Chapter 58 School of Drama

I missed a grade the first year of elementary school, and dropped out of school not long after because I was too naughty.It was also at this time that Dad got a good job and went to Australia to help the American Consul as the head chef. This job can allow Dad to earn more money and get better opportunities, but it also means that he has to leave Hong Kong and be separated from my mother and me temporarily.It was also at this time that my parents began to think seriously about my future.If I can't stay in school obediently at all, then where is my future? Dad's friends gave him a suggestion to send me to the Chinese Academy of Drama under Master Yu Zhanyuan.There, with Master's strict discipline, my bad habits must be greatly restrained, and I can learn a lot of skills.However, there is closed management with food and lodging included. Once my parents send me in, it is equivalent to signing a contract of prostitution for me.This sounds cruel, but for the parents at the time, it might have been a choice.

One morning, my father made an exception and said that he would take me out to play. I was so happy.He went back to his room and changed into his favorite denim suit, grabbed a toy pistol in his hand, and went out happily.Along the way, my father didn't say a word to me, and bought me red bean paste buns immediately, which is unbelievable.When I arrived at the Academy of Drama, my father took me in. I went in and saw boys and girls in white shirts and black trousers lining up to practice kicking. Before leaving, I was very reluctant.Dad asked me, what do you think if I send you here in the future?I say great!

Going to the academy for the second time is the time to sign the contract.Master said that the contract period can be divided into 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 10 years.Dad asked me, Pao Pao, how long do you want to stay here?Without even thinking about it, I said, I would like to stay here forever!A trace of pain and intolerance flashed in the eyes of the parents, but they still signed the contract with the master.I didn't know at the time that after signing this contract, not only would I become Master's "private property", but also in the next 10 years, even if Master beat me to death, Master would not have to pay for it.

My childhood officially ended at that moment. By the time I realized it, it was too late.My dad soon left for Australia, and my mum stayed behind to accompany me through the transition period.At that time, my daily schedule was like this: I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning and had breakfast, trained until 12 noon and had lunch, and continued to train until night after dinner.Only sleep 6 hours a day, over and over again.I slept on the floor with all my brothers and sisters and slept in a corner.The carpet in the room has never been changed for many years. Everyone eats, sleeps, pees at night, and has nightmares. There are all kinds of dirty things on it, such as leftovers, leftovers, and Master’s phlegm. I think that piece of carpet should be many times heavier than when it left the factory.

Fortunately, at that time, my mother would visit me once a week, and bring my favorite candies and snacks to the college to distribute to my friends.Not only that, every time my mother came, she would bring a big bag of boiling water and ask Master to come to the bathtub to help me take a bath.At that time, there was little water in Hong Kong. At first, I took a bath twice a week, but later it changed to once.My mother often cried while bathing me, because I always saw some scars on my body, such as rattan marks, and I told her, it’s okay, I’m used to it, and my mother cried even harder. A few times later, when my mother came to bathe me, everyone started laughing at me for being a spoiled child.After that, I lost my temper with my mother: "Don't hug me like a baby every time you come here, and don't take water to bathe me anymore, please! I have grown up!" Mom didn't Saying nothing, just nodded slightly.Thinking about it now, how ignorant it was at the time.Every time, my mother has to boil hot water at the consul’s house, which is very hot, and then walk from the top of the mountain, walk for 25 to 30 minutes, take a ten-cent cable car to the cable car station, and then walk for 30 minutes to the Star Ferry Terminal. Then take a ten-cent boat to Kowloon, and then walk from the pier to Mirador Mansion. The whole journey will be very fast, otherwise the water will become cold. A bucket of water will weigh at least forty or fifty pounds. She just hopes that her son can take a hot bath. bath...

Two or three years later, Dad came back.He came to see me at the college with his mother, and this time, they came to really say goodbye.Mom is going to Australia with him too.Before parting again, my parents invited Master and my brothers to have a meal.On the day I sent them to the airport, my mother bought me a bag of fruit.Watching them walk through the gate brought tears to my eyes until their plane flew away. After my parents left, I hid under the covers and cried every night. After crying for a week, I slowly accepted the reality.At that time, they sent me tapes every week. After receiving them, I took the tape recorder my father gave me and hid in the back stairs to listen.Hearing them say: "My son, I miss you so much!" and started crying again.Later, my parents would send me money. Slowly, I started to only take money, and stopped listening carefully to what they said. Anyway, the content of what they said was the same every time. Since I cried when I heard it, I might as well not listen never mind.At that time, I would feel a little uncomfortable when it came to weekends. Seeing other people have parents to visit, and even go home with their families, I feel sad for a while.

