Transforming into a director seems to be a lingering obsession in the hearts of many action actors.
In 1972, Bruce Lee, who became popular in the Asian film industry with "Jingwumen", chose to transform into a director and filmed the classic kung fu film "Raptors Across the River".
At the end of the 1970s, Jackie Chan and Hong Jinbao, who became famous in the film industry with "kung fu comedy", also quickly opened their own path of directing, and came up with works such as "Laughing Fist Strange Moves" and "Mr. Zan and Finding Qianhua".
Wu Jing, who has worked hard in the film industry for many years, is also full of desire for the self-directed and self-acting film path. "Wolf Teeth", "Wolf Warrior", "Wolf Warrior 2" and other works have also gradually stabilized Wu Jing's path of directing.
Zhen Zidan, a "Master Ye" who played ten, also had a period of film years of transformation director and self-directing and self-acting. The beginning of this story also goes back to the "era when Hong Kong cinema has not yet declined.".
In the early 1980s, Zhen Zidan was favored by director Yuan Heping and joined the "Yuan Family Class" at that time. In the lens of director Yuan Heping, Zhen Zidan's action actor road has also been stabilized step by step.
1984's "Laughing Taiji" and 1985's "Love Meets the Enemy" made many viewers remember Zhen Zidan's face. And 1988's "SWAT Dragon Slaying", 1989's "Royal Master Sister 4: Direct Witness", and 1990's "Money Laundering" also made a large number of action movie fans like Zhen Zidan's fists and feet.
However, at that time, Zhen Zidan was always a distance away from the big red. Compared with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Hong Jinbao, these action masters, Zhen Zidan's road to stardom is obviously still a long way off.
In 1994, after collaborating with director Yuan Heping on Wing Chun, Zhen Zidan chose to leave the "Yuan Family Class" to try to find a new direction of development.
After making enough money in works such as "Circus Kid", "Iron Horse 2: Street Killer", "Asian Police High-Pressure Line", "Jingwumen" and other works, Zhen Zidan established his own film company "Bullet Creation Co., Ltd." in the mid-90s and took the position of director.
In 1997, Zhen Zidan released his directorial debut, The Legend of the Wolf Warrior.
Hearing the name "Wolf Warrior", many fans at the moment may think of Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior" two-part series.
Unlike Wu Jing's "Special Forces Theme" movie "Wolf Warrior", Zhen Zidan's "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" focuses the story on the creation of the "killer theme".
At the beginning of the movie, a man named Ben (played by Leung Hon Man) goes around collecting clues and looking for the legendary "King of Killers" Wolf Warrior.
A man named "Ah Wei" (played by Huang Zihua) said that he knew where the "wolf warrior" was, and led Ben to find an old man named "Feng Wenxuan" (played by Zhen Zidan).
Ah Wei tells Ben that this "Feng Wenxuan" is the legendary "Killer King" Wolf Warrior.
At this time, the "wolf warrior" Feng Wenxuan was sleeping on a chair. Ah Wei said not to disturb the wolf warrior, there is something to say when he wakes up.
Seeing that the "wolf warrior" is a twilight old man, Aben can't help but make sarcasm. Ah Wei, who was beside him, thought that Ben was a little ignorant of the sky, so he told him the story of his youth with the wolf warrior.
At that time, Ah Wei was only in his twenties and lived in a village deep in the mountains. One day, a man with a short knife came to the village, and this person was Feng Wenxuan, the "wolf warrior".
Feng Wenxuan wanted to go to the nearby "Seven Holy Temples", but he didn't know the way, so he asked Ah Wei to lead the way.
On the way to the Temple of the Seven Saints, the two encounter a group of mountain thieves. Feng Wenxuan slashed one person and one knife, killing all the mountain thieves who had rushed to him.
Ah Wei saw that Feng Wenxuan was so outstanding, so he became curious about his origins. Feng Wenxuan said that he had lost his memory and only remembered to come to the "Seven Holy Temples" and others.
Ah Wei's story is very good, but Ben on the side does not think so. Ben believes that times have changed, and now the "killers" are all guns, and no matter how good the wolf knife method is, what is the use.
At this time, the "wolf warrior" Feng Wenxuan woke up from a deep sleep, and he asked Ben's intentions. Ben says he wants to "kill" someone.
Feng Advises Ben that killing doesn't solve all problems. Say it, he followed Up on Ah Wei's words and continued to tell the story of that year.
Feng Wenxuan's person in the "Seven Holy Temples" is his first love girlfriend "Hui Yi" (played by Li Ruotong).
After meeting HuiYi, Feng Wenxuan's memory also began to recover little by little. It turned out that he was a member of the "Gang of Seven Wolves" of the Bandits. Dissatisfied with the tyranny of his big brother, he fled the organization.
At the same time that Feng Wenxuan recovered his memory, the people and horses of the "Seven Wolves Gang" also rushed to the village and came to hunt down and kill the traitor Feng Wenxuan.
After a fight, Hui Yi died tragically at the hands of the "Seven Wolves Gang" gang. Although Feng Wenxuan avenged his lover, Hui Yi, who died, could not come back from the dead.
After telling the story, Feng Wenxuan advises Ben that killing does not solve all problems. Ben, however, doesn't think so.
It turns out that Ben is also a "professional killer". In order to inherit the name of "King of Killers", he specially came to assassinate the "Wolf Warrior" and wanted to replace it.
