Why can't Andy Lau play a villain?
42 years since his debut, Andy Lau has been committed to creating a high-quality IP. And this IP, is himself. His high-quality image is both obtained through his own efforts and defended through his own efforts.
Author|Charles, Editor|Lone Pigeon
On September 27, Andy Lau had just celebrated his 62nd birthday, but he didn't look like someone in his sixties at all.
As we all know, Andy Lau is a recognized model worker in the entertainment industry. In the past two months alone, he has frequently appeared in the public eye: in July, he helped Wang Baoqiang's "In the Octagonal Cage" and sang the old song "It's Not a Sin for a Man to Cry"; In August, he joined with Tony Leung and participated in the final press conference of the new film "Goldfinger"; In September, he won the Special Contribution Award from the Toronto Film Festival, sang the theme song "Debut" for the Asian Games, and participated in the roadshow of the new film "93 International Train Robbery: Operation Moscow".
In "Operation Moscow", Andy Lau and Zhang Hanyu "continued the frontier", and cooperated again after 14 years after "No Thief in the World" and "Dragon Play and Phoenix". Zhang Hanyu plays policeman Cui Zhenhai, Andy Lau plays the wanted criminal Vasily, one is a "bad man" and the other is a "thief", and the case is related to a train, which is unconsciously reminiscent of the setting in "No Thief in the World". So, Andy Lau joked during the roadshow, saying that Zhang Hanyu has been "acting" all these years, chasing himself for 20 years, all the way to Moscow.
Screenshot of the "Moscow Action" trailer
In the film, Vasily is a sleek, stoic, and shrewd complex character, who seems to be a well-known "Moscow master" among outsiders, but because he is separated from his family, the rope of fate is dragged to the hands of others. But like Wang Bo in "No Thief in the World", they all chose to change their evil ways in the end, and they all paid a heavy price.
So, from this, a hot search topic appeared on Weibo: Why does Andy Lau rarely play a villain?
Unlike Zhang Hanyu who was stereotyped by the "positive image", Andy Lau's reasons for not being with the villain are more complex - in the early years, he didn't want to act, and later he couldn't act.
In "Infernal Affairs", Andy Lau's Liu Jianming said this sentence: "I didn't have a choice before, now I want to be a good person." "Andy Lau in reality is different, he has a choice, and he really chooses it - to be a good person.
Nice humanoid actor
Andy Lau's definition of himself is not "good person", but "good actor". He divided the actors into two types, one is a genius type and the other is a good person type, he believes that "Tony Leung is a genius actor, I am a good actor".
In 1983, Andy Lau and Huang Rihua, Tony Leung, Miao Qiaowei and Tang Zhenye formed the "Wireless Five Tiger Generals" and supported TVB. Later, he and Tony Leung successively switched to the film industry, becoming witnesses and witnesses of the golden age of Hong Kong films. Because they started on the same track and are the same age, the two are often compared.
Andy Lau and Tony Leung
At that time, the Hong Kong film industry was not optimistic about Andy Lau. Wang Jing's father, Wang Tianlin, once said unceremoniously: If there is Hua Zi and Wei Zi, I will definitely choose Wei Zi, and Wei Zi is born to act.
Tony Leung performed "Infernal Affairs", which only lasted for 20 days, starting work for 3 or 4 hours a day, and winning awards was soft. Andy Lau, who has more scenes, has repeatedly fallen into the downside at the awards ceremony. At the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards, the two were nominated for Best Actor for "Infernal Affairs", and finally Tony Leung was crowned emperor. At the 40th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards, the two were nominated again, but Andy Lau lost again and could only sit on the "cold bench" and accompany the whole run.
Lack of talent, can only work hard to make up. Andy Lau works very hard, and has worked hard for more than 40 years, as he himself said, "Of course it is good to have talent, but talent is something you can't choose, hard work is something you can choose."
Andy Lau interviewed "talent and hard work"
His hard work is everywhere in his life: if he can't sing well, he practices every day, focusing on discovering characteristics and honing pitch; The lyrics were not well written, so he took advantage of the gap between acting to hide in the car when others were resting to write songs, one song after another, and finally wrote "Ice Rain" affirmed by Huang Xiao; In order to maintain his figure, he insisted on eating cereal for breakfast, which he ate for more than thirty years; In order to play the real thing, he let the group actor slap himself, and he didn't stop working until he was bleeding and injured...
In his career, there is only one benchmark, that is, "if you think I can't sing OK, then I'll sing until you think OK; If you think I'm not OK, then I'll play it until you think it's OK."