Life in the Drama Academy was very hard. In addition to the endless rigorous training, there were also various corporal punishments. During my 10 years at the academy, I only got sick once.It's unbelievable to think about it now, but in fact, I was too scared to get sick at all.At that time, I was eight or nine years old, and one day I vomited after eating. I felt very uncomfortable and had no energy. The white-haired mother Fang from school came to touch my head: "Oh, you have a fever, go to sleep. Go to the side, and I'll get you some medicine." When I heard this, I felt happy, could I avoid practicing qigong if I was sick?You can rest for at least two days.I moved to the corner of the room and lay down, listening to other people practicing exercises outside.

After a while Master came and saw me lying there, and asked, "What's wrong with you?" I replied weakly, "I'm sick..." and exaggerated it on purpose.Master said: "Oh, is he sick?" Fang's mother said next to him: "Yes, yes, he has a fever." "Have a fever? Is that so. Okay, everyone, don't practice, stop." Everyone clattered All up at once.He turned his head and said to me: "Get up, sweep the hall 100 from the left." I was dumbfounded.After sweeping the hall left, sweep the hall 100 times right.Then fly 100 left and 100 right.After it was over, I asked me: "Are you okay?" I immediately said: "Okay, okay!" From then on, not only me, but everyone else in the college did not dare to get sick anymore.

In the life in the Drama Academy, everyone has a common hope, that is to perform on stage as soon as possible.At that time, Liyuanxing was still prosperous, and there were often performances in the theater. For us, that was the biggest goal. One day, Master announced that we were going to have our first public performance.This made everyone really excited, and what was even more exciting was that Master said that the best few among all the people would be selected to play the leading roles.On the night when I heard the news, many people did not sleep well, and everyone silently hoped that they could be one of them.

The next day, everyone got up early and waited for Master to announce the result.Because the master’s name is Yu Zhanyuan, our stage names in school all start with the word Yuan. For example, my name is Yuanlou, and Sammo Hung’s name is Yuanlong.In those few years, big brother Yuanlong bullied us a lot, but we all followed the precepts of our ancestors and never dared to fight back. Fighting back is "bullying the master and destroying the ancestors".Until today, many years later, I still respect him as my big brother.There are too many stories between us to tell, just like the ancient saying "Brothers fight against the wall, and the outside world resists their insults", no matter how we fight ourselves, once we are outside, we are an indestructible brotherhood.

