Thanks to many film and television works, Fang Shiyu has always been one of the representative figures in Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films
Throughout the history of film, there are almost no less than a hundred film and television works with Fang Shiyu as the protagonist, and the influence is probably only slightly inferior to that of Huang Feihong, a master of the late Qing Dynasty who also originated in Guangdong.
Most of the Fang Shiyu in film and television works is the image of a young hero, who is lively and charming, strong in martial arts, heroic and righteous, and loves to fight and hug, but in fact, the early image of Fang Shiyu is not like this.
Regarding Fang Shiyu and his people, although there is no explicit record in history.
However, the source is from the late Qing Dynasty martial arts novel "The Holy Dynasty Flourishes forever", which is also known as "Qianlong Patrol Lucky Jiangnan Record", the novel takes the various legendary experiences of the Qianlong Emperor traveling to Jiangnan under a pseudonym as the main line, punishing corrupt officials all the way, eliminating bullies, recruiting heroes, and finally destroying the Southern Shaolin Temple in Fujian, which involves the southern Shaolin disciples led by Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu and others.
Yes, in the earliest late Qing novels, Fang Shiyu was a true villain.
Although he was strong in martial arts, he was brave and fierce when he was a teenager, and when he was 14 years old, he killed the Wudang master Lei Laohu in the ring, which directly led to the mutual vendetta between the Shaolin faction and the Wudang faction, and finally Fang Shiyu also died in this vendetta, and died tragically at the age of only 26.
However, with the development of history, Fang Shiyu's image gradually turned positive, and was even respected as: the first master of the late Qing Dynasty.
Film and television adaptations of Fang Shiyu are also very early, as early as the Cantonese fragments of the 1940s and 1950s, there were a large number of films with Fang Shiyu as the protagonist, and the famous Cantonese opera Wusheng Shiyanzi was known as: Fang Shiyu who was reborn because he played Fang Shiyu in many movies.
By the 1970s, during the heyday of Shaw's kung fu films, many Films with Fang Shiyu themes were also filmed, such as "Fang Shiyu and Hong Xiguan", "Fang Shiyu and Hu Huiqian" in Fu Sheng's version of Fang Shiyu, and at the same time, There was also Taiwan's Meng Fei version of "Fang Shiyu" and so on.
When it comes to the most deeply rooted image of Fang Shiyu, it is the film version of the "Fang Shiyu" series starring Jet Li in 1993, in addition to the funny version of "Young Hero Fang Shiyu" played by Zhang Weijian in the TV series, which is also quite influential.
However, compared with the above version of Fang Shiyu's image, for many elderly mainland audiences, before Jet Li's version of "Fang Shiyu", there was a co-production film "New Fang Shiyu" born in the 1980s that was all the rage.
According to relevant records, the film was watched by more than 100 million people in that year, ranking 8th in the 1984 mainland film blockbuster list, second only to the martial arts film "Shaolin Boy" starring Jet Li.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's talk about this kung fu film classic from 37 years ago-
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="29" > "New Fang Shiyu"</h1>
The film was released in 1984 and produced by Hong Kong's Jinding Pictures.
Director Wei Haifeng is not well-known in the Hong Kong film industry, but mostly shoots kung fu films, in addition to this "New Fang Shiyu", the more well-known is the 1973 film "Guangdong Little Tiger", which is the first time that kung fu superstar Jackie Chan played the main role.
This film is also a co-production of Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple", and like many martial arts movies in the 1980s, the film was advertised as a real kung fu actor at the time, so the main actors were martial arts stars at that time.
The male protagonist Xun Feng, also known as Shi Baohua, was a well-known martial arts star in the 1980s. He learned martial arts from an early age, and in 1981, he won the swordplay championship in the national martial arts competition, and then was selected by the crew of "Shaolin Temple" to play the role of the little monk of Daokong.
But the light of "Shaolin Temple" is all here jet Li, and Xun Feng, who plays a supporting role, has not received attention. However, just a year later, he became famous for participating in the movie "Yue Family Young General", playing the handsome and handsome Yue Yun in the film, and thus opened the road of acting, went to Hong Kong to develop, and changed his name to Shi Baohua.
At that time, Hong Kong film dealers followed Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple", so they tailored this "New Fang Shiyu" for him, making him popular in the mainland and becoming an influential film and martial arts double star at that time.
Another well-known kung fu master in the film is Chen Yongxia, the actor who plays Fang Shiyu's mother Miao Cuihua, who is from the Guangdong martial arts team and was only 22 years old when she starred in the film. Later, he participated in classic martial arts films such as "Golden Dart Yellow Tianba", "Wind and Dust Woman Lü Siniang", "Divine Dragon Swordsman Lü Siniang" and so on.
