"Actually, I'm a tragic actor." ——Stephen Chow
On June 20, the Jumbo Seafood Boat, known as one of the "Landmarks of Hong Kong", sank in the South China Sea because of the wind and waves.
"Gambling King" Ho Hung Sun once called Jumbo Seafood Boat "the first restaurant on the sea", Stephen. Zhou zeng regained the position of "god of food" in the ship, a luxurious ship that carries the memories of many Hong Kong people, and finally sank in the sea.
This inevitably reminds people of Zhou Xingchi, who filmed "God Eater" on the ship, and his life and the treasure ship have too many similarities, from the obscure dragon set, to the world-famous king of comedy, to being misunderstood and hostile.
The difference is that no matter how big the wind and waves, they can't knock down this lonely and strong man.
On June 22, 2022, Stephen Chow will celebrate his 60th birthday.
Let's get closer to the "comedy" life of this lonely "tragic" artist, Stephen Chow.
01. If you don't have a dream, what is the difference between being a person and salted fish? - "Shaolin Soccer"
In 1957, Ling Bao'er was forced to run from Guangdong to Hong Kong to earn a living because her father was imprisoned, and in Hong Kong, where she was not familiar with life, she even had to be guaranteed to find a job.
In desperation, Ling Bao'er, a high-achieving student who graduated from Guangzhou Normal University, married Zhou Yishang, a poor man in the Kowloon City Walled City.
Although the living conditions were difficult, Ling Bao'er also persevered, never abandoned her husband, and bore him a daughter.
On June 22, 1962, in the cramped wooden house they called home, the couple ushered in a new life, and a baby boy fell to the ground, and the loud crying masked the laughter of his parents.
Ling Bao'er looked at the child in her arms and remembered the "Xiongzhou Fog Column, Juncai Xingchi" in the "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", so she named the child Zhou Xingchi, which means "handsome among people, like stars in the sky".
After Zhou Xingchi was born, his mother gave birth to a younger sister for him, but the more people in the family, the greater the living expenses.
A family of five people crammed into the bunk bed of iron frames, can not even turn over, occasionally can eat a meal of soy sauce bibimbap, is enough to think that it is a delicacy in the world.
When he was a child, Zhou Xingchi liked to lie down in front of the window sill, look at the life of every family in the walled city, and remember the lives of these ordinary people like him in his mind, what he remembered was a kind of "struggle", a kind of "resistance" to a bitter life, and a true portrayal of "little people".
The young Zhou Xingchi would not have thought that one day, he would let everyone see the difficulties of these little people.
One day, his mother took Stephen Chow to a movie, but Chow ignored his usual favorite movie because he saw his father hugging a woman in the front seat.
In 1969, when Zhou Xingchi was 7 years old, his mother finally could not stand his father's various vices, formally divorced, and left the sad home with three children.
After relying on his mother and sisters for his life, Zhou Xingchi's heart is full of contradictions, on the one hand, because he has actually been introverted and shy since he was a child, and as long as there are outsiders when eating in restaurants, he will hold the menu card to block his face, and shyly answer quickly to finish the meal.
His shy and introverted personality has not changed so far, so he is most afraid of participating in live and variety shows.
But on the other hand, he wants to protect his mother and sisters, and the shy Zhou Xingchi most admires Bruce Lee and an uncle from the neighbor's family.
Because of his admiration for Bruce Lee, Zhou Xingchi's first "practice" was to beat cockroaches with the soles of his shoes, while the neighbor uncle dared to fight with his bare hands.
This scene brought a great impact to the young Zhou Xingchi, and the uncle's "heroic posture" also gave him courage.
When he was 9 years old, Stephen Chow watched Bruce Lee's movie "Big Brother Tangshan", and he finally made up his mind to express his wish to his mother: "I want to become a kung fu star like Bruce Lee." ”
At first, the mother only joked with him, until she saw her son teach himself "iron sand palm", he put the fried soybeans in the pot and kept shoveling by hand, the delicate palm was trained by him covered with calluses, the skin was thick.