"Ice Rain" MV
His efforts have been unanimously recognized by insiders. The agent described him: It doesn't matter if you can't do it today, it doesn't matter if you can't do it tomorrow, but next month, Andy Lau will do it. Lin Jiadong praised him: shooting advertisements in the morning and movies in the evening, everyone was exhausted, only Andy Lau was still pressing his legs and exercising, and then he flew back to Hong Kong to accompany his family, and he could still come up with a page of lyrics. Jacky Cheung also said: I want to stop and rest when I am tired, but look at Andy Lau in front, always insisting like an iron man, I am too scared to rest.
And the trial and error and breakthroughs have also allowed Andy Lau's achievements to be quantified. As early as 2000, he completed his 100th film work "A Hu". Today, he has starred in nearly 200 movies. In addition, he was named the "Most Awarded Hong Kong Male Singer" by Guinness World Records. Since entering the industry, he has released more than 100 records, more than 700 singles, held more than 400 concerts, and won more than 500 awards. And his contributions to Chinese films and the Chinese music scene are far from what these numbers can cover.
Andy Lau burst into tears at the concert
It can be said that Andy Lau's life is in line with the mainstream narrative of efforts. Born in a working family, he relied on his own hard work to enter the entertainment industry and finally won the first place.
The positive characters he portrayed in film and television works are highly consistent with his personal temperament, mixed with the good expectations of Chinese society for men. In the eyes of the opposite sex, he is handsome, dashing, talented, and emotional; In the eyes of the same sex, he can be a good big brother, and he is also willing to become a younger brother, can stand up, or retire; In the eyes of the old people and children, he behaves restrainedly, is kind and courteous, knows how to look at the eye, and is the most trustworthy kind of person...
Such a "national idol" is difficult not to be liked by people of all ages and eras, and his reputation has never waned.
The Hong Kong star who "most resembles a mainlander"
Every New Year's holiday, people walk into supermarkets, and there are "Wishing you prosperity" BGMs full of New Year flavor everywhere. Andy Lau, as the singer of this song, has also become one of the closest Hong Kong stars to the mainland people.
In the 80s and 90s of last century, Hong Kong, with its booming economy, became one of the "Four Asian Tigers", enlarged the local film and television song cake, and ushered in the peak of Hong Kong stars' careers. But as the financial turmoil swept through Asia in 1997, Hong Kong's entertainment industry slumped. Film and television creators can only turn to the mainland to find new developments.
Among the many Hong Kong stars, especially the two have developed the most smoothly and most smoothly - one is Jackie Chan who sings "The Descendants of the Dragon", and the other is Andy Lau who sings "Chinese". Both of them have been on the Spring Festival Gala six times, and they are the Hong Kong stars who have appeared on the Spring Festival Gala the most.
Jackie Chan vs Andy Lau
Andy Lau's "Six Climbing Spring Festival Gala", especially in 1995, 1998 and 2005, the three were the most sensational, and almost every appearance can set off a traffic hurricane.
In 1995, at the peak of his appearance, he went on stage to sing "Forgotten Water", using this highly sung Chinese song to open up his popularity in the mainland. In 1998, riding the east wind of Hong Kong's return, he sang "Chinese" on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, singing the national sentiment that blood is thicker than water: the same blood, the same species, there are dreams in the future, we open up together... Let the world know that we are all Chinese. In 2005, he appeared on the Spring Festival Gala again, bringing the "Wishing you prosperity" that became a household name. According to official statistics, the few minutes he appeared on were the peak period of the highest ratings of the Spring Festival Gala that year. It can be seen that before entering the mainland film industry, the style and arrangement of the superstar of Uranus have long been revealed on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
In the 1995 Spring Festival Gala, Andy Lau sang "Forgotten Water"
Unlike Hong Kong stars such as Liu Qingyun, Zhang Jiahui, and Koo Tianle, Andy Lau did not spin in those assembly line co-productions. He is the earliest batch of Hong Kong stars whose performing arts resources are tilted towards the mainland, so he has seized the best opportunity to get out of the circle.
At that time, his cooperation strategy was very simple, that is, to cooperate with big directors and create high-quality works. After 2004, he "efficiently brushed his face" and starred in many works with both box office and word of mouth, such as "Ambush on Ten Sides" directed by Zhang Yimou, "No Thief in the World" directed by Feng Xiaogang, "Cast Name" directed by Chen Kexin, and "Di Renjie's Tongtian Empire" directed by Tsui Hark, all of which came out during this period.
A still from "Ambush on Ten Sides"
The directors concentrated on Andy Lau, not because he is the best acting among Hong Kong actors, but because he is a Hong Kong star who "most resembles a mainlander". Andy Lau once recalled in an interview that Chen Kexin congratulated him after watching "No Thief in the World" and congratulated him "can play a mainlander, and Hong Kong has not yet found such an actor." And Hong Kong film critic Dengtu also made a similar comment, "When I watch Stephen Chow's films, I always think they are Asian films, while when I watch Andy Lau's films, I feel that they are domestic films."
