L'OFFICIEL China January 2023 Issue
Yang Mi: Always as New and Have Fun
It's the beginning of another year, and the body and mind quietly lighten up. The mood of wanting to "sprout" appears again. Yang Mi has experienced a long journey, the past is still fresh in her mind, but she has the courage and belief to start all over again and towards a vibrant and lively future.
The earth rotates for a year, the calendar changes to a new one, and she is happy that she is not coming to 2023 empty-handed. During this period of time, another round of "going through the process" of happiness began, Yang Mi was catching up on the new anime, watched a few hilarious comedy, applied a facial mask at night, and drank a glass of wine. Looking at the night in front of her, and knowing that tomorrow will not just be a new day.
This is an extremely rare time of the year when she can spend some casual days with her family. It has not yet snowed in Beijing this winter, but spring will be on its way. She wants to live these days happily, and enjoys some concrete happiness. While accepting the life, she will also deal with it to the end.
Important things do not even take up to 20%
The manicurist came in to do her nails, and she obediently stretched out her hand. From time to time, she asked, "How about going with a little more simple style? Which one do you think is better?"
Thinking about this time of last year, she had some hair pieces on the table in front of her, and she also was choosing different colours. She has a bunch (of hair pieces) at home, and every time she goes out, she has to dress up nicely, like what she did when she was a student.
Last year as winter began, Yang Mi's two films brought a lot of surprises. "Thank You Doctor" was finally released in anticipation, and followed by "She and Her Perfect Husband". The former is touching, the latter is new and interesting. Qin Shi is an unusual character, a young female lawyer with "a bit of wild ambition", and is not the kind of woman who looks cool, but has with a little more flirtation and arrogance.
Sometimes you can see Yang Mi on Qin Shi, and sometimes the character lives up to herself. As a modern drama, Yang Mi changes multiple outfits in every episode, which is really eye catching.
"At first I didn't quite understand why Qin Shi was allowed to dress so flamboyantly. But then the director said she was a person with a very vivid personality, and you can see that all the colours in her house are vibrant red and blue. This time is to break the stereotype of female lawyers, which in fact, they also dress up beautifully and are still a girl who loves beauty."
The most interesting thing is that she is not an office lady in the public imagination. For example, every time Qin Shi eats her meal at work, it is all fresh vegetables, a simple salad, which looks very healthy. But in reality, she hid a lot of snacks in the drawer and ate them every time she was stressed out.
"She is a person who loves to eat meat and drink alcohol. Therefore, she is not picky for food when she is at home. This is the character trait of Qin Shi, bright and lively, with a clear vision of love and hate."
It was the first time she worked with Liu Lin, and in order to keep it fresh, a lot of the scenes were done directly at the set. Yang Mi created a lot of small design, she knew that Qin Shi is very smart and has quite a lot of body language, but she did not want her to be "over flattering".
"Actually, when I was acting, as long as it was a private conversation with Mdm. Tang, I would call her babe. But when in the presence of others, I would change the pronoun and be respectful. This is a way for Qin Shi to get along with her."
Although the "babe" was later changed and removed, this was her way of handling the role.
The process of catching up with the drama is like riding a roller coaster with constant peaks, and each episode is interesting and very enjoyable to watch. In this drama, Yang Mi's performance of her lines is very different, and she herself also thinks, "(I) speak particularly smooth".
There is a scene in which Qin Shi and Yang Hua discuss about the modern women's hardship of having to face both the workplace and the pressure of giving birth, and how should they choose? Qin Shi gave a surprising answer, "We will just quit the game, is it all done?"
So far, there are rarely such straightforward, spicy and frank expressions in China's dramas. It presents the attitude of the contemporary women without covering up or making things easy. The script of "She and Her Perfect Husband" was handed to Yang Mi directly by the director, and when she read it, she liked it and had a lot of urge to act. Yang Mi gave Qin Shi the "enchanting" and "quirky" side, but she herself thinks that the most similar thing about her and Qin Shi is that, "When she is facing some difficulties in life, she has a strong energy that is not easily defeated and will try her best to solve the problems."