It is worth mentioning that the martial arts director of this film is the famous martial artist Zhao Changjun, who has a very high status in the martial arts world, and is the only "ten consecutive champions" and "gold medal holders" in the Chinese martial arts world so far, Zhao Changjun also entered the film circle in the 1980s, starring in the kung fu film "Wudang", which was the 1984 mainland box office champion.
Speaking of the story, the picture begins at the Shaolin Temple.
A Shaolin warrior monk performs the unique skill "Two Finger Zen" and tells the disciples who are watching about the origin of this skill.
The time is the last year of the Qing Dynasty.
The Guangdong rich gentleman's house is full of lights, and the guests are like clouds, obviously holding a banquet.
The owner of the Fang family, Fang De, is a famous local silk merchant, who married Miao Cuihua, who has been learning martial arts since childhood, and gave birth to a baby boy the following year after marriage, and the Fang family and his wife are very happy and named their son Fang Shiyu.
On this day, the Fang family was holding a full moon wine, but unexpectedly, two uninvited guests came.
A villain, Lei Laohu, came to look for trouble with his Daoist master and demanded that the Fang family give him a reward of five hundred taels of silver.
The Taoist priest smashed the stone drum at the door of fang's house with his palms in front of everyone, and Miao Cuihua saw that the other party was not good.
So she also took the initiative to light up a hand, she single-handedly exerted force, and even easily cracked another stone drum at the door.
The Daoist priest knew that Lady Fang was a master and actually knew the Shaolin King Kong Palm, so he asked his disciple Lei Laohu to challenge Miao Cuihua.
Lei Tiger could not defeat Miao Cuihua, but the evil Daoist priest took the initiative to intervene and wanted to defeat Miao Cuihua with his apprentice.
At the critical moment, Miao Cuihua's master Wumei Master took a shot.
Her kung fu was extremely high, and she injured the evil Daoist with three fists and two feet, and Lei Tiger quickly fled with her master.
The old Daoist was greatly insulted by this, so he held a grudge in his heart and threatened the Fang family and his wife before leaving:
In the future, he will definitely take revenge and take the life of Miao Cuihua's son.
Master Wumei knew that this matter could not be good, so he instructed Miao Cuihua to make a medicinal bath for his son Fang Shiyu from an early age and train him to learn kung fu, so Fang Shiyu practiced a protective kung fu with copper skin and iron bones from an early age, so that he could use it for self-protection in the future.
When Fang Shiyu was 16 years old, the old Taoist priest came to the door again to provoke.
Knowing Fang Shiyu's identity, he injured Fang Shiyu to the ground without saying a word, and then left triumphantly.
Fortunately, Fang Shiyu had the Protective Body Divine Skill, so he escaped the disaster.
However, the Fang family and his wife were worried that the old Taoist would challenge again, so Miao Cuihua proposed to send their son to Southern Shaolin in Fujian Province to learn martial arts with the high monk Zhishan Zen Master.
Southern Shaolin is a sacred place of martial arts, and Fang Shiyu, who has been practicing martial arts since childhood, has been more successful here and has since become a Shaolin lay disciple.
However, the process of learning martial arts in the temple was very arduous, and the food and clothing of the disciples of the martial monks were almost all practicing.
Fang Shiyu, who has a naughty personality, has just arrived, and he is very uncomfortable with the life in the temple, and he cannot help but cause trouble.
However, Fang Shiyu was brilliant, especially talented in learning martial arts, and although his life in Shaolin was bitter, Fang Shiyu unknowingly underwent tempering and obtained the Shaolin True Transmission to practice a good martial art.
Interestingly, one day when the Shaolin disciples were on the wall of the monastery, the other brothers were chopping bricks with their palms or heads, but Fang Shiyu casually held out two fingers and inserted them into the bricks, which made the other disciples marvel.
Fang Shiyu did not change his true colors, and when he saw that the other brothers were curious, he boasted to himself and said:
The Shaolin Temple has a finger Zen Kung Fu, but I created my own "Two Finger Zen" Kung Fu.
Soon after 3 years of art, in accordance with the master's orders, Fang Shiyu needed to break out of the Shaolin Luohan Array before going down the mountain.
This is equivalent to the graduation examination of Shaolin martial monks, as long as they are successful in entering the battle, they can be regarded as becoming true Shaolin disciples.
Fang Shiyu really lived up to expectations, and finally broke through the Luohan Array with a body of kung fu.
At this time, Master Zhishan Zen Told Him that he had become the first battle of the mountain.
He wants to go to Hangzhou to challenge Li Bashan of the Wudang sect.
It turned out that Li Bashan, the master of the Wudang Sect, set up a plum blossom pile array in hangzhou city and threatened to challenge the world's masters, and the Zhishan Zen master hoped that Fang Shiyu would further hone his will and martial arts through this competition.
On the plum blossom pile, Fang Shiyu bravely defeated Li Bashan with two fingers of Zen kung fu, and won full applause, so his reputation was great.
After that, Fang Shiyu's parents also came to Hangzhou to swim in the West Lake with their son Fang Shiyu, and the family shared the heavens.
