Some time ago, I didn't look at the big network for a long time, I opened a video website casually, and I saw a somewhat familiar face.
I have the impression that the child who always plays Jet Li's son now seems to have a tendency to become a big brother on the Internet.
When Semyon was a child
I have to sigh that the kung fu child stars who accompanied me growing up, such as Xie Miao, Shi Xiaolong, Cao Jun, etc., seem to have been "gone" for a long time.
Twenty or thirty years of flicking fingers, looking back, the reason why they were able to rise in those years was also related to the domestic film and television industry environment at that time, compared with today, it is indeed not the same.
In today's issue, I want to talk to you about the kung fu child star representatives in our memories, how they were discovered, and what kind of situation they are in now.
01
In the history of world cinema, 1994 was a special year. That year, there were films such as "The Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump", "Pulp Fiction" and other films abroad, and classic films such as "Chongqing Forest", "Eating Men and Women", and "Alive" were also born in the Chinese film industry.
Among them, there are two commercial films worth mentioning that changed the fate of the two people, one was "New Shaolin Five Ancestors" released in March of that year, and the other was "Whirlwind Boy" released in April.
This is the first time that Xie Miao and Shi Xiaolong have appeared on the big screen as child stars.
In 1993, a Taiwanese film and television tycoon named Yang Dengkui found Wang Jing, the director who could best make commercial films, and wanted him to re-shoot a version of the story of "Five Ancestors of Shaolin", and put forward a request that the lead actor must be Jet Li.
But Jet Li was in the limelight at the time, and the film salary experienced a triple jump, and by 1993, it had risen to about 12 million, which was enough to find the same coffee as him and the other four stars who could do kung fu.
Then Wang Jing thought, you only said that you want Jet Li to star, but you didn't say who you want him to play! I can let a few children play the Five Ancestors, Jet Li play Hong Xiguan!
So, the crew went to Beijing to pick out the children. At that time, 9-year-old Xie Miao was practicing in the martial arts class of the Children's Palace, and he got an audition opportunity because of his good kung fu. He was originally going to play the little young master of the Ma family, but Wang Jing felt that he did not look like a clumsy disciple, so he asked him to try the role of Hong Wending.
As a result, Xie Miao's youthful and old face, coupled with unswerving eyes, made Wang Jing never forget. In this way, he was selected to star in "New Shaolin Five Ancestors", partner Jet Li played father and son.
In just two years, Xie Miao has starred in five movies such as "God of Gamblers 2" and "Letter to Daddy", and in addition to Jet Li, he is also paired with star celebrities such as Zhou Runfa and Mei Yanfang. He became a famous child star and was even dubbed Jet Li's successor by the media.
God of Gamblers 2
Shi Xiaolong, who is 4 years younger than Xie Miao, was equally hot in those years, and even more popular in terms of popularity. This brings us to the film and television tycoon, Wu Dun, who was on a par with Yang Dengkui in the mainland and Taiwan at that time, nicknamed Ghostly.
This person's experience is very interesting, and I will not go into details. Simply put, it is black and white. In the Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment circles at that time, such characters were not uncommon, just like there were many gangster shadows in Hollywood in the golden age.
In 1991, Wu Dun established Changhong Film and Television, with him as the producer and Zhu Yanping as the director, and launched the first work "Five Lakes and Four Seas", which found Qin Han, Ke Shouliang and others to star. At that time, it was the world of Hong Kong films, and the box office was not good.
Wu Dun, who suffered a loss, immediately changed his thinking, and then invested in Hong Kong films, and must be a gathering of superstars, such as inviting Andy Lau, Wang Zuxian, Wu Mengda and others to star in "Temple Street Twelve Less"; He also invested in Wang Jing's filming of "Chasing Boys", bringing together Lin Qingxia, Maggie Cheung, Qiu Shuzhen, Leung Ka Fai, Jacky Cheung and others.
Such a lineup is hard to reproduce today.
However, after 1993, Taiwanese film companies gradually withdrew from the Hong Kong market, and Wu Dun, who had already made a lot of money and was satisfied, slowly put the focus back on Taiwan.
It was that year that five-year-old Shi Xiaolong followed the Shaolin Temple Buddhist study delegation to Taiwan again for exchanges. After 27 consecutive performances, the scene was full, and the milky, cute and martial little dragon made enough popularity and occupied the front page headlines of major newspapers and periodicals.
Compared with Xie Miao, who practiced martial arts out of interest, Shi Xiaolong was a proper disciple of the martial arts family. His father, Chen Tongshan, was the principal of the Shaolin Martial Arts School, and his master was Shi Yongxin, the abbot of the Shaolin Temple. Because of this, his original name was Chen Xiaolong, and he changed his name to Shi Xiaolong.
