Author: Maple
In March 2017, at the Hong Kong Film Directors Guild Awards ceremony, the host announced:
"The winner of the Best Actor Award is - Lin Jiadong!"
The moment Lin Jiadong heard that he had won the award , was stunned for a moment, and then covered his mouth and nose in surprise and disbelief.
then walked slowly and choked up to the podium.
He defeated the popular Shawn Yue, which was something he could not even imagine.
The road from the auditorium to the podium only takes 30 seconds, but it took Lin Jiadong a full 30 years. After
took the stage, it took him half a minute to finally calm down, but he burst into tears before he could speak.
Lin Jiadong went from being an unknown newcomer to becoming the actor who won the Academy Award crown.
Only he knows what kind of critical attacks he suffered during these more than 10,000 days and nights.
1
Lam Jiadong was born in 1967 in Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong.
In his impression, this place is like a besieged city.
The densely packed houses are so crowded together that it is difficult to even see the sky when looking up.
Occasionally, a plane flies over, and only a huge roar can be heard.
In the "sieged city" where even running water was not supplied, young Lin Jiadong often went to fetch water, and then climbed the stairs back home step by step.
Despite the difficult conditions in his childhood, he felt that it was wonderful. The neighbors often visited each other and were very good friends with each other.
Due to historical issues, slums, as famous "three no matter" areas, have become a breeding ground for crime, where gangsters often smuggle drugs, sell drugs, and get into fights.
When he was a child, when he came back from school, he would see many gangsters sitting by the stadium. This allowed him, who likes to observe, to accumulate first-hand material in his life.
But his parents were busy with work, so they had to leave him at home, and TV became the only thing to accompany him.
At first, Xiao Lin Jiadong watched TV just to kill time. Gradually, he fell in love with TV programs. Finally, he began to try to imitate the expressions and expressions of the actors in the TV series.
He often fantasizes about being like an actor on TV, experiencing different lives and stories every day.
However, reality cannot accommodate his dream of being an actor.
In 1979, there were 8 children in the family.
With so many mouths to eat, you can imagine how difficult life is.
In order to relieve the pressure on his parents, 12-year-old Lin Jiadong had to go out to work to make ends meet.
He worked as a messenger, delivered takeout to restaurants, and worked as a clerk in a company.
But day after day, he gradually became tired of the assembly line-like work.
After a long wait, he finally got a life-changing opportunity.
In 1987, the Hong Kong TVB artist training class began to recruit students. He resigned without hesitation and submitted his application form.
But this bowl of rice was not as easy to pick up as he thought. With mediocre talent, he took the exam twice before passing the exam.
On the first day of the training class, before he could be happy, the teacher poured cold water on him:
"You are the type who will disappear when you are in the crowd. If you want to be famous, you can only rely on your acting skills."
A prophecy.
In the next seven years, he remained tepid, quietly doing side jobs.
He laughs at himself that his advantage is that the salary is not high. As long as he can play one more role, he will be successful.
But even with such a continuous performance, he is still the worst one in the class. His annual salary adds up to so little that he can barely make ends meet.
And he still enjoys it, running from one studio to another.
He always has an extra understanding of the characters. Whenever he gets a script, he will pull the director to inquire about it.
This habit allows him to handle various characters just right.
In " Entertainment Transfer Student ", 28-year-old Lin Jiadong plays Jacky Cheung .
This is simply not an imitation, but a transcendence, which makes Jacky Cheung marvel as if he saw another himself.
Later, he was finally recognized by TVB and was selected as one of the "Top Ten Most Popular TV Artists".
Ordinary people have to pay an extraordinary price if they want to become famous.
Becoming famous overnight often happens after a thousand nights.
After working quietly for five years, Lin Jiadong finally got the opportunity to show off his skills.
He has successively played roles that we are familiar with in TVB. In "New Shanghai Beach", Xu Wenqiang's assistant Ding Li, and Yuan Chengzhi in "Blood Sword" are all impressive.
Since then, Lin Jiadong has become more and more popular and has become a popular niche star of TVB.
After all the hardships, Lam Jiadong no longer lacks for filming and leading actors.
But he always felt that something was wrong, as if a piece was missing in his heart.
When he was busy, he only took two days off in three years, traveled to seven studios a year, and had more than a hundred episodes to shoot.
He gradually became numb and found that he lacked satisfaction, not for fame and fortune, but for performance.
Such continuous rotation made him feel like he was at work. He was also tired of the TV series produced by the assembly line.
