Stills from the Republic of China movie "Avatar Girl" (1936), Yuan Meiyun played two roles alone
Yifu anti-string is a long history in China, and has rich resources in literature, folk legends or performing arts, such as the stories of "Liang Zhu" and "Mulan" (or "Mulan Ci"),; feng Menglong in the late Ming Dynasty in "Awakening to the World" contains strong men dressing up as old women to seduce women, and the "male concubines" in "Liaozhai Zhiyi" are the things that men dress as women and are bought into the official gentry's palace; and as for the "anti-string" performances of all-male or all-female troupes in traditional opera, it can be said that it is the practice of Chinese performing arts.
In the category of Chinese drama films, "Avatar Girl" (1936), written by Wong Ka Moe, directed by Fang Peilin and starring Yuan Meiyun (1917-1999), the plot of the heroine's easy obedience and reversal is a famous example of the early years (this film was reinterpreted by Lin Cui in Hong Kong in 1954).
Stills from the Hong Kong film "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" (1963), Ling Bo on the left and Lottie on the right
Based on the changes of the times, therefore, the text only freezes the phenomenon of easy service and anti-string in The Chinese films of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, in fact, more expressions are made in Hong Kong films, and this is briefly summarized and analyzed - it was a fanciful era, and Hong Kong filmmakers enjoyed swimming in the film world!
From the perspective of film genre, in the Chinese films before the 1980s, the characters and plots of men dressed as women or women dressed as men mainly appeared in the two film genres of opera films and martial arts films, but the creators of the films may only be based on the conventions of genre operation, but not necessarily deliberately playing with and subverting gender symbols, such as most of the Films starring Ling Bo, Huang Mei Tone, she is fundamentally male in the plot of the film, and her gender and heterosexual purity are not questioned by the people in the play and the general audience.
Stills from the movie "The Drunken Man" (1966), pictured is Zheng Peipei
Relatively speaking, huang mei tone films that deliberately play with gender issues or even make a big fuss about it are in the minority, such as Li Hanxiang's (1926-1996) "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" (1963), Xue Qun, Luo Zhen's "Qiao Taishou Chaos Point Mandarin Duck Spectrum" (1964) and Zhou Shilu's "The Strange Adventure of The Double Phoenix" (1964) and so on. In addition, the two film genres of opera films and martial arts films, if only from the perspective of clothing and are "costume films", on the one hand, it reflects the strong "escapist" atmosphere (not directly facing reality) of the whole society before the emergence of "new films" (appeared in 1979 and 1982 respectively), while Hong Kong and Taiwan have paid attention to social, political, female and marginal themes since the emergence of new films (although sometimes they have been exploited). It paved the way for the return of the 1990s to the film stage of the gender and easy-to-wear themes.
Stills from the movie "Dragon Gate Inn" (1967), pictured is Shangguan Lingfeng
The Chinese films of the 1990s (especially Hong Kong films) can be described as "sexual", but the rise of sexual consciousness and the expansion of sexual speech do not guarantee the enlightenment and "progress" of popular sexual concepts, such as a wave of three-level erotic films that began in the late 1980s, and many films full of exploitative women and fear of homosexuality, which made many people dare not understand.
At the same time, as gender issues became the mainstream topic, many films also began to play gender games, and the ambiguous gender/lust that they could involve, such as easy clothes, anti-strings, and the gender/lust that they could involve, became one of the favorite themes of many filmmakers since the 1990s, and this theme was not limited by the film genre, and even appeared in many "fashion" movies. For several movie "situations" that often appear to be easy to serve and reverse strings, they will now be roughly summarized as follows-
Stills from the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), pictured is Zhang Ziyi
[Kung Fu martial arts films: Lin Qingxia's "male body" is sought after]
In traditional martial arts films, the reason why female characters choose yifu is mainly because male costumes can give female characters practical action, such as Zheng Peipei in the first half of "The Drunken Man" (1966), Shangguan Lingfeng in "Dragon Gate Inn" (1967), "Eighteen Bronze Men of Shaolin Temple" (1976), and even Zhang Ziyi, who has just entered the jianghu in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) who has entered the 21st century, but even the emotions between the male and female protagonists are implicitly suppressed. It is almost impossible to make one of the female characters in the film mistakenly recognize or even fall in love with another female character after the change.
