1994 was an extraordinary year for the mainland film market.
Due to the downturn in the mainland film market in 1993, the "Radio and Television" reformed the original "unified purchase and unified marketing screening system" and allowed 16 state-owned film studios to independently import and distribute foreign film works.
This measure was formally implemented in 1994. As the first Hollywood blockbuster introduced to the mainland, "Outlaw" also set off a wave of movie watching in the mainland film market in 1994.
With the opening of the "Film Introduction System" in 1994, many Hong Kong film works have also been taken care of and entered the mainland cinema line.
It is worth mentioning that before 1994, if Hong Kong film works wanted to enter the mainland film market, they had to be joined by mainland studios and completed production in the form of "co-production", just like "Shaolin Temple", "Mirage" and "New Dragon Gate Inn".
Films completed by "Hong Kong film production companies" alone are generally difficult to enter mainland theaters.
However, with the "opening up of policies" in 1994, some original Hong Kong film works also began to enter mainland theaters. Among them, the most representative is Jackie Chan's "Drunken Fist 2".
In 1994, Jackie Chan's "Drunken Fist 2" won a box office performance of 10 million yuan in the mainland. This achievement not only stimulated the development of the mainland film market, but also allowed a large number of Hong Kong film creators to see the potential of the mainland box office market.
After entering 1995, more and more Hong Kong film producers began to try to push their film works into mainland theaters. This year's Jackie Chan brought "Red Fan District". And this year's Zhou Xingchi also came up with two parts of "Journey to the West".
Jackie Chan's "Red Fan District" has taught mainland filmmakers what is called "New Year file". However, Chow Sing-chi's "Journey to the West" two parts, but because the style of the work is too avant-garde, it has suffered box office setbacks in the mainland.
After the defeat of "Journey to the West", Stephen Chow gave up his illusions about the mainland box office market and stayed at ease in the development of Hong Kong's local film market.
However, the decline of the Hong Kong film market at the end of the 1990s put a large number of Hong Kong film producers in danger. The mainland film market, which has great potential, has also become a "savior" in the eyes of these Hong Kong film producers.
In 2001, Stephen Chow directed and acted in "Shaolin Football", hoping to use this work to open up his own mainland box office market. However, because Zhou Xingchi did not understand the "film release system" in the mainland, the film was not sent for trial, and it was directly publicized in theaters, and as a result, it was punished by "banning screening".
In 2004, Stephen Chow directed and acted in "Kung Fu", which once again attacked the mainland film market. In order to ensure the smooth release of the work, this time Zhou Xingchi cooperated with the mainland producer "Huayi Brothers".
I have to say that "Huayi" does have two brushes in the promotion of movies. They not only ensured the review process of "Kung Fu", but also turned over the old account of "Journey to the West" failed at the mainland box office", taking "mainland audiences owe Zhou Xingchi a movie ticket" as a slogan, with the help of emerging Internet platforms, hype.
On December 23, 2004, "Kung Fu" was officially released in mainland theaters. The publicity of "Huayi" in place and the excellent quality of the film have paved the way for the subsequent box office sales.
In the end, "Kung Fu" became the mainland box office champion this year with a box office performance of 173 million.
After seeing the box office success of "Kung Fu", Liu Zhenwei, who served as the supervising producer of the film, was also eager to try it out and wanted to show his skills in the mainland box office market.
As an old partner of Zhou Xingchi, Liu Zhenwei has been filming all the way from "Fierce Ghost Messenger Hall", "Gamble Saint", "Xinjing Wumen 1991", "Comic Weilong" to "East into West", "Journey to the West", "Night of the Soul", which can be said to have witnessed the rise and development of "nonsense comedy".
At the end of the 1990s, with the decline of the Hong Kong film market, Liu Zhenwei's film career, an old "nonsense famous director", also fell into a trough rapidly.
In 2002, after experiencing the box office twists and turns of "Infinite Resurrection" and "Unparalleled in the World", Liu Zhenwei was determined to give up the Hong Kong film market and seek new development opportunities in the north. His first job at the mainland film market was to serve as a supervising producer for Stephen Chow's Kung Fu.
In the process of publicizing "Kung Fu", Liu Zhenwei saw the mainland audience's strong feelings for "Journey to the West". Just by relying on the gimmick of "repaying the movie tickets owed by "Journey to the West", "Kung Fu" has successfully attracted a large number of mainland audiences, so what if it were to make a sequel to "Journey to the West"?
