Huang Bo [Photo: baike.com]
For Chinese moviegoers, it's been a long "Huang Bo season" since Christmas, with box office winners Say Yes, Lost in Thailand and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons occupying the cinema. Netizens joked on Sina Weibo that "It's like Huang Bo, owns all the cinemas in China." And just when the audience might think Huang was finally fading off of the big screen, his latest film The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel is due out in late March.
"They just accidentally all came out at the same time," Huang wrote in an e-mail to Global Times. He described his situation over the past couple of years as walking with his head down, not caring about how far he had gone.
But it was not only those popular films that made Huang a hot topic. There has been the television series A Unique Militiaman, stage drama To Live directed by Meng Jinghui, and microfilms Huang directed himself, as well as releasing a few singles and hosting the 49th Golden Horse Awards ceremony last year. You might say Huang has been "walking" really fast.
The long way to fame
It seems like it took only a few years for Huang, 39, to suddenly turn from obscure actor to superstar in China. Now, nearly everyone knows he is a gifted actor, but he's also good at dancing and singing, and after two years at the Beijing Film Academy, he became an expert at dubbing and doing voice impersonations. In an era where the screens are filled with handsome leading men, Huang is perfectly suited for the character roles.
"I am not a genus type actor. I am an idol type of actor," he joked. For Huang, all those skills come from his "big hard disk," meaning the variety of experiences he had before stepping into the film business.
Huang was not a good student at school. He fell in love with singing as a teenager. After taking part in many singing competitions, he became a part-time singer after middle school. As he dances while singing, he was also chosen to be an instructor for a dance class. In the early 1990s, he formed a rock band that performed in different cities around China.
Life was tough. After seven years of doing club gigs and sending demos of original music to record companies, he came back to his hometown Qingdao, Shandong Province. There he opened a small factory. It was not until 2000 when an old friend asked him to audition for a film that was struggling to find the right actor that Huang's fortune took a big turn. The film, Get In, And Go directed by Guan Hu, won the Golden Rooster Award for best television film in 2001. The film's success cemented a collaborative partnership between Huang and Guan, and opened up Huang's career as an actor.
Finally, Huang's performance in Crazy Stone (2006), a low-budget comedy directed by Ning Hao, brought him fame. This comedy that has a similar style as Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels soon received unexpected box office success and national attention for Huang.
"Talent is important, and so is luck. But the most important thing is your love to this thing. You love it, so you are persistent, willing to give and can have fun in the process," he said.
A sophisticated comedian
Huang has been in dozens of films. Although they may not all be typical comedies, his acting always has a sense of humor somehow. Most of his roles are some ordinary guy, often poor and a bit ugly, fighting for survival or love.
Lin Chi-ling, the leading actress from romantic comedy Say Yes said in a behind-the-scenes documentary that watching Huang's performance was "unbelievable," referring to a scene in which Huang adlibs his own ideas. Originally the scene was about the guy making a chair for his tall and beautiful dream lover - a cellist played by Lin. To envision how she would use the chair, Huang came up with the idea to put on high heels and wear a tee shirt on his head as hair. Huang's acting choices added comedy as well as personality to the story.
Huang told the Global Times that in all kinds of comedies, he particularly likes a structure where the humor is perceived through contrast.
"Comedy can have many layers. It can be a decoration of a bigger tragedy or lies on a tragic base. Stretching ups and downs creates a sense of tearing and power," said Huang.
Lost in Thailand's 1.3 billion yuan ($209 million) box office was unexpected, just like the success of Crazy Stone. China has entered an age of fast-paced lifestyles with all sorts of pressures in society. Audiences are eager for laughs and that makes Huang's characters even more charming and precious.
Huang expressed publicly that Lost in Thailand is nothing but a typical story that forms the features of the comedic genre and fits into a Hollywood narrative structure, adding that such typical genre films are what the Chinese audience needs at the moment and should be a main course in Chinese film industry.
Beyond success
Huang walked through many fields before entering the movie business. However, he is also different from most that suffered from hardship and are powerfully motivated to change their fate.
Huang has a relaxed and cavalier attitude regarding career and life. He likes to compare everything to eating and cooking. Picking scripts for Huang is like choosing a dish from a menu - not necessarily always different or always the same - just how you like it. He believes acting is like cooking, where one can try different materials to create an unexpected taste.
Upon receiving the Golden Horse Award for best actor in 2009, Huang mentioned in his speech about how people have joked about him choosing the wrong career. He said once at an audition, he was mistaken for friends' manager.
Huang calls his personality as containing a "soft persistence." "It means I may choose a different path and go (the long way) around but eventually, I will get there."
These days, many people call Huang "Mr 2.5 billion," since that is the total box office for his last three films. He was happy about the number but also remained cautious, saying it is easy to get lost if someone walks with his head down all the time.
After getting the year off to a great start, he hopes to stop filming for a while, taking time to think and review. For as Huang described, the best place to stand is in the middle of a hill, where one can either go up or simply enjoy the scenery.