The love history of Huang Lei and Rene Liu (the fleeting time of Huang Lei and Rene Liu)

Living in the kitchen and taking care of his wife and children is Huang Lei's daily life. In addition to occasionally moving the cooking place to variety shows, Mr. Huang has turned himself into a veritable "home chef"

Middle-aged people are like frogs boiled in warm water. With daily necessities, they can always cook a pot of dad.

Even the former literary male god has not been spared.

Nowadays, Huang Lei's portly, glib image of a middle-aged man has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and few people remember that he was young at the other end of the years.

When 19 Jiangxi guy Huang Lei got his wish and was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy, his open career began. That year, directed by Chen Kaige, he won numerous awards for his role in the film "Walking and Singing", and his acting career was suspended.

At that time, Huang Lei couldn't imagine that 10 years later, he would reach the peak of his life and spend the most beautiful years in a most beautiful place. A girl named Rene Liu would appear in his life, then leave and finally marry a stranger.

Lost in the poetic Jiangnan On the evening of July 4th, 2003, CCTV 8 released a brand-new series of programs "Time has changed".

This is a drama series advertised as a "new literati drama", which focuses on the literary line. It tells the emotional story of a pair of young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait separated by half a century. The whole play is slow and full of dialogue.

▲ "Time flies" poster

In the summer when the haze of SARS has not completely dissipated, time has comforted the feelings of countless people like water.

This TV series written and directed by Huang Lei not only stars Huang Lei himself, but also his confidante Rene Liu.

At that time, Huang Lei stayed in Beijing Film Academy to teach after graduating with a master's degree and became the darling of literary films.

The acquaintance with Rene Liu can be traced back to 1999. That year, Huang Lei was 28 years old, and the first hero starring in the literary love movie Night Run met Rene Liu, a 30-year-old woman at that time.

▲ stills of the movie "Running at Night"

Then they met again in the TV series April Day on Earth, playing the poet Xu Zhimo and the original wife Zhang Youyi respectively.

Making TV series gives Huang Lei and Rene Liu more time together. They soon found that they had similar hobbies and interests. Everyone likes reading and writing articles, and many viewpoints are surprisingly consistent, just like meeting another self in the world, sighing that it was a long time since we met.

But from then on, Huang Lei began to conceive a play featuring Rene Liu. He put a photo of Rene Liu on his desk and named the heroine "Ying". It took him five months to write a 200,000-word script, and he lost 20 pounds after the script was completed.

When asked why he wrote such a story, Huang Lei said that he wanted to "look back at the road he had traveled" and tell a story about missing, about "I once loved someone and missed this person".

Later, he repeatedly denied that the story did not reflect himself.

Rene Liu, from Taiwan Province, exudes a deep and restrained charm, and has a rare intellectual beauty among actresses of the same period, which is related to her prominent family background.

Grandpa graduated from Whampoa Military Academy, and grandma is a famous woman in the Republic of China. After Rene Liu graduated from the University of California, she never gave up her literary spirit and was often called a talented woman.

Rene Liu's grandmother has been worried about her granddaughter's lifelong events, so she took the initiative to help her choose two stars, Richie Jen and Huang Lei, who rarely have gossip on TV, and asked her to choose one.

Rene Liu smiled after knowing this, saying that these two people are good, but they both have girlfriends.

But when Huang Lei took the written script and carefully asked Rene Liu, "I can find someone else to do something successful. Are you willing to share the possible failure with me? "

Without thinking, Rene Liu immediately agreed.

200 1 winter, the year is approaching, and Huang Lei takes Rene Liu and others to explore the road. The day they arrived in Wuzhen was particularly cold, but this did not prevent them from being intoxicated by this ancient town.

The hot breath makes the scenery more dense. Standing on the ancient stone bridge, two people saw surprise and understanding from each other's eyes.

"Clear smoke, bluestone road, printed cloth, lanterns, bridges and flowing water, Wuzhen has a feeling of wanting to talk about love." Rene Liu was completely fascinated by it. "All my experiences about myself have become so short and so small."