Scene from the movie New Dragon Gate Inn (1992).
But in 1992, "New Dragon Gate Inn" produced by Xu Ke and directed by Li Huimin, when the boss lady Jin Zhiyu (Maggie Cheung) first met the dashing and handsome Qiu Moyan (Lin Qingxia), she couldn't help but come forward to seduce, and if the hookup didn't work, she said to the guy: "Anyone who doesn't look at me with gold and jade is definitely not a man!" However, the lady boss still had to take the opportunity of Qiu Moyan's bath to fight with her and verify her body (of course, this is quite a heterosexual central point of view, why does a man who has no interest in women have to be a woman?). )。 However, the most influential martial arts film in the 1990s was Xu Ke's "Smiling Proud of jianghu II. Oriental Undefeated" (1992), which led to a wave of follow-up, and the fun of the costumes and gender dialectics in the film were tongue-in-cheek.
A scene from the movie "Laughing At the Age II: Undefeated in the East" (1992).
After Dongfang Undefeated (Lin Qingxia) practiced the Sunflower Treasure Book in the "Zigong", even the skin and voice began to thin, gradually becoming a physiological woman, and "naturally" inheriting the stereotyped "feminine traits" (using embroidery needles as weapons, unintentionally undertaking the country, being jealous and choosing to fall off a cliff), as if femininity is really born with women! And Ling Huchong (Jet Li), who fell in love with dongfang at first sight and even spent a night, finally asked: Is it you/you who spends a night with me?
Even if the fox is ultimately concerned about whether the person who once loved him is the person in front of him, but whether the person who has "sex" with him is the "transgender person" in front of him. But on the other hand, the audience clearly knows that the person who previously had sex with Ling Huchong was actually the undefeated concubine Yang Shishi (Yu An'an) of the East, who was like a fake woman, thus relieving the audience's anxiety.
In the movie "The Undefeated Rise of the East" (1993), Yuki Chihiro, Wang Zuxian's shape is also bright
After "Smiling Proud of jianghu II. Oriental Undefeated" was sought after, "Oriental Undefeated Rise Again" (1993), produced by Xu Ke and co-directed by Cheng Xiaodong and Li Huimin, returned to the jianghu with a handsome appearance, the purpose of which was to expose the many fake Oriental undefeated, and one of them was the former concubine Xue Qianxun (Wang Zuxian), but the reason why Xue Qianxun pretended to be undefeated in the East was to introduce the real Oriental undefeated, hoping to continue the frontier. The erotic "problem" in this film has shifted to Yukichihiro: her undefeated feelings for the East are undoubtedly in the category of lesbians, and the audience also sees Yukichihiro and the higashi ninja who pretends to be a woman kissing her tongue (but the male ninja after the actress Kuadai transfiguration, so visually it is also a lesbian behavior), but Yukichihiro also has a moment of affection for the male protagonist.
Stills from the movie "Fang Shiyu" (1993), hu huizhong on the left and Xiao Fangfang on the right
Relatively speaking, Lin Qingxia's neutral style does not have much significance in this authentic "Undefeated in the East" sequel, not to mention the hollow meaning of this model when it appears repeatedly in shoddy follow-up films such as "Absolute Double Pride" (1992), "Six-Fingered Piano Demon" (1994), "Sword Laugh" (1994) and so on. In addition, several famous kung fu films in the early 1990s also had interesting anti-string characters and plots, and the most brilliant of them was Miao Cuihua (Xiao Fangfang) in Yuan Kui's "Fang Shiyu" (1993), the mother of Fang Shiyu (Jet Li).