Since the age of two, Shi Xiaolong has carried out various trainings. According to the time calculation, Wang Baoqiang, who also studied martial arts at the Shaolin Temple in those years, was his disciple. Shi Xiaolong was young and talented, and at the age of 4, he began to emerge in major martial arts festivals, and Henan TELEVISION also specially followed his training routine and made a documentary.
It was Shi Xiaolong's performances that caught the attention of Wu Dun and Zhu Yanping. Without the dazzling Hong Kong star support noodles, they are in dire need of fresh blood. After some lobbying, led by his father and master, Shi Xiaolong signed a contract with Changhong Film and Television.
At that time, Chang Hongli also praised Wang Lin Zhiying, a newcomer in the singing world at that time. Therefore, Shi Xiaolong's first work, "Whirlwind Boy", is paired with Lin Zhiying, and the other child star is Hao Shaowen, who is younger than Shi Xiaolong.
After the release of "Whirlwind Boy", not only was the box office impressive, but the pair of small living treasures of Shi Xiaolong and Hao Shaowen even overshadowed Lin Zhiying's limelight.
Wu Dun and Zhu Yanping will not miss this great opportunity, taking advantage of the victory to pursue, successively launched "New Oolong Courtyard", "Invincible Anti-Fighting Star", "Chinese Dragon" and other films, Shi Xiaolong + Hao Shaowen became the box office guarantee, together with Wu Mengda, Jin Chengwu and others.
《New Oolong-in Temple》
The two of them also lived up to expectations, and several films made Changhong earn a lot of money, especially "New Oolong Temple", which also broke box office records at that time.
It is not difficult to find that whether it is Xie Miao or Shi Xiaolong, although they debuted at a young age, they just caught up with the final brilliant stage of Hong Kong and Taiwan movies, coupled with the kung fu fever of the whole society, and encountered a favorable period.
02
After entering the new century, the entire entertainment industry, whether from the source of funds, production level or content level, has undergone a comprehensive transformation.
On the one hand, since the beginning of the new century, the discourse power and focus of the film market have gradually shifted from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the mainland, especially after the signing of CEPA in 2003; On the other hand, TV dramas are also on the rise, and their influence is increasing day by day through the monopoly position of television media.
Since the mid-to-late 1990s, domestic television content production has entered a period of rapid development. However, at that time, TV stations were basically in short supply, so it was often necessary to introduce local TV dramas to fill the schedule.
In addition to the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Singapore, which also belongs to the Chinese cultural circle, also focused its business on the broader mainland market at that time.
In 1996, the Singapore TV drama production company was preparing to shoot "True Destiny Little Monk", the male protagonist was a small monk who could do kung fu, the crew looked for a long time without satisfactory candidates, and finally a few days before the start of the film, it was determined that the 8-year-old Cao Jun would play. He was studying in the martial arts class of the Children's Palace in Shanghai's Huangpu District, and was able to audition through the recommendation of his teacher.
After the broadcast of "True Destiny Little Monk", the cute and clever happy little monk became on fire, and Cao Jun also became a little red man.
In Singapore, the show was also the ratings champion of the year. Singapore's investors were very satisfied, and then decided to cooperate with the mainland, and successively launched two dramas, "True Destiny Little Monk 2" and "Lotus Boy Nezha", cao jun are designated starring.
It can be said that in those two years, Cao Jun was the absolute protagonist on the small screen.
On the other hand, Shi Xiaolong, who was previously active on the big screen, also began to switch to TV dramas due to the end of the contract and environmental changes. In 1999, he participated in the filming of the first drama "Young Bao Qingtian". After the broadcast of this drama, both word of mouth and ratings are good, and the role of Zhan Zhao also further expands the popularity of Shi Xiaolong.
"Young Bao Qingtian"
Immediately after, Wu Dun, the boss behind his initial popularity, and director Zhu Yanping also turned their focus to the mainland. In 2000, Zhu Yanping directed the first TV series "Chivalrous Woman Breaks into Heaven", although Shi Xiaolong did not play, but the role played by Cao Jun was called Shi Xiaolong, and Hao Shaowen played by Shi Xiaofu
Another TV series invested by Wu Dun, "Oolong Breaks through the Love Pass", Shi Xiaolong participated in the performance, played the role of Shi Xiaolong, the actor's name and role name overlapped many times, and also confirmed The popularity of Shi Xiaolong at that time.
In 2001, Cao Jun partnered with Shi Xiaolong and Wu Mengda to jointly shoot the TV series "Nine-year-old County Taiye";
After this, Cao Jun and Xie Miao filmed "Prime Minister Xiao Ganluo" together. It is worth mentioning that this is also Semyon's comeback since his temporary withdrawal from the show business in 1995.
All in all, in the years at the turn of the century, these kung fu child star representatives we are familiar with have their own intersection in the field of television dramas. And that is precisely the period when domestic TV dramas are gradually moving towards marketization, and the high-quality products are frequently emerging.
