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Text|Pink Pig-kun
Editor|Fan Pig-kun
«——[·Preface·] ——»
In the early nineties, the "Smiling Rivers and Lakes" and "Wong Fei Hong" series sold out, so that the entire Hong Kong film industry, set off a wave of martial arts film shooting boom, until 1993 reached its peak, a whole year, Hong Kong local release of more than 140 Hong Kong films, of which more than 30 are martial arts themes, which does not sound like a lot, but we can look back at 1989.
The year before the release of "Smiling Rivers and Lakes", more than 130 Hong Kong films were released in Hong Kong, and not a single martial arts theme work appeared, and in 1993 it suddenly rose to more than 30, which shows the madness of Hong Kong filmmakers, and the release of so many martial arts films naturally caused the audience's aesthetic fatigue, and many large-investment, big-production films have suffered box office failures.
In the previous episodes of the program, we basically talked about those high-selling martial arts works, today let's talk about those martial arts films that were not good at the box office in 1993, but the quality is still good, some works gave birth to famous scenes, some works have become the audience's hearts, unforgettable thoughts, and even some works, directly let the film industry boss lose the coffin book.
«——[Sequel that can never be seen ·] ——»
There were many martial arts films with dismal box office in 1993, but if you want to say which one is most liked by the audience, then I think it must be, "The Demon Sect Leader of the Sky and Dragon Slayer", which is the second film that Jet Li cooperated with Yongsheng Films, because in 1992, Yongsheng used Stephen Chow to shoot two "Luding Ji", which was an unprecedented box office hit.
Therefore, in 1993, I wanted to replicate the successful experience again, so there was this "Demon Sect Leader", in order to ensure a box office hit, the director still used Wang Jing, and the heroine was also Qiu Shuzhen and Zhang Min who appeared in "Luding Ji", but this film is also different from "Luding Ji".
That is because it was filmed in Beijing, so a large number of mainland actors participated in the performance, such as the Golden Retriever Lion King who appeared a few minutes before the opening credits, which was played by Yan Huaili, the actor of the sand monk in the 86th version of "Journey to the West", if it were not for checking the credits, I really couldn't see that this was the wooden and humble sand monk.
In addition to him, Ji Qilin, who plays Zhu Yuanzhang, Yu Yankai, who plays Cheng Kun, and Shao Wanlin, who plays the white-eyed eagle king, are also mainland actors, to say that the most eye-catching is Sun Mengquan, the actor of the extermination master, she once played the role of Li Li in the CCTV version of "Dream of Red Mansions", in which she is low eyebrows, did not expect that in "The Legend of Relying on the Sky and Slaying the Dragon", she could actually play so arrogantly, and had to obey the plasticity of those old actors.
Of course, most of the audience must not pay much attention to these supporting roles, after all, the male and female protagonists are bright enough, Jet Li's Zhang Wuji, without the indecision in the original work, but also a little ambitious, not only very different from previous film and television dramas, but even compared with his previous Huang Feihong, it is also a subversive performance.
In addition, his dashing skills are still not absent, Sammo Hung, one of the top martial arts instructors in the Hong Kong film industry, for the first time to cooperate with one of the top action actors, contributed to the fight scenes, that is every scene is wonderful.
In addition to the male protagonist, the actresses in the film are also beautiful, 22-year-old Lizi is youthful, the scene of taking off the veil is amazing, perhaps Wang Jing at that time liked this way of showing her face, when Xiao Zhao played by Qiu Shuzhen appeared, it was also unveiled, which made the audience more excited than Lizi.
But the impression of these two to everyone is definitely not as profound as Zhang Minlai, at the beginning of the film she played Yin Susu, a bitter hatred, full of scheming woman, interpreted into the wood three points, and then she played the lord of Zhao Min, under the men's clothing heroic, under the women's clothing eyebrows are picturesque, especially the scene of smiling back, it seems to have become a classic picture in the hearts of countless audiences, can never forget.
