Appearing for only 3 minutes, the director had to hire a special plane to pick him up and received the highest salary for the film crew

Up to now, even though nearly 4 decades have passed, the movie Journey to the West released in 1986 is still a classic television work that cannot be replaced in the hearts of the audience. At a time when the effects were still rudimentary and the budget was low, director Duong Khiet and the film crew still produced a version of Journey to the West that is loved by all generations.

Also due to limited funding, some actors had to give up during filming because the salary was not enough to live on. However, there is an actress who is favored by the director with the highest salary and the best treatment for a supporting role that only appears for 3 minutes. This is a higher fee than the main actor like Luc Tieu Linh Dong, who plays Sun Wukong.

In Journey to the West 1986, actress Ma Lan (born 1962) plays Miss An On Kieu, the daughter of Prime Minister An's family. She got married to Academician Tran Quang Nhuy and went to Giang Chau with her husband to take office. Unfortunately, on the way her husband was murdered by a ferryman. Later, she gave birth to a son, Tran Huyen Trang, also known as Duong Tang.

While having a headache not knowing who to choose to play the role of Miss An, Ma Lan caught the eye of director Duong Khiet. In the 1980s, Ma Lan was a leading actress on the Chinese theater stage. Since the age of 20, she has been promoted to a first-rate national actress.

Not only that, Ma Lan also owns a huge fortune of awards and all are prestigious awards. In 1986, she won the Plum Blossom Award, the highest award for opera actors. In 1988, Ma Lan won the best actress award at two prestigious awards ceremonies in China, Kim Ung and Phi Thien…

Looking at Ma Lan's excellent performance on stage, director Duong Khiet was immediately sure that Miss An must be this actress and no one else. But unexpectedly, when the film crew sent the invitation, they received Ma Lan's refusal because of another schedule.

However, director Duong Khiet also stated: Without Ma Lan, there would be no “Journey to the West”. Because of that, she did not give up and decided to negotiate with Ma Lan, even hiring a special plane to take her from Beijing to Yunnan, where the film crew was filming. They filmed the scene quickly and then brought her back to the troupe the same day.

In addition, to invite this A-list actress, the Journey to the West film crew was willing to pay the highest salary of 20,000 yuan (more than 71 million VND), which was a very large number at that time. Even Luc Tieu Linh Dong – the actor playing the main role of Sun Wukong only received 100 yuan (more than 350 thousand dong) for each episode, while Ma Lan only needed to appear on screen for exactly 3 minutes.

But when Ma Lan appeared on the small screen, everyone understood why director Luong Khiet was determined to invite her and was willing to offer such good incentives. In just a moment of standing on a high floor throwing a hydrangea to pick a bridegroom, without needing a single line of dialogue, the actress showed everyone the image of a young lady from the Prime Minister's family coming out of a book.

In particular, the scene where An On Kieu endured her grief and had to willingly abandon her child so that he could survive, moved many viewers in front of the small screen to tears. Without any crying or dialogue to support, Ma Lan was able to express the mother's heart-wrenching pain using only her trembling hands as if trying to hold on to something but unable to do so.

Currently, the actress has turned 62 years old and lives happily with her husband who is 16 years older. Her husband is Yu Thu Yu – art theorist, cultural historian, essayist and former principal of Shanghai Drama Academy. The two have no children and often date, travel everywhere together, as passionate as in the beginning.

In 2007, Ma Lan was also awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award for the best artist in Asia” by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, USA and the US-China Association. In addition to acting, the actress is also involved in teaching, is a professor at Zhejiang University of Communication and an honorary expert at the Shanghai Academy of Drama.