In November 1949, Beijing launched a "prostitute reform campaign" that closed all the "brothels" at that time and liberated more than 1,200 "prostitutes".
In order to resettle these women who were persecuted by the old society, Beijing set up a "women's production and correctional institution". Here, these female compatriots, who have long been persecuted by the old society, began a new life.
Among these people, there was a woman named Li Lingyun, who had an extremely miserable life.
Because of the war, the young Li Lingyun was separated from his family. At the age of 6, she was adopted by the fat grandmother of the old bustard, and when she became an adult, she became a "prostitute" under the threat of the fat grandmother.
At the age of 19, Li Lingyun was favored by the bandit-born "Brigade Commander Zhou" who was over fifty years old and was made a concubine of the fifth room. When Li Lingyun was 22 years old, the "Brigadier Zhou" was assassinated, and the fat grandmother was also arrested and returned to the "brothel" at this time.
In 1949, when New China was founded, Li Lingyun was also liberated at that time and was sent to the "Women's Production And Correctional Institution".
During his time in the correctional institution, Li Lingyun and his sisters wrote and performed a drama called "Complaining about Turning Over", which greatly touched the staff of the correctional institution at that time.
This incident was learned by the playwright Hong Shen at the time, in order to help the development of the "prostitution liberation movement" and in order to make more people aware of the persecution of women in the old society, Hong Shen adapted "Complaining about the Turnaround", created the drama "The Thousand Year Ice River Opened", and led these female compatriots in the correctional institution to tour the country.
Speaking of which, to interject a digression. The playwright Hong Shen has a younger brother named Hong Ji. In the early 1950s, Hong Ji went to Hong Kong to start a film company and later settled in Hong Kong. And Hong Ji's grandson, also because of the Boom in Hong Kong films in the 1970s and 1980s, became famous in the film industry, and he is Hong Jinbao.
In 1950, "The Millennium Glacier Opened" was performed nationwide and received attention from all walks of life. Chen Xihe, who was working as a director at Wenhua Film Company at that time, was also deeply touched and created the movie "Sister Sister Stand Up".
This "Sister Sister Stand Up" was released in 1951, and the birth of the film officially led the development of "New Chinese Women's Film", and "Nurse's Diary", "Five Golden Flowers", "Liu Sanjie" and other "women's film" classics were also born under its influence.
In this "Sister Sister Stand Up", director Chen Xihe invited Li Lingyun to play the "vicious old bustard" Rouge Tiger in the film. On the big screen of the movie, Rouge Tiger's classic line "The old lady specializes in cutting flowers" also tells the countless heartaches that Li Lingyun encountered when he was young.
In 1973, director Li Hanxiang, who returned to Shaw's, remade this "Sister Sister Stand Up" and created the movie "Northland Rouge".
Hong Jinbao's grandmother Qian Xiangying, Wang Jie's father Wang Xia, and Jackie Chan, Michelle, and Shen Dianxia in the early years also participated in the filming of "Northland Rouge".
In this "Northland Rouge", On the basis of the original story, Director Li added a lot of new ideas and carried out a lot of new thinking and creation. In this issue, we will talk about this "Northland Rouge" directed by Li Hanxiang.
One: Li Hanxiang, who returned to Shaw's family
This "Northland Rouge" was born at a special point in Li Hanxiang's film career.
In the mid-1950s, Li Hanxiang entered Shaw's and introduced the trend of mainland opera films to the Hong Kong film market, using a Huangmei film "Sable Cicada" to open the "Huangmei Film Era" of Hong Kong films for more than 20 years.
In 1960, Li Hanxiang sought a breakthrough and won the nomination for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival with the costume film "Ghost of a Woman", which made him famous internationally. Because of the film, Shaw successfully entered the international market and opened his own overseas distribution road.
In 1963, Li Hanxiang left Shaw and formed his own "Guolian Pictures", intending to start an independent business. Unfortunately, director Li is a good hand at filmmaking, managing the company, but he can't do anything.
After the establishment of the League of Nations, although many high-grossing film works were launched, the company's accounts were a mess and a continuous deficit. In 1972, the League of Nations was forced to close down due to financial pressure.
At this time, Li Hanxiang also returned to Shao's family.
In 1972, Jiahe used Bruce Lee to move forward in the Hong Kong film market. In order to compete with Jiahe at the box office, Li Hanxiang filmed two comedy works for Shaw, "The Great Warlord" and "Wind and Moon Qitan". In order to attract the audience, Director Li designed some wind and moon shots in the film. Li Hanxiang's wind and moon film era has also begun since then.
