liu's bright side and think she is lucky, but they don't know the joys and sorrows, it's really a mixed taste. When she got the script, she would read it at night, trying to figure out the mood and tone of the characters in the play. From a little assistant to today, she really watched every step of the way, walking on thin ice, like an abyss."
For this history of struggle, Liu Ruoying himself hardly talked about it. Her vulnerability and sentimentality always exploded when she was holding concerts and singing with fans.
It's just that we can see that she gradually loses her youthful youth and has a more independent personality of her own.
When she first debuted, she may have relied on the innocent girl characters created by Zhang Aijia and others for her. But as her strength grows, she will no longer blindly cater to the public's impression of her "goddess of literature and art".
She is willing to take the risk to play a clown like "Marriage Crazy" in "Pink Girl" , even if many fans change the stage at first sight.
But she acted seriously and turned an exaggerated clown into a masterpiece.
A media once asked Liu Ruoying, is this literary and artistic you real?
Rene Liu never gave a conclusive answer. She even half-jokingly said in the interview that "my literature and art are written by journalists".
In fact, Rene Liu is quite a divided person.
On the one hand she is melancholy and sensitive. Zhang Youyi, who has only acted for half a year, can feel the bitterness of this woman's life and can't come out for a long time.
But on the other hand, she is also keen to be funny, and she is very serious.
In "Later Us", this kind of Rene Liu's bad taste makes Fang Xiaoxiao very cute.
There was one scene that made the audience burst into laughter.
The walls of the rental house are thin, and the neighbors are indescribable at night, and the sound is all over the house. Lin Jianqing was very embarrassed. Unexpectedly, Zhou Dongyu was not shy at all, but instead lied on the bed and pretended to groan.
This is Rene Liu's joke, a bit wretched and cold.
Watching Liu Ruoying's "A Date with Luyu", she spoke like a comedian, even Luyu was surprised.
She talked about all kinds of embarrassing things about herself and kept laughing at herself, completely different from the image in the movie.
On "Kangxi is Coming", her funny ability is no less than that of Xiao S. Not only did he admit that he really wanted to appear in the soap opera "Taiwan Torch", which was very popular in Taiwan at the time, but he also acted on the spot while talking.
Looking for her to play "Half Life", Lin Yihua of "Matchmaker's Whimsical World in the West Wing" once said about her:
"Among Miss Liu's colorful and diverse personalities, being skilled at self-deprecating is definitely very attractive. All those who are not afraid to laugh at themselves, and are even willing to show their weaknesses in front of others to find their own happiness, have experienced a certain degree of death before life. She doesn't mind, it's not that she doesn't take things to heart, but she has already raised the requirements for herself, and understands that her most superficial shortcomings must fade away like dead skin, and new skin will regenerate."
This is probably the state of Fang Xiaoxiao, who was wrapped in a sweater and ironed his curly hair ten years later. Sitting in Lin Jianqing's car, she was still outspoken and made a faint joke: "I am Wang's ex-boyfriend, and every man I have dated with has had a very good life." Her tone was neither happy nor sad, It's like talking about market prices.
This is a kind of open-mindedness that grows from wounds after years of honing.
For Rene Liu, it is roughly reflected in her attitude towards creation. Back then, she would burst into tears because of someone's scolding, but now she doesn't watch the replays anymore. "I don't care much about the result, I only care about the process. Every process is a drop of water in my life."
In order to pursue a breakthrough at the concert, she imitated Jolin Tsai's "Look at My Seventy-two Changes". As a result, "Kangxi is Coming" was laughed at by Xiao S like a Vietnamese bride dancing, which made her look embarrassed.
But now she wears men's clothes, combs her hair, calls herself "Liu Ruonan" to hold a concert, and sings songs of Pu Shu, Song Dongye and others, just because she realizes that there are some words in her heart that she can't say as a girl .
So to this day, she dares to adhere to her usual "hypocritical" style in her debut work, and it can even be said that she has substituted herself into the work.
I have to say, this is indeed a rare piece of truth.
(The first draft of the 1905 Movie Network, keep it. See if the later character drafts will be better written.)
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