Recently, the second season of "Chasing the Light" was launched, and actor Zhang Weijian received a lot of attention.
From the first issue of the program, Zhang Weijian firmly grasped the audience's attention, and Zhang Weijian was definitely the first in terms of feelings.
As the most emotional "brother" in the show, Zhang Weijian carries the childhood memories of countless viewers.
Zhang Weijian, 56, has been in the industry for 37 years, and he debuted as a singer, but he became famous as an actor.
When people mention Zhang Weijian, they will always have the first reaction, remembering the classic role created by Zhang Weijian in many film and television dramas:
Sun Wukong in the TVB version of "Journey to the West", Fang Shiyu in "Young Hero Fang Shiyu", Wei Xiaobao in "Xiaobao and Kangxi", Naughty Boy who does not understand the teacher in "Clever Little Don't Understand", Zhang Sanfeng, the Taiji Master Zhang Sanfeng in "Young Zhang Sanfeng", Jiang Xiaoyu in "Little Fish and Flowers", Meng Xiaohua in "Short Knife Line"...
To be reasonable, to recall the classic role played by Zhang Weijian, almost every 80 or 90 audience can count the family treasures, because Zhang Weijian's classic role is really too much, in today's words:
Zhang Weijian at his peak was the rating guarantee on the TV screen, the top stream in the top stream.
Compared with the development of the television circle, Zhang Weijian's development in the film industry is relatively "inferior", in the 90s, Zhang Weijian was promoted by director Wang Jing, and he was also active in the film circle, starring in "Super School Overlord", "Huang Feihong's Iron Chicken Fighting Centipede", "The Legitimate Wei Xiaobao's Fengzhigou Girl", "Lunwen Shu Old Point Liu Xiankai" and so on.
In these movies, although Zhang Weijian also has wonderful performances, but most of the time can only become the foil of superstars, and Zhang Weijian has been criticized in the film circle that year, and the performance style collides with Zhou Xingchi, so Zhang Weijian is determined to give up the film circle, and the transformation returns to the development of the television circle, and finally counterattacks all the way and breaks out of the sky.
Therefore, most of Zhang Weijian's films are mainly concentrated in the 1990s, and after the millennium, Zhang Weijian rarely acted in movies, occasionally appearing in Wu Junru's "Golden Rooster 2", or Zeng Zhiwei's "72 Tenants", and Yu Zheng's film version of "Palace Lock Agarwood".
However, in 2008, Zhang Weijian rarely starred in a kung fu film "Winning the Bid" as a starring role.
Directed by Xu Xiaoming, the Hong Kong and Taiwan kung fu film master who sensationalized China in the 1980s, the film brings together kung fu masters such as Yu Rongguang, Xu Xiangdong and Xie Miao, and the film is both a sports inspirational film to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games and a hardcore kung fu film that has been absent on the mainland screen to show traditional martial arts.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's review this movie -
"Winning the Bid"
Champions
The film was released in October 2008 by Hong Kong's Sunny Film.
The director and screenwriter is the famous filmmaker Xu Xiaoming, who is an all-rounder in the Hong Kong film industry and a kung fu master, who entered the industry as a dragon and tiger martial artist, especially good at shooting martial arts films. In the 1980s, Xu Xiaoming's kung fu legend drama "Huo Yuanjia" sensationalized Hong Kong, and after being introduced to the mainland, it was even more empty, which made Xu Xiaoming's career reach its peak.
In the early 1980s, the mainland and Hong Kong set off a co-production boom, and the boom in martial arts films led by "Shaolin Temple" swept the mainland. Xu Xiaoming followed suit and came to the mainland to shoot two kung fu films, "Kapok Robes" and "Mirage", both of which achieved great success, and in the 1990s he directed classic films such as "Wesley's Overlord Unloading Armor".
At the end of the 1990s, Xu Xiaoming transformed behind the scenes, and successively served as an executive of ATV and Hong Kong Cable TV, and was the most successful actor in the transformation of action film directors, after which Xu Xiaoming founded Jiaoyang Film Company, as a producer and producer, participated in the production of a large number of movies, the more well-known ones are "Twin Thieves" starring Wu Jing, Andy Lau's "Ink Attack" and so on.
This "Winning the Bid" is Xu Xiaoming's re-directing of kung fu movies after "Mirage", which found Xu Xiangdong and Yu Rongguang, who had played on the same stage in "Kapok Robes".
However, the character attributes of the two have changed, with Yu Rongguang becoming the awe-inspiring director of the Central Guoshu Museum in "Winning the Bid", while Xu Xiangdong plays the aggressive villain Eagle Claw Fist Master.
In terms of starring, in addition to Zhang Weijian, there is also Xie Miao, who was born as a martial arts child star. The heroine, Wong Tsui, is the former host of Hong Kong Cable TV Entertainment News Station, while the other heroine, Wu Tianyu, is the winner of Miss Malaysia.
