This summer, Dilraba Dilmurat found herself ignited with enthusiasm by the World Cup for the first time. Because of her role as Yu Long, she has begun to empathize with the cheers and cries from the stands and to feel the struggle and intensity of the play unfolding on the pitch. "Football really does send your adrenaline soaring. I really should have started following this sport that brings everyone together in celebration."
Yu Long is the No. 8 forward for the Emei women's football team in Kung Fu Soccer. The role marks Dilraba Dilmurat's return to the big screen after eight years, while the film is also a passion project that Stephen Chow poured his heart into.
"When Director Zhou called me, I was still filming. Before I got involved with Kung Fu Soccer, I knew absolutely nothing about football. The only sport I would watch on the sports channel was figure skating. Taking on this role was a brave challenge for me."
Stephen Chow initially came up with the idea of cleverly combining football with kung fu after realizing that the two have a great deal in common, as both require you to "make effective use of every part of your body."
Working in period dramas, at a rate of roughly one costume drama a year, has given Dilraba Dilmurat the opportunity to work with different martial arts choreographers.
"Other than lower-body training, I was completely unfamiliar with sports like football. I can stick with the physical training because exercise itself brings joy. Running, jumping, and doing wire work on the field — I don't find any of that difficult. I'm more than willing to keep pushing past the limits of what I can do, again and again. But mastering the techniques of scoring goals to a professional level and making it convincing for the audience — that's quite difficult."
Yu Long's signature shooting technique is called the "Soaring Dragon Shot". It involves using the momentum of a large turn to strike the ball, catching the opponent off guard, and requires an exceptional level of precision, balance, and reaction speed. In Dilraba Dilmurat's recollection, this was the scene that demanded the most takes.
"That scene required a lot of elements to be coordinated simultaneously. The ball would fly toward me, and I had to spin around and kick it. The angle of the wire rig, the force of the kick, and the speed of the ball all had to be perfectly synchronized to get the shot right."
After the film's release, discussions erupted on social media about how perfectly suited Dilraba Dilmurat and Yu Long were to each other, with many saying that the role felt like a performance true to her own nature. But she believes that any apparent ease and effortlessness is an accumulation of everyday effort. "But… when you laugh to a certain extent, you can end up crying."
Since making her debut, Dilraba Dilmurat has experienced many career highlights, but for her, what truly changed her was a sunset. That day, she sat alone by the sea, watching the sun slowly sink. It was as if she had suddenly "opened her eyes" and had seen things she had never been able to see before.
"That was the most carefree moment I had experienced in recent years and also one of the most important moments of my life. It was on that evening that I completed reshaping myself. I used to love only summer, only bright, sunny days. From then on, I fell in love with every day, with all four seasons, and with everything in this world."
Before 2020, the fast-paced and intense work schedule left Dilraba Dilmurat with almost no time to rest.
"One project followed another. I was constantly filming and had let go of many [other] aspects of my life." It was not until she had a break before joining a production that she finally took some time to properly rest. That became the first milestone in her career.
"During that time, I calmed down and thought about many things, and I came to understand a lot as well: How can I focus my attention on myself? What exactly is the message I want to convey to the public as an actor?"
From being troubled early in her career by how to portray the identity of a celebrity on screen to thinking about how to bring ordinary people to life, "I realized that learning how to live and understanding life are very important parts of being an actor. You can't just play celebrities. If you want to portray a police officer, a doctor, or a migrant worker, you can’t do it without having experienced life."
The transition from understanding this to putting it into practice could not happen overnight. Dilraba Dilmurat did not immediately change her course but instead went through a long period of transition.
When she first came across the project proposal for Sword Rose, the script had not yet been completed. She decided to take the role based solely on a brief three-line synopsis.
"I knew it wanted to convey something good. But the commencement of the production was fraught with difficulties. Since I had already given my word, I couldn't go back on my word or take on another project in the meantime, so I kept waiting, and my emotions went through constant ups and downs along the way. However, with ample time, I did a lot of preparatory work: watching relevant news and documentaries, researching how anti-trafficking police officers carry out their missions, and also making sure to live my life well."
After filming Sword Rose, Dilraba Dilmurat reflected on her past roles and realized that previously she had always carried the weight of expectations and pressure. Back then, "moving upward" meant hoping to seize as many opportunities as possible and gain recognition from more people.