03
However, since 2003, Shi Xiaolong and Cao Jun have faded out of the show business circle one after another, and Xie Miao has been in a semi-retired state. The reason for their "disappearance" is basically the same, that is, to continue to complete their studies.
In particular, Shi Xiaolong, who has been filming since he was five years old, has almost no normal childhood time. In previous interviews, he has repeatedly proposed that he wants to experience ordinary campus life. Therefore, since studying abroad in 2003, except for the summer vacation when he came back to shoot "Young Bao Qingtian 3", he was basically in a state of retirement.
We can make a hypothesis, if in the next few years, several of them did not fade out of the film and television circle because of going to school, but maintained the same filming rhythm as before, can they still have high popularity, realistically speaking, can they always play the big male protagonist?
I think the possibility is very small.
The replacement of the film and television circle is faster than we think, not to mention that the external environment is constantly changing. Early Hong Kong and Taiwan capital, including Singapore capital, saw business opportunities in them, and under the relatively perfect entertainment system, they were commercially packaged and pushed people with works.
For example, it is obvious that whether it is a movie or a TV series, most of the roles they play are tailor-made. Like Shi Xiaolong's "Young Huang Feihong" starring in the later stage, cao Jun's "Baolian Lantern", it is a real male protagonist, so they have cast their record.
But as they grow older, especially at the age of sixteen or seventeen, they can play children and adults, and the child star ring on their bodies gradually becomes a shackle, which inevitably requires them to spend more effort to break it. On the other hand, the entire market leaves them with few options.
Once, in the film market, kung fu films and martial arts films were the mainstream, and in the field of TV dramas, martial arts dramas were also very popular. These kung fu child stars, in addition to their own efforts and talents, also have the help of the times.
In the first decade of this century, a film and television company called Hainan Zhouyi was also active in the mainland, producing many martial arts dramas, most of which were painted in a clean and strange style.
After finishing his studies, Shi Xiaolong starred in the martial arts drama "Peacock Plume of Seven Weapons" produced by him. This drama was broadcast as the key drama of CCTV's opening year in 2011, but the ratings were not good, and Hainan Zhouyi also declared bankruptcy after this, like some kind of prediction.
The film and television content that we were familiar with before is gradually leaving us.
That year, on the big screen, the ability of comedies to absorb money has been revealed; In the field of television dramas, the popular dramas such as "The Biography of Zhen Huan", "Gong", "Step by Step" and other dramas, all kinds of clear wear, xianxia IP, instead of the former "Jingu Liang Wen", has become the largest source of material for film and television adaptations, and the original script has become a luxury in the following years.
All this heralds the dawn of another era.
What use will you play, it is not as good as white fluttering posse play flying sword handsome.
And now Xie Miao has chosen this road. I've always felt that the current net is big, much like the early Mixed Hong Kong movies. The investment is not high, the plot is whimsical, and the theme likes action and martial arts, which happens to be the comfort zone that Semyon once had.
Around 2015, he plunged headlong into the net, basically as long as it was related to the action scenes. It is undeniable that many of them are shoddily made, but it is also the accumulation of one work after another that makes Semyon mixed up, honed his acting skills, and gradually gained more autonomy.
After several years, the quality of the works he starred in has become better and better, and he has also been recognized by more people, and there is a trend of becoming a new generation of network big brothers. Although it is far from the positioning of Jet Li's successor, it always has its own piece of the world.
Just like when we were children, we all had kung fu dreams, we wanted to fight the sword in the world, we wanted to do heroic deeds, we wanted to be happy and vengeful, and we wanted to laugh and be proud of the rivers and lakes.
Until it was found that Monday morning was blocked on the elevated road, there were still five minutes to go before the morning meeting. Until I found out that the mortgage and car loan were much scarier than the villains in the movie. Until the balance in the bank card was found, not to mention the arrogance, a thousand dollars, even ordering a takeaway at noon had to be calculated as a full reduction.
No matter how high the kung fu, you can't beat the word life.
Just like Wang Xiaobo said, life is a slow process of being hammered, people grow old day by day, luxury hopes disappear day by day, and finally become like a hammered cow.
No one can live forever. Someone will always be fierce for us.
Resources:
"New Flight Phase III: Changhong Breaking waves, 30 Years of Taiwanese Commercial Films", Sina Entertainment
"Shi Xiaolong: I am precocious, but 29 years old means growing up", Beijing Youth Weekly
"Cao Jun: A Reflective Conversation of "Mr. Too Serious"", character documentary "Tiger Father and Dragon Son"
"Flowing Golden Years": Kung Fu child star
"Super Interview": Shi Xiaolong, Xie Miao, Cao Jun, we have grown up
Author: IC Labs
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