On January 10, 2023, director He Ping died of a sudden myocardial infarction due to cancer at the age of 65.
As soon as the news came out, the entire film circle fell into deep pain.
Among many nostalgic copywriters, the most mentioned by fans is "the director of "Double Flag Town Swordsman".
On the movie website Douban, this movie released in 1991 has a score of 8.3 points, better than 96% of action movies.
The movie tells the story of the young swordsman brother, according to his father's will, who came to Shuangqi Town to welcome his daughter-in-law and sister who had not passed the door.
After working hard to come to the old man's house, he was disliked by the husband and had no ability.
A few days later, the good sister was violated by the robber second master, and the child brother showed his knife skills and beheaded the second master to death. As a result, I don't want this second master to be the younger brother of the Great Swordsman One Sword Immortal.
A few days later, a knife fairy came with bandits to seek revenge, and a big battle was staged in the town of Double Flags...
The story sounds simple, but the movie is not simple at all.
As a fifth-generation director, He Ping's achievements in film aesthetics have been quite accomplished.
For example, the play with light and shadow in the movie.
In terms of visual aesthetics, "Double Flag Town Swordsman" also has a strong fifth-generation director style
Control over composition.
But what film critics at the time appreciated the most was director He Ping's performance of action scenes.
Different from the Hong Kong-style martial arts movies at that time, there were various complicated and flowing action designs.
He Ping in "Double Flag Town", the requirement for the fight scene is "cold and slaughter", just like in the American Western, the confrontation between the cowboy and the law enforcer, one shot to kill, can make one move, do not make a second move.
In order to show the magic of the knife technique, in addition to using fast and sharp editing, methods such as backwards are also used.
In addition, He Ping also pays special attention to the creation of artistic conception and atmosphere.
Especially in the final decisive battle, the two swordsmen, facing each other for a long time, suddenly electric flint, wind and sand wrinkled, the two fought a decisive battle in the sand group.
The total cost of the film reached 1.27 million, in order to achieve the ideal visual effects, the construction of Shuangqi Town, where the story took place, cost more than 200,000 yuan, and the film seriously overspent, so He Ping was punished by the studio and fined three years of salary.
But what is returned is a classic of film history.
After the movie was released, it caught fire and won numerous awards.
In that year, he won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Art, and then was rated as one of the top ten Chinese films at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the best film at the Yubari Film Festival in Japan, and director He Ping also won the 93 Berlin Film Festival International Film Critics Award for this film.
Some netizens who have seen it commented that this is "the top work of mainland martial arts", and there is "no one".
Stephen Chow also liked the movie quite a lot, and in the decisive battle of "Domestic Lingling Paint", he also paid tribute to the scene of "Double Flag Town Swordsman".
The movie is so fierce, what kind of person is He Ping as a director?
He Ping, born in Shanxi in 1957, has lived in a "film family" since he was a child.
His father He Wenjin came to Yan'an Lu Xun Art and Literature College in 1938 to study, and in 1954 after liberation, he went to Moscow to study film, and after returning to China, he served as the deputy director of Beijing Film Studio.
Her mother Yuan Yuehua is also an employee of Beijing Film Studio, who starred in New China's first feature film "Bridge", and later served as the assistant director of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga".
Front row: second from left: Yuan Yuehua
The family environment with a strong atmosphere in the movie also provides He Ping with the soil for growth. As early as 1979, when He Ping was 22 years old, he served as a scene reporter in the feature movie "Bamboo".
At this time, the pillars of Chinese films in the future have just entered the film school for further study.
In the movie "Bamboo", the little girl is Yu Feihong
Time entered the 80s, when Xi'an Film Studio was in the limelight, and Wu Tianming, then the director of the film studio, actively discovered young directors and let them create and shoot, and among them, there was He Ping.
In 1986, on the recommendation of Wu Tianming, He Ping served as the assistant director of the movie "Tanglin Thief". Two years later, He Ping joined Xi'an Film Studio and filmed his debut film "Yoshiko Kawashima".
After having shooting experience, He Ping continued to create boldly, and two years later he shot a masterpiece that shocked the world, the "Double Flag Town Swordsman" we mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Time came to the 90s, and Chinese cinema entered its peak.
Someone once said that at that time, Chinese films ran rampant around the world and won countless awards because there were a number of writers and bigwigs carrying sedans in movie scripts at that time.
