Have you seen the 1988 TV series "The Last Emperor", Chen Daoming's screen debut?

Previously, the author wrote an article to evaluate Italian director Bertolucci's film "The Last Emperor". The author believes that the film "The Last Emperor" has good film skills, but it treats historical facts very seriously. The attitude of the film is too focused on Western tastes, especially the revision of history is too purposeful and lacks respect for Chinese history.

In fact, less than a year after the movie "The Last Emperor" was released, my country's own 28-episode TV series "The Last Emperor" was also broadcast on CCTV. Relatively speaking, this TV series treated history very well. It is relatively rigorous and cautious, and can be called the first historical drama in the history of Chinese TV dramas that accurately restores history.

1. The filming of the TV series "The Last Emperor" was promoted by two big names in Chinese drama performance. One of them is the famous movie star Shi Jin Shan, who was the dean of the Central Academy of Drama, had just initiated the establishment of the TV Drama Art Committee, so he wanted to make a large-scale production as the committee's first work. He had previously read Puyi's autobiography "The First Half of My Life", and he was interested in it. The book impressed him so much that he decided to write a script and make a TV series based on the book. Unfortunately, while the script was being written, Mr. Jinshan died of cerebral hemorrhage.

In 1983, the TV Drama Art Committee founded by Jinshan merged with the Central Broadcasting Drama Troupe and the CCTV Film and Television Department to establish the famous Chinese TV Drama Production Center, the big boss behind the two crews of "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Journey to the West", CCTV Deputy Director Ruan Ruolin serves as director. Ruan Ruolin took over Jinshan's last wish and found another big name in theater performance, the famous director Mei Qian of Beijing People's Art Theatre, to direct "The Last Emperor". Since Mr. Mei was older, he hired two young directors, Zhou Huan and Zhang Jianmin, to take charge of the directing work. The script still used Mr. Jinshan's previous version.

In 1984, the TV series "The Last Emperor" was launched. Everyone knows that "Journey to the West" took nearly six years to film, and "A Dream of Red Mansions" took nearly four years. In fact, "The Last Emperor" also took nearly four years to film. In 2000, TV dramas were produced with meticulous workmanship, and most of the shooting scenes were shot in real locations, so the speed was generally slow, but the works were top-notch.

2. The same name but different fate, the twists and turns of the filming process

The filming process of the TV series "The Last Emperor" is difficult to describe. Although there is strong support from the TV series production center and Beijing People's Art, The same name has a different fate. During the actual filming process, the TV series "The Last Emperor" not only did not enjoy the treatment of the movie "The Last Emperor", but also encountered some difficulties.

For example, regarding the filming location, there was no Xianghe Film and Television City back then. If you wanted to film the Forbidden City, you could only enter the Forbidden City. The movie "The Last Emperor" has received permission from superiors and can be filmed in the Forbidden City with confidence. When it was the turn of the TV series "The Last Emperor", the Forbidden City refused to allow them to enter. The crew was forced to jointly write a letter to Comrade Wan Li, directed by Mei Qian, Yu Yu and others. Only with Comrade Wan Li's special approval did the crew enter the Forbidden City for filming. But even after entering the Forbidden City, the crew still did not enjoy the treatment of the movie "The Last Emperor". The daily shooting time was strictly limited, resulting in the shooting cycle getting longer and longer. Once, due to time constraints and several sets of shots that were not finished, director Zhou Huan was forced to burst into tears on the set. This is probably the case with the same name but different fate.

What is even more tragic is that because the carpet in the Yangxin Hall was burned during the filming of the previous movie "The Last Emperor", the Forbidden City strictly prohibited the crew of the TV series "The Last Emperor" from entering any inner hall for filming. As a last resort, artists from Bayi Factory built identical interiors of Kunning Palace and Yangxin Palace in Wuli Village, Beijing.

Misfortunes never come singly. We managed to shoot all the interior scenes in Wuli Village, but a fire completely burned down the studio. The police almost detained the director. Finally, after more than a month of investigation, they confirmed that he was not the crew. This incident caused the entire crew to stop filming for more than half a year and almost caused the TV series to die prematurely.

After experiencing various difficulties and obstacles, the TV series "The Last Emperor" was officially broadcast in 1988.

