In 2019, China's film box office reached a record 64.266 billion yuan, the film industry can be said to be the epitome of China's rapid economic development, a large number of domestic films are filmed in Beijing, and the city of Beijing in the film is prosperous and modern. Of course, if you extend the time, the movie becomes a documentary in a sense.
If someone asks you, what was the city of Beijing like thirty years ago? In fact, if you look at a few movies of that era, you can have a general impression. In the 1980s and early 1990s, like China's economy, Chinese cinema ushered in a period of rapid development, which documented everything at the beginning of Beijing's rapid development, when it presented a "simple expression of the pre-consumer era." Sometimes I feel that looking at the city through movies is even more real than my own experience. The time that did not go far, the splendid, simple, simple, slow everything seemed so attractive, like a burning agarwood, the dark incense struck to pull people into the warm memory.
In 1992, the Guomao Bridge on the East Third Ring Road in Beijing was under construction. Photo by Zhang Feng
Beijing in the 1980s, for filmmakers, was more like the early spring of the morning light, everything was shining, shimmering with light, and permeated with tender green. The Houhai area of Beijing also became a symbolic area of life in the film at that time, and the old Beijing guards a pool of clear water in the city, interpreting the joys and sorrows of life. The Houhai area is also one of the most frequent Beijing landscapes in the entire 1980s and 1990s.
Comedian Chen Peisi is the representative of this period. Although his eyes often reveal confusion, it is more of a youthful pleasure. In the films at that time, he was a backward youth, but it was also the label of the "second son" that made him the first comedy star in the mainland film industry at that time.
In these films, the second son Chen Peisi is simply the iconic figure of Houhai, and the first three films of his "Born I Will Be Useful" series of movies at that time, "Father and Son", "Second Son Opens a Shop" and "Silly Manager", all took important scenes in Houhai.
We might as well follow in the footsteps of the "second son" and look at the scene in the movie. In 1985, Chen Peisi and Chen Qiang's father and son's "Father and Son" took place in the lotus market in Shichahai today, and Yu Li, a salesman who "served the people's vegetable station" on the bank of the river, was worried because she could not sell a dime of expired vegetables. The second son, who likes you, bought all the dishes home, and let Lao Kui Chen Qiang transport all the dishes to the garbage station. At that time, Houhai, there was no fence, there was no bar everywhere, some were just tin garbage cans on the side of the road, the river was sky blue seats and green fruit peel boxes, the hutong mouth was a commissary to buy Arctic Ocean soda and a soy sauce side food shop, except for the cicadas in summer, there was no hustle and bustle of tour groups and tourists.
Roaming along the back coast, at the mouth of today's Daxiangfeng Hutong, you can see the figure of Ma Rod Liangtian in 1987's "Erzi Opens a Shop", he is posing as a riverbank administrator, fining the second son Chen Peisi, who is swimming in the wild, and the distant view behind the second son is the blue sky and green willows and the unobstructed bell and drum tower.
In the 1988 movie "Silly Manager", the "Bijiamei" small guest shop opened by the second son Chen Peisi and the old Kui Chen Qiang father and son is here. The shop is not big, but the pots of red in front of the door are blooming in spring. Although Zhang Daju, played by Song Chunli, has been making trouble for the second son, the YingZi played by Song Dandan is not a fuel-saving lamp. This also puts the manager's second son in a constant dilemma.
Of course, in addition to the second son, Chen Peisi, the child also loves to hang out here after school. In Yin Li's 1990 "My September", elementary school student An Jianjun bought a welfare lottery ticket, and after winning 50 yuan, he donated it all to the Asian Games. It was on the shore of this houhai that the Beijing Evening News reporter interviewed several primary school students, An Jianjun would only scratch his head and could not speak, the limelight was all snatched away by his classmates, which made people really anxious, and finally the teacher Zhang Guoli understood An Jianjun's heart best.
In 1993, in Xia Gang's "NoBody Applauds", by the Houhai Silver Ingot Bridge, Xie Yuan, Gaike, Fang Zige and Ding Jiali's love feud was being played out here, and the awkward relationship between several people could not be solved by a meal in the barbecue season restaurant next to it.
