Zhang Fei, played by Li Jingfei, , is still difficult to surpass. For this reason, he learned to ride a horse from scratch and had almost never used a stand-in in the three years of filming. (Data photo/photo)
On the evening of November 24, 2022, actor Li Jingfei died of illness, and his 65-year-old life ended here. During his lifetime, he became well-known for his role as Zhang Fei in the 1994 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Li Jingfei's last appearance on TV was in 2019, the CCTV "Chinese Literature and Art" program "Reunion in 25 Years". Because of a stroke, he was pushed out by his daughter. His expression was not sick, but his voice became less obvious. The host asked him what he wanted to say to everyone, and he only said, "Thank you everyone, I won't say it."
This is in line with his usual personality. Although the name also contains the word "Fei", Li Jingfei's personality in real life is significantly different from Zhang Fei. He was introverted and talked little. At many public events where "Liu Guan and Zhang" reunion, the eldest and second brothers talked endlessly, and he sat quietly aside. Occasionally, I talk about the past, and my accent still has the taste of my hometown.
Li Jingfei was born in Hebei Province on October 13, 1957. He was admitted to Hebei Theater in 1978. Before becoming an actor, he was an athlete of the Shijiazhuang Track and Field Team. Zhang Fei in
94 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is still unsightly. It was the highest moment of Li Jingfei's acting career. After finishing the filming of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he returned to the theater and originally "what should be done, what else should be done." In the following years, he intermittently participated in TV series such as " Sun Wu " and "Bloody Golden Triangle", and the response was mediocre.
For decades after that, he had few opportunities to appear in public. In just a few interviews, the past years have passed, and most of them are about the old stories of the Three Kingdoms crew. At the end of his life, he was tortured by illness. A friend said in an interview with China News Weekly in mid-November 2022 that Li Jingfei "had three strokes before, and now he was accompanied by renal failure and needed dialysis treatment... The doctor said that although the condition is complicated and serious, it is still stable at present. If nothing unexpected happens, he should be able to survive this year."
In 2019, Li Jingfei made his last appearance on TV. (Data photo/photo)
"accident" finally comes. In addition to the Guan Yu actor who died on November 1, 2022, Lu Shuming , among "Liu Guan and Zhang", only Liu Bei's actor Sun Yanjun is still alive. At noon on November 25, he mourned his friends on Weibo: "I can't believe that what I'm feeling will come true... Brother Jing Fei left... I have no more words to express at this time... May heaven no longer be painful... Brother Jing Fei walks along the way!!!"
becomes Zhang Fei, understand Zhang Fei,
Li Jingfei took the role of Zhang Fei, relying entirely on his strength.
In the winter of 1990, Li Jingfei heard that the crew of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was selecting actors. With the idea of "it's so exciting to play Zhang Fei", he ran to Beijing Film Academy audition alone. No acquaintance recommended him, and he found out that there were many big names among the actors who came to the audition. The actor has reached the seventh round, and he has a total of three actors competing for Zhang Fei: one is Zhang Xinyuan, who played the role of Zhang Fei in the TV series "Zhuge Liang"; the other is He Wei, who has played Xie Jin's movie " Garland Under the Mountain ".
Although Li Jingfei has previously performed the drama works "The Decoration of Lanterns", "The Eight and Nine Geese Come" and "The Sorrowful Song of Yan and Zhao", he is still an unknown person in the TV industry. Fortunately, one of the directors, Cai Xiaoqing, , has an impression of the TV series "Iron Man" he has acted in. He tried the last visit of "three visits to the thatched cottage" and the scene of "meeting the ancient city". Director Wang Fulin fell in love with his eyes, "When it opens, it's like a walnut." During the three years of filming the Three Kingdoms, whenever Zhang Fei appeared, he had to "glide in his eyes", which made his eyes hurt and he cried frequently.
In order to interpret Zhang Fei, who has "leopard head and ring eyes, swallow chin and tiger beard" in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Li Jingfei always stares at "walnut-like" eyes when he appears.(Data photo/photo)
However, the narrative in Lu Shuming's autobiography "I Meet Guan Gong" has slightly different causes: in early 1990, when the news of the filming of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was released, everyone around him advised Li Jingfei to audition, and he refused: "So many Chinese actors are in line, how can I take my turn?" Until just after New Year's Day in 1991, a director of the crew of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" called him to audition. He just entered Beijing and won the role with his outstanding performance.
