Zhang Weijian was discovered by Wang Jing for comedy talent, but many popular works failed
In the early 90s of the 20th century, director Wang Jing and Stephen Chow collaborated on a number of blockbuster films, and the works of the two joined hands to occupy the top of the box office list almost every year, and no one could beat it.
"The Saint of Gambling", "Green Snake", "New Half a Pound and Eight Taels" and many other high-quality works have established Stephen Chow's status as a comedy superstar. However, after many years of cooperation, the relationship between Wang Jing and Zhou is not as harmonious as it seems.
Personality incompatibility is the main reason, Wang Jing also realized that Zhou's successor must be cultivated to prevent the other party from "running away" in the future.
As a result, director Wang Jing has successively praised actors such as Zhang Jiahui and Ge Minghui, hoping that they can become the next Stephen Chow. But the results are often unsatisfactory, and these newcomers either lack strength or have very different styles, and neither of them has been able to shake Zhou's dominance in the comedy world.
After many failures, Wang Jing finally found a treasure in Zhang Wei's fitness and took a fancy to the latter's comedy talent and potential. So he arranged for Zhang Weijian to play a supporting role in many movies directed by him, and gradually increased his role.
"Huang Feihong: Iron Fighting Centipede" and "Seven Princesses of Martial Arts" are all representative works of Zhang Weijian promoted by Wang Jing. Even in the big production "Super School Bully", Wang Jing also gathered popular superstars to cooperate with the audience, just to make this newcomer popular.
However, the results were again disappointing. Despite Wang Jing's huge investment, these movies have all been poor at the box office and mediocre in word-of-mouth. Mr. Zhang's performance was also considered uneven and contrived.
It can be said that Wang Jing's plan to become a popular successor twice failed. Zhang Weijian, whom he strongly supported, failed to become the next Stephen Chow after all, and he is still unknown.
Deng Guangrong invested in a new movie to make Zhang Weijian popular in an all-round way, but suffered a fiasco
After Wang Jing's many failures, the second boss, Deng Guangrong, was determined to praise Zhang Weijian as his successor. As a senior director and producer in the Hong Kong film industry, Tang Guangrong has cooperated with many first-line stars such as Stephen Chow and Andy Lau, and has enough resources and strength to cultivate newcomers.
He may be angry because of Wang Jing's failure, or he may be genuinely optimistic about Zhang Weijian's potential, or both. In short, Director Deng mustered up all his strength to make Zhang Weijian popular.
So, Deng Guangrong invested in a costume comedy movie called "Lun Wenxu Old Point Liu Xiankai", the title is quite awkward, but the film is star-studded, and it can be described as a strong lineup.
In addition to Zhang Weijian, Aaron Kwok and other leading actors, there are also many familiar faces from Stephen Chow's movies to join, which can be described as a careful layout. This movie imitates and plagiarizes many classic episodes of Stephen Chow, and it is clear that it wants to package Zhang Weijian as the next Stephen Chow.
In the movie, Zhang Weijian showed all his talents in a fascination, and even completed difficult actions such as licking the soles of the old woman's feet. This dedication is indeed worthy of recognition.
However, the good times were short-lived. Despite its well-laid out, the film still suffered a Waterloo-esque fiasco. The first week of release only won more than 8 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, and the follow-up performance was even worse, and it was left far behind by the popular movies of the same period.
The final result was disastrous. Such a cruel reality undoubtedly made Deng Guangrong's hard work go to waste. He had to face the fact that he was old and obsessed.
Perhaps no one could have foreseen at that time that imitation and packaging would not be able to exchange for the audience's sincere love. This fiasco caused Deng Guangrong to leave the film industry in disgrace and disappear from the film industry.
After moving to the TV industry, Zhang Weijian gradually matured and finally found his position
Zhang Weijian, who experienced the successive failures of Wang Jing and Deng Guangrong, no longer dared to directly challenge Stephen Chow's status. But his dream of being an actor was not shattered.
After a short period of confusion, Zhang Weijian resolutely moved to the TV circle with greater development potential. At first, he continued to shoot several comedy movies similar to Stephen Chow, hoping to take advantage of the momentum to become popular again.
But the result was still unsatisfactory, and the other party sued him in court for plagiarism. This is undoubtedly another blow to Zhang Weijian's acting career.
The setbacks made Zhang Weijian gradually mature and solid. Under the purification of the TV station, he gradually abandoned the exaggerated and pretentious way of acting, and returned to the restrained and real acting skills.
At the same time, Zhang's comedy elements are becoming more and more localized, and he observes life carefully. Many works such as "Journey to the West", "The Peerless Double Pride", and "Young Hero Fang Shiyu" have achieved good market response and word of mouth.
The data shows that these episodes have high ratings, and the dialogues and jokes have also become popular on the Internet many times. Through these successes, Zhang Weijian re-established his comedy line and no longer imitated the style of other masters.
Now he has basically found his own position.
Facts have proved that when he was young and vigorous, it was difficult for Zhang Weijian to completely fade away from pretentiousness and exaggeration. He needs to go through the ups and downs before he can finally return to his roots. Looking back at the blind imitation of Stephen Chow back then, it should be a spring and autumn dream on Zhang Weijian's acting career.
Fortunately, he was not discouraged and finally gained a firm foothold in the TV circle. We have reason to believe that the next road will be wider and wider.
Conclusion: The development of comedy takes time to experience, and Zhang Weijian finally won the audience's recognition
Zhang Weijian's growth story tells us that it is difficult to create a comedy superstar with both advocacy and packaging. Even the likelihood of short-term success is slim to none.
To win the hearts and minds of the audience, a comedian must establish his own style, and this takes a long time to accumulate and practice. In the early days, Zhang Weijian, like many actors, blindly followed and imitated the classic works of the masters, hoping to take advantage of the situation to become famous.
But the results often backfire. As a result, he had to go through all kinds of setbacks before he finally found his own place.
Looking back on Zhang Weijian's growth process in the TV industry, it can be roughly divided into three stages: blind imitation, pain and confusion, and finally maturity. Although the first two stages are not easy to get through, it is these hardships and experiences that have honed his solid internal skills.
Now Zhang Weijian not only has a bumper harvest of ratings and word-of-mouth, but has successfully made up for the regrets left by Wang Jing and Deng Guangrong back then. We have reason to believe that with a solid foundation, he will be able to go further and be more stable in the future.