The old Beijing living circle around Houhai, its surrounding landscape also often appears in the lens of movies at the end of the last century, from Houhai to the north is Gulou West Avenue, in the 1986 Sino-US co-production film "Beijing Story", when the prosperous Li Qinqin and classmates were returning home from school tuition, she rode into Ya'er Hutong. In the lens, you can clearly see the regular hutongs of old Beijing and the back wall of Song Qingling's former residence, full of fun everywhere.
Just a stone's throw away from the Houhai is the Drum Tower, and the human legend that happens in the alleys around the Drum Tower is no less than the story of the Houhai Sea. Wang Shuo's 1995 directorial debut , I Am Your Father " , was filmed here in large numbers. Feng Xiaogang, the chairman of the trade union, sat with his son in the shabu-shabu restaurant under the drum tower and talked about wine, hoping that in the future, father and son would not be commensurate with each other, but should be named after the brothers. Through the steam rising from the hot pot, Feng Xiaogang squinted his eyes and looked at the magnificent dark bell and drum tower in the night, and he was a little drunk.
To the west of Houhai, close to the wall of gongwangfu's garden, is an important scene in Ning Ying's 1992 film "Looking for Fun", where Huang Zongluo, a retired worker of the troupe, patrols through a group of old men obsessed with Beijing opera, hoping to find their own position, the tall wall, the shrinking old man, and the Beijing winter sun shining on them, showing a playful sense of ceremony. Follow the Gong King's Mansion to Dingfu Street, which is a great location for many films due to the location of the old Fu Jen University. In the 1993 Cannes Palme d'Or film "Farewell to the King", the dappled corridor of Fu Jen University was lined with the figure of Cheng Diyi Zhang Guorong, who was at a loss in the big era, and hesitantly walked on this corridor of destiny to find his brother Duan Xiaolou Zhang Fengyi, but his heart ached because he saw Ju Xian Gong Li and Xiao Lou hugging each other.
Due to the quaint architectural style of Fu Jen University. It is also often used to switch indoor and outdoor scenes with the offices of government agencies such as the Fusuijing Police Station. In the 1992 detective film "Disappearing Woman" directed by the fifth-generation director He Qun, Ge You, a policeman, is accompanying the victim's mother, Li Wanfen, out of the Fusuijing police station, and they step on the fallen leaves in late autumn outside the police station carport, trying to dig out the murderer You Yong hidden inside the people, and their background scene is the vicissitudes of Fu Jen University on Dingfu Street.
To the south of Houhai is the North Sea, and to the east of the North Sea is Jingshan Mountain. Among them, Jingshan West Street is a street with beautiful scenery and green shade in old Beijing. The 1987 film "Zhenzhen's Hair House" was filmed here. In the mid-1980s, fashionable hairstyles became the pursuit and yearning of young people. Set up next to the "Jingshan Morning Stall", the left is Beihai, the right is Jingshan, the second floor window can see the Bell and Drum Tower, although a leisurely and natural scene, but the economic tide is also quietly surging. In the film, the rogue played by Xie Yuan likes to shoot people with slabs when he is picking quarrels, but he does not know that slabs have become a rarity today. Bricks, inches, shoes, flower shirts, these used to be the standard configuration of Beijing's small gangsters, but also unconsciously, drifted away with the wind.
Compared with the life style of Houhai and the surrounding old Beijing, the urbanization side of Beijing was mainly reflected in Chang'an Avenue and its surrounding lines at the end of the last century. Director Mi Jiashan's 1988 film "The Stubborn Lord" is adapted from Wang Shuo's novel. Ma Xiaoqing, head of the handkerchief team of the department store, and Ge You, a salesman of the Sandai Company, met at the Chongwenmen intersection, which was noisy but not as blocked everywhere as it is now, and the police at the guard booth were well-organized. Of course, this is mainly the reason for the lack of cars, no wonder when Zhang Guoguo, the manager of the three companies, led his men Ge You and Liang Tian, wandering on Chang'an Avenue, they could still hear his girlfriend Pan Hong calling his name from the 1 bus that drove by.
