In the Early 1990s, martial arts films were all the rage. The birth of works such as "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" and "New Dragon Gate Inn" has pushed this "martial arts boom" to the peak.
Under the influence of the film market, martial arts works have also entered the TV screen and become the "main theme" of Hong Kong dramas in the 90s.
In 1993, Jiang David's version of the Nine Yin True Classics, zhu Yin's version of "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter" in 1994, the Gu Tianle version of "The Hero of the Divine Eagle" in 1995, the Lu Songxian version of "Smiling Proud of the Rivers and Lakes" in 1996, the Huang Rihua version of "Tianlong Babu" in 1997, and the Chen Xiaochun version of "Deer Dingji" in 1998. These classic martial arts Hong Kong dramas have become the memories of a generation.
In 1993, Li Rengang used a "Nine Yin True Classic" to set off a boom in TVB's martial arts Hong Kong dramas. After making a name for himself with the drama, Li Rengang chose to enter the film industry in 1994, and also wrote and directed a martial arts work with an alternative style - "The Love of the 94 One-Armed Knife", also known as "Slaying the Tiger and Slaying the Dragon".
As Li Rengang's film debut, "94 One-Armed Knife Love" was dismal at the box office after its release, and the reputation was also polarized, with mixed praise and criticism. Although it suffered setbacks in the box office market, the film won Li Rengang's favor with Xu Ke.
After "94 One-Armed Knife Love", Li Rengang, with the support of Xu Ke, also created an action classic for Jet Li. Today we will talk about Li Rengang's "94 One-Armed Knife Love" to see why this work can attract Xu Ke, and which classic Li Rengang has cooperated with Jet Li.
<h3 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Li Rengang's martial arts innovation</h3>
In 1992, the box office sales of films such as "Deer DingJi", "The Undefeated East of the Smiling River and Lake", and "New Dragon Gate Inn" ushered in a big explosion of martial arts film creation in the Hong Kong film market in 1993.
The flooding of the market for film creation themes has also caused many martial arts films to suffer setbacks in the box office market in 1993, including many works such as "A Knife In the City" and "The Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slayer". After 1993, the Hong Kong martial arts film market began to decline.
In 1994, in the face of the declining market environment, Li Rengang, who entered the film world, decided to innovate the form of martial arts films to stimulate the recovery of the martial arts film market. So in this year, he filmed "94 One-Armed Knife Love".
In this "94 One-Armed Knife Love", Li Rengang has a unique idea, so that the martial arts film is separated from the color of ancient costumes, and the background of the story is moved to the Republic of China period.
The film tells the story of the Republic of China period, the northeast wrong sword hall master, there are three apprentices: Bai Fuguo (played by Jiang David), Wang Jingguo (played by Xu Shaoqiang), Wu Anguo (played by Liu Songren). The second disciple, Wang Jingguo, was bent on inheriting the position of master of the church, while the third disciple, Wu Anguo, had long been devoted to the master's daughter.
However, the master entrusted his daughter and the position of master of the church to the eldest disciple Bai Fuguo.
When Bai Fuguo succeeded to the throne of the lord, Wang Jingguo was dissatisfied and challenged his brother. After a duel, Wang Jingguo lost to the master brother and left the Wrong Sword Hall.
After the defeat, Wang Jingguo went to Japan, abandoned his sword and joined the sword, and combined his sword technique with the Oriental sword method. After the sword technique became a faction of its own, he established the "One Knife Society" and returned to the northeast to duel with Bai Fuguo, intending to shame himself.
Before the duel, Wang and Bai made a life-and-death situation of "the loser loses his life". After a fierce fight, Wang Jingguo won, but he did not have the master brother, but instead snatched the brother's son who was less than one year old.
Wang Jingguo named the child "Wang Ning" and adopted him as a righteous son. In the First Knife Society, Wang Ning grew up with Wang Jingguo's daughter Xiaolian, which can be described as a green plum bamboo horse.
As an adult, Wang Jingguo told Wang Ning that his biological father had been killed by Bai Fuguo, the owner of the wrong sword hall, and asked him to go to the northeast to avenge himself. Wang Ning went to the Northeast Wrong Sword Hall to challenge Bai Fuguo. Bai Fuguo knew that Wang Ning was his son, so he tolerated everything in the duel, and died under Wang Ning's sword.
After Bai Fuguo's death, Wang Ning knew the truth of the matter. So he returned to the Knife Society and assassinated his righteous father. As a result, his skills were inferior to those of others, but fortunately he was saved by Xiaolian and retreated with his whole body.
Xiaolian hopes that Wang Ning will give up his hatred, let his father go, and go away with himself, but Wang Ning is difficult to let go of hatred.
In the end, Wang Ning returned to the Knife Society, dueled with Wang Jingguo, and stabbed Wang Jingguo's eyes. Thinking of Xiao Lian's love and the grace of many years of nurturing, Wang Ning did not have the life of Wang Jingguo, but instead cut off an arm, repaid the grace of many years of nurturing, and then went away.
Wang Ning wanted to go to Xiaolian and go away together, but Xiaolian did not know where to go. Finally, Wang Ning opened the record player that Xiaolian gave him, and along with Cai Qin's "Lover's Tears", the story of "The Love of the 94 One-Armed Knife" also slowly came to an end.
