In the past two days, the movie "Master", starring Liao Fan and directed by Xu Haofeng, silently used word of mouth to brush the screen in the circle of friends.
Although it hit the screening of the big movie "Never Expected" at the same time, and the premiere of the blockbuster "Ghost Blowing Lights: Finding the Dragon Recipe" at the end of the year, the praise of "Master" was still like a spring rain "sneaking into the night with the wind".
In the Douban audience scored by the poisonous tongue, it got such a score:
Think 8.3 is not too high?
Notice this detail in the rating again:
As well as the word of mouth of the 4 stars in the popular reviews, including film critics and general audiences in the industry:
Regarding "Master", there are many stories that can be said, such as the historical origin of Tianjin Wulin, such as the popular science knowledge of weapons in the film. BJvariety feels that these stories are indeed important, but they are not the subject of today.
"Master" was released, do you remember the domestic martial arts films you watched over the years? If you, like Yi Xuanjun, have been evoked by this work with a lot of memories, you may wish to listen to the exclusive memories of veteran martial arts fan Zhou Nanyan -
1
The Golden Age of Martial Arts Films
To say that "Master" is the best domestic martial arts film in recent times, no one should be too opposed.
Interestingly, there is a special scene in "Master", master Chen Zhi's martial arts hall is opened, and everyone sits together to watch "Burning Red Lotus Temple".
"Burning the Red Lotus Temple"
At the end of "Master", after Chen Zhi avenged his apprentice, he took the train south alone, and on the way opened the book "The Legend of the Swordsman of Shushan Mountain", which condensed a blood flower of the apprentice.
Many viewers can see that the appearance of these two clips in the movie is director Xu Haofeng's tribute to the classic martial arts film.
What Yi Xijun (ID: bjvariety) wants to say is that this rare domestic martial arts masterpiece really reminds us of the domestic martial arts films that have tended to be silent for so many years. Whether it is the "post-60s", "post-70s", "post-80s" and "post-90s", everyone must remember the glorious era of Chinese martial arts films in those years.
Let's start with a little story.
In the late 1980s, when urban and rural cinemas were very popular, every Spring Festival was even more crazy. In a village in Hunan, a 9-year-old boy picked up empty wine bottles to sell for money, bought a pass from the first day of the Chinese New Year to the fifteenth day of the first month, and could spend every day in the theater converted into a village auditorium to watch movies. The simple and crude auditorium is his Cinema Paradiso.
One year, on the third day of the first lunar month, the little boy and the adult went to his uncle's house to visit relatives. Early the next morning, when the adults were not ready to go home, the little boy could not resist, and one of them hurriedly bid farewell and rushed back to watch the afternoon movie. He walked more than fifty miles, and finally arrived at the township cinema at noon and saw a Japanese martial arts action film "Vengeance of the Iron Fist". The little boy is particularly obsessed with martial arts films, as long as he hears the words "knife", "sword", "fist" and "foot" in the title, he tries to see it. Revenge is the eternal theme of martial arts films.
In those years, whenever in the movie screening, the little boy sat on the podium of the auditorium to watch, and there was often a commotion under the stage, and the young men competed for the wind and spirit, and played a real version of martial arts for a girl.
"North and South Shaolin", "Southern Fist King", "The First Sword in the World", "Invincible Mandarin Duck Leg", "Ranger Black Butterfly", "Chivalrous Thirteen Sisters", "Royal Palace Knifeman", "Sinister Jianghu Runaway Sword", etc., this kind of mainland martial arts films in the 1980s, most of today seem to have seemed very silly, the martial arts dramas in the movie are always humming and playing for half a day, basically staying in the drama and martial arts routines of martial arts schools. But at that time, these martial arts films were the love of young boys.
Among the martial arts action films of the 1980s, there were a few films that stood out in style and impressed the little boys. For example, "Jianghu Raiders", "Shanghai 1937", "Across the River", the male protagonist in it is dying, always have to take off his jacket "pan intestine war", the scene of death is thrilling.
The fight scenes in martial arts films such as "Yellow River Hero" and "Eagle Claw Iron Cloth Shirt" are more real and good-looking, far better than ordinary mainland martial arts films. For example, the picture of two eggs in "Eagle Claw Iron Cloth Shirt" has become a lingering bad taste impression in many people's childhood.
