Recently, two period dramas telling the growth stories of the post-80s generation have been broadcast one after another: "When I Was a Boy" successfully succeeded Li Xiaoran's "Our Day".
Although the two works have different styles and very different responses, the audience is deeply impressed by Qi Huan, who plays the mother of two young actors in the play.
In the two works, Qi Huan plays the image of a middle-aged woman with a completely different personality: one is spicy and straightforward, and the other is gentle and tough.
Although the two dramas were broadcast one after another, no one complained about her acting skills, but they all praised it, thanks to Qi Huan's solid acting skills.
However, compared with her continuous drama when she debuted in her early years, Qi Huan does not seem to have come out for business in recent years, and her production has been decreasing, what kind of story has happened to her?
1. Rising opera star turned actor
The last time Qi Huan was praised by the audience as a supporting actress was in "The Legend of Ruyi" four years ago, when she was not yet 40 years old and starred as the heroine Ruyi's henchman Rong Pei in the later period.
After the fierce harem, this is not a brilliant role, but Qi Huan performed a different style of Grandma Rong, who was originally vicious and cruel in the hearts of the audience.
She was neat and rigorous, but she was always loyal to Ruyi, and even died of martyrdom.
It can be said that this role originally did not have much room to play, but Qi Huan interpreted a different image in his own way:
In terms of makeup, she has experienced many vicissitudes and is low-key and restrained;
In terms of acting, she can highlight the helplessness and sadness of the heroine in the harem through various delicate emotional changes.
Especially in some scenes of emotional outbursts, Qi Huan did a good job, making the role very full, but definitely not stealing the limelight from the protagonist.
Therefore, Qi Huan was once again noticed by the audience and was also known as "the pearl of the sea of internal entertainment".
Indeed, before acting in "The Legend of Ruyi", she had been silently working hard in the film and television industry for 17 years.
Qi Huan was born in Jilin in 1979, originally named Qi Xiang, but because she could not write this Xiang character well when she was studying, she changed her name to Qi Huan.
But after his debut, Qi Huan found that there were too many people with this name, so he changed back to his original name for a while.
However, the audience who is familiar with her still prefers to call her Qi Huan, after all, from the point of view of appearance, she does have a pair of crooked smiling eyes, which is very cordial and festive.
Qi Huan's parents are ordinary people, but because her grandfather likes to sing, she has been affected since she was a child, and she likes to jump and sing for a while when she has nothing to do.
Parents saw that their children were talented, so they sent her to a drama school to study at a very young age, and they learned the most difficult female students.
Qi Huan was sensible and hardworking, and later successfully admitted to the Chinese Opera Academy and became the first female veteran of Peking Opera.
She loves the industry, and when she was a child, her wish was to do her best to spread some of the work on Peking Opera, and sometimes she would go out with her classmates to perform as a volunteer.
However, during one performance, Qi Huan was accidentally injured, making it difficult to complete some difficult movements in the future.
In desperation, she chose to change careers and was successfully admitted to the military art performance department.
At the age of 22, Qi Huan participated in the romantic drama "Give Some Sunshine and Be Bright", so he officially debuted.
After graduating from military art, she entered the comrades-in-arms drama troupe with excellent grades and became a military literary and artistic worker.
It can be said that whether it is singing or acting, Qi Huan is very good.
Because soon after her debut, she was nominated for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actress with her film debut "Beauty Grass".
In the film, she played the role of Wei Hong, who has a big grinning personality, but is actually very fragile, and since then she seems to have laid the direction of her supporting role in "period dramas".
In order to create the image of Zhiqing Weihong being fat because of malnutrition, Qi Huan also had to gain 20 pounds to get close to the character.
2. The mystery of "open high and go low"
Qi Huan's appearance is not top in the entertainment industry, but she also has its own charm when she is young - this seems to indicate that she can't shine because of her appearance, but she can get attention with her acting skills.
Especially in period dramas, her appearance is natural and kind, and she is very suitable for some courtyard children or rural youths.
After "Beauty Grass", Qi Huan acted for another two years, and finally met the work that gave him a name in domestic entertainment: the period drama "Days Related to Youth".
Looking at this work many years later, it seems that what comes to mind is only the starting point of Bai Baihe and Chen Yufan's love, but Qi Huan at that time was the real heroine in the play, and this was her first time as a heroine.
She played Li Bailing is a high-ranking child, but she is open, avant-garde, and even once left a shocking quote: "Don't be afraid to be a woman as a biaozi!" ”
Of course, Li Bailing is not a good woman in the traditional sense, but she is enthusiastic and extremely flamboyant, and she will not hesitate to sell her former friends at all costs and for personal interests in order to pursue the man she likes...
Such a woman was rare on the screen at that time, and she used to feel that she was not a good person because her character was too "novel".
But when you look at this work many years later, the audience will suddenly realize: "It turns out that in the entire drama, she lives the most real!" ”
Such a role has a high degree of attention, but there is no fire, and the actress who finally achieved the final achievement of this play is Bai Baihe who plays Qiao Qiao, which has also been strange.
