Because of the wishes of his family, the news that Shi Tian, a veteran Hong Kong filmmaker, died of illness in September 2021 was not reported by the media until November.
Perhaps it is that his time has passed too long, and the news of Shi Tian's death has not set off too many waves on the Internet, let alone on any headlines or hot searches.
However, this time it is a real big man in the Hong Kong film industry, a giant of the times.
【Shi Tian】His real name is Liu Weicheng (October 17, 1949 - September 2021), born in Tianjin, settled in Hong Kong with his parents at the age of three, entered the Shaw Company's Southern Experimental Theater Troupe at the age of 18, specializing in film technology and performance, and then made a successful debut in Shaw Films.
In 1979, the 30-year-old Shi Tian co-founded the Struggle Film Company with Mai Jia and Huang Baiming; later, with the injection of capital from the real estate consortium, New Art City Pictures was established, with Shi Tian accounting for 19% of the shares and was the second largest individual shareholder.
At the beginning, when Shi Tian started a business with Mai Jia and Huang Baiming, the three were the combined division of labor of the editor and director; among them, Huang Baiming was the main screenwriter, Mai Jia was the director, and Shi Tian, who had the best acting skills, was naturally the main performance in front of the curtain, and was a generation of comedy masters.
In the entrepreneurial work "Funny Times" of New Art City, the character played by Shi Tian completely imitated Chaplin, laying the foundation for Shi Tian's comedy performance style.
By the time it was announced in 1990, New Art City had been brilliant in the Hong Kong film industry for 10 years, and in its most brilliant years, it had forced the two old giants of the Hong Kong film industry, Shaw and Jiahe, to put aside their grievances and join forces to fight.
The brilliant decade of New Arts City is also the most brilliant era of Hong Kong cinema, and its "Best Partner" series, "Ghost of a Woman" series, "Hero's True Colors" series, "Happy Ghost" series, etc., as well as Andy Lau's "Caiyun Song", Chow Sing Chi's "Love Saint", Chow Yun Fat's "Dragon and Tiger Storm", "Prison Storm", "Ah Lang's Story" and other films, are immortal classics in the history of Hong Kong cinema.
As one of the owners of New Art City, the success of New Art City is naturally inseparable from Shi Tian's contribution.
After the completion of New Art City, Shi Tian changed to real estate, and the most recent screen appearance was in 2016 with old friends such as Mai Jia and Xu Ke, who made a cameo appearance in Hong Jinbao's "My Secret Agent Grandpa".
Because of the influence and contribution of New Art City to the Hong Kong film industry, Shi Tian has long been a big figure in the Hong Kong film industry. Over the years, the Hong Kong film industry has left the big man-level figures more than Shi Tian.
[Luo Wei] (1918-1996), born in Jiangsu, moved to Hong Kong in 1948, worked as an actor, screenwriter and director, first founded his own film company in 1957, and also worked as a director at Shaw.
Luo Wei was able to become a big man in the Hong Kong film industry because he directed Bruce Lee's "Big Brother Tangshan" and "Jingwumen" during his Jiahe period; it cannot be said that he single-handedly won Bruce Lee, but he was at least an important force in promoting the popularity of kung fu films.
In 1975, Luo Wei founded Luo Wei Pictures, and pulled Jackie Chan, who had already run to Australia to prepare to be a chef, back to star in "New Jingwumen". Although Jackie Chan did not become popular under Luo Wei, it at least proved his vision of people, and it also gave him the well-known name of Jackie Chan.
Later, the first person to go to the United States to ask Jet Li to make a movie was also Luo Wei.
Luo Wei was also a leader in the film trend, but later became the biggest follower; in 1993, he took out his coffin to make a "Knife to the City", which failed miserably at the box office and has since withdrawn from the film industry.
