In 1991, director He Ping directed a movie called "Double Flag Town Knife Man". As soon as the movie came out, it immediately caused a sensation, and it was summarized as a martial arts film, a Western, a romance film, and even a literary film. It has not only received numerous praises at home, but also won awards internationally.
It was a strange film, and it was very different from the domestic film style of the time. It is rough and delicate, wild and pure, it exudes strong male hormones, but it is everywhere revealing feminine delicacy. Just like the good sister in the movie, when all the characters are torn and dirty, only the good sister has red makeup, delicate like a flower that is opening.
"Double Flags Town Knifeman" takes the thick lines to the extreme, it only tells a simple story full of desert wind and sand, but in that era it contained too many romantic feelings that too many people rushed to release.
All the stories of the film take place in a desolate town in the western desert, and all kinds of people appear, including boys, girls, thieves, and chivalrous people. The town is not big but seems to be the epitome of this world, pure love, deep family affection, false friendship and indifferent human feelings are intertwined, so that each protagonist and supporting role are showing the good and evil of human nature.
And one of the characters is very interesting, he is the Great Ranger Sharifei. His presence does not seem to advance the plot, but it is indispensable.
Sha Lifei is indispensable because he is the key to making the child a real knife knifeman. His promise makes the child full of hope, so the child has been waiting, and the fear in his heart has been accumulating. And when the child's hopes eventually turn into disappointment, fear eventually turns into anger. This fear and anger intertwine, reach their peak and erupt, and the child brother is no longer the same child brother he used to be.
So, is the big ranger Sha Lifei a charlatan who can only play tricks but has no real ability?
Sha Lifei said in the words of an old man in shuangqi town: "I have heard that this person is a bit colorful."
When Sha Lifei appeared, he was full of chivalrous wind, and he shouted "Quicksand stirs the wind", just like the background music that made People boil when Superman flew in the sky. When he first met the protagonist, Brother Shalifei opened his mouth to borrow money, and although brother Bao was reluctant because it was the money of his daughter-in-law, under Sha Lifei's mouth, he still divided the money with Half of Sha Lifei. The boy did this only because he thought the Big Ranger was a good person.
And Sha Lifei is also quite bold, he told the child brother: "Within a radius of five hundred miles, there is trouble to come to the hay shop to find me Sha Lifei", saying that he would raise the whip and go away from the dust. And it is estimated that what Sha Lifei did not expect in his dreams was that the child brother really had to go to him later.
When the brother arrived in Shuangqi Town, he recognized the lame father-in-law and daughter-in-law who opened a tavern in the town. It turned out that this father-in-law, who had never met before, followed the father of the child in the jianghu when he was young, and was also a knife hand, and the two of them fixed this doll kiss when they were young, and later as soon as they died and were injured, this family affair was forgotten by the old man.
No, at this time, the child brother came to the door, and the cripple could not only take him in temporarily, calling him the child of the uncle's family. I didn't think that if he stayed, he would leave a blessing and a curse.
Fu, because there were several habitual bandits in the desert in the store one day, and several bandits wanted to bully their good sisters after drinking too much, and at the critical moment, the child brother used the knife method passed to him by his father to kill one of the bandits.
Because the cripple took in the baby brother, he also indirectly saved his daughter and sister, which is a blessing.
And the misfortune also came with the blessing, and in order to save his sister, the child brother slashed the bandits with a knife. But this was a stab in the honeycomb, and it turned out that this bandit was the younger brother of the great thief Who had been running amok in the desert for many years. At this time, the big Ranger Sha Lifei who appeared in front of him suddenly became very strange. If it is true that as Sha Lifei said, in addition to his violence and peace, robbing the rich and helping the poor, people give him the nickname "Great Ranger", then why is there a big thief who kills people and never uses a second knife under the intersection of the environment?
Following the preface, because of the fear of retaliation from the knife fairy, the cripple who had mixed up the rivers and lakes immediately arranged for the child brother and the good sister to escape. But as soon as I went out, I found that my home had long been surrounded by the villagers of Shuangqi Town. People shouted one after another: "You can't go, you go, a knife fairy wants people, what do we give."
