In 1988, the electric inspection was liberalized, which became a milestone event in the history of Hong Kong film.
In the short two or three years since then, major production companies have followed the trend of the times.
In this context, many pure goddesses at the time of their debut resolutely chose to transform in order to break through the image of the drama road.
One of the initiators was Ye Yuqing, the goddess of the film world at that time.
Ye Yuqing was the third runner-up in the Miss Asia pageant in 1985, and was immediately signed by ATV and stepped into the film and television circle at the age of 18.
Although Ye Yuqing has participated in many film and television dramas at ATV, she has always had a bad star path and always seems to have a little luck.
After the expiration of atv's contract, Ye Yuqing resolutely chose to leave Asia Television to seek other development opportunities.
At that time, there happened to be a magazine inviting Ye Yuqing to take a photo, Ye Yuqing boldly appeared on camera, which caused a sensation for a time, so that the magazine was sold directly to the market, and Ye Yuqing, who was originally only a second-line actor in the television circle, was very famous in the entertainment industry.
Immediately after that, a film dealer threw an olive branch and invited Ye Yuqing to participate in the film.
In 1991, Ye Yuqing released three films in one go, known as the "Ye Yuqing Trilogy", namely: "Can't Help It" directed by Zha Chuanyi, "I Am Crazy for Qing" directed by He Fan, and "Qing Ben Jiaren" directed by Yang Zhijian.
The three films were released at the end of the year, and as a result, they won more than 30 million box office, and Ye Yuqing became famous from then on.
In this issue of "Forgotten Hong Kong Films", let's talk about one of the trilogy -
"I'm Crazy for Qingqing"
Hidden Desire
The film was released by Jiahe and directed by He Fan, a famous director from Shaw.
Ho Fan is an underrated director in the history of Hong Kong film, known as the "aesthetic director", he himself in addition to the identity of film director, is also a master of photography, when he was young in the photography industry to emerge to win the award, the aesthetic pursuit of photography and picture, has become a major feature of Ho Fan's film director.
In the 1960s, He Fan went to Shaw's company to test for directing, and as a result, he got the insight of Zou Wenhuai, the manager of Shaw's propaganda department at the time, and suggested that He Fan become an actor, so He Fan played the male lead in his first play, and later starred in the Tang monk in Shao's version of "Journey to the West".
Although the actors are very successful, He Fanzhi is not here, and he has been creating experimental films in his spare time, actively transforming into a director.
But Shaw is a commercial studio after all, everything starts from profit, in order to be able to officially become a director, He Fan made a "Spring full of Denmark" for Shaw, which turned out to make He Fan a million box office directors and was reused by Shaw.
After leaving Shaw's, He Fan made a "Ukiyo Style Painting", although the results of this film were not ideal after its release, but later Ma Dangxiong filmed the same theme of "Stealing Love Treasure Book", but from this film there were many teachers, which shows He Fan's artistic achievements.
In the 1990s, He Fan conformed to the trend of the times and filmed this "I Am Crazy for Qing" for Jiahe.
It should be said that among the many shoddy films on the market at that time, He Fan's film was much higher than many works of the same period in terms of photography and mirror operation, and He Fan's unique aesthetic photography style enhanced the style of this film.
Although the film takes Ye Yuqing as the selling point, in fact, there are three female protagonists, one is the same beauty pageant actress Guo Xiuyun, as a Mixed-Race Child of Sino-German, Guo Xiuyun's beauty is not lost to the goddess of the same period, but there are not many representative works in the film circle.
Another actress with a lot of role in the film is Reina Murakami from Japan.
The supporting actor with a heavy role in the film is Charlie Cao, a familiar face in Hong Kong films, who has started his acting career since joining Shaw's company, and has gradually become famous for his small role of indecent and greedy for money, and has participated in the movie "Police Story", "Best Friend", "Fierce Ghost Overlord Flower", but they are all supporting roles with few scenes.
