In 1993, Zheng Zeshi's investment failed, losing tens of millions of dollars and still owed 80 million yuan in debt.
When the house leaked overnight, Zheng Zeshi was sued by his artist Zhang Weijian for 2 million pieces of remuneration.
Desperate, he could only come to the home of his good brother Zhou Runfa and beg him for help.
Who expected, Zhou Runfa rejected him, and did not even see him.
Zheng Zeshi stood on the street in tears, and at this moment, he saw through the cold and warmth of the human world.
When he returned home, he had to sell all his family property and move into the slum with his family for ten years.
Who could have imagined seeing this scene that Zheng Zeshi had won the title of Emperor of Shadows before Zhou Runfa.
Today, let's talk about the life of "fat cat" Zheng Zeshi.
One
Born into an ordinary family in Guangdong in 1951, Zheng Zeshi moved to Wan Chai, Hong Kong, with his parents at an early age.
Due to the large number of brothers and sisters in the family, its living environment is very difficult. In order to reduce the burden on his parents, as the eldest son, he went to the jewelry store as an apprentice before graduating from high school.
The meager salary in the jewelry store does not fill Zheng Zeshi's "appetite".
He wanted more money to give his parents a good life and his younger siblings to go to school.
At that time, at the height of Hong Kong cinema, "actor" was the most profitable profession at that time.
In 1972, Longbow Pictures held the first actor training class.
The young and vigorous Zheng Zeshi ignored the opposition of his family and resolutely applied for the training class. He spent a full 4 years in the training class.
In 1976, TVB held an acting competition, and Zheng Zeshi won the first competition in one fell swoop.
Zheng Zeshi, who is already 25 years old, has finally become a contract artist for TVB.
Zheng Zeshi is obese and looks unremarkable, and TVB believes that "comedy is the best for him".
In this way, he was arranged to serve as a "fixed MC" in Zhou Runfa's program.
This job sounds good at first glance, but in fact, it is to ask him to play the role of a clown, which is purely a passerby role.
It is precisely because of this passerby role that Zheng Zeshi ushered in the most important turning point in his life.
Due to his long-term role as a "passerby" in Zhou Runfa's programs, Zheng Zeshi also became very good friends with Zhou Runfa.
At that time, Zheng Zeshi was just a nameless person in TVB, and Zhou Runfa at that time was a popular student of TVB.
According to Zheng Zeshi himself:
"Zhou Runfa is really good to me, every lunch, Zhou Runfa will say 'fat, let's eat together', because I am very good at eating, he will accompany me to eat and drink every time, and, moreover, a meal costs more than double digits, he will not let me pay." 」
Zhou Runfa likes to discuss some acting experiences and feelings on the spot, and Zheng Zeshi "steals the teacher" on the side, which is simply a great honor for Zheng Zeshi, who is still a newcomer, and Zheng Zeshi has also learned a lot of acting skills from it.
No one expected that the skills that Zheng Zeshi had secretly learned from Zhou Runfa would allow him to get the title of "Shadow Emperor" one step ahead of Zhou Runfa.
Two
In 1979, Zheng Zeshi starred in his first TV series "Four-Eyed Detective".
In 1980, he starred in the film Grey Spirit, and also served as the film's executive producer and director.
After this movie, Zheng Zeshi really ushered in his own era.
Eighty years of Hong Kong films have entered a stage of rapid development, the clown harmony star has become just needed, Zheng Zeshi's thick, fat appearance, it is a pity not to be a comedian.
Once he was 263 pounds when he was the fattest, every time he sat in the car, the car had to shake three times, and the living and free was the bridge section in the comedy movie.
In the following years, Zheng Zeshi shot several comedy movies in succession, but they were all small supporting roles, and what really made Zheng Zeshi famous was the tragic movie.