Under the dilemma, the child brother remembered Sha Lifei, after all, "within a radius of five hundred miles, if there is something, look for Sha Lifei."
On the desert, the child rode alone to the hay shop to find the Big Ranger. After the description of the ins and outs, Sha Lifei stopped the knife in his hand that was cutting meat, and he asked the child brother, "A knife fairy?" Did you mess with him? ”。 After getting the confirmation from the child's brother, Sha Lifei looked embarrassed, but after only a moment he looked up and returned to his uncaring look. After taking a big sip of wine, Sha Lifei continued to cut the flesh, and he boasted to the child brother and said, "You can rest assured, a knife immortal is dead, even if there is no such thing as you, I will chop him sooner or later."
After saying that, he reversed the honorarium brought to him by the upside-down brother, although it was not much, but Sha Lifei still smiled and picked it up. When it came, Sha Lifei did not forget to give the child a reassuring pill: "In two days, the sun will be on the three poles, and the double flag town will see you."
The child brother returned to Shuangqi Town with hope, and although the villagers were still worried, they relaxed their hearts a lot, and even bet on who lost and who won, Sha Lifei and Yi DaoXian.
Two days later, the desert wind and sand began, and a knife fairy led his men to Shuangqi Town, but the child's hope, Sha Lifei, never showed up. The boy sat alone under the double flagpole, he hoped that Sharifei would appear at any time, but he also knew that Sharifei should not show his face, and the Big Ranger deceived himself.
Under the shadow of the sword light and blood, the lame man, the blacksmith and the drunken old man were killed on the spot, and the knife fairy had already come to the child brother, and he stared at the child brother, as if a mountain was insurmountable.
At a critical moment, the good sister who was bent on avenging her father cried and picked up the knife, and this unexpected move made the knife fairy turn back. At the same time, a strange wind and sand rolled up in Shuangqi Town, and the sound of drawing a knife was heard in the wind and sand, and people could not see anything, but they could hear the "clanging" sound of metal striking.
This enigmatic wind and sand comes and goes quickly. After the wind and sand dissipated, The child brother stood in the same place with a bloody face, while the sword immortal stood opposite the child brother, he nodded and showed a smile of approval, he asked the child brother, "Who taught you the sword technique?" ”
Without waiting for the child to answer, a knife fairy turned to leave, and an unexpected scene appeared, a knife fairy took a few steps, he fell to his knees and died of exhaustion, and blood gushed out from his stomach like a faucet that had been unscrewed.
At this time, a loud cry came from outside the town - "quicksand stirring the wind", and the big ranger Sha Lifei finally came. Sha Lifei rode his horse and rushed into The Town of Shuangqi like a savior, and he danced his sword and roared, "What about the One Sword Immortal?" Where are the people? ”
Looking at the incomparable Sha Lifei, the child said with tears, "You lied to me", and Sha Lifei laughed indifferently: "Haha, what are you crying?" I already knew that his knife skills were inferior to yours! ”。 After asking the child for the remaining honorarium, Sha Lifei looked at the sword immortal that he had picked up, and said smugly: "Don't suffer losses, this knife is still golden." ”
At the end of the conversation, Sha Lifei rode away from Shuangqi Town, leaving only a flying sand all the way up, and before leaving, he said the same bold words to the child brother: "There is trouble, the hay shop is looking for me Sha Lifei!" ”
Throughout the movie, Sha Lifei seems to be a liar, he shouts slogans loudly, but he has not once made a move.
Before he first met his brother, he met two masked knifemen who wanted to find revenge on a knife fairy, and at this time, Sha Lifei behaved like a standard bag. Facing the copper plate thrown at his feet by the masked knifeman, he looked solemn and did not say a word. After the two masked knifemen left on horseback, Sha Lifei became wild again, and he stood up at the waist and opened his mouth to scold: "Dog Day, scare Grandpa?" ”
But then Sha Lifei felt the pressure of a breath. This unique breath, we can call it killing qi, which is a kind of breath that only people with high kung fu can have in the martial arts world, just like Tang Long in the movie "Wuxia", the martial arts are strong, the killing is compelling, and even mosquitoes and flies are not allowed to get close.
