The "grievance" between Zunlong and Leslie Cheung: Is Chen Kaige the initiator?

1992 was a turning point in fate for both John Lone and Leslie Cheung. Prior to this, Zun Long became an internationally renowned Chinese movie star with the movie "The Last Emperor". Leslie Cheung has become one of the hottest stars in Hong Kong with his achievements in the music industry and his wonderful performances in movies such as "A Chinese Ghost Story" and "Days of Being Wild".

At the Asia Pacific Film Festival held in Taiwan that year, John Lone and Leslie Cheung met. They were both award guests at the film festival. At that time, there was also an award guest named Xu at the film festival. Maple's woman. Both John Lone and Leslie Cheung know her, and she has been walking between them this year. She is looking for the most suitable actor for the leading actor "Cheng Dieyi" in the movie "Farewell My Concubine".

01

Xu Feng won the film and television adaptation rights of the novel "Farewell My Concubine" from Li Bihua in 1988. In 1991, Xu Feng hired Chen Kaige to direct "Farewell My Concubine" ", but they had trouble finding an actor to play "Cheng Dieyi".

Li Bihua recommended Leslie Cheung to Xu Feng, so Xu Feng went to talk to Leslie Cheung. Leslie Cheung expressed that he liked "Farewell My Concubine" very much and also expressed his willingness to reduce the salary to star. However, Leslie Cheung's agent at the time put forward relatively harsh conditions. For example, he could only be given a 4-month schedule, and the salary would be calculated on a daily basis for the period beyond 4 months, and Leslie Cheung must be allowed to return to Hong Kong at any time.

Xu Feng could not meet the conditions put forward by Leslie Cheung's agent because she herself did not know how long it would take to film "Farewell My Concubine", let alone the actor who played "Cheng Dieyi" Studying Peking Opera for a period of time, 4 months is really too stressful.

Xu Feng had no choice but to give up Leslie Cheung, and she continued to look for actors suitable to play "Cheng Dieyi". One day she thought of Zun Long, because she had watched the movie "The Last Emperor", and she felt that Zun Long's temperament was quite suitable for "Cheng Dieyi". So Xu Feng contacted Zun Long. Zun Long, who was already famous in Hollywood at that time, had always wanted to return to China to develop and make a movie that truly belonged to China.

When he read the script of "Farewell My Concubine", he liked it very much, especially the fact that Cheng Dieyi was abandoned by his mother when he was young and sent to a theater troupe to study. His life of suffering and his experience were so touching. It's similar. He was an abandoned child without a father and mother, and was raised by his adoptive mother. In order to keep him alive, his adoptive mother asked him to study Peking Opera under Fen Juhua, and he suffered a lot.

Zun Long agreed to play the role of "Cheng Dieyi" and reduced his salary by US$300,000. In order to star in the role of "Cheng Dieyi", Zunlong rejected a French movie, a Broadway stage play and an advertisement.

Xu Feng was very happy that Zun Long could star in "Cheng Dieyi", and Chen Kaige was also very happy. Chen Kaige recognized Zun Long's acting skills very much, and he knew that with Zun Long's international influence at the time, for "Farewell My Concubine" is very helpful in opening up the international market.

However, when John Lone and Leslie Cheung appeared at the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Taiwan in 1992, Xu Feng's mind changed. She found that John Lone's facial lines were not as soft as Leslie Cheung, and she felt that she had chosen the wrong person.

At the same time, Lu Wei, the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine", watched the movie "Rouge Button" starring Leslie Cheung and felt that Leslie Cheung was more suitable to star in "Cheng Dieyi". Li Bihua, the original author of "Farewell My Concubine" who has collaborated with Leslie Cheung many times, even specified that Leslie Cheung should play "Cheng Dieyi", but Chen Kaige still felt that Zun Long was more suitable, and none of them could convince anyone. So Xu Feng, Lu Wei, Chen Kaige and the other two main creators conducted a vote. In the end, four votes supported Leslie Cheung to star in "Cheng Dieyi", and Chen Kaige could only obey the majority.

Although it has been determined who is suitable to play "Cheng Dieyi", how can Leslie Cheung agree to play "Cheng Dieyi" again? How to politely reject the sincere Zunlong became the problem before them.

Later facts proved that they were very successful in persuading Leslie Cheung, but they were very disgraceful in the way they handled the relationship with Zun Long.

02

The person who convinced Leslie Cheung again was Chen Kaige, not Xu Feng.

At that time, a Hong Kong magazine called "Outside" took a set of photos of Leslie Cheung with the theme of "cross-dressing". Chen Kaige, who saw these photos, also felt that Leslie Cheung was more suitable for the role of "Cheng Dieyi" than Zun Lung.