Classic picture of crushing an egg
Many years later, the little boy learned that the director of "Jianghu Raiders" and "Great Shanghai 1937" was Zhang Che, and the director of "Yellow River Hero" and "Shaolin Temple" was Zhang Xinyan. They were the first Hong Kong directors to go north to the mainland to shoot films, and they made the best martial arts films in the mainland in the 1980s.
2
Shaw's three major directors
The "Burning Red Lotus Temple" mentioned in "Master" can really be regarded as the originator of domestic costume martial arts films.
"Burning Red Lotus Temple" originated in old Shanghai and was once popular after being made into a series of martial arts films. However, this kind of sword fairy and strange martial arts films naturally belonged to the prohibited objects after the founding of New China, and martial arts films disappeared in the mainland for many years, until the 1980s, when they reconnected with the tradition.
Some of the original shanghai film dealers went south to Hong Kong to carry forward martial arts films. At this time, the sword immortal martial arts films have passed, and the Huang Feihong series of martial arts films has risen, as many as nearly 100 in the 50s, more than the number of episodes in 007.
"Huang Feihong" series
The emergence of Hong Kong's new martial arts films depends on shaw's three major directors, of which Zhang Cheju is the most powerful. Zhang Che made good friends with Chiang Ching-kuo in his early years, had political ambitions, but was not politically satisfactory, and eventually achieved success in movies, just as the so-called lost East Corner and Harvest Mulberry Yu. Zhang Che's martial arts films absorb a large number of elements of Japanese samurai films and gangster films, creating a new school of martial arts films. Japanese samurai films have been famous in the world as early as the 1950s, and there have been major directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Kihachi Okamoto, and Heroes of Gosha, and samurai films such as "Seven Samurai", "Tsubaki Sanshiro" and "Stick with Heart" have had a great influence on Hong Kong films. Zhang Che's early "Three Heroes of border city" borrowed from the "Three Horses of the Five Heroes" from the character plot.
"One-Armed Knife"
Zhang Che's "One-Armed Knife" was released in 1967, and the screenwriter is Ni Kuang, a landmark work of martial arts films. As long as you see the two names of Zhang Che and Ni Kuang, basically the film will not be bad. Zhang Che is of course most famous for the aesthetics of masculine violence, the film's martial arts action is hard bridge hard horse, knifemen are mostly dressed in white, shirtless, blood splashing, after the knife is presented in slow motion, there is a solemn face of death. Zhang Che has made many films, and the male protagonists have many batches, and Wang Yu, Dillon, and Jiang David are also the three most well-known faces.
Who could have imagined that dillon, who was heroic and sassy at that time, would eventually become the old emperor in "Huan Zhu Ge Ge 3".
Film critic Li Xiaofei believes that the "masculine aesthetics" of Zhang Che's heroic death are not only related to the flood of bitter love dramas in the Hong Kong film industry at that time, but also related to his life experience of experiencing eight years of resistance. Li Xiaofei said that the heroes in Zhang Che's films are not simply Chinese chivalrous, "may be more influenced by Japanese films, including the chivalrous characters he portrays are not much like traditional Chinese martial arts, more like Japanese samurai and Bushido's death-defying." ”
The violent aesthetics and male friendship of Zhang Che's martial arts films had a great influence on his disciple Wu Yusen. Like the friendship between Dillon and Jiang David in "The New One-Armed Knife", Jiang David suffered a serious setback in the scenery, lost an arm, and finally went to the enemy's den alone to avenge his friend. "I'm going to die with him!" In the film, Jiang David angrily shouted this line, which undoubtedly shocked the audience at that time. This kind of uninhibited, depressing and explosive, its plot and character image are completely the precursor of "The True Colors of Heroes". As for Xu Ke's "Broken Knife", Chen Kexin's "Letter of Submission", and Li Rengang's "The Love of the 94 One-Armed Knife", it is a direct tribute to Zhang Che.
"94 One-Armed Knife Love"
Chu Yuan, another major director of Shao's martial arts films, is most famous for adapting Gu Long's novels, the screenwriter is also Ni Kuang, and the royal male protagonists include Dillon, Yue Hua, Luo Lie, Er Dongsheng and others. Chu Yuan's martial arts films win in the wonders of strange feelings, pavilions, flowers and trees are exquisite, the set is like smoke and fog, and the plot is suspenseful and strange.
