Crossing the theme, it can be said to be enduring in the Chinese film circle.
Whether it is the early "Search for Qin", "Love Through Time and Space", or the Later Qing Palace Crossing Romance Drama represented by "Gong Suo Xin Yu" and "Step by Step Frightening", or in recent years, "Qing Yu Nian" and "Rumored Chen Qianqian" and other brain hole crossing dramas.
The theme of crossing can now be said to be a hundred flowers blooming, and the forms and settings of crossing are also endless.
Speaking of the more influential Chinese crossover films in recent years, it is the "Frozen Man" series starring Zhen Zidan.
In 2014, as the director, producer and action director, Zhen Zidan starred in the fantasy action film "Frozen Man" with an investment of up to 200 million yuan, which included Ren Dahua, Huang Shengyi, Wang Baoqiang and other well-known actors to join, and used 3D technology to shoot, and the producer played the promotional slogan of "Chinese 3D fantasy giant".
The film was divided into two parts at the time, and the plot tells the story of the Ming Dynasty Jinyi guard master who was frozen for 400 years, accidentally thawed in modern times, thus embarking on an adventure, and finally turning against the former brother who was also frozen for a hundred years, and launching a life-and-death duel.
The gimmick of crossing the setting + 3D martial arts made the first "Frozen: Gate of Rebirth" of 2014 highly anticipated. However, the embarrassing thing is that after the release of the film, it failed miserably at the box office, only receiving a Douban rating of 3.9, and the male protagonist Zhen Zidan won the Golden Broomstick Most Disappointing Actor Award.
The fiasco of "Frozen: Gate of Rebirth" directly led to the producer hiding the sequel "Frozen Man: Time and Space Walker" for four years before daring to release it, but the reputation and box office of the next episode were even worse, with a Douban score of only 2.7 points, successfully elected as the lowest score for domestic films in 2018.
The film itself has failed in word-of-mouth, and the key scenes have also caused a lot of controversy.
When the film was released, the producer and the lead actor Zhen Zidan began to tear up on social media, and the film official Bo called Zhen Zidan a "drama bully", posted a bombardment of Zhen Zidan's lack of contract spirit and professional ethics, and went through various "crimes": changing the lines and makeup without authorization on the set, rebelling, interfering with the work of the director group, deleting other actors' roles, threatening the crew with "strikes" and a series of actions, which eventually led to difficult film shooting.
And Zhen Zidan's side also denied it, and even more strongly replied: "You shameless people, your despicable propaganda behavior, I will not tolerate it, wait for my lawyer's letter!"
The question of whether this matter is right or wrong is still inconclusive, but the fiasco of the "Frozen Man" series is already doomed. What many people don't know is that Zhen Zidan's "Frozen Man" is actually a remake of a classic Hong Kong film "Frozen Man" from 32 years ago.
This issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films" will take you back to this 32-year-old crossover film -
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="31" > Frozen</h1> Man
The Iceman Cometh
The film was released in 1989 and produced by Jiahe.
The story takes place during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty.
On the rivers and lakes, there appears a fierce flower thief Feng San (Yuan Hua), who has committed many evil crimes and insulted and killed the cousin of the emperor of the dynasty, nanchang County, thus making the emperor very angry.
Fengsan is highly skilled in martial arts, and the imperial court has rounded up many times without success, and now that Fengsan has committed a major crime, the emperor orders Jinyiwei to command the envoy Fang Shouzheng (Yuan Biao) to arrest the great thief Fengsan within a time limit.
Feng San and Fang Shouzheng were brothers in the same division, but after Feng San became a master, he defected from the division.
Fang Shouzheng's master had in his hand a Piece of the Great Treasure Black Jade Buddha of the Western Regions, and it was rumored that the Black Jade Buddha combined with the Great Reincarnation Disk could reverse time and space.
When Feng San learned of this legend, he secretly attacked his master, severely injured him, and snatched the Black Jade Buddha.
After Fang Shouzheng learned of this, in order to capture Feng San, he began to search for clues to the Great Reincarnation Disk.
In the end, Fang Shou was finding Feng San's traces at the foot of the Snow Mountain, and Feng San was about to activate the Great Reincarnation Disk at this time.
Fang Shouzheng and Feng San began to fight, and the two were activated by the great reincarnation disk and teleported to the snowy mountain plateau.
Because the two were brothers of the same disciple, they knew each other's moves and martial arts very well, and Fang Shouzheng could not subdue Feng San for a while. In order to fulfill the emperor's will, Fang Shouzheng finally chose to die together and dragged Feng San to jump off the cliff together.
Fast forward hundreds of years, and time has come to modern times.
A snow mountain expedition team accidentally found two ice corpses of Ming Dynasty warriors frozen in ice on the way to the mountain.
The leading scholar (Xu Jinjiang) thought that the discovery of the ice corpse might shock the academic community, so he decided to bring the body back to study and transported it to Hong Kong.
