At the 1983 Hong Kong Film Awards, "Best Action Direction" was included in the selection category, so that the action design talents behind the film could be recognized by more people. It is of great significance to Hong Kong films that advocate martial arts culture and action design. The so-called action guidance, that is, the instructor responsible for the design of film and television martial arts and action stunts, is self-evident in the importance of an action film, and from the division of labor, it can be equal to the director, so there is also an action director.
From the early Hong Kong action films, martial arts films, police films all the way, many well-known action directors have been born. In the 1960s, Han Yingjie designed actions for Hu Jinquan's martial arts films, and the group bruce Lee, Lin Zhengying, and Chen Huiyi were the iron triangle, and then the martial arts teams such as Chengjiaban, Hong Jiaban, and Liu Jiaban became the backbone, and Yuan Heping and his Yuan Jiaban also exported strength to Hong Kong action movies. Although Hong Kong action movies are no longer as good as in the past, but today's action actors still have their own team, Zhen Zidan has his own Zhen family class, Qian Jiale's martial arts team has become a local force in Hong Kong action movies, and Jackie Chan's team, although it is called disbanded, actually participated in most of Jackie Chan's new movies.
One of the genius action directors we want to talk about today is from Hong Jiaban, because of the extreme low profile, compared to Yuan Heping, Cheng Xiaodong, Yuan Bin and other famous directors, it is too "unpopular", but its achievements in action design are not lost to them at all, he is Dong Wei.
From actor to martial arts instructor: Dong Wei was born in Shanghai in 1954 and moved to Hong Kong at the age of 4, where he studied Peking Opera under Pink Chrysanthemum. Like Ju Lin Zhengying, Hui Tianci, Yang Panpan, Zhong Fa, and Meng Hai are also from the Pink Chrysanthemum Opera Class. The drama class not only practiced Peking Opera Kung Fu, but also had corresponding Mandarin practice, coupled with the advantages of a beautiful appearance, in the 60s when the live broadcast was filmed, Dong Wei began to play some small film roles at the age of seven or eight, and then joined the Hong family class, Bruce Lee's "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight" In the finger moon play is a classic
At the age of 16, Dong Wei began to work as a film martial artist and stand-in, and then went to Taiwan to develop, successively serving as the martial arts designer of "Red-blooded Golden-Faced Man", "Iron Hand Ruthless Soul Hunting Order" and "Eighteen Luohan Fist". At the end of the 1970s, Dong Wei returned to Hong Kong to develop into an artist at TVB, becoming famous for a film called "Heroes Out of Youth". In this martial arts drama, he not only played a ghostly and youthful Fang Shiyu, but also designed a wonderful martial arts design for the series, which was widely praised in the industry. After filming dramas such as "Drama Boy" and "Thirteen Taibao", he left wireless and focused on the field of action design.
Genius action director, won more awards than Hong Jinbao: in addition to his strength in performance, Dong Wei's greater achievement lies in the action design of film and television dramas. In the early days, he was a backbone member of the Hongjia class, and the interesting actions in the classics such as "Mr. Spirit Illusion", "Ghost Catcher" and "One Eyebrow Daoist" were all from Dong Wei. Dong Wei's creativity in combining the story to express the action has also been favored by many big directors, such as Wu Yusen looking for him to guide "The True Colors of Heroes" Wong Kar-wai asking him to shoot "Carmen in Mong Kok"
After the 1990s, Dong Wei ushered in the peak of his own action design field, and in 1995, he and Xu Ke collaborated on "Knife" for the first time to nominate for the Best Action Design Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and have been shortlisted every year since then, including the well-known "New On the Beach", "The Thief Spy", "The King of Killers" and so on. After the new millennium, Dong Wei is also almost always a regular visitor to the Motion Design Finalists of the Academy Awards, and has been nominated for the Academy Awards Best Action Design Award 17 times and won 6 times so far, while Hong Jinbao has only won 4 awards, and Dong Wei's strength can be seen.
Here we take a look at Dong Wei's award-winning six films, the science and technology crime action film "Thief Spy Movie", the police action film "Purple Rain Storm", the action comedy "Secret Agent Maze", the main theme action film "October Siege" and the actual action film "One Man's Martial Forest". So you will also see that the "Seven Swords" that takes the traditional martial arts road is designed by him, the magical "Painted Skin" is designed by him, and even Chen Kexin's "If Love" is also looking for Dong Wei, which is not only his proficiency in action design, but also in his unique arrangement of action design, which can make the action drive the audience to follow the plot and trigger emotional resonance.
This design concept of action and the occurrence of the film story is a magic weapon for Dong Wei's guidance, even if excellent martial arts design is not required, action elements can also promote the development of the plot. Simply put, excellent action guidance is that the protagonist's one drink of water and one turn back are cleverly designed to drive the audience's emotions. And Dong Wei will also have his own "secondary creation" when completing his own action design, that is to say, he will stop for a week and think about whether there will be another new way of presentation, so that the action design has another possibility. This is the excellence of action design, and it is also the second magic weapon of his success.
Dong Wei's third magic weapon is the professionalism of action filmmakers, often when shooting thrilling action scenes, he will measure whether the actors will be able to complete, and how to improve the success rate to design the action without affecting the good looks. Just like when he designed the action for Jackie Chan's "Secret Agent Maze", he took low risk as the standard, and tested the speed, weight, wind speed and other data comparison before designing the action, so that the action scenes look good and also provide safety for the actors.
The directorial debut "Exorcist Police" made a classic action film for Jet Li: Dong Wei is not only an actor and action director, but also a director himself. The director's debut is "Exorcist Police" filmed in 1990, this film combines police bandits and exorcisms, and the fighting plot is actually not Dong Wei's "true love", but the general environment prompts him to make such an action movie.
"Exorcist Police" does not dissolve the action concept that Dong Wei really wants to express, and "The King of Killers" created for Jet Li in 1998 can only be glimpsed. This film is superior in terms of action, suspense and characters, and was also nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Horse Award for Best Action Design that year, which is a classic masterpiece when Jet Li left Hollywood.
Compared with Yuan Heping, Hong Jinbao and other Dong Wei may not be the famous action directors that everyone will first remember, many people don't even know him very well. However, from his works, we can understand his action design strength, it is not too much to say that he is a genius in action design, and Dong Wei is bound to be a guide that cannot be ignored in the field of action movies in the future