[Zou Wenhuai] (October 8, 1927 – November 2, 2018), born in Hong Kong, born in Meizhou, Guangdong Province, graduated from the Department of Journalism of St. John's University in Shanghai, and interned at Shanghai Declaration; in 1957, Zou Wenhuai joined Shaw and became the highest CEO.
In 1970, Zou Wenhuai left Shaw and co-founded Jiahe Film Company with He Guanchang and others.
In 1971, Jiahe was joined by Bruce Lee and successively launched box office blockbusters that led the trend of the film industry, such as "Big Brother Tangshan", "Jingwumen", "Raptor Across the River" and "Dragon Fight tiger fight", and gradually grew into a new giant that could compete with Shaw.
In 1974, after bruce Lee's death, Jiahe was lucky enough to join the Xu Guanwen brothers and launched new comedy films such as "Ghost Horse Double Star", "Half a Pound Eight Two", "Deed of Sale" and so on, and won again in the box office competition with Shaw.
In 1979, Jiahe signed Jackie Chan from Luo Wei Company, who had just become popular with "Drunken Fist", and gradually became the most successful kung fu superstar after Bruce Lee.
In the 1980s, when New Art City rose strongly, Jiahe used Jiahe Sanbao Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan and Yuan Biao to launch a "Five Lucky Stars" series, which successfully sniped at New Art City's "Best Partner" series in the box office market; coupled with Jackie Chan's "Police Story" series, Lin Zhengying's "Mr. Zombie" and other zombie films, it surpassed New Art City in an all-round way.
After that, Shaw announced the suspension of production, new art city closed, and Jiahe became the only giant in the Hong Kong film industry. However, since the mid-1990s, the Overall Decline of the Hong Kong film industry, after a lap in Hollywood, Jackie Chan also left Jiahe.
In 2007, Zou Wenhuai sold his shares in Jiahe and has since withdrawn from the film industry.
[Ho Kwan Cheong] (1 January 1925 – 1 January 1997), born in Hong Kong, debuted from Shaw.
In 1970, He Guanchang and Zou Wenhuai co-founded Jiahe, and for more than 20 years they were closely associated with Jiahe.
At the beginning, Bruce Lee's offer of $10,000 for the film was rejected by Shaw, and he returned to the United States in a negative mood; Jiahe finally signed Bruce Lee for $15,000 for 2 films, all because of the sincerity of Ho Guanchang personally running to the United States to invite in person.
Later, it was He Guanchang who signed Jackie Chan with a 4.8 million Hong Kong dollar cheque.
During his time in Jiahe, Jackie Chan and He Guanchang had the best relationship and became a dry father. In addition, Mei Yanfang and Luo Meiwei are the daughters of He Guanchang, and Mei Yanfang also got a he jia nan name after the deed.
In 1987, Jackie Chan was seriously injured while filming "Brother Dragon and Tiger Brother".
Therefore, He Guanchang issued two prohibitions to Jackie Chan: no short hair cut, no death in the movie.
Later, Jackie Chan played a mainland policeman in "Police Story 2013" and cut his hair short, but at this time, He Guanchang had been dead for many years, and the ban had become a thing of the past.
[Deng Guangrong] (January 24, 1946 - March 29, 2011), born in Shunde, Guangdong Province, starred in "The Student Prince" at the age of 17, became famous, so he won the reputation of the student prince, and was once known as the three major literary and art film students in Taiwan Province with Qin Han and Qin Xianglin.
Such a tall and handsome literary and art film Xiaosheng can become a big man in the Hong Kong film industry, it is he who started to found his own Da Rong Film Company in the 70s, and later Shadow Zhijie Pictures, and it is also he who invested in Wong Kar-wai's "Carmen Mong Kok" and "Ah Fei Zheng Biography" and other famous works.
In fact, like many bigwigs, Deng Guangrong is also a black and white character in Hong Kong.
In 1970, Deng Guangrong, Together with Shen Dianxia, Xie Xian, Qin Xianglin, Chen Ziqiang, Zhang Chong, and Chen Hao, formed the "Silver Rat Team" and married Jinlan. Therefore, there was a famous scene of angering Zheng Shaoqiu at the memorial meeting of Sister Shen Dianxia.