's facial expressions became increasingly difficult for him to accept, and the audience became more and more eager to change channels when they saw him.
made a surprising decision when he was busiest:
bid farewell to TVB.
Friends expressed their disbelief that he had finally managed to get ahead for so many years and actually chose to quit when he was at his most prosperous.
Who can have trouble with money?
Of course, Lin Jiadong would be heartbroken if he turned down the TV series, but he knew that his original intention was not for fame and fortune, but out of the purest love for acting.
After 2000, although TVB is still cultivating TV talents, TV stations that lack innovation and enterprising spirit are no longer able to send talents to the film field.
4-year-old Lin Jiadong is therefore particularly eager to enter a higher level of the film industry to hone himself.
Most people hope to have a dazzling life; but only a few people have the courage to accept the polishing process.
2
After leaving TVB, Lin Jiadong signed a contract with Andy Lau and officially entered the film industry.
Making movies is more difficult than making TV, and the difficulty has increased a lot.
Andy Lau asked him if he could endure hardship, and he gritted his teeth and nodded.
The worst thing is that he has to play a supporting role again.
He had just transformed at that time, and his "TV smell" was too strong, and his film value was almost zero.
His characters are either nameless or little transparent that no one cares about. It seems that he has returned to wandering around and making soy sauce in silence.
In order to hone his acting skills, Lin Jiadong was not as anxious as when he first debuted, and gradually settled into life.
He is observing every moment, looking at the daily status of ordinary people, and analyzing how different characters should be interpreted.
Through constant review and analysis, he integrated all his thoughts into his performance. Gradually, he gave the character richer layers and made the performance more flesh-and-blood.
The first movie that Lam Jiadong and Andy Lau collaborated on was "Love is Like a Dream". The cast was extremely strong, with Andy Lau, Edison Chen, Jiang Zhongji and other big names joining the cast.
However, with his strength, Lam Jiadong also excelled in supporting roles, and was eventually nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Then he got out of hand and made classic movies such as "Infernal Affairs" and "A World Without Thieves".
became famous through frequent appearances.
When he decided to be content with the status quo and become the green leaf behind Andy Lau, he met another Bole: Johnnie To .
Johnnie To is a golden signature of Hong Kong films. His film style is pure yet flexible, tough yet delicate.
Lam Jiadong later participated in many movies directed by Johnnie To, such as "Underworld", "Exile", "Detective" and other masterpieces praised by movie fans.
Although Lin Jiadong plays supporting roles, he still takes every role seriously.
In "Detective", he plays the role of a policeman with split personality .
is a difficult character to control. He needs to constantly switch between seven personalities. The control of inner drama and micro-expressions is particularly important.
With his profound skills, he firmly took over this role.
He has become a gold medal supporting role in everyone's eyes. Every little character has been injected with different colors by him, and the characters have become vivid and three-dimensional.
For example, Dongguan Zai in "Underworld" is cold, ruthless and extremely arrogant;
The boss Oanjuan Qiang in "Exile" can interpret the character's mental journey with his eyes alone.
His performance is full of tension, smooth and smooth, and completed in one go.
In 2013, in the star-studded "Chill", 46-year-old Lam Ka Tung was only ranked sixth among the male cast, but he was nominated for an Academy Award again for his outstanding acting skills.
and later in " The Big Tree Catches the Wind ", he brought the ruthless thief king Ji Zhengxiong to life on the screen, making the audience shudder.
From supporting role to protagonist, Lin Jiadong took every step extremely slowly, but extremely sure-footed.
Some people believe it because they see it, but Lin Jiadong believed it first and then implemented it step by step.
In the turbulent entertainment industry, he is like a breath of fresh air, moving forward at his own pace, neither slow nor slow.
The running water is not the first, but the competition is endless.
3
From the beginning of 2021 to now, four excellent Hong Kong films have been born.
The first is "Fury·Crime", the posthumous work of director Chen Musheng . It exploded at the box office as soon as it was released, with a total box office of over 1.3 billion yuan.
The second and fourth films of Lin Jiadong are "Wisdom Teeth" and "Hand Rolled Cigarettes" starring him respectively.
Some people say that these two movies are very depressing, but they bring back the long-lost feeling of Hong Kong movies.
"Wisdom Teeth" is about struggling in the sin city after the rainstorm, dark and crazy;
"Hand-Rolled Cigarettes" is about moving around the beautiful Chongqing Mansions, romantic and beautiful.
The two films simultaneously won seven nominations including the Golden Horse Award for Best Drama, Best Actor and Best Director.
Although the awards are shining brightly, Hong Kong movies are still in a state of sluggishness and an unprecedented trough.
