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Text: Pink Pig
Editor|Pink Pig
«——【·Preface·】——»
In 1993, when the bubble of Hong Kong martial arts films had not yet burst, Taiwanese film tycoon Yang Dengkui found Wang Jing and asked him to make a martial arts movie for himself, and designated Jet Li as the leading actor.
Because Yang Dengkui not only designated, the starring role must be Jet Li, and the plot must also be, a remake from a very famous old movie, that film tells the story of five Shaolin disciples "anti-Qing and restoration of sight", according to the original idea, Jet Li played one of the Shaolin disciples, and the other four people who played with him must also be quite a coffee position.
But the whole of Hong Kong is counted, and maybe only "Double Monday" can meet this condition, but the salaries of those people are not low, and they don't have enough budget to invite them to film, and even if they come, plus Jet Li is only four people, it is still not enough.
According to Wang Jing's later interview, that was the biggest difficulty he encountered since he entered the industry, and he always didn't know what to do when he thought about it, but the story always had to be reversed.
«——[·Remake Classic·]——»
Yang Dengkui asked Wang Jing to shoot this movie, which belongs to the remake of "Shaolin Five Ancestors" directed by Zhang Che from 1974, this story is very popular in the Lingnan region, and the five Shaolin disciples referred to by the five ancestors are called Hu Dedi, Li Shikai, Ma Chaoxing, Fang Dahong, and Cai Dezhong.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court "burned North Shaolin", as Shaolin disciples, they fled to Fujian to borrow the cover of South Shaolin, and secretly carried out "anti-Qing and Ming" activities, so they were called the five ancestors of Shaolin, in addition, they also branched out throughout the country, "Heaven and Earth Society", "Triad Society", "Pao Brother", "Brother Elders", "Little Knife Society" and other five underground organizations, and together they are the famous "Hongmen".
However, because the age is too old, I feel that a large part of this is apocryphal, and you don't have to take it too seriously, in this version of "Shaolin Five Ancestors" directed by Zhang Che, the five protagonists are played by Jiang David, Dillon, Fu Sheng, Qi Champion, and Meng Fei.
The first two should be familiar to everyone, so I won't introduce them too much here, the third person named Fu Sheng is Zhen Ni's husband, who was also a smash hit back then, but he died unexpectedly in 1983, and his fame slowly faded.
This last Meng Fei is Taiwan's No. 1 martial arts student, and the lineup of the first four people was quite good back then, so after the film was released that year, it also entered the top ten best-selling films, and now Wang Jing is remaking this story again, and it is basically impossible to find four people who are equivalent to Jet Li's coffee position.
However, Wang Jing finally came up with a solution, that is, to let Jet Li not play the original role, but invited five young actors to play the five ancestors of Shaolin, Jet Li came out independently to play another role, the name of this character is Hong Xiguan, and the name of the movie became, "New Shaolin Five Ancestors".
«——【New Shaolin Five Ancestors】——»
In this way, the theme and starring candidates can meet the requirements of the boss Yang Dengkui, and the film can officially start filming.
In fact, the character of Hong Xiguan also belongs to Shaolin disciples, together with Fang Shiyu, Sande Monk and others, known as the "Shaolin Ten Tigers", and they are in reality, there is a high probability that they do not exist, and the appearance of these characters can be traced back to a novel called "The Peak of the Holy Dynasty".
Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu and others in it belong to the Shaolin demon monks who gathered a crowd to rebel, and were finally annihilated by the imperial court in one fell swoop, some viewers may ask, why these people were villains at the time, in fact, because this book was formed in the Qing Dynasty, and the anti-Qing Dynasty was to kill the head, Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu and others were naturally villains.
It's just that after the Qing Dynasty ended, the identities of the pros and villains were reversed, Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu and others also incarnated as chivalrous heroes who punished the strong and helped the weak, in order to make the adult Hong Xiguan and the five underage children have contact, Wang Jing deliberately added more scenes to Hong Xiguan's son Hong Wending in the film, and set him as a child of the same age as the five ancestors of Shaolin, which made the movie a lot more interesting.
In fact, Xie Miao auditioned for the first time, it was "Little Master of the Ma Family", but Wang Jing felt that his eyes were firm and sharp, and in another way of saying it, he was old-fashioned, and he was more suitable to play "Hong Wending", just like that, Xie Miao started his acting career, in addition to the image of the role, Xie Miao's skills are also good.