[Xiang Huasheng] (1950 - November 20, 2014) was born in Lufeng, Shanwei, Guangdong Province, the oldest of the 13 brothers of the Xiang clan, and co-founded Yongsheng Film with his tenth brother Xiang Huaqiang.
In front of Shaw and Jiahe, Yongsheng can only be a younger brother; but in the 90s, Yongsheng had the most front-line actor resources, including Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, Chow Sing Chi, Andy Lau, Lin Qingxia, Qiu Shuzhen, Zhang Min, Mei Yanfang, and so on.
In addition to Jiahe's ace Jackie Chan, there is no actor that Yongsheng can't sign.
Originally, He bought Zhou Runfa's film contract through an intermediary, and then made the 1989 box office champion movie "God of Gamblers"; in 1990, Zhou Xingchi became popular with "Gamble Saint", and it was Yongsheng who first signed Zhou Xingchi.
Later, countless classic Hong Kong films such as "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", "The Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavens", "Nine Pin Sesame Officer", "God of Gamblers 2" and so on, the producers behind them are Xiang Huasheng.
Like Tang Guangrong, Xiang Huasheng is also a character who can eat both black and white in Hong Kong, and has more background than him. As for what kind of background it is needless to say, Xiang Huasheng died of illness at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in the end.
In "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang" that year, Madame Hua wanted to give Tang Bohu a name, "Why not call Hua Sheng?" Tang Bohu immediately said, "I'm afraid I can't stand it."
Shaw was born in Shanghai from Zhenhai, Ningbo, Zhejiang.
Shaw, who lived at the age of 107, is the founder of Shaw Brothers Films, one of the founders of Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Limited (TVB), and the world's longest-lived CEO of a public company.
These two companies in the glory years of Hong Kong's entertainment industry, respectively, the hegemons of the film industry and television industry, created too many classics and legends in the peak years.
Run Run Shaw, known as Uncle Six, is definitely the supreme big guy in the Hong Kong film industry and even the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry, the big guy among the real big guys, because most of the Hong Kong entertainment industry is related to him.
Many of the older generation of Hong Kong actors debuted from Shaw films or the Southern Experimental Theater Troupe organized by Shaw, including the above-mentioned BigWigs such as Shi Tian and Zou Wenhuai, all of whom were born from Shaw.
[Shaw is also the only true giant to produce more than 1,000 movies.] 】
Based on the successful experience of the Southern Experimental Theater Troupe, after Run Run Shaw joined the wireless, he opened a wireless artist training class to cultivate performing arts talents for Shaw and wireless, and finally became the Whampoa Military Academy for the entire Hong Kong performing arts talent.
Chow Yun Fat, Wu Mengda, Ren Dahua, Andy Lau, Leung Ka Fai, Leung Chao-wai, Chow Sing Chi, Wu Zhenyu, Liu Qingyun, etc., countless Hong Kong film superstars, are from this Shaolin Temple of Hong Kong performing arts talents.
[Shaw rejected Bruce Lee because Run Run Shaw was used to cultivating talents on his own, rather than poaching from the outside.] 】
While cultivating performing arts talents, Shaw Wireless is also good at star-making and momentum, wireless five tigers, four kings, etc., are the concept of wireless launch, and even the final list is personally drawn up by Shaw; as well as miss Hong Kong beauty pageant, top ten golden song awards and other major activities, have directly affected the entire Hong Kong performing arts industry.
In addition, since 1985, Mr. Run Run Shaw has invested in the construction of Shaw Building in the Mainland; as of 2014, Run Run Shaw has donated more than 3 billion yuan, and there are nearly 30,000 Shaw Buildings in the country.
Therefore, Run Run Shaw is definitely a big guy in the Hong Kong film industry and the entire Hong Kong performing arts industry.