The Fang family lived in the Guangdong Guild Hall in Hangzhou, but on the way back, they saw that the nearby martial arts disciples were killed and injured.
Under careful investigation, it turned out that the local bully Lei Tiger colluded with corrupt officials, set up a ring, and threatened to:
Punch a province in Guangdong, kick Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Some martial artists were not convinced by Lei Laohu's arrogance, so they went up to the stage to fight and easily defeat Lei Laohu's disciples, but Lei Laohu's vicious hand was called the Fighting Contest, but in fact, he eliminated dissidents and wanted to dominate one side.
Fang Shiyu happened to be onlookers, filled with righteous indignation, and despite his parents' obstruction, he immediately went on stage to fight.
Lei Laohu remembered that he was humiliated in the Fang family, so he had a new hatred and an old hatred, and immediately fought with Fang Shiyu in the ring.
But I didn't expect that Fang Shiyu was now pregnant with Shaolin stunts, and his martial arts had improved by leaps and bounds, and he had even fought with Thunder Tiger.
Lei Tiger could not defeat Fang Shiyu for a while, so he had to agree to fight again the next day.
Although Fang Shiyu's side was evenly matched with Lei Hu, he knew that it was not easy to win the other side.
So when he returned home, he begged his mother Miao Cuihua's master, Wumei Shitai, to teach him the Mandarin Duck Leg Stunt.
However, the Five Masters refused Miao Cuihua's request because of the pretext that the door rules were passed on to women and not men.
Late at night, a mysterious masked man broke into the room of the five masters and wanted to sneak up on the five masters.
As a result, in the fight with the mysterious man, the five masters used the Mandarin Duck Leg Technique and easily knocked down the masked man.
Taking off the veil on the other side, he found that it was Fang Shiyu, who had installed heart goggles on his body in advance, and wanted to personally try the five masters of the mastery in order to master the Mandarin Duck Leg Stunt.
On the day of the decisive battle in the ring, everyone cheered and encouraged Fang Shiyu, hoping that he could eliminate harm for the local people.
A vicious fight, the fight was dark, and the two sides were still inseparable.
At this time, Li Xiaohuan, the wife of Lei Laohu, who was watching from the sidelines, saw that her husband was downwind, so she wanted to release the dark weapon.
Fortunately, Miao Cuihua detected it in time, and at the same time, he threw out the dark weapon and dissolved the other party's dark calculations, so that Fang Shi was saved from the dark calculations.
In the ring, Fang Shiyu used the Protective Body Divine Skill to resist the heavy blow of the Thunder Tiger, and finally dragged the other party to exhaustion.
At the moment of the thousand guns, Fang Shiyu followed the trend with a move of "two-finger Zen", and then used the divine leg stunt to kick the Thunder Tiger into the air and crash into the pillar.
At this time, the thunderstorm increased, and the ring suddenly collapsed, burying the thunder tiger underneath, and Fang Shiyu immediately flew out.
The people present rushed forward and held aloft Fang Shiyu, cheering for him to get rid of the bully Thunder Tiger.
The story of the film also ends here.
In the 1980s, the mainland film industry was popular with various Hong Kong co-production kung fu films, and almost all kung fu martial arts films on the market at that time were influenced by Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple".
This "New Fang Shiyu" is no exception, although the main line of the film is the feud between Fang Shiyu and Lei Tiger, but there is a large paragraph of Shaolin learning art and martial arts in the middle, and the English title is even directly called "Shaolin Little Heroes".
In particular, there is a dispensable plot in the film, Fang Shiyu met a wood-cutting girl during his martial arts studies, so he violated the precepts and rules of the temple, and has been secretly taking care of the girl, and even almost being driven out of the door, this plot is almost completely imitating the "Shaolin Temple".
The image of Fang Shiyu in this film is obviously influenced by The Shaw Fu Sheng version, so it is also a smart and naughty but kind young master image, but it is a pity that the script of this film is rough enough, almost no character shaping in the film, in addition to the action scenes, the literary dramas in the film are basically flowing accounts.
It is worth mentioning that the martial arts scenes in the film, although limited by the era, the martial arts action of this film still stays in the martial arts drills and set of move design in the mainland martial arts films at that time, the overall shooting method is relatively simple and simple, but the victory is in the actor's solid foundation, the action is hard and hard, and some important scenes in the film such as the Shaolin Luohan Formation, the final ring competition, etc., the thrilling sense and spectacle are still there.
The film was a great success after its release that year, so the filmmakers launched a sequel, but unfortunately the response was far less than the previous one.
What is even more lamentable is the star path of the starring Xunfeng, which quickly fell silent after a short-lived moment in the film and television circle in the eighties, and he participated in the movie "Green Blood Sword" starring Yuan Biao in the nineties, but it is no longer reminiscent of the young hero with the sword eyebrow star on the screen that year.