In a scene in the movie "Rouge Buckle" (1988), Mui Yanfang first crossed the screen to make Zhang Guorong in the play fall for it
At a contest to recruit relatives, Fang Shiyu mistakenly thought that the woman she was fighting to marry was an ugly woman, so she deliberately lost the battle, but she did not expect to be a mother, and then she dressed as a man and came to the stage in the name of Fang's "big" jade, and as a result, she not only grabbed the hydrangea ball, but also attracted the "mother" Mrs. Lei (Hu Huizhong)! In the scene where Mrs. Lei is seriously injured, when Mrs. Lei expresses that she wants to meet Fang Dayu again, Miao Cuihua blows out the candle and accompanies her on the last journey of her life in a male posture. Compared with most of the anti-string plots (especially Hollywood movies), this film has no intention of revealing the identity of the anti-stringers and matching heterosexuals in the whole drama, but once again through the anti-string actually secretly crossing a touching lesbian friendship.
A scene from the movie "Hudumen" (1996), Xiao Fangfang's appearance on stage
[Movies about opera: Zhang Guorong's "daughter body" is invincible】
Although the mainstream Chinese film market in the 1990s did not see similar opera films that were popular before the 1980s, there were many films "about" opera that involved easy clothes and anti-strings, which is a trend.
Although gay director Guan Jinpeng's documentary "Boys and Girls" (1996) is his "coming out" work, but he began to deal with gay male roles head-on, his "Rouge Buckle" (1988), which he shot ten years earlier, should be regarded as his first film touching the gay complex, because the Qinglou woman played by Mui Yanfang (1963-2003) was the anti-string posture of the opening that made Zhang Guorong (1956-2003) fall for it.
In a scene in the movie "Farewell to the Overlord" (1993), Zhang Guorong's appearance on the stage has not been surpassed so far
And Shu Qi's "Hudumen" (1996) film points directly to the "confusing" attraction of anti-string actors. For example, Leng Jianxin (Xiao Fangfang), a Cantonese opera celebrity who often performs in men's clothing in the film, has a group of enthusiastic and die-hard female drama fans (like the "Brother Liang", Ren Jianhui, Long Jiansheng, Chen Baozhu...) who were empty in the alleys of the year), and even the male comrades played by Li Zixiong cannot restrain themselves and project emotions onto Leng Jianxin. However, in Chen Kaige's "Farewell to the Overlord" (1993), Zhang Guorong's Peking Opera Danjiao Cheng Dieyi, who is basically in love with his brother Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) as a "woman", also describes how Cheng Dieyi "became" a woman, and his emotional rivalry with Yuan Siye (Ge You) was also carried out in a Danjiao posture after Cheng Yi wore makeup (to dilute and avoid the possibility of male love), so Cheng Dieyi can only be regarded as having no subjectivity under heterosexual prejudice." Trapped in the male body" of the stereotype of male love, and the yifu anti-string is also reduced to a means of displaying this prejudice.
In a scene in the movie "A Dream in the Garden" (2001), Wang Zuxian's short hair is clean and neat
However, from this point of view, Xu Ligong's "Night Running" (2000) has its valuable points, at least it no longer refracts the lust of gay men through the anti-string in the opera, so that the two male and male phases can also fall in love. As for Yang Fan's "Dream of Visiting the Garden" (2001), the film tells the story of Suzhou in the 1930s, with her otherworldly appearance and excellent Kunqu opera achievements, the popular DeyueLou singer Cuihua (Played by Rie Miyazawa) married into the local tycoon Rong Mansion, but was snubbed by the Rong family.
Rong Lan (Wang Zuxian) is a relative of the Rong family, a professional school teacher, and although he is a daughter, he has the wisdom, enthusiasm and ambition of a boy. After Cuihua and Ronglan got acquainted, they had similar temperaments, and the co-performance of the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion" was even more a combination of pearls, and the two gradually developed ambiguous feelings. However, they are still women after all, and Cuihua is not willing to be lonely and has a deviant act with the opera actors and is expelled by the Rong family, and is forced to temporarily borrow Rong Lan to settle down.