With this in mind, in 2005, Liu Zhenwei created the movie "Love Epilepsy", which also became Liu Zhenwei's first work to enter the mainland film market.
In "Journey to the West", Liu Zhenwei focuses the story on the "love story of Sun Wukong and the Purple Xia Fairy". In this "Great Sage of Love", Director Liu turned the camera and concentrated on the emotional life of Tang Monk.
At the beginning of the story, the 4 Tang monks and apprentices came to a city-state called "Shache City", which is the last stop on the road to learn the scriptures. Seeing that the great cause of learning the scriptures was about to be completed, Sun Wukong felt that there was something strange in this city-state, but he couldn't say where it was weird.
Prompted by the Eight Precepts, Goku discovers that there seem to be no children in the city.
It turned out that there was a big tree spirit that "kidnapped" all the children in the city and threatened the residents of the city to exchange Tang Sanzang for it.
In order to save the children, the residents of the city ostensibly welcomed Tang Sanzang to the palace to preach the scriptures, but in fact, they set a trap behind their backs and planned to capture Tang Sanzang.
Knowing that Master is in trouble, Goku, the Eight Precepts, and the Sand Monk come to the rescue. However, in the face of these flesh and blood bodies, Sun Wukong was not good at giving a heavy hand, and he was also chaotic for a while.
Just as Sun Wukong was hesitating, the Great Tree Spirit sent a large number of flying insect monsters. These flying insect monsters have been cultivating for thousands of years, and their Tao practices are not shallow. When Sun Wukong fights with the Flying Bug Monster, the residents of the city-state are also waiting for an opportunity to attack.
In order to protect Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong asked the golden hoop stick to take Tang Sanzang away from Shache City. At the same time, Goku also told Tang Sanzang the spell of manipulating the golden hoop stick.
The golden hoop stick took Tang Sanzang and flew all the way to a barren mountain. Tang Sanzang fainted from overwork due to long-term flights. A group of lizard spirits passing by saw a monk holding a golden hoop stick and passed out on the side, thinking that he was the legendary "love saint" Sun Wukong.
Five hundred years ago, the love story of Sun Wukong and the Purple Xia Fairy was widely spread in the Three Realms. Sun Wukong has also become a lover of the two worlds of immortals and demons, which are jointly respected. Many female demons also regard Sun Wukong as their ideal mate selection criterion.
The Lizard King believed that Sun Wukong was here, so Tang Sanzang must be nearby. In order to eat the "Tang monk meat", the Lizard King decided to lock up Sun Wukong first.
However, Sun Wukong is a famous "love saint" and puts his sister's kung fu first-class. The Lizard King's men are a group of female lizards. He was worried that these banshees would not have enough concentration, be confused by Sun Wukong, and spoil things. Therefore, he arranged for Luo Ping's ugly daughter "Yue Meiyan" to take care of Sun Wukong.
Yue Meiyan looks ugly, and the Lizard King believes that even if Sun Wukong is a "love saint", seeing Yue Meiyan's appearance, it is estimated that he will give up using the "beautiful male plan".
Tang Sanzang woke up and found himself locked up in a cave. After some searching, Tang Sanzang found that there was a stone egg in the cave, and inside the stone egg was a beautiful-looking woman.
At this time, Yue Meiyan, who was in charge of the guarding work, found that Sun Wukong was awake, so she walked into the cave and chattered and talked non-stop. It turned out that Yue Meiyan saw that Sun Wukong was handsome and handsome, and for a moment she had a sense of admiration.
After learning that his identity was mistaken, Tang Sanzang said that he was not Sun Wukong, but Tang Sanzang. However, the change in identity did not affect Yue Meiyan's incessant display of love. At this time, Tang Sanzang finally realized how annoying it was to talk about it.
Sun Wukong, who had no weapons, was captured by the flying insect monsters, and the flying insect monsters chased all the way to the barren mountains to capture Tang Sanzang. As a result, the Flying Worm Monsters and the Lizard Elves also fought a big battle.
During the melee, Tang Sanzang told Yue Meiyan the spell of manipulating the golden hoop stick. With the help of the divine power of the golden hoop stick, Yue Meiyan also successfully protected Tang Sanzang.
