Among the actors who come from martial arts athletes, Jet Li is undoubtedly the most accomplished, not only did he make many blockbuster films at the end of the golden year of Hong Kong films, but also successfully entered the Hollywood market, so he became famous internationally.
The success of Jet Li also derived the "martial arts champion movie fever" of the 1980s and 1990s, such as Xu Xiangdong, Qiu Jianguo, Wang Qun and Wang Jue, who began to invest in the film world from this period, although they were not able to reach the height of Jet Li in the end, but brought a "tradition" to the Chinese film industry, and Yuan Xiaochao, who was also a martial arts champion, was also the beneficiary of this "tradition".
There may be many fans who are not familiar with who Yuan Xiaochao is, but when it comes to the "Taiji" series that Huayi Brothers spent a lot of money to build, it will certainly be able to evoke your memories, and the male number one in the film, Tai Chi master Yang Luchan, is played by Yuan Xiaochao.
Yuan Xiaochao was born in 1988 in Yuncheng, Shandong Province, a martial arts family, the most famous family is his uncle Yuan Xindong, who has won many international martial arts championships, and Yuan Xiaochao is under such influence from the age of 10 to contact and learn martial arts, because of his talent and hard work, he entered the national team from Shanxi in his teens, and later appeared in the Olympic Games and asian games and won the wushu men's long boxing championship.
Yuan Xiaochao not only played well in martial arts routines, but also looked like a clear eyebrow, simply summarized as having a "star flavor", such a seedling, the filmmakers will not give up no matter what, in fact, as early as 08, 09 there were many filmmakers who asked Yuan Xiaochao to shoot, but because he had to concentrate on preparing for the competition at that time, he refused the invitation, and after a few years, he was finally recruited by huayi brothers.
Yuan Xiaochao chose to join Huayi, first because Huayi was in the film circle at that time, the second is that Huayi high-level promised to make it another kung fu star, and later facts also proved that Huayi did what he said, Yuan Xiaochao's debut work "Taiji" series not only received Huayi hundreds of millions of yuan of capital injection, and even invited Liang Jiahui, Wu Yanzu, Xie Xian, Yuan Biao, Peng Yuyan, Shu Qi and other stars to match it, enjoying the treatment of stars that made countless newcomers envious.
Although "Tai Chi" focuses on the theme of martial arts masters, but because of the rush to break through innovation, and playing the "steampunk" design and playing the concept of "kung fu weird coffee", it is hard to get the kung fu film to be different, so the wind evaluation is very poor, and the box office performance from the first to the second part is also slipping all the way (the first part is 150 million, the second part is 110 million), which also makes the shooting plan of the third "Peak in Sight" have to be stillborn, and the popular Yuan Xiaochao has become more difficult.
After filming the "Taiji" series, Yuan Xiaochao also acted in a movie called "Zixia", and since then it has gradually fallen silent, and it is difficult to see his trace again, and it seems that he has become another "high open and low walk" martial arts actor after Xu Xiangdong, Qiu Jianguo and others.
Jet Li's fire, in addition to personal efforts, is also the time and place and the common creation, now the era of kung fu films has changed a lot, although martial arts can make martial arts actors easily cross the threshold of the show business, but one or two movies, I am afraid that it is not enough to make them as newcomers to the top, not to mention that these works are not so successful.