<h3 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the advantages and disadvantages coexist, but it is favored by Xu Ke</h3>
Li Rengang's "94 One-Armed Knife Love" can be said to be a work with outstanding advantages and outstanding shortcomings.
First of all, let's talk about the shortcomings, the biggest shortcoming of the film, is the plot.
The story line of the film is handled very roughly, and the story line of the third disciple Wu Anguo was laid for a long time at the beginning of the movie, but in the middle of the movie, Wu Anguo died in a confused way. The emotional line of Wang Ning, Xiaolian and Ajie also carried out a lot of preparation at the beginning, but in the end it was also not resolved.
Listening to the title of the film, many viewers will realize that this "94 One-Armed Knife Love" is rubbing the heat of the classic martial arts film "One-Armed Knife". However, in order to echo the theme of "one-armed knife", the director's handling of the bridge section in which the male protagonist forcibly broke his arm at the end has also become a lightning point in the film.
Having said the shortcomings, let's talk about the advantages of "94 One-Armed Knife Love".
The innovative expression of martial arts in the Republic of China, the aesthetic set style, and the freehand lens language, the excellent performance of these aspects, have made this "94 One-Armed Knife Love" won the praise of many martial arts fans.
In this "94 One-Armed Knife Love", director Li Rengang focuses on the art scene design of the film. The snow duel between Wang Jingguo and Bai Fuguo, and Wang Ning's snow sacrifice knife at Anshan Railway Station, these freehand shots have impressed many viewers.
Jiang David, Xu Shaoqiang, and Liu Songren, who starred in the film as "three brothers of the wrong sword cousin", are all martial arts professionals who have come all the way from the Era of Shaw's Martial Arts Films.
The chivalrous temperament cultivated by the actors for many years of screen performance, coupled with the aesthetic film set, makes the film's "martial arts sense of freehand" extremely rich.
Not only is the art set excellent, but the lens application of the film is also very good.
In 1994, Wong Kar-wai's "Chongqing Forest", with the two technical essentials of "following photography" and "drawing needles", captured the hearts of many literary and artistic young people. Also in 1994 film works, this "94 One-Armed Knife Love" is not inferior to "Chongqing Forest" on top of the use of film lenses.
"94 One-Armed Knife Love"
Chongqing Forest
It is worth mentioning that in 1994, Li Rengang rubbed the IP heat of "One-Armed Knife" and filmed this "94 One-Armed Knife Love". And this year, Xu Ke also planned to remake "One-Armed Knife" and created the classic movie "Knife".
"94 One-Armed Knife Love" was released for 7 days in 1994 and won 760,000 Hong Kong dollars. Tsui Ke's "Knife" was released for 25 days in 1995 and earned more than 3.3 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office.
The same are innovative attempts at martial arts films, and they have also suffered box office setbacks. The same experience and similar feelings resonated between Xu Ke and Li Rengang.
After "94 One-Armed Knife Love", Li Rengang was recruited by Xu Ke to join Xu Ke's "Film Studio" and help Xu Ke make the last five parts of the "Huang Feihong" series: The Eight Heavenly Kings, Shaolin Stories, Headless Generals, Xinhai Revolution, and the Ideal Era into the TV series "The New Biography of Huang Feihong".
Later, Under the arrangement of Xu Ke, Li Rengang served as the director of Jet Li's "Black Man".
<h3 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > classic of action collaboration with Jet Li</h3>
In "The Love of the 94 One-Armed Knife", Li Rengang's excellent control of art design is deeply loved by Xu Ke. In 1996, with the support of Xu Ke, director Li Rengang shot his second film work", Black Man.
In this "Black Man", Li Rengang also maintained his strengths and weaknesses in "94 One-Armed Knife Love".
In terms of advantages, Li Rengang once again played his own art design and lens use expertise. The light blue filter and dim lighting create a strong "sci-fi apocalyptic feeling" for the film. Jet Li's fight performance and Yuan Heping's action design also added a lot of highlights to the film.
The disadvantage is that the story plot is not delicate enough. In this "Black Man", because Xu Ke participated in the work of the screenwriter, the story is no longer as heavy as "94 One-Armed Knife Love".
However, in this "Black Man", the film initially laid a lot of preparation for the two story lines of Jet Li and Liu Qingyun, one bright and one dark, and then the plot also embarked on the "double male mode", but in the second half of the movie, Liu Qingyun's story line was suddenly weakened, and finally became Jet Li's one-man show.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the problems in the handling of the plot, the fans' evaluation of this "Black Man" is far less than that of "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard", "Letter to Daddy", "Rats and Dragons" and other works.
After "The Love of the 94 One-Armed Knife" and "Black Man", Li Rengang has successively created film works such as "Ah Hu", "Three Kingdoms See Dragon Unloading Armor", "Jinyi Wei" and so on.
The emphasis on art design and neglect of the story plot have also become the film style of director Li Rengang. Looking at the action theme works directed by Li Rengang, it seems that the most outstanding ones are "94 One-Armed Knife Love" and "Black Man".