There has been a saying on the Internet that the film was filmed in only more than 20 days to prove the speed of the golden age of Hong Kong films, in fact, this is all misinformation, although Wang Jing's filming speed is indeed fast, but there are many big scenes in this film, and there are scenes shot by the army, so it is simply impossible to shoot in a month.
He personally said in an interview that the film was started in August '93 and was not filmed until December, and it was filmed very urgently during this period, Sammo Hung took a group of people to shoot action scenes and those big scenes, and he took deputy director Ye Weimin to shoot some small indoor scenes.
In this way, I finally caught up with the Christmas file of 1993, and on December 18, it appeared on the big screen of major theaters in Hong Kong, and in Yongsheng's expectations, the film was designated to be a big seller, and they even made plans to start shooting a sequel immediately after the New Year.
Therefore, at the end of the first part, a plot of "most of them meet" was designed, and at the end of the first part of "Luding Ji", Long Er turned back the same, but the final result is also known to everyone, the film failed miserably at the box office, and finally only got a box office of more than 11 million Hong Kong dollars, which is the worst performance among Jet Li's 6 movies this year.
Although "Taiji Zhang Sanfeng" is not very good at the box office in Hong Kong, that film is at least a hit overseas, and this "Sky and Dragon Slayer" is completely on the street, whether it is Taiwan Province, Singapore, or South Korea, it does not appear on the list of the top ten grossing Chinese films, and this caused the original sequel to be aborted.
Zhao Min's contract with Zhang Wuji's capital has been 30 years now, and there is no doubt that there can be no follow-up, although Wang Jing has re-filmed "The Legend of Relying on the Sky and Slaying the Dragon" in the past two years, but the quality of those two films is hemp rope and tofu - don't mention it.
«——[The Divine Work That Bankrupted Rowe ·] ——»
But then again, although "Demon Sect Leader" failed at the box office, it did not make Yongsheng hurt his bones, in the Hong Kong film industry in 1993, there was also a martial arts film, losing money and almost making the boss commit suicide, the director who directed the film is "The Sky and Dragon Slayer", martial arts director Sammo Hung, and the name of the film is, "A Knife to the City".
The production company of this film is Wanli Pictures, the boss is named Luo Wei, yes, it is the one who discovered Jackie Chan, but later Jackie Chan was poached by Jiahe, Luo Wei's career did not make great progress, at the end of the 80s he wanted to hold Jet Li, but he didn't expect to be poached by Jiahe, which can really be said to be a natural nemesis.
Luo Wei has also made phenomenal movies such as "Brother Tangshan" and "Jingwumen" before, but in the eighties and nineties there was no capable general, and he could only make some films that followed the trend, such as Hollywood "Alien" is very popular in Hong Kong, so he made "Devil Fetus".
"Qi Men Dunjia" opened a precedent for magical kung fu comedy, he invested in the filming of "Ghost Horse Tianshi" and "Yin Yang Soldier", "Mr. Zombie" became popular on the screen, he filmed "Zombie Young Master", "Qiannu Ghost" set off the trend of strange films, he also had to take the last train to shoot "Chasing the Sun" to follow suit, although these movies are only shoddy, but also accumulated some old books for him.
Time to 1993, he watched the prevalence of martial arts in the Hong Kong film industry, and he thought of following the trend to make a profit, so there was this "One Knife to the City", although the lineup of this film can not be described as unprecedented, but it is also extremely good, first of all, the director is Sammo Hung, his status in the Hong Kong film industry does not need to be said, and the screenwriter invited Situ Zhuohan and Zhang Tan.
Although these two are not very famous in front of the stage, they have both written classic scripts, such as "Xinshushan Swordsman", "Fuxing Gaozhao", "Mr. Zombie" and other films were written by Situ Zhuohan, while Zhang Tan participated in the creation of Tsui Hark's version of "Huang Feihong".
In addition to these behind-the-scenes teams, the actors in front of the stage are also strong, Dillon played one of the protagonists Tan Sitong, Yang Fan, the actor of Zhao Yun in "Three Kingdoms", played the protagonist Dao Wang Wu in the film, and Yuan Shikai's actor Zhao Changjun, among the mainland martial arts athletes, is second only to Jet Li's existence, Donnie Yen came to the mainland to learn martial arts is to worship him as a teacher.
