I don't understand what it means to be "old". 60 year old Ye Tong: Before playing the role of an old man, "I Love You!" hosted a white haired special film | Shanghai | Ye Tong
"Are we still worthy of love when we're old?" At the theme event of the white haired screening of the Shanghai film "I Love You!" on June 30th, the host threw the question to the elderly audience in the Thousand People Hall of Shanghai Cinema, as well as to the four main creators on stage: director Han Yan, starring Ni Dahong, Hui Yinghong, and Ye Tong.
According to Lighthouse Professional, as of 12:00 on July 1st, the box office of the film has exceeded 275 million yuan. The portrayal of love and spiritual world among the elderly in the film has moved many viewers to tears and also prompted them to rethink what "old" means.
Before the interaction begins, the on-site staff will move a few white chairs. Unlike usual roadshows that end hastily within half an hour, this special session of "I Love You!" will last for one hour. The creators sit down, chat slowly, and think slowly about the answers to the questions.
Director Han Yan is born in the 1980s, Hui Yinghong and Ni Dahong are both 63 years old, and 60 year old Ye Tong looks clean with short white hair. Leung Ka fai, who was unable to attend, was the oldest among the leading actors, 65 years old. However, Ye Tong revealed that a major challenge at the filming scene was "how can one hold back and pretend to continue performing as if nothing had happened when seeing Leung Ka fai's abdominal muscles".
"I Love You!" is adapted from a Korean manga of the same name, telling the story of four elderly people and two lovers. The empty nest elderly often become estranged from the lonely old lady Li Huiru, who picks up scraps and refuses to fight, gradually developing feelings for each other; The elderly couple Xie Dingshan and Zhao Huanxin make a living by collecting and selling waste, while their wife Zhao Huanxin is deeply troubled by illness.
Hui Yinghong, who is still waiting for love to arrive, has incorporated many improvisations into the movie. For example, when Huiru held hands with Lao Chang for the first time, she suggested only holding the tail of her finger to show the early reserved state of emotions. "I've also been in a romantic relationship before, hooking my boyfriend's finger and tail." During the murder scene, Lao Chang said to Hui Ru, "I love you." Hui Yinghong felt blood rushing up, her face burning hot, and tears streaming down her face. "That's a real emotion, not a performance. I'm also looking forward to someone saying 'I love you' to me."
When the audience shouted "I love you", she laughed and almost fell off her chair. "What I want is my 'spouse' to tell me," she said
Ni Dahong, wearing a white duckbill cap and a pair of blue sneakers, is very similar to the old Chang in the movie. Most of the time, she remains silent and can easily make the audience laugh when she speaks. "Shanghai is my blessed land, and my first grand prize, the Magnolia Award, was won in Shanghai. The audience applauding here loves me very much. You know me, I love you all."
Today is a white haired special session, it's my session. Ye Tong is the only actress with white hair on stage, but she is the youngest, regardless of age or mentality. She will pick up a chair, take cute little steps forward, occasionally throw a meme to liven up the atmosphere on site. When an audience member mentioned that the most memorable character for Ye Tong was Xiao Qing in "The Legend of the White Lady", Hui Yinghong hurriedly picked up the microphone and shouted, "Xu Xian!" When she heard the audience say that she could hardly recognize her in the movie, Ye Tong happily said to the director, "We succeeded.".
Ye Tong said that playing Zhao Huanxin, who suffers from both Alzheimer's disease and cancer, is very difficult. On the one hand, it is necessary to understand her unfamiliarity with the disease, and at the same time, to grasp the degree of "elderly" and "patient" in the performance. "The director has been emphasizing that our play is for the elderly. Sometimes I feel that although my character is a bit old, how is it old? I have many old friends around me who are about the same age as me, but they all look very young. So, do I want to make myself very 'old' just to play an 'old' character? I'm afraid that if I play too much, it will look artificial, and if I play too little, I'm worried that the audience won't feel it. I've been trying to find a balance."
The troubles of Ye Tong may also represent the current struggles of many people towards a sense of age. As a "white haired special session", the audience on site started at the age of 50. Although there were also golden married couples in their 80s, many of the viewers who shared and exchanged feelings were not white haired and old.
A senior college fashion class student specially wore a glamorous dress to watch the movie. Faced with the question "Do we still deserve love when we're old?", her answer was full of sunshine and positive energy: "Our love is ordinary, and we can see the truth. We should live brilliantly, study hard, feed society, and sprinkle love on the world."
"I have watched a lot of Ye Tong's movies, and I have been watching Ni Dahong's works since" The Flower wreath Under the High Mountain ". A fan in his 50s specially rushed from Hefei to Shanghai, and during the Shanghai Film Festival, he watched several movies." People must age elegantly and not be bound by their own behavior due to age. "
A recent audience member who has just obtained an elderly card is also a fan of the Shanghai Film Festival. "I watched 21 movies at this year's festival, and I met many young people because of watching movies. My mentality is also very young, and I live a 70 year old life at the age of 50." She believes that the characters in "I Love You!" are very similar to her friends around her. "I have a friend who is like the old lady played by Ni Dahong, who can wear colorful trendy clothes, and a classmate who is the same age as me is still single."
"People should live in the present, don't think that at this age, these things should not be done anymore." The audience's emotions are also the theme that the movie wants to express. Han Yan admitted that the original ending of the movie was quite pessimistic. If you observe carefully, you will find that when Lao Chang falls in the park, the words appearing in the hospital room in the picture are reversed. There are no electric wires or railways near Li Huiru's home, which are all metaphors of the non real world. "Although I wrote a beautiful ending, I didn't believe it before filming. Originally, after Lao Chang fell from the park, his life had come to an abrupt end, and the scenes behind were all fantasies. Li Huiru's home was a fairytale like existence. My initial pessimism about this story was also that of most people towards aging. I put the initial fear into the movie, but during filming, I was infected by several artists. I filmed many endings, and ultimately chose this one to make everyone feel that the thing of aging is more about the need for healing and a beautiful mentality."