After the release of "The Great Warlord" and "Wind and Moon Strange Tam", it achieved extremely good box office results. In 1973, Li Hanxiang further explored the "creation of wind and moon films" and filmed this "Northland Rouge".
In this "Rouge of the Northland", director Li Hanxiang tells a tragic story through comedy techniques, hoping that the audience will reflect on the film while entertaining.
However, in the Hong Kong film market in the early 1970s, entertainment was the first pursuit of audiences to buy tickets to watch movies, and in such an era environment, after the release of this "Northland Rouge", it failed to achieve the effect expected by director Li Hanxiang.
Two: a comedy story with a brutal core
In this "Rouge of the Northland", director Li Hanxiang retains the characteristics of his "segmented film", and connects the three stories of the three periods of the Republic of China, the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty through a "brothel" called "Hundred Flowers Building".
At the beginning of the movie, in the Beiping Xicheng of the Republic of China period, there is a "rouge alley". This alley is full of "first-class Green Yin Small Class", "Second-class Tea Room", and "Third Class Lower Place".
On this day, Inspector Wang, who was in charge of "brothel market management", came to Rouge Hutong to inspect. According to the regulations of the "National Government" at that time, all "prostitutes" in "brothels" had to register with the market management office and hold a certificate.
Inspector Wang came to the Hundred Flowers Building in Rouge Hutong and asked the boss " Wanren Fan " ( played by Hu Jin ) whether there was "black silk" (black silk refers to a "prostitute" who is not registered with the market management department) in the store.
At this time, a woman rushed out to cry out, saying that she had been deceived and fell into the Hundred Flowers Building.
Inspector Wang found that the woman was not registered, it was a black silk, so he wanted to take away the woman on the charge of "disrupting market management".
The woman's name is "Daqin" (played by Yu Feng), after Daqin's father died, her mother (played by Qian Xiangying) took Daqin and came to the city to join her relatives and grandmother, hoping to make a living in the city.
"Human trafficker" Deng Laosi (played by Wang Xia), seeing that Daqin looks beautiful, pretends to introduce Daqin to the "sock factory" as a female worker, but secretly sells her to the Hundred Flowers Building, and also deceives Daqin's illiterate mother and signs her daughter's deed of sale.
Daqin told Inspector Wang about his experience, but Inspector Wang said that he was only responsible for checking the black silk and did not care about anything else. Listening to Inspector Wang's tone, the charming husband "Lao Huang" (played by Jiang Nan) hurriedly offered a plate of silver dollars.
Inspector Wang, who had taken the money, didn't know anything and left the Hundred Flowers Building. And Daqin was also beaten by the fascination and Lao Huang.
Under the threat of beatings by thousands of fans, Daqin reluctantly compromised and agreed to pick up the guests.
On the first day of Daqin's reception, a businessman from outside the Hundred Flowers Building came, and the merchant looked at the simple decoration in the restaurant, thinking that this was a "third-class lower place" that was not in the flow, and turned around and wanted to leave.
However, the top brand of the Hundred Flowers Building, the "Great Golden Phoenix", ridiculed the merchants for not seeing it, and told the merchants that this Hundred Flowers Building has a long history, and the Zhengde Emperor and the Tongzhi Emperor have all come here to consume.
The merchant was curious, the emperor's wives and concubines were numerous, and they also needed to go to this kind of wind and moon venue to find fun. Seeing that the merchant did not know the anecdotes of Beiping, DaJinfeng told the merchant the story of the Tongzhi Emperor.
Before the emperor of the Qing Dynasty got married, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would select 4 grandmothers to teach the emperor about human ethics. It is said that before the marriage of the Tongzhi Emperor, Grandma Jingqi brought 4 grandmothers to the palace to face the saint.
Tongzhi's personal eunuch "Xiao Li Gonggong", worried that these 4 grandmothers were not skilled in learning art, and when the time came, they taught the wrong emperor and caused trouble, so they reminded Grandma Jingqi with more mouths.
Seeing that Xiao Li Gonggong did not trust himself, Jingqi Mamma was angry on the spot, and also returned to Xiao Li Gonggong, you do it.
Xiao Li Gonggong was very embarrassed, because he really couldn't do it.
Asked by Xiao Li Gonggong, Grandma Jingqi also had a little hesitation, and she told the four grandmothers that when they would teach the emperor, they must be careful and careful.
Under the instruction of Grandma Jingqi, the 4 grandmothers became extremely nervous, and the Tongzhi Emperor, who experienced this scene for the first time, was also extremely nervous and helpless. Under the influence of psychology, Tongzhi "is difficult to shake the wind", and since then it has fallen to the root of the disease. For this reason, Tongzhi was very distressed in his heart.
