At the end of the 1970s, many Hong Kong filmmakers were invited to go north to the mainland to co-produce films.
Among them, there are many well-known directors in the Hong Kong film industry, who have ushered in the second spring of their careers by co-productions in the mainland.
At that time, the most sought after by mainland audiences were martial arts kung fu film directors, such as Zhang Xinyan, the director of "Shaolin Temple", Xu Xiaoming, the director of "Kapok Robes", Mou Dunfu of "Heroes from Ancient Times", etc. Even Zhang Che, the master of martial arts, also relied on the "Great Shanghai 1937" filmed in the mainland to make his career warm.
In addition to this martial arts kung fu craze, Li Hanxiang, who was once a master of Hong Kong wind and moon films, was also invited to go north to shoot films.
In 1982, Li Hanxiang and the famous filmmaker Su Chengshou joined hands to found new Kunlun Pictures and decided to start filming the movie "Hanging Curtains and Listening to the Government". The film received strong support from the mainland that year, not only filming in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, becoming the first film to be filmed in the Imperial City of the Forbidden City, but also inviting a number of Qing history experts to participate in the script creation, and its production scale was unprecedented at that time.
During the creation of the film script, After reading a large number of historical materials, Li Hanxiang overturned the original script and re-expanded it to 70,000 words, and the film was split from the original film into a grander trilogy.
The first two films in the series, "Burning the Yuanmingyuan" and "Hanging Curtains and Listening to the Government", were completed in the form of back-to-back simultaneous shooting, and were released in Hong Kong and the mainland in 1983, ranking 4th and 9th in the Hong Kong box office that year, with a total box office of more than 27 million, starring Leung Ka Fai won the Academy Award, and the film also won the Ministry of Culture Excellent Film Award, which is the limelight.
Li Hanxiang's Qing Palace trilogy, which went to the mainland to shoot, was a great success, which led to a boom in Qing Palace drama in Hong Kong and the mainland.
In the mid-to-late 1980s alone, there were countless film and television works about Cixi, Puyi and other people in power of the last imperial dynasty, including masterpieces of film history, such as "The Last Emperor", which won nine Oscars and directed by italian director Bertolucci.
However, although "Burning the Yuanmingyuan" and "Hanging Curtains and Listening to the Government" were greatly successful after their release, due to the change of the contract by the co-production company, Li Hanxiang's original third part of the series was forced to be suspended, and it was not until six years later that Li Hanxiang brought the finale of the Qing Palace trilogy, "A Generation of Demon Queens".
After 32 years, this film is still considered to be the pinnacle of Qing palace drama in the mainland.
This issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films" will take you back to this classic movie from 32 years ago.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="29" > "A Generation of Demon Queens"</h1>
The Empress Dowager
As the last part of the Qing Palace trilogy created by Li Hanxiang, the film is also known as "The Western Empress".
There is a famous saying in the Hong Kong film circle: Ming Shi looks at Hu Jinquan, and Qing Shi looks at Li Hanxiang.
Li Hanxiang, like his friend Hu Jinquan, is a typical literati director who is fascinated by traditional culture and historical themes. As early as 1975, during his time at Shaw, Li Hanxiang painstakingly made two historical blockbusters, "Falling into the City of the Country" and "Yingtai Weeping Blood", featuring Empress Dowager Cixi of the West.
These two masterpieces were well received by the film industry as soon as they were launched, and at the end of the 1970s, Hong Kong filmmakers and mainland activities became more and more frequent, and Lee Han-cheung's "Falling into the Country" was also introduced to the mainland, which was highly respected by mainland filmmakers at that time.
However, Li Hanxiang himself was not satisfied with these two works, after all, the films made by Shaw all relied on the studio to set up, and it was impossible to restore the antique historical atmosphere, so after Li Hanxiang went north to the mainland, he was determined to remake the Western Empress Series, which led to the later "Burning Yuanmingyuan" and "Hanging Curtains to Listen to the Government".
The first female protagonist of the series is the Empress Dowager Cixi played by Liu Xiaoqing, although Liu Xiaoqing was already a famous actress in the mainland at that time, but Li Hanxiang's "Qing Palace Trilogy" undoubtedly made her status in the film industry to a higher level.