The mother saw this scene with tears in her eyes, she understood Zhou Xingchi's determination, and even more understood the implicit and wordless love in her son's heart.
She stopped this near-self-harm "practice" and saved money to buy a sandbag for Stephen Chow.
Zhou Xingchi went to school while practicing "martial arts", but unfortunately, in addition to Chinese, his grades were very poor.
After graduating from high school, he worked as a waiter in a tea restaurant, worked in a factory, and worked as an office assistant, but his busy life did not dilute his dream of being a kung fu star.
In 1982, Zhou Xingchi, who had just turned 20, pulled his friend Liang Chaowei to participate in the TVB actor exam together, who knew that zhou Xingchi, who was full of hope, fell off the list, but Liang Chaowei, who accompanied the exam, was successfully admitted.
The lost Zhou Xingchi returned home, and Qi Meizhen, who lived on the opposite door, asked him how he had done, and he only said: "Wei Zai has been admitted." ”
What many people don't know is that Qi Meizhen, Liang Chaowei, and Zhou Xingchi are old friends for many years, and Qi Meizhen is a noble person of Zhou Xingchi.
Qi Meizhen entered TVB a year earlier than Zhou Xingchi, and when Zhou Xingchi fell off the list, it was Qi Meizhen who found Liu Fanggang, the principal of the training class at that time, to intercede for him, which allowed Zhou Xingchi to successfully enter the TVB training class.
In later Chow Sing Chi's films, the audience can always find the figure of "Ah Zhen", who is thanking the people who have helped him in his own way.
Qi Meizhen only felt that it was a small matter of raising her hand, but every time Zhou Xingchi talked about entering the industry, she would tell everyone: "At that time, I relied on Qi Meizhen to help me." ”
After the two finally entered the industry, the treatment of Liang Chaowei and Zhou Xingchi can be described as a world of difference, Liang Chaowei quickly became the darling of the circle, and it did not take long to play the male lead; However, Zhou Xingchi was arranged to be the host of the children's program "430 Shuttle".
This job has low salary and no room for promotion, and the only advantage is that there is more free time, so as soon as there is time, Zhou Xingchi will go to the crew to run the dragon set.
He played passers-by, soldiers, and even corpses, sometimes showing his face, but more often only a back.
Hong Kong media also ruthlessly complained about him in the magazine: "Even the host has done so badly, let alone being an actor." ”
Zhou Xingchi copied down the bad comments of the media and pasted them on the side of the bed, and every time he watched Stanislavsky's "The Self-Cultivation of Actors", he could always catch the doubts and ridicules that were there about him.
In the 1983 TV series "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter", Zhou Xingchi starred as an unknown soldier who was killed by Mei Chaofeng's slap, and he asked the director if he could let him resist the first slap and die again, and the result was naturally ruthlessly rejected.
But if you look at the shot that is less than a second away, you will find the input of his facial expression.
"It's small, but it's also a show." Zhou Xingchi said later.
After 6 years of hosting and dragon set career, in 1988, Stephen Chow was finally seen for his acting skills.
He was appreciated by Li Xiuxian, who let him play a little brother who was wandering in the rivers and lakes in the movie "Thunderbolt Pioneer", and won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor with this film.
In 1990, Xiang Brothers' company signed Stephen Chow, and director Wang Jing pushed him into the "Age of Stephen Chow" with a "Gambling Saint".
The film broke Hong Kong's box office record and became the king of the year.
The boy who idolized Bruce Lee finally ushered in his time, and he used his success to tell the world:
"If people don't have dreams, what's the difference between that and salted fish?"
But Zhou Xingchi would not have thought that after more than 30 years, his good reputation would collapse.
02. "I thought we could talk about some feelings, but I didn't expect it to be a deal." ——" Domestic Lingling Paint"
After starring in "Gamble Saint", Zhou Xingchi launched a large number of works with high quality and high output, and each one has become a classic, even today it can only be described by the word miracle.