So, Huang Lei decided to put the story of time like water in Wuzhen, a water town.

The best time in life, just after the Lunar New Year in 2002, the spring in Jiangnan has not faded.

On this day, a group of special guests came to Wuzhen. The fleet of luxury Audi cars slowly entered, bringing a long-lost modern atmosphere to the quaint Jiangnan water town.

The stationing of the crew of "Things Are People Are Not Like Water" has made this long-silent town particularly lively. Residents of the town have lived here for generations, and the outside world has undergone earth-shaking changes. They are still tirelessly guarding the old house left by their ancestors.

Time flies is a story about time, and the beauty of Wuzhen is the trace left by the passage of time.

It used to be a commercial center in history, with people coming and going and traffic. But in the 1990s, Wuzhen was no longer prosperous. Young people have gone to work in other places, and the rest of the village are old people. Until 2000, tourism in Wuzhen was almost blank.

When Huang Lei and the crew came here, Wuzhen still maintained its original style.

It's like an isolated paradise. Millennium Academy, gurgling water, people sleeping quietly by the river, wet stone roads and elegant blue printed cloth constitute a dreamy water town.

The picturesque scenery in the south of the Yangtze River has added humanistic brilliance to the poetic script, which will soon make Time Like Water become an unsurpassed classic.

▲ Wuzhen Source: vision china

There are still times to create classics. It was an era of extreme tolerance for pure literary artists and also an era of tolerance for literati's aesthetic business.

The wave of "new literati drama" at the turn of the century can prove this point. Represented by the historical drama Poem of Daming Palace and the ethical drama Orange is Red, a number of TV dramas appeared around 2000, which are full of literary flavor, distinctive poetry, beautiful pictures and deep feelings. April Day on Earth starring Huang Lei and Rene Liu is one of them.

With Zhuyu in front, Huang Lei found another way and decided to tell a picturesque modern love story. It is not as colorful as Da Gong Ming Ci, nor as exquisite as Orange. It should be like dry ink painting, like a cup of tea, which can last for three years.

Be as quiet and elegant as Rene Liu.

On the set of Time flies, local people or journalists who come to interview often want to take photos with Rene Liu as a souvenir. Rene Liu is responsive. After taking photos, she will pat others on the shoulder and say "thank you" gently.

In order to tell the story more beautifully, Huang Lei recruited a group of like-minded brothers to engage in art together. Duan (photography) and Dong Shaosong (lighting) who came out of "Orange is Red" cooperated again in "Time flies like water", while the artist Han Zhong just returned from the lonely smoke in the desert of Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and plunged into the rainy Jiangnan water town.

Several brothers creatively applied hand-drawn animation to TV series. Basically, each episode has animations within 1 minute, such as the Woods and lakes where Ying Hewen often dates outside Wuzhen, and the stone pagodas built by Wen to see Ying in the distance, all of which are painted with colored strokes.

▲ Hand-painted animation in a fleeting time.

Their mission to animation is not narration, but freehand brushwork, interwoven with the long shots of water towns with white walls and black tiles, creating a classical romantic atmosphere.

Huang Lei also invited the great musician Chen Zhiyuan to Wuzhen to compose music for this TV series. Chen Zhiyuan stayed alone in Wuzhen for a few days and finally got all the original music in the play.

▲ Chen Zhiyuan

One morning, Huang Lei, who changed the script all night, was called out by Chen Zhiyuan. He gave Huang a piano piece composed by himself, and Huang Lei couldn't help crying.

Later, Chen Zhiyuan added a sentence to the tune: "Time flies like water, and how many years are an understatement. I miss your heart a thousand times, and don't forget the day between you and me. " This song named "Time flies like water" is still floating in the streets of Wuzhen.

With his own aesthetics and understanding of art, Huang Lei got into a small world and carved this "30-year-old fairy tale" for himself like a work of art.

