01、
In the 1970s, when Hong Kong directors were talked about in the international film world, Zhang Che, Li Hanxiang and Hu Jinquan were always represented.
However, what has really been recognized internationally is not Li Hanxiang, who has always been good at literary and artistic themes.
Li Hanxiang's large-scale "Yang Guifei" at his peak ended up winning the "Best Indoor Art Photography Award" at the Cannes Film Festival, which is a consolation award.
As the originator of martial arts films, Zhang Che's works have always wandered around Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Stars, and have not appeared in international film festivals once.
Zhang Che himself also admitted frankly, "I shoot a lot of films and abuse, the reason is how impulsive. And he is rigorous in filming, and he is afraid that he will not be able to make ten films in his lifetime, and each film has few flaws in art. ”
The "he" in Zhang Che's mouth is Li Hanxiang's "seventh brother", and Hu Jinquan, who is called "the absolute double pride" with Zhang Che.
Hu Jinquan
Hu Jinquan's four-year masterpiece "Heroine" was nominated for the Palme d'Or and technology awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and finally won the festival's Comprehensive Technology Award.
It is also "Chivalrous Girl" that allows the West to appreciate the unique charm of Chinese martial arts films for the first time. Later, when Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero" won the international award with martial arts again, it was thirty years later.
"Chivalrous Girl"
Speaking of the entry of this martial arts master, it is also a coincidence of chance, and in the final analysis, it is still due to the eldest brother Li Hanxiang.
The reason why it is called big brother is because the two have indeed married each other.
At that time, there were seven people who worshiped together, and the film circle gave the name "Seven Great Idle". It's just that here is not the "sage" of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, nor is it the idleness of "Za Nuan Wet And Fragrant, Pan Donkey Deng Xiao Idle", but the idle wandering and idle "idle".
"Seven Idle", one hu jinquan on the left, and li Hanxiang on the right
The seven of them had just arrived in Hong Kong at that time, although they were like-minded, they were all helpless, and they were crowded together in the 107 dormitory of Yonghua Set, and the wanderers became brothers on a whim.
Li Hanxiang ranked third among the seven, Hu Jinquan was the youngest and ranked seventh, and Li Hanxiang, the eldest brother, was naturally well-deserved. Even many years later, when the two became famous, the two great directors met, and Li Hanxiang still called Hu Jinquan "Xiao Hu".
Hu Jinquan and Li Hanxiang
However, when this "Little Hu" first arrived in Hong Kong, he was much more generous than his eldest brother Li Hanxiang, and he stayed at the most luxurious Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.
In November 1949, after dropping out of high school, Hu Jinquan left Peiping for Hong Kong alone and met his classmate Wang Dayong, the son of Wang Xinzhang, the general manager of The Hong Kong station of China Airlines at the time.
At that time, AVIC's dormitory was included at the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong. With Wang Dayong's connections, Hu Jinquan indiscriminately lived on the peninsula. During that time, Hu Jinquan was indeed beautiful for a while, eating well, living well, and not worrying about his livelihood at all.
Hu Jinquan at the time of Zhengtai
But within a few months, "woe" fell from heaven. At that time, the boss of AVIC privately drove dozens of planes back to the newly established new Chinese mainland, and Wang Xinzhang was forced to resign.
The so-called fire at the city gate hit the pond fish, and "Xiao Hu" had to obediently move from the Peninsula Hotel to the rehabilitation apartment in the poor area and paint a propaganda advertisement for the Chongqing Hotel.
Desperate, Hu Jinquan met another distant relative, Jiang Guangchao, who was also the boss of the "Seven Great Idles". Jiang Guangchao did not have the courage of Wang Da, and like Li Hanxiang, he worked odd jobs in Yonghua for a living.
According to Li Hanxiang's recollection, once he went to a Chongqing hotel to eat a two-yuan working meal, Jiang Guangchao said, "Introduce you to a classmate who was also expelled from the Peking Art College." Li Hanxiang listened to the Beiping Art College and became interested.
After a while, Jiang Guangchao walked over with a white and pure little brother, only to see that he was wearing a blue long cotton robe, rolling up white cuffs, and his heavy eyebrows and big eyes resembled Li Shifang among the four little celebrities, and Sven Wen was still a little shy.
Jiang Guangchao was busy introducing: "This is my little cousin, Xiao Jiu'er, Hu Jinquan!" ”
02、
In this way, Hu Jinquan entered Yonghua and gave Li Hanxiang an art assistant. Hu Jinquan studied Chinese painting since he was a child, and painting propaganda posters was naturally handy, but he was born with a stubborn temper and did not have the ability of Li Hanxiang to influence Fengyuan.
