Chapter 63 Assisting in the Audition
After completing the preliminary analysis of the character, Xu Kun turned his attention to the following scene lines.
There is not much content, just two paragraphs in total.
The first part is about the story where Emperor Shunzhi, who had just taken power, wanted to cancel the marriage of Princess Khorchin, which triggered collective opposition from his ministers.
At the critical moment, Jidu stood up, confronted Yue Le who was defending the emperor, and exposed Shunzhi's thoughts in public.
Jidu believed that the reason why Shunzhi refused to marry the princess of Khorchin was actually because this marriage was arranged by Dorgon during his lifetime. He hated the princess so much that he broke off the engagement without considering the overall situation.
All the civil and military officials in the court knew about this, but they just didn't dare to say it out loud.
When Shunzhi heard the name of Dorgon, he was furious and denounced the ministers who supported Jidu as slaves of three surnames. They were first officials of the Ming Dynasty, then surrendered to the Dashun Dynasty, and now they became officials of the Qing Dynasty. They were not qualified to give him advice.
Shunzhi fined the two ministers' salaries, but when facing the instigator, Prince Jian Jidu, he barely suppressed his anger and only said the words "withdraw from the court".
This part of the plot was obviously testing the actor who was auditioning for the role of Emperor Shunzhi Fulin, to see if he could show enough explosive power and dialogue skills, and whether he could calmly control himself after the outburst.
The second segment is a scene where Tong Layue, the niece of Jidu Sect, shoots arrows. Tong Layue's hands and feet are weak, and the arrow she shoots falls limply to the ground as soon as it leaves the bowstring.
She acted coquettishly to Jidu and wanted to skip class, but Jidu insisted that she finish her practice.
After Tong Layue failed again, she simply sat aside with a pout.
Ji Du encouraged Tong Layue that if she wanted to stand out in the palace, she must have something that others couldn't match. Moreover, the emperor particularly liked riding, shooting and hunting. Once her wishes were fulfilled, no matter how seductive and charming others were, they would not be able to climb over her.
Tong Layue therefore strengthened his belief and took the initiative to ask to practice archery.
This scene seems rather dull, but in fact, the emotions change continuously in a short period of time, from feeling aggrieved and impatient, to failing to act coquettishly, to giving up on oneself, to firm belief, which is quite a test of the actors' skills.
After watching these two scenes, Xu Kun discovered that in addition to being a test for the actors auditioning, it was also a test of his own acting skills.
Exposing Emperor Shunzhi on the spot shows Ji Du's strong and magnanimous side; facing his niece Tong Layue, it is a comprehensive expression of helplessness, disgust, pampering, expectations and many other emotions.
If Xu Kun had not gone through the hardships in "Conquer", this second part would have been quite troublesome for him.
But after the training of "Conquer", especially the experience of acting opposite the child star [Liu Huaqiang's daughter], Xu Kun is confident that he can still hold his own.
After all, there was a lot to learn from the emotions that were brewing at the time.
On the contrary, when it came to the scenes with Shunzhi, Xu Kun read the lines and action descriptions again and found that this part seemed simple but was actually a bit troublesome.
Because the whole article describes Ji Du as strong, but there is no definitive answer as to what degree and level of strength it is - this seems to give considerable freedom, but Xu Kun always feels like something is not right.
After hesitating for a moment, he carefully looked through the previous character plots and found that this part should have happened after the emperor compared Ji Du to Zhou Yu in person and compared Yue Le to half Zhuge Liang + half Guan Yu.
As we all know, the Manchus read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" rather than "Records of the Three Kingdoms", so their evaluation of Zhou Yu is naturally far lower than that of Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu.
In this case, Ji Du must have been dissatisfied and deliberately contradicted the emperor.
The scale of this strength should be slightly higher, but it should not exceed the limit. After all, this is the early plot, and Ji Du should not have made up his mind to break up with the emperor at this time.
After sorting out this train of thought, Xu Kun felt much more at ease.
Anyway, he was the youngest in the room and almost the least famous, so there was nothing to be proud of and he just started practicing in front of the mirror.
With the young man Xu Kun taking the lead, the other old men also took action. For a while, the room was filled with the sound of lines, some loud and some low.
After becoming a little more proficient, Xu Kun formed a mutual aid group with Wang Hui. Hao Lei originally volunteered to help him rehearse, but was hijacked by He Saifei halfway.
After all, the Queen and Ji Du have almost no rival scenes. Instead, the Queen Mother, played by He Saifei, has a close relationship with the Queen.
Just like that, more than half an hour later, the audition finally officially began.
Those who participated in the audition today were all young male actors who were interested in playing the leading male role, Emperor Shunzhi - the female actors were scheduled to audition tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, which meant that Xu Kun would have to work as an assistant for at least three days.
