Written in the stars
As a young girl, Jiang Wenli dreamed of being a writer. The Best Actress at this October's Rome Film Festival recalls that her engineer father, who was always at his happiest in a bookstore, would buy her a classic novel for her birthday.
Although she grew up on Romain Rolland and Honore de Balzac, she barely knew anyone who worked in the world of art, in small-town Bengbu, East China's Anhui Province. She never thought she would end up as an actress.
But, like many other young, small-town Chinese, she was determined to make it to the big city. When she failed her national college entrance examination in 1987, the best opportunity that came up was a job at the local waterworks. Even so, Jiang kept alive her hopes of a bigger stage.
"There was a fire burning in my heart, getting stronger every day, just like the heroine in the award-winning And the Spring Comes, in which a small-town girl has dreams of art. I knew I wanted to get out of town, but I didn't really know where to go. Leaving was the first priority," Jiang says.
Judges at the Rome Film Festival said her performance in And the Spring Comes (Li Chun) vividly brought to life the character of a woman who does not compromise. In real life, Jiang began her acting life by enrolling at Beijing Film Academy's performance department in 1988, after seeing an advert in a magazine.
She persuaded her father, who was going to Beijing on a business trip, to take her along and try out for an audition. There were thousands of applicants, but just 20 would make the grade. Jiang, who was not a trained actress, treated the trip as a fun outing.
She says she was surprised to make it through to the final rounds. The topic for the deciding acting piece was set out as follows: When the Tangshan earthquake (in 1976, which killed about 240,000 people) occurred, you were out of town. You heard your hometown was destroyed and all your family members had died - but you could not go back to the city for a month. Later, you see the wreck that was your home. Now, act.
While the other applicants wailed, Jiang recalled French painter Eugene Delacroix's Orphan Girl at the Cemetery. The painting moved her to tears as a young girl. She went into a corner and thought of her grandmother, who had recently passed away. When her tears started falling, she raised her head.
All the judges were moved by her "zero performance". Lin Hongtong, one of those judges and a professor at the academy, says her performance revealed her understanding of human nature.
For four years at the academy, Jiang was a favored student and in demand from film crews. Teacher Zhang Hua recalls she was a quiet student but would show amazing energy when she acted. Her first film role, as a student, was memorable.
In Chen Kaige's Golden Palm Award-winning Farewell My Concubine (Bawang Bieji), she played a prostitute. The 10-minute appearance was so impressive it is still talked about by cinephiles today.
In order to be authentic as possible, Jiang talked to an old prostitute, who told her a typical "professional" would look out of the corners of their eyes and shake their head slightly. The film was a huge success, but Jiang was trapped by self-doubt.
"I was a small-town girl who could barely speak putonghua. Well, when I was thrown suddenly into film academy, I was stunned. For a long time I thought actors should be extrovert, vigorous people who could forget themselves in front of other people and become the role they play. But I am quiet, educated to be modest, yet with a strong ego. I often thought I was not suitable for the industry."
In the following six years after Farewell My Concubine, Jiang did not play another role. She kept asking herself whether she really wanted to be an actress. In Hand in Hand (Qian Shou), a hit TV drama in 1999, Jiang found her answer.
"It was like a voice inside my head was saying: 'You do like the job.' It is really hard to describe, but it was just like a door that had been closed for a long time was suddenly thrown open."
Following her role as a tender wife in Hand in Hand, Jiang brought to life a series of very different characters, some crazy, others virtuous and docile. Although she has a face that appears to be that of a traditional Chinese woman - "a good wife and loving mother" - Jiang's characterizations were diverse and she quickly became a household name.
"I choose the roles which move me. If the role cannot move me, how can I expect it to move the audience? Also, I try not to repeat myself."
The literature works she has always loved are also, she believes, a guide to choosing the best roles.
"I am still a book worm. I spend most of my leisure time reading. It helps me tell whether a script is solid, or whether a role is multi-dimensional."
Now called the "Queen of TV series", Jiang says she disagrees with the idea that a TV role is less challenging than being in a movie. Big or small screen, it is the same, she says.
"I don't think there is such a thing as a lame story, TV script or film. There is only a lame actor or a poor understanding of the role."
Jiang has been called the most beautiful woman in China because, some say, she is prettier than anyone else in the eyes of China's best cinematographer - her husband Gu Changwei.
She has teamed up with him in a long list of internationally-acclaimed films, including Red Sorghum (Hong Gaoliang), Farewell My Concubine and Ju Dou. Gu was the classmate of Zhang Yimou and earned a Silver Bear for his maiden directorial work, Peacock (Kongque). Jiang met Gu on the set of Farewell My Concubine and 13 years later she starred for him again in And the Spring Comes, Gu's second directorial work.
Now, Jiang is preparing her own film script. The literature lover finally has a chance to realize her childhood dream and bring a story to life by herself. It will be autobiographical - about a small-town girl and her dreams. This year she intends to make her directorial debut, but without Gu behind the lens.
"If he was the cameraman, people would focus on him. I want it to be my own work."
(China Daily 11/21/2007 page18)