Yue Meiyan's mother, Luo Ping, hopes that her daughter can enjoy the "Tang monk meat" exclusively and live forever. Therefore, taking advantage of the battle between the Lizard King and the Flying Worm Monster, Luo Ping handed a water-splitting bead to her daughter, who let her escape with Tang Sanzang, get rid of the Flying Worm Monster and the Lizard King, and then find an opportunity to eat Tang Sanzang.
Tang Sanzang and Yue Meiyan used the water drops to come to the East China Sea. Yue Meiyan fell in love with Tang Sanzang, so she didn't want to eat him at all. Tang Sanzang learns that Goku has been captured by the Flying Worm Monster, so he hopes to seek help from the East Sea Dragon King and go to rescue Goku.
In the East China Sea, Tang Sanzang first encountered Gui Cheng Xiang. Tang Sanzang chattered and was very annoying, and Gui Chengxiang couldn't bear it and committed suicide by swinging his sword. The East Sea Dragon King believed that Tang Sanzang had killed Gui Cheng xiang and planned to capture him. In danger, Yue Meiyan recited the tips of the golden hoop stick, injured the "shrimp soldier crab general", and fled the East China Sea with Tang Sanzang.
After leaving the East China Sea, Tang Sanzang decided to move his troops to the South Heavenly Gate. However, I just arrived at the South Heavenly Gate. Tang Sanzang and Yue Meiyan were taken down by the Four Heavenly Kings. It turned out that the Dragon King of the East Sea had gone to the Heavenly Court to file a complaint because of the "death of Gui Cheng Xiang", and Tang Sanzang had already become a "criminal suspect".
Tang Sanzang originally wanted to explain, but the more he talked, the more chaotic it became, and instead there were many misunderstandings with the Four Heavenly Kings. Yue Meiyan read out the golden hoop stick and engaged in a vicious fight with the Four Heavenly Kings. Tang Sanzang took the opportunity to trip up the Holding Kingdom Heavenly King, but unexpectedly this tripping directly caused the Holding Kingdom Heavenly King to "fall to his death".
Two consecutive murders made Tang Sanzang a "wanted criminal" in the Immortal Realm. Tang Sanzang believed that the root cause of all this was caused by Yue Meiyan, so Tang Sanzang abandoned Yue Meiyan and went alone to find rescue.
In order to hide with Tang San, Yue Meiyan joined forces with Tyrannosaurus Rex, Red Child, Spider Essence, Snake Spirit and others to set up a bitter meat plan. With the cooperation of the demons, Yue Meiyan and Tang Sanzang successfully came together.
In order to avoid the pursuit of the Heavenly Soldiers, Tang Sanzang temporarily lived in the village of the Red Child and the Spider Spirit. In the village, Tang Sanzang also accidentally met the girl who was hidden inside the stone egg before, and this girl was also called "Meiyan".
It turns out that Mei Yan is the descendant of prehistoric humans. During the Ice Age, prehistoric humans used high technology to immigrate to outer space. Dissatisfied with her family's arranged marriage, Mei Yan pilots a spaceship and escapes to Earth.
Luo Ping retrieved a life in the battle between the Lizard King and the Flying Worm Monster, and she pursued it all the way to the village of the Tyrannosaurus and the Red Child, and met her daughter Yue Meiyan. Luo Ping asked Yue Meiyan if she had eaten "Tang monk meat", and Yue Meiyan told her mother that she was in love with Tang Sanzang.
Yue Meiyan took her mother to visit Tang Sanzang, only to see Sanzang and the "stone egg girl" Qingqing me. Yue Meiyan, who is full of vinegar, plans to do something to the "stone egg girl". However, the girl activated the "energy bracelet" on her wrist to reverse time and space, snatching the machete in Yue Meiyan's hand.
As the girl reverses time and space, a spaceship also arrives at the red child's village. The black-clad man on the spaceship, with advanced scientific and technological weapons, defeated these monsters in the village.
It turns out that the stone egg girl is beautiful and is the princess of the "prehistoric civilization", and as she activates the energy bracelet, General Ba on the spaceship also determines her location and comes to look for her.
Mei Yan promised General Ba to go back with him, but before going back, Mei Yan decided to help Tang Sanzang rescue Sun Wukong.
