1905 movie network feature X, what kind of sparks will collide?A few days ago, a new film starring Zhao Liying and Xin Zhilei was officially announced. The film was adapted from Zhang Yueran’s novel "Big Qiao Xiao Qiao". Zhao Liying played Qiao Yan and Xin Zhilei played Qiao Yan’s sister.
The film will tell the story of Qiao Yan, who grew up in a border town and became a famous actress after years of hard work. With an anonymous blackmail message and the sudden appearance of her sister who has been missing for many years and has returned from Myanmar, the seemingly coincidental hidden behind the bigger crisis.
"It’s a film that’s very close to my personal background, and it’s my most commercially rewarding film to date," said the Burmese-born director, who is directing his first film in mainland China. "It’s very suspenseful, shot in Mandarin, but it’s not aimed at Chinese audiences, and foreign audiences won’t have any problems watching it."
Previously, Zhao Deyin’s film was a frequent visitor to international film festivals and was shortlisted for a focus section of the Cannes Film Festival. Presumably, after the film is completed, it will also strive to appear at international film festivals and compete for awards.
After "Qiao Yan’s Mind" was exposed, the biggest focus and discussion was on Zhao Liying and Xin Zhilei, the two "85 flowers". This year, they both ushered in new opportunities in their careers and had different breakthroughs in their performances.
Zhao Liying has won audience recognition for her TV drama masterpieces such as "Do you know if you should be green, fat, red and thin" and "The Wind Blows Half Summer", and has recently begun to make efforts in the field of film.
She teamed up with Ms. Zhao to challenge her role as a hearing-impaired character, whom Ms. Zhang described as a lever in the story and difficult to play, and praised Ms. Zhao for her surprise performance, "breaking through my own ceiling and not being the Zhao Liying of the past."
Xin Zhilei blossomed in the drama and the synthesis. She starred in the first TV drama, which was popular on the screen. Wang Jiawei admired Xin Zhilei’s chivalrous performance in the drama, so he chose her. Xin Zhilei also played Li Li, the owner of Zhizhen Garden, who was full of charm and cold and mysterious in the play.
At the same time, in the travel variety "Flowers and Youth · Silk Road Season", Xin Zhilei’s sincere, straightforward and lovely personality is truly depicted, which is in great contrast with her usual character image and has won the love of a large number of audiences.
Therefore, we are even more looking forward to the "sister" combination of Zhao Liying and Xin Zhilei to bloom even more brilliance in "Qiao Yan’s Heart".
This expectation is also based on the fact that "Qiao Yan’s Heart" is a "double female lead" movie that has not been seen in a long time. "Double female lead" means that the story is mainly based on two female characters who complement each other and drive the plot together.
In the Chinese "double heroine" movies, classic masterpieces such as "Painted Skin" were born. In the past decade, films such as "Carnival" have also entered the audience’s field of vision.
The "double female lead" mode can bring a visual aesthetic temperament of double beauty to a movie. The independent and dependent relationship between women gives the expression effect of the female story on the screen 1 + 1 is greater than 2. At a time when female themes are getting more and more attention, the expressive value and market potential of "double female lead" movies are endless.
Screen twins, mutual achievement
Movies with two heroines are always full of sparks.This kind of spark is the beauty that sets off each other between women, the entanglement of friendship, struggle, dependence, and resistance between characters, and it is also between actresses who enhance their acting skills through mutual exchange, jointly achieve masterpieces and famous scenes, or win the award of being a movie queen.
It is really unforgettable to share the stage with "The Voice". The spies they played cherished each other and sacrificed themselves. One of the 13-minute-long opposite scenes, the two were full of emotions, and they performed in one go. It was enjoyable, and the audience also enjoyed it.
"In the play, they are like two queens who will decide everything in the future," the director described. "These 13 minutes are the peak of Li Bingbing’s acting so far." The director also praised, "In these 13 minutes, I didn’t see the acting, I saw two real characters."
Zhou Xun once said that he and Li Bingbing were rigorous and casual, and their personalities were completely opposite. In fact, this complementarity greatly stimulated their performance skills and made progress together in one-move interaction.
Such a "two-faced rivalry" later appeared in "July and Ansheng", and the outburst scenes of mutual denunciations and quarrels in the bathroom tore apart the characters’ true characters and the delicate relationship of mirror images.