In the films he starred in and directed, the protagonists were never the heroes and good men of "Wei Guangzheng", the mountain thief in "Journey to the West", the rags in "Shaolin Football", the beggar in "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qi'er"...
He uses his own thinking to deconstruct and reorganize the "hero", integrates all the lives he sees and feels into the role, and everyone can find resonance in his movies, and finally the audience suddenly finds that these "little people" are heroes, and everyone can be a hero.
Zhou Xingchi's mother once said: "Xiaolong (Zhou Xingchi's nickname), such a shy person, performs like a demon." ”
It is this paranoia of Stephen Chow that has made him the "King of Comedy" and made his life outside the play controversial.
Since the advent of "Mermaid" and "The King of New Comedy", Stephen Chow can be described as "late and unsafe".
Netizens counted him Jiang Lang to the end, "Xingye" became Zhou Xingchi, and the former "friends" all jumped out and stripped him of his dignity.
As Zhou Xingchi's old things are turned over one by one, he is called a "snob" today, and tomorrow he will become a "lonely man".
As mentioned earlier, Li Xiuxian discovered Zhou Xingchi, and after his fire, he let Zhou Xingchi shoot "Descendants of the Dragon" and "Love Saint", but the film remuneration was very low, only a few hundred thousand.
Zhou Xingchi remembered Lee Xiu-hyun's kindness, took over the film contract, and both films were sold, and later starred in several plays "recommended" by Lee Xiu-hyun for 700,000 yuan, but at that time his film remuneration was as high as 8 million Hong Kong dollars.
Although there was grace, Zhou Xingchi thought that he could not go on like this anymore, so he avoided Li Xiuxian.
Soon after, it was reported that Li Xiuxian scolded Zhou Xingchi for being ungrateful.
Wang Jing said: "Although he is talented, he is selfish and has no taste, and only loves money." ”
When filming "Kung Fu", Hong Jinbao used as a martial arts instructor and scolded him: "Treat everyone else like a dog." ”
Because of Zhou Xingchi's paranoia, he was scolded as a "tyrant on the set", because he had to take care of everything, and as soon as he entered the state, he would become "six relatives do not recognize".
When filming "Shaolin Football", "Iron Head Gong" Huang Yifei was smashed on the head with 8 beer bottles, but the effect did not meet his psychological expectations, people were smashed, Zhou Xingchi was still asking the question group: "Is there any wine bottle!" ”
In Zhou Xingchi's heart, the movie always seems to be the first, and people's sophistication and friendship with friends can only give way to it.
"Star Girl" Huang Shengyi once complained, "In a few years, and he has not spoken more than 100 sentences." ”
But Zhou Xingchi feels that this is taken for granted, and others may value human feelings, afraid of losing the word righteousness in the circle; But Zhou Xingchi only values the movie, and he is afraid of losing the drama and the audience.
Zhou Xingchi once said: "Things are more important than people." ”
He did offend almost all his friends and partners for this.
Even his golden partner Wu Mengda was also hurt by him, and before the filming of "Kung Fu" began, he invited Wu Mengda to join, for which Wu Mengda pushed out two plays, and the film remuneration was far more than one million.
But when it was close to starting up, Zhou Xingchi suddenly told Wu Mengda: "Brother Da, your role is gone, no need to shoot." ”
Wu Mengda angrily pointed at him and asked, "Do you think of me as a brother?" ”
Then the news of the two people breaking up with the outside world did not go away, everyone was waiting for the fierce material of this golden combination, and did not want Wu Mengda to respond: "I understand him, we will cooperate, as long as I am not dead, he is not retired." ”
Unfortunately, everyone can no longer see the two cooperate, at Wu Mengda's funeral, Zhou Xingchi sent a simple but sincere four words "Forever missed!" ”
There are not many people in the world who can understand him, and now there is one less.
People can understand accusing Zhou Xingchi of being "ruthless", but the word "greedy for money" cannot be related to him.