The first part, "Burning the Yuanmingyuan", set in the historical background of the burning of the Yuanmingyuan by the British and French forces, tells the story of how Cixi grew from an unnoticed girl to a favorite concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor;
In the second part, "Listening to the Government", it focuses on the coup d'état of Xin You in xianfeng's later years, telling the story of how Cixi, as the concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, gradually gained a foothold in the struggle for imperial power, and launched a court PK with eight ministers who took care of the order, and finally reached the peak of power step by step.
It should be said that these two films present the first half of the life of Cixi, a controversial historical figure, in a more complete way, and director Li Hanxiang presents a panoramic portrait of the power group of the last Qing Dynasty in the style of combining Zhengshi Ye Shijia with jokes.
Not only is the context of the two major historical events of "Xianfeng's death" and "Xin You's coup" clear and error-free, but even Xianfeng's complex psychology of killing ambition Cixi before his death, and the anecdotes that are not seen in the history of Cixi's cruel treatment of Xianfeng's pet concubines by the powerful Cixi, have been portrayed in detail, making the film a complex and ups and downs of ancient costume history.
The series comes to the third part, "A Generation of Demon Queens" continues to tell the late life of The Western Empress Dowager Cixi, telling the unknown palace secret history between the Western Empress Dowager Cixi, the Tongzhi Emperor Zaichun and the confidant eunuch An Dehai, in addition to the imperial power struggle is still cruel, at the same time, as the finale, the film has a little more sorrow and sorrow.
The heroine is still played by Liu Xiaoqing, 34-year-old Chen Daoming played the Tongzhi Emperor, and Gong Li, who had already made a name for herself in the international film world with "Red Sorghum", played the role of the bitter palace girl Guilian in the film.
The time is 1864, three years of Qing Tongzhi, but Cixi, who is obedient to the government, is still in power.
At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which had swept the south for many years, was finally suppressed, and Zeng Guofan, a minister who had made meritorious contributions to suppressing bandits, returned to Beijing to receive meritorious service.
Zeng Guofan came to the palace to meet the two empresses, and Empress Dowager Cixi asked about the treasures in the Nanjing Heavenly King's Mansion, implying that she planned to fill the treasury with Hongxiu's family property, but Zeng Guofan made it clear that he wanted to eat alone, claiming that a fire had burned the Hongwang Mansion to ashes.
Because of the merits of the suppression of bandits to the imperial court, and the Xiang army in her hands was the most capable legion in the imperial court at present, Empress Dowager Cixi knew that the other side was unwilling to hand over this wealth, but it was not good to directly and directly Zeng Guofan to do things ineffectively, so she had to hide it in the court.
Fortunately, Cixi had a favored confidant, the eunuch chief An Dehai.
He was shrewd and good at drilling camps, so he was greatly favored by Cixi, and An Dehai knew the mystery of it, so after Zeng Guofan came down, he privately made an appointment with the other party, consciously or unconsciously mentioning that Zeng Guofan had built a mansion in his hometown to the extreme luxury, and had reached the etiquette of a prince.
As a powerful courtier, Zeng Guofan naturally knew that An Dehai was deliberately knocking on the mountain and shocking the tiger, so he had to take the initiative to donate 3,000 taels of silver to eliminate the disaster.
An Dehai was deeply favored by Cixi and flew in the palace, even the young Tongzhi Emperor did not pay attention to it.
Although Tongzhi was Cixi's biological son, he actually had a more harmonious relationship with his gentle adoptive mother, Empress Dowager Ci'an.
The Tongzhi Emperor was young and vigorous, and he had long been jealous of An Dehai's arrogance, especially when he heard rumors in the palace that An Dehai was a false eunuch, implying that he had gained the favor of his birth mother Cixi, which made the Tongzhi Emperor want to execute An Dehai.
Just as the conflict between the Tongzhi Emperor and Andehai intensified, a palace maid became the fuse.
One day, the Tongzhi Emperor met the palace lady Guilian in the East Palace, fell in love at first sight, and since then he has frequently visited the East Palace, and the two have often met privately.
Partial An Dehai also took a fancy to Guilian and wanted to take her as a concubine (In this film, An Dehai is a "false eunuch"), after discovering that the Tongzhi Emperor had a private meeting with Guilian, An Dehai took the initiative to imply that Cixi would marry the emperor as soon as possible in order to get Guilian.
On the eve of the emperor's wedding, the palace maid Guilian broke a piece of precious porcelain by mistake, and the Tongzhi Emperor loved Wu and Wu, so he covered it up.