Zhou Dongyu’s crying scenes are full of appeal. Zhou Dongyu admits that Ma Sichun is a good opponent, and she doesn’t need to brew much, so she can enter the play quickly. Ma Sichun also said that this play, "Let me know myself better, and I have a deeper exposure to some deep-seated things in the performance."
The two have been nominated for a number of Best Actress awards and have won awards together. When faced with competing questions, the two have responded in unison – "What I have is hers, and what she has is mine." "July and Ansheng" has witnessed the friendship and transformation of Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun.
Likewise, and on-screen interpretation of what is a deep sisterhood. Jia Ling directed the first film, Zhang Xiaofei played the heroine for the first time, and they integrated their friendship into "Hello, Li Huanying".
When Zhang Xiaofei was not yet famous, Jia Ling was very distressed to learn that she was bullied by the crew, and sent a righteous document expecting her to "become a big name soon! You are one drama away from becoming my sister’s idol!" If it wasn’t for Jia Ling and this movie, Zhang Xiaofei, who has been diving on the edge of film and television, would not have become popular, let alone have the opportunity to win the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress in a Chinese Film.
In the face of the opportunity, Zhang Xiaofei did not miss it. She firmly grasped it and released all the performance experience accumulated in the past in one movie. Jia Ling cooperated with her tacitly and worked together to interpret the touching mother-daughter relationship.
Being able to win the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress for the second time is also because of a "double female lead" movie like "Mom!".
She and the 85-year-old mother who takes care of her 65-year-old daughter who has Alzheimer’s disease play each other in the film. This is a role that Xi Meijuan believes is the most difficult to play in her career, and she has also achieved one of the richest and most complex performing arts practices. It is her close cooperation with Wu Yanshu that can dedicate this new life to the world.
When Wu Yanshu won the Best Actress Award at the Beijing International Film Festival, she especially thanked Xi Meijuan, who plays her daughter. "This award has Xi Meijuan’s share, and without Xi Meijuan’s achievements, I would not have won this award." In many interviews, Wu Yanshu praised Xi Meijuan as a textbook and intriguing performance, admitting that "without Meijuan dragging me like this, I would not have acted to this extent."
In the "double heroine" movie, because of the performances that rely closely on each other, those delicate and full emotions are superimposed.
Double heroine story, seeking innovation and change
The narrative model of "double female protagonists" can be replicated, but successful cases cannot be replicated.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the martial arts film craze gave birth to beautiful combinations such as "Green Snake" X, "New Crane Needle" X, "New Longmen Inn" Maggie Cheung X, etc. We saw the ruthless beauty of women fighting wits and courage on the screen. With the gradual decline of martial arts films, "double female protagonists" martial arts films have become rare treasures.
After "July and Ansheng" became popular, it was also based on the novel, but it could not continue its glory. The film’s score was only 3.2 points. "Red Rose" and "White Rose" did not have the effect of blessing, but instead fell into a bad script and a chaotic triangular love affair.
Sisters, classmates, girlfriends, enemies, mother and daughter… "Double female protagonists" can find new ideas and stories in regular relationships, and can also break through the framework combination to find fresher interactions between them, presenting the rich and subtle inner world of women.
In the past, we have experienced the adventurous spirit of two women joining hands to resist the patriarchal society in classic movies. In it, through the different fates of two girls of the same name, we have experienced the resilience of women.
So far, the "double heroine" model has spawned more interesting character relationships.
For example, from last year’s Cannes Film Festival to this year’s North American awards season, the actress, the object that the actress wants to play. It is very novel to observe from the perspective of an actress, to intervene in the marriage status of a couple who are lost in love, and to return to the actress’s own perception of acting.
"Double female protagonists" seek innovation and change in order to be more attractive. In addition to "Qiao Yan’s Heart", which Zhao Liying and Xin Zhilei will bring, there are currently several "double female protagonists" movies on the way in China.
And starring in "Family Joy", the selection of new materials, tells the story of a Northeast nanny and a Beijing widow from looking at each other and being tired of each other to cherishing each other. It will focus on the growth and thinking of a single mother and a neighbor girl after meeting. Remake from the high-scoring movie, by and deduce a period from unfamiliarity to snuggling with each other’s grandchildren.
The number of such films in China is currently small, and there is a lot of room for content development and imagination. Whether it is double heroine literature or real-life stories, they also provide a lot of creative materials. I hope that more dazzling "double heroine" films will appear in Chinese movies in the future.
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