So, in order to show his sincerity, Chen Kaige personally went to Hong Kong to meet Leslie Cheung. They met in the coffee shop of the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. Listening to Chen Kaige's vivid description of the movie version of "Farewell My Concubine", Leslie Cheung said excitedly: "Thank you for telling me the story. I am Cheng Dieyi." At that time, Leslie Cheung's boss Huang Baiming also supported him in filming "Farewell My Concubine" and specially coordinated the schedule for him so that he had enough time to film "Farewell My Concubine".

On the other hand, Zun Long was very enthusiastic about starring in "Cheng Dieyi". For this reason, he even called Chen Kaige to ask him about the situation in the mainland and when would be the best time for him to arrive on the set. But Chen Kaige answered the phone and said to him impatiently: "Do you know what time it is? It's two o'clock in the morning." Many years later, in an interview with the media, Zun Long said that at that time he felt that Chen Kaige's "attitude seemed to hate me." , It’s like I’m annoying him.” Zun Long also said frankly: “I hate producers and directors. They are not real people. Chen Kaige doesn’t respect artists at all. He only likes some of his own big concepts. I really hate this. Two people, they don’t respect me, they just want to take advantage of my fame.”

Zun Long really hates Chen Kaige and Xu Feng. Especially what Xu Feng did made him very angry. At that time, Xu Feng received a contract from Zunlong's American agent. One of the contracts was that Zunlong would bring his pet dog over, and the dog would come by plane to come out of quarantine with him. At that time, the dog The normal entry and quarantine procedures take three days, which Xu Feng found particularly troublesome. However, this troublesome matter helped Xu Feng a lot, and he had a reason to refuse Zunlong.

So Xu Feng made a big fuss about this dog, and Zunlong could only regret that he could not play the role of "Cheng Dieyi". But what made Zunlong angry was that after that, Xu Feng was always accepting the media Speaking ill of him during interviews implies to readers that he is a big name. But if he really wanted to be a big name, why would he have to reduce his salary? For this reason, he also refused a French movie, a Broadway stage play and an advertisement. Now that the movie has not been produced, no one will compensate for the damage caused.

Although Zun Long did not play the role of "Cheng Dieyi", he starred in a movie called "M. Butterfly" with a similar theme to "Farewell My Concubine", in which he played The indistinguishable "Song Liling".

On January 1, 1993, "Farewell My Concubine" was released. Leslie Cheung's acting skills conquered the audience, and his career and popularity reached a new level. On September 9 of this year, "M. Butterfly" was released and was also well received.

Just as "Farewell My Concubine" has become a classic movie, the question of who is more suitable to play "Cheng Dieyi" between John Lung and Leslie Cheung has begun to be discussed by the audience, and many viewers think that John Lung and Leslie Cheung are because of "Cheng Dieyi". "Die Yi" has a "grievance", and the initiator of this "grievance" is more likely to be director Chen Kaige, but for viewers who know more about the situation, they are more inclined to be Xu Feng.

In fact, for John Lung and Leslie Cheung, they have no real "grievances". They are just good actors who want to play good roles.

03

But no one would have thought that after "M. Butterfly", Zun Long would never forget to return to China to film. He was tricked by Deng Jianguo into filming "Entertaining Yourself" and " "Qianlong and the Fragrant Concubine", "Kangxi Private Interview 5" and other film and television dramas of very average quality. For this reason, Zunlong also repeatedly declined CNN's request to come to China to film a documentary about him, refused an interview with Yang Lan, and refused He accepted the request of the China Film Museum to leave his fingerprints, and declined invitations from the movies "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Countess" as well as receptions from many foreign royal families and governments and countless various activities in the film industry. But because of the poor quality of these film and television works, he fell into negative public opinion. The outside world said that he could not survive in the United States and came to China to make money, that his poor acting skills ruined these film and television dramas, and that he loved to act like a big name.

Zunlong did not defend himself. Many years later, he said frankly: "I am not particularly good at life. I have no family, no parents, no name, no study, no childhood, and I don't know the relationship between people." Got it.

No one has protected you since you were a child, you have to protect yourself, so I closed my heart. ”

Zun Long, who had closed his heart, announced his retirement in 2007. Now he lives in North America, accompanied by his own dog, and has never been married. Someone asked him what he wanted his epitaph to be? The dragon replied: “I won’t have a tombstone. The dead don't need to occupy space, just burn it and that's it. "Then he was asked if he cared about other people's opinions and evaluations? Zunlong answered simply: "I don't care at all. It's none of my business. "

What is even more unexpected is that after successfully playing the role of "Cheng Dieyi", Leslie Cheung, who has become a superstar, on April 1, 2003, from the time he originally settled on the role of "Cheng Dieyi" He jumped from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Hotel and committed suicide at the age of 47, leaving countless fans who loved him heartbroken.

Whether it is John Lone or Leslie Cheung, they are both very special. Excellent artists, but their ending is really disappointing.