At the intersection of Wangfujing Avenue, the most prosperous street in Beijing at that time, McDonald's opened in the early 1990s, making it the most popular. Skip the Wangfujing Bookstore and Daming Optical Shop and walk past the department store. It is a few foreign-funded clothing stores that initially entered The country. Xia Gang made a big fashion hit in the 1992 movie "The Great Satan", and in the Italian Benetton fashion store, Xu Fan tried on the latest style of the new clothes of the year, although he could not afford it, but he met a great vanity. Ge You, a left-behind man on the side, also pointed out and advised him. In the words of the current clear-eyed people, this is a standard implanted advertisement, but at the time, it was estimated that it was just to show the new and trendy feeling of the film.
There are several large hotels along and around Chang'an Avenue. It also appeared frequently in films of the time. In the 1993 "Divorce War" directed by Chen Guoxing, the sightseeing elevator of the Tianlun Dynasty Hotel is unique. At the entrance of the hotel, the fake doctor Hou Yaohua opened the car door and sat on the taxi of the female driver Ma Xiaoqing, a hard set, and Ge You, a musician who had just separated from Ma Xiaoqing, looked in his eyes, and he was even more jealous, although there was a small foreman Cai Ming pursuing, he still could not forget his favorite.
The International Hotel at the intersection of Beijing Railway Station was the most fashionable venue in the late 1980s, and it also witnessed the film "Police Officer in the Year of the Dragon" cooperated by zhang Fengyi and Lu Liping in the past. Lu Liping, the foreman who works at the International Hotel, filed for divorce because she was dissatisfied with the fact that Zhang Fengyi, the husband of the criminal police captain who worked at the Ritan police station, had not worked day and night. In the café on the top floor of the International Hotel, when the two met again, Lu Liping was sad, and the building on the east side behind Zhang Fengyi was the China Customs Building. The International Hotel echoes the China Customs Building, and downstairs is more of a narrow and cramped hutong, looking at Beijing in this time and space, like a dream.
On July 1, 1997, at the Beijing station, all walks of life in the capital celebrated the return of Hong Kong to China. Photo by Zhang Feng
The International Hotel is facing Beijing Station. In the movies of that year, the exposure of Beijing Station far exceeded that of the capital airport (which was still Terminal 1 at that time), after all, ordinary people could not afford to fly at that time. Therefore, Beijing Railway Station has also become the most important transportation hub for the south to the north in the movie. For example, the second son, Chen Peisi, not only loves Houhai, but also loves Beijing Station. In the 1992 movie "The Two Grandfathers Open a Song Hall", the exit of the Beijing station became the first set of shots in the film. The grandfather and son who just returned from Shenzhen were running into the singer Fu Yiwei of Beijing's development, and the second son, Chen Peisi, made the old mistake of loving and talking to a beautiful girl, and repeatedly asked to walk with Fu Yiwei, and the old Kui Chen Qiang had to agree, and it was precisely because of this meeting in Beijing that the grandfather and grandfather embarked on the road of opening a song hall. At that time, Beijing Station was open and bright, with no small traders and hawkers, only state-run shops and sporadic Crown taxis. Time traveled back five years from 1992, and in the 1988 movie "Silly Manager", the second son, Chen Peisi, was arrested by the chengguan Mu Tiezhu at the beijing station because he wanted to solicit customers for the guest house. Mu Tiezhu, a former basketball national player with a height of 2 meters 28, is the first person for a sports athlete to cross-border the film, although there are only a few scenes, but the huge body appears in the movie, and the comedic effect is still very significant. In addition, Mu Tiezhu was also an early practitioner of the urban management industry, who was called wearing a red hoop at that time, which was also the first time that the image of chengguan was on the camera, leaving a deep impression on us after the 70s.
