Huang Lei and Liu Yijun perform “Mid-age Crisis”[The TV series “Zhang Weiguo’s Summer” debuts]
Directed by Liu Chuang, and starring Huang Lei, Liu Yijun, Hai Qing, and Mei Ting, “Zhang Weiguo’s Summer” is being broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV. This 12-episode short drama has shaped the prop master Zhang Weiguo of the Peking Opera Troupe and the outdated host Lin Hong. In this year, this pair of “injustice brothers and sisters” interprets a series of practical problems faced by middle-aged people in a comedy style. After the show started airing on July 18, it reached the top of Maoyan’s real-time TV TOP1 with its high-energy reversal of the horse-catching plot and its meticulous depiction of the real situation of middle-aged people.
Huang Lei and Liu Yijun join forces to fight the crisis
As soon as “Summer of Zhang Weiguo” opens, it has a strong taste of old Beijing. The protagonist Zhang Weiguo (played by Huang Lei), the prop master of the Peking Opera Troupe who thought “If my waist hadn’t been broken, I would have been a corner”, lives in a large courtyard in the second ring road of Beijing. He likes to buy lottery tickets, play with porcelain horses “worth two hundred million” at home, and daydream about making a fortune.
When his father died suddenly, Zhang Weiguo’s dull life ushered in a huge turning point: his ancestral house became a rental house, and he changed from owner to tenant; his precious porcelain horse was broken, and he was defrauded and was on the verge of bankruptcy… In Huang Lei’s eyes, Zhang Weiguo is The uncle Hutong I often saw when I was a child: “He was born in Liyuan, and he is a person with a particular heart and a standard. But he has neither very good economic conditions nor too high social status, he is a down-to-earth little guy. .”
On the other hand, Lin Hongnian (Liu Yijun), the bright-looking senior brother of the Peking Opera Troupe, is also “burning ass”. He was born an orphan and lacks a sense of spiritual belonging. The company he has served for many years has swept him out of the house, and his marriage has turned red… In Liu Yijun’s eyes: “Lin Hongnian is a duckweed, a person without roots, so he chose to return to Beijing to find his roots, but life always makes jokes with him.”
After some misunderstanding, the two formed an alliance. Two middle-aged men who have encountered many crises in their lives still yearn for a high-spirited life, so they jointly started a journey of flying dogs, chaotic, helpless, and deep love.
The brothers in and out of the play continue the front line
Huang Lei and Liu Yijun, the two representatives of the Mesozoic actors, play a pair of “injustice brothers and sisters” in the play – Huang Lei is the old Beijing with a shaved head and big flip-flops and pants, and Liu Yijun is an out-of-date suit with an oily head and leather shoes. host.
Huang Lei said that he and Liu Yijun not only acted as brothers in “Summer of Zhang Weiguo”, but in real life, the two are also real brothers, both graduated from the Beijing Film Academy’s performance department, “Liu Yijun is my third term, he is me Master brother.”
In the play, Zhang Weiguo and Lin Hongnian, who were very friendly when they were young, lost contact for a while after entering the society, and then they reconnected because of a reunion at a party. In real life, Huang Lei and Liu Yijun, who were friends during school, also experienced the same reunion after a long absence. Huang Lei sighed: “”Summer of Zhang Weiguo” is the first time I have cooperated with my brother Liu Yijun. I didn’t expect that at this age, we can still film together.”
The cast of actresses is also strong. The old partners Huang Lei and Haiqing realized their fourth cooperation through the new drama. They changed from “husband and wife” in “Little Farewell” and “Little Joy” to “uncle and sister-in-law” in “Zhang Weiguo’s Summer”. “. In the follow-up plot, Huang Lei will also join hands with Mei Ting to perform the “second spring” of middle-aged men and women.
Tears in laughter comprehend sad and joyful life
In “Summer of Zhang Weiguo”, the process of Zhang Weiguo and Lin Hongnian’s confrontation with the mid-life crisis is full of laughs, but the tears after the hilarious scenes also made the audience sigh. Liu Yijun also said: “I told me it was a light comedy at first, but I didn’t expect that I would cry more in this drama than in any previous drama.”
In fact, almost every character in the play faces many problems, except for the “injustice brothers and sisters”. For example, Gu Jiayi, played by Hai Qing, was forced to study medicine because of her mother’s almost harsh educational philosophy, giving up dancing, which she loved since childhood. Therefore, on the issue of her daughter’s education, she and her mother were “at odds” and resolutely brought her daughter to Beijing to pursue her dream of painting. Haiqing said bluntly: “Gu Jiayi is not a happy woman.”
Huang Lei said that the core of comedy is tragedy. The so-called comedy is “you cry and make the audience laugh”. “We have been told since childhood that life is a wonderful journey. But as we grow older and experience life slowly, we You will find that life is actually an ‘inexplicable’ journey, and many things have no reason, let alone answers. However, we still have to see the light and hope.”
Based on these experiences, Huang Lei wants to use “Zhang Weiguo’s Summer” to tell the audience his thoughts on life and mid-life crisis: “These middle-aged people are together, and they all want to do something and prove something. But to what extent it can be done, and what the result will be, no one can grasp. What happened to Zhang Weiguo and Lin Hongnian, such as unemployment and bankruptcy, are all big things, but in the end , both of them were relieved. For each of them, in the end you accepted and understood your own life, and that was enough.”