As a well-known martial arts actor in the Hong Kong showbiz circle, Zou Zhaolong is on a par with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in martial arts attainments, but because of the fierceness and viciousness of his image, he always plays some evil roles. Even by many netizens ridiculed, watching his plays, always worried that the protagonist can not beat him.
But in fact, Zou Zhaolong's kung fu foundation is very deep, and even starred in "The Matrix", and can completely enter Hollywood with its own advantages, but he gave up, why is this?
Zou Zhaolong is in the Hong Kong showbiz circle, but he is a native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In the 1970s, Zou Zhaolong was born in a poor and destitute family, his father died early, and his mother worked hard to support 13 children who were waiting to be fed. In order to survive, Zou Zhaolong came out to work at the age of 6, first in the carving shop to color, see the shop, and then switched to the bakery to make desserts, sending people under the fence Zou Zhaolong lived for three years.
Without the support of his father, he was often bullied by others when he was a child. It just so happened that next door to the bakery where Zou Zhaolong worked was a martial arts gym, and he often hid in the corner to "steal the master" and practiced boxing and footing with the master of the martial arts hall. Perhaps out of love for talent, Zou Zhaolong stole the master even if he was discovered by the master, but still acquiesced to him to continue to learn, which just opened his martial arts path.
Three years after the "stealing teacher" Xi Wu, the 12-year-old followed his eldest brother to Taipei to make a living. Because the eldest brother was doing martial arts on the set of the crew, when Zou Zhaolong went to visit the class by chance, he was pulled by the director to become a martial artist for girls. The perfect performance of "one shot" made the director remember this skillful little boy at once, just after the shooting, the martial arts head invited him to join, and the salary package offered by the crew was several times that of the bakery, which made Zou Zhaolong readily agree, so he learned martial arts moves in Wuxing while running dragon sets in the crew to do martial arts.
At that time in the crew, Zou Zhaolong was not the one who was the most prominent and the most able to fight, but the one who could suffer the most, one move and one style, one punch and one kick, real material, real people on the field, so Zou Zhaolong often hung up the color, but in order to support his family, he endured. Such an obscure dragon set career, Zou Zhaolong suffered for six years, and when he became an adult at the age of 18, he finally ushered in the "nobleman" in his career.
In 1987, when director Wu Guoxiao was filming "Full Rebound", he urgently needed a martial arts actor with excellent taekwondo kung fu, and a peer recommended Zou Zhaolong to him, and it was Hong Jinbao who was the martial arts director of the film at that time, and Zou Zhaolong, who had clean and neat movements, left a deep impression on Hong Jinbao.
At that time, although Zou Zhaolong began to emerge, he soon had to leave because of his military service, and the entertainment industry was changing rapidly, and he was afraid that he would be eliminated by the industry, but Hong Jinbao gave him a "reassuring pill" at this time, asking him to go to Hong Kong after completing military service to join him.
Two years passed in a flash, and Zou Zhaolong, who had retired from the army, was arranged by Hong Jinbao to develop in Hong Kong, becoming his first official apprentice and being highly valued. Zou Zhaolong, who returned from military service, transformed into a real tough guy, Hong Jinbao created several brilliant roles for him in the movie, but most of them responded to the mediocre response, but Zou Zhaolong did not accept defeat with a tenacity and was not afraid of losing, from "Ghost Bites Ghost" and "Vow not to Forget Love"... To "A Knife In the City", he worked hard to practice martial arts and hone his acting skills, whether it was martial arts movements or expression control, he was accurately in place.
Finally, Huang Tian did not live up to his painstaking heart, in 1993, "The Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slayer" began filming, Hong Jinbao arranged for Zou Zhaolong to cooperate with kung fu superstar Jet Li to play, even if he did not become popular because of this movie, but with excellent kung fu to make Jet Li remember him.
Starting from "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard", the two have cooperated in 7 plays before and after, but Zou Zhaolong is still unknown, which makes many people see his jokes.
So Zou Zhaolong gradually became discouraged, but the master Hong Jinbao did not give up, he found that when Zou Zhaolong's face played a decent role, the audience played, but the villain role was more in line with his own image, sensing the root cause of Hong Jinbao, immediately arranged for him to starve in the movie "Nine Pin Sesame Officer", when the crew could not find the role of "Chang Wei" when he stepped on the iron shoes. But he is accustomed to playing a positive role, and he is very resistant to playing "Chang Wei", but under the persuasion of Hong Jinbao, Zou Zhaolong took over the "Nine Pin Sesame Officer", and did not expect that the "evil face" that came with him made him a hit with this role, and also made "Chang Wei You also said that you can't do martial arts" become a classic funny paragraph.
Zou Zhaolong likes all the roles she has created, but Cheng ye "Chang Wei" defeated also "Chang Wei", after the popularity of "Nine Pin Sesame Officer", he seems to be able to play a role that can penetrate the hearts of the people again, but the role that comes to the door is the villain, which makes him more and more confused who is eager to break through. Finally, in 1999, Zou Zhaolong decided to give up his career in Hong Kong and go to the United States to study performances.
In early 2000, "The Matrix 2" was cast worldwide, and they first found Jet Li, an internationally renowned kung fu superstar, but Jet Li declined the filmmaker's request because of the long shooting schedule and the copyright of martial arts action. Under the fruitless search for actors, the director of "The Matrix 2" found Zou Zhaolong, this time Zou Zhaolong became God's darling, but after he got the book, he put forward the conditions for his own appearance, one is never to accept villains that damage the image of the country, the other is that he does not allow the film plot or form of expression to denigrate and trample on national dignity, and the third is that he must wear Tang costumes for filming roles.
Although it was a bit harsh, the filmmakers agreed to Zou Zhaolong's conditions, so since then there are Chinese actors in "The Matrix". Although many people praised Jet Li's refusal to act afterwards, Zou Zhaolong came out for the first time to explain that Jet Li never cared about the issue of film remuneration, but the action copyright must be in China, and he starred in "The Matrix" not because he was spineless, but insisted on the positive image of Chinese in foreign movies.
For the patriotic point, Zou Zhaolong has never doubted, he even publicly refused to star in the Hollywood blockbuster movie "Golden Cicada Shell 3", just to insist on not playing any insulting or impersonal role, he can play a villain at home, but always stick to his bottom line abroad.
After entering the new century, Zou Zhaolong's martial arts career has never stopped, and he has always played his favorite role. Later, Zou Zhaolong revealed in an interview that when he signed a contract with "The Matrix", he signed a permanent dividend, as long as the movie "The Matrix" series has been released, and the peripheral products are still being sold, he will continue to receive dividends according to the terms of the contract, even if he dies, the money will be distributed to his family according to the contract.
Perhaps this is the envy of many people "people sit at home, money comes from heaven", I have to say that Zou Zhaolong is too prescient ~