The "Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist" that is being released is a film full of feelings and pain, this documentary with a scheduling rate of less than 1%, the box office is not more than one million, and the Douban score is 8.3 points.
The poster of the film is a scarred back, and every scar on the body corresponds to a classic action movie: yuan wu shot "Strange Scheme Five Lucky Stars" in 1983 and broke his neck; in 1984, Qian Jiale filmed "Fast Food Truck" and injured his tail vertebrae; in 1985, the eight martial artists filmed "Dragon's Heart" and fell from the seventh floor and broke his leg; in 1985, Lin Zhengying filmed "Mr. Zombie" concussion; in 1986, Jackie Chan filmed "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother" skull fracture; in 1986 Hong Jinbao filmed "Best Lucky Star" Hand bone fracture In 1987, Qian Jiale filmed "Oriental Condor" and all the skin on his arm was burned; in 1989, Hu Huizhong and Li Saifeng filmed "Hunting Demon Heroes"; in 1990, Xu Baohua filmed "Tiger Out of 2" with a broken leg; in 1995, Xiong Xinxin filmed "Knife" and was seriously injured and comatose for two days; in 1996, Yang Ziqiong filmed "Akin" and was almost paralyzed.
Directed by Hong Kong film research expert Wei Junzi, Andy Lau's own title pays tribute to the countless Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists who have dedicated their lives to action movies in Hong Kong. Some of them have become famous martial arts instructors and big stars, but most of them have remained unknown for a lifetime. Xu Ke said, "What they (the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Division) did before will not be able to be done by anyone in the future. I hope that more people can know about the Dragon tiger martial artists through this documentary and remember their efforts and contributions to Hong Kong action movies. ”
The Dragon tiger martial artist is already a "vanishing martial artist"
Director Wei Junzi has been an "enthusiast" of Hong Kong movies since he was a child, especially loving Hong Kong action movies, "Hong Kong movies have changed my destiny. Speaking of the original intention of filming "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master", Wei Junzi revealed that in 2016, he originally planned to make a movie to tell the story of a Hong Kong martial arts master who had been a dragon and tiger martial artist. Mr. Tsang particularly liked the story, and he asked Mr. Qian, then president of the Hong Kong Action Stunt Performers Guild, to talk about the feasibility of the project.
Qian Jiale suggested that Wei Junzi learn more about the life experience of dragon and tiger martial artists, so Wei Junzi went from his hometown to Hong Kong on the second day of the first lunar month in 2017 to participate in their spring tea (similar to the group worship activities in the mainland), "On the spring tea I met a lot of seniors who were particularly liked on the screen before, I was particularly excited and happy, many of them have retired, I found that these predecessors are still fierce, but when I chatted with President Jiale afterwards, he said to me: 'What you see is the appearance. In fact, these predecessors were all desperate to shoot action scenes, so they were all injured, and perhaps because they were not good at financial management, or for various reasons, their life after retirement was not so satisfactory. ’”
As an "enthusiast" of Hong Kong kung fu movies, he wants to "generate electricity for love" and put the behind-the-scenes stories of these people on the screen: "Except for professionals and enthusiasts who like Hong Kong movies, most people don't actually know these dragon and tiger martial artists, Hong Kong action movies were once very brilliant, and the superstars were brilliant, but these dragon and tiger martial artists were little known and not remembered." They basically stand behind 'Big Brother' to try out the dangerous moves for 'Big Brother', but no one pays attention to them. That's what set me up for this documentary. ”
"Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist" originally specifically referred to the martial artist in charge of martial arts in The Pear Garden Line, in Hong Kong, not all people who shoot action scenes are recognized as "Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists", only those who have filmed thrilling scenes and are scarred are eligible to bear this title and this glory.
If you ask the provenance of the "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master", the most famous is the "Chinese Drama Academy" opened by Yu Zhanyuan in Hong Kong, China, because the "Seven Little Blessings" that came out of here can be said to have supported most of the Hong Kong action movies. Qixiaofu refers to the seven people of Yuanlong, Yuanlou, Yuanbiao, Yuankui, Yuanhua, Yuande, and Yuanwu (Note: Jackie Chan's stage name at that time was Yuanlou, and Yuanlong was the stage name of master brother Hong Jinbao. Later, when Hong Jinbao, who was five years older than Jackie Chan, went out to the film world first, Jackie Chan took the name of Yuan Long), in addition, there were Yuan Qing (Yuan Heping), Yuan Qiu and so on.
