Preach in words. - Don Tears
Aging is an irresistible thing.
For example, in the history of Hong Kong cinema, those behind-the-scenes filmmakers who are in the limelight are dying of old age.
The other side is the emergence of newcomers in the directing world.
Director Chen Musheng, who stuck to Hong Kong cinema, is deceased.
Du Qifeng has shot nine times in the past ten years, only "Deadly Gold" and "Drug War" are acceptable, and the word-of-mouth box office is not a big hit.
It has been a long time since Tsui Ke left Hong Kong films.
Xu Anhua specializes in literature and art, but the quality has dropped a lot compared to ten years ago.
Wong Kar-wai only had one "Generation Grandmaster" to support the scene.
Others, such as Liu Weiqiang, Lin Chaoxian, Liu Zhenwei, etc., have long since left the category of Hong Kong films, like Xu Ke.
Qiu Litao is also a well-qualified director, but he is always a quality quenched film, and it is still unknown whether the "Sweeping Drugs 3" filmed this year can help him get out of the quagmire of medium quality.
Er Dongsheng had already passed its peak.
Who else is left?
Take the Hong Kong films of the last decade.
The films that have both box office and word-of-mouth are "Cold War" and "Peerless", and the films with strong reputation are "Blood Hunting Plums" and "Zombies", which are directed by Lu Jianqing and Liang Lemin, Zhuang Wenqiang, Weng Ziguang and Mai Junlong.
Among the above-mentioned people, the first to emerge were actually Lu Jianqing and Liang Lemin.
In 2012, they made a splash with "Cold War", winning the annual crown in Hong Kong, breaking the Box Office record of Hong Kong films in the mainland, and sweeping the Academy Awards the following year, juxtaposing with director Chen Kexin's "Sweet Honey" in the history of the Academy Awards, second only to Wong Kar-wai's "A Generation of Grandmasters".
But they turned around and ran to start filming a "Equator" with an investment of 200 million Hong Kong dollars.
Many people may not know that the investment of the first part of "Cold War" is only 25 million yuan, the investment of the second part is 80 million, the two leading actors rush to the good script and Anle Jiang Zhiqiang, completely do not care about the film remuneration and schedule to fully cooperate, the result of the box office output of the two films are ten times the amount of investment, and the 200 million investment of "Equator" only received 200 million mainland box office and 16.15 million Hong Kong box office, and the reputation is also very ordinary.
In the new directorial stage, this kind of high-foot-low performance will seriously affect the industry's judgment of their ability.
Therefore, although "Cold War 2" won a big victory with a record in Hong Kong film history and a box office performance of nearly 700 million yuan in the mainland, in view of the delay in "Cold War 3", the evaluation of the two directors naturally needs to be lowered, and they still need another case to prove themselves, but at present, except for Leung Lok-man, who has a "Mui Yanfang" is being released, there are no new film plans.
Weng Ziguang's film life began in Beijing, starting with "Watching Movies" magazine and pirated discs.
His first film was Bright Time.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best New Director for this film, the same year's competitors were Zhang Jingwei of "Musical Life" and Zhou Xianyang of "Murderer", and finally lost to Zhang Jingwei.
Weng Ziguang is very modest, he said, "Looking back at "Bright Time" now, I will get goosebumps. Is this kind of dialogue what people say? How did this picture come to be taken like this? Is it possible to perform like this?"
Later, "Blood Seeking Plum" went through the process of winning the "Hong Kong Asian Film Investment Association HAF" award, finding investment and being shelved, in the middle of which he ran to shoot a "Micro-Friend Girl" with no impact, and was tricked into writing two scripts, and then finally found investment to start filming "Blood Seeking Plum", becoming the first film in the history of the Academy Awards to win all the actor awards.
Because of this play, he formed a deep friendship with Aaron Kwok and Meiya Entertainment, so he cooperated to start filming "Global Wanted", which tells the ups and downs of the 1960s and 1970s, and later joined actors such as Liang Chaowei and Xu Guanwen, renamed "When the Wind Rises Again", which is currently pending screening.
Based on two literary and niche films, it will take over the production of large-scale films with an investment of more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars.
A history of the growth of the characters of the underworld tyrants, with "Once Upon a Time in America" as a reference, how can we not look forward to it?
If the box office explodes, no one can stop the footsteps of Weng Director.
In 2013, Mak wrote his second screenplay, Zombies.
The first script starred himself, the second script he transformed into a director, in 2013 won more than 17 million Hong Kong box office, ranking eighth in the top ten box office list, a hit.
Outside of the box office, word of mouth is surprisingly good, especially surprising for its ability to control mirror images and the proficiency of the film's language.
This ability may only be due to talent.
Like Weng Ziguang, after the quality was verified, he began to take over large-scale productions, and his film is also the beginning of the word "wind", called "Wind Forest Volcano", the new director, epic meaning and gangster police, even the shooting time is similar, and it has been filmed for a long time and is currently waiting for screening.
Another common denominator is that both new directors need to be tested commercially.
Is this a coincidence, or is it a fateful arrangement?
Zhuang Wenqiang's entry time was slightly earlier than theirs.
However, he has always been well known as a screenwriter, and often co-directed films after hiding in Mak Siu-fai.
Until 2010, He Fei went to direct a film called "Flying Sand Wind Transfer".
Cloaked in comedy skin, the film used a song sung by Zhou Runfa in 1990, "Flying Sand Wind Transit", as the theme, and took "Ancient Puzzle Boy", "Infernal Affairs" and "Underworld" to spoof it, and then Zhuang Wenqiang won the Academy Award for New Director.
In 2014, he began to prepare for the filming of "Peerless".
First found Aaron Kwok, and then with Aaron Kwok's proposal and help, Chow Yun Fat was found, an epoch-making film in the history of Hong Kong cinema was born, in 2018, "Peerless" set a new record for Hong Kong films at the mainland box office, won the hong Kong box office runner-up of the year, and became the most nominated film in the history of the Academy Awards.
Unlike Wang Jing's "Macau Storm 3" before, "Peerless" is a box office and word-of-mouth, and also saves Chow Yun Fat from bad movies.
At any time, works that can get word of mouth and box office will receive great attention.
Zhuang Wenqiang, after this battle, laid the foundation for the status of the first director of the Mesozoic generation.
So he dared to say that he was not dead, how could Hong Kong films die?
Three years later, a major production with an investment of more than 350 million yuan, "Goldfinger", was filmed under his hands.
In addition to them, of course, there are more new directors growing and exploring.
For example, Huang Qingxun, who cooperated with Aaron Kwok on "Mai Luren", although the first work did not explode, but showed that the foundation was still good, and immediately began filming the second work "Disconnected Net", and recently Aaron Kwok's other new work is still a new director who started filming the first work, called Mak Qiwen, who has been du Qifeng's assistant director for many years, as well as The new director Huang Jin, who directed "A Thought of Ignorance", and Chen Xiaojuan, who filmed "Fallen Man", etc., not to mention.
As newcomers in the industry, they all need tickets for literature and commerce, that is to say, either word of mouth is booming, or business is prominent.
Because the competition in business is always fierce.
Needless to say, Zhuang Wenqiang has become a signboard.
The pending works of Weng Ziguang and Mai Junlong are actually a threshold.
If you can jump the dragon gate, the sky is wide.