I think at the beginning, I saw Hu Jinquan's first work was "Dragon Gate Inn", at that time I felt that chivalry was very heavy, I didn't know how good it was than "Dragon Gate Flying Armor", and then I watched "New Dragon Gate Inn", only to find that the "chivalrous" feeling in Lao Hu's work was really no one could imitate it. Hu Jinquan has not made too many movies in his life, but the few films he shot in his prime years, even if he does not tell the director, just look at a beginning, watch a fight, you can definitely recognize whose handwriting.
The following is to recommend the fourteen works of director Hu Jinquan, Hu Jinquan should actually have made fifteen works, but the 1981 "Lifelong Events", it is said that only the Taipei and Beijing archives have, I don't know how to see, missing one, but also some regrets, after all, it is exactly Hu Jinquan's heyday of shooting "Empty Mountain Spiritual Rain" and "Legend in the Mountains". If anyone knows where to see this work, be sure to contact me.
1. "Yutang Spring" (1964)
Average review score: 6.7
As Hu Jinquan's first work to direct, "Yutang Spring" selects his favorite opera elements, based on the opera picture book of the "Su San" story, depicting the various images of the prince and the people around him.
At the beginning, it is still very enjoyable, but because it follows the context of the original story, the behavior of the prince and prince who is stupid and scatters more money is intellectually extinguished, and because it is a traditional opera script, so many plots now seem to be uncomfortable in the value orientation, etc., fortunately, in the end, the snow washes away the injustice, and the double stay and double fly are also a beautiful thing.
By the way, when Su San wanted to commit suicide, the jump towards the big stone could be described as a person who had never been seen before, as if the super power possessed the body soared flat, if there was anyone watching this work, they must not miss that shot.
2. Children of the Earth (1965)
Average review score: 6.5
Hu Jinquan's work deals with the theme of anti-Japanese resistance, and young couples in the town finally joined the ranks of anti-Japanese resistance after facing japanese aggression and planting stolen goods, and won the final victory.
The plot is not very eye-catching overall, decent, the only thing I was impressed by is that the firepower of the national army is still quite fierce, if the national army really fought so fiercely at that time, probably will not be defeated on the battlefield, right?
3. The Drunken Man (1966)
Average review score: 7.8
The name "drunk man", in fact, to leave a deeper impression on the audience is the "Golden Swallow" played by Zheng Peipei, as a work before "Dragon Gate Inn", the inn scene at the beginning of this movie already has the prototype of the Dragon Gate Inn, and the beggar song of the drunkard with the children begging for food is also particularly flavorful.
Even if you are a world-class master, you can't afford to buy a bowl of fried sauce noodles.
4. The Dragon Gate Inn (1967)
Average review score: 8.3
People may be more familiar with Xu Ke's "New Dragon Gate Inn" many years later, but Hu Jinquan's earliest version of "Dragon Gate Inn" is actually good enough, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuchs were in power, a small inn gathered all kinds of heroes, from indoor to outdoor martial arts, kung fu high-strength Dongchang eunuchs, all staged one by one in this windy and sandy Longmen desert.
If there is any flaw in this film, it is limited to the era, so the martial arts action is still slightly backward, but with the drama drum beats that Hu Jinquan likes, it is also worth watching. Not to mention that in the first half of the journey, Xiao Shaoyi smiled, made every move, and talked about the chivalrous meaning that burst out in the vomit, this sense of martial "chivalry" is not comparable to the remake works behind.
5. The Heroine (1970)
Average review score: 7.0
"Chivalrous Woman" can be said to be the most famous one in Hu Jinquan's works, in which the scene of the bamboo forest chasing that scene can be recorded in history, whether it is light or shadow or photography. But in my opinion, the film as a whole is not so outstanding, playing a pretext of chatting about Zai Zhiyi, although the camera, the artistic conception and the cool Xu Feng are good, but the script itself and the fight are not brilliant, the male protagonist is too embarrassed, much worse than the Dragon Gate Inn, and the end is even more dramatic.
6. Joy and Sorrow (1970)
The platter-style works of the four directors, Hu Jinquan directed the "anger" in the joy and sorrow, the other three are related to the ghost god, and the female ghost Wen Cun as "hi", the family broken woman ghost returns to the soul as "mourning", the water ghost sends kindness to become a god as "le", the "anger" of Hu Jinquan is the most out of tune, and it is a plot of the Dragon Gate Inn with a gong point and a sword and light sword shadow, and there is no ghost god, which is out of place in these four stories.
Incidentally, there are several stories with different styles, among which Bai Jingrui's "Joy" is modeled on the silent film, the protagonist does not say a word, but finally shows the absurdity of desire; Li Xing's "mourning" story is short but also very powerful, quite like the charm of the Japanese horror films of the last century; Li Hanxiang's "Music" is adapted from Liaozhai, natural people and ghosts have feelings, water ghosts have love, the old man is compassionate, and finally everyone is happy.