Although he was only 9 years old at this time, he was chic and free with every move, and he cooperated with Jet Li to shoot action scenes, and he was not suppressed at all, especially the scene against Ma Ninger was the most exciting, it is worth mentioning that Ma Ninger's invulnerability setting actually comes from Fang Shiyu.
His mother Miao Cuihua, when he was just full moon, washed him with iron vinegar potion every day, and then bandaged him layer by layer with bamboo boards, firewood branches, and iron bars, and exercised repeatedly, making Fang Shiyu invulnerable, the only cover door is the chrysanthemum, in "The Peak of the Holy Dynasty", his final death was to be kicked in the anus by the five masters and died.
But I have to say it again, the novel is not history, and it can't be taken seriously, although Ma Ning'er inherited Fang Shiyu's invulnerable setting, but in order to take care of the audience's perception, in the end, he was not burned to death like Fang Shiyu, but was burned to death by wax oil.
Although this film was filmed in 1993, the production was completed in 1994, and the trend of martial arts films at this time has passed, even if Jet Li's fame is already very great, but after the film was released in the Hong Kong film industry, it only got less than 20 million box office, and it did not even enter the top ten of the year.
However, fortunately, in his foreign market, the box office appeal is good, which made this film enter the top ten of the grossing list of Chinese films in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and other regions, and also allowed Jet Li to maintain his reputation and continue to attract investment in filming.
«——【The other two child stars·】——»
In addition to Xie Miao's entry into the industry in 1994, there were two other very famous child stars in the Chinese film industry, and even more famous, their names are, Hao Shaowen and Shi Xiaolong, in fact, Shi Xiaolong can set foot in the film industry, and it has something to do with Jet Li.
The "Shaolin Temple" he filmed in the early 80s, although it was not released in Taiwan for political reasons, but it made the name of Shaolin Temple out, and in the early 90s, cross-strait relations eased, and there were frequent exchanges between officials and non-governmental organizations, including Shaolin Temple.
In 1993, Shi Yongxin took people to Taiwan to perform, among which there were many apprentices accompanying him, and the most eye-catching one was Shi Xiaolong, who was only five years old.
It's not that he simply likes this child, but because at that time, he was preparing to shoot "Whirlwind Kid", and the protagonist was already set to be Lin Zhiying, but there were still two children in the script, and he couldn't find a suitable actor for a long time.
And it was very coincidental that when he was watching TV the next day, he happened to see the Bomido juice advertisement, Hao Shaowen's cute image made him pat his thigh again, and said loudly, the actor of another role was also found, and thus, "Whirlwind Kid" officially started filming.
«——【Whirlwind Kid·】——»
Because this movie is rarely seen, my impression of it has faded, and when I wrote the copywriting this time, I turned it out and watched it, I didn't expect there to be so many familiar people, the little whirlwind Lin Zhiying needless to say, he is the protagonist of this film, and the villain is actually Zhang Zhenyue, who has not grown a beard and does not wear sunglasses.
Xu Ruoxuan, who made a movie for the first time, revealed a thousand styles in her gestures, Xu Haoying was not married to Eason Chan at this time, and she was willing to play ugly and sacrifice a lot in the film, in addition to Qin Pei, Zhang Guozhu, Yuan Qiongdan, Li Mingyang and other old actors, who are also very familiar to the audience.
Compared with these people, the two children are the youngest actors in the film, but their scenes are the most difficult to film, after all, adults act, you make him laugh and make him cry, but children are different, and they are not easy to control at all.
Shi Xiaolong is a little older and obedient, but when Hang Weiya flies around, he is still scared and crying, after all, where has he seen this battle at this age, his father shouted on the side, Xiaolong, don't be afraid, be a man, Zhu Yanping just wanted to laugh when he heard it, where does a 5-year-old child know what a manhood is.
Fortunately, fast editing was already very popular at that time, relying on this method, the final effect of the film was not bad, compared to Shi Xiaolong, Hao Shaowen, who was two years younger, was more difficult to control, crying and laughing was not at all, even if he really laughed, it was fake, after all, where did the child learn acting.
Fortunately, Zhu Yanping had enough ideas, and he used the way of guidance to shoot the effect he wanted, for example, when he wanted to shoot Hao Shaowen laughing, he said to Hao Shaowen, I will pull the assistant director's pants down later, don't tell him, and then Zhu Yanping discussed with the assistant director, and really pulled his pants down in front of Hao Shaowen.
