In 1980, under the influence of the New Wave, Hong Kong cinema boldly explored audiovisual language and film themes, and produced many genre films. These include masterpieces that have a certain status in the history of film, and there are many experimental films.
These films are often forward-looking and curious, and it was this bold attempt that laid the foundation for the arrival of the second golden age.
Today, Wu Erjun recommends a Shaw classic horror film called "Evil", which is a rare Shaw hunting masterpiece.
"Evil", as the name suggests, is really "evil", ranking first in Gui Zhihong's "Evil Trilogy".
Gui Zhihong, who worked as a film animation producer and director in his early years, produced the black-and-white animation "Wusong Fighting Tiger", which can be said to be a pioneer of domestic animation. He has also directed films such as "Strange Gentleman" and "Heaven Hurts Good People".
Later, he studied at the Japanese Shochiku Film Factory, and after returning to Hong Kong, he joined Shaw, serving as an assistant director for He Menghua and Zhang Che; in 1973, he began to receive attention because of "Angry Youth", and later became a famous director of Shaw.
His themes involve supernatural, martial arts, crime, etc., and his supernatural films are the most well-known, and "Evil" is one of the masterpieces.
If you sum up "Evil" in one sentence, it is "a revenge event caused by the dispute over property after the decline of a large family."
"The cool breeze has faith, the autumn moon is boundless, thanks to my sijiao mood is like living like a year, Xiaosheng Miao's surname is Lian Xianzi, for the memory of the amorous prostitute Mai Shi Qiujuan."
The staff introduction of the opening film of the film, accompanied by the opening song of the famous Cantonese opera "Ketu Autumn Hate", the tune is melodious and gentle, but more is a grudge.
Then the camera comes to the gate of a mansion, "Chun Han Rui Mist Cage Ren Li, Ri Yong Xiang Yun Guardian De Gate", a pair of Chun Lian hanging on both sides of the door of the door plate gilded "Four Gentlemen in flowers" Mei Lan Zhuju. At first glance, it is a mansion of the giants.
As the inner doors open one by one, accompanied by narration, the film officially opens.
Here is Guangzhou Xiguan Chonggui New Street No. 13 is an ancient house, the owner of the family surnamed Chen, originally ancestral residence in Fujian, in order to operate the salt industry, moved to Guangzhou Xiguan, generations have been in the imperial court as officials and business, accumulated countless family wealth.
However, in the generation of Chen Xiuying, the people were thin, only Xiuying had one daughter, and the parents were the successors, so they decided to recruit a son-in-law into the house, and Yang Zhenyu entered the Chen family.
Later, Chen Xiuying's parents failed in business, accumulated fatigue and became ill, and died successively, and the family fell in the middle of the road. At that time, men and women could not divorce, Yang Zhenyu fell into widowhood, borrowed wine to dispel his sorrows, ate, drank and gambled, and everything was in harmony.
And Xiuying is suffering from a stubborn disease, and the medicine cannot be left from the mouth all year round. Tian Ni played the frail and sickly Xiu Ying.
Husband Yang Zhenyu scolded Yahuan either, Yahuan could not stand it, and Don Xiuying returned home.
Although he had medicine, her husband would not feed her when he saw her crawling on the ground to get the medicine.
Hate only hates the family's way down, and he is entrusted to the non-human.
One day, a young and beautiful woman, Liang Qihua, who claimed to be the daughter of a servant of the Chen family, came to the Chen mansion, saw the frail Xiuying, and decided to stay and take care of her in order to repay the favor of the Chen family.
The kind Xiuying explained her husband's vices one by one, and Qihua did not hesitate, and Xiuying was grateful for it.
For this new Yahuan, her husband Zhenyu did not have special preferential treatment, still did not beat and scold, and even coveted Qihua's beauty and lust to forcibly possess, Xiuying wanted to stop it, but was knocked to the ground by Zhenyu.
And Qihua is not a "good kind", one day Zhenyu committed another misdeed, she saw the opportunity to join forces with Xiuying to kill Zhenyu and sink the body in the pond.
A few days later, the pond emitted a foul smell and asked someone to salvage it, which resulted in a dead pig.
Since then, Xiuying has been haunted by Zhenyu's shadow every day, falling into panic, coupled with frailty and illness, and ended up depressed.
Unexpectedly, after Xiuying's death, Zhenyu suddenly appeared, and naturally, as the sole heir to the Chen family's property, inherited the Ancestral Home and Family Property of the Chen Family.
Xiuying did not know until she died, all this was just a drama performed by Qihua and Zhenyu, the two had already been in cahoots, the purpose was only to force Xiuying to die and seize the family property.
The goal was achieved, zhenyu married Qihua, but they did not have a peaceful life.
Xiuying appeared in this huge ancient mansion from time to time, and Qihua and Zhenyu did something wrong, and naturally they were afraid to death.
"Evil" in the house, naturally to expel, Taoists, monks, witches, all kinds of rituals, dancing gods, Gui Zhihong showed the audience a "big drama"...
And the final ending of the story is also very unexpected.
In the section of dancing the big god, the woman's performance without a trace, the scale is too large, all deleted; later, the shots full of spells are almost completely deleted. The original version is 95 minutes, the deleted version is 82 minutes, and the deletion is 13 minutes.
There are many horror elements in "Evil", such as ancient, foggy and gloomy ancient houses, knife-wielding artists, wine and meat monks, false teeth, green eyes, cobras, turtles, wet and dirty environments, muddy ponds in the rainy season, corpses turned into green liquids, etc.; monks, Taoists, and witches all appear.
The plot of the first half is based on the 1955 French film "Bathroom Love Murder" directed by Henri Georges Kluzzo; the later shots in the full body and tearing the ears completely imitate the "Earless Fangyi" section in Masaki Kobayashi's "Strange Talk".
And the 1994 mainland horror film "Lover's Blood Is Particularly Red" also almost copied this "Evil" in the plot.
In general, "Evil" borrows from other films, combines elements unique to China, and localizes the story to interpret, and finally forms this peculiar film.
"Evil" failed miserably at the box office as an experimental work, only 0.13 million Hong Kong dollars; but at that time, these pioneering and diverse attempts opened the curtain for the blossoming of Hong Kong films later...