"Seven Little Blessings" once occupied most of the Hong Kong movie action movies, Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, Yuan Kui, Yuan Biao, Yuan Hua, Yuan De, Yuan Qiu, each of which is a well-known character.
Recently, the film "Seven Little Blessings" led by Hong Jinbao was officially launched, he served as the general director, and Yuan Biao was responsible for executive production, aiming to pay tribute to their master Yu Zhanyuan, and planned to start filming in March next year.
Yuan Biao said that he would invite domestic popular first-line actors to star in the young version of "Seven Little Blessings", and Jackie Chan would also make cameo performances.
The candidate for master Yu Zhanyuan should be Liang Jiahui, and at the same time, Wang Minde, Qian Jiale, Lu Huiguang and others joined.
"Seven Little Blessings", most people think that there are only 7 people, but in fact it is not, this is a Peking Opera, each time there are 7 people performing, but not a fixed seven people.
Under normal circumstances, as long as it is Yu Zhanyuan's apprentice who has performed the "Seven Little Blessings" on stage, we can all be called "Seven Little Blessings".
As early as 1988, Hong Jinbao actually made a version of "Seven Little Blessings", which was a faint love letter written to Hong Kong Pear Garden and tribute to Wu xing.
01, Shaw and Jiahe unprecedented cooperation
Shaw and Jiahe, two major Hong Kong labels, competed with each other in the 1970s.
Shao's strong capital, large territory, many actors, high output, assembly line model under the blockbuster field system, the mid-60s main Huangmei tone film, the late 60s martial arts films dominated, in the 70s Chu Yuan and Gu Long cooperated in the strange love martial arts is very popular.
Compared with the Shaw family-style business model, Jiahe's independent producer system is much more advanced, which attracts many talents, such as Bruce Lee, Xu Guanwen, Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan, and can share the world equally with Shaw.
In the 1980s, Shaw's focus shifted to the field of television, and it seemed that Jiahe would dominate the world, but the new art city suddenly emerged;
Mai Jia, Shi Tian, Huang Baiming, Xu Ke, Shi Nansheng, Teddy Robin, Zeng Zhiwei, and the seven monsters worked together to create a number of blockbusters such as the "Best Partner" series, "Ghost Horse ZhiDuoxing", "I Love the Night Fragrance", "Difficult Brothers and Difficult Brothers" in the early days, which caught the two major labels by surprise.
In order to fight against new art city, Shaw and Jiahe put aside their old grudges and allowed each other's films to be released in their own theaters, but with little effect. Later, the seven monsters of the new art city fell apart, and Debao and Yongsheng rose, and today we will not talk about it.
Shaw and Jiahe, a real cooperation, is 1988's "Seven Little Blessings", Hong Jinbao vigorously promoted this cooperation, incidentally won his second Academy Awards Film Emperor Trophy, worthy of being the most acting kung fu superstar.
"Seven Little Blessings" is co-produced by Shaw and Jiahe, produced by Fang Yihua and He Guanchang, planned by Zhang Wanting, directed by Luo Qirui, co-starred by Hong Jinbao, Lin Zhengying, Zheng Peipei, etc., and joined by Cen Jianxun, Wu Ma, Liu Xiaohui, Li Dianxin and others.
Luo Qirui and Zhang Wanting are the most unlike directors of Hong Kong, their works never cater to the market, have a strong background of the times, have Hong Kong local feelings and small character feelings, representative works: "Autumn Fairy Tale", "Eight Two Gold", "Thief of Years" and so on.
"Seven Little Blessings" is actually about the legendary prehistory of a generation of Hong Kong action films, and after its release, it received high praise, winning many awards such as Golden Horse Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
Unfortunately, it failed at the box office, selling only HK$1.7 million in Hong Kong, ranking 105th in the annual box office list, and the top few in that year were "Eight Star Annunciation", "Police Story Sequel" and "Flying Dragon".
02. A love letter to Hong Kong Pear Garden and Wu Xing
At the beginning of the film, it is more similar to "Farewell to the King", the young Chen Gangsheng (Jackie Chan's original name) was taken to the "Chinese Theater Research Academy" by his mother, signed a contract for 10 years, stubbornly disobeyed, killed, and was full of Xie Shi, but by virtue of Tianliang.
Since then, Along has practiced with Sanmao, Ah Biao and other brothers, handstanding, turning over, flipping over, reading white, painting faces, etc.
Master Yu Zhanyuan has strict requirements for his disciples in teaching skills, adhering to the principle of being able to survive and eat; eating bitterly, and being a superior person.
On the other hand, when outsiders said that the apprentice did not sing the opera, he argued according to reason: My students I brought up from childhood, all of them are so well-behaved, my father is also me, my mother is also me, how.