Seeing that Goku was saved, Tang Sanzang's heart blossomed. However, Tyrannosaurus's words made Tang Sanzang suffer a great blow.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex told Yue Meiyan about the bitter meat plan set up by the Red Child, the Green Snake and others, and then Tang Sanzang found out that Yue Meiyan had been deceiving himself. After the lie was exposed, Tang Sanzang broke up with Yue Meiyan. At this time, Luo Ping also told Yue Meiyan a message.
It turned out that Yue Meiyan was not Luo Ping's biological daughter, but a child that Luo Ping had picked up. When she picked up Yue Meiyan, Luo Ping also found a treasure box on her.
Opening the treasure box, Yue Meiyan found that inside the treasure box was a bracelet. This bracelet is exactly the same as the one on the glamorous wrist of the "Stone Egg Girl".
It turns out that Yue Meiyan is also a descendant of "prehistoric humans". It is precisely because of the genetic influence of "prehistoric humans" that Yue Meiyan cannot adapt to the environment on the earth, so the longer she grows, the uglier she becomes.
When Yue Meiyan activated the bracelet, her body began to enter its best state under the protection of the bracelet. And her body shape and face have also undergone tremendous changes.
Princess Meiyan took General Ba's troops to "Shache City" to destroy the big tree spirits and flying insect monsters. However, the Flying Bug Monster and the Great Tree Spirit have the upper hand by virtue of their terrain advantages. Tang Sanzang was also under the siege of the Flying Worm Monster, and his life was hanging in the balance.
At the moment of crisis, Yue Meiyan, who had transformed into a woman, rushed to Shache City, where she not only saved Tang Sanzang, but also helped General Ba and killed the big tree spirit and flying insect monster.
When it was all over, General Ba planned to leave with the beautiful princess. Princess Meiyan knew that Yue Meiyan was also a descendant of prehistoric humans, so she invited her to return to outer space with her. However, Yue Meiyan chose to stay on Earth for the sake of Tang Sanzang.
After solving the troubles of "Shache City", Tang Sanzang's westward journey was about to be completed. Before becoming a Buddha, Tang Sanzang decided to take three disciples to the Heavenly Court to explain the "murder case" of gui cheng xiang and the heavenly king of the kingdom before.
However, after coming to the Heavenly Court, Tang Sanzang found that Yue Meiyan alone had borne all the blame and had been beaten into heavenly prison by the Jade Emperor.
The Heavenly Official of the Heavenly Court told Tang Sanzang that since someone had carried the black cauldron, it was okay to turn a blind eye and turn a blind eye. After all, a female demon like this has to behead tens of thousands of them every year in the Heavenly Court.
However, in Tang Sanzang's heart, Yue Meiyan was different from other banshees, because he found that after this series of twists and turns, he had already fallen in love with Yue Meiyan. In order to rescue Yue Meiyan, Tang Sanzang snatched Sun Wukong's golden hoop stick and hit the heavenly court all the way.
Unfortunately, Tang Sanzang was not Sun Wukong, and under the siege of the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals, he was seriously injured. In order to stabilize the situation, Sun Wukong kidnapped the Jade Emperor and planned to rescue Tang Sanzang and Yue Meiyan.
As the scene was glued, the Buddha suddenly appeared. The Buddha told Tang Sanzang that love that is too attached to the result will often not have a result in the end, and the love that does not desire the result is always endless.
The Buddha believed that Tang Sanzang was too obsessed with thoughts and could not become a Buddha. So let him fall back into reincarnation and re-embark on the road to the west. And Yue Meiyan also accompanied Tang Sanzang to reincarnate together.
After reincarnation, Tang Sanzang was still a "Holy Monk of the Tang Dynasty", while Yue Meiyan became a white dragon horse, accompanying Tang Sanzang all the way west. At the end of the movie, director Liu Zhenwei typed a meaningful subtitle: The most distant distance in the world is not that I stand in front of you, but you don't know that I love you, but you know that you love each other, but you can't be together.
In this "Great Sage of Love", Liu Zhenwei also arranged a "love story that cannot be sought" for Tang Sanzang, and at this moment, Tang Sanzang and Yue Meiyan are just like Sun Wukong and Zixia Immortals at that moment.
In the style design of the plot section, we can also see many of Liu Zhenwei's inherent characteristics, such as: spoofing Wong Kar-wai's works.
Spoofing Wong Kar-wai is an indispensable element in Liu Zhenwei's comedy works. "Journey to the West" spoofs "East Evil and West Poison", "Timeless time to love" spoofs "Chongqing Forest", and "Matchless in the World" spoofs "Fancy Years". In this "Great Sage of Love", Liu Zhenwei made a prank on Wong Kar-wai's "2046".
