Oh ~ outside the quiet village, there is a stupid child, born in the sixties;
Ten years old to the city, not afraid of that sun, trying to work in the seventies;
Found ah ~ friends in the city do not have to go to irrigation, flowers ~ ~ ~ will ~ bloom.
For the above lyrics, I believe that friends who like Chinese pop music should be familiar with it. In 1998, Jiang Jianmin, the composer and arranger of "BMG Records", composed a song for Andy Lau.
Andy Lau himself filled in the lyrics for this song according to his resume, and finally completed the song "Stupid Child".
After the release of "Stupid Kid" in November 1998, it was loved by many fans. In the "21st Top Ten Chinese Golden Songs" selection, "Stupid Child" also won the honor of "Excellent Chinese Song Gold Award".
In 1998, the song "Stupid Child" was widely circulated, which brought a lot of creative inspiration to director Wang Jing. In 1999, with the support of "China Star", Wang Jing also made a film called "Stupid Child".
First, Wang Jing is the closest to the trophy
Speaking of the film works directed by Wang Jing, some fans will think of Best Friend and Hardcover Chasing Girls and other and chase girls movies, and some fans will think of Nine Pin Sesame Officers and Supreme Thirty-Six Plans to Steal the Sky and Change the Day such spoof fun and crazy nonsense comedies.
In the early 1980s, Wang Jing transformed from screenwriter to director, and with works such as "I Love Roland", "Modern Immortals", and other works, she gradually launched her own director name.
In 1989, Wang Jing filmed "God of Gamblers" for the Xiang brothers' "Yongsheng Pictures". The film's box office hits, allowing Wang Jing to reach the peak of her career in one fell swoop.
In the first and middle of the 1990s, Wang Jing became the highest-grossing director in the Hong Kong film market with two trump cards of "chasing girl comedy" and "spoof nonsense".
Works such as "Gambler", "Trickster Expert", "City Hunter", "God of Gamblers 2" and so on have also become the memory of a generation of Hong Kong films.
Although she was proud of herself in the box office market, Wang Jing's performance above the awards was extremely bleak.
Even the ironic and entertaining classics of the times such as "God of Gamblers", "Nine Pin Sesame Officers" and "Deer Dingji" have not allowed Wang Jing to be shortlisted for any awards.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, the Hong Kong film market began to show decline. With the decline of the general environment, Wang Jing also began to jump out of the previous film creation mode and try different types and styles of film works.
Works such as the "Ancient Puzzle Boy" series, "The True Colors of New Heroes", "Strange Talk Association", and "Dragons in the Rivers and Lakes" also appeared on the big screen of Hong Kong films at this time.
In 1998, Andy Lau's golden song "Stupid Child" gave Wang Jing the idea of shooting a "warm feature film", and the film "Stupid Child" also came into being.
However, what is unexpected is that after the release of this "Stupid Child", Wang Jing was nominated for "Best Original Screenplay".
This is the first award nomination Wang Jing has received since the film, and it is also the only award nomination he has received so far. It can be said that it is the closest to the trophy in Director Wang's film career.
Second, reflect on the warm stories of the times
What is the charm of this "Stupid Child" that can make director Wang Jing, who is full of commercial atmosphere, go to the film festival awards? Next, let's talk about this "Stupid Kid".
The story of "Stupid Child" revolves around a man named "A B" (played by Tan Yaowen).
Although A B is 30 years old, he is born with mental retardation and behaves like a ten-year-old child. A B's father (played by Ke Shouliang) is a "gu puzzle boy" who goes to jail for committing a crime.
Originally, her mother "Sister-in-law" (played by Ye Dexian) has been taking care of Ah B. However, the sister-in-law found cancer during a test. In order to allow A B to live independently, sister-in-law Fa began to teach A B "how to work" and "how to live by herself".
After the death of his sister-in-law, A B began to live independently, and after experiencing one change after another, A B began to grow slowly.
At the end of the story, A B marries "slow girl" Amay, and A B's father is also released after completing his sentence, and the family ushers in a happy ending.
