In the early 1990s, Xu Ke set off a boom in Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts movies with "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu".
Released in April 1990, "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" received more than 16 million box office in Hong Kong, and although the second "Oriental Undefeated" starred in a big change of blood, Jet Li and Lin Qingxia were in the sky at that time, and finally collected 34 million Hong Kong dollars.
After the success of the "Smiling Pride" series, the market is full of followers. This was the chaos of the Hong Kong film market at that time, and whoever was hot immediately imitated whom, so that by 1993, everyone was competing to make martial arts, and more than 50 martial arts movies were released throughout the year.
Due to the popularity of Xu Ke's "Smiling Proud jianghu" trilogy in the Taiwan market, Taiwanese film dealers at that time also had hot eyes and began to imitate the trend, trying their best to rub the gimmick of the movie version of "Smiling Proud of jianghu".
After the release of "Undefeated in the East" in 1992, Wang Yingxiang, the owner of Taiwan's Longxiang Pictures, invested in a Hong Kong-made martial arts film "Legend of the Heroine", which was also known in the mainland as "The Lonely Nine Swords of the Heavenly Sword".
Although the film has nothing to do with Jin Yong's novel, the sword method used by the protagonist in the film is indeed called "Lonely Nine Swords", which is obviously deliberately done by the filmmakers in order to rub the heat of "Laughing Proud of the Jianghu".
However, after the film was released that year, both Hong Kong and Taiwan failed at the box office, and Hong Kong was hastily released in only one week, and finally grossed more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars, becoming a failure in many Hong Kong martial arts films in 1992. On the contrary, the film was later replayed on television in the mainland, becoming a martial arts classic in the memory of many viewers.
The forgotten Hong Kong film in this issue, let's talk about this martial arts movie from 30 years ago.
Legend of the Lady
Also known as: "Heavenly Sword Absolute Sword: The Lonely Nine Swords"
Zen of Sword
The film was released in 1992 and produced by Taiwan's Long Xiang Pictures.
The Western Film Studios on the mainland also participated in the co-production, but it is basically a Taiwan-funded Hong Kong film.
At the end of the 1980s, Taiwan's local film industry was in a slump, so that 80% of the films released in Taiwanese cinemas at that time were Hong Kong films, and over time, Taiwanese distributors also felt that it was better to oppose customers than to compete for the distribution rights of Hong Kong films.
As a result, many Taiwanese film companies have set up companies in Hong Kong, and cooperated with Hong Kong film manufacturers and production companies to invest in Hong Kong films, which can not only stabilize the demand for Taiwanese cinema films, but also sell them to Southeast Asia and the mainland in the name of Hong Kong films.
This trend intensified in the early 1990s, so that the most important investor in the Hong Kong film industry at that time was the "eight major businessmen" from Taiwan, and the "eight major film companies" speculated the value of Hong Kong films to the highest point, and also buried the hidden worries of bubbles.
The famous director Wang Jing once said that the decline of Hong Kong films in the 1990s began with the collapse of the Taiwanese market.
Back to the main topic, in the early 1990s, "Taiwan-funded Hong Kong films" were the most popular to make martial arts films, and they were keen to invite Hong Kong and Taiwan popular stars, such as "The New Meteor Butterfly Sword" starring Yang Ziqiong, Wang Zuxian, Liang Chaowei and Zhen Zidan, "Lunwen Shu Old Point Liu Xiankai" starring Aaron Kwok, Zhou Huimin and Zhang Weijian, etc., although they are all Hong Kong teams, they are essentially Taiwan-funded Hong Kong films.
This "Legend of the Heroine" is no exception, the starring lineup is almost all from Hong Kong, the female protagonist is Li Jiaxin, the male protagonist Liu Ximing was born in the TVB artist training class, in the early 1990s, he was praised by radio vision, and Lin Wenlong, Chen Jiahui, Zhang Weijian and called the son of the sun, was an artist with the development of song and film at that time.
In terms of supporting roles, there are gold medal playing women Yang Lijing and Hui Yinghong to help, and villain professional Li Zixiong and old drama bone Liu Xun also participate in the role.
The screenwriter of the film is Li Mincai, who later collaborated with Xu Ke on the film "The Legend of Shushan", director Yu Mingsheng was a famous martial arts drama director in Hong Kong, filmed martial arts dramas such as "Iron Blood Daqimen" and "Zhongshentong Wang Chongyang", and later filmed classic dramas "Magic Mobile Phone" and "Baolian Lantern" in the mainland, which is his first independent director's film work.