For example, Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" comes from Li Bihua, and Zhang Yimou's "Alive" comes from Yu Hua's novel.
In 1994, "Cannon Hit Double Lights" directed by He Ping was no exception, adapted from Feng Jicai's novel of the same name.
This is a movie about the awakening of women, Caijia Pop Village is a large family that makes a living from firecrackers and gunpowder, and the old owner has only one daughter, Chunzhi.
In order not to let the family property flow out, the old owner set a rule before his death, preferring the Cai family to die and not let Chunzhi marry.
In this way, Chunzhi became the owner of the Cai family, managing everything on the estate, whether it was the housekeeper or the treasurer, and respected Chunzhi.
Until one day, a Niu Bao, a New Year painting master, came to Zhuangshang, and Chunzhi quickly fell in love with him.
This love should have been a happy event on the Zhuangshang, but it committed the life of the old owner, so the guys in the Zhuang were not only promised, and the seemingly stable relationship in the courtyard of the deep house was also shaken.
The script is from the work of a famous artist, naturally needless to say, but the more mature the script, the more test the director's skills.
How to express it through images, the suppression of ritual religion in the Cai family compound has become the primary problem.
For this, the answer given by He Ping is "sports lens".
In the early 90s, most of the directors' lenses were still fixed shots, because the technical level was backward at that time, and there was no equipment for shooting sports shots.
And He Ping and the photographer took out an old Samsung brand camera, stunned with his hand, and shook out a "sense of movement".
The scurrie and gloomy in the courtyard of the deep house are revealed through a series of shots with different movements and static.
The old director Zheng Dongtian couldn't help but marvel after watching the movie, "This is the first time a Chinese film has been shot like this."
In 1996, He Ping continued to direct "Sunshine Canyon". This cross-strait and three-place cooperation film was well received, but commercially, the box office failed miserably, and He Ping entered a dormant period.
Starring Zhang Fengyi, Wang Xueqi, Yang Guimei
Until 2003, after 7 years of grinding, He Ping joined hands with Jiang Wen and Nakai Guiichi to shoot the masterpiece "Heroes of Heaven and Earth".
This film is set in the Tang Dynasty, telling the story of the Tang Dynasty, when Japan sent Tang envoys to Qi and was entrusted by the Tang Emperor to hunt down and kill the rebellious captain Li.
But on the way, Laiqi encountered a caravan escorting scriptures and bandits coveting financial reports, and a bloody battle began.
The fighting actions in the film are simple and neat, because the characters in the film are all soldiers, and what the soldiers show should be the most direct killing techniques, so He Ping's request for this is, "Don't set tricks, but reflect a sense of strength."
Especially in the first fight between Jiang Wen and Nakai Guiichi, the two fought across the wall, and the blade penetrated the log back and forth, full of strength.
This is also He Ping's international attempt, the investment in "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" comes from the American Columbia company, in addition to the actors such as Jiang Wen, Nakai Takichi is a superstar from Japan.
When the movie was released, the box office reached 64 million, second only to the first place "Heroes" and ranked second throughout the year.
The commercial success gave He Ping the courage to continue shooting.
In 2009, he directed "Wheat Field", which continued the big production of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth".
The era in which the story takes place comes to the Warring States period.
The city lord of the State of Zhao should have married his fiancée, but he did not want to encounter the Qin State pressing the territory Changping, and the city lord could only leave his fiancée behind and go to the front line to fight Changping in order to repay the favor of the country, but he didn't want to, and the entire army of the State of Zhao was destroyed.
At the same time, two deserters from the State of Qin came to the territory of the State of Zhao, and in order to avoid the cool order of the King of Qin, they could only pretend to be soldiers of the State of Zhao, and also fabricated the lie that the State of Zhao had defeated the State of Qin.
So the entire people in the small city of Zhao Kingdom fell into victory ecstasy, and what awaited them was the cruel truth.
Like all of He Ping's previous films, "Wheat Field" has a very high style, and the aesthetic theme of golden yellow runs through the film.
However, due to the chaotic rhythm of the movie, the actor's performance is unknown, and the box office failed miserably after its release, and the score on Douban was only five points.
On Douban, many netizens directly shot at director He Ping, saying that he was a "bad film director".
After that, He Ping entered the dormant period again.
In 2015, He Ping went out again and shot an urban love movie, "Back to the Day of Being Loved".
This time, He Ping tried unscripted improvisation, allowing each actor to fully perform in order to achieve a dramatic effect.