"In that era when time existed like water, it may be the last time to tolerate pure writers and artists. It can be seen that young writers and artists who don't have to discuss realistic problems stiffly have already enjoyed luxury before becoming greasy middle-aged. "

It can be said that the years related to time like water are also the best years in Huang Lei's life.

Rational and gentle despair "Why does Uncle Qi always sit at the door?"

"In the sun, wait. People waiting for the door. "

"Then how long did he wait?"

"For a lifetime. It has become a habit. "

In the poetic dialogue between China and Britain, the simple story of time like water unfolds slowly in the first sunshine of the water town.

Shu Qi is the curator of Wuzhen Lizhi College. While guarding the college, he raised his friends' orphans. This is a courtyard with a long history. Xiao Tong, Prince of Southern Dynasties, studied here. Time seems to have stopped flowing here. A thousand years have passed, and the only thing that has changed is the people who come and go.

▲ Shu Qi and Wen.

Shu Qi is played by Zhu Xu, an old artist of human arts. Zhu Xu and Huang Lei are family friends and live in the same community. Master Zhu has a specialty, making spring cakes. I don't know how many younger generations dream of eating his spring cakes. Huang Lei always stays in the old man's house to eat spring cakes under the guise of exchanging acting skills.

Huang Lei named himself "Wen" in the play, and in Wen's body, he realized a long-planned dream.

Wen is a bad element. After graduating from Peking University, he fled Beijing and returned to his hometown Wuzhen, hiding in the academy to repair ancient books, and lived alone with Shu Qi.

He is keen on dealing with all decaying things, decaying towns, decaying old people, decaying bridges and decaying wineries. Every morning, he soaked dusty ancient books in water, and then spread them out in the sun, day after day, until he began to weaken himself.

Plato once said, what kind of person can become a philosopher-study for forty years and then be a village man for ten years. Wen is such a person, as if he had seen through the world.

But one day, he looked at Miss Ying in Taiwan Province Province and suddenly found that his original understanding was not mature.

Ying is a typical urban woman, smart and capable, with background and status, but her busy life often makes her exhausted, and her fiance's incomprehension makes her feel lonely.

In the theme song "This time next year", Rene Liu sang in the first sentence: "After the foregone conclusion of life, are we lucky to find another self? Are we worthy of this, and are we at ease when we keep our desires? "

Meeting at the age of 30 is an embarrassing thing. 30 is an awkward age. When I began to take responsibility, my mind was not completely dead, and I still had the ability to change.

In order to get closer to each other, He Wen wanted to change himself, so he suffered a lot and missed him.

-Were we in love? -I'm in love. How long has it been? -It seemed like a moment. -What about the others? -The rest is endless struggle and yearning. There are no miracles in life.

But the miracle did not happen in the end. People are cowards. When they want to change, they are also afraid of losing what they have, and even more afraid of moral pressure.

Wen Heying's love in just six days can only happen in Wuzhen, a paradise.

Just like Francesca, a housewife in The Bridges of Madison County, she finally gave up going away with Robert and returned to her family: missing her far away, being warm to her husband and loving her children.

▲ A book given to Wen by Britain reads: When gorgeous leaves fall, the context of life is clearly visible.

Later, Huang Lei said that this film has a "beauty of despair", but this despair is rational and gentle.

The ending of Wen seems to have been doomed as early as the previous generation's experience, just like missing his life with his lover Ying, Wen grew a beard and became Qi, while reading English twice became Ying.

The beauty of life's regret and the beauty of love's temperance are the moving places where time is like water.

At the end of the play, Wen wrote in a letter sent to England: We loved, in the past youth, we sincerely loved, and tried to face up to love as something that can have no reason, no distance and no answer. At least this, we did it.

After the TV series was finished, Huang Lei said at the press conference: "I had a fourth relationship with Rene Liu. The first is friendship, the second is affection, the third is love, and we are the fourth. "

In 2004, Huang Lei got married. It is said that he called Rene Liu two days ago.

Joked that he wouldn't get married if she didn't agree.