Time went back to that morning, and Master called out those names one by one. "Yuan Long, Yuan Tai, Yuan Hua, Yuan Wu, Yuan Kui, Yuan Biao..." They stood up one by one, and there was a commotion underneath, only the last place left, could it be me?Master cleared his throat and told everyone to be quiet: "There is one last one, Yuanlou!" I jumped up, and after a forehand flip, I also stood among everyone. "You seven, bow to your fellow brothers and sisters!" We bowed deeply.The reality is like this, if the few of us have the opportunity to play the leading roles on stage, it means that other colleagues can only play tricks, or do some behind-the-scenes work such as curtains, pipes, and makeup.Although everyone felt a little uncomfortable, at that moment, the collective sense of honor surpassed everything, and there was a burst of warm applause and cheers from the audience, everyone was proud of us! In this way, the "Seven Little Fortunes", who will become famous in the film industry in the future, were born in this way. My group of brothers and sisters each have their own magical powers. Yuen Biao can perform extremely difficult acrobatic moves. Handstands are as easy as walking on flat ground. Wu Du is good at all kinds of martial arts routines, Yuan Kui is proficient in facial makeup, and I, none of them are strong, but none of them are bad.The eldest brother Yuanlong was handsome and tall, he was a handsome man at that time, and he was also the most powerful boxer in the academy.At that time, I didn't have anything outstanding, but it was a balanced development in all aspects, and there was one thing I was best at, and that was running fast.This is all practiced by being beaten a lot by the big brother, since I can't fight back, then I can always escape!According to our different characteristics, we were assigned different roles. Senior brother often played the role of the emperor or general, while Yuen Biao often played Caidan because of his thin and flexible body.If so, the elder brother will play Monkey King Sun Wukong, I will play Zhu Bajie, and Yuan Tai will play Drifting Monk. Before Yuen Biao entered the Drama Academy, I was the youngest junior in the school, and I was bullied by various seniors every day.After he came, he became the youngest junior, and he was bullied. He seemed a bit weak in character, and he kept crying after saying goodbye to his parents the day he first arrived.Seeing him like that, I remembered how sad my parents were when they left, so I immediately went over to introduce myself to him, and comforted him a few words.After lunch, he watched our training, and everyone encouraged him to try it too. Unexpectedly, he was very talented, and he was very professional in somersaults. Yuan Tai's dissatisfaction. Yuen Biao has a very good relationship with me, and I often fight for him at school.Once, big brother Sammo Hung borrowed money from Yuen Biao. We were on the bus. Yuen Biao had no money to buy a ticket, so he asked him to take it. , I dare not fight back, so I can only run.At that time, Sammo Hung had already started to gain weight. We first ran down from the bus, then jumped over the railing, and after he climbed over the railing, we had already run away, but we were chased all the way to the school, and in the end we had nowhere to go and were beaten by him After a meal. It has been an unwritten rule in the academy for many years that the big ones bully the young ones, and the little ones obey the big ones.In the following years, we were still often bullied by our seniors, and I often stood up to protect Yuen Biao.Although we didn't dare to fight back against the "violent power" of our seniors, we had practiced the skills of running away. Sometimes we would turn around and run after a few words of scolding to them. If they couldn't catch up, they would have nothing to do with us.Thinking about it now, although the senior brother often beats me, he is still my senior brother and the person I admire the most. Although we have been selected into the "Seven Little Fortunes" and become a small role, our group of people did not cause less trouble. At one stage I was called a "little foreigner" in school, because when I was a child in the French consulate, I grew up drinking milk and eating bread. I was stronger and more nutritious than other people, and I always ate "double ingredients", so everyone gave me My title.At that time, they often disliked me and didn't like me.Once, Yuan Kui and I got into a fight, but I forgot why.Everyone surrounded us to watch the fun. My scissors are very powerful. When we fought, someone next to me said, "You are not allowed to use scissors", so I dare not use them.After beating and beating, the master came, and everyone was so frightened that they all stood up and ran to both sides.He stopped everyone first, then turned around and asked us: "What's wrong?" Yuan Kui and I were still panting, staring at each other with hatred.Master said: "Okay, you like to fight, don't you? Everyone get out of the way! You two stand up and fight!" We both stared at Master in a daze, and suddenly saw Master yelling: "Fight!" The two of us had no choice but to start playing. You don't know, but fighting is very tiring.It’s okay to play for 30 seconds and 40 seconds, but it’s really tiring if you play continuously.At that time, we were young, and we didn't know how to walk, breathe, and those things. It was just continuous punching to the flesh. Later, both of us lay on the ground and lost energy.Master said: "No more slaps?" , The strength to hit the back hand is gone.At the beginning, I still beat the opponent hard. He was stronger and I was stronger. Later, he was weaker and I was weaker. In the end, my face was swollen and my teeth were bloody. The two of them were tired and painful. start crying.Seeing that we were indeed exhausted, the master ordered us to lie down and give each of us another ten canes.After ten whips, we almost passed out.Not only that, Master also temporarily disqualified us as "Seven Little Fortunes", and found two other senior brothers to take the place.We both regret it to death. From then on, no one dared to fight casually, and if they had to fight, they would never let Master see them again. On an unknown day, Yuan Kui and Yuen Biao sworn brothers.When we were 13 or 14 years old, we went to perform in Taiwan. On a rooftop called Yonghe Town, the three of us read a doll book together. It was the kind of comic book that belonged to Yuen Biao.I read books very quickly, and I don't care much about the order. I always pick it up as soon as Yuan Biao finishes reading. At this time, Yuan Kui said: "We are sworn brothers. It's my turn when he finishes reading. To you? Let me read it first!" I was very