But in any case, the audience remembered "Li Bailing", and also remembered Qi Huan's not stunning, but very story-like face.
After that, she continued to appear in the frequency of 2 or 3 works per year, such as Qi Xiaotong, a juggling clown dressed as a man in the period drama "Brother's Gate";
Another example is the beautiful and infatuated "Merry Little Widow" Ding Huiru in the nostalgic drama "Our Eighties";
and Tao Nature, a college student with a rich life and a straightforward heart in the young drama "Snowflake That Floats"...
But it's a pity that although Qi Huan's drama continues, every time he performs in the future, the limelight will be "snatched" away by another actress, so the response has always been dull.
Good actors won't be buried, though.
In 2013, Qi Huan met a good script again - Liu Yunlong's self-directed and self-acted spy war drama "Kite".
This film still has a score of 8.8 points, which is a rare good work, and the play also gathers many excellent actresses such as Luo Haiqiong and Li Xiaoran.
Qi Huan's coffee is in the female number three, playing the role of female spy Yan'e, in the play she took out many crying scenes that can "seal the gods", each paragraph is textbook level.
And behind this is the result of her deep involvement in the play, in an interview she once revealed that during a filming process, due to too much effort and too much force, the capillaries in Qi Huan's eyes were cracked.
Director Liu Yunlong did not hesitate to praise Qi Huan:
"Her explosive power is amazing, she can reach a boiling point from a freezing point, and she is definitely Yan'e's first choice."
Even Liu Yunlong questioned why Qi Huan's drama after so many years of filming was still not popular, which is also the doubt of many audiences.
In fact, there is a reason behind this, as an actor in the literary troupe, acting may only be regarded as a part-time job for Qi Huan, and choreographing stage plays is the main business.
Therefore, she must find a good priority in the work on both sides, so that she can enter the group one after another under the premise of adjusting the schedule.
In addition, Qi Huan has been in the film for more than 20 years, and has never had any scandals, and for her she is just an actor, not a star.
3. The "heroine of the period drama" waits for a counterattack
She once bluntly said that she only runs 1 or 2 plays a year, so it is normal for her acting skills to be high, so she is very serious about filming every time.
And it is precisely because of this serious attitude towards work that she has lost many opportunities in her love life.
Qi Huan once "hated marriage" when she was 30 years old, but she didn't want to find insiders, she only hoped to meet a high-quality object with a stable life.
However, this idea is difficult to realize, and she also expressed understanding: "I really can't stand going out to film for two or three months." ”
Now in his 40s, Qi Huan has "laid flat" and bluntly said that his current mentality is "marry or not".
After "Kite", "niche actor" Qi Huan encountered the script of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
There are a lot of actresses who play concubines in the play, but she chose Rong Pei, who looks unpretentious.
And the famous phrase "Having you, it's my blessing" said by the heroine Ruyi in the play is exactly what was said to Rong Pei - this pair of "alternative CPs" looks really good.
After that, she played supporting roles for Liu Shishi, Bai Lu and other "little flowers" in works such as "If You Can Love Like This" and "Police Honor".
Until the beginning of this year, Qi Huan successively came up with "Our Day" and "When I Was a Child", both of which are period dramas.
And this time, the former "period drama heroine" played the children's mother.
Fu Ying in "Our Day" is a female figure with a completely different personality from the heroine, Liu Shuxia played by Li Xiaoran, she is straight-talking, uncultured, but kind and warm.
Especially every time she appears, she doesn't care about expression management at all, and she looks like she is a low-level female figure of that era.
This image is easily reminiscent of the role of Chunyan played by Huang Xiaolei in "The World", and the two actors have similar personality characteristics.
And the reason why Qi Huan can "go out of the circle" in this play is also because of her not showy appearance, but it sets off Li Xiaoran to be particularly "petty" - this is her advantage.
In the subsequent broadcast of "When I Was a Teenager", although Qi Huan also played the mother of the little protagonist, he performed a completely different feeling.
He Xiaozhou's mother He Xiaoling in the play is diligent and thrifty, gentle and kind, she is stoic and tenacious, and supports her son with her thin shoulders, and even a piece of the family.
In terms of acting skills, she lacks Fu Ying's big voice, but she has more of a sense of vicissitudes under the pressure of life.
There is a detail that He Xiaoling left a little dish when she cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks, and she immediately put it in her mouth very naturally;
When chipping apples, she always gouges out the rotten parts with a knife and eats the rest herself...
No wonder many viewers empathized for a second after watching it: "This is my mother!" ”
Perhaps, the 44-year-old Qi Huan has indeed missed the golden period of career development, but for the audience, watching such an actor act is indeed happy.
Qi Huan, who is looking forward to "opening high and walking low", can meet works and characters that make him "go high" again, and he does not have to shine, but he always flows finely.