So not long after, Li Hanxiang was promoted from artist to assistant director, but Hu Jinquan was fired.
After Li Hanxiang followed Yan Jun to complete the movie "Cuicui", the praise was overwhelming. Yan Jun also asked Li Hanxiang to write the script "The Man Who Ate the Slap", and still called Li Hanxiang as the assistant director and executive director.
Hu Jinquan's screen debut "The Man Who Eats the Slap"
When selecting actors, Li Hanxiang thought of his seventh brother Hu Jinquan.
Although Hu Jinquan was expelled, he still lived in Yonghua dormitory, and it turned out that this "Xiao Hu" could not only draw two strokes, but also had a first-class English level, helping the children of Yonghua employees learn English every day, and became "Teacher Hu".
Hearing that Li Hanxiang let himself be an actor, Hu Jinquan refused with a full mouth: "No, how can I be an actor, how can an actor be so easy?" ”
Li Hanxiang knew Xiao Hu's temperament and deliberately said, "Don't you worship Napoleon, there are no difficult words in his dictionary, come on, brother!" ”
In this way, Hu Jinquan was "pulled" onto the big screen. Since then, it has been out of control.
Hu Jinquan in "The Deformed Woman"
Hu Jinquan's drama path is very wide, whether it is the lively and healthy little Qilin in "Snow Red" or the ugly young man in "Deformed Woman", he is just right.
With the role of "Big Bull" in Li Hanxiang's "Beauty of Jiangshan", he won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Asian Film Festival.
Award Ceremony, Li Hanxiang on the left, Hu Jinquan on the right
The so-called acting and excellent director, after learning that Hu Jinquan has the intention of becoming a director, the eldest brother Li Hanxiang also helped a lot.
When Li Hanxiang directed "The Ghost of Qiannu" and "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", he specially hired Hu Jinquan as an assistant director.
Later, when Hu Jinquan made his directorial debut "Yutang Spring", he still had to hang up the title of Li Hanxiang's co-directing. Because only in this way can we get Shaw's approval.
Hu Jinquan's debut work "Yutang Spring"
However, under the careful promotion of Li Hanxiang, Hu Jinquan has always had a mediocre response, and no amazing works have come out. Facts have also proved that Hu Jinquan is not suitable for making Huang Mei tone movies, because he has always hidden a martial arts dream in his heart.
In 1964, Li Hanxiang went to Taiwan to found the "League of Nations", Shaw no longer had an absolute top card, and the newcomer finally had the opportunity to come out.
After Hu Jinquan directed an anti-Japanese film "Children of the Earth", the style changed and he wrote and exported "The Drunken Man", which sold well, and also made Run Run Shaw more determined to make a martial arts movie line, so the next year there was Zhang Che's "One-Armed Knife".
"Drunken Man" female Number One "Golden Swallow"
After the release of "One-Armed Knife", it broke the record of one million box office and became a sensation.
A few months later, Hu Jinquan's self-written and self-directed masterpiece "Dragon Gate Inn" came out, refreshing the million box office of "One-Armed Knife" in one fell swoop, and sold more than 2.1 million.
At that time, Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che were in Shaw's, and they were both pioneers and leaders of martial arts movies, so they were called "peerless double pride" by the film circle.
Zhang Che, Hu Jinquan
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Che's works always have Ni Kuang writing the script behind his back, while the script of Hu Jinquan's film has always been written by himself. The richness of his imagination and the mastery of his skill are astonishing. It is still sought after by its martial arts peers.
Zhang Che's more satisfactory work "Golden Swallow" is directly taken from the role of "Golden Swallow" in "The Drunken Man".
And Xu Ke, the martial arts director after the new wave, is even more in love with "Dragon Gate Inn". First filmed a "New Dragon Gate Inn", and then posthumously filmed "Dragon Gate Flying Armor".
Although the film techniques are not the same, the words "Ming Dynasty Wanli Years", "East Factory West Factory" and "Luoshui West Out to Longmen" in the story are still the first creations of Hu Lao.
《Dragon Gate Inn》
Among the martial arts film directors at that time, Hu Jinquan was probably the only one who could create his own original story and get everyone's approval.
Hu Jinquan has such a talent in martial arts, which has a lot to do with his martial arts enlightenment. The teacher who enlightened him was the famous owner of the pearl house.
Also the owner of the pearl building
It turned out that the owner of the Huanzhu Building and the Hu Jinquan family were family friends, and Hu Jinquan often ran to the owner of the Huanzhu Building to listen to him tell interesting stories about martial arts when he was a teenager.