angry when I heard it, and I saw him come to grab the book. If I refused to give it to him, I just threw it on the ground. He just wanted to pick it up, but I kicked the book away. .Now he was also angry, and wanted to come over and hit me. As soon as he leaned forward, I dodged and gave him a punch. At that time in school, apart from not daring to beat Sammo Hung, I was already the best among the rest of the people, with a strong body.As a result, I punched him, and he touched his nose and said, "I'm going down to look in the mirror now, and if my nose is swollen, I'll definitely come back and beat you!" I stood there and waited, and he came up after a while: "My nose is swollen! I'm going to hit you!" At this time, when we fight, it's not like rolling on the ground and scratching like when we were young, and our movements already have routines and moves.Gradually he couldn't beat me, and wanted to get the bench. Seeing that he was going to grab the bench, I turned around and grabbed a concrete iron can, which was very heavy, and shouted staggeringly: "Come on! Come on!" At this time, I suddenly heard Master's voice downstairs: "What are you doing?" The three of us went down from the fifth floor in a flash. appear in front of the master.Master asked, "What are you doing?" We said, "Practice on it." "Yuan Kui, what's wrong with your face?" up.When he left, we continued to fight. When we grow up a bit, in addition to opera performances, we will also do some odd jobs in film crews.The means of transportation at that time was a double-decker bus. We met a foreman who drove us. He was responsible for taking us into the bus to see that we were seated, and then let the master drive.After getting on the bus, he was responsible for buying tickets for us. There were 30 or 40 people, each of whom paid 10 cents for a ticket, and the total cost was three or four yuan.His son's name is Cui Liu, he is a driver, and his job number is 1033.Every time he gets on the bus, he will say, "Family, Cui Liu, 1033", so that he will be exempted from the ticket. We all remembered that sometimes he couldn't take us, so he would share the fare with everyone and go back by car. We used the fare to buy food, and when we got on the bus, we said solemnly: "Family, Cui Six, 1033." One day, there were a lot of people getting on the bus together, and everyone used this trick, and the conductor felt that something was wrong, and started swearing: "I don't believe that Cui Liu's mother can have more than a dozen children!" We insisted on buying tickets, but as soon as we made a move, his ticket bag was overturned.I remember that the car was driving on Prince Edward Road, and he yelled loudly not to let the driver stop, but to drive directly to the police station.We opened the car door and jumped off the bus. Several people jumped off the bus continuously, rolled, and immediately stood up steadily without any injuries.Thinking about it now, this was probably our earliest stunt practice. Once, senior brother Sammo Hung broke his foot during training, passed out from the pain, and was taken to the hospital for a long time.At that time, he was very handsome. After he broke his foot, his grandfather came to visit him every day, made him noodles, and ate noodles every day. His figure soon became fat like a balloon.The foot injury healed, but the body couldn't return, so the master had to stop his performance.This made him very frustrated, and finally one day, he left the school with his blanket on his back.Before leaving, he still said to everyone in the tone of a big brother: "The era of opera is coming to an end, and movies will be the real career in the future! When I make a name for myself in the future, you all come to me!" At that time, we were doing odd jobs on the set, and each person was paid 65 yuan. Master would deduct 60 yuan and only give us 5 yuan for pocket money.After Yuanlong left school, Yuantai became our senior brother. Once, he said to everyone: "We should get more money, 5 yuan is too little, and the master deducted so much." The proposal received everyone's response. After a fierce ideological struggle, we decided to petition Master together, and Yuan Tai led everyone to speak.This is a great psychological challenge for us who have survived under Master's majesty for nearly 10 years. However, to everyone's surprise, Master did not lose his temper. He just turned his back slowly and said : "You are grown-ups, your wings are stiff, and you are going to fly away." When we heard this, tears welled up in our eyes, but after this time, each of us' wages rose to 35 yuan, which is already A great victory! As the days passed, we realized more and more the wisdom of Yuan Long's words.Indeed, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for opera performances, replaced by the vigorous development of the film industry, and the students in the academy leave one by one to devote themselves to this new prospect.It's time for me to say goodbye to Master. On that special day, Dad came.He was chatting with the Master outside, and I was packing up in the room. After stuffing all the belongings of the past few years into boxes, I deliberately wore three pairs of jeans on my body.As usual, on the day of leaving the teacher, you have to get 10 strokes of the rattan cane. I knelt there with a bench and a cane, and said to Master: "Master, I'm leaving." He came over and touched my head: "Oh, no." I breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, Master." Dad and Master exchanged a few more pleasantries: "Let's go, come back to visit you when I have time." I grabbed the suitcase and said, "Master, I'm leaving." After bowing, I turned and walked out of the school. After going out, I turned around and looked at the school door, feeling a burst of fear in my heart.Dad called a taxi, and I looked back after getting in the car, still scared.The car turned on Jordan Road, and the school was no longer visible when I turned around again. I shouted in the car: "Ah! Ah! Ah! I finally left!" In 1988, Master, who had already settled in the United States, returned to Hong Kong to hold a birthday banquet, and everyone attended.At that moment, we realized that Master has trained a large number of action talents for the entire Hong Kong and even Asian film circles.In addition to Yuan Heping who had left the school when I entered the school, the "Yuan" signboards are almost all over the major studios and film cast and crew lists.From this perspective alone, Master's achievements are already great. In 1997, Master died of illness in the United States. I stopped the movie I was filming and rushed to attend his funeral. As I once said: "Chen Zhiping is Chen Gangsheng's father, but Yu Zhanyuan is Jackie Chan's father."