The variety show "Brother With Thorns and Thorns" is on fire, and Zhao Wenzhuo, who has not had a big red work for many years, has come out of the circle with an aura of not being angry and arrogant and making the people around him "awe-inspiring". People have lamented that they are worthy of being born as martial arts actors, and they are indeed self-disciplined and self-reliant.
But after stepping out of the entertainment atmosphere created by variety shows, martial arts actors have once again become a blind spot in the public's vision. The market performance of the theatrical documentary "Dragon tiger martial artist", which was released at the end of August, wordlessly illustrates this point: more than ten days after its release, the box office was only about 1 million.
According to the relevant definition, the Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist is a special kind of work created during the glory days of Hong Kong cinema. A large number of Hanmen disciples from Pear Garden have devoted themselves to the martial arts profession with a foundation in opera, and have contracted work such as doubles, stunts, and dragon sets on the film set. Although the hard work is dangerous, the salary income is also quite considerable. With the continuous improvement of the status of kung fu films in the film market, this group has also bred hot stars such as Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, and Yuanhua.
Dragon tiger martial artist
For "masculinity", people always have consumer demand. In recent years, military war-themed movies have become one of the biggest box office sources in theaters; Zhao Wenzhuo's "Dawei Tianlong", Sun Honglei's "Splitting Melon", and short videos with Hong Kong-style gangster movie elements have become popular on various video platforms; the Olympic Games just past, weightlifting, athletics and other projects represented by Lu Xiaojun and Su Bingtian have attracted more attention than in previous years. But on the other hand, the loss and discontinuity of the Dragon and Tiger Martial Master group has also become an indisputable fact. The contrast between the two is overwhelming.
The film is born
In 1985, the filming scene of "Dragon's Heart". With a crackling sound, the third floor glass of a small building exploded. A figure rushed out of it, fell on both legs, and a car came on, fortunately stopping in time, and finally did not roll the man under the wheel.
In fact, this lens was not originally designed that way. The original idea of the martial arts instructor was that the actor should first fall to the roof of the first floor, unload the force of the fall, and then land on the ground. However, due to the fact that the martial artist Qian Jiale, who was in charge of this shot, failed to grasp the force of breaking the window, the force made it overdone, directly rushed through the roof, and fell straight to the ground.
"Dragon's Heart" tidbits
Fortunately, at that time, Qian Jiale was young and had a good foundation, and was sent to the hospital for examination, and no injuries such as broken bones and legs were found. So after a few days of rest, he reappeared on the set.
This is a dangerous scene in the documentary "Dragon tiger martial artist". In addition, there are many more dangerous parts, such as another shot of "Dragon's Heart", 8 people jumping from the blasted seven-story building, falling onto a large pile of cardboard boxes, after the camera is filmed, director Hong Jinbao shouts not "finish work" but "save people"; for example, in the 1984 film "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier", YuanWu jumped from a shopping mall building, back down, smashed heavily on the ice rink below, and quickly slid out of the ice for tens of meters and then hit the wall, even if the clothes were wrapped in thick cushioning materials. But Yuanwu still fell directly and passed out on the spot...
"Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier"
The film dates back more than four years. Director Wei Junzi is a post-70s, and his childhood coincided with the dominance of Hong Kong films in the whole of Asia, so he watched a large number of Hong Kong films since he was a child. After becoming an adult, he gradually transformed from a media practitioner to a filmmaker, and had a wide range of exchanges with people in the circle. In 2017, Wei Junzi went to Hong Kong to participate in the Spring Tea (New Year's Party) held by the Hong Kong Action Stunt Performers Association, saw that many familiar faces on the screen were now dying of old age, and had a sense of hero's twilight sadness in his heart, so he had the idea of recording this group with the camera.
Wei Junzi told China News Weekly that he himself had no experience in documentary shooting, and originally wanted to find a professional team to operate, and he was only responsible for communication, coordination, planning and other matters. But when I found the relevant team, I found that not only did the time period span long, but the budget required was also much more than expected. He then found the capital to seek support, and the other party's attitude was almost the same: the theme was quite meaningful, but the market performance was not good.
So in the following years, Wei Junzi could only fight a "guerrilla war": he paid for it out of his own pocket and used his spare time to complete the project. At that time, Wei Junzi just needed to go to Hong Kong for a lot of work content, so he took advantage of the opportunity of traveling, contacted the Hong Kong Action Stunt Performers Association in advance, matched and looked for an interviewee, and when he arrived in Hong Kong, he temporarily hired a photography team to complete the shooting task and settle the salary on a daily basis. "Shoot one day to count the money for one day, shoot two days to count the money for two days."