Children like to watch this kind of prank, and Hao Shaowen is of course no exception, and he was directly amused to laugh, so when we watched this film, we could clearly see that his laughter was not acted, but really happy.
This film was released in April 1994, and the final box office was only more than 5 million, which is really not much, but fortunately, the salaries of several actors are not high, so they can continue to shoot the sequel, which is the more classic "New Oolong Courtyard".
This work is adapted from, Ao Youxiang's comic "Oolong Courtyard", he is the first of Taiwan's "Four Talents in Comics", in 1984, an animated version of "Oolong Courtyard" was filmed, so Zhu Yanping's version became "New Oolong Courtyard".
«——【New Oolong Temple·】——»
In my personal opinion, the laughter of this film is much more than the previous work, "Whirlwind Kid", and the most critical reason for this is because of Uncle Da's joining, he is used to making nonsensical comedies, and then participating in such a comic adaptation, it is of course like a fish in water, and the farce of several bald heads in the Oolong Courtyard, driven by him, made the audience laugh from ear to ear.
In addition to all kinds of nonsensical jokes, the action scenes in this film have also been upgraded a lot, probably because Shi Xiaolong is already familiar with the filming process at this time, so he can better display his skills, whether it is challenging the Shaolin Eighteen Bronze Men or fighting against the four black King Kongs, they are all jokes and actions flying together, which is very ornamental.
Although "New Oolong Courtyard" does not have Lin Zhiying, who was popular in the previous film, the cameos of Zheng Shaoqiu and Michelle Yeoh undoubtedly make this film full of gimmicks, plus the joining of supporting roles such as Zhang Weijian, Yuan Qiongdan, Yuan Hua, Liu Xun, etc., makes Zhu Yanping full of confidence in this film, thinking that the box office results will definitely exceed the previous work.
But what he didn't expect was that only a week after the release of this film, he met the release of a big name's work, that person was none other than Jet Li, who indirectly influenced Shi Xiaolong, and the movie he launched was actually a modern film that he had not made for many years.
Coincidentally, Jet Li has shot seventeen or eighteen movies since he entered the film industry in the early eighties until 1994, among which there are only three modern themes such as "Chinese Heroes", "Dragon in the World" and "Dragon Travels the World", and the worst box office among all his films is these three, so when he became popular with "Huang Feihong", he never made a modern theme movie again.
But in 1994, the tuyere of martial arts films had passed, and he had become the boss, so he naturally had to consider the profits of Zhengdong Films, so he could only turn his head and set foot in the field of modern themes again, but he didn't expect to really shoot one, which is not inferior to the classic work of "Hong Xiguan", the name of this film is - "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard".
«——【Zhongnanhai Bodyguard】——»
According to Yuan Kui in an interview, the original inspiration for this movie came from a story told by Jet Li, which is roughly a national security guard, on the way home for vacation, he taught a group of hooligans who molested women, but he didn't expect that the other party was the younger brother of a local magnate.
When he saw that he couldn't beat the guard, he took out a homemade pistol and wounded him, which directly alarmed the capital, and then there was a thorough investigation, and the magnates and his brother were all arrested, which sounds like a dozen years of cool writing, so I am skeptical of this statement.
In my personal opinion, there is a high probability that this film is inspired by the 1992 Hollywood movie, "The Bodyguard", which is a classic romance movie co-starring Kevin Costner and music diva Whitney Houston, about a retired secret agent who is a personal bodyguard for a black female singer.
The theme song "I Will Always Love You" in the film can be said to be sad and far-reaching, and it has been sung for a while, Jet Li's "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard", in terms of inspiration and creativity, there are many similarities with this film, "Bodyguard" Frank went to the sea as a bodyguard, he was President Reagan's guard, Jet Li played Xu Zhengyang, and the identity of the active Zhongnanhai bodyguard is also good.
The person Frank defends is a beautiful and rich singer, and Xu Zhengyang is also defended by the beautiful and wealthy businessman girlfriend Zhong Liti, both of whom have taken defensive measures against the object of protection as if they violated their private lives, which caused the dissatisfaction of the beauty, and because of the calmness and superb martial arts shown in the moment of crisis, the beauty fell in love.
They all tried their best to restrain their feelings and abide by the professional ethics of the bodyguard, but Frank didn't control it and slept with the heroine, but Xu Zhengyang kept in mind the ancient Chinese precept, was affectionate, stopped at courtesy, and did not have a kiss until the end.