Since 2010, there have been fewer and fewer Hong Kong films. Except for Louis Koo , only Jack Lam is still active on the screen.
Louis Koo often co-produces with other stars, while Lam Ka-tung makes more local Hong Kong films.
And Jiadong Lam also appears in several movies such as Louis Koo's "Anti-drugs" and "Chasing the Dragon".
And it is said that Lin Jiadong has accumulated more than a dozen movies that have been filmed but have not yet been released.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Jack Lam is the last spokesperson of Hong Kong films.
Even in 2020, there was only one local Hong Kong movie produced, which was "Hand-Rolled Cigarettes" starring Lin Jiadong for zero pay.
This is not for gimmicks, but out of Lam Jiadong’s consciousness as a Hong Kong artist.
He managed to survive quietly, fully aware of the difficulty of being an actor and the downturn of the Hong Kong market.
He has been caught in the rain, so he hopes to hold an umbrella for others.
Lin Jiadong uses practical actions to support new directors.
He hopes that more people can start working, which truly illustrates the industry’s mutual support and shouldering the responsibility of paving the way for future generations.
He hopes to support potential newcomers and make the cake bigger, so that Hong Kong movies can once again present a situation where a hundred flowers can bloom.
Although "Hand-Rolled Cigarettes" is not destined to be a gorgeous movie, nor is it a perfect visual feast.
But at the very least, it can be called a sufficiently affectionate look back.
In an interview, Lam Jiadong was asked what else Hong Kong movies needed. He looked up, thought for a moment, and slowly gave the answer:
"What Hong Kong movies need most is inheritance and innovation."
4
Although he won the Academy Award Best Actor, but Lam Jiadong still plays a supporting role silently.
Even in bad movies, he tried his best to interpret the characters wonderfully.
Looking back at Lin Jiadong, he has never been able to reach the level of Nick Cheung . Even in the award-winning "A Big Tree Catching the Wind", he only accounted for one-third of the scenes.
It is said that Zhang Yi is the worst actor in the field of TV dramas. It took him ten years to become popular.
On the other hand, it took Lam Jiadong thirty years to win the Best Actor award, but he still didn’t become completely popular.
Of course, this is also the bench that Lin Jiadong sat on because of his strength.
After so many years since his debut, he has been low-key and not good at socializing. He even has very little gossip news. Such a star who does not understand "entertainment" really cannot become popular in the entertainment industry.
But Lin Jiadong’s popularity was destined sooner or later.
Having been in the industry for thirty years, Lin Jiadong has taken every step very solidly and not easily.
Lin Jiadong is a maverick. He is not eager to reap fame and fortune. Instead, he loses his halo and lives in isolation.
Being in the entertainment industry, he is not a bit domineering and always smiles and is easy-going.
As an actor, he always exudes a smoky atmosphere and is approachable.
It is said that many years later TVB came back to find Lam Jiadong and asked him to be the protagonist, but he still refused without hesitation.
What he cared about was never the leading role, but a good role worth playing.
Now, after thousands of sails have passed, Lin Jiadong still remains true to his original intention and quietly polishes his acting skills.
His favorite thing is still to read the script quietly alone, and then carefully consider the character to see if there is anything that can be improved.
is just like the script "The Ring" that he once recommended, which was eventually released and won the Best Picture Award.
As he said, regardless of the success of the script, the most important thing is the Hong Kong spirit contained in the movie.
"Fighting in the Arena" said:
"If you don't fight, you will definitely not lose. If you fight, you will definitely win."
Lin Jiadong has been working hard in the movie arena for many years, and has also lost for many years, but he still sticks to the arena, Never got down.
5
Lin Jiadong, now 54, is starting to look older in recent photos. Photos of him celebrating his birthday were released on Weibo .
In the photo, he has long hair and a thin face. There is always a kind of exhaustion that cannot be concealed, which is sad.
He is still the Academy Award-winning actor with the "three noes": no car, no house, no girlfriend.
Andy Lau once wrote a song called "The Best Actor is Useless" when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. There is a line of lyrics like this:
"I can act in all good things, no matter how small the role is, I have spent half my life trying to work, Not a second is wasted, life is addiction, and there is never time to enjoy beauty."
I think this lyric is perfect for Lin Jiadong.
And Lin Jiadong also used his acting career to tell us:
Even if fate gives you scraps, it is still a gorgeous feast.
If you can persevere, the worst outcome in life is that you will be a late bloomer.
-END-
Author: Feng, a post-90s text lover. Three views are more upright than five senses, and thoughts are deeper than routines.