The biggest selling point of the movie "Winning the Bid" in that year was that the "true kung fu" of the main hard bridge hard horse, 15 national martial arts champions joined in the film, plus Yu Rongguang and Xu Xiangdong, who had martial arts skills, and Xie Miao, who learned martial arts from childhood, even Zhang Weijian, who did not understand martial arts, also experienced half a year of mantis boxing training before filming.
Speaking of the story, "Winning the Bid" is actually a movie related to the Olympic Games.
The film is based on real historical events, in 1936, the 11th Berlin Olympic Games were held, which was the first time that the Chinese sports delegation officially participated in the olympic team (at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation only had one sprinter, Liu Changchun), and at that time, Chinese martial arts were listed as the performance of the Olympic Games.
At this Olympic Games, China sent 69 athletes to compete, but due to its own lack of strength and various other factors on and off the field, it failed to win a medal. However, the Chinese Guoshu performance team composed of 9 martial artists has impressed the world and won the admiration, love and respect of foreign audiences.
The film "Winning the Bid" is set in the 1936 Olympic Games, describing the story of the delegation raising money to go to the Olympic Games before going to the Olympic Games; various martial arts sects competing for the olympic performance qualifications.
In 1936, China decided to send a sports delegation and a group of martial arts performance troupes to officially step on the world's big stage Olympic Games (then called the World Games), in an effort to clear the stigma of "the sick man of East Asia" and "a weak country in sports".
As soon as the news came out, it caused a shock in the sports and martial arts circles, and Zhang Zhijiang (Yu Rongguang), the curator of the Central Guoshu Museum, received the appointment of the then minister of sports to organize the work of the martial arts performance troupe and assist the sports delegation to go abroad to participate in the competition.
However, after Receiving the task, Director Zhang learned that this was a hot potato, because there was no allocation of funds for the delegation to go abroad, but it was necessary for Director Zhang to solve it by himself.
Zhang Curator has a disciple, Zhang Feng (Zhang Weijian), who has an extraordinary martial art, is optimistic and funny, and happens to be the girl Yan Ling (Huang Cuiru) that Zhang Feng has been pursuing, and is a female track and field athlete in the university.
Yan Ling, a highly talented young female runner, is very promising to join the Chinese sports delegation to participate in the Berlin Olympic Games, and is very frustrated to learn that the delegation has encountered difficulties in funding and is likely to be unable to participate abroad.
Zhang Feng smiled for Bo Jia and called on all the crowd to do their best, while organizing the disciples of the GuoshuGuan to sell art and raise funds, while taking the people of the sports group to meet with various rich businessmen, hoping to raise a donation as a fund for the delegation to go abroad.
At the same time, the news that the Central Guoshu Museum will organize a martial arts performance troupe to perform at the Olympic Games has aroused the attention of various martial arts sects.
In order to be able to accompany Yanling to the Olympic Games, Zhang Feng vowed to become a representative of the martial arts troupe and began to practice hard.
With Zhang Feng having the same goal, there is his good brother Guan Shubao (Xie Miao) in the Guoshu Hall, the two are friends for many years, each has a good kung fu, and is the representative of the most outstanding disciple under Zhang Guanguan.
Soon, a group of martial artists kicked the pavilion in the Guoshu Pavilion, led by The Eagle Claw Gate Master An Yong (Xu Xiangdong).
An Yong brought his disciples to the GuoshuGuan to kick the pavilion, and the young and vigorous Zhang Feng pretended to be the master Zhang Guanguan, and as a result, he clashed with An Yong.
An Yong was highly skilled in martial arts, crushing the disciples of the Guoshu Hall with the strength of one person, and struck fiercely, injuring many disciples.
At the critical moment, Director Zhang rushed to the rescue and used Tai Chi Kung Fu to overcome An Yong's eagle claw fist, and the two sides fought for the first time.
However, An Yong came here with a menacing force, claiming that Director Zhang was unreasonable for the selection of the martial arts delegation, and should be opened to the whole country of martial arts, and it was fair to select real masters, in other words, if he did not choose himself, the selection of this delegation would be unfair.
Director Zhang had no choice but to agree and propose that a national martial arts conference would be held to select members of the martial arts performance troupe.
However, the ambitious An Yong was bent on fame and fortune, so he was bound to win this contest, which led to the martial arts conference becoming a desperate battle between the National Art Hall and the Eagle Claw Gate.
At this time, the wild antelope also became the hope of China's participation in the World Games to "win the bid", but unfortunately, an accident, the wild antelope was found by the doctor to have a disease, can no longer do strenuous exercise, the wild antelope knows that it may not be able to embark on the journey of the Olympic Games, more lost.