Especially when Yang Qian'er was wearing translucent pajamas and standing in front of Xu Zhengyang, it was really amorous, and Jet Li was also at this time, taking that ascetic temperament to the extreme, his own heart has love for the heroine, but he buried his monstrous love deep in his steel-hard duties, and he couldn't reveal a trace of ambiguity in person.
It is precisely because of this that the role of Xu Zhengyang is evaluated as "an abstinent man that women all over the world want to pounce on".
It can be said that this film is one of the few works in Jet Li's movies that portrays feelings so delicately, of course, as a Jet Li movie, the biggest attraction of this film has to be the action.
Especially at the end of the film, the duel in the kitchen full of gas is the most eye-catching, although from the perspective of fighting design, it is not the top grade in Jet Li's movie, but the atmosphere rendering is exceptionally good, Zou Zhaolong is seven points of flamboyance and ruthlessness, plus three points of evil action style, in sharp contrast to Jet Li's swiftness and calmness, tension and danger almost overflow the screen.
This film was launched in May 1994, and finally took more than two months to complete the production with a budget of 20 million, which is more than his previous three modern theme films, and the combined investment is more, so can he break the curse of "modern themes must hit the street" this time, the answer is no.
«——[Jet Li, who failed at the box office]——»
On July 28th, this film was listed in the major theaters of Golden Harvest Films, because the audience response was average, so it went offline after 16 days, and finally only received a box office of 11 million Hong Kong dollars, which is not as good as the martial arts-themed "Hong Xiguan", but fortunately, Jet Li's box office appeal in foreign cities is strong enough, whether it is Taiwan, South Korea, or Malaysia, this film has entered the top five of the box office list of Chinese films, so that Jet Li can continue to invest in films.
Since "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard" has hit the box office in the Hong Kong film industry, is "New Oolong Courtyard" in the same schedule a big hit, no, the film was released for 28 days, but the box office only got more than 4 million Hong Kong dollars, less than half of "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard".
However, Zhu Yanping was still happy that year, because "New Oolong Courtyard" was a big hit in Taiwan, and the box office almost doubled that of "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard", which was the highest-grossing Taiwanese film of the year.
Shi Xiaolong, as one of the two leading actors, received 300,000 Taiwan dollars, which is almost equivalent to 50,000 or 60,000 yuan, and when his father got this money, he was so excited that he couldn't help himself, because he was working in the mainland at that time, and he only got a maximum of four or five hundred yuan a month, which was a huge amount of money.
Thanks to the box office hits, Hao Shaowen and Shi Xiaolong also became famous in the film industry, and began to gradually suppress them, Xie Miao, who debuted a few months earlier than them, sat on the throne of the juvenile version of the "King of the Box Office", but the position of the two has not yet been secured, Xie Miao won back the title of "King of the Box Office" with another movie a few months later.
But that movie is not, it was made with Jet Li, and the release schedule of the film happened to meet a big production of Jet Li, who would have thought that the father and son on the screen were still working together at the beginning of the year, and there was a box office war at the end of the year, among which Jet Li brought the work is the movie with the highest reputation in his career, "Jingwu Hero".
«——【Jingwu Heroes·】——»
This film was originally proposed by Jet Li to be filmed, and invited the screenwriter in "Hong Xiguan", Chen Jiashang became the director, but when Chen Jiashang heard that he was going to shoot this theme, his first reaction was a little resistant, because Bruce Lee's version of "Jingwumen" was too classic, and he didn't have the confidence to surpass it at all.
However, under Jet Li's repeated insistence, he still accepted the invitation, but before the start of filming, he called Ni Kuang, the screenwriter of "Jingwumen", and asked if Chen Zhen's character was original to you, and whether he needed to pay you the copyright fee, Ni Kuang watched the movie 20 years ago, and you also asked for my opinion, of course, I felt respected, so I told the origin of Chen Zhen.
It turns out that this character is real, Huo Yuanjia's obituary has this name, he is indeed a disciple of Jingwumen, but it is limited to this identity, as for what he has done, it is basically made up, so Ni Kuang finally told Chen Jiashang, you can write whatever you want, as long as it is a positive role, it is no problem.
When Chen Jiashang heard this, he let go of his hands and feet to subvert Chen Zhen's image, but although it is said to be subversive, and there is no Bruce Lee's signature action in the whole film, the spirit of "embracing all rivers" expressed in the whole movie coincides with Bruce Lee's concept of Jeet Kune Do, which can be seen from many classic lines in the film.