In a scene in the movie "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" (1994), Yuan Yongyi's boy appearance also made Zhang Guorong "halo"
The handsome male teacher Xing Zhigang (Wu Yanzu) also makes Rong Lan fall in love at first sight, and the feminine femininity is revived in her. The world is uncertain, Xing Zhigang eventually left; the second butler who had a crush on Cuihua died on the battlefield, leaving only two women helpless and devastated. In the film, Wang Zuxian and Miyazawa Rie also exude a ambiguity from the opponent's performance of the opera to the contrasting use of costumes. Although Wu Yanzu appeared very late in "Garden Horror", he interpreted the roles of vases and bad water very well, and the bathing and selling meat scene was very important!
[Fashion Comedy: Dispelling mainstream audiences' fear of gays]
That is, many fashion comedies with gender and sexual desire as the theme in the 1990s, of which the feminine "dressed" gay man is one of the typical characters, and Chen Kexin's "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" (1994) is the most important work in this category, inheriting the anti-string trend brought about by "Laughing Proud of the Jianghu II.
Stills from the movie "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves 2" (1996), Mui Yanfang and Zhang Guorong "went crazy" for Yuan Yongyi at the same time in the play
The three protagonists of "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" are all heterosexual, Yuan Yongyi dresses up as a man in order to get close to the two idols, Liu Jialing and Zhang Guorong, while Liu Jialing and Zhang Guorong, who are lovers, have a good feeling for Yuan Yongyi. In the part of Liu Jialing and Yuan Yongyi, Yuan Yongyi uses being a gay man as an excuse to transform the relationship between the two into a "sister" friendship, but Zhang Guorong must face the anxiety that he may be a gay man, until the end of the film, Yuan Yongyi recovered her daughter's body to solve this problem, and let Zhang Guorong say: Whether you are a man or a woman, I only know that I love you.
In a scene in the movie "New Crane Needle" (1993), Mei Yanfang played Bai Yunfei
But why did Zhang Guorong say that these words must be after Yuan Yongyi recovered her daughter's body? Obviously, there is more hypocrisy than there is frankness. In the previous kissing scene between Zhang Guorong and Yuan Yongyi, Zhang Guorong pushed Yuan Yongyi away with "You are not a woman", which was completely to please the general (heterosexual) audience with comradely fear; and at the level of audience viewing, Zhang Guorong and Yuan Yongyi were actually handsome men and beautiful women, which also dissolved the mainstream audience's fear of same-sex indirect kissing.
Until Chen Kexin's "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves 2" (1996), the changeable superstar Fang Yanmei (Mui Yanfang), who often swept the audience and the audience with a neutral style, replaced Liu Jialing and became involved in the love between Zhang Guorong and Yuan Yongyi. Continuing the previous episode, Yuan Yongyi in the film is based on the music scene as a male and gets along with Zhang Guorong as a woman, while Mei Yanfang falls in love with Yuan Yongyi in the case of Yuan Yongyi's anti-male string, but Yuan Yongyi is also in love with Mei Yanfang, who is also a daughter.
In a scene in the movie "Deer Ding" (1992), Lin Qingxia is agile
In order to block the mouths of everyone (thinking that Zhang Guorong and Yuan Yongyi are "gay men"), Yuan Yongyi and Mei Yanfang agreed to pretend to show people as "male and female" couples, and also acted together, taking over a play within a play in which Mei Yanfang "anti-string" men and Yuan Yongyi "anti-string" women!