Looking at Feng Wenxuan, who was less than five steps away from him, Ben directly pulled out his pistol.
However, in the eyes of the "wolf warrior" Feng Wenxuan, the gun was fast outside the five steps, and the knife was fast within the five steps.
A flash of knife light flashed, and the pistol in Ben's hand was cut in two pieces. Feng Wenxuan and Ah Wei turned and left. The story of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" also ended here.
In the Hong Kong film market in the 1980s, the use of small costs, small productions, and the box office market to be small and broad were the market strategies used by film producers.
In this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior", Zhen Zidan also followed the traditional strategy of "fighting big with small". After all, as a newcomer director, he can't find a big investment.
Although it is a small production, "the sparrow is small and complete". In the script design of this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior", Zhen Zidan, who first directed the tube, also did a lot of detailed processing.
In terms of the way the story is presented, this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" imitates the 1994 Hollywood fantasy film "Night Interview with the Vampire".
Through the pursuit of a visitor, the memories of the two parties slowly unfold the story line. Use the two story lines of "past" and "present" to entangle two stories with a large time span, but do not make the story look messy.
In addition to the interesting way of presentation, this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" also spent a lot of careful thought on character design. For example, the heroine played by Li Ruotong is called "Huiyi", which is a harmonic sound of "memory", which hints at the development of the story after that.
Feng Wenxuan, who has lost his memory, finds "Hui Yi", and his memory is also restored little by little.
Of course, the script of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" can be polished so delicately, and it is not the credit of Zhen Zidan alone.
In the process of writing the film's script, Zhen Zidan sought help from Qian Jianghan, a senior in the film industry. This Qian Jianghan, since entering the film industry in the 1980s, has been active behind the scenes of Hong Kong films as an assistant director.
In Li Ming and Mei Yanfang's "Half Life", Lin Qingxia and Maggie Cheung's "Rolling Red Dust", Qian Jianghan participated in the behind-the-scenes production as an assistant director, which can be described as a film production experience. With his help, this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" also has many highlights in addition to the performance of the story.
In addition to the solid story script, the wonderful performances of the actors also add a lot of fun to this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior".
The footage of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" also focuses on "Feng Wenxuan" played by Zhen Zidan and "Ah Wei" played by Huang Zihua. The two are a funny and a character who can play, which greatly increases the entertainment and interest of the movie, while also taking into account the development of the story line and the stability of the story framework.
As an action movie, the wonderful fight scene is naturally the focus of the fans' attention.
In this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior", Zhen Zidan applied Xu Ke and Cheng Xiaodong's "fast-paced fighting + sharp shot editing" martial arts film fighting style to modern action movies.
The low-angle lens shooting method, coupled with fast, sharp editing, makes the action scenes of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" appear extremely intense and fierce.
At the end of the film, Lin Guobin and Zhen Zidan's fierce, hard-core fist and foot fight has also won the love of many action fans.
Although this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" has many advantages, it also presents some production shortcomings. For example, the film theme that focuses on the story of the feud and lacks the depth of thought makes this work a purely commercial film.
Commercial films should prove themselves with the market box office. However, the box office performance of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" after its release in 1997 was extremely dismal.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, with the popularity of "Jackie Chan action films", action Hong Kong films began to move from the small production mode of "indoor small scene fighting" to the road of large scenes and large productions.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hong Jinbao's "Oriental Condor", Wu Yusen's "Blood Street", and Jackie Chan's "Flying Eagle Project" gradually stabilized the action Hong Kong film market with large scenes and big productions. In 1992, "Police Story 3" and "Hot Hand Detective" unveiled the era of big-scale production of action Hong Kong films.
Under the exclusion of these large-scale productions, small-cost, small-scene action Hong Kong films began to lose the audience market rapidly. Unfortunately, this "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" is this kind of crowded small-cost, small-scene action Hong Kong film.
In the 1997 Hong Kong film market, Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao, Jet Li and others, with the advantages of large productions, were proud of it. "A Good Man" and "Wong Fei Hung's Lion of the West" also won more than 45 million Hong Kong dollars and more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars respectively.
Under the pressure of these action blockbusters. The Legend of the Wolf Warrior only grossed more than HK$800,000.
Yes, you heard it right, just over 800,000.
The same is the "wolf warrior", Zhen Zidan's "Legend of the Wolf Warrior" in the box office performance, and Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior" is not a star and a half, in front of the "Wolf Warrior 2", it is not worth mentioning.
The dismal box office results naturally did not allow Zhen Zidan to meet Wu Jing's good situation.
After the box office failure of "Legend of the Wolf Warrior", Zhen Zidan encountered the problem of "not being able to find investment". In order to prove his directing ability, Zhen Zidan took out all his belongings in 1998 and self-funded the film "Killing, Dancing".
However, the film's market performance is still dismal. Zhen Zidan's "Bullet Creation" film company also went out of business after "Kill, Dance".
However, there are ups and downs in life. Although in the position of director, Zhen Zidan's luck is very bad. However, on the road of the actor, Zhen Zidan still ushered in the moment of willow dark flowers.
2005's "Kill the Wolf" made Zhen Zidan's star-fighting career take off in situ, and the subsequent "Ip Man" series made his acting road to a higher peak.