In order to make up for his girlfriend's wishes, Zhang Feng is determined to participate in the Olympic Games for his girlfriend, so he is determined to pass the martial arts group selection at all costs.
In the end, the two brothers, Zhang Feng and Shu Bao, had passed countless severe tests, and the two finally relied on their true strength to fight the most fierce martial arts duels with the masters of various disciplines in the big ring that selected the qualifications of the world's martial arts representatives.
However, the result of the game to raise money was very unexpected, Zhang Feng actually faced the good brother Shubao, and the two were forced to decide the winner.
In the end, Zhang Feng lost the competition and lost the opportunity to participate in the Olympic performance troupe.
On the other hand, the rich merchant Old Master Su had a son, which was originally a happy event, but Old Master Su's nephew had the intention of plotting family property, so he always wanted to secretly rob Old Master Su's child, but he happened to be broken by Guan Shubao and Zhang Feng, and the child was rescued.
As a result, Old Master Su's nephew actually gathered a large number of gangster thugs to surround the disciples of the Guoshuguan with the intention of retaliation, but at this time, at the competition, An Yong, who was embarrassed and angry because his son lost the game, also brought the disciples to the Guoshuguan to find fault.
The three forces launched a great scuffle, Taijiquan versus Eagle Claw Gong, And Mantis Fist versus Flip Fist.
After this scuffle, the villains suffered their own evil consequences, and Director Zhang complained to An Yong for his virtue, and risked to rescue An Yong's son from the fire, finally making An Yong put down the heart of fighting for fame and profit, and turned enemies into friends with the Guoshuguan.
However, Yan Ling risked his life to participate in the competition because he wanted to win a prize of 10,000 yuan for the delegation, and finally paid the price of his life, which made Zhang Feng even more sad.
Fortunately, the rich businessman Su Laoye was grateful to the Guoshu Museum for helping to save his son, so he took the initiative to donate a donation to let the delegation have funds to go abroad.
At the end of the movie, Zhang Fengmu sent Director Zhang and his friend Shubao on the cruise ship to the Olympic Games, and the Chinese athletes and martial arts team members embarked on a journey, and the Chinese delegation took the first step in history in the dream of impacting the Olympic Games.
According to director Xu Xiaoming's self-account, he began to conceive of the story of "Winning the Bid" after filming "Mirage" twenty years ago.
The film inherits the style of Xu Xiaoming's directorial works, with the traditional martial arts kung fu of hard bridge and hard horse as the selling point, the story takes the kung fu boy comedy common in traditional Hong Kong films as the main axis, and combines various elements such as sports, serving the country, martial arts, love, etc., and is also set on the theme of the Olympic Games, which is particularly suitable for the 2008 season.
It should be said that the advantages of the film are obvious, and in the display of kung fu elements, Xu Xiaoming is indeed a generation of masters. The film is very old-fashioned in the martial arts scene, the director is obviously interested in returning to the road of Hong Kong kung fu films in the 70s and 80s, and Xu Xiaoming, as a martial arts instructor, shows the martial arts of various disciplines, tai chi, praying mantis, eagle claw, is simply used as a textbook for kung fu films.
In the martial arts scene, Yu Rongguang showed the taijiquan squeezing and pressing, picking elbows and other moves very powerfully, Xu Xiangdong's eagle claw fist, just fierce and overbearing, fought tiger and tiger, Xie Miao showed most of the leg skills, the action of flying legs in the air was very dashing, even Zhang Weijian, who could not do martial arts, under xu Xiaoming's tutelage, played the mantis fist.
However, the shortcomings of the film are also obvious, the story is too chaotic, the fit for the Olympic theme is actually very pale, many side plots are actually very deliberate, the plot of the Su family uncle and nephew competing for family property is very sloppy, the final sacrifice of the wild goose is also relatively bloody, and the emotional line of the characters is very perfunctory.
After the release of "Winning the Bid" that year, it failed miserably at the box office, with Hong Kong receiving only HK$5.2 million, while the mainland was even more dismal, with only 4.93 million at the box office. In addition to the problems with the film itself, it is also related to the film's lack of eye-catching lineup.
Zhang Weijian, who has been absent from the screen for a long time, most viewers regard him as a TV drama actor rather than a movie actor, and his golden age has long passed, Yu Rongguang and Xu Xiangdong are senior martial arts actors, but they do not have box office appeal, and actors such as Xie Miao and Huang Cuiru do not have much popularity.
On the other hand, another big reason for the film's failure is that the influence of the kung fu films of that year has long been much worse than before.
In 2008, the mainland box office was still dominated by various costume commercial blockbusters, and whether it was the mainland market or the Hong Kong market, the enthusiasm for hard bridge hard horse kung fu films has been greatly reduced, resulting in this "Winning the Bid" is not timely.