Dong Wei and Jiu Shu Lin Zhengying are from the Spring and Autumn Drama School of Pink Chrysanthemum; Mars is from Tang Di's Oriental Drama School, Mars was originally named Jiang Rongfa, who began to work as a martial artist at the age of 12, and later joined the Chengjia class, participating in the action design of the "Fast Food Truck", "Police Story" and "Plan A" series; and Liu Jialiang, Yuan Heping, Hong Jinbao, and Cheng Xiaodong, who is known as the four martial arts instructors in Hong Kong, is also from the Oriental Drama School. At that time, Hong Kong's Pear Garden Line had not yet been crushed by the movie, and there were still many audiences, so a large number of opera actors were needed. Students pay homage to teachers, learn art, and sign life and death contracts, which are completely in accordance with the rules of the old-fashioned pear garden line, and once parents send their children to drama school, they must completely obey the master's teachings and care during the contract period.
And these children in the pear garden can become the mainstay of Hong Kong action movies, become the indelible "dragon and tiger martial artists" in the history of Hong Kong cinema, Wei Junzi believes that it is also the times and chances: "The masters of singing opera, because they escaped the war, came to Hong Kong, taught a group of children who studied drama in Hong Kong, just in time for Run Run Shaw to put forward the concept of 'martial arts in the new century', began to make martial arts films up, and needed to absorb a large number of these dragon and tiger martial artists who could sing and jump, so that the dragon and tiger martial artists entered the Hong Kong film industry. Coupled with their fighting spirit and flexibility, this type of Hong Kong film has been made. ”
Wei Junzi said that the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Division is already a "vanished martial art", "The Dragon and Tiger Martial Artist specifically refers to the group of people who received special training and came out of the martial arts hall in the 20 years from the 1970s to the 1990s, which only exist in Hong Kong, China, and are special products of the specific era of Hong Kong action movies." Now the filming uses 'action stunt people', and no one is doing these life-fighting actions anymore, because the current technology is very mature, and it is also very important to pay attention to the safety of the crew. ”
The first sentence after the director shouted CUT was not "finish the work", but "Save people!" ”
Wei Junzi once mentioned that Tony Jia's wonderful fights in "Boxing" and "Tom Yin Gong" made him obsessed, and praised Tony Jia's kung fu in front of the old predecessors of Wuxing. As a result, the elders told him that the really powerful ones were those who were beaten. When Tony Jay strikes with elbows, feet, and knees, the person who is hit must react at the right point, and the longer the shot, the more difficult it is. These people who were beaten were martial artists, and their skills were learned from the Hong Kong martial arts team that had gone to Thailand to shoot a film.
Zhen Zidan described dragon and tiger martial artists as "people who play with their lives to the point of being unreasonable" and "in order to show that you are the best in the kung fu world, you will do a lot of stupid things... To sum up, this kind of atmosphere is very face-saving, and it is also very grandfatherly. To put it another way, the kung fu movies of that year were because of this ethos, so they were better than now. Hong Jinbao also said: "We are really good at what we do." Yuan Heping said: "Our generation is really bitter, it is all hard. ”
In the film, Qian Jiale told the memories of experiencing the ghost gate twice, one was to shoot "The Heart of the Dragon" in 1985, when the action design was that he passed through a piece of floor-to-ceiling glass from the third floor, landed on the tent protruding from the first floor, and then popped out, fell to the roof of a car that was driving, and then bounced to the ground, because the car was in motion, so the time must be calculated accurately, but he moved too much, missed the tent that should have been used as a buffer, crashed directly into the car, and was immediately sent to the hospital. Another time was when filming "Oriental Condor", the action design was to throw a grenade onto the ship, and then the ship exploded, Qian Jiale as a stand-in, need to play a Vietnamese soldier on the ship, after the explosion flew into the water, the ship on the scene put explosive reaction bombs and several barrels of gasoline, due to the mistake of the demolition division, a serious accident occurred, Qian Jiale was burned into a burning man, almost killed on the spot. During his recuperation, he went to the set again and helped complete the cliff jumping shot that Hong Jinbao could not take.