In addition to the kissing in the play "really" female kissing, Yuan Yongyi also had sexual relations with Mei Yanfang within the plot after "straightening out", but I don't know whether the choreographer deliberately challenged the gay taboo, or whether she was dizzy after a series of anti-strings? And the sexual behavior between women and women under the gaze of male heterosexual hegemony, how much subversive power can be debatable (lesbians are often regarded as children's plays by patriarchy, and sexual behavior between women and women is more often reduced to the object of voyeurism for male heterosexual audiences).
Stills from the movie "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves 2" (1996), Yuan Yongyi on the left and Mei Yanfang on the right
【Costume Comedy Farce: Laughter Produced by Anti-String becomes a Selling Point】
It can be regarded as a combination and variation of kung fu martial arts films and fashion comedies, the characters wear costumes and mostly do some slapstick fist and foot kung fu, and the plot often "steals" the branches of historical palms or novel legends, specializing in funny, and the laughter produced by the anti-string is one of the selling points. For example, in "Deer Ding Ji" (1992), directed by Wang Jing, the fake eunuch Wei Xiaobao, played by Zhou Xingchi, fights with the princess (Qiu Shuzhen) in men's clothing.
In addition, Xu Ke's "Liang Zhu" (1994) was played by Yang Caini as Zhu Yingtai, who went to school in men's clothing; Du Qifeng's "Zhong Wuyan" (2001) was played by Mei Yanfang against Qi Xuanwang and Qi Huangong, and Cecilia Cheung played the fox spirit of the sudden man and the woman; and Liu Zhenwei's "The World Is Matchless" (2002) was a combination of Li Hanxiang's "Jiangshan Beauty" (1959) and Yan Jun's "Flower Field Mistake" (1962).
Stills from the movie "Peerless in the World" (2002), pictured is Zhao Wei
In the film, emperor Zhengde (Zhang Zhen) of the Ming Dynasty and his royal sister (Wang Fei) in men's clothing go against the will of the empress dowager and go out of the palace to visit Jiangnan without permission, and meet the little bully Ah Long (Liang Chaowei) and his sister Feng Jie (Zhao Wei) in Meilong Town. The two pairs of brothers and sisters do not fight and do not know each other, and finally FengJie falls in love with the royal sister of men's clothing, the royal sister likes Aaron, and the emperor is moved by Fengjie...
【Minchu Drama: With the strong will of a man】
Some films set in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty are not a genre, but there are often female characters wearing men's clothes in the film, because there are indeed some women in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, who are like the female revolutionary Qiu Jin at that time who "want to have the strong will of men", wear men's clothes or suits, hoping to carry out self-transformation from the outside in.
In a scene in the movie "The Flag Is Fluttering" (1987), Xia Wenxi basically appeared in the shape of a military uniform
For example, the revolutionary party member played by Lin Qingxia in Xu Ke's Dao Ma Dan (1986), or Kawashima Yoshiko played by Xia Wenshi in Ding Shanxi's "Qi Zheng Piao" (1987), or the character of the same name played by Mei Yanfang in Fang Lingzheng's "Kawashima Yoshiko" (1990) (although the neutral attire of Kawashima in "Kawashima Yoshiko" still vaguely echoes the character's sexual desire "problem").
Lin Qingxia's beautiful teenager's appearance in "Dao Ma Dan" is indeed worthy of the name, and the long-known shot of wearing a white shirt and being whipped and covered in blood finally appeared in front of her. To be honest, Lin Qingxia can always make a film without special feelings become impressive. In the light and shadow, Lin Qingxia's face was almost transparent, the white shirt showed her delicacy, and the red blood made people pity her. The moment she wore a military uniform, she was also incredibly beautiful.
Lin Qingxia's appearance in the movie "Dao Ma Dan" (1986) is worthy of the name
Mei Yanfang's men's appearance is indeed dashing and handsome, and in the movie, Kawashima Yoshiko is obviously not a simple traitor, she has her struggles, her pain, and two loves. Although with Li Bihua's usual faint resentment and disdain for women, in the end it is written fiercely, and people love and hate it. The movie "Yoshiko Kawashima" shows Yoshiko's hardness by hysterical shouting, and the cowardice that belongs to women is unobstructed. It is said that the thorny rose is beautiful, and if you accidentally prick your hand, it is even more love and hate into the bone marrow.