In 1984, Huang Baiming took the script "Sunset Samurai" to Zheng Zeshi, the protagonist is a widowed old man, Zheng Zeshi saw it and said to Huang Baiming:
"It is too cheesy to take the elderly as the protagonist, and if the elderly are replaced by young people with intellectual disabilities, it will be better."
Huang Baiming is enlightened, but what is the name of the character?
The two thought about it, and finally decided to call it fat cat.
Zheng Zeshi decided to personally challenge the character with intellectual disability, and personally directed the film, and also pulled Zhou Runfa, who was known as the "box office poison" at the time, as the second male number.
The movie is ,"Why Me."
As soon as the film was released, it caused a hot discussion, and the reason was because it was too real and too touching.
Zheng Zeshi was on fire.
He portrayed the intellectually retarded young men in the film as three points into the wood, and when he was young, he saw this film for the first time, thinking that Zheng Zeshi was like this, and when he grew up, he knew that there was a thing called "acting".
Zheng Zeshi also won the crown of the best actor at the 5th Academy Awards for his outstanding performance, and was also ridiculed as the fattest film emperor in the history of the Academy Awards.
Zhou Runfa also breathed a sigh of relief with the wonderful performance in this film, but what really made him raise his eyebrows was that a year later, he won the first Academy Award in his life with "The True Colors of Heroes".
Despite this, Zhou Runfa won the title of "Emperor of Shadows" a year later than Zheng Zeshi, who listened to his lectures every day.
After the success of "Why Me", in 1988, Zheng Zeshi and Wu Ma and Maggie Cheung filmed the sequel "Fat Cat Wandering", officially creating the "Fat Cat" series of films.
At the same time, Zheng Zeshi also plays a heavy role in other types of Hong Kong films.
The "Huang Feihong" series of films filmed by Xu Ke, whether it is martial arts action or character casting, is an insurmountable classic.
But in this series of films, Huang Feihong's actor can be changed from Jet Li to Zhao Wenzhuo.
Liang Kuan's actor can be changed from Yuan Biao to Mo Shaocong.
But only the role of Pork Rong, the actor has been Zheng Zeshi from beginning to end.
In addition, Zheng Zeshi must not mention the role of Fei Bo.
In 1991, Mak Dang-hung's "Lame Hao" was released, which was known as the Hong Kong version of "The Godfather", in which Zheng Zeshi played Fei Bo and Lui Liangwei played Lame Hao.
The film won the Best Film Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and Zheng Zeshi and Lui Liangwei were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor respectively.
At this time, Zheng Zeshi switched at will between comedy, tragedy, and gangsterism, and could act and direct.
In his glory, he can fry Wong Kar Wai squid with a single word.
When Huang Baiming, the owner of New Art City Film Company, came to Zheng Zeshi with a script written by Wong Kar-wai.
Who expected, Zheng Zeshi took a look and said, "This is simply a pile of waste paper."
After leaving Zheng Zeshi, Huang Baiming directly fried Wong Kar Wai squid, and the "waste paper pile" that was killed was said to be "Carmen in Mong Kok".
Soon after, he also met Lin Yanming, who was 14 years younger than him, and this woman always accompanied him.
Zheng Zeshi's salary also rose from 800 to 400,000, and he moved into a 300-square-meter mansion with his family.
Everything is going well, but who knows, the danger has crept in.
Three
In the 1990s, the development of Hong Kong cinema began to decline.
Zheng Zeshi's turning point took place in 1993.
This year, Zheng Zeshi and his friends founded a film company, originally wanted to borrow the east wind of "Lame Hao" to shoot a "Legend of the Hero After the Disaster" to make a lot of money.
Who expected, at this time, the audience no longer likes to watch this kind of film, lack of innovation, will inevitably fail.
After the release of "The Legend of the Hero after the Disaster", the loss was more than 10 million, coupled with the company's poor management, it owed more than 80 million yuan in huge debts, and the shareholders saw the situation and cashed out and ran away, leaving Zheng Zeshi with a chicken feather.