There is a classic scene in the movie "Plan A", where Jackie Chan jumps from the 15-meter-high bell tower, passes through several layers of awnings, smashes on the ground, and when he is supported by someone, he says: "I have finally proved one thing, there is really gravity in this world." What is less known is that this classic shot of Jackie Chan has been "experimented" by dragon and tiger martial artists before, one of which is Mars jumping, and Mars recalled the scene when he was a guest of "Today's Film Review": "At that time, Jackie Chan made this action, but he felt that it was not good, so he found three or four people to shoot, but the effect was not good." Later, when it was my turn, I was scared, because there were several martial artists in front of me who were injured, and I tried many times during the shooting, and I didn't dare to let go when I really wanted to jump, and finally started at 10 o'clock in the morning and didn't jump down until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. ”
In "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier", Yuan Wu, a "death squad member" of Hong Jiaban, is asked to fall from the four or five floors of the mall to the ice rink below. The ice surface of the hard state did not have any buffers, and what was even more tragic was that he had to fall to the ground first, and as a result, YuanWu fell unconscious on the spot.
When Hong Jinbao filmed "Dragon's Heart", he asked 8 martial artists to jump from the 7th floor at the same time, accompanied by real explosions around them, and the demolition divisions were too scared to press the button. After a scene was filmed, many people were injured, and the first sentence after the director shouted CUT was not "finishing work", but "Save people!" "At that time, many of the on-set had ambulances parked at the entrance every day, ready to send people to the hospital.
In "Huang Feihong", huang Feihong and Yan Zhendong's warehouse bamboo ladder battle can be called a classic bridge section. On the first day of filming, Jet Li's leg was broken, and in order to catch up with the progress, Xu Ke found Xiong Xinxin and Gu Xuanzhao as martial artists. Xiong Xinxin recalled: "Every action had to be done, 16 hours a day, 31 days of shooting. ”
At that time, There were Liu Jia class, Cheng Jia class, Hong Jia class and Yuan family class in Hong Kong, and the four major teams competed with each other to challenge high and difficult actions, Mars said: "Many martial arts are desperately performed in movies, what actions are dangerous for us to watch people's plays, we have to surpass them, so what actions are dangerous to do?" When you have done something, it is called dangerous, and if there is nothing, it is not dangerous. ”
Wei Junzi said that there is a spirit in this industry that is "disobedience", "The period of the golden age of Hong Kong films is equivalent to the 4 most powerful coaches taking their respective athlete teams to continuously compete." Everyone's mood is 'Wen Wu first, Wu Wu second', must be higher than one, you can go up the knife mountain I can go down the sea of fire, you can jump 8 floors I will jump 9 floors next time. ”
On the set, there have been dragon and tiger martial artists who have died, and there are countless people who have been disabled and injured. Moreover, they are uninsured because the risk is too great and the insurance company will not sell them insurance. The Dragon Tiger Martial Master was injured, and it was all up to the "big brother" to take care of him.
Bloody oil spikes, against Hollywood
From the 60s to the 80s of last century, in the face of powerful Hollywood movies, kung fu films in Hong Kong, China, could break into fame by relying on these dragon and tiger martial artists to fight hard with blood and tears and broken bones like "dead soldiers", as Wei Junzi said: "The golden age of Hong Kong cinema was to rely on the directors and stars in front of the stage and these unsung heroes behind the scenes to punch and kick out, into Hollywood, to the world, so that Chinese films had a place in the global film market of that era!" ”
There is a line in the movie "Undefeated in the East" that "you have science, I have divine skills", but in reality, the "divine skills" of Hong Kong filmmakers are not magical at all, they rely on the "low-tech" confrontation of flesh and blood to shoot "high-tech" Hollywood for industrial blockbusters such as "Star Wars". Zeng Zhiwei, who used to do martial arts, mentioned that at that time, people from abroad came to Hong Kong to visit the class: "Do you dare to do this?" Whoever does this action and who dies! ”
Jackie Chan once told a story about him and Hollywood director Spielberg, when they first met, Jackie Chan asked Spielberg how to make "ET" and "Jurassic Park" movies, how did the special effects become so real? Spielberg replied, "It's very simple, it's just keep pressing all kinds of buttons, buttons, buttons. Then Spielberg asked Jackie Chan: "You shoot so many dangerous moves in movies, either jumping from the roof or jumping from the canyon, how do you do it?" Jackie Chan replied, "Oh, my simpler one is Rolling, action, jump, cut, hospital!"
Hong Kong kung fu movies obviously gave a lot of inspiration to Hollywood movies, Hollywood began to imitate the martial arts design of Jackie Chan action stars, and "action director" and "martial arts director" also began to become a recognized profession in the world film industry, becoming an indispensable creative member of a film containing "action" elements, Yuan Heping was invited to Hollywood as an action director, filming "The Matrix", "Kill Bill", "X-Men" and other blockbusters.
