Gặp Gió - The eye of the storm: Preface

Chapter 8: Inner strength (Part one)

It is only after you meet yourself, after seeing the world, that you will be able to realize your purpose. You see a bright future, and you put your hopes into it. Amidst the outside environment, find your strength from within, take control of yourself.
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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAIN AND SADNESS

Movies, a lot of the time, have a certain intent to them. For example, in the end, there might be a sudden burst of emotions. In dramas, however, there isn't necessarily that buildup. Many times, (as your character) your dad dies, your mom remarries, you hold your head and sob painfully.

Sometimes when I look at scripts and there is a scene that asks for the actor to cry in pain, my head hurts. It's really not easy for actors. Especially for new actors, tears are very important. Right now, most of the scenes where I need to express pain, I have to rely on tears to deliver. I'm still in that stage where a scene where I need to express pain means I'm looking for tears.

But later on I've discovered, pain and sadness are two different things. Many great actors use other ways to express pain.

A couple of days ago, I was acting for one of our company's projects, a show called Great Expectations (Twin Dragons). For once, I was smart, and talked the director into using another method to express pain instead of tears.

It was a very short filming period. We only spent a little over ten days on it, so getting into character was a bit harder. The crying scenes would have to come naturally, so I was a little worried.

This scene was about actor Chen Hao and I losing our good friends. We all were broken, and in despair.

The script wrote it this way: holding your head and crying in pain. To ensure that your friend's corpse would be intact, you'd bite your tongue, bow your head, and crawl.

So I thought, maybe I can use another method to act out this scene. I talked it out with the director. If both of us followed the script and cried that way, then the two roles would be too similar. And the characters' personalities were entirely different.

Chen Hao's character was a happy-go-lucky, street smart ruffian, but my character was more mature and steady. Our (characters') family backgrounds were also different. I was a military student, he grew up on the streets.

So in this scene, the way we expressed ourselves also wouldn't be the same. It was this point that ended up convincing the director to agree to my suggestion, so I expressed my pain in a more steady sadness.
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WATCHED REPLY 1988, CRIED THREE TIMES