7. The Storm of Yingchun Pavilion (1973)
Average review score: 7.4
After watching "Dragon Gate Inn" and then looking at Hu Jinquan's other films, you can often feel its very similar characteristics, the same inn, two waves of forces fighting openly and secretly, and eventually evolved into a big war in the wild, the villain leader is also a martial arts strong, so very similar routines, watch more inevitably some aesthetic fatigue.
The best bridge section of the film still happened in the inn, and the women in the inn were a little nervous when they stole the soldier's map, and the plot began to decline when the wild war began to decline, and even appeared in the "flat land ascension suicide" in "Yutang Spring".
8. "Zhonglietu" (1975)
"Zhonglietu" can be said to be the peak of Hu Jinquan's fight scene, a group of heroes organized against the Wokou, and finally the plot of directly pounding the old nest can be said to be simple and clear.
Two of my favorite scenes. The first is a counter-siege in the middle of the woods, not to mention the extraordinary scheduling of the camera during the fight, the enemy alone is very interesting, the protagonists use flutes and chess pieces to show the position of the enemy, and finally the chessboard is densely packed with pieces.
The second scene is the scene where the male and female protagonists enter the wokou's lair and go through layers of trials to see the wokou leader. Xu Feng was silent in the whole movie, but he was cool.
Hu Jinquan really knows how to accumulate the audience's emotions, and now many movies pay attention to creating an atmosphere before being frightened, and Director Hu has long understood that a good action scene is also to accumulate thick and thin.
9. "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" (1979)
Average review score: 8.1
Several forces gathered in the temple, what they wanted was Tang Xuanzang's hand-copied scripture scroll, turning it over and over for half a day, in fact, who did not get anything, even if they got anything, this scroll is just a piece of broken paper, but unfortunately everyone can't understand the Zen meaning behind this, forgetting that the most important thing is actually the scripture itself.
The heroine Xu Feng is still heroic in it, and the final Fenglin chase still has a taste, but like "Heroine", it over-elevates the Dharma, a rogue, and can participate in the enlightenment after a few days of work, which is not a joke.
10. Legend of the Mountains (1979)
Average review score: 8.0
And the two movies that came out before and after "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain", there are also Xu Fengshuang's performances.
I have to say that Hu Jinquan's filming is really beautiful, not only beautiful, but also a kind of poetry, a kind of immortality, and the clouds and mist in the valley inside are really beautiful.
In the first half of several deeply impressive shots, one is the intention of wandering fish, flowing water, lotus seeds and so on when the fish and water are happy, and the other is the clip of Xu Feng and Fan Monk's drumming and fighting method, even if the two people do not even look at each other, they also fight up and down.
I watched the edited version for more than three hours, and the parts of the film that look back at the past felt a little redundant, but Huang Liang's dream was also spring.
"You haven't gone yet?"
"I've already been there."
11. The Great Reincarnation (1983)
Average review score: 7.2
This work is called reincarnation, which is actually a pair of bitter Mandarin ducks who live and die and worry about three lives, each life of three lives is a short story, and each part is also directed by a director. The first is directed by Hu Jinquan, the story of the Ming Dynasty Jinyi guard master escorting the woman, the second is the love and hatred in the drama class of the Republic of China period, and the third is the story of the brother in the current era who imprisoned the younger brother with traditional ideas and finally died.
In fact, these three stories have their own highs and lows, but in comparison, the second life is also very well paced and the atmosphere is scheduled, and the third world's conflict design about the opposition between the new and old eras is also very clever, but Hu Jinquan's first life does not have too many highlights.
12. "The First in the World" (1983)
The emperor wants to find the world's first doctor, the doctor wants to find the world's first painter, the painter wants to find the world's first beauty, the beauty wants to find the world's first beautiful jade, one ring after another, and finally all the elements come together, just when you think that Hu Jinquan's end is about to collapse again, with an accident, this farce suddenly stopped, dumbfounded, and suddenly felt that this was the best ending.
13. "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" (1990)
Average review score: 7.6
This famous "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu", Hu Jinquan is only a small part of the director, although this project was started by Hu Jinquan's idea, but because Xu Ke constantly added ideas that ran counter to Hu Jinquan in the production process, the two eventually broke up unhappily.
In the version we can see now, Xu Ke's shots account for most of it, Xu Laowei's bad taste, Ye Tong's bathing, kissing with medicine, etc. are obviously his handwriting, and jumping around and tearing people in half is naturally Cheng Xiaodong's action design, and Hu Jinquan's chivalrous style and artistic conception are gone.
Of course, the film is still interesting overall, although it is far from the original work, but in the eyes of Ling Fox Chong, seeing the corruption of the imperial court, seeing the sectarian lust, and then mocking it in a ridiculous way is a kind of deconstruction of the work, and the "laughter in the sea" in the movie is also famous.
14. The Yin-Yang King of Painted Skins (1992)
Average review score: 6.2
Based on Liaozhai's "Painted Skin" story, but it has made great changes, a shusheng encountered the female ghost of the painted skin played by Wang Zuxian, after discovering the truth, the monk Daoist, the Yin and Yang Dharma King appeared one after another, Hu Jinquan's last director's work did not escape the doom of the "second half of the collapse", the first half was still interesting, and the back was a loss of aura, like a mediocre TV series.