Because of the cooperation with Hong Kong filmmakers in the early years, the guild also gave a lot of support, it is not difficult to find an interviewee, Yuan Heping, Hong Jinbao, Zhen Zidan, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang and other well-known faces have appeared in the documentary.
In addition to Hong Kong, there are also many martial arts predecessors who have not retired so far, but have gone north to the mainland, and have been scattered in various crews across the country to serve as actors, directors, martial arts instructors and other positions. During the filming of "Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist", Wei Junzi traveled to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hengdian and other places, and finally accumulated a large number of shooting materials in countless "fragmented time".
At first, Wei Junzi did not have much planning in mind for what kind of structure this documentary should be. "What is the idea at the beginning, the theme, nothing is thought." Wei Junzi told China Newsweek. But as more and more interview materials accumulated, the framework structure of the entire documentary became clearer in his mind.
Communication and coordination work went relatively smoothly, and the most difficult part was the purchase of copyright. A large number of pictures and music from classic old films are inserted in the documentary to explain and corroborate the corresponding arguments, "every frame costs money". Not to mention the high price, with the closure, spin-off and acquisition of many well-known Hong Kong film companies such as Shaw, Jiahe and New Art City, the copyrights of many classic old films have been scattered and lost overseas. The complexity of the communication legal process and the length of the time-consuming cycle completely exceeded Wei Junzi's original idea.
The "Dragon's Heart" quotes the picture in "Dragon Tiger Martial Master"
"First of all, you have to determine the copyright ownership, and after determining the copyright ownership, you have to contact this copyright company, and dozens of people ask one by one." Some overseas companies send emails and only give you two words back in a few months: not for sale. Some asked about the price, can afford to buy can not afford to talk, a few seconds is tens of thousands of dollars. After the negotiation, I had to sign many contracts – still in English. Wei Junzi briefly described the process to China Newsweek.
Due to the limited budget, Wei Junzi can only uphold the principle of "good steel is used on the blade", and spend as much limited funds as possible on a small number of copyrights without affecting the content and intention of the film itself. After constant trade-offs and simplifications, the commemorative album of the era of "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master" finally appeared in front of the audience.
Dragon tiger martial artist
Although the martial arts community is an integral part of Hong Kong cinema, and audiences have heard of the culture of bloodshed and struggle in it, few people have really understood this group systematically. People always remember bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao and other familiar stars - they are undoubtedly the flowers that bloomed in the heyday of Hong Kong cinema, but ignored the green leaves and soil under the flowers.
The group of martial artists is divided into "upper handle" and "lower handle", with the most popular interpretation, the so-called "upper general" is "beating people", mostly star actors, that is, "flowers"; and "lower handle" is responsible for being beaten, and after being beaten, it is also necessary to quickly make actions such as falling to the ground, jumping backwards, rolling, and screaming, that is, "green leaves". In order to illustrate this concept, the documentary quotes a passage from the 1972 movie "Jingwumen" in which Bruce Lee alone makes a big fuss at the Japanese karate gym, Bruce Lee is the "upper general", standing in the center of the dojo, using punches and kicks to repel the "lower generals" who have gathered up one by one.
《Jingwumen》
"The audience may only pay attention to the star protagonists, but in fact, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan can't have that effect if they don't have that batch of subordinates to cooperate." Wei Junzi said.
Being beaten down is secondary, and even more dangerous is the work of a stand-in. In addition to the aforementioned exceptions, Jackie Chan's kung fu films are also known for their dangerous fights. In the documentary, Zeng Zhiwei recalled the scene in the movie "Plan A" in which Jackie Chan fell from the bell tower. No one had tried this action before, and the martial artist had to take the lead. Wait until the martial master skips first and confirms safety before Jackie Chan can do it.
Many films after Plan A followed this example. It's just that the director doesn't necessarily choose the protagonist's shot in the end - anyway, you can't see the face clearly, and the selection of the scene is naturally based on the action posture effect. It's just that no matter how it is chosen, the honor of the film ultimately belongs to the protagonist.
Because the work of the stand-ins is extremely dangerous, they often do not receive corresponding honors. As compensation, the income of the martial artist was extremely high relative to the average level of Hong Kong people at that time. In the 1980s, when Hong Kong cinema took off, cars were still a luxury for ordinary people, but martial artists almost all had cars, and outside the big film shooting sets, the martial artists' cars occupied a few streets from beginning to end.