However, After all, An Dehai focused on provoking trouble for twenty years, and took the initiative to expose this matter, which caused Cixi to be angry on the spot and almost executed Guilian.
Although dissuaded by Empress Dowager Ci'an, the tongzhi emperor's conflict with An Dehai became more and more intense.
After Tongzhi got married, he still often met Guilian privately, and An Dehai, who saw it in his eyes, had another poisonous plan:
He pretended to advise Cixi that it was very inappropriate for the Tongzhi Emperor to indulge in female sex, so in order to prevent the palace maid Guilian from defileing the court, it was better to marry her out of the palace early and stop the emperor's mind.
Andehai also lied that he had an unmarried brother of the right age in his hometown, but in fact, the brother he said was himself.
After Guilian married into the An family, she found that she had been deceived, and she would rather die than follow, and An Dehai sold her to the brothel of Bada Hutong in a rage.
On the other hand, after the marriage of the Tongzhi Emperor, he was quite close to the Empress Arut who was chosen by Empress Dowager Ci'an to Tongzhi, but often snubbed the Fucha clan Hui concubine selected for him by Cixi.
As the daughter-in-law chosen by Cixi, Princess Hui also inherited Cixi's style of being a person, being overbearing and narrow-minded.
Seeing that the Tongzhi Emperor snubbed him, he presented rumors to Cixi, causing Cixi to be dissatisfied with the Empress Arut clan.
The dictatorial Cixi then ordered Tongzhi to cultivate himself for two months and not to be close to his concubines again.
Originally, the Tongzhi Emperor had a bad relationship with his mother Cixi, and after he took power, he was bent on getting rid of Cixi's control, but the reality was that he was still controlled by the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi everywhere, which made him even more indignant and dissatisfied.
The Tongzhi Emperor, who had nowhere to vent his anger, planned to go out of the palace to relax at the suggestion of his confidant eunuch.
The Tongzhi Emperor, who had been imprisoned for a month, could not help but let go of himself and went to the Bada Hutong once, originally intending to look for traces of Guilian, but he did not expect to be opened to the door of a new world.
Since then, the Tongzhi Emperor has eaten marrow and knows the taste, and often goes out of the palace to the Eight Hutongs to seek pleasure.
On the way back to the palace, he met guilian, the palace maid he had admired that day, but now the other party had become a secret prostitute in the kiln, with a vulgar demeanor, and no longer had the gentle and pleasant appearance of the beginning.
The Tongzhi Emperor sighed and quietly left, but Guilian had been expecting the emperor to come to him and get out of the sea of suffering.
Soon, the Tongzhi Emperor's visit to the Bada Hutong was denounced by An Dehai, and Tongzhi was reprimanded by the empress dowager of the two palaces.
The Tongzhi Emperor waited for an opportunity to rectify Andehai, just in time for Cixi's big birthday, and An Dehai, in the name of buying birthday gifts for the Western Empress, privately scavenged the people's fat and people's ointment in Jiangnan to fill his own pockets.
However, what was not expected was that after the ship arrived in Shandong, the magistrate reported to Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong, and Ding Baozhen, who was honest and strong in nature, sent troops to capture An Dehai in Tai'an on the grounds that "eunuchs are not allowed to leave Beijing without permission" and quickly reported to the Tongzhi Emperor who had a conflict with Empress Dowager Cixi.
The Tongzhi Emperor finally caught the opportunity to kill people with a knife, so he ordered Inspector Ding Baozhen to be sent to execute An Dehai immediately.
When Cixi learned of this, she urgently sent a message to prevent the execution, but it was too late, so that An Dehai was executed.
Andehai died and Tongzhi avenged, but from then on she broke with her mother Cixi completely.
Since then, the crisis has laid the groundwork, and Tongzhi has been infected with flower willow disease because he often went to the Bada Hutong before.
Although the tai doctors found out the cause of the disease, they did not dare to report it, and by the time the disease had spread and attacked, the Tongzhi Emperor had already been terminally ill.
When Cixi learned of the spread of the disease, at the instigation of Concubine Hui, she blamed the empress, who was seven months pregnant, and tried her best to abuse the pregnant empress, because she was afraid that after Tongzhi's death, empress Dowager Alut would rise to empress dowager and seize power with her.
To this end, Cixi deliberately beat and abused the Empress Arut, which eventually led to the Empress's miscarriage.
Lying on a sick bed, the Tongzhi Emperor watched the empress suffer and finally ended up with hatred in anger.
