Director Chen Musheng's film "Fury And Serious Cases" was finally released.
However, for many viewers, it is a mixture of sadness and joy.
Hi, is to be able to enjoy the original Hong Kong action blockbuster; sad, this is the last work of director Chen Musheng.
In fact, whenever we talk about Hong Kong film directors, the name Chen Musheng seems to be out of the list.
After all, before him, there were big-name directors such as Wong Kar-wai, Wu Yusen, Du Qifeng, Xu Ke, and Er Dongsheng.
It was easy to cover up Chen Musheng's brilliance.
However, turning over Chen Musheng's resume, many of the films he directed are both literary and martial, and full of commercial flavor.
"Heavenly Love", "New Police Story", "Baby Project", "Anti-Drug"....
Although he has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director many times, he has not been truly recognized for so many years.
And "Heavenly Love" is the first work directed by Chen Musheng, and it is also his closest to the Academy Awards.
01. How popular is "Heavenly Love"?
In the eyes of Korean audiences, "Heavenly Love" and "The True Colors of Heroes" and "Blood And Two Heroes" have been called "the three most classic films in Hong Kong".
In 1990, "Heavenly Love" was released in South Korea, and for more than half a year, there were no empty seats in major movie theaters.
A simple love story, with a poignant ending at the end, is undoubtedly a secret match for the title of the film, "Heavenly Love".
After many years, traces of tribute can be seen in many Korean film and television dramas, such as "Shut Up Family".
The "Heavenly Love" series is a "trilogy", the first two are directed by Chen Musheng, and the third is replaced by Du Qifeng.
Because the first part is too classic, giving the audience a preconceived illusion, they will forget that there are the last two parts.
02. Love in the play, love outside the play
To tell the truth, the original intention of the filming of "Heavenly Love" was only to raise a pension for his mentor Wang Tianlin.
Wang Tianlin is a famous director in Hong Kong, and almost all of his disciples have become the mainstay of Hong Kong films.
The production team of "Heavenly Love" is from Wang Tianlin's door.
The supervising producer is Du Qifeng, and the planner is Lin Lingdong.
The two are brothers of the same disciple, and director Chen Musheng was introduced by Du Qifeng, and is regarded as his apprentice, Wang Tianlin's apprentice.
Therefore, "Heavenly Love" has the fatalistic color of "the end of the hero".
Before filming began, the original director was not Chen Musheng, but someone else.
Until one day, Chen Musheng took Du Qifeng to Saigon to watch drag racing.
During this period, based on his experience of loving drag racing when he was young, he conceived the story prototype of "Heavenly Love".
As a result, he won the unanimous recognition of Du Qifeng, Lin Lingdong and Wang Jing, and eventually became the director of the film.
Because he is a screenwriter of a TV station, Chen Musheng has worked the polishing of the script.
Such a meticulous attitude is relatively rare among commercial film directors.
For the plot of "Heavenly Love", his requirements are not only to be relaxed, but also to be reasonable in detail.
Because of this, the story of "Heavenly Love" can be divided into four stages of development with four soundtracks.
"Gray Track" - "No More Mistakes" - "If There Is Love in Heaven" - "No Regrets".
At the end of the day, the love between the two is full of drama, but extremely real.
Hua Di (played by Andy Lau) is a rebellious and moralistic little, while Jojo (Wu Qianlian) is a golden lady, a typical white rich beauty.
According to the secular concept, two people originally belong to different worlds, and their love is doomed to be fruitless.
However, the fate is so wonderful that the two have miraculously met, and they have also sparked love.
In order to make this love with a huge disparity in identity be recognized and resonated by the audience, director Chen Musheng added the unique "grassroots flavor" of Hong Kong movies in the storyline.
For example, when JoJo comes to Huadi's house to meet the "parents", he will buy some gifts in advance and eat with his family.
For example, JoJo celebrates Hua Di's birthday, not in a bustling restaurant, not at home, but on the street.
The plot designed in this way not only portrays the details of life, but also looks no different from real life.
The ending that makes the audience always grumble is actually the ulterior motive of director Chen Musheng.
Imagine if the movie didn't end in tragedy, what would the ending be?
Maybe when the passion fades and life becomes mediocre, the love between the two will not be as desirable as it was at the beginning.
Instead of that, let the whole story come to an abrupt end.
This is how the love of "Heavenly Love" begins and ends like this.
It has nothing to do with fighting, it is entangled with fate.
03. The director who is the best at making action movies
After "Heavenly Love", director Chen Musheng did not continue to choose to work in the field of romance films, but chose to make action movies.
In 1998, Chen Musheng co-produced the action film "Who Am I" with Jackie Chan, which was his first independent creation.
In the film, Jackie Chan's astonishment from a tall building is not only the result of Jackie Chan's desperate shooting, but also shows Chen Musheng's excellent skills in creating large scenes.
In addition, in "New Police Story", his action scenes are getting bigger and bigger.
He first let the 50-year-old Jackie Chan run desperately against the impact of the huge explosion.
Then, he let the fledgling Nicholas Tse slide down from the tall building upside down with iron rods and ropes as slide tracks.
It is no wonder that when Nicholas Tse talked about his feelings about cooperating with Chen Musheng again after many years, he would say with some trepidation:
"It's hard to imagine being asked to slide down the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, or being thrown down from a 40-story building and thrown back and forth more than 10 times."
Throughout director Chen Musheng's life, all the actors who have cooperated with him have been affirmed for their acting skills.
He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director 5 times and the Best Director Award for the Academy Awards 4 times, but has not been able to win each time.
In my opinion, Chen Musheng did not surpass himself in the end, but always maintained his original intention, and always adhered to and inherited Hong Kong films.