It is worth mentioning that he is also the uncle of actor Zhang Zhilin.
Speaking of the story, the plot of the film is actually very simple, which can be summarized as:
The prodigal love story of a scumbag prodigal son.
In a bar in Hong Kong, the lights are green.
Xu Dawei is a young Chinese who grew up in the United States, and his father is the president of a large company.
As a rich second generation, Xu's father died of illness, and Xu Dawei was ordered to return to Hong Kong to inherit his father's company.
Since the Xu family's father and son have been abroad for many years, the Hong Kong branch has been handed over to the company manager Charlie to take care of it.
Charlie is a lewd middle-aged greasy man, who covers the sky with his hands in the company, often using the convenience of his position to hook up with and flirt with his female employees, and most of the female subordinates in the department dare not speak out.
Charlie even used his power for personal gain, hooking up with his subordinate Emmy all day long, resulting in a miasma of smoke within the company.
When Xu Dawei first arrived, he seemed a little confused in the face of the undercurrents in Hong Kong and the company.
At this time, within the company, there is a female colleague Tingting (Guo Xiuyun) with a straight personality and excellent working ability.
Charlie's concubines, Amy and Tingting, are rivals, and the two are competing for the position of head of the company's sales department.
Manager Charlie hooked up with Amy, and then stared at the beautiful Tingting, took the opportunity to hint at Tingting, want to be promoted and raise, you have to be your lover, but Tingting personality is stubborn, not afraid of power, she was in the company meeting, angrily reprimanded the unscrupulous behavior of her boss Charlie.
All this made Tingting leave a deep impression on Xu Dawei's heart.
Tingting has a good friend Zu'er (Played by Ye Yuqing), the two are close friends in the boudoir, and have always been sisters who talk about everything.
Zu'er is a car salesman, her personality is different from the conservative Anding Tingting, her style is open, and she has always had the dream of marrying into a rich family.
In order to catch the golden turtle son-in-law, Zu'er often uses his beauty to stir up those young and golden children, and the new boss Xu Dawei in Tingting's mouth is young and promising and golden, which naturally arouses Zu'er's interest.
And Xu Dawei is also a prodigal son of the love scene, although he already has a girlfriend Condy, he still lives a life of drunken gold fans.
It just so happened that Xu Dawei was preparing to buy a car and met Zu'er, who sold the car, two people who were popular with each other, and they hit each other off.
However, Xu Dawei, who stepped on two boats, soon revealed the scandal, and Xu Dawei finally chose to break up with his girlfriend and continue to be with Zu'er.
At the same time, because Tingting was hard and capable, Xu Dawei promoted Tingting to a higher position.
In the day and night together, Xu Dawei gradually moved his heart for Tingting, and the two became partners in their careers.
Charlie quietly arranged for his subordinate Amy to seduce Xu Dawei, but Xu Dawei not only did not win the plan, but through Amy set out the evidence of Charlie's private misappropriation of the company's property, under the joint cooperation of Xu Dawei and Tingting, Charlie resigned, and the company's business returned to normal.
After experiencing these twists and turns, Xu Dawei thought that Tingting was shrewd and capable, and let her take over the manager's position, and the two had a good feeling.
Seeing that Tingting and Xu Dawei were getting closer and closer, the result made the good sister Zu'er jealous and had a fierce quarrel with Tingting.
The sisterhood broke down, and Tingting could only choose to quit and leave the United States to avoid Xu Dawei's courtship.
Tingting's departure made Xu Daweiton feel lost.
However, with Zu'er, it is still impossible to fill the emptiness of Xu Dawei, Zu'er hopes to marry into the rich, so he made a marriage request, but Xu Dawei is a prodigal son of a flower bush, bent on playing life, and has no intention of marrying Zu'er.
Xu Dawei and Zu'er gradually have contradictions, at the same time, because Tingting left, Xu Dawei, who had no management skills, was more and more unable to take care of the company, coupled with his daily sinking of male and female love, resulting in the company's financial situation getting worse and worse.
