Farewell, Wang Yu! Goodbye, one-armed knife

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On April 5, during the Qingming Festival, Wang Xinping posted on Weibo that her father, a generation of superstar Wang Yu, died of illness in the morning at the age of 80.

Wang Yu suffered two strokes in his later years. The first time was in Zhuhai in 2011, he had just eaten with friends, and when he returned to the hotel, he suddenly fell to the ground half immobile. He took out his mobile phone to call the front desk for help, and the front desk lady thought it was a prank call, asked him why he did not use the room phone to call but the mobile phone; the second time was in the Thai airport in 2015, quite serious, and also underwent emergency craniotomy, follow-up has not been a good recovery. According to an article published by Wang Yu's second daughter Wang Jialu on social platforms, he had difficulty moving in his last few years, needed to sit in a wheelchair, ate by nasogastric tube, and had nurses turn over and shoot phlegm day and night, and there was dementia.

The 2019 Golden Horse Awards Lifetime Achievement Award was won by two daughters, Wang Xinping and Wang Jialu, and the acceptance speech also revealed that he had entered the ICU with his life in danger, but fortunately survived. Wang Jialu said that he may not have received this award yet, so he was not willing. His physical condition did not allow him to personally receive the award, and it was a kind of lament that "heroes from ancient times are like beauties, and they are not allowed to see white heads in the world".

Every superstar has its own era, and in Jackie Chan's words, Hong Kong martial arts action movies have three eras and three representative figures. One was of course himself, and then the next one was Bruce Lee, and the one who was crowned as the founder was Wang Yu.

Wang Yu is a native of Shanghai, and no matter how many branches of Chinese cinema there are, no matter how far they flow, they are inseparable from the source of Shanghai. He traveled from Shanghai to Hong Kong in 1961 and won two consecutive Hong Kong swimming championships, but was banned for fighting in the third year. When I was studying in the Department of Civil Engineering of Zhuhai University, I met Zhang Tie, the younger brother of Zhang Ying, a big star in the Cantonese film era, and starred in the first movie "Ghost Murderer" under the introduction of Zhang Tie.

To apply for shaw films, there are two different theories. He himself said that because he was suspended from playing idle and bored, he tried to test the martial arts actor of the film company. Another version has the saga anecdote texture of a superstar, saying that he was amazed by his physical skills because he fought with people, and advised him to become a martial arts actor.

Before Wang Yu, in fact, not only Hong Kong movies, it can be said that the star system of Chinese films in the entire cross-strait and three places was based on female stars. The reasons behind this are complex and do not go off topic, but the fact is that since the rise of the first commercial wave of Chinese films in the 1920s, the influence and attractiveness of female stars are far better than that of male stars.

When Wang Yu first entered Shaw's, Shao's was the peak of HuangMei's films, and many male characters in the films were female anti-strings. In 1965, when he starred in Xu Zenghong's "Jianghu Qixia" and "Mandarin Duck Swordsman", although he was the male number one, the limelight was given to the cameo Ling Bo, who was the superstar at this time, and these two films also won the first generation of Shaw female hero Qin Ping.

Xu Zenghong's "Jianghu Qixia" series is not a Shaw martial arts movie that is often mentioned today, but it is the pioneering work of Shaw's "New Century of Martial Arts". Run Run Shaw wanted to be able to shoot the kind of martial arts movies he saw in Shanghai when he was a child, so he asked Xu Zenghong to remake "The Legend of the Strange Heroes of jianghu" by Pingjiang Buxiaosheng. This IP was made into "Burning red lotus temple" in the 1920s, and it was 18 in one shot, setting a record for the final grand scene of the god and monster martial arts film.

Perhaps there is a sense of inheritance in the underworld, and finally Wang Yu opened a new martial arts century. In 1967, he starred in Zhang Che's "One-Armed Knife", which broke the million box office record in Hong Kong, Zhang Che has been known as "Zhang Million" ever since, and Wang Yu has also become the first million box office superstar. After "One-Armed Knife", "Golden Swallow", "One-Armed Knife King" and his self-directed "Dragon and Tiger Fight" cooperated with Zhang Che won the Hong Kong film box office championship for four consecutive years, officially opening the era of male stars.

"One-Armed Knife" is not only a representative work of Zhang Che and Wang Yu, but also a work that cannot be ignored in the history of martial arts films. Zhang Che followed up with the filming of "New One-Armed Knife" to create a classic. Wang Yu also did not mind Zhang Che's other "one-armed knife", and also co-directed and starred in a "one-armed double male" with "new one-armed knife" Jiang David. He has many "one-armed" works, just like "Burning the Red Lotus Temple" triggered a "fire" film boom. And these works are not only filmed in Hong Kong and Taiwan and other Chinese areas, he also went to Japan to shoot "Humpback City and one-armed sword", competing with the legendary role of Humpback City in Japanese sword films. The Japanese version of the film ends with Humpback City defeating the one-armed knife, while the Hong Kong version ends with the one-armed knife winning the humpback market.

But it is interesting that although film history defines Zhang Che as a master of "masculine aesthetics", many people also regard "One-Armed Knife" as a martial arts film with "masculine aesthetics", but I think many people have not really seen "One-Armed Knife". Because Fang Gang, played by Wang Yu, is not such a "masculine" character, he is even a little indecisive and soft. Zhang Che's "masculine aesthetic" focuses on violent forms rather than stereotypes of characters, which is also an important reason for his success.

The "one-armed knife" has become an important symbol in Hong Kong movies, and the mutilation of the body creates a real hero psychologically. Chen Kexin's "Wuxia" invited Wang Yu to come back, which can be said to be a perfect end for Hong Kong martial arts movies. The title of the film is "Wuxia", which is actually about the demise of Wu and Xia, and the final victory over this first-generation martial arts superstar is not divine skills, but science. In the film, Zhen Zidan did not accidentally break his arm, not only to pay tribute to Wang Yu, but also to echo the "One-Armed Knife" that opened the new martial arts boom, one by one, completing the closed loop of this genre film.

Wang Yu in life is naturally also a hero with both pride and style.

Because of his gangster status, he often appeared in the social news. The most famous thing, of course, is to run away from Jiahe, stealing more than a hundred Shaw film star contracts at night. Run Run Shaw did not dare to speak out, and could only quietly sign new contracts with celebrities, calling it a "salary increase". In addition to two marriages, he has also become a regular visitor to the entertainment version because of his affair with various female stars.

Like the hero in the book, Wang Yu also loves to drink heavily, loves Western spirits the most, and can drink XO as water, which may also plant the root of his illness in his later years. One of my favorite stories about him is that after Gu Long died, he brought 48 bottles of XO to him for burial, and he was afraid of being stolen, and he and a group of friends drank it all in front of Gu Long's spirit.

Now, that era of martial arts is long gone, who will accompany Wang Yu's spirit to drink heavily?