On this day, in order to please Tongzhi, Xiao Li Gonggong took him to Rouge Alley.
In order to compete for business with each other, the restaurants in the hutong have played a lot of tricks by "touching loach" and "lighting candles". Tongzhi was also attracted by these small tricks, and then came to the Hundred Flowers Building, and met a favorite girl, showing off her majesty and spending a happy night.
Since then, the Tongzhi Emperor has become obsessed with finding flowers and asking for willows, frequently lingering in this land of wind and moon. After a long time, she got "syphilis", and in order to take care of the face of the royal family, Empress Dowager Cixi did not say that she had smallpox, but also asked the imperial doctor to treat it according to the method of "smallpox".
The Tongzhi Emperor also cried out for his life because of this.
After listening to the story, the merchant felt that DajinFeng could speak well and was very suitable for his own appetite, so he lit her sign.
At the same time that Da Jinfeng received the guest, the treasurer of the Hundred Flowers Building suddenly came to find Wanmei and Lao Huang. The newly appointed garrison commander "Zhou Tianbao" (played by Jing Miao), in order to rectify military affairs, strictly prohibited "military and police personnel" from entering and leaving entertainment venues. It was also in the newspapers.
Lao Huang believes that these are all official articles, but they are just some scenes said by the newly appointed commander.
There is a way that you can't talk about people during the day and ghosts at night, and just after saying the news in the newspaper, Lao Huang saw Commander Zhou with a few retinues and came to the Hundred Flowers Building.
This Zhou Commander, who was originally a bandit, strictly restrained his subordinates and did not allow "military and police personnel" to enter and exit entertainment venues, but he himself could not bear to be lonely, and wanted to come to Rouge Alley and seek fun.
Seeing the arrival of Commander Zhou, Wanmei and Lao Huang also received him carefully, and did not dare to be sloppy. Lao Huang told Commander Zhou about the long history of the "Hundred Flowers Building" and said that the Tongzhi Emperor and the Zhengde Emperor had been here for leisure and entertainment.
Hearing this, Commander Zhou couldn't help but wonder, who is this Zhengde who is a different kind?
Lao Huang didn't know who this alien in the commander's mouth was. The commander explained that brother Xuan De brother Yi De, De brother De brother.
The crowd of fans on the side realized that Commander Zhou was talking about Zhang Fei and Zhang Yide, so they went forward to explain that this Zhengde Emperor and Zhang Yide were not people of the same era.
Seeing that the crowd could speak the Tao, Commander Zhou asked her to accompany him by name. Wan fan resigned, and said that there were young girls in the restaurant. But who knows, Commander Zhou likes to be older.
This week the commander was powerful and powerful, and the old Huang couple could not afford to offend, so they had to let ten thousand people go to serve.
After some joy, Commander Zhou wondered, has this Zhengde Emperor really come to the Hundred Flowers Building? Wan fan picked up a pipa, played and sang, and told Commander Zhou about the history of the Hundred Flowers Building.
It is said that after this Zhengde Emperor played with the dragon and phoenix in Meilong Town, he became infatuated with the land of wind and moon. On this day, Zhengde sneaked out of the palace without a single soldier or pawn.
The Jade Emperor calculated that Zhengde had a fate, so he arranged for Chenghuang Ye to secretly protect him. Chenghuang Ye found the Ten Little Ghosts and asked them to search for the whereabouts of Zhengde.
The little ghosts searched and found the Zhengde Emperor (played by Yue Hua), drinking in a tavern.
The "shop boy" (played by Jackie Chan) of the tavern, who can speak the Tao, told the Zhengde Emperor that in the Xuanwu Temple not far from here, there are two girls beautiful and heavenly immortals, one named Sai Guanyin (played by Liu Wuqi) and the other called Buddha Moving Heart (played by He Lili).
Listening to the words of the shopkeeper, Zhengde developed a good feeling for these two girls.
Xiao Er told Zhengde that the two girls, Sai Guanyin, had been wrapped up by the son of Rebbe Shangshu, and ordinary people did not have a chance to see them. And the Buddha's heart was calculated three years ago. It is said that the Buddha's heart has the order of an empress dowager, and since then, the Buddha has closed the door in the Hundred Flowers Building, waiting for the Zhengde Emperor to marry him.
Hearing this, Zhengde thought that his heart and the Buddha's heart was the marriage of heavenly gifts, so he threw thousands of dollars to let Xiao Er ask the Buddha to move his heart.
