Original title: Red Star Exclusive | Bringing her debut novel to the Mid-Autumn Festival Interview with Ding Chengxin: Emotional scenes are not easy
The film “The End of the Sea is a Prairie” was supervised by Li Jinwen (formerly the supervisor of popular film and television works such as “Captain of China” and “Gu Jian Qi Tan”), directed by Er Dongsheng, and starred by Chen Baoguo, Ma Su, and A Yunga.
The film is adapted from the real historical event of “Three Thousand Orphans Entering Inner Mongolia”. It will start on April 15, 2021, and will be completed on August 10. It will be released on the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 9 this year.
In the previously exposed production special, Ding Chengxin, who played the role of “Little Date Cake” Ma Zhengyuan in the film, exposed a new scene of wearing a Mongolian robe and sitting against a stone, causing fans to shout and look forward to it.
Ding Chengxin: I played Ma Zhengyuan in the movie. Ma Zhengyuan was a child who was abandoned by his parents in a Shanghai orphanage when he was a child. Then he came to Inner Mongolia because of “three thousand orphans entering Inner Mongolia”. He had a second birth, learned to ride horses and archery, and became an authentic Mongolian guy. .
Ding Chengxin
Red Star News: This is your first movie, how do you feel?
Ding Chengxin: It is indeed the first film I participated in. I am honored and lucky. I will try my best to find the characteristics of the characters, and integrate them with my own commonalities, so that I can perform better.
Red Star News: The character of young Ma Zhengyuan doesn’t have many lines in the movie. Which sentence are you most impressed by?
Ding Chengxin: It’s the sentence “Hello, I’m the son of Baoli Deqimuge”. Because I think this sentence conveys an identity change, representing Ma Zhengyuan’s second rebirth. Maybe luckily for him, the whole feeling has changed. He has changed from a Shanghai guy to a Mongolian.
Red Star News: Ma Zhengyuan moved from Shanghai to Inner Mongolia and lived in Inner Mongolia for many years. How do you make yourself more like an Inner Mongolian, and how do you perform this complex experience of the role?
Ding Chengxin: The first is the change in appearance. Make up to make yourself a little darker, put on local clothes, and through practical experience, let yourself believe that you are someone who has lived here for a long time; and then, learn some essentials skills, I learned some bits and pieces of Mongolian, and learned to ride a horse. As far as archery is concerned, I know it myself. It is the kind of archery that I play. It has some foundations. The most important thing is to observe and see the living habits of the local people, and to understand the historical event of “three thousand orphans entering Inner Mongolia”.
Ding Chengxin’s makeup photo (left) and his first learning to ride a horse (right)
Red Star News: What kind of emotion does Ma Zhengyuan have towards Du Siheng in the movie?
Ding Chengxin: I think the two of them accompany each other and rely on each other, and there will also be a feeling of an older brother taking care of a younger sister, because they have been together since childhood, but there is a period of separation in the middle. I don’t think the relationship between the two is very simple. In Ma Zhengyuan’s opinion, Du Siheng will be a microcosm of his memory or life experience, and he will see himself in her, so there is a special feeling in it, indescribable, There are strong feelings, family and friendship.
Stills of Ding Chengxin
Red Star News: In the scene where the two of you reunited after a long absence, what kind of feelings do you need to express?
Ding Chengxin: In fact, I was a little confused at the time. At that time, the director hoped that it would be good to be casual and true. I understand that it may be more of a sense of surprise, or a natural feeling of “not growing taller for a long time”. It doesn’t need to be too strong or too light, just the right taste. And there was a little joy in the middle of the scene, but it was quite fun. When Ma Zhengyuan went to look at Du Siheng, her brother blocked his sight and Ma Zhengyuan looked back and forth. It was quite fun. Because the director cares about everyone’s opinions, we acted and watched by ourselves at that time.
Red Star News: We all know that the scene of quicksand is a more important scene in the movie, and you filmed that scene on the day you first arrived. What is your impression of it?
Ding Chengxin: At that time, I really just arrived (on the set) and I haven’t fully entered the state. I still need to rely on the opponent to give me some stimulation, and the environment of the sand and sand is very realistic, and it will also give us some assistance. The psychological feeling is a little panic, and in the end, when you really enter the scene, you will forget the surrounding environment. What’s more interesting is that after filming, I still like to stay in the mud pit and don’t want to come out, because the mud pit is very warm.
Ding Chengxin (left) at the shooting site of the quicksand show
Red Star News: There are a lot of horse riding scenes in the movie. This time you also learned to ride horses. Is this your first time riding a horse?
Ding Chengxin: Yes, for the first time. In fact, the most buggy thing is the shoes, because the sneakers I wore at the time had a relatively large toe cap, which was easy to get stuck in, and the feet were easy to trip when they came down. I think the process of learning to ride a horse is very smooth, it is not difficult, it is easy to get started. It depends on how brave you are. I think it’s just don’t resist, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid of it, embrace it, embrace it bravely.
Red Star News: It was the first time to cooperate with Director Er, did you feel any change when you met before?
Ding Chengxin: I think it’s almost the same. Like an old father, he loves and cares for everyone very much, and will selflessly share his love with everyone. I remember that in the scene where I was beaten, I had to wear protective clothing. At the beginning, I wore less, so the director first tried on himself to see if the beating was painful. Director Er said that it hurts, no, so I immediately dress him thicker and care about the actors very much. I feel very warm.
Ding Chengxin’s role poster
Red Star News: The theme of the movie is “Three Thousand Orphans Entering Inner Mongolia”, which is a very important historical event. Have you heard of this story before?
Ding Chengxin: I heard about this drama before, and I went to know it after I took it. I was reading an article at the time, and when I read that article, I felt a little sour in my heart, and suddenly there was a “bang”, and it felt like my heart was about to break. The contrast between that era and now is too strong, and now everyone is in a happy stage, unable to truly appreciate their helpless and innocent feeling at that time. (Forced by natural disasters) The child was abandoned at birth and came to the grassland under care. The Mongolian people are very enthusiastic and would rather sell their sheep and replace them with cows, because it was said at the time that only cows could take care of those orphans.
Red Star News: What kind of significance do you think this movie has?
Ding Chengxin: I think it is to let everyone understand the selfless love of the nation.
Red Star News: This is your first time shooting a movie, what do you think is the most rewarding thing?
Ding Chengxin: Maybe it is to make my performance more real and more soothing, maybe a little improvement. This kind of scene makes my acting more lifelike, and I feel very comfortable filming in such a beautiful place.
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The end of the sea is a grassland
The premiere of the movie “The End of the Sea is the Prairie”, Er Dongsheng recreates the history of “Three Thousand Orphans Entering Inner Mongolia”
Red Star News reporter Zhang Shihao
Edited by Duan XueyingReturn to Sohu, see more