When you mention the name "Er Dongsheng", what impression will pop up in your mind, is it an outdated director with excellent qualifications, but always contributes upright golden sentences in variety shows?
"Actors, Please Be in Place" and "Infinite Transcendence Class", two actor competition reality shows, let the mainland audience see Er Dongsheng's big temper. Before the show, Guo Jingming cried on the scene, and then there was Xu Ruohan scolding and crying on the filming set. The character of "not accustomed to people" made him an unexpected "hot search physique".
When there is a topic, there is naturally controversy. More and more netizens began to pick up Er Dongsheng's work resume, personal love history, and past remarks to collect ammunition to question him and attack him.
It is true that in the once brilliant Hong Kong film industry, from the perspective of directorial works, Er Dongsheng's artistic achievements and the number of awards won are not as good as Wong Kar-wai, Hui Anhua, Chen Kexin and others, the box office results are not as good as John Woo, Tsui Hark, Lin Chaoxian and others, and the author's style is not as good as To Qifeng, Lin Lingdong, Kwan Jinpeng and others, but he is the most versatile filmmaker.
Er Dongsheng was born in a family of performing arts. 's father Er Guang is a producer, and his mother Hongwei is an actor. In 1977, he participated in the movie "A Sir Tiger Gun After Poisoning" for the first time, and in the same year, he starred in the martial arts movie "The Sword of the Third Young Master" and became famous.
In 1986, Er Dongsheng wrote and directed his first movie "The True Story of the Crazy Guy", which tells the story of Mr. Xu (played by Feng Quifan), a social worker who is loyal to the cause of helping the mentally ill, who sacrifices himself in order to guide the madmen to recovery.
Although the film was almost banned by the Hong Kong government because of its sensitive subject matter and realistic technique, it won a box office of about 10 million Hong Kong dollars after its release, and also made Er Dongsheng nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
A few years later, Er Dongsheng won the Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards twice with "New Love" and "Mong Kok Dark Night".
However, in the trend of Hong Kong filmmakers going north to co-produce commercial blockbusters, Er Dongsheng's "King of Guns", "The Great Magician" and "The Sword of the Three Young Masters" all performed mediocre at the box office, and "I Am a Passerby" and "The End of the Sea is the Prairie" Douban also failed to exceed 8 points. As a result, it seems a little "outdated".
Different from what we often call an "author-type director", Er Dongsheng is more like a "journalist director", and he is also an investigative reporter - not only does he pay attention to observation and accumulation on weekdays, but he always has to do several months of research and research before writing a story.
He once joked that he loved gossip, but in fact, he was concerned and curious about people from all walks of life.
"I'm afraid I'm the director who knows the most in Hong Kong. From the chief executive to the drug dealers, I have people to talk to from all walks of life, including the police and judges. People from different walks of life and backgrounds, I'm curious. Er Dongsheng once said in an interview.
As a result, we see that in addition to frequently participating in variety shows and playing the role of "poisonous tongue mentor" with the effect of the show, Er Dongsheng is silently doing a big thing - being a producer for new directors in Hong Kong, especially newcomers with social insight.
In the list of nominees for Best Film at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards this year, there are two works produced by Er Dongsheng, namely "Under the White Sun" (scheduled for April 12 in the mainland) and "Diary of a Youth" (scheduled for April 19 in the mainland).
Among them, "Under the White Sun" received a total of 16 nominations, directed by newcomer director Jian Junjin, written by Tang Cuiping, Li Zhuofeng, and Jian Junjin, telling the story of reporter Xiaoqi (played by Yu Xiangning) infiltrating the "Caiqiao Home" disabled home and exposing the truth of abuse in it. The film is based on a true event in 2016 that caused a sensation in Hong Kong.
"Diary of a Youth" received a total of 12 nominations, written and directed by newcomer director Zhuo Yiqian, which tells the story of middle school teacher Zheng Sir (played by Lu Zhenye) who remembers his childhood full of violence and regret because of an unsigned suicide note and a group of seemingly unharmed students.
Both of these films were screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival last year as "the new driving force of Hong Kong films", so the mainland has already scored 8.1 and 8.6 points on Douban before it was released.
Although it is difficult to achieve a high box office due to the subject matter, these two films are under the supervision of Er Dongsheng, and the degree of completion is very high, and the strength is very strong. Anyone who has seen them has a lot of respect for the director and pays more attention to his follow-up works.
In recent years, Hong Kong films have gradually entered a period of aesthetic fatigue in the mainland. Several veteran Hong Kong stars "permuted and combined", and several veteran Hong Kong directors copied themselves one after another. Last year's highest-grossing Hong Kong director's work on the mainland was Yau's "Moscow Action" (664 million box office), which ranked only 24th.
It can be said that the generation of Hong Kong directors is better than that of actors.
Er Dongsheng and Zhuo Yiqian (right) received the award together at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan
Mature directors serve as executive producers for new directors, which is an effective model for cultivating director talents in any region. Moreover, Er Dongsheng is the producer, not just responsible for knocking stars and making funds like some nominal producers.
The two leading actors of "Under the White Sun" and "Young Diary" Yu Xiangning and Lu Zhenye are all proper newcomers, and there is no traffic, but there are friendly cameos like Jiang David and Zheng Zhongji in the supporting roles. The cost control of the two dramas is also very in place, there are no bells and whistles, and the story is told wholeheartedly.
In a sense, "Under the White Sun" and "Young Diary" can be regarded as an extension of Er Dongsheng's "journalist director" style, and they are works with inheritance significance for Hong Kong films.
In fact, Er Dongsheng not only supervised realistic themes, but also produced some commercial genre films.
Such as "Crazy Words" directed by Lee Kuan Yew, "Detective Runaway" directed by Law Cheuk-yiu, "Crime Scene" directed by Fung Chi-keung, "Hypnosis Verdict" directed by Lai Zhaojun/Shi Berlin/Liu Yongtai, and "Temporary Robbery" directed by Mak Kai-kwong.
Its unifying feature is that these directors are all screenwriters or screenwriters of the film. It can be seen that Er Dongsheng attaches great importance to the director's text creation skills.
Another major feature is that although these commercial films are occasionally jerky in narrative techniques and occasionally cliché in story writing, they all make the characters more solid and brilliant.
Now Lee Kuan Yew and Feng Zhiqiang have grown into independent directors, and Jian Junjin and Zhuo Yiqian are also about to accept the double test of awards and the market. After Er Dongsheng silently worked as a producer for several years, it finally came to bear fruit.
[Text/Full Hoard]