In Wei Junzi's view, although fans now lament that Hong Kong kung fu films are no longer brilliant, the spirit of dragon and tiger martial artists has been inherited all over the world: "There are many very good action movies appearing around the world, such as Chad Starsky, the director of the American "Fast Pursuit" series, who was a stand-in for Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix", when he learned a lot of action movie essence from Yuan Heping. The action director of the Japanese movie "Ronin Kenshin" series is Kenji Tanigaki, the master brother of the Zhen family class. (Note: Kenji Tanigaki is an action director and director of Hong Kong and Japanese films in China, and a Japanese film and television actor.) He joined Zhen Zidan's martial arts team. He is also the only Japanese action director in the Hong Kong Action StuntMen Guild. ）
Young people are old and old, and heroes are not allowed to see white heads
When it comes to the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts Division, it is necessary to mention Lin Zhengying. Lin Zhengying studied Peking Opera in 1963 with Master Pink Chrysanthemum, who founded the Spring and Autumn Drama Academy in Hong Kong. In 1969, 17-year-old Lin Zhengying entered the film circle as a dragon and tiger martial artist. Subsequently, together with Chen Huiyi, he became Bruce Lee's right and left arm. In 1971, Lin Zhengying participated in the movie "Big Brother Tangshan" and served as an assistant martial arts instructor. In 1973, Bruce Lee died, and lin Zhengying entered the Hong family class formed by Hong Jinbao. In 1982, Lam Cheng Ying won the Best Action Direction Award at the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards for his film "Loser Boy". In 1985, he became popular in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian films with the psychic horror film "Mr. Zombie", and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 5th Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1994, Lin Zhengying filmed the movie "Green Hornet", paying tribute to Bruce Lee. On November 8, 1997, Lin Zhengying died of liver cancer at the age of 45.
The clip about Lin Zhengying was put into the Easter egg part of "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master", which made the audience sigh. Wei Junzi said that when interviewing all the Dragon and Tiger Martial Masters, "they will all mention Lin Zhengying without exception, because Lin Zhengying is the most representative figure of the Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts." He was born in Pear Garden, and as soon as he entered the industry, he was already the king of the Dragon and Tiger Martial Division. Moreover, he is one of the most successful actors in the transformation of all the Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists, because his role in "Mr. Zombie" has created a trend, and the role of Uncle Nine is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. At that time, he already had more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars in a play, but he could also do stand-ins for actors, which was the spirit of dragon and tiger martial artists. Unfortunately, because of the overall structural problem of the film, it is really difficult to insert such a paragraph for Lin Zhengying alone, so I had to put Lin Zhengying in the final Easter egg.
Another place that makes Wei Junzi sigh is that the Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists interviewed will be very excited when they see the footage they shot when they were young, and they will miss their youth, but when Wei Junzi mentioned that they want to shoot and record their current lives, most of them politely refused, "Dragon and Tiger Martial Artists eat youth rice, they fought hard for the movie when they were young, and now they are old, they are injured, and many people earn money when they are young due to their growth environment, low education, and when they are young, they earn money." There is wine in this day and drunk in this day, and I will not manage money, so now some of my later life is very depressed, and there are not many who really successfully transform, not to mention wanting to become superstars like Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan. Therefore, they did not want to let others see their hurtful side, and the Dragon and Tiger Martial Masters believed in a saying: 'No hero is allowed to see a white head'. ”
What Wei Junzi admires is that some Dragon and Tiger martial artists are in a very good state and are still adhering to this industry, such as nearly 60-year-old Xiong Xinxin, who has been engaged in this industry since he was in his 20s, although he has "achieved fame", but he is still doing a stand-in, he said: "I started from the first shot of entering the industry, that is, starting as a stand-in, hoping to use myself on the set with a little hard work, constantly reminding myself how to love this industry." I've always wanted to be the first in the world in the list of stand-ins. ”
YuanWu is now teaching Cantonese opera. Wei Junzi said: "They all came from opera studies, so in his later years he taught children to sing opera. I asked him if he was teaching these children in the same way that you did when you were studying drama, you need to sign the "Covenant of Life and Death", and he said: 'It is impossible, now children learn drama, people are willing to learn, and if they don't want to learn, they don't learn, which is completely different from then.' Therefore, the Dragon and Tiger Martial Masters are already unprecedented, their training methods, their fighting behavior can not be copied, for me, this batch of Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts is a love of my youth, and later became a feeling. Now I can put them on the screen, let everyone see, record this special group, I also feel that it is a careful wish. ”
Article/Reporter Zhang Jia
Courtesy photo/Gentleman