In addition to spoofing Wong Kar-wai, Liu Zhenwei also made a joke about Hollywood blockbusters such as "The Matrix", "Star Wars", and "Spider-Man" in this "Epilepsy". In the duel with the big tree spirit, before Yue Meiyan fired, a group of white pigeons flew through the sky, which was a naked tribute to the "Hong Kong film ace pigeon king" Wu Yusen.
Although the spoof of the film is very interesting, the overall quality presented by "The Great Sage" is not outstanding. After the work was released in the mainland market in 2005, it suffered double setbacks at the box office and word of mouth.
In terms of the performance of the lens and the design of the soundtrack, "The Great Sage of Love" is indeed remarkable. The ink painting scene when the four heavenly kings appeared, and the Zen picture when Tang Sanzang and Yue Meiyan broke up in the bamboo forest, really moved many viewers. The theme song "Love Saint" composed by Hisaishi Jean for the film is to set off the emotional atmosphere of the film to the extreme.
However, the abuse of special effects scenes and the loss of control of the story rhythm have greatly reduced the quality of this "Love Saint".
I believe that many viewers have been touched by the story of the last 20 minutes of this "Great Sage of Love". The last 20-plus minute story is really well designed. However, for a 103-minute film, only the essence of 20 minutes is obviously unable to satisfy the audience.
And the essence of these 20 minutes or so came too late.
In fact, the first 70 minutes of "The Great Sage of Love" did not describe the story plot too much. Most of the film is spent showing special effects scenes.
Around 2000, with the birth of "The Matrix", "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and other works, Hollywood special effects blockbusters became the mainstream of movies above the film market.
In this "Love Epilepsy", Liu Zhenwei also hopes to align himself with the international film world and designs a large number of "special effects action" shots for the film. However, Director Liu attaches too much importance to the performance of the "special effects scene", and every five or six minutes, there will be a special effects scene in the movie.
The abuse of special effects scenes has led to the loss of control of the story rhythm of the movie, and the first 70 minutes of the story, although there are many special effects action scenes, but the emptiness of the content makes these 70 minutes seem lengthy and boring.
Although the overall performance of "The Great Sage of Love" is not good, the story creativity of the film has inspired many filmmakers, including Stephen Chow.
In 2013, Zhou Xingchi followed the creative idea of "The Great Sage of Love", designed a love story for Tang Sanzang that "could not be sought", and filmed "Journey to the West to Descend demons".
I have to say that Zhou Xingchi and Liu Zhenwei are the real "film confidants". In 1990, Zhou and Liu joined hands to collaborate on "Gamble Saint". This work allowed Stephen Chow to usher in his own box office era, and also made Liu Zhenwei a first-line director in the Hong Kong film market.
Then, the "Journey to the West" and "Kung Fu" that the two worked together have also become the top works of "Nonsense Hong Kong Films".
After "Kung Fu", Zhou Xingchi and Liu Zhenwei went their separate ways. Without Liu Zhenwei's Zhou Xingchi, he began to walk into the downward slope of his career, and the subsequent "Yangtze River Seven", "Shaolin Girl", and "Jump Out" were of inferior quality.
In 2013, Zhou Xingchi used Liu Zhenwei's creativity to shoot "Journey to the West to Descend demons". This film also successfully saved the quality reputation of "Stephen Chow's works". However, after "Journey to the West to Descend the Devil", the "Journey to the West" and "The King of New Comedy" have made Zhou Xingchi encounter a word-of-mouth crisis again.
Without Zhou Xingchi's Liu Zhenwei, it was even more miserable, not only the reputation of the work was frustrated, but the box office was not satisfactory. From "Love Epilepsy Dasheng", "Robot Man", "Yueguang Treasure Box" to "East into West 2011", "Big Talk Heavenly Immortal", "Big Talk West Journey 3", "Fairy Ball War", Liu Zhenwei fell into the "rotten quagmire" step by step, becoming the second "Wang Jing", who can only rely on fried cold rice to consume the audience's feelings again and again.
Liu Zhenwei and Zhou Xingchi are like two sides of the same coin, and the two can truly realize the market value of the coin of "nonsense comedy" together. However, when the coin is split in two, its original market value is also reduced.
(End)