Through the story of a "marginalized figure" who manages to integrate into society, this "Stupid Child" shows the living conditions of Hong Kong's low-income citizens in the late 1990s.
Under the impact of the "Asian financial crisis" in 1997, Hong Kong, the bustling financial center, also showed a depressed scene.
The cold and warm human feelings under the tide of the times have also become the focus of the lens performance of this "Stupid Child".
At the beginning of the movie, A B falls from a high place, and the sister-in-law struggles to grasp the rope and tries to pull her son up, but unfortunately she is unable to do so. Sister-in-law Fa called for help from the surrounding crowd of onlookers, but no one came forward to help.
The onlookers who entered the camera were all blank-eyed and indifferent. The only young man who was willing to lend a helping hand to his sister-in-law also asked for a 500 yuan help fee from her sister-in-law afterwards.
Under the impact of the economic wave and the whipping of the pressure of life, people have long been indifferent to human feelings and numb to life. After the "Asian financial crisis", the mental state of the citizens was also reflected in a concentrated way through this small bridge section.
Of course, in this "Stupid Child", director Wang Jing does not simply present "social phenomena".
In the story of the movie, Director Wang designed many positive characters, "Uncle Nine" who has always cared for A B's mother and son, and "Miss Lin", who is keen on public welfare, and the emergence of these loving characters has always guided the story and developed in the direction of warmth and sunshine.
This also seems to have become a kind of appeal for Wang Dao's "social human feelings".
The rhythm of the step-by-step warm story, the far-reaching theme of the expression of the times, if it is not the eye-catching "Wang Jing's work" at the beginning of the film, most of the audience may have a hard time believing that this "Stupid Child" will be from Wang Jing's hand.
Third, Andy Lau who did not have the opportunity to star
In fact, at the beginning of the planning of this "Stupid Child", Wang Jing planned to find Andy Lau as the male protagonist, and Ye Dexian as the mother of the male protagonist.
After all, Andy Lau and Ye Dexian are also classic "mother-child combinations" on the big screen of Hong Kong films.
However, Liu Tianwang in the 90s, the idol temperament on his body was too strong, and it did not look like "congenital intellectual disability" from the appearance. So the candidate for the male protagonist was finally locked in Tan Yaowen's body.
Of course, Tan Yaowen's performance did not disappoint the audience, and his exaggerated and silly actions portrayed the role of "A B" very well.
However, to say that the most brilliant role in this "Stupid Child" is also the "hair sister-in-law" played by Ye Dexian.
As a powerful old drama bone on the big screen of Hong Kong films, Ye Dexian's acting skills are beyond doubt. When serious, she can be "Liu Huilan" in "Extralegal Affairs" and "Peach Sister" in "Sister Tao".
When funny, she can be Lydia who "teaches Wu Mengda to do things" in "Truant Weilong 2", and Zhu Xiaoqian, the "Thousand Hands Guanyin" in "New Shaolin Five Ancestors".
In "Stupid Child", the role of a mother with cancer but a strong heart also let us see Ye Dexian's powerful acting skills again.
In this "Stupid Child", although Andy Lau failed to play the role, director Wang Jing did not let go of Liu Tianwang's market heat, and made a prank on Andy Lau in the film.
At the end of the movie, A B and May have a son, named "Andy Lau".
In addition to spoofing Andy Lau in the plot, the theme song of "Stupid Child" also follows Andy Lau's golden song of the same name released in 1998.
It is worth mentioning that the theme song of this film version of "Stupid Child" is Andy Lau's "Stupid Child". The interlude is Ke Shouliang's golden song "Big Brother" (that's it: I haven't been a big brother for many years).
Although the movie version of "Stupid Child" has the help of two golden songs by Andy Lau and Ke Shouliang, the performances of Ye Dexian, Tan Yaowen and others in the film are also full of highlights.
However, the warm story that faded the commercial color eventually made this "Stupid Child" encounter the cold treatment of the box office market and become an unpopular classic drowned in the river of time.