Leading actors of “The Love of the Hawthorn Tree”

“The love of the Hawthorn Tree”, premiered on September 16, 2010, is an impressively touching movie directed by the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou. Based on the novel by the same name, the movie is set during the Cultural Revolution and is about a “romantic tragedy” between a high school girl and a gentleman during the girl’s field study in rural China.

Released first in the mainland in September and in Hong Kong in November, this blockbuster has earned great popularity in both regions. The gross box office receipts for the film have hit 160 million. As director Zhang puts it, this movie may help people under the influence of a money-driven society to pay attention to pure love and to seek the true meaning of love. Apart from China, the movie has been also released in Korea, Japan, and other Southeast Asian countries, and has received favorable reviews.

Due to the success of “The love of the Hawthorn Tree”, the two leading actors catapulted to stardom. The film stars Dou Xiao as Sun Jianxin and Zhou Dongyu as Jingqiu. The media and audience are deeply impressed with their pure and unaffected acting style. It is the first movie in which they played the lead characters.

Dou Xiao, born in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on December 15, 1988, is a sophomore of Beijing Film Academy. With a big smile on his face, this cute young man is tall and strong, and is popular among teachers and students.

Though originally born in China, Dou Xiao immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was 11 years old and spent his youth in Vancouver. In school, he was academically brilliant and in spare time he was an enthusiast of singing and photography. He is fluent in both English and Mandarin. In 2007, he participated in “Sunshine Nation”, held by Fairchild Radio in Vancouver, and won the Championship of “Sunshine Boys”.

Dreaming of becoming an actor or a hair stylist, Dou Xiao went back to China after graduating from high school, and became a student of Beijing Film Academy, studying acting. At the beginning of 2010, the casting crew of “The love of the Hawthorn Tree” came to the academy to look for its male lead. Dou Xiao was excited. After dozens of interviews, he was selected from several thousand candidates.

Zhang Yimou was at first worried about Dou Xiao’s upbringing. Zhang thought Dou might act in a way different from that of mainlanders and would have difficulty interpreting the role in the film because of his life in Canada. After learning this sunshine young man had been brought up in a traditional Chinese way and had experienced hardships, Zhang Yimou decided to give him the opportunity.

It was a good decision. Dou Xiao’s performance in the movie is excellent. His sincerity and purity has touched millions.

Zhou Dongyu, born in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province in December, 1992, is a student of Shijiazhuang No. 12 High School. Wearing school uniform with her hair tied in a ponytail, she displays some innocent childishness on her face. At school, she kept a low profile, but if you took a closer look, you would be touched by her pureness and beauty.

Zhou Dongyu had never thought of becoming an actress. She is good at dancing and has stood out in many dance competitions and performances at high school level in Shijiazhuang.

The romance between the hero and the heroine in this movie is pure and heartbreaking. Zhang Yimou wanted a girl who was absolutely pure. The casting crew spent the better part of the year, visiting 12 schools across the country, choosing from more than eight thousand candidates, but none of them came up to Director Zhang’s requirement.

When the assistant director, the daughter of Zhang Yimou, caught sight of Zhou Dongyu in a dancing professional examination in Nanjing, she knew she had found the perfect girl for the movie. She recommended this girl to her father immediately. On seeing the girl, Zhang felt great relieved, his face beaming. After the interview, he said excitedly: “She is just the girl I’ve been looking for!”

In view of Zhou Dongyu’s dancing ability, Director Zhang added some dancing scene in the film specially, which brought the audiences back to the period of Cultural Revolution straightaway.

Dou Xiao is now engaged in the shooting of a new film. It is being filmed in China and some scenes will be filmed in Russia.