After the movie was released, the reputation was quite good.
However, the box office collapsed, due to the small number of films and not many screenings, the final income was only 1.69 million yuan.
He Ping reluctantly released the cloud disk resources of the movie on the Internet, in order to let more people see his heartfelt work.
Perhaps this battle hit too hard, and He Ping, like Napoleon after Waterloo, completely left the post of commander and was no longer a director.
Those who know the Chinese film industry know that He Ping is far more than a director for the entire Chinese film.
Before talking about He Ping's contribution, let's first understand China's film system.
After the liberation, the film system of New China mainly learned the Soviet studio system, and according to the national plan, the studio distributed indicators to complete the shooting task.
Under this system, the mainland's literary and artistic workers have made brilliant achievements, such as "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", which is loved by the masses of the people, which came from the Beijing Film Studio.
Fast forward to the reform and opening up period, the past studio system, can no longer keep up with the changing requirements of the market, although this stage of excellent works are frequent, but the Chinese film market, is still very narrow.
How to promote the progress of China's film industry has become a question that the fifth-generation director He Ping thinks about day and night.
In 1998, He Ping joined Columbia Pictures as an Asian art consultant.
During this period, He Ping saw the power of Hollywood's "producer-centric system", through professional producers,
The necessary condition for the establishment of this system is the "industrialization and specialization" of Chinese films.
Before and after this, He Ping participated in the planning of Feng's New Year comedy, "Party A and Party B", "Not Seen and Not Dispersed", and "Big Names", which were applauded and applauded.
While the box office is rising wave after wave, the Chinese film market is also gradually developing.
So how to make this market even bigger?
When participating in "Three's Company" in 2011, He Ping talked to Hong Kong film tycoon Huang Baiming and said that in today's Chinese mainland film market, "don't pursue all good films, there should be only a few movies at the top of the pyramid", and those films with small and medium-sized investment should be the main part of the Chinese film market, to sell well, to make money, "this is healthy."
As the director of the heart of film production, he believes that there should be businessman thinking, to make the film sell, to let the investor make money.
In this regard, many young people in film literature and art may jump to their feet, "What kind of film is a film that does not pursue art, what kind of director is it if it is not an artist's director"?
For art films, He Ping also commented, he believes that the market is good, art films have its space. Only the cake is the biggest, so that each participant can get a piece of the pie, which is the best.
He Ping's pattern lies in the benign development of Chinese films as a whole.
From another point of view, art film directors are also human beings and have to provide for their families.
He Ping himself has always been concerned about art films.
For example, director Lu Chuan was excavated by He Ping. His debut novel "Looking for a Gun", in which He Ping participated.
After that, he even supervised the production of Lu Chuan's best movie "Coco Xili".
This film has also become one of the masterpieces of the sixth generation of Chinese directors.
When the box office of "Hidden in the Dust" directed by Li Ruijun exceeded 30 million last year, he was sincerely blessing.
For the art film circle, the chaos touted by each other, He Ping also scoffed.
For example, a young director was called, "China's Tarkovsky", He Ping was furious after hearing this, and immediately posted a Weibo, saying that "anyone who flaunts him (Tarkovsky) as a movie is stupid."
Tarkovsky is a famous director of the former Soviet Union
He Ping is not the kind of capitalist who makes a quick buck and runs, he cries out for Chinese films, like a sailor watching alone on deck in a storm.
After the arrival of the epidemic, the entire film industry was wailing. On the one hand, the current pandemic, on the other hand, the entire industry has to eat and survive, and Chinese films have fallen into a quagmire.
At this time, it was He Ping who spoke out and pointed to the crisis of Chinese cinema today.
However, it is such a hero who regards Chinese movies as life, but has left us forever.
January 10, 2023 is a bleak day for the entire Chinese movie.
As an author who writes movies, thinking that this may be the last time I write about director He Ping, not only sadness comes from it.
After all, there is a difference in life, so let's write about it here.
Goodbye to Director He Ping, farewell.
Goodbye to the movie "Swordsman" He Ping creates "Heroes of Heaven and Earth"
"Hero of the Film Industry" and director He Ping died of illness He introduced the Hollywood system into Chinese films First Finance and Economics
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%8C%E6%97%97%E9%95%87%E5%88%80%E5%AE%A2/2746615?fr=aladdin
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HQR2SMIB0521D7NK.html
https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2023-01-11/doc-imxzvkci8965140.shtml
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