The disaster is not alone, its artist Zhang Weijian wanted to terminate the contract with him at this time, and a paper complaint sued him in court, demanding more than 2 million yuan in film remuneration.
In desperation, Zheng Zeshi could only find his former friends to borrow money for emergencies, but no one was willing to help Zheng Zeshi.
In the past, the movie emperor with unlimited scenery could only sell luxury cars and mansions to pay off debts.
When his parents and wife and daughter moved out of the mansion where they had just lived for a few years, Zheng Zeshi knelt in front of them and said with tears: "Believe me, I will let you move back again." ”
But as the saying goes, the tiger fell in Pingyang and was bullied by dogs, and many directors saw that Zheng Zeshi was in trouble, so they pressed the remuneration very low, and only gave him a supporting role that did not show his face.
Someone advised Zheng Zeshi: "The other shareholders have run away, you should also escape the debt!" ”。
Zheng Zeshi's mother said to him: "We are already a poor family, what are we afraid of?" ”
With the encouragement of his mother, Zheng Zeshi mustered up all his strength and held several positions.
No matter how small the role, he takes over, and he is also involved in the behind-the-scenes work, spending more than 17 hours a day on the set.
The Emperor's heavens paid off.
In 1996, Zheng Zeshi starred in a film "Three Injured Policemen", with his wonderful performances in the film, he defeated Zhang Guorong, Jackie Chan, Liu Qingyun and others in one fell swoop, and won the Academy Award for Best Actor again.
It's been 11 years since the last award.
In 1997, ATV remembered Zheng Zeshi, the film emperor, and the classic role of "Fat Cat", so he was invited to star in the TV series "Fat Cat Zhengbiao", which became one of the "Top Ten Classic Dramas of ATV".
In 1999, Zheng Zeshi and Miao Qiaowei starred in "Fat Cat 2".
In 2002, Zheng Zeshi starred with Sichen Gaowa and Hao Lei in "Fat Cat Searching for Relatives".
From 1985 to 2002, Zheng Zeshi starred in "Fat Cat" a total of 7 times, from the unknown to the Academy Awards Film Emperor, and then from the peak to the trough, no matter when, Zheng Zeshi went all out.
In 2004, Zheng Zeshi finally paid off all his debts.
But in ten years, the Hong Kong film industry has long since changed its face.
Friends of the same period such as Zhou Runfa, Liang Chaowei, and Andy Lau have long since retired from the past, leaving behind a good name.
The fat cat Zheng Zeshi only left some "saliva films", and no one remembers that he also won the title of Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
Four
In those painful days, the person Zheng Zeshi was most grateful to was Andy Lau.
At the time of his bankruptcy, Andy Lau invited him to serve as a film producer. Whenever he mentioned it, Zheng Zeshi would burst into tears.
In 2017, Zheng Zeshi and Andy Lau co-starred in "Chasing the Dragon", Zheng Zeshi played the lard boy, helped Andy Lau played by Leiluo to block bullets, and said such a sentence when he was dying: "Leave a place for me, I will follow you in the next life." ”
This line speaks to Zheng Zeshi's heart.
Now that Zheng Zeshi is 70 years old, after tasting the cold and warm of the world, his body is not as good as before, and there have even been rumors that "the fat cat has died"...
In 2020, Zheng Zeshi was once exposed to the news that he was ill and lost 30 pounds, and we can indeed see that the signature three jaws have disappeared.
His wife was also rumored to have fallen seriously ill and needed high medical bills to sustain her life.
But even so, at the time of the Crisis in Wuhan, Zheng Zeshi still reached out to help and tried his best to donate 500,000 yuan.
Zheng Zeshi has had a lot of ups and downs in this half of his life, but the fat cat is still the fat cat with good intentions, and he still maintains his original intention after eating enough hardships in life.
The world kissed me with pain, but I sang in return.
I hope that Zheng Zeshi's next time, life can treat him kindly.