For Huang Lei, Wuzhen is not only his spiritual hometown, but also his career. As the initiator of Wuzhen Drama Festival, Huang Lei goes to Wuzhen once a year.

Every time he goes, he will go to the place where Wen often plays basketball, play basketball for a while, and recall his boyhood.

20 13 he wrote in Weibo: I left my soul in wuzhen for eleven years.

Shooting "Time flies like water" is like a node, with youth ahead and family behind. This is a life explanation given by Huang Lei at the age of 30.

Not only Huang Lei, but also Wuzhen left a special mark in the life of Rene Liu, another protagonist of the story.

Rene Liu has been the spokesman of Wuzhen tourism for three times. She has an ambiguous emotional connection with Wuzhen: "This place is very similar to my former lover. Some lovers stay even if they are not together. The beauty left behind will not change. "

▲ Rene Liu speaks for Wuzhen | Source: Wuzhen promotional film

Just like the love story that Wen Heying was left in Wuzhen, it will not change until it becomes the spiritual totem of this town.

"A story is a story, and days are days. Some things are better hidden. After a long time, it becomes a story. " Tell Wen like this.

With Uncle Qi here, the story of fleeting time will not end.

Whether in or out of the play, as long as Zhu Xu's father is there, it is always reassuring.

In Huang Lei's memory, he always loves to sit in the old cane chair that yearns for the academy, and he is willing to accompany these young people with or without his play. He taught young people to write their lines on small cards and take them out at any time. He said, "You children, I have to watch them."

Every day after filming, the old man will wait until the last time before going back to rest. In the silent water town night, he will set a table of dining tables and pull Huang Lei and Rene Liu to accompany him to drink.

Concert in Rene Liu 20 15. He hesitated to invite Zhu Xu, but he came himself. On the day of the performance, he went backstage to send flowers to Rene Liu and laughed at what she was wearing.

▲ Zhu Xu is backstage at the concert in Rene Liu | Source: Weibo, Rene Liu

Rene Liu asked him, "Is it nice?" He squinted and smiled and said, "Good-looking is good-looking, but I just don't know what it is." At that time, Zhu Xu's health was getting worse every day.

On September 20 18, Mr. Zhu Xu passed away at the age of 88 on the fifth day after the story "Time flies" was staged.

Wen lost his father after he left.

Chen Zhiyuan also left, and Huang Lei lost his mentor.

That morning, piano music often echoed in my ears, but the person who played the piano was gone. After Chen Zhiyuan left, Huang Lei never sang in public again.

▲ Source: "Yearning for Life"

People get together and then go. With the departure of the people in the play, the story of the fleeting time is no longer complete.

Huang Lei became a good father, Rene Liu married a wife, and their time came to an end.

However, Huang Lei will always remember the day when he left Wuzhen. He was the last to leave Wuzhen. On that day, he traveled all over Wuzhen with a lamp and an assistant tour guide. "That's with the feeling of farewell to an era. Before we left, we carved our names on the slate in Wuzhen. "

When I left, there were many construction sites around Wuzhen, and the tall scaffolding was faintly visible. The local government decided to build some shopping centers around it to attract investment and develop tourism.

At that time, Huang Lei didn't know that "Things are human and not like water" would be the last TV series to capture the primitive ecology of Wuzhen.

He didn't know that classicism would become an increasingly scarce resource in the next era.

Some reference materials:

1. Image Construction of "Poetic Jiangnan" ——/Film and Television Research of Jiangnan Ancient Town since kloc-0/990, Bu Lingxian.

2. Cruelty and Beauty-Appreciation of TV Series, Film Review.

3. Look at the screen elite culture from the new literati drama phenomenon.

4. Contemporary Guo Qian Wuzhen Culture Research.

5. Analysis of the Characteristics of TV Drama Creation, Wang Miao.

6. Research on Zhang Fan's new literati drama.

7. Huang Lei: Dreamy scenery and poetic love, New Express.

8. Huang Lei: Rene Liu and I are the fourth emotion, the morning news.

9. The "milk tea" thing, Wan Xiaodao.

Image source network