At first, he hid outside the door to listen to the conversation between Huanzhu and his friends, and then he became addicted to it, so he took the initiative to find Huanzhu and begged him to talk about it.
However, the owner of the ZhuLou did not like to take care of him, and every time he was a few perfunctory words in a drowsy room, he was sent away, completely without the high talk and excitement between him and his friends in the past.
The attentive Hu Jinquan found that every time his friends came to listen to the story, they would always bring a small bag of things as a greeting gift. It turned out that there was still an addiction to opium, and those friends would naturally do what they liked.
Hu Jinquan, who had found out the original reason, also followed suit, stole the opium from the family, and took it to the Zhu family.
Sure enough, the owner of the Huanzhu Building had the passion of the past again, and a period of martial arts wonderful things were told, just down the Shu Mountain and then to Qingcheng, every time Hu Jinquan listened to the cloud mountain fog cover and could not extricate himself.
Hu Jinquan as a teenager
Compared with Jin Yong and Gu Long, the martial arts masters who grew up reading the main novels of The Returning Pearl, Hu Jinquan can be said to have been "taught by words and deeds" by the return of the pearls.
03、
In the 1980s, Hu Jinquan experienced two embarrassing films that were not popular after experiencing "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" and "Legend in the Mountain", and has been in a semi-reclusive state.
During this period, most of the energy was busy for the "Hu Jinquan Film Retrospective Exhibition", and he had the intention of withdrawing from the jianghu.
At the end of the 1980s, Xu Ke Studio planned to prepare for the filming of a new work, "Smiling Proud of the River". The film's original designated director was Xu Ke, who was at the peak of his career at that time, and he thought that "jianghu" he understood, but the word "smiling pride" was not accurate.
In order to pursue higher quality, Xu Ke decided to let the director who has already laughed proud of the jianghu to shoot "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu".
"Smiling Proud of the River"
Xu Ke admired two masters at that time, namely Zhang Che and Hu Jinquan. On personal relations, Xu Ke and Zhang Che have a very good relationship, but Zhang Che is still filming in his later years, actively adapting to the market, and has no intention of quitting the jianghu, so he found Hu Jinquan.
Therefore, Hu Jinquan, who had already withdrawn from the jianghu, re-emerged from the jianghu in order to shoot "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu".
Hu Jinquan, Xu Ke
Unfortunately, the cooperation between these two new and old martial arts directors has not been as smooth as expected. Xu Ke's ex-wife Shi Nansheng once recalled:
"Probably he was a perfectionist, constantly buying cloth and making clothes, he was not in good health at that time, the posture was very large, he had to shoot the most perfect angle wherever he went, and someone had to carry him down the mountain for two hours to get to that position." 」
Maybe Elder Hu does not know that the times have changed, it is no longer the era when he filmed "Heroine", because the reeds are not high enough, to wait for it to grow tall, the color of the props moss is not right, to personally sprinkle water on the stone, and wait for the moss to grow out before he is willing to shoot.
Xu Ke himself is a very real director, and after encountering Hu Jinquan, he found that he was really a small witch. When he saw that the budget had risen from fifteen million to twenty-five million, Xu Ke himself could not sit still.
Therefore, this cooperation was very unpleasant, Hu Jinquan left halfway, Yue Hua, who played Lin Zhennan, went on strike, and even Ye Qianwen, who played Ren Yingying, the female number one, did not come. Finally, Zhang Min was found to save the scene, and this "Smiling Proud of the River" was released.
Hu Jinquan and Ye Qianwen version of Ren Yingying
It may be a grudge, or it may be a rush to catch up with the mainland to make films.
In 1992, Hu Jinquan, who had already won the Lifetime Achievement Award, once again sat in the director's chair and came to the mainland to shoot his last work in life, "The Yin and Yang King of Painting Skin".
The vastness of the mainland just satisfies Hu Jinquan's fascination with natural scenery. The ambition has also increased, trying to reflect the relationship between "man and ghost" written by traditional literati through the film.
The Yin and Yang King of Painted Skins
It's just that this masterpiece that gathers Zheng Shaoqiu, Wang Zuxian, Hong Jinbao, Wu Ma, Lin Zhengying, and Liu Xun, the audience does not buy it, and finally only sold more than 1.3 million, and it ended hastily.
Hu Jinquan also left the United States and died of a heart attack a few years later.
The end of the hero is often full of sadness. Just like the theme song written by Huang Xia for "The Yin and Yang Dharma King of Painted Skin":
"It's a long road, cold and dreamy, the snow is quiet, ridiculous I'm walking alone, looking for stars in the sky."