The emperor died, and the empress was abused and miscarried, and this scene happened to be bumped into by the eastern empress dowager Ci'an.
Ci'an looked at the fierce Cixi and felt frightened, remembering that before the Xianfeng Emperor died, he had left her a secret message, which was to balance the ambitious Cixi at a critical moment.
However, Ci An, who has always had a gentle personality, and her sisterhood with Cixi for more than ten years has never dared to use it, but now she is determined to abolish Cixi.
On the other hand, Cixi learned that Ci'an was holding the secret will, knew that she was dying, and was determined to let go.
She took the initiative to ask Ci'an for guilt, and all kinds of things that denigrated Tongzhi's flower and willow disease, saying that she did this for the sake of the ancestral ritual law, and after a tearful speech, Ci'an was a little hesitant;
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Cixi continued to work hard, and when she learned that Ci'an had a head disease, she lied that she had heard a folk folk remedy and took the initiative to cut off the flesh of her thighs as a medicine to cure Ci'an's illness.
Under the inducement of the cruel Cixi's bitter plan, Ci'an was greatly moved, so he took the initiative to burn the secret will, completely leaving Cixi without any trouble.
The silly white and sweet Empress Dowager Ci'an did not know, and at this time, Cixi behind her once again showed a sinister and triumphant smile.
After Tongzhi's death, the young Guangxu Emperor succeeded to the throne, and Cixi has since become more willing.
Not long after, the Tongzhi Emperor's empress Alute was also killed under the poisonous persecution of Cixi.
In 1881, empress dowager Ci'an suddenly and mysteriously fell ill and died, and the history of Ye records that Ci'an died after eating a cake given by Cixi.
Since then, the curtain pattern of the two palaces has become the exclusive respect of the Western Palace, the Guangxu Emperor has not yet become an adult, Cixi has monopolized power, and began to become the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty worthy of the name, but the Qing Dynasty has already moved towards the final destination of destruction.
The Qing Palace Trilogy is the artistic peak of Li Hanxiang's later years, and it is also a rare historical blockbuster of ancient costumes in the mainland in the 1980s.
In the three films in the series, director Li Hanxiang shows a gorgeous and exquisite classical aesthetic style, beautiful image composition, exquisitely crafted props and sets, epic visual style, free and gorgeous cameras and character scheduling, filming the power struggles and love entanglements within the last dynasty, with both a sense of historical heaviness and a sense of artistic popularity.
"A Generation of Demon Queens" focuses on the second half of Cixi's life, And Cixi, played by Liu Xiaoqing, no longer has the girlish feeling that occasionally appears in the first two films, but has completely become an ambitionist controlled by power and desire, she is cruel, arbitrary, and at the same time cold-blooded, even in the face of her own son Tongzhi, there is not much affection, and her mind is full of how to maintain her rule and power.
Another important role in the film is the young Tianzi Tongzhi Emperor played by Chen Daoming, who is a proud and arrogant but incompetent emperor, on the one hand, he desperately wants to get rid of the control of Cixi, who is obedient to the government, but on the other hand, he has no ink in his chest, is addicted to the wind and moon, and finally puts himself on the road to destruction.
Cixi's brutal rule and tongzhi's faint incompetence symbolize the turmoil and thinning of the last dynasty. So that even the Forbidden City community in Li Hanxiang's lens appears dull and lifeless in this part, heralding the coming ruined depression in the golden splendor.
In addition, when the film was released that year, the promotional poster read: "Yangwei International two superstars Liu Xiaoqing and Gong Li first performed together", attracting many people, but in fact, the two did not have a rival scene in the movie, and there were very few times in the same frame.
Moreover, the overseas version of this film is quite large, especially the scene at the end where Cixi hangs the empress and falls to her death, and many of the audiences who had the opportunity to watch this movie at that time have left psychological shadows because of the extreme cruelty of the film portraying Cixi.
Director Li Hanxiang once said: Although I have made many historical films of the Qing Palace, what I pursue is not movies, but life.
As the last part of Li Hanxiang's Qing palace trilogy, "A Generation of Demon Queens" was released that year, both the response and word of mouth were not as good as the first two parts of the series, because the wild history drama part in the script became too much, and in many plot designs, in order to pursue dramatic conflicts, there was a suspicion of excessive dog blood, ironically, this actually affected many later Qing Palace fighting dramas.