Talking about her own "80/20 Rule", Yang Mi said, "What is important to me does not even take up to 20%. I have very few important things."
"I don't have that much desire for food or entertainment, and material things."
She never insisted on having to buy something. Sometimes she wanted to buy some little things, and when she opened the online shopping application, she would be distracted by something else in a couple minutes. Sometimes she would forget about the purchase and only find a huge surprise when she opened the parcel.
I asked Yang Mi, what is exactly that important thing to you, and she replied: "At this moment, it's a good role."
Do not restrict herself with the framework
Sometimes when I look at her, I wonder how that familiar Mi has grown into the person she is today. As a member of the 80s generation, Yang Mi acted very early in her life, and her early works were all part of her growth. When she first entered the industry, she did a lot of CCTV (China national TV) dramas. Wang Zhao Jun and Princess Ying Ling were unforgettable; there were also urban life dramas, where there was a very different Yang Mi compared to today.
"At that time, I would take the opportunity whenever I could," but thinking back again after many years, she still thinks, "Every film is an experience."
Recently, she often mentioned that she "wants to play a villain once", and hopefully everyone will wait slowly. She has played at least two successful villain roles before, one is "Ling Long" in "Detective Di Ren Jie – prequel", who is at first cute and lively, but at the end is completely evil. Tu Ling in the movie "A Writer's Odyssey" is also a stunning role. She wants to play a villain again, "to give myself a challenge, to try something different".
She has played many different types of roles before becoming a costume goddess. Six years have passed since "Eternal Love" becomes the top of costume romance drama. In the subsequent "Legend of Fu Yao" and "Novoland: Pearl Eclipse", you can see the reflection of Yang Mi's own character: tough, indomitable, along the way of fighting, she can lose blood and flesh, but will never admit to losing, and let herself be defeated.
Last year, she once again played the role of a fox and two years have passed since she last came to Hengdian. "I don't want to restrict/limit myself. Every time I accept a film, it depends on the script and the role. I won't say I want to play this certain film just because of the genre itself."
The schedule for "Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Yuehong Chapter" was very intense, "I had to work every day, so I didn't go out much. When I got home, I would take a bath, put on a sheet of facial mask, read the script and go to bed."
During the autumn, there were several heavy rains, and one day, a typhoon blew the balcony window open. She tried to close it in the wind and rain, but it didn't move at all. As she had Xiao Hei with her at home, she was afraid that it would jump out. Since a friend she knew happens to live nearby, Yang Mi immediately called for help. According to her story, when the friend came, they smugly said: "How difficult would it be to close the window!" However, they also failed to pull the window after a few tries and even called other helpers, but it still didn't close. The next day, Yang Mi just called the property management staff to repair.
When she said this, it was like talking about a small matter in the neighbourhood. At that time, several productions started in Heng Dian, and she lived in a neighbourhood with many familiar friends, so it felt like living in a university dormitory. The neighbours often visited each other, came to her house to pick up a few things and simultaneously drop off some snacks or goodies. "When someone lacks something, and if I happen to have it, I will share it with them, and this is just like living in the place where I stayed as a child."
When she went home after the filming wrapped up, many of her furnishings changed again. Yang Mi said, "My mom loves to clean up my house when I'm leaving for work. She will hide things for me in the places where she thinks I should put them, and then, I can't find them anymore."
She often wonders if there is a monster in the house that steals and eats her clothes. Many of the clothes that she just bought always could not be found anymore. So, she bought a few new ones, but after a while, she found the disappeared ones again.
"I have a lot of clothes, and never arrange them by colour, they are all placed randomly. Sometimes I ask my mom, 'Do you remember where this item was put?' My mom said 'Try to find it yourself, I'm sure that I can't find it'."
These are the little things that Yang Mi describes as "simple happy times". As the new year is coming, such moments are extraordinarily warm, and looking back on the year that has just passed, she hopes that in the coming year, everyone "will take care of yourselves and have a safe and healthy new year."