The first person to be called to act was also Xu Kun.
This is easy to understand. This scene where the emperor directly outbursts in the court can most directly reflect an actor's explosive power and dialogue skills. The final ending and twist can also reflect the control of emotions.
Although it was near the Central Academy of Drama, the first actor to audition was a student of the Beijing Film Academy, Zhao Zhigang, a junior in the acting class of the Beijing Film Academy. After Xu Kun arrived, Director Liu Heng gave a brief explanation and gave the middle table to Zhao Zhigang.
"and many more!"
Xu Kun's clear voice immediately came from outside the door, and then, holding the court beads that hung down to his lower abdomen with one hand, he calmly stepped over the threshold and walked to the center of the living room in a few steps.
Then he stopped and did not look at Shunzhi, played by Zhao Zhigang, but looked at the empty space beside him, because his opening lines were not spoken to the emperor, but to refute Yue Le.
"The reason for breaking off the engagement is simple and well known to everyone."
When he said the last four words "known to everyone", Xu Kun glanced behind the table with a mocking look on his face.
Then he turned to the other side, where Mr. Zheng Tianyong was standing: "The consequences of breaking off the engagement are not as serious as Master Chen and Master Gong expected, which is reasonable."
Finally, he finally began to face Shunzhi, played by Zhao Zhigang: "But the key to this matter is to make those who have no faults punished, and those with minor flaws punished severely. The emperor was furious for a while..."
At this point, he turned to Yue Le again with a cold face: "Others are fanning the flames and taking such a bad approach, putting the emperor in an unjust position."
When he talked about 'putting the emperor in an unjust position', his eyes slightly turned white, and suddenly a wolf-like ferocity was revealed.
This singing, reciting, acting and fighting can be said to be just right.
Zhao Zhigang had already been building up his anger since Xu Kun walked in. When he saw Ji Du finally finished his lines, he immediately asked impatiently, "What do you mean by everyone knows the reason for breaking off the engagement?!"
Wrong, it was acted wrong!
The emotions were too intense. There should be a comma after the four words "You said you wanted to cancel the engagement", but Zhao Zhigang directly connected the previous and next sentences "in anger".
However, the reason why Shunzhi was furious was because of the three words "Dorgon". Before that, his anger should not have been so strong, or it could be said that it was still in the brewing stage.
Xu Kun slightly restrained his brows and weakened his fierce aura. He raised his head slightly towards Emperor Shunzhi and said in a resounding voice: "The emperor hated the regent Dorgon. After his death, he stripped him of his title and dug up his grave, but he still couldn't get rid of his hatred. So he wants to cancel the marriage he decided when he was alive! Is this the fault of Princess Korchin?!"
"Prince Jian is speaking candidly..."
As soon as Xu Kun finished speaking, a minister [Drama Affairs] jumped out to second the motion.
"Shut up!"
As soon as the "minister" finished his lines, Zhao Zhigang immediately slammed the table and angrily scolded him.
His basic skills are actually quite good, whether it is his emotional outburst or his delivery of lines, they are all above average.
Unfortunately, he did not grasp the core of the character. In addition to being moody, Emperor Shunzhi Fulin also had a cowardly and weak side.
The emperor played by Zhao Zhigang does not look like Shunzhi but more like a tyrant.
When he finally managed to control his emotions, it seemed as if he had made up his mind to settle accounts with Ji Du - but the subsequent plot was not like that.
As expected, after Zhao Zhigang finished his performance, Liu Heng indifferently told him to go back and wait for further notice.
Instead, after Zhao Zhigang left, Liu Heng specifically asked Xu Kun: "Xiao Xu, I remember the script said: Ji Du came to Yue Le with big strides - how come you were so calm when you first appeared?"
Xu Kun quickly put on a humble face and said, "Director Liu, I saw earlier that Jidu was very dissatisfied with Zhou Yu's comments, and it was also mentioned that Jidu and others jointly submitted a petition to persuade the emperor not to cancel the engagement.
So I think that although he came with emotions, he was also well prepared - this can be seen from the fact that after he entered the palace, he started by targeting Yue Le in a clear and orderly manner, and ended by targeting Yue Le again.
So I think he doesn't have to rush in, and it won't be too late to walk in with big strides after he gets in."
"Not bad, very good, no wonder Liping strongly recommended you to play Jidu!"
After listening to Xu Kun's analysis, Liu Heng was quite surprised. His greatest expectation was that Xu Kun could combine the context and figure out the appropriate scale.
But I didn't expect that Xu Kun not only figured out the scale, but also made logical adjustments - his calm and extraordinary appearance just now could be described as "stunning".
(End of this chapter)