"When the audition, there were no distractions and no constraints, and the director and executive director were very excited. But as soon as he started the show, he felt that the burden was very heavy, but he had no confidence." Among the seven starring actors in the crew of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Li Jingfei is the youngest and has little experience, so he dare not neglect. The crew is in a simple way, and "Liu Guanzhang" lives in the same house. When the acting encounters a bottleneck, they communicate with each other. Li Jingfei benefited from this and found Zhang Fei's "soul" - "When ordinary people think, they don't think, and there is always a blood flowing in their body."
Li Jingfei loves to think about the show. When he performed the "Dangyangqiao Three Roars", he prepared several performance plans and conducted a detailed analysis of the "Three Roars".
"Zhang Fei was originally here to settle the score with Zhao Yun . He knew that he was wrong, so he waited for Cao Bing to arrive. When he saw Cao Bing, he roared. I didn't think about anything, and wanted a spiritual deterrence. Cao Bing trembled. Cao Cao said to the generals, "Don't underestimate the enemy." I shouted again, Cao Cao was quite afraid, and Cao's army was in chaos. I raised my spear and roared again, Xiahou Jie was so scared that he screamed and fell. Falling down, Cao's army retreats... Here, my performance has several levels. Zhang Fei looked around and asked in his heart: Cao Bing really ran away? He just yelled three times with all his strength. At this time, he felt a little aggrieved, 'It's so dangerous!' When he thought of Cao Cao scaring me away, he couldn't help but be happy, and laughed a little hysterically..."
Until director Cai Xiaoqing called out, Li Jingfei found that his "vocals were torn apart" and he had to rest for a few days before he could speak.
has entered the Internet era, and the 1994 version of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been loved by the post-00s. In the play, the lines Zhang Fei agreed to be in agreement when Liu, Guan and Zhang agreed to be a member of the union were widely circulated. (Data photo/photo)
Li Jingfei's understanding of Zhang Fei has become mature: "Zhang Fei's personality, character, and cultivation have changed and developed in different periods. He was upright and honest in his youth, somewhat shy, violent and generous, and a little bit unlucky. When he was middle-aged and late in life, he gradually became thicker and more detailed; when he was middle-aged and late, although his essence would not change, he accumulated experience in war and could control his emotions."
"It can be said that the three years of filming were spent in constant exploration of how to play Zhang Fei well." Li Jingfei said in an interview during his lifetime.
The sacrifices made by that generation of actors for art
When he first joined the group, Li Jingfei was very thin. In order to make his body look more like Zhang Fei, he gained more than 40 kilograms by eating steamed buns and meat. For Li Jingfei, adjusting his body shape to the needs of his role is a routine operation. Previously, in order to act well in an acrobat in the drama "Red Nose", he was originally thin and trained himself to be big and round, and he could hold up four people to circle the stage. The director of "Iron Man" felt that he was a little bloated. He exercised and lost 30 pounds quickly.
TV series "Iron Man" tells the history of oil workers going to Songnen Plain to launch an oil battle. It is difficult to tell whether many scenes are true or not. Interviewers asked whether the labor scene was used. Li Jingfei replied: "It is said to be like an expansion pack because it is shot realistically. At the shooting site, the actors and oil workers were no different. When we were filming the human body, it was so cold. When we came up to drink a drink, our mouths could not match the bottle. When we were filming the noodles, we just picked up the bowl and a gust of wind blew a layer of sand. In order to show the character's hunger, I did not hesitate to eat all the noodles in three mouthfuls."
The shooting environment of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was harsh. Sun Yanjun said that the filming of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" for three years was "I participated in the army for three years, imprisoned for three years, and worked as a coolie for three years." Li Jingfei filmed the scene of "Night Fighting Ma Chao" in an old Hetao. In summer, the surface temperature can reach 40 degrees.For six days, Li Jingfei spent three nights before finishing the filming. It was so hot that he couldn't eat, so he only drank some mung bean soup to quench his thirst. The pay was not high at that time, and the maximum amount of RMB 250 per episode was given.
94 version of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has become a classic thanks to the continuous excellence of that generation of performing artists in art. The picture shows the scene of Liu, Guan and Zhang in Taoyuan three-part union in the play. (Data photo/photo)
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has many circuses. When the first shot was taken, Li Jingfei couldn't ride a horse at all, and it was even more difficult to play weapons on the horse's back. The crew found an equestrian team from Inner Mongolia. After training for more than ten days, they started filming horse shows. Li Jingfei once said that in three years of filming, only a few actors have never been hit. Lu Shuming fell the worst time, and his waist hit the pebbles, and the blood on the wound was so stagnant that he had to use a thick syringe to suck it. Even so, Li Jingfei never used a substitute, "Everyone made sacrifices for art."