"Heavenly Bright Moon Knife"
Meteor Butterfly Sword
"Tianya Mingyue Knife", "Meteor Butterfly Sword", "Before and After the Decisive Battle" are its masterpieces, Dillon version of Fu Hongxue's shawl and shoulder knife, directly imitating Eastwood's cowboy gunner style in the Western "Dart Trilogy". "Are you afraid of being lonely?" "I'm afraid. But I'm used to it. A lonely man, a knife. No friends, no love. From dusk to night, from the cape to the end of the world. "Lines like this in "The Bright Moon Knife at the End of the World" can be described as deeply rooted in the charm of Gu Long's novels.
The martial arts films made by Zhang Che and Chu Yuan in Shaw were all filmed in the film and television base, and the location of the set was limited, coupled with the large and fast number of films, there was no shortage of rough works. The set location and set-up often make people feel familiar in different films. For example, the long wooden bridge in which Jiang David staged a hundred-man slash in "The New One-Armed Knife" also appeared in "Meteor Butterfly Sword", and the tower in "Bodyguard" appeared repeatedly in many films. Shaw's set restrictions and how fast and efficient the shooting method is undoubtedly contrary to another martial arts film director, Hu Jinquan.
《Dragon Gate Inn》
After the first amazing work" "The Drunken Man", Hu Jinquan and Shaw broke up in Taiwan. The classic martial arts film "Dragon Gate Inn" is hu Jinquan's box office peak, and since then the work has repeatedly failed in the market. His martial arts films had a great influence on later generations, and the most enjoyable thing is that he created a dramatic conflict of characters in small spaces such as inns and restaurants. Xu Ke's "New Dragon Gate Inn" and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" both have traces of direct adaptations or imitations of Hu Jinquan's films.
Hu Jinquan elevated the realm of martial arts films, and completely pursued ethereal Zen in the later stages, such as the scholar and heroine in "Chivalrous Woman", as well as the senior monk who finally appeared, representing the collision and integration of the three cultures of Confucianism. Many of the pictures in the film are frozen, which is the artistic conception of Chinese poetry and painting. In other martial arts films, the characters always fly over the wall, while the chivalrous guests in Hu Jinquan's films often walk in the landscape and wilderness. In fact, Hou Xiaoxian's "Assassin Nie Yinniang" inherited this feature, and Nie Yinniang often walked alone in the mountains.
"Chivalrous Girl" and "Nie Yinniang"
Filming is slow, pursuing artistic conception, and adhering to independent creation, Hu Jinquan often ignores the market, the production cost is out of control and the shooting is prolonged, the investment recovery is indefinite, and the boss is deadlocked. Hu Jinquan's film road is lonely and difficult, the number of works is very small, and in his later years, he is even more sloppy, and eventually dies due to the failure of surgery. Zhang Che once excused him, and also pointed out that "if Hu Jinquan is born decades later, he can make films on the mainland, or have foreign financial support, and his achievements should not stop there." In the view of film critic Wei Junzi, "Throughout Hu Jinquan's life, even though the director's work is the peak of his career, it is a pity that there has always been a nameless and unprofitable, full of thorns." He believes that Hu Jinquan has endured far more suffering than achievements and honors because of the film, and all of this has a lot to do with his gentlemanly temperament of being polite and light-hearted!
In addition to the three major directors Zhang Che, Chu Yuan and Hu Jinquan, martial arts instructor Liu Jialiang is also an unavoidable figure in the history of martial arts films. Liu Jialiang came from a martial arts family and was zhang che's martial arts instructor, and later broke away from Zhang Che's self-reliance portal and made a series of martial arts films based on martial arts. "Shen Da", "Shaolin Thirty-Six Rooms", "Eighteen Martial Arts" and other films are his representative works, which integrate the martial arts and traditional martial arts in the drama to form their own hardcore martial arts style. Since then, martial arts instructors Yuan Heping, Hong Jinbao and others have become famous for martial arts, continuing Liu Jialiang's path.
3
New martial arts, Hong Kong films co-production
As a fan of martial arts films in the mainland, the real glimpse of Shaw's martial arts films is actually late after the new century.
After Shaw sold the rights to Tianying Entertainment, he could watch the martial arts films of that year at will on the Internet. The first Hong Kong martial arts films that mainland audiences saw almost synchronously were actually more martial arts films from the 1980s and 1990s, and the martial arts films of Xu Ke, Cheng Xiaodong and others were popular among young people in small towns through video halls.