Shari flew as fast as he could, rushing to the horse, with his knife in his hand, and looked around. At this time, the wind and sand suddenly rose, and the child brother appeared in the sand and dust alone and on horseback. It should be at this time that Sha Lifei has already determined that the protagonist, Brother Bao, has a fairly good martial art.
This super sensing ability itself shows that Sha Lifei's insight is beyond ordinary people. You know, at that time, our protagonist, The child brother, anyone looked like a stupid half-sized child. Even the younger brother who was slashed by him by a knife immortal, who was called "not a first-class master, but also outstanding", did not pay any attention to the child brother, which eventually led to his own death.
In the face of the masked knifeman, Sha Lifei chose to admit it, was it his lack of ability? It should not be, walking in the rivers and lakes in that era was a life of knife head licking blood, if Sha Lifei had relied solely on deception and had not experienced the vicious battle of laying down his name, it would have been impossible to have such a big reputation and such a high price.
His confession can only show his slippery and secular maturity. There is no benefit, then there is no need to fight for a moment to win or lose, in the words of le shao in the movie "Underworld", that is, "everyone talks about business, and there is no one to go." ”
And in the final life-and-death showdown, Sha Lifei was able to appear in time after the death of a knife immortal, because he had already arrived in Shuangqi Town, but he had not appeared, which showed that he had indeed come by appointment, and was not simply a money swindler.
Sha Lifei is not a stunned head, nor is he a hero in the usual sense, he is more like a jianghu Laipi. But he has collected money, and he knows how to do things, and he has killed a knife immortal, that is, he can receive honorarium and make a name for himself, so why not enjoy it? It's just that Shuangqi Town is too poor, and the money given is too small, and he is not fully sure to deal with a knife immortal, losing money, and the "big oil man" will not do it.
As mentioned earlier, Sha Lifei is not an ordinary person, from the first time he saw the child brother, he knew that the child brother had a skill, and his sentence "I already knew that his sword skills were inferior to yours!" ", is not simply a scene of words. But he also knew that although the child brother was highly skilled, he was not deeply involved in the world, like a blank piece of paper, which could be seen from the fact that he easily changed half of the money on the child's body into his pocket with three words. Therefore, when the child brother, who is as simple as a blank piece of paper, can exert several successful powers against a sword immortal who has been killed for a long time, Sha Lifei cannot judge.
In the end, Sha Lifei made a choice, which is also a choice for an old fritter, that is, wait and see. First wait for the results of the child brother and the knife fairy, and then see whose hand they killed. After all, a knife immortal's reputation is too big, and it is definitely not a good kind, if they lose both, then he Sha Lifei can come forward to pick up a leak and repair a knife.
If a knife immortal is killed by mistake, then he can find an excuse to say that it is late, so that he will not delay his reputation as a great ranger, and he will also earn money, and he will not suffer losses left and right.
And if the child brother dies and is killed by a knife immortal, then he can also use the child's life to test the bottom of the sword immortal and observe whether the next sword immortal has flaws. If a knife immortal is too strong, then he does not have to be strong, after all, the loss of money, "big oil man" will not do, not to mention the things that may lose his life, how much money is not worth it.
"Double Flag Town KnifeMan" is a rough film and one of the pinnacles of Chinese martial arts films. It is like Gu Long's novel, the master's tricks are never fancy, and the problems that can be solved with one knife will never be a second knife. It is also a film that mixes romantic colors and realism, it tells the romantic story of a boy growing into a chivalrous guest, and also shows the deception of the real world.
In this story, Sha Lifei seems to have no heavy role, but is just a "oil" man with different hearts. But he was crucial to the growth of the child. If the knife fairy represents the extreme strength and violence of the boy's growth, then Sha Lifei teaches the boy how to survive in this barbaric world.
It can be said that it is the "mouth cannon" Sha Lifei who uses the "custom" that permeates his body and body to inspire the "courage" in the depths of the child's heart!