In addition to this, there are also about Zhilin, Yang Liqian, Liu Xun to help, everything in front of and behind the scenes, Luo Wei feels that the victory is in hand, so he did not hesitate to take out the coffin book of 18 million Hong Kong dollars, led the entire crew north, to Beijing and other places for live shooting, it can be said that the cauldron is sinking, and the quality of the whole film now seems to be really good.
Although the plot has changed history, it shows patriotic sentiment everywhere, and it seems tragic and strong, especially those thought-provoking lines, clean and neat, but without a sense of artifice, I have to admire Situ Zhuohan, and Zhang Tan's cultural skills are deep.
In addition to these lines, the action scenes in the film are also exciting enough, after all, it is a work directed by Sammo Hung, the arrangement of various moves is very gorgeous and domineering, and he also designed a number of weapon duels in the film, what single knife, long gun, multi-section whip, meteor hammer display dazzled the audience.
Even Sammo Hung himself personally came down, and the protagonist came to a knife fight, the style of opening and closing is also quite ornamental, Luo Wei after watching the final film, he felt very good about himself, thinking that this time he would definitely be able to turn over salted fish, so he found a high-grossing summer file and sent the film to the big screen.
However, people are not as good as heavenly calculations, Zhao Changjun is not Jet Li after all, during the time when "One Knife to the City" was released, Stephen Chow's "Tang Bohu Dotted Autumn Fragrance" was being screened, the film did not have any room for resistance at all, it was removed from the shelves after only 9 days of screening, and finally only got 1.98 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, let alone make a fortune, Luo Wei could not even get the coffin back.
In fact, the failure of this film is not only because the actor is not large, the plot of the movie also commits the taboo of Hong Kong movies, the ending of the film is very tragic, the positive characters are almost completely destroyed, the villain laughs to the end, the audience is happy to watch the movie, this hour and a half, only feel blocked in the heart, so how can you recommend others to watch it.
Therefore, it can be said that the moment "One Knife to the City" was just filmed, it was doomed to the end of the box office fiasco, in fact, losing the coffin book is not the most difficult for Luo Wei to accept, half of his 18 million investment is usury, which directly causes creditors to come to the door and urge them to repay every day.
The popular movie tycoon, suddenly felt that the road ahead was gray, found a hotel and prepared to commit suicide by poisoning, but before he died, he called his apprentice Chen Xunqi to explain his last words, and was finally persuaded to come back, but Luo Wei's heart could not be mentioned again, and he ended up depressed three years later.
In the summer of 1993, in addition to this "One Knife to the City", the Hong Kong film industry actually released a lot, investment is not small but not much income of martial arts films, such as the second half of the summer file in August, there are three martial arts films, piled up in a week to be released one after another, the first worst box office is "Flying Fox Gaiden" starring Liming, Zhang Min and others.
«——[·Flying Fox Gaiden·]——»
Although this film is adapted from Jin Yong's novel, perhaps because of Mak Dongxiong's executive producer, the whole work is filled with a cult atmosphere, both crazy and rude, especially the "self-proof" scene in the film, which only felt bloody at first, but now it seems to understand, the meaning that the director wants to express, Jiang Wen's "six sons eat powder", is the same as this paragraph.
Although this is a martial arts movie, the action scenes in the film do not have many highlights, the close-ups are close-ups, the vistas are all stand-ins, the only thing that impressed me a little in the whole film is Zhang Min and Li Jiaxin, these two big beauties, perhaps because of the director's bad taste, Li Jiaxin said a lot of erotic lines.
And Zhang Min has made a huge contribution, and dawn came to Duan Broken Temple to suck his fingers, the picture is not erotic, but it is extremely fragrant, although Ma Dongxiong has supervised the production of martial arts dramas such as "Heavenly Silkworm Transformation", but that is more than ten years ago, so after this "Flying Fox Gaiden" was filmed, he was very pessimistic about market expectations.