In the end, he and Zu'er also parted ways, and the company finally reached the brink of bankruptcy.
Soon, Xu Dawei's company was underrun and was about to be acquired by Japan's largest "Daejeon" consortium.
In the process of negotiating a deal with the other party, Xu Dawei also meets Hiroko Senkin (Reina Murakami), the owner of the Daejeon Group.
Yuzi fell in love with Xu Dawei, her father forced Xu Dawei to marry his daughter in order to complete his daughter, only in this way did he agree to acquire the Xu family's company, Xu Dawei originally did not refuse, but in the face of Yuzi's father's strength, she was shaken in her heart.
Just when Xu Dawei and Hiroko are about to get married, David realizes that his love with Hiroko is based on interests, and their marriage is bound to bring misfortune to Hiroko.
Thinking about it, Xu Dawei chose to leave, to find true love, and returned to the United States to find Tingting.
In fact, the main plot of the movie has basically ended here, but the screenwriter of the year somehow insisted on adding a very chicken reversal at the end, wanting to turn the film into a suspense movie.
When David Xu leaves, Hiroko meets Charlie at the restaurant.
It turned out that Charlie turned out to be a commercial spy hired by the Japanese consortium, deliberately making Xu Dawei's company a miasma, so as to facilitate the acquisition of the consortium.
After the incident, Charlie receives a commission, but Hiroko, who has lost her lover, drinks heavily.
The greedy and lustful Charlie quietly drugged Hiroko back to his residence and forcibly violated Hiroko...
The story of the film ends abruptly here.
As one of Ye Yuqing's fame trilogy, this "I Am Crazy for Qing" has almost no highlights in terms of plot, the whole film plot is dull, the editing is blunt, the plot seems to be a running account, and the emotional drama between the male protagonist and several female protagonists is forcibly pieced together, the plot is sloppy to the extreme, which fully reflects the mentality of the filmmakers at that time who only want to circle money.
Compared with such films in the same period, most of them have a basically complete story, and "I Am Crazy for Qing" has no reason, all the male and female scenes are hard-edited into it, and there is no plot at all, as Jiang Wen said, "It is for this bottle of vinegar that I wrapped this dumpling", which is why "I Am Crazy for Qing" is difficult to call a classic in the movies of the same period.
Especially this film flaunts Ye Yuqing starring, but in fact, Ye Yuqing's role only accounts for one-third, from the character relationship and scene arrangement, compared with Guo Xiuyun is the real heroine, but Guo Xiuyun is only a thin tool symbol in the film, halfway through the film, she hurriedly went offline, and the choreographer found Japanese actress Rina Murakami to help and forcibly continue the story.
However, although this film has many shortcomings in the play, it is undeniable that the director He Fan's first-class picture and aesthetics.
During the Shao period, He Fan was the great guide with Li Hanxiang. But unlike Li Hanxiang, who is keen on studying and telling the ancients, and always pursues the style of celebrities, He Fan emphasizes the sense of modernity, and most of the story topics focus on the desire and infatuation of urban men and women, coupled with the experience of photographers, making his mirror scheduling a major highlight.
He Fan filmed "I Am Crazy for Qing" beautifully and gorgeously, the bold use of color, the scheduling of the camera is like MTV, and the application of scene props such as buses, sports cars, yachts, etc., is eye-opening. Therefore, although He Fan's films are about fengyue, they can give people a sense of art that is not deliberately exploited.
It is worth mentioning that this film not only achieved Ye Yuqing, but also made Cao Charlie, who played a supporting role, famous in a battle.
Although the scenes between Charlie Cao and Rena Murakami at the end of the film are somewhat redundant, this scene was regarded as a wonderful performance of Charlie Cao at that time. After the release of this film, Cao Charlie began to be active in various films, often playing the image of some Sven scum, and thus established the position of "industry brother".