Zhang Fei's shape is not easy to make, with a dense layer of beard sticking to his cheeks. In summer, sweat flows straight, "it hurts even more heartbreaking when he teases down." In the scene where Zhang Fei learned about Guan Yu's death in Langzhong , Li Jingfei had just glued his beard and put on his armor. The news of his father's death came at the same time. After answering the phone, he was a little unstable at the station. The director asked him to rest. He only said, "I have to finish this scene."
"There are some things on our group of actors that are worth promoting today." After Li Jingfei's death, actor Zhang Guangbei commented in an interview with Beijing News , "At that time, we were about our performances, the roles we created, especially the ancestors of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The great works inherited by the sect are all with a sense of awe, and everyone devotes all their body, mind and energy to it. Sun Yanjun, Lu Shuming, and Li Jingfei are all very hard. You think I, Lu Bu, only filmed for 11 months. They filmed for two or three years. It is a particularly great thing to be able to persevere and do their best. "
extends to the reality Taoyuan Jehovah
The Taoyuan Jehovah in the play also extends to real life. Sun Yanjun, Lu Shuming and Li Jingfei often called each other "big brother, second brother, and third brother". Everyone in the crew knew that they had a close relationship, and when they talked about them, they only said "that three brothers".
The three actors who play Liu Guanzhang continue the friendship between the characters in the play into their lives. The picture shows the three reunited at an event in Beijing in 2014. (Visual China/Photo)
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was broadcast, "Liu Bei" Sun Yanjun said in an interview: "The three of us talked about the show together, practiced riding horses, and chatted with family matters. We all understood the temper and nature. Even the ancestors and three generations of the three people knew all the secrets. There was nothing we could not say to each other, and we had a deep relationship."
"Art Life", Sun Yanjun recalled that the three of them had stole corn on Sanpo, and were discovered by local farmers. Lu Shuming and Li Jing ran fast, but "Uncle Liu" was caught by the farmers on the spot. They wanted to pay for it and found that their pockets were empty. "It's quite funny to think about it N years later." In 1997, the TV series "Sun Wu" started filming, and Liu, Guan and Zhang gathered again, and Li Jingfei played the role of Hu Ge. Perhaps it was because the friendship between the three people was too deeply bound to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "in the first few days, I could never change my old relationship." Lu Shuming called Sun Yanjun "big brother" directly while filming.
The three actors who play Liu Guanzhang live together in the crew for three years, and the tacit understanding cultivated in life nourishes character creation. The picture shows a still from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". (Data photo/picture)
The three brothers in reality, Li Jingfei has the most restrained personality. Every time Lu Shuming encounters fans asking for photos, Li Jingfei always hides aside unless Lu Shuming forcefully pulls him to take a photo together. He said he is afraid of "smashing the camera."
Lu Shuming once wrote an article saying that Li Jingfei is very considerate in dealing with people and speaks very appropriately. When the sixth episode of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was filmed, Lu Shuming asked the crew for leave because his wife was about to give birth. Soon after, the crew got news: Lu Shuming played mahjong in Xi'an all day long. When Li Jingfei found out, he quickly called and urged him to return to the crew to film.
After 50 years old, Li Jingfei's physical condition was in a worrying state. He once had difficulty taking care of himself due to cerebral infarction .After learning about his situation, Lu Shuming actively worked hard to raise funds for his "third brother", and also encountered criticism from "consumption of Guan Yu" because he received many commercial performances and corporate ribbon cutting.
Compared with the two brothers, Li Jingfei's later development in acting was not so smooth. He once said that he felt that he only acted in the drama "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in his life. But for many people, Li Jingfei performed a "zero negative review" Zhang Fei. When filming the outdoor scene in Sichuan, Tan Luofei, a professor at Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, wrote a farewell poem to Li Jingfei to show his appreciation: "The people say that Zhang Huanhou is violent and powerful. The rough and detailed in the middle, and love makes great achievements."
(Reference: A Geng "From "Yellow Leopard" to "Zhang Fei""; Ma Ming "The same people in Yanzhao: Remembering Li Jingfei"; Wang Jian "Reshaping heroes: From the original work to the screen"; Lu Shuming "I met Guan Gong"; China News Weekly, Beijing News, Shangguan News, New Weekly related reports)
Southern Weekend reporter Pan Xuan Southern Weekend intern Liu Yanyuan Zhang Lu