And the day before the film was released, he also encountered another martial arts film, which made him feel even more promising, after all, the producer of that work is the most skilled person in the Hong Kong film industry who can make martial arts films, his name is - Tsui Hark, and this work is, "New Immortal Crane Divine Needle".
«——[·Tsui Hark's martial arts.] ——»
Tsui Hark is familiar with martial arts films, so the overall quality of this film is much stronger than "Flying Fox Gaiden", a martial arts with constant grudges, under the script he wrote, is full of political irony, and several of the protagonists are also plump and agile.
In particular, Anita Mui's Bai Yunfei, with a neutral appearance, shows to the greatest extent the ethereal and dashing that Tsui Hark has always pursued in his films, and the scene in the film where she and Ma Junwu are in the dyeing workshop and deal with the enemy perfectly interprets this.
At that time, Hong Kong films seemed to like to rub the edges, in "The Legend of the Flying Fox", Liming and Zhang Min played ambiguously, and in "New Immortal Crane Divine Needle", Liu Jinling's jade fairy is even more popular, most of the fragrant shots in the film are her contribution, even Guan Zhilin is in the film, and Tony Leung came to a large-scale line, which should be the most impressive place for many audiences to this film.
At that time, martial arts films seemed to be adapted from novels, "The Legend of the Flying Fox" was adapted from Jin Yong's novel, and "New Immortal Crane Divine Needle" was adapted from Wolongsheng's novel, and the third martial arts film in the schedule was no exception, and the coffee position was even larger, the name of the movie was "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch".
«——[·Sadomasochistic martial arts·] ——»
The producer of the film is Oriental Cinema, and the initiator is Gao Zhisen, at that time, he watched martial arts films sell, so he was also looking for a suitable theme, until he saw the original work of "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", he decided to make it into a movie, but he himself had not made martial arts films, so he encouraged Yu Rentai to shoot.
Yu Rentai
However, Director Yu is not interested in costume dramas at all, and after reading the novel, he found that there are many characters, the plot is boring, and there are no highlights at all except for the sadomasochism, in order to reject Gao Zhisen, he tactfully said that if it is made into a movie, the original book must be overhauled, so the author will definitely not agree.
Unexpectedly, Gao Zhisen heard this, and directly took Yu Rentai to find Liang Yusheng, under the role of the copyright fee full of sincerity, Liang Lao readily agreed to the adaptation plan, no way, Yu Rentai can only follow Gao Zhisen to find an actor, the actor is very easy to find, naturally it is the No. 1 artist under the Orient, Leslie Cheung, and the heroine originally wanted to find Michelle Yeoh.
However, she is filming another martial arts film with Wang Jing, there is no spare schedule, Huang Baiming, the boss of the East, thought to himself, it is better to go directly in one step, please the ceiling in the martial arts film, so Lin Qingxia joined the group, and "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" was officially filmed.
Although this year Leslie Cheung is 37 years old and Lin Qingxia is 39 years old, they are properly maintained, and they do not show any old age on the big screen, and the lingering in the pool really makes the audience's hearts surging.
And Lin Qingxia suddenly transformed, the appearance of silver silk, but also became her undefeated in the East, another classic look, in the fourth week of August 1993, the film and "Flying Fox Gaiden" and "New Crane Divine Needle", successively landed on the big screen of major theaters in Hong Kong, Mak Donald, Tsui Hark, Gao Zhisen three producers of the showdown, who can win the final victory?
As we have said earlier, the worst box office is "Flying Fox Gaiden", the film only stayed on the big screen for 14 days, and then hurriedly went offline, and only got a total of 6.8 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, the results are quite average.
"New Immortal Crane Divine Needle" is slightly better than it, stayed on the big screen for 15 days before it went offline, and finally got 8.17 million at the box office, although it is a little more than the former, but Tsui Hark, as a pioneer of the new martial arts trend, got this result is really a bit unexpected.