Because he used words such as "Yang Guo" and "Little Dragon Girl" in "Kung Fu", he took the initiative to find Jin Yong to pay the copyright fee, and Jin Yong was dumbfounded:
"Countless people have used the novels and names I wrote, and few have discussed with me, so what do you mean by these names?" Take it and use it. ”
But in the end, Zhou Xingchi still forced the copyright fee to Jin Yong, saying that he would not give up anything.
Moreover, in terms of patriotism and donations, Zhou Xingchi also did many things in a low-key manner.
In the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, he gave 30 million yuan to help the people in the disaster area, accusing Wang Jing, who cut the door, of donating one percent of him.
Everyone knows that Gu Tianle donated many loving schools, in fact, Zhou Xingchi also donated more than 100 "Zhou Xingxing Primary School".
Some people may say that money is just something outside the body, and I have so much that I will donate.
But what many people don't know is that Zhou Xingchi donated his bone marrow to help sick children.
Zhou Xingchi is indeed not a "perfect person", he also has a variety of shortcomings that have been criticized by people, he is like the protagonist in his own movie, although there are various problems, he can indeed be called a "hero".
After all, heroes are always lonely, and who says it's not a tragedy.
03. "Once there was a sincere love in front of me, I did not cherish ..." —— "Journey to the West"
Stephen Chow once said: "I believe that not many people will like me as a person." ”
Since he entered the industry, in addition to his relatives, there are only movies left in life, no entertainment, social networking, and love.
Wang Jing said: "Zhou Xingchi's vicissitudes and melancholy are from the inside out, all his smiles are left on the screen, and it is difficult for you to see him smile in life." ”
The core of comedy is tragedy, and because of this, the more the audience laughs, it is often the saddest time when he makes a movie.
Zhou Xingchi said in an interview: "Actually, I am a tragic actor. ”
The audience laughed.
Many viewers who have watched "Journey to the West" think that Zhou Xingchi's regret is "Purple Xia Fairy" Zhu Yin.
In fact, what really makes Zhou Xingchi regret is his "Miss Duan" Luo Huijuan.
Zhou Xingchi and Luo Huijuan met in the crew of the TV series "Ade is also crazy", when Zhou Xingchi was still running the dragon set, and Luo Huijuan was already the head of the family.
In this play, Zhou Xingchi and Luo Huijuan kissed twice, and this kiss was Zhou Xingchi's first kiss.
A year later, in the TV series "Gestapo", Luo Huijuan starred in the heroine "Mrs. Duan", and Zhou Xingchi both fell in love inside and outside the play, but the two did not dare to announce this relationship because of their careers.
Luo Huijuan will look at the detective class Zhou Xingchi, Zhou Xingchi will also drive Luo Huijuan for a ride, Zhou Xingchi's sincerity to Luo Huijuan is obvious to all, even Zhang Guorong later said that Zhou Xingchi is very loving to his girlfriend.
In 1990, when Zhou Xingchi became famous for "Gambling Saint", he had thought about marrying Luo Huijuan, and he also told Liu Zhenwei with great interest about this idea: "I want to get married!" ”
But he gets a basin of cold water that is indeed Liu Zhenwei, Zhou Xingchi longs to be loved, longs for someone to accept his paranoid self, and he wants to make his "tragic" life have a light.
Zhou Xingchi flinched, in terms of love, he was not as indomitable as he did with movies, he was full of contradictions in his feelings, so he did not talk to Luo Huijuan.
No one would have thought that the marriage between the two would be missed.
In 1992, Luo Huijuan proposed to Zhou Xingchi that she wanted to get married, but at that time, Zhou Xingchi took over 7 movies, and he was in a state of "entering the drama" at all, and he could not take care of Luo Huijuan's thoughts, and only said three words to her: "Neuropathy!" ”
These three words Luo Huijuan remembered for a lifetime, and she never let go of them after many years.