Unexpectedly, however, after the ice corpse was transported to Hong Kong, three thieves broke into the museum and stole it.
The thief shuts down the storage's refrigeration system, and the ice on the body begins to melt, causing the power supply to trip. Stimulated by the electric current, the two ice corpses woke up one after another. No need to guess, they are Fang Shouzheng and Feng San, who have been frozen for four hundred years.
The first to wake up was Fang Shouzheng, who mistakenly thought that he had come to hades after he died, after all, everything in front of him was so strange.
Fang Shouzheng stumbles all the way to the unfamiliar streets of Hong Kong, only to bump into Ayu (Maggie Cheung), a drinking girl, on the side of the road. Ayu is a ballroom socialite, because she helps her friends guarantee loan sharks, and is forced to fall into the dust and do the skin and meat business.
This night, Ayu is being insulted by an unscrupulous guest, Fang Shouzheng mistakenly thinks that she is being bullied, and in the spirit of chivalry that the road is uneven, Fang Shouzheng goes out to teach the unscrupulous guests a lesson, and incidentally beats away several gangsters who want debts.
Ayu is worried that he will be retaliated against by the other party, and seeing that Fang Shouzheng's brain is not very smart, he pretends to take the other party home, but in fact, he is afraid that when the gang finds the door, he can let Fang Shouzheng come out to carry the pot.
Fang Shouzheng, as an ancient person, came to Ayu's home and felt strange and novel about everything in modern civilization.
He didn't understand the lights and the telephone, he didn't understand the TELEVISION, and the funniest thing was that he thought that the toilet was a well for fetching water.
But after a while, through the TV series played on TV and the history book of Ayu's family, Fang Shouzheng learned a bad news that shocked him: the Ming Dynasty has long been over!
Fang Shouzheng was filled with grief and indignation, not knowing where he could go in the strange Hong Kong.
Ayu saw that Fang Shouzheng was extraordinary, and thought that he would have special functions, so he proposed to let Fang Shouzheng be his own follower and bodyguard.
With the protection of Fang Shouzheng, Ayu arrogantly came to negotiate with the gang who asked for debts, and finally taught the gang a lesson.
Not only that, as an ancient Fang Shouzheng, in addition to being proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, he was also proficient in cooking, laundry, sewing and repairing housework.
In this way, Fang Shouzheng became Mr. Tian Luo in Ayu's family and began to take care of Ayu's diet and living.
After Ayu discovered Fang Shouzheng's good skills, he thought of a clever plan to make a fortune and engage in immortal jumping for rich guests.
Fang Shouzheng did not know the truth, and thought that Ayu was really bullied, so he kept protecting her.
With the day and night with Ayu, Fang Shouzheng gradually adapted to the life of modern society, and the feelings between him and Ayu also underwent subtle changes.
At the same time, Feng San, who came to modern society like Fang Shouzheng, also lived like a fish.
A lawless person like Feng San, relying on martial arts to do robbery business in modern times, sometimes doing his old job and committing some crimes.
Soon, the news of the serial rape and murder case was in the newspaper, and Fang Shouzheng saw the report, associated with his experience of freezing resurrection, and immediately realized: Feng San had also come to modern times.
Therefore, Fang Shouzheng began to post portraits everywhere, looking for Feng San and completing his unfinished mission hundreds of years ago.
At this moment, Fang Shouzheng accidentally learned from Ayu's small talk with his friends that Ayu used himself to engage in immortal jumping.
Fang Shou is a righteous gentleman, and he believes that Ayu has been deceiving himself, and there is a contradiction between the two.
This time, Ayu called Fang Shouzheng again, saying that he had met a perverted guest and asked Fang Shouzheng to rescue him.
Fang Shouzheng thought that Ayu wanted to deceive himself again, so he didn't plan to take care of it, but he didn't expect that the guest Ayu met was Feng San.
However, Fang Shouzheng was hard-hearted in the end, and couldn't help but call again to confirm Ayu's case, but fengsan answered the phone. As soon as the two listened to each other's voices, they immediately confirmed that the other party was the enemy they were looking for.
Feng San threatened Fang Shouzheng with Ayu's life, causing him to kneel down and beg himself, and took the initiative to drink the "Transformation Gong Dispersion" that could dissipate the power.
Fang Shouzheng had to obey the order, and seeing that his master and disciple who had been looking down on him had conceded defeat and knelt down, Feng San left with a big wave.
However, after Fang Shouzheng waited for Feng San to release the person, he sealed the acupuncture point with a golden needle to prevent the spread of the drug that had dissipated the power, so as to ensure the power of the two hours, and wanted to use the last opportunity to destroy Feng San.
Fang Shouzheng snatched a horse from the racecourse, galloped on the road, and chased Fengsan all the way to the dock.