"I didn't want to let anyone down, whether it was the audience or the director. After all, when you do a job, you naturally want to receive praise. That was my simplest and smallest wish at the time."
Today, however, the "moving upward" she envisions is more focused on honing her craft, hoping to "do a little better with every performance."
"If you've performed well, you'll know it when filming wraps. That sense of satisfaction doesn't come from releasing all your emotions in a scene by raising your voice or crying out all the sadness of that day. It comes from truly expressing what the character needs to express. You'll receive feedback on this through your partner's eyes, tone of voice, and what they're able to pick up and respond to."
If the two unexpected periods of waiting helped Dilraba clarify the direction she wanted to take in the future, then the sunset by the sea that followed gave her the courage to put it into practice and the energy to keep moving forward, ultimately prompting her to venture deeper into life. As a result, the way she looked at everything underwent a fundamental shift. She no longer put others before herself; she learned to see herself and accept herself.
"In the past, when people told me I was too sensitive, I would wonder if being sensitive was a bad thing, and if I should be more outgoing or less sensitive. Now, I think it's just a buzzword from the internet. After a while, another word will replace it. Sensitivity is a part of me. It helps me observe and experience things, and it's something good, just like the changing of the four seasons is something wonderful. I love my strengths, and I love my flaws too."
Life is full of winding paths and forks in the road. What determines whether we are happy is not what we choose but what we believe. Turning thirty is traditionally seen as an age when a person reaches a certain level of maturity by society's definitions, yet Dilraba describes herself with a smile as still growing. Perhaps each moment of self-reflection will bring about unanticipated changes.
"Some people might say, 'You're already 34. How much longer are you going to keep growing?' But I believe that we spend our entire lives growing. Even when I'm in my sixties, I can still attend a university for the elderly. When I was in my twenties, I didn't have much free time to allow my inner self to grow properly, so that part of my growth was delayed. That's why the me I am now has been constantly speeding up to catch up."
The cicadas buzzed incessantly in the summer heat as Dilraba Dilmurat made her way through the lush forest, effortlessly shifting between different poses for the camera. Reflecting on the experience, she said, "It felt very much like going back to my childhood, surrounded by lotus leaves and trees, everyone playing and fooling around together, and catching little fish in the lotus pond. Being close to nature also allows one to rediscover a more primal, wilder [untamed] side of oneself."
In her eyes, photography is the art of freezing a moment — the art of capturing movements, gazes, emotions, and even the way strands of hair move in the breeze, preserving them within a moment that can be considered perfect. Her role is to understand the message the designer is conveying the moment she sees the clothes, establish an emotional anchor within herself for the performance, and then bring that interpretation to life. Whether attending red-carpet events or fashion shows, Dilraba Dilmurat has repeatedly taken social media by storm with her highly distinctive fashion style, giving each outfit a new visual language.
Dilraba stated, "The person I am at a fashion show is another me." It is only when she returns to her room and removes her makeup that she becomes "the me I am in everyday life."
This inevitably brings to mind the character she plays in her upcoming drama A Duet in Blue. In the fantasy series, two completely different souls are hidden beneath the same appearance, and they end up switching lives.
In real life, is there another version of myself somewhere, living the life I wish I could live and doing the things I never dared to do? If we were to meet one day, what story would unfold? Dilraba Dilmurat's answer is simple: an embrace.
"I think she does exist. The other me doesn't necessarily have to exist in a parallel universe. Perhaps she's in my mind. Whenever I'm feeling down, I imagine the other me coming to hug me. I don't know whether she is doing well, so I want to give her a hug."
As she said this, she wrapped her arms around herself and gently embraced her shoulders. "I hope she watches the sunset every day, because having the time and energy to sit by the sea and quiet your mind is something very rare. That's why I said that sunset was so important."
During the interview, a light rain was pattering outside the window. Dilraba expressed, "A lot of people don't like rainy days, but I love them. The little splashes made by raindrops as they hit the ground and everyone holding colorful umbrellas — it's all so beautiful. These days, I can feel the beauty of life at every moment. It's not because something good happened to me today, nor is it something I consciously try to do. It's simply because I have always been surrounded by beauty."
Source: Vogue China