The Buddha was reluctant to accept the guest, but the old bustard of Xuanwu Temple, seeing the money's eyes open, forced the Buddha to pick up the guest. The Buddha set up many difficult problems and wanted to make it difficult for Zhengde, but with the help of the City God Master and the Ten Little Devils, Zhengde eliminated the difficulties, saw the Buddha's heart, and revealed his imperial identity to the Buddha.
After learning the true identity of Zhengde, the Buddha's heart also became entangled with Zhengde overnight. However, that night, the whole street caught fire, and the South Building and the North Pavilion were all burned, and only the Hundred Flowers Building where Zhengde stayed, under the blessing of the city god, was safe and sound, and has been passed down to this day.
When Commander Zhou was listening to it, several soldiers suddenly rushed into the Hundred Flowers Building. The leading captain was ordered to check out the "military and police personnel staying in the brothel", but unexpectedly met Commander Zhou in the restaurant.
Commander Zhou was embarrassed and did not reveal his identity. The captain of the search, who happened not to have seen the newly appointed commander, insisted on doing what was ordered and arrested several people.
Seeing this, the commander pulled out his gun and killed the captain of the "law enforcement mountain" on the spot.
After all this disturbance, Commander Zhou was irritable and decided to enter the house again and defeat the fire. This time, Commander Zhou did not look for ten thousand people, but found Daqin.
Daqin was unwilling, but Commander Zhou forcibly pulled Daqin into the house, and in the tearing, Daqin picked up a pair of scissors and "stabbed" Commander Zhou to death.
At the same time, on the street outside the Hundred Flowers Building, Deng Laosi deceived a girl again, and the movie also stopped abruptly at this time.
Three: Li Hanxiang remade the Chinese classic, and Jackie Chan ushered in a career turning point
The first half of this "Northland Rouge" is almost a reproduction of "Sister Sister Stand Up". The "Daqin" in "Rouge in the Northland", like the "Daxiang" in "Sisters and Sisters Stand Up", is the death of his father, who follows his mother to the city to join his relatives, but encounters human traffickers and is reduced to a brothel.
Character dialogue and character portrayal are almost identical.
However, after entering the middle section, Li Hanxiang began to get rid of the story structure of "Sisters And Sisters Stand Up" and tried to express his own thoughts in the work.
In "Sisters and Sisters Stand Up", although the heroine Daxiang was tortured, she finally ushered in liberation and returned to society.
In this "Northland Rouge", although director Li Hanxiang created the film in a comedic way, he left a cruel and tragic ending to the story.
The "Daqin" in "Northland Rouge" did not wait for the founding of New China like "DaXiang" in "Sisters and Sisters Stand Up", and what reality gave her was only the oppression of millions of people and the bullying of Commander Zhou.
In the face of bullying and oppression, Daqin chose to resist, she started to kill Commander Zhou, and what her fate will be after that, although the movie does not tell, the audience can guess the result.
In this "Northland Rouge", director Li Hanxiang not only shows the tragic fate of "prostitutes", but also analyzes the darkness and sinisterness of human nature.
The corrupt Inspector Wang, the "human trafficker" Deng Laosi, who is a sword-wielding sword, and Commander Zhou, who is inconsistent in appearance and does one thing after another, the design of these characters also fills the irony of the story.
However, in the Hong Kong film market in the early 1970s, audiences seemed to care more about the entertainment effect of their works. After its release in 1973, this ideological and entertaining "Northland Rouge" performed far less at the box office than Director Li's other entertainment work, "Yile Ye".
It is worth mentioning that this "Northland Rouge" has a very special significance in Jackie Chan's acting career.
In the mid-to-late 1960s, Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao, Yuan Biao, Yuan Kui and other division brothers entered the film set and became dragon and tiger martial artists.
After many years of going around, although Jackie Chan has also participated in the filming of many film works, most of them appear as stand-ins and dragon sets, and rarely have the opportunity to show their faces.
However, in the 1973 "Rouge of the Northland", Jackie Chan won the appreciation of director Li Hanxiang and officially began his career as an actor from behind the scenes. The film also became the first work of Jackie Chan's official appearance.
After "Rouge in the Northland", Jackie Chan starred in works such as "Golden Bottle Double Yan", "Policewoman", "Guangdong Little Tiger" and so on under the care of Li Hanxiang.
In the mid-1970s, Jackie Chan, who became an actor, successively got to know Luo Wei, Wu Siyuan, Zou Wenhuai and other people, and his acting career also entered a peak.