The story of the film is set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, which is less involved in Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films, and the plot is somewhat similar to the martial arts version of Romeo and Juliet, with Li Jiaxin and Liu Ximing playing the fallen princesses and fallen princes of two countries that were once hostile.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the kingdoms were divided and wars were frequent.
The heroine played by Li Jiaxin is a beautiful princess of the fallen country, who was born in the Later Tang Dynasty. Due to the chaos of the war, Later Tang was destroyed by Later Jin, and before his death, the Later Tang Emperor gave a jade reed containing treasure secrets to his daughter and let her escape under the leadership of the guards.
After the Later Tang Kingdom, the princess took the jade and went to the end of the world in anticipation of the restoration of the country. Following the princess to escape, they are escorted by a couple of Later Tang warriors, the martial arts general Liu Junxiong (Li Zixiong) and Xiao Yong's wife Sai Xiaojing (Yang Lijing).
Unexpectedly, the ambitious Yan Guoshi (Liu Xun) sent people to hunt down and kill the fleeing princess in order to obtain the treasure. In the melee, the general Liu Ruoxiong escaped to cover the princess, but was captured by the Yan Guoshi division, and only Liu's wife Sai Xiaojing took the princess to escape alone.
After the princess fell into distress, she accidentally separated from Sai Xiaojing and fled into a nearby valley in a hurry.
Unexpectedly, the inhabitants of the valley were actually the remnants of the former Xiahou Kingdom, and the Xiahou Kingdom was destroyed by the Later Tang. Now leading the people of Xiahou Guo in the valley is xiahou yao (Liu Ximing), the prince of the fallen country, who has been indoctrinated by his aunt since he was a child with the desire to restore the country, asking him to remember the revenge of the fall of the country.
In order to restore the great cause of the country, the aunt let Xiahou Yao practice the most powerful sword technique in the world day and night, the Lone Nine Swords, but this sword technique was too fierce and overbearing, and the sword practitioners needed absolute love and righteousness. In order to train Xiahou Yao, the aunt even let him practice his sword with his life.
In the valley, Xiahou Yao met the princess who was in distress, but did not know the identity of the other party. Then the usual routine in martial arts films was staged, and the princess dressed as a man accidentally fell into the water, revealing a woman's face, and was surprised by the male protagonist.
Then, the heroine was so coincidentally bitten by a poisonous snake, the male protagonist risked taking drugs for the heroine, the hero saved the United States at the same time, but also let the two have skin kisses, from then on Xiahou Yao had a good feeling for the princess.
Xiahou Yao rescued the princess back to his tree house, but was unexpectedly discovered by his aunt and wanted to kill the princess, but fortunately the escort Sai Xiaojing arrived and saved the princess from Xiahou Valley.
Later, the princess and Sai Xiaojing met the general Liu Ruoxiong, who claimed to have escaped from the hands of the Yan Guoshi, but unexpectedly, Liu Ruoxiong actually took advantage of the princess's rest and quietly stole the jade.
It turned out that Liu Ruoxiong was greedy for life and afraid of death, succumbed to the coercion and temptation of Yan Guoshi, and was finally sentenced to Later Tang and stole the princess Yu zhen. Fortunately, the princess is not stupid and sweet, and has long been prepared to steal the beam for the pillar with a fake jade reed.
Afterwards, Sai Xiaojing was not ashamed of her husband's actions, and broke off with Liu Ruoxiong, she decided to protect the princess alone to find the Later Tang God of War general who was retreating in the mountains, hoping to protect the princess with the help of the God of War's Gaishi martial arts, and find the treasure of the Jade Zhen and then try to restore the country.
On the other hand, after the princess left the valley, Xiahou Yao was trapped by love, neglected to learn martial arts, and the lone nine swords and sword method retreated.
In order to force Xiahou Yao to practice her sword, her aunt captured the princess back into the valley. But Xiahou Yao was kind in nature and did not want to be difficult for others, so he let the princess go privately, and the princess was touched by the other party's true feelings, leaving the jade as a reward, letting the other party find treasure and help the Xiahou clan restore the country.
At this time, the Yan Guoguo Division led troops into the valley to brutally kill the residents of the Xiahou Clan, fortunately, the female escort Sai Xiaojing invited the General of the God of War who had retreated to the jianghu and rushed to the valley to meet the princess, and under the protection of the General of the God of War, successfully repelled the Yan Guoshi Division.
