"Mr. Zombie" is the memories of countless handsome men and beautiful women, Lin Zhengying's ninth uncle, Qian Xiaohao's Qiusheng, Xu Guanying's literary talent, Li Saifeng's Ren Tingting, every character is flesh and blood, even after so many years, people still like to look at this classic masterpiece.
If "Mr. Zombie" is in second place, no one dares to be in first place. The reason why there is this immortal work is the result of the efforts of many people, without them, there would be no "Mr. Zombie".
It is said that before filming, He Guanchang and Sammo Hung were not optimistic about such a film, they thought that there would be no market, they would have to lose millions, and they would not be able to recover the capital, but Liu Guanwei "went upstream" and was not repelled by the torrent.
Liu Guanwei loved to listen to strange things when he was a child, and his uncle was the authentic master of Maoshan, and after listening to it for a long time, he was very interested in these things.
At that time, Liu Guanwei was not a well-known director, he was the photographer of Hong Jiaban, one day, he asked Sammo Hung if he could transform into a director, and Sammo Hung agreed.
Those who know Sammo Hung know that he cherishes talents and loves to carry people, Qian Jiale went from stand-in to protagonist, and then to the martial arts finger.
From cinematographer to director, Liu Guanwei is inseparable from Sammo Hung . Liu Guanwei decided to make a zombie movie, and he hired three people to be screenwriters, these three people are Huang Ying, Huang Bingyao, and Situ Zhuohan.
We'll talk about Huang Ying in detail later, so let's not show it for the time being.
Before the movie started, the investor invested 4.5 million, and after getting the money, Liu Guanwei started filming, just one scene was filmed for more than a week, and soon the 4.5 million was spent, the money was gone, but the movie was only half filmed, how could this work, he found the investor to discuss, and said to invest some more money. After getting 1 million, the flowers were gone, Liu Guanwei had to speak again, and finally spent 8.5 million, millions in eight years, which is absolutely astronomical.
Liu Guanwei gambled on his career, if he didn't succeed, he could only go back to his old job.
During the shooting, the photographer was divided into two shifts, each shift was 12 hours, coming to shoot at 7 o'clock in the morning, filming until 7 o'clock in the evening, and the night shift was from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., shooting for two weeks in a row, and the actors and directors did not sleep much.
If you want to say the worst, it has to be the zombie old lady, he takes a lot of time every time he removes his makeup, and it takes even more time to put on makeup, so he wears a mask and shoots, and when he uncovers the fake skin on his face, sweat has gushed out.
When I watched the movie back then, if I didn't look at the cast, I didn't know who played the zombie at all, in fact, he was played by Yuan Hua, who is the charter man we are familiar with.
It took 120 days to finally finish filming.
Before the release, He Guanchang and Sammo Hung predicted that they could sell up to 6 million. Director Liu Guanwei was up and down in his heart, and he didn't know how much he could sell.
At that time, the midnight show was popular in Hong Kong, and when "Mr. Zombie" was released at the Maritime Cinema, many people in the circle came to cheer, Liu Guanwei was very nervous and didn't dare to go in to watch it, and 10 minutes after the opening, he heard a laugh in the venue, so he sneaked in.
Anyway, after the script was written, the female ghost had not yet been selected, someone mentioned Wang Xiaofeng when chatting with Liu Guanwei, Liu Guanwei invited her to act, and when several people wrote the script, they planned to write the female ghost to death, Liu Guanwei felt that this was boring, and at the end of the filming, he decided that it would be more romantic to let her go.
At the Academy Awards, Xu Guanying, the actor of Wencai, rejected the nomination for Best Supporting Actor, saying that he was the protagonist, not a supporting role. The best supporting actor in this movie is Lin Zhengying and Lou Nanguang, the latter is "Captain of the Death Squad" Ah Wei.
Seeing this, people wondered, who is the protagonist of this movie? In fact, the name of the protagonist has been given, and the movie title has been given, which is the zombie old lady Ren.
There are too many details in the film, just to name two, Qiusheng is riding a bicycle, the female ghost is sitting in the back seat, passing by a low-necked tree, the female ghost is knocked down by the tree. Some people can't help but ask, the female ghost is invisible, can pass through the wall, why was she stopped by the tree, in fact, let's take a closer look, the tree is pasted with rune paper, and the rune paper descends ghosts, that's why this shot. Another shot is Uncle Nine casting a spell and pouring ink sweat into the bowl, at this time a small close-up is given, Uncle Nine's nails are very long, and the back is up, these are all details.
Let's talk about Huang Ying again, he is the screenwriter of this film, the author of the story, and the original author of the novel, but "Mr. Zombie" is a movie first, and then a novel.
Some people can't get around, saying that since there is a movie first and then a novel, why is Huang Ying the original book? It is not a movie but the original book. It can be understood that the story of "Mr. Zombie" was written by Huang Ying, and was later adapted by several screenwriters, and later Huang Ying wrote a novel of the same name.
In addition to "Mr. Zombie", Huang Ying also has "China's First Zombie", "Resurrection of the Soul" and "Zombie Fansheng", saying that he is the originator of the zombie theme, and there is no exaggeration.
The movie was released in 1985, and the first edition of the novel "Mr. Zombie" was in the summer of 1987, and the publisher was Wulin Publishing House.
I have written Huang Ying's article separately, so I won't go into detail here.
"Mr. Zombie" is a classic, and it is the efforts of the actors, directors, screenwriters, and all the people in front of and behind the scenes to have this classic, and such a craftsman spirit can't help but make people awe-inspired.
It comes in first, and it deserves it.