The two sides once again engaged in hand-to-hand combat at the docks, and finally Fang Shouzheng was defeated by Feng San and was thrown into the sea.
Fortunately, Ayu called the police, Fang Shouzheng was saved, and under the treatment of modern medicine, he relied on gastric lavage to eliminate the side effects of chemical dispersion.
However, Feng San refused to let Go of Fang Shouzheng, and he came to the hospital disguised in disguise, hoping to assassinate Fang Shouzheng secretly.
At the critical moment, Ayu dressed as a nurse, quietly pushed Fang Shouzheng on the hospital bed and fled the hospital.
After Fang Shouzheng recovered from his injury, he saw the TV news and learned that the great reincarnation disk would be exhibited in Hong Kong.
Fang Shouzheng knew Feng San's style, and he would definitely take the opportunity of the exhibition to grab the Great Reincarnation Disk. In order to prevent Fengsan from returning to the Ming Dynasty to do evil, Fang Shouzheng took Ayu to live in seclusion in the mountains, hoping to create a sword that could deal with Fengsan.
This ordinary life of male cultivators and female weavers made Fang Shouzheng and Ayu regain their good feelings again.
On the other hand, Feng San, who learned that the great reincarnation disk had arrived in Hong Kong, actually had the ambition to sell a batch of arms from the underground black market, planning to return to the Ming Dynasty with modern weapons and complete the dream of dominating the world.
On the day of the exhibition, Feng San broke into the exhibition hall with a gun and came to the exhibition hall of the Great Reincarnation Disk.
However, when Feng San wanted to start the Great Reincarnation Disk, he found that the Black Jade Buddha was missing, and there was a note left on the scene of Fang Shouzheng, and whether it was black or not was in Fang Shouzheng's hands, so that Feng San came to the top floor to decide for life and death.
In order to regain the Black Jade Buddha, Feng San and Fang Lingzheng fought a fierce showdown on the roof of the museum.
In the end, Fang Shou defeated and killed Fengsan while fengsan activated the great reincarnation disk.
Ayu also came to the exhibition hall at this time, but saw Fang Shouzheng sitting on the great reincarnation disk, disappearing through time and space.
A few months later, Ayu chooses to go ashore from Liang, only to encounter a debt collector gang.
Unexpectedly, Fang Shouzheng, dressed as a modern person, actually appeared next to Ayu again and beat away the gangsters.
Ayu and Fang Shouzheng continue the frontier, and the story ends here.
The director of this film, Fok Yiu-leung, is a veteran director of the Hong Kong film industry, who has shot films such as "Red Square Flying Dragon", "Black Panther World", "Special Identity" and other films, and the driving force behind this film is the famous Hong Kong filmmakers Siu Ruoyuan and Mak Dang-hung, the former who won the "Hong Kong Film Awards" Best Screenplay for "Lame Hao", while the latter is a representative figure in the field of realistic crime films in the Hong Kong film industry in the 1980s, representing the "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier" series.
In terms of starring, from the current point of view, it can be described as star-studded. As the male protagonist, Yuan Biao and Yuan Hua, who plays the villain, are both "Seven Little Fortunes", and both are action movie stars who have been active in the film industry since the 1980s, and the two contributed a very wonderful fight scene in the film, which is a major attraction of the film.
The heroine Maggie Cheung does not have to introduce too much, and the supporting roles in the film are even more big coffee, Xu Jinjiang, who plays a scientist in the opening scene, Fang Shouzheng, a beggar yuankui who meets in modern times, Wang Jing, who plays soy sauce when he fights Fengsan at the dock, Tai Bao, a cameo gangster, and so on.
As far as the film itself is concerned, "Frozen Man" is a typical example of Hong Kong entertainment films in the 1980s. The film integrates various genre elements such as crossing, fantasy action, gunfight, romance, comedy, crime, etc., the story is brain-opening, the whole film is lively, and some comedy sections are added to the gaps between various fight scenes, which is quite considerable from the entertainment point of view.
The interestingness of traversing the subject matter lies in the collision of thought and behavior between modern people and ancients. The strong contrast and contrast between the changes in Fang Shouzheng's identity in this film has triggered many jokes, and it is also a kind of traditional gimmick, which is a common technique in Hong Kong films, and the heroine Ayu, who is born in the dusty and greedy market, but has not lost her conscience, is not annoying under the interpretation of Maggie Cheung, and the love between her and Fang Shouzheng has become the moving place of the film.
In contrast, thirty years later, in "Frozen Man", the story setting and key details of the scene are almost copied from the original, but even the copying homework is not good. The rhythm of the story is sparse, the human design is exaggerated to the extreme, Huang Shengyi and Zhen Zidan's CP has no chemical reaction, and the villain played by Wang Baoqiang is even more brainless, and it is not surprising that the film's final word-of-mouth box office fiasco is fiasco!