However, due to the low level of education, most of the martial artists do not understand financial management, do not have a sense of crisis, are generally good at gambling and alcohol, and spend money when they earn. A small number of cautious people try to buy commercial insurance to protect the second half of their lives, but insurance companies hear about their status as dragons and tigers and often refuse to cover them.
Within the martial arts group, it relies on a traditional jianghu righteousness to maintain human relations. Many martial artists knew that they would be injured before doing dangerous actions, and even had the possibility of death, but with a simple idea of "big brother let us do it, no one outside the Hongjia class did it, and if you don't top it, you will be sorry for big brother", so they did it. If there is an accident, it is "big brother to raise a lifetime". This tradition replaces the gap in commercial insurance to some extent.
But the "big brothers" can't feed everyone after all. As the years grew, the injuries and illnesses accumulated by the martial artists over the years began to appear, and as Hong Kong movies gradually declined, the evening scenes were mostly bleak. Some of them have successfully transformed into actors, assistant directors, and martial arts instructors. More people choose to change careers, drive taxis, go to restaurants to wash dishes, and even sell blood to make a living, completely fading from the public eye. But compared to those martial artists who are permanently disabled, paralyzed, or even dead, these are already lucky.
From today's perspective, the existence of the martial arts industry is quite inhumane, and there are many people who have criticized it, believing that the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts is an "unhealthy culture bred by capitalism and traditional Chinese masculinity" and should be banned. Even in the documentary, Xu Ke and many other practitioners also said that "what their generation did not do before, and will not have it in the future", "before they worked harder than anyone, now pay more attention to safety than anyone".
However, there are still a large number of viewers who express their remembrance. "Like countless peers, I am honored to bravely usher in the golden age of Hong Kong cinema and learn blood, righteousness and dignity from those exciting masterpieces. It was these film migrant workers who had never even attended elementary school who taught me traditional human beauty and heroism. On Douban, a netizen who has seen the movie commented.
North-South Reincarnation
In "Sitting on the Siege - The Film < Master> Martial Arts Design", "Master" director Xu Haofeng concluded: There are two sources of Mainstream Hong Kong-style martial arts films, spells and opera. The so-called spells are represented by Jin Yong, and the flight, poison, magic weapons, and internal skills in his novels are all spell features, not action features. Opera play replaces real fighting with staggered positions, pulling, turning over, and playing with flower guns. When Liu Jialiang first entered the film and television circle, he was criticized by the director for his one-hit boxing concept: "Once the fight is over, no one watches the movie." In order to make up more moves, I had to refer to the opera, and added a lot of flipping actions. Later, Liu Jialiang's "Shaolin Tent Master" and Jackie Chan's "Miracle", in Xu Haofeng's view, both belong to the super-first-class stage choreography.
The mainland pear garden traveled south to Hong Kong, and the practice followed the tradition. But the audience does not like to watch the play, and the income is not guaranteed. Fortunately, the development of the film industry urgently needs a large number of actors with martial arts skills, and liyuan people naturally fill the gap. The achievement of the two phases, opera contributed wonderful film action pictures, and the film also gave practitioners money and social status.
In Xu Haofeng's view, the highest peak of Hong Kong's traditional mainstream martial arts films is Tsui Ke's 1992 "Smiling Proud of jianghu 2: The East is undefeated". Among them, Jet Li is the champion of six martial arts performances, and Cheng Xiaodong hangs a tightrope beyond acrobatics. The two reached an unprecedented height in the opera, and Xu Ke edited according to the logic of the spell, which was equivalent to merging the spell and the opera.
Laughing Pride 2: Undefeated in the East
Peaks often mean the beginning of decline. On the other side of the world is Hollywood, which is good at learning from the world. Wei Junzi told China News Weekly that the action design of Hollywood movies in the 80s was "stupid", with one punch to the left and one punch to the right, without any skill, but after seeing Hong Kong action movies, he quickly learned the essence of it. The learning method is extremely simple and crude: invite all the Hong Kong action filmmakers who can be invited to go. Wu Yusen, Xu Ke, Tang Jili, Yuan Heping, Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan and others needless to say, even Lin Di'an, who is not a front-line, has served as the action director of "Spider-Man 2". The entire hollywood action concept has been completely improved by Hong Kong martial artists.