In a scene in the movie "Yoshiko Kawashima" (1990), Mei Yanfang's men's costume is relatively tough
[Lin Qingxia and Zhang Guorong's "hermaphrodite" no one competes]
Lin Qingxia and Mui Yanfang can be described as the most important anti-string actresses in Chinese films since the late 1980s. Lin Qingxia's anti-string can be traced back to Jia Baoyu in Li Hanxiang's Dream of the Red Chamber (1977), and she showed the unique "hermaphrodite" charm of Chinese actresses in the 1990s, following the status of Greta Garbo (1905-1990) and Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992).
Many Rong fans like to use the phrase "no crazy devil can not live" in the movie "Overlord Farewell" to describe Zhang Guorong. Siren has passed away, but Zhang Guorong has become a peak of crazy magic acting skills that is difficult for Chinese actors to overcome, and Zhang Guorong's people and stories have become a classic legend.
In the movie "Dream of the Red Chamber of Jin Yu Liangyuan" (1977), Lin Qingxia played Jia Baoyu
Brother to Cheng Dieyi, it is undeniable, without brother, there would be no Cheng Dieyi that we see, and the incessant recitation and nostalgia are not stopped. As director Chen Kaige said: In the world, except for Zhang Guorong, there is no one who can replace the role of Cheng Dieyi.
Zhang Guorong once confessed that he is a feminine and narcissistic person, he feels that his characteristics are sensitivity, especially sensitivity to love, which has reached the extreme in "Farewell to the Overlord", and the audience has also recognized his delicate and meticulous characteristics.
And only the foregoing, we can find a number of films directed or supervised by Xu Ke, Lin Qingxia in his films have a rather heavy costume plot.
A scene from the movie Farewell to the Overlord (1993).
Back to 1987, "Ghost of a Woman" produced by Xu Ke and directed by Cheng Xiaodong, the grandmother (played by Liu Zhaoming) who has a sudden male and female voice in the film is a hermaphrodite tree demon, a "black widow" makeup, and it is terrifying.
In 1993, "Green Snake", directed by Xu Ke, has the plot of snake spirit dressing up as a person and composing a love song together with a human snake, in which the green snake (played by Maggie Cheung) dances with a woman and takes the opportunity to seduce each other, which should be counted as human snake lust, or lesbian?
In 1994, when Xu Ke remade "Liang Zhu", he directly put the ambiguous feelings between Liang and Zhu on the table, so that Liang had long ago found himself "vainly" in love with Zhu Yingtai, who was still wearing men's clothes, so he was terrified (but the mainland's fear of comrades was actually officially on the right track after the founding of the People's Republic of China).
Stills from the Hong Kong movie "Ghost of a Lady" (1987), the role of the tree demon grandmother has not been surpassed so far
【Costumes in Taiwanese movies? 】
Although the Taiwanese films of the 1990s rarely saw the opposite plot or characters, Cai Liangliang's "Long Live Love" (1994) featured a scene in which Li Kangsheng flipped and fought in women's clothes, and the self-enjoyment of his characters and the display of camp aesthetics were a must! Chen Junzhi's documentary "Beautiful Boy" (2000) touches on the "dress up queen" culture that emerged in Taiwan in the 1990s.
The Taiwanese opera and the rich anti-string vocabulary in the early Taiwanese films, and the anti-string funny artists in variety shows, or the voices of men and women in the cloth bag play, such as the performance fragments of the cloth bag play reproduced in "The Legend of the Sacred Stone" (2000) and Hou Xiaoxian's "Dream Life" (1993), are the treasures of Taiwan's anti-string performance art.
Stills from the movie Long Live Love (1994).