And "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", because the attendance far exceeded expectations, it took 4 weeks to go offline, and it got a total of nearly 20 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, more than the other two combined, and in the Korean market, the film also entered the top ten of the year, which can be said to be the biggest winner among the three works.
And the big sale of this film, naturally put the shooting of the sequel on the agenda, at that time overseas film companies were also very excited, have proposed to buy the copyright, the premise is to still ask Lin Qingxia and Leslie Cheung to star, but at this time Leslie Cheung is busy, Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil West Poison", is still filming at a snail-like speed, he had to continue to soak in the desert against the mountain.
Because at that time, "Farewell My Concubine" had already won the award in Cannes, so in his spare time to shoot "East Evil and West Poison", he had to follow the crew of "Farewell My Concubine" and rush around to participate in activities, and Chen Kaige was also planning during this period, and then cooperated with him to make a new film called "Flower Shadow", which was later "Wind and Moon".
«——[·Audience who were deceived.]——»
In addition, he has to squeeze out some time to follow Huang Baiming to shoot the 94-year New Year masterpiece of the Oriental Cinema, so he can't do it anyway, the starring role of the sequel to "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", but the wallets of the film dealers are open, and the silver of the white flowers does not earn for nothing, so Gao Zhisen and Yu Rentai directly changed the script.
Let Leslie Cheung only make a cameo appearance for a few minutes in the sequel, but he is still used as a gimmick when publicizing, whether it is on the cover of the DVD or on the movie poster, the names of Lin Qingxia and Leslie Cheung are in the most prominent position, and many fans have also entered the cinema, but they found out after watching the movie that they were deceived.
Only the opening and ending credits appeared Leslie Cheung, he is not the protagonist at all, Gao Zhisen's chicken thief's approach, naturally suffered from the audience's backlash, after the opening of "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", because of the audience's word of mouth, resulting in insufficient attendance.
So after only 15 days on the big screen, it was directly offline, and the final box office was only more than 11 million Hong Kong dollars, far from the previous work, and the overseas results were also dismal, and its name could not be seen on the major lists.
In fact, there were many companies at that time, considering that following the trend may be risky, so they reduced their investment when they were produced, and did not spend a lot of money to buy any martial arts novel copyrights, but made the four famous works of free into martial arts films, one of the more representative of which is Liang Jiahui, starring Wang Zuxian, "The True Color of the Heroes of the Water Margin".
«——[·Buried Classics.] ——»
The director of this film is Chen Huiyi, a senior martial arts instructor, although he has not seriously learned to make movies, but this film is still under his direction, the "true colors of heroes" style of brother routine, interpret vividly, of course, all this is inseparable from the performance of the actors in the film, especially the performance of several villains is remarkable.
For example, Gao Qiang's actor Liu Xun, everyone says that he is a good person with a beard, in this film he broke this convention, although he is still full of beards, but Gao Qiang's sinister and vicious is still vividly shown by him, a thousand-faced actor, a thousand-faced actor, after "New Dragon Gate Inn", and contributed a classic rival scene in this film.
There is also Lin Wei played by Lu Qian, is simply the two sides of Lin Chong, Lin Chong in order to stay in the officialdom, and had to endure everywhere, Lu Qian in order to climb up into the officialdom, so vicious and ruthless, in order to highlight this feature, the director specially designed a hat action for him, even if he took his last breath before death, he had to straighten his hat, which shows how deep his obsession with compilation is.
In addition, Gao Yannei, the son of Qiao, is one of the characters I have the deepest impression of this film, Shan Liwen seems to have harassed Wang Zuxian, in "Pan Jinlian's Life Before and Here", he is Ximen Qing who hooked up with Pan Jinlian, in "City Hunter", he is a mean man who wants to get into his cousin, in this film he played Gao Yannei, still maintains the characteristics of a man's true color, I only feel itchy teeth, especially that, and he doesn't stop dying.
Perhaps because the interpretation of these characters is too exciting, resulting in the action scenes being set off not very brilliant, several one-on-one scenes, although they are also very impactful under Chen Huiyi's design, but in that era can only be regarded as average, did not leave a deep impression on me at all, but Lin Chong holding a spear, against a group of small soldiers, because the whimsical design of the scene made me remember deeply.