3. Star-studded cast

The TV series "The Last Emperor" was full of stars both at the time and now. There are many well-known actors in the film in the 1980s. Beijing People's Art Theater has veteran actors and actresses, as well as some potential stars who were young at the time and later became popular.

The biggest star is of course Chen Daoming, who plays the young and middle-aged Puyi. "The Last Emperor" is his debut on the screen. Before that, he worked as a director at the China TV Drama Production Center. Through this drama, Chen Daoming officially It started his glorious experience in the Chinese film and television industry.

The kid who played the role of young Puyi was called Cai Yuanhang, the one who shouted "Give me back my three palaces". He also played the role of the little Tang Monk in "Journey to the West", but he did not develop in the film and television industry later. , but he married a female star, Jin Xi’s aunt Sun Qian.

The elderly Puyi is played by Zhu Xu, a veteran of the Beijing People's Art Theater. I remember that I felt very unhappy because Chen Daoming was replaced by Zhu Xu, but now it seems that Zhu Xu plays the elderly Puyi better than Chen Daoming. It fits a lot and looks similar.

In addition to Zhu Xu, Beijing People's Art Theater also includes Teacher Lan Tianye who plays Zaifeng, Luo Lige who plays Wanrong, and Zheng Tianwei who plays Wenxiu.

Cixi and Guangxu, who had few scenes at the beginning of the TV series, were played by the famous Chinese performing artist Zhu Lin and the young Yang Lixin.

A character that impressed me very much was the old eunuch Zhang Qianhe, played by Niu Xingli, a famous actor from Beijing People's Art Theatre. From this we can see that Beijing People's Art Theater is an elite producer for "The Last Emperor", which also guarantees the quality of the show.

There are also some movie stars of the time in this drama, such as Xiu Zongdi who plays Kang Youwei, Li Moran who plays the director of the war criminals management center, and Yu Shojin who plays Feng Yuxiang (Lu Zhishen in the Shandong version of "Water Margin")

Potential stars in this drama include Yang Bin who plays the young Pujie (Nezha and Mu Zha in "Journey to the West"), Hong Yuyu (Zhou Yu in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms") who plays Li Shun, and Zhang Xueliang Wen Haibo (Fu Lun in "The Princess"), Liao Xueqiu who plays Kawashima Yoshiko, Guo Xiaozhen who plays Tan Yuling (Shi Xiangyun in "A Dream of Red Mansions"), etc.

By the way, there is another great actor that I have to mention, that is Ni Dahong.

4. Comparison with the movie "The Last Emperor" and evaluation of the show

The movie and the TV series "The Last Emperor" have similar screening and broadcasting cycles, which will inevitably lead to comparisons among the audience , because the movie version won nine Oscars that year, the public generally praised the movie version, but held a lot of criticism towards the TV series.

In fact, the two works are not comparable. If you have to compare them, the biggest difference between them lies in the treatment of history. The screenwriter of the movie version of "The Last Emperor" is based on Johnston's "Twilight in the Forbidden City", which looks at Puyi from a Western perspective. It is inevitable that there will be things that deviate from historical facts.

The screenwriter of the TV series "The Last Emperor" is based on Puyi's autobiography "The First Half of My Life". The crew also hired famous scholars such as Zhu Jiaxin, a famous Qing history expert, as consultants, so it is more rigorous in its treatment of history and can basically Be "faithful" and "expressive".

Someone once used this metaphor to compare the two works. The movie version of "The Last Emperor" is more like a freehand painting, while the TV series "The Last Emperor" is like a Chinese meticulous painting. This metaphor makes sense. .

In the author's opinion, the TV series "The Last Emperor" is worthy of recognition as a historical drama, and it is not too much to regard the drama as a history textbook. But at the same time, the play lacks a lot of drama in the plot. For scholars, the play is comfortable to watch, but for ordinary entertainment audiences, the play's style is a bit too formal.

The reason why the later "Yongzheng Dynasty" and "Kangxi Dynasty" were so popular is because these two TV series were born out of Er Yuehe's novels, so they are very dramatic, but at the same time these two TV series TV dramas cannot be viewed as history.

Although the TV series "The Last Emperor" lacks some entertainment elements, its attitude towards history, as well as the actors' acting skills and seriousness are definitely worthy of praise.

Such a painstaking work should not be buried by time