Xiahou Yao was shocked to learn the true identity of the princess, remembered the feud between Later Tang and Xiahou Guo, and believed that the princess was deliberately concealing, mistakenly believing that her feelings were deceived.
The blow of lost love, coupled with the brainwashing of his aunt on the side, made Xiahou Tang decide to abandon his love and concentrate on practicing his sword in grief and anger. And the aunt even sacrificed her life to let Xiahou Tang test the sword, a series of blows, so that Xiahou Tang finally practiced the lonely nine swords of absolute love and righteousness.
At this time, the princess, under the escort of the God of War, came to the river to save the envoy, hoping that the other party would help her restore the country. Unexpectedly, Jiedushi actually colluded with Liu Ruoxiong, and also said that Liu Ruoxiong had changed his past and came to greet the princess together.
But in fact, Jiedushi was ambitious and coveted the jade treasure in the hands of the princess. In order to get the secret behind the jade pipe, Jiedushi forced the God of War General to tell the secret of the jade spoon with poisonous wine, but the God of War General preferred to die.
After the tragic death of the God of War, the princess saw through the conspiracy between Jiedushi and Liu Ruoxiong, and threw out a fake jade reed, causing the two to kill each other.
At the moment of the great armageddon, the Yan Guoshi came out to snatch the jade reed in the hands of the princess, and at this time, Xiahou Tang also came to seek revenge on the princess, but because the Xiahou clan was killed by the Yan Guoshi, Xiahou Tang and the Yan Guoshi took the lead in a scuffle.
At this time, Xiahou Yao's martial arts skills were great, and he killed the Yan Guoguo Division with the most domineering Lone Nine Swords.
The fight between the two was quite mysterious, Yan Guoguoshi's trick "Innate Wuji Mixed Element Unity", basically crazy plus stunts, Xiahou Yao's killing move first split the sword in his hand into nine, and finally the sword spewed flames, and finally killed the Yan Guoguoshi.
After the great battle, Xiahou Tang pursued the princess with a sword and came to a grassy field.
The princess was determined to face this feud alone, and when Xiahou Tang stabbed her with her sword, the princess did not dodge, and finally stained the sword with blood.
The princess wanted to use her life to resolve this vendetta, Xiahou Tang remembered the past with the princess, and finally realized that he chose to put down the sword in his hand, and threw the jade and sword off the cliff with the princess, choosing to live in seclusion together.
The enmity between the rivers and lakes and the great cause of restoring the country have since disappeared.
In terms of story alone, "Legend of the Heroine" in the same period of Taiwanese martial arts films, belongs to the completion of the degree of completion is still a passing work.
Although the plot story of the film is tacky, it is quite smooth and complete, and compared with the Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films that pay too much attention to entertainment in the same period, the tone of the story of this film is serious and tragic, involving a lot of plots of conspiracy betrayal and power disputes, which can see the ambition of the choreographer and is not willing to shoot a pure entertainment film.
The film seems to be deeply influenced by Japanese period dramas, the set art and scene scheduling have a strong sense of design, the cinematography is particularly serious, and the title of the film in Taiwan is called "New Heroine", fans familiar with martial arts films will know at a glance, the film is a tribute to the martial arts master Hu Jinquan's "Heroine".
Only in terms of plot, this film and Hu Jinquan's film have nothing to do with it, the "chivalrous woman" in the title is obviously irrelevant to the heroine played by Li Jiaxin, after all, the human setting does not highlight the "chivalrous" atmosphere, and if it is a female general played by Yang Lijing, her role in the movie is really limited, and the role of the role in the plot is not large, but it has contributed a few cost-effective and wonderful fight scenes.
It is worth mentioning that the film's mainland title "Heavenly Sword Absolute Sword" is actually from Wolongsheng's martial arts novel, but this film has nothing to do with Wolongsheng's original work, and the lonely nine swords played by Liu Ximing in the film can still be regarded as "Heavenly Sword", but the question is where is the absolute knife?
Looking at the whole film, the only character who uses a knife is actually a supporting role, Liu Ruoxiong.
Could it be that because he was treacherous and his wife broke with him, he was called: the sword?
All in all, this film is actually dragged down by the script, the story is too cheesy, and limited by the production, although the film has a national vendetta to do the background board, but in fact, the story pattern made is very small, but the end of the film borrowed the poem left by the heroine, highlighting the film's martial arts romantic temperament:
Qingyin is secular, and the dispute is over for a few hours. Who can break the fame and fortune, too vain to travel!