But after the Hong Kong-style action was transplanted to Hollywood, it failed to produce creative changes in itself. Xu Haofeng concluded that after Enjoying the huge dividends of Hong Kong-style mainstream martial arts, Hollywood has developed a new form according to commercial prospects - war photographic agent fighting, represented by "Spy Heavy". It is characterized by the use of the photographic style of war correspondents, no longer pursuing the coherence of the action, the lens "shakes off and passes", and the look and feel is more realistic.
The so-called "war photographic agent fight" not only reflects the audience's demand for large scenes, but also reflects a general "truth-seeking" mentality. From ancient times to modern China, dart bureaus, gangs, and martial artists were all good at "hiding moves" for fear of being cracked and targeted by the enemy family, and they were not easy to teach disciples, so there were a lot of fantasies based on mystery in the folk about martial arts moves. Jin Yong's novels often have grotesque tricks such as "Eighteen Palms of descending dragons" and "Nine Yin White Bone Claws", which reflect this collective subconscious.
"Hidden moves" are for one hit and must be killed, and the movie needs to change moves back and forth in order to stretch the length, and there is a natural contradiction. As various types of fighting events have flourished around the world, spectators have realized that this is not how the original fight was fought. The filmmakers also had to improve their techniques, Jackie Chan was good at drilling furniture city, using various technological props to attack and defend; Zhen Zidan integrated a large number of Brazilian jiu-jitsu components into the action in the later period, all in order to meet the audience's needs for realism.
The Zodiac
But no matter how it is changed, the pure action movies that used to be self-contained, from the beginning to the end, 90 minutes with 70 minutes of play, have gradually disappeared. Hong Kong-style action has become an embellishment under the larger genre, and the mainstream has become subordinate. The recent "Fury Case" won nearly 1.2 billion at the box office, making many people cheer for the return of Hong Kong-style action movies. But by the standards of an action actor, Nicholas Tse is completely on par with Donnie Yen. And the focus of the audience is not actually on the fight itself, but more on gun battles and explosions.
Changes in the audience's aesthetic have led to changes in the market, resulting in the loss of talent, which in turn has hindered the quality of the film itself, and a vicious circle has emerged. In the past, action movies were often filmed for half a year, and directors and martial artists continued to test the action, just to leave the most exciting pictures. Nowadays, based on cost considerations, the shooting cycle has been shortened to only 2-3 months, and the quality of the action is naturally greatly affected.
The industry is gradually followed by no one. Near the end of "Dragon tiger martial artist", it was mentioned that there were few students in the Hong Kong action actor training class, and they could not find the corresponding job after graduation, which was completely based on love and persistence.
But Wei Junzi was still optimistic. He believes that Hong Kong cinema is still alive and well, but in a different form. The development of the mainland film market has only been 20 years, and it has always been inextricably linked to Hong Kong in these 20 years. In the first decade from 2000 to 2010, Zhang Yimou's costume blockbusters such as "Hero" used a large number of Hong Kong teams: action director Cheng Xiaodong, actors Liang Chaowei and Maggie Cheung, and photography director Du Kefeng. In 2003, Hong Kong filmmakers began to go north. A large number of co-production films such as "Painted Skin", "Fuse", "Seven Swords", "Cast Name", etc., have further stimulated the development of the Chinese mainland market. In the next decade, costume blockbusters slowly receded, and new mainstream movies rose. Lin Chaoxian, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang and others filmed "Mekong Action", "Wise Tiger Mountain" and "Captain China". Times are changing, but the status of Hong Kong filmmakers is still irreplaceable. At that time, the Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists were integrated into various crews in the mainland and played a pivotal role.
"At present, the film industry system in Hong Kong and the mainland has been relatively perfect. The Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists of that year relied on their own exploration, and now they have gradually established a complete system and relied on the method of film to cultivate new martial artists. Wei Junzi summed up China Newsweek.
In general, the "Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist" documentary also follows this logical structure: this group initially migrated from the pear garden in the mainland to Hong Kong, the so-called "Northern Sect of Southern Transmission". With the take-off of Hong Kong films, they have gradually developed and grown, accumulating a lot of experience. As a group, it has gradually declined in recent years, but the individuals among them are still active: some of them have gone overseas, such as Hollywood; some have returned to the mainland, using Hong Kong's years of industrialization experience to guide the mainland crew, and have realized the cycle of feeding the inheritance from the south to the north.
The Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists as a group disappeared. However, as an individual, it is integrated into the larger historical context and plays an indispensable role.
As an old poem says: Nothing is turned into mud and dust, only incense is as it was.