Therefore, later Andy Lau starred in "Orphaned", everything was so tight. In the film, he completely abandons his original brilliance and forces himself to become an unruly peasant who jumps back and forth between hope and collapse. And this role has also become the most breakthrough role in his film resume, making him deeply rooted in the mainland.
Movie "Orphaned"
It's not just quality artists
In addition to filming, Andy Lau also has a strong sense of giving back - using his ability to feed back the film and television industry and support new filmmakers.
In his opinion, each era must have some new and different directors to hit the film market, because different generations need different directors. As early as 1991, he founded his own Skyscreen Film Company, discovered new filmmakers, and supported director Chen Guo to shoot two high-quality films, "Made in Hong Kong" and "Last Year There Were Many Fireworks". Among them, "Made in Hong Kong" swept major film awards ceremonies and won nearly 20 important awards.
Unfortunately, due to investment failure and dismal box office, Tianmu was soon mortgaged and sold and disappeared into the long river of film history, as Wang Jing said: "Andy Lau has too many ideas, Tianmu is a company that satisfies itself, not a business." ”
Stepping into the 21st century, Andy Lau launched the "Asian New Star Guide Program", and took a fancy to Ning Hao with a keen eye, and invested 3 million yuan in "Crazy Stone". Later, Ning Hao became famous, and followed Andy Lau to launch the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Film Project" to fund young directors, Wen Muye ("I Am Not the God of Medicine") and Guo Fan ("The Wandering Earth") have become beneficiaries of the program. After the release of "The Wandering Earth" that year, he also thanked Andy Lau in the end credits. And this series of moves has also been interpreted by mainland fans as "passing on the torch", and it is famous.
Andy Lau and Ning Hao
Due to the heavy responsibility of social image, Andy Lau has refused to play a negative role in his early years, saying, "My role cannot be an outright bad person."
In "Dark War", Andy Lau originally played a perverted villain. A little boy who originally liked him came to play with him, but after the scene, the boy lost his powder. Another time, at TVB's Taiwan celebration scene, Andy Lau burst into foul language according to the script, and later received letters of complaint from all sides: How can Andy Lau burst foul language? And how to let the little one learn from him?
These two events made Andy Lau understand the responsibility of idols. So for many years afterward, he never played an outright villain. And he was also "stereotyped" because of this, and it was difficult to challenge the perverted villain again. Some people even questioned that he played the gangster undercover Liu Jianming in "Infernal Affairs" too "right".
Most of the time, Andy Lau receives roles that are both good and evil, such as the drug lord Akun in "Disciple", the role is not completely bad, but full of contradictions, on the one hand, unable to conform to the moral condemnation brought by drug trafficking, on the other hand, he loves his family and chooses to cut himself to protect his family. And this time "Operation Moscow" in Vasily, the same.
"Disciple" stills
The goose passes the trace, the wind passes the sound. Andy Lau's beautiful traces form an intertext with the positive roles he played. Therefore, when people watch and listen to Andy Lau, they sometimes can't tell whether they like his works or him as a person.
42 years since his debut, Andy Lau has been committed to creating a high-quality IP. And this IP, is himself. His high-quality image is both obtained through his own efforts and defended through his own efforts. His professionalism is well-known, and "feeling sorry for Andy Lau" has become a common sentiment of generations of fans.
He has dedication and long-term vision, and he has helped countless people in the circle, both in creation (Xu Anhua's "Sister Tao") and in life (helping Zhang Weijian, Zheng Zeshi and others tide over difficulties). Standing in front of the stage, he is an excellent entertainer; Stepping back into the background, he is a silently dedicated "sedan lifter".
Last year, Andy Lau settled in Douyin and opened an online concert, which made everyone truly feel the power of senior top streams. The concert was broadcast for an hour, and the number of online people exceeded 200 million, and by the end of the concert, the number of online people had finally reached 350 million. China's Internet users are only 1.032 billion.
Andy Lau online concert
At the concert, Andy Lau sang the song "Seventeen Years Old", which was written by himself and confirmed the ups and downs of his life. This song accompanied his growth, and at each age, he would change a few words: at the age of forty, he sang "Now I look at the past, and my voice is hoarse"; At the age of fifty, he sang "Now I look at the past at fifty, and my voice is hoarse"; At the age of sixty, he sang "Now I look at the past in my sixties, and my voice is hoarse."
Perhaps, like this song, he will sing his legendary life all the time, "The years have changed, but I have not changed".