Butterfly Change
At the end of the 1970s, Hong Kong martial arts films gradually became rigid in terms of content and form, blindly thinking about martial arts, and it was difficult to play new ideas. The rise of Hong Kong New Wave cinema at this time, Tsui Ke's "Butterfly Change" and Tam Ka Ming's "Famous Sword" injected new elements into martial arts films. The classic of "Butterfly Change" is not in martial arts, but in the subversion of traditional martial arts, Xu Ke introduced elements from Japanese and American films, created a new type of chivalrous image with both Western gunners and Japanese ninja characteristics, and used a scholar who did not understand martial arts at all as the protagonist, breaking through the pattern of traditional martial arts films. The film also contains many elements of Xu Ke's later martial arts films. Tam Kar-ming is Wong Kar-wai's master, and Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil and West Poison" also inherits the former's aesthetic style.
Xu Ke and Hu Jinquan's version of "Smiling Proud of the Rivers and Lakes"
In 1990, Xu Ke invited Hu Jinquan to co-shoot "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu", which triggered a new generation of martial arts movies. After that, Xu Ke's "Huang Feihong" series went beyond the scope of martial arts films, sending deep thinking about the fate of the national nation, far beyond the heavy strength of the martial arts films before and after. During that period, the climax of Hong Kong martial arts films was repeated, such as "Undefeated in the East", "New Dragon Gate Inn", "East Evil and West Poison" and other famous works emerged in an endless stream, and the audience feasted their eyes.
Most of the well-known Hong Kong films also come from this period.
"East Evil West Poison"
"Undefeated in the East"
《New Dragon Gate Inn》
But with the decline of Hong Kong cinema as a whole, martial arts films fell silent again after 1994. After entering the new century, co-production martial arts films have appeared many times, but they have not formed a trend. Among them, there are documentary style martial arts such as "Seven Swords", as well as Zhen Zidan's version of the "Ip Man" series, "Sword Rain" directed by Su Zhaobin, Chen Kexin's "Wuxia" testing the water, Lu Yang's "Embroidered Spring Knife", and li An, Wong Kar-wai and Hou Xiaoxian's attempts to combine martial arts with art films.
Ip Man
"Embroidered Spring Knife"
"Di Renjie's Heavenly Empire"
However, in recent years, the vast majority of martial arts films are no longer pure martial arts, or revere technical spectacles, borrowing from Hollywood visual models, or the spirit of martial arts has dissipated, and Xu Ke's own "Di Renjie" series is typical.
Sima Qian, in the "Chronicle of the Rangers", has long said the characteristics of "chivalrous warriors": "Although the current rangers do not do justice in their deeds, they will believe their words, their deeds will bear fruit, their promises will be fulfilled, they will not love their bodies, and they will go to the doom of the soldiers." Having survived and died, but not to be ashamed of its ability, and to be ashamed of its virtue, there are enough people to cover. ”
It is not difficult for us to find that in recent years of martial arts films, traditional chivalry has gradually passed away, Confucian and Ink culture is indifferent, and even values are confused. Xu Haofeng's "Master" tries to recreate martial arts, but it can't save the reality of the decline of martial arts films.
Remember the little boy at the beginning of the article? Although domestic martial arts films have fallen to this point, he still loves martial arts films to this day. You guessed it, this little boy is Zhou Nanyan, the author of this article.
Zhang Che has filmed a martial arts film "The Great Assassin", which tells the story of Nie Zheng, one of the four great assassins of the Warring States, and Nie Zheng's body perfectly embodies the spirit of ancient chivalry. Zhou Nanyan also wrote a small poem "Assassin's Line", which only ends with this poem, and also expresses his fierce loyalty to martial arts films.
Assassin's Row
The day finally came
On this day I carried my sword alone
The frost and snow are vast and the earth is stiff
The old garden is desolate, cold as iron
Drink a bowl full of Zhuangxing wine on your back
Turn around and embark on the road of no return
Since then, I am not a dog slaughterer in the city
From then on, the doctor's vendetta was my vendetta
This blood has found its home
This head found sustenance
The sword in the box trembled with excitement
After a long wait, patience
Just jump up and take a hit
A page in the annals of reddishing
Today I am obsessed with death
You are me, I am you
He was so generous that he didn't even turn his head back
I have forgotten that my name is Nie Zheng
-END-
Editor of this issue: Li Xia solstice
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