The teachers and brothers practiced during the day and performed at night, and although they were poor, they enjoyed it, such as rubbing the free bus together, fighting together, and helping Aaron bubble girls.
But with the passage of time, the art of opera continues to wither, no longer people's cultural and leisure life, the "Seven Little Blessings" were fired by Pear Garden, and the school was demolished, where will they go?
Peking opera is the lifelong pursuit of master Yu Zhanyuan, always thinking of cultivating one or two characters, as can be seen from his experience with his master and disciple Yu Huayuan (Lin Zhengying).
Although the master and disciple worked as dragon and tiger martial artists on the set, they always had the dream of becoming a horn in their hearts.
The biggest tear point of the whole drama is that Lin Zhengying accidentally fell from the sky and broke his head, and then completed the bridge section of "Overlord Farewell" with his brother.
Not crazy devil can not live, at that moment, Lin Zhengying also became a role, won everyone's applause, he will be that generation of tragic drama people who can not emerge, interpreted vividly, should be awarded a best supporting actor.
The ending is helpless, the master Yu Zhanyuan finally failed to give the apprentices a bright future, Peking Opera has never been able to stay, and "Seven Little Blessings" also like their uncle, embarked on the road of the movie, as a dragon and tiger martial artist.
03. Yuanjia class
Withering away from the art of opera, Yu Zhanyuan failed to persevere, while his apprentices persevered in the film industry and broke out of the world.
There are four major drama schools in Hong Kong, Yu Zhanyuan's "Chinese Drama Research Academy" is the most famous, the "Spring and Autumn Drama School" with pink chrysanthemums, mostly female disciples, as well as Lin Zhengying, Zun Long, Dong Wei and other big coffee;
Tang Di's "Oriental Drama School" is represented by Cheng Xiaodong and Xu Zhongxin; Ma Chengzhi's "Chinese Drama School" represents his disciples Chen Huiyi and Liu Zhihao.
Yu Zhanyuanmen's "Yuanjia Class" is full of talents, master brother Hong Jinbao later founded HongJiaban, Yuanlou Jackie Chan founded Chengjia class, Yuan Heping founded Yuanjiaban after only 1 year, Yuan Biao Yuanhua Yuande later also founded the team, they witnessed the glorious period of Hong Kong action movies together.
"Seven Little Blessings" grew up together, there are a lot of interesting things, a certain Hong Jinbao sneaked out, Yuanhua did not tell the master, hit the master's board, Sanmao regretted this for a long time, distressed that the master and brother for themselves to carry the pot.
Yuan Biao's family is relatively wealthy, often with pocket money, and Hong Jinbao will borrow his money every time, and most of the time he will not pay it back.
The most adorable in the movie is also the little master brother Yuan Biao, who hides and sleeps during the performance, and his pants are torn off when he jumps off the bus.
Later, Hong Jinbao took special care of the brothers and took them into the industry, when the Dragon tiger martial artist, Jackie Chan did not dare to jump when filming "Plan A", Hong Jinbao shouted below, jump fast.
As for the little master brother Yuan Biao, basically a group favorite, Jackie Chan filmed "Master and Brother Out of the Horse" to promote him, and Hong Jinbao directly opened several male protagonist plays for him, such as "Miscellaneous Family Boy" and "Loser Boy".
Not only did they praise their own brothers, but they also gathered a group of martial artists from other schools together to promote them to the throne, which was quite a leader.
For example, Lin Zhengying became a generation of zombie Taoist leaders, Zou Zhaolong became a disciple of his own lineage, Qian Jiale grew into the mainstay of the current Hong Kong action films, and many directors such as Liu Guanwei, Chen Huiyi, Qian Yuesheng and so on.
"Nanhai Thirteen Lang" is a tribute to Hong Kong screenwriters, then "Seven Little Blessings" is a tribute to hong Kong dragon and tiger martial artists, Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, Yuan Biao, they are successful, and there are many unknown people on the set, just like the nine uncles Lin Zhengying in the movie.
In reality, Lin Zhengying because of his thin body, early often served as a martial artist for actresses, such as Zheng Peipei is one of them, which is also one of the Easter eggs of this film, if the ninth uncle Lin Zhengying was not later appreciated by Bruce Lee and praised by Hong Jinbao, there may be no later zombie Daochang.
Although those obscure martial arts have not become famous, they, like Yu Zhanyuan's disciples, also have dreams of fame in their hearts and are always sticking to it.
The whole film of "Seven Little Blessings" is full of humanity, subtlety, perseverance and tenacity, which is a rare classic and worth watching. (Written by: The Little Prince)