This film is still very good overall, even if it is on the Douban platform today, it is higher than the aforementioned "Flying Fox Gaiden" and other films, but it was released in 1993, the year when martial arts films were the most brilliant, facing "Iron Rooster Fighting Centipede" released a day apart, how can the film be parried.
In the end, it only stayed on the big screen for 11 days before it was released, and the box office only received more than 6 million Hong Kong dollars, in that year of less investment of millions, the film unsurprisingly lost money, and the main reason for its failure, I think, is because of the style routine, after all, it is generally imitating Tsui Hark's set, shooting an orthodox martial arts film, the audience will naturally get tired of watching more.
Wu Dun, the boss of Changhong Pictures, discovered this early, as we said in previous issues, he cooperated with Yonggao Cinema Line in the Spring Festival in 1993 to launch a "New Meteor Butterfly Sword", although it was star-studded, but in the end only got more than 9 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, and the cost was not recovered at all.
«——[·
When Wu Dun investigated the market, he found that there was also a martial arts film released at that time, and the final box office was more than 20 million, entering the top ten grossing films of the year, he carefully studied a movie and found that the film went off the edge, combining the nonsense that was very popular at the time with the martial arts style, so it was deeply liked by the audience.
Therefore, Wu Dun decided to also make a work in this style, the blockbuster movie is called "East Becomes West", and the film he intends to imitate is "Neural Knife and Flying Cat".
In order to imitate the likeness, the film invited Liang Jiahui, Jacky Cheung, Maggie Cheung and other actors who participated in the filming of "East Becomes West", in addition to Lin Zhiying, Ye Yunyi, Zhang Min, Wu Mengda and others to join, the lineup can be described as luxurious, and in terms of the behind-the-scenes team, Wu Dun directly found Wang Jing, who is as famous as Liu Zhenwei, to participate in the screenwriting.
And the director is "Taiwan Wang Jing" Zhu Yanping, these two directors famous for spoofing get together, directly let this film from beginning to end, from "big and small flying knives" to "undefeated in the West", from "cold-blooded thirteen eagles" to "East factory eunuch Cao Gonggong", from "inn fighting method" to "dyeing workshop decisive battle", you can see the classic symbols of martial arts everywhere, and you can also see the crazy nonsensical jokes everywhere.
What impressed me the most was the part where the flying cat watched the monitoring playback, and in a joke, a larger reversal was superimposed, which shows that Wang Jing at that time, his imagination was really rich enough.
Although this film is trying to imitate the madness of "East Becomes West", I don't know if it is a preconceived reason, I feel that the film is full of cheapness, and the audience at that time, perhaps the same feeling as me, caused the film's attendance to be less than expected, and it was released 15 days later.
The final box office is similar to Changhong Pictures, the Spring Festival file "New Meteor Butterfly Sword", it is also more than 9 million Hong Kong dollars, and it ended with a loss again, these more than 9 million results, although it is bad enough, but in the field of martial arts films in 1993, it is not really miserable, there are still many films this year, and even this result can not be obtained.
«——[·Epilogue.]——»
Like "Barefoot Boy" directed by To Qifeng, Guo Fucheng, Maggie Cheung's lineup, it only won more than 3 million at the box office, and the same "Laughing Man Chu Liuxiang" starring Guo Fucheng, with Qiu Shuzhen and Zhang Min, the two beauties, still only got more than 3 million at the box office.
The rest of the "Border City Prodigal Son", "Murderer Tang Chopper", "Sword Slave" and other films, all of which are box office results of 10,000 or 20,000, it can be said that this year's Hong Kong-style martial arts films have suffered an all-round rout, and this has indirectly affected the box office of excellent films in other fields.
In the next program, let's talk about it, those box office average, but undoubtedly boutique non-martial arts movies in 1993, some have a deep enough core, some create new trends, and some directly win awards internationally, although they are not as big as Chengyi Li on Double Monday, but each one is undoubtedly worth watching.