She didn't understand why Zhou Xingchi was suddenly so indifferent, but she also didn't know that Zhou Xingchi was "hard to open in love."
When asked what kind of man is worth getting married, Luo Huijuan replied:
"Like Stephen Chow!"
Zhou Xingchi also maintained the highest degree of concern for Luo Huijuan, and when he learned that the filming was injured, he would rush to the scene as soon as possible, and met him at the event and invited Luo Huijuan to take a group photo.
Zhou Xingchi was like a naïve child, silently watching and guarding Luo Huijuan, but he did not dare to show his love anymore.
Finally, Luo Huijuan could not wait for Zhou Xingchi to open her mouth, and she fell into depression due to change, and she married another man who loved her.
But fate tricked people, Luo Huijuan has not enjoyed long happiness, she was unfortunately cut off from cancer by the disease, and the date of diagnosis was just zhou Xingchi's birthday.
In Luo Huijuan's last words, there is a passage that seems to be said to Zhou Xingchi:
"Death is not terrible, there are regrets that are terrible." If you want to live without regrets, live well, love well, and don't give yourself the opportunity to regret it! ”
But Luo Huijuan is already doomed to become Zhou Xingchi's regret.
Since then, Zhou Xingchi's films can always see the shadow left by the two when they were together.
Whether it's to commemorate the line in the play where the two first met, "I don't do it, do you raise me?" Or the "neuropathy" that neither of them can let go.
Even when "Miss Duan" in "Journey to the West" confessed to Tang Monk, she was also replied: "Neuropathy! ”
It turned out that Zhou Xingchi had no "creativity" at all, he just crushed his entire life into his own movie, and what he showed was nothing else, but everything about him.
Looking at the classic dialogue between Supreme Treasure and Zixia, I think Zhou Xingchi should really regret it in his heart.
In an interview with CCTV, the host asked him why the music of "Journey to the West to Descend the Devil" used the ending song "Love of a Lifetime" from "Journey to the West" 18 years ago.
He said that there were actually changes, adding a sentence that "from now on, love is still there." ”
Zhou Xingchi also said that if he could start again, he would not be so busy and set aside time to do what he liked to do.
"At that time, all I had in mind was work. Now in my 50s, I've found that a lot of things haven't been done well yet. ”
The host jokingly asked him, when to get married?
He took off his hat to reveal his hair and smiled miserably: "You see, do I still have a chance?" ”
I guess he wanted to be like the samurai on the castle tower, striding forward and taking his beloved woman into his arms and telling her, "I will never leave in my life, I love you." ”
Laughing at the monkey with the stick on his back with his lover is like laughing at himself in real life, although he has become a "hero": "He is like a dog." ”
04. "It's pitch black ahead and you can't see anything." No, it will be beautiful after dawn" – "The King of Comedy"
Zhou Xingchi, who is full of chinese hair, is lonely and sad but little known.
His heart is free, he fights for his dreams as a teenager, he lives for his own wishes, it is not clear whether it is joy or sorrow, but it must be lonely.
A lifetime of love, a sigh.
Perhaps to become a "king", whether it is "comedy" or "tragedy", the fate that needs to be carried is always "lonely".
In the journey of life, it is destined to be constantly lost.
Losing the youthful body, forgetting the restlessness of youth; Cut off one friendship after another, and end the quarrels and noises that were once there; Fading the multicolored aura on the body, what is left?
Some people say that Zhou Xingchi has changed, he has indeed changed, and he has finally become no longer "paranoid".
For fans, it seems sad that they may not have a chance to see his films again.
But for Zhou Xingchi, it seems to be a great thing, he slowly found softness and happiness, and became less sharp.
Just as at the same time as losing, you will always get something, and what you lose may accompany you in another form.
If you have been desperate and sad, as if you are trapped in darkness and cannot extricate yourself, please hold on a little longer.
"It's beautiful after dawn."
I wish Stephen Chow a happy 60th birthday, and I wish everyone a brighter tomorrow!