Not far from Beijing Railway Station, it is the location of today's Beijing Daily Newspaper Group, which was originally called Xiyi Hutong, but now it is lined with high-rise buildings. In He Qun's 1992 film "The Disappearing Woman," hospital nurse Ju Xue and criminal investigator Geng Ge met at the door of the Beijing Daily newspaper, and the criminal investigator who had just published a search notice at the newspaper ran into an old classmate, and the two decided to dine nearby. Although there were many guests in the restaurants in the West Frame Hutong, the area around the hutong was still quiet at that time, and only the sign of "Beijing Daily Newspaper" was particularly eye-catching.
The camera pulls back to the goldfish alley in Wangfujing again, the handsome brother Jia Hongsheng squeezed on the No. 99 bus, and the opposite of the bus stop is today's Wangfu Hotel, and the conductor Ma Xiaoqing also began to empathize with this handsome man. Although the driver Wang Quan'an was heartbroken, he had no choice. The 1990 film Beijing, You Early has the characteristics of that era. At the end of the film, the bus arrived at Xinhua Street Station in Xicheng District, it was a year later, Ma Xiaoqing married Jia Hongsheng, the two became self-employed, several of them met again on the bus, everyone held their hearts, but could not open their mouths.
Because of the majesty of the front door, which is also the iconic building of the ancient capital in the movie, as early as the 1984 movie "On the Elevator" told the story of the neighborhood that happened in the cadre dormitory near the front door. The love between the painter Zhao Youliang and the elevator worker Xiao Xiong is so pure and beautiful. At that time, the second ring road was extremely wide, and the image of the front door and the newly built Hepingmen subway station appeared more than once in the film. At that time, there were basically no cars on the Second Ring Road, only the white magnolia lights towering on the side of the road, whether in the morning light or at night, it looked so pure and elegant.
Fast forward to the 1990s, the front door became noisy, and taxis gradually descended from the altar by aristocratic means of transportation. In 1991, the movie "Woman Taxi Woman" let everyone see the new Beijing at that time. Every taxi that exits from the taxi terminal at the foot of the front door runs to all corners of the capital. Since the Asian Games have just been held, and now many landmark buildings have just been built, sitting in the taxi driven by sister Ding Jiali, you will use the eyes of the protagonist Pan Hong to see the East Third Ring Road like a no-man's land, the new Beijing-Guangzhou Center, and the China World Hotel are particularly eye-catching. In the yellow-leafed embassy district, you will see the most pristine nature and leisure of Sanlitun without bar street. The Continental Hotel and the Olympic Sports Center look so outstanding on the side of the four rings that have not yet been built. In the film, there is actually a film school by the Jimen Bridge, of course, the film school in 1991 was changed to Xijing University in this movie, which is also a different flavor.
The ancient observatory and the ming city wall ruins on chang'an Avenue Jianguomen are also a symbol of Beijing, because located in the southwest corner of the Jianguomen overpass, the ancient buildings and the surrounding diplomatic apartments and overpasses form a unique symbol of the city, indicating the fusion of ancient oriental culture and modern civilization. The area around Jianguomen was the central business district at the heart of Beijing in the early 1990s. In the face of these new things, the people have shown the initial discomfort, in the movie "Beijing, You Early", the conductor Ma Xiaoqing came to the Scitech Building in order to find his friend Jiang Shan, who is a secretary in a foreign company, but in the face of the revolving door at the door, he did not know how to push and pull, and did not dare to rush in, that kind of helplessness seems to be so cute today.
The North Fourth Ring Road, to some extent, like jianguomen, reflects the beauty of the alternation of the old and the new, in the 1993 movie "High Friends Full of Seats" can be clearly seen, the situation inside and outside the fourth ring, now the Huatang shopping mall in the small camp was still a small courtyard at that time, Xie Yuan and Ma Ling, a self-employed couple, were doing a make-up wedding here, and the special teacher They really wanted to help Li Zhiyu did not have a marriage room because he had no power and no power, and as for the "rich second generation" who occupied the wedding room, it was Li Weijian, a cross-talk actor. To the north of the courtyard, we can see the Fourth Ring Road, which is being built, and the Tibet Building, which is under construction.
Source Beijing Daily client
Written by Zeng Jiaxin
Editor: Zhou Wenli Yuan Xinyu
Process Editor: Liu Weili