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Actor Sun Honglei
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Up until 2007, his name was most remembered as an irascible gangster ready to strike at the slightest provocation. Sun Honglei not only plays testy ring leaders, he can also be debonair, low-key, or even humble, as we learn from Undercover, one of the most-talked about TV series in the country. Today, we find out more about Sun Honglei and his devotion to becoming an actor of versatility.
The TV series had little preemptive advertising, yet when the network broadcast Undercover in late March,it clinched the highest first-day rating of 8.1 on Beijing TV. The 30-part spy series cast Sun Honglei as a low-key Communist agent planted in a Kuomintang secret spy organization.
Disguised as an unassuming undercover agent, Sun understands that the true greatness of an actor comes from the heart.
Actor Sun Honglei said, "The Americans and Russians call me an character actor. Chinese directors call me a method actor. Chinese audiences call me a tough guy. But I understand that real toughness comes from one's heart and mind. If you have an empty mind, you have no connection with the word tough. One can only be tough with a powerful mind."
The story is set in 1945, the year China won the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and fell into a four-year civil war between the Communists and Kuomintang. Undercover is an expanded version of its novel of the same name, a book of mere 14,000 words written by Long Yi. Sun Honglei plays Yu Zecheng, who in one scene appears to be choked with suffocating pain upon receiving through code the news of his wife's death.
His humble appearance is belying, the face is devoid of expression, but there is no mistaking the feeling. Sun put himself into the position of a man who is bereft of his companion in life and career. And his creative power accomplished one of the most memorable sequences in the series.
The role seems a far cry from his previous screen appearances, but one film helps to cushion the abrupt turn.
The grand premiere of Forever Enthralled was held in Beijing in December 2008. The biopic of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang cast Sun as the manager of Mei. The decision is just as bold as the result is pleasing.
Actor Sun Honglei said, "At the start of my career, they were Zhang Yimou and Zhao Baogang, who cast me in my first film and TV series. The one who brings out the inner part of me is Chen Kaige."
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