In addition to the concept of martial arts, the fighting scenes of this film are also classics, in which the first two scenes are crushed in the past, which makes the audience addicted, and the later battle against Huo Tingen exposes the shortcomings of traditional Chinese kung fu, and then against the battle against Fumio Yue, from here I learned the "combination of Chinese and Western".
The last three battles, the differences in three styles, and the different temperaments of the warriors, make this film one of the most classic action movies in Hong Kong films.
In addition to the concept of martial arts and action scenes, Chen Jiashang has not blindly painted all forces in the script, there are sensible people on the Japanese side and people who oppose the war, and there are traitors and lackeys on the Chinese side, as well as ignorant people who do not recognize Photon.
It can be said that the whole film is full of atmosphere from top to bottom, and what kind of box office results can such a work that is both internal and external, let's take a look at what works Jet Li's opponent in this schedule, that is, his "son".
Although Xie Miao can't compare to Jet Li in the coffee position, but fortunately, in the work he filmed this time, he hugged a thigh again, and it was only thicker than Jet Li, his name is Chow Yun-fat, and this movie is "God of Gamblers 2" directed by Wang Jing.
«——【God of Gamblers 2·】——»
At this time, Wang Jing and Chow Yun-fat have not worked together for five years, and the last movie they made together was "God of Gamblers 1", after several years of tempering, Wang Jing's funny skills have been perfected, so the sequel directed by him is more entertaining than the previous work in terms of style, especially the joining of Leung Jiahui, Luo Jiaying and Xu Jinjiang, which has added a lot to the film and made the audience laugh.
In addition to all kinds of funny scenes, there are also a lot of political metaphors hidden in this film, such as Qianjiao Lake, which is obviously a hint, the Qiandao Lake incident in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and the role of Zhang Baocheng, which is also obviously ironic, Zhang Baosheng, a very popular qigong master at that time, as well as the various behaviors of Da Vinci and Hao Jingzhong, are also Wang Jing's ridicule of the two sides of the strait from the perspective of Hong Kong.
In addition, this film is Wu Qianlian's cooperation with Chow Yun-fat again after "Citi Shaolin", but her brilliance was all suppressed by Qiu Shuzhen, after all, the picture in red is so beautiful, I have to admire Wang Jing, a fat man, is really the best actress in Hong Kong.
"God of Gamblers 2" and "Jingwu Heroes" in December 1994, one after another into the Christmas file, here we can vote, who do you think can get a higher box office, first of all, let's talk about "Jingwu Hero", it was released 7 days later than "God of Gamblers 2", but it was 10 days earlier when it went offline, there was only a 15-day release period in total, and it only got a box office of more than 14 million Hong Kong dollars, which can be said to be another fiasco.
And "God of Gamblers 2" won a total of more than 52 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office 32 days after its release, not only beating "Drunken Fist 2" at the beginning of the year, and won the box office champion of the Hong Kong film market in 1994, but also directly broke the box office record created by Stephen Chow's "Judge of the Dead", which became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in the Hong Kong market at that time.
At this time, 5 years have passed since Chow Yun-fat last won the annual championship, and 5 years have passed since Wang Jing won the annual box office championship, and the last time they won this honor, it was the first part of "God of Gamblers", as if it was destined in the dark, and the two of them have been inseparable from the theme of gambling.
In addition, in Taiwan and Singapore, "God of Gamblers 2" is also the runner-up in the box office list of Chinese films second only to "Drunken Fist 2", it can be said that "Jingwu Hero" lost to "Drunken Fist 2" in most markets, but fortunately, Jet Li's Korean fans are iron enough, so that "Jingwu Hero" won the second place in the box office list of Chinese films in the Korean market in 1994, surpassing "God of Gamblers 2", second only to the king "Drunken Fist 2" that year.
«——【·Conclusion·】——»
Of course, whether a film is classic or not, does not necessarily need to be confirmed by the box office, Jet Li has made forty or fifty movies in his career, and there are many with high box office, but the best reputation on Douban is "Jingwu Hero", in fact, not only our Chinese people like this film, but also many foreigners are obsessed with it.
For example, Quentin, a famous Hollywood director, has watched "Jingwu Heroes" more than 40 times, and he can basically blurt out all the lines in the film.
Although it did not get a very ideal box office after it was released that year, but after so many years of precipitation, we will find that whether a movie is a classic or not has nothing to do with the box office, only a movie that can pass the test of the years is a really good work, today's show is here, friends who like it please pay attention, we will see you next time.