Text (Original)/Mick
Big Brother Tangshan, a 1971 film produced by Hong Kong's Jiahe Film Company, is the first of Bruce Lee's four half-kung fu films.
The poster for "Big Brother Tangshan" was released in Hong Kong in 1971
At that time, Jiahe Company was just starting out, and in order to avoid shaw films' advantages in Hong Kong, it chose to actively explore peripheral markets such as Southeast Asia and Taiwan. This "Big Brother Tangshan" is a work of Jiahe to explore the Southeast Asian market, filmed around Bangkok, Thailand.
In fact, Hong Kong movies are not made exclusively for Hong Kong people. Filmmakers from all over China moved to Hong Kong in large numbers during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, known as "Filmmakers from the South". This group of film talents continued the film culture and industry of pre-liberation China in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s. At that time, Shaw, a large Shaw film company, started in Singapore and then moved to Hong Kong in the late 1950s to set up a production company, beating other film companies to become a dominant industry leader.
The main audience base of the Hong Kong film industry is Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. So we see that the actors in "Big Brother Tangshan" speak Chinese Mandarin except Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee does not speak Chinese Mandarin, in the film it is Cantonese, he uses dubbing.
This is also why Jiahe will choose Zheng Chao'an's story material to make a movie. Zheng Chao'an was a well-known figure in the Thai overseas Chinese in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the specific deeds are unknown, it is estimated that he stood out for the low-level Chinese laborers as stated in the film, and there is a bronze statue of him in the local area. The film was a small cost investment, there were no big stars, the basic actors were newcomers, and Bruce Lee was not famous at that time. This kind of topic selection strategy can at least ensure that overseas Chinese in Thailand and Southeast Asia buy tickets to watch, and ensure the basic box office.
At first, the film was directed by director Wu Jiajun, and later because of the discord with Bruce Lee, he stopped picking and choosing, and was taken over by Luo Wei, the most important director of Jiahe at that time. Bruce Lee was educated in the United States and made films in Hollywood, so he was not on the same track as the film circle in Hong Kong at that time. It is said that he often crosses the line, and he also wants to do the work of a director.
As mentioned earlier, the Hong Kong film circle is full of filmmakers Chinese mainland before liberation, basically continuing the things in traditional Chinese culture, such as discussing seniority, first come and then come, talk about face, and speak implicitly. The seniors like to dry their sons between each other. For example, Liu Yong in "Big Brother Tangshan" is the dry son of director Luo Wei. Peers also like to form brothers, such as director Hu Jinquan and Li Hanxiang, Song Cunshou and other seven people to form the "Seven Idle", Shen Dianxia and Deng Guangrong are brothers and sisters. Chen Ziqiang himself has no children, and calls his stars sons and daughters. This kind of family ethical relationship that internalizes social relations into Confucian culture is the core point of traditional Chinese culture, which has a long history, just like the ancient Taoyuan Sanjieyi, Lü Bu recognized a father when he saw a boss, and so on.
In fact, as a mainlander in New China, I can't appreciate the Confucian cultural tradition of loyalty, righteousness, and faithfulness. We have a fault with traditional culture, as for how to break the layer, the reason is known to everyone, I will not say it directly.
At that time, the context in Hong Kong, Taiwan and what we call overseas Chinese was not broken, so we can imagine why director Wu Jiajun had to pick a fight and not do it, because it was too faceless. Filmmakers of the older generation like Wu Jiajun have come up from the grassroots little by little. The director is only responsible to the producer, and the actors and crew below are all responsible for the director. It's filming in the field again, and there is no authority where to go. Moreover, this small investment is also full of new actors, and it is too late to tie the director. Bruce Lee does not eat this set.
Bruce Lee to be honest is not a Chinese, I mean culturally. His cultural feeling is actually American, the so-called yellow skin and white heart. Americans pay attention to individualism, efficiency, and individuality, and when they have something to say, they directly say that there is no scruples, and the so-called American democracy is just a system that makes people speak. This is reflected in Bruce Lee. For example, in the design of martial arts, previous Hong Kong films directly inherit Chinese opera in martial arts. Before film was a mass entertainment project, opera was a mass entertainment in China. In the process of the development of Chinese films, although opera slowly withdrew, a large number of opera artists turned into the film industry, so that movies were called film drama in China at the beginning. Among other things, the martial arts instructor Han Yingjie in "Big Brother Tangshan", that is, the big boss with the eight-character beard in the movie, is a senior martial arts instructor in Hong Kong film, which is trained in the Beijing Fulian Chengke class.
In fact, in the 1960s, Li Hanxiang's Huang Mei-tuned film "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" set off a wave of enthusiasm in the Chinese film market. It is said that there is an old lady in Taiwan who has watched 100 times in a row. In fact, it is to express the opera in the form of movies. The martial arts design in Shaw's new martial arts films of the 1960s also borrowed the style from Peking Opera. To take Bruce Lee's words, to fight around is not to die. He didn't understand that it was originally designed according to a fake hit. Just like the artistic conception in ancient Chinese paintings, the meaning is not heavy, the implication is introverted, but the meaning will be ineffable.
Li Hanxiang's Huangmei opera movies have been popular for more than twenty years, and it seems that I also watched them when I was a child
As a result, Bruce Lee directly engaged in martial arts drama with the director in "Big Brother Tangshan". The director said that in Zhang Che's play, the actor was stabbed more than ten times and could continue to fight. Bruce Lee said that I could end the fight with one kick, and I could kick three kicks in a row, so the director gave him the nickname of Lee Three Feet. Things soon reached the point where only one of the two could be left, so Zou Wenhuai transferred Wu Dao, and Luo Wei, who was filming in Taiwan, took the initiative to ask for help.
Luo Wei, who took over, learned the lessons of the previous term and gave Bruce Lee a lot of freedom. You say one foot at a time, but Bruce Lee also made some compromises such as jumping on the spring bed. Anyway, it was a small investment, even if it was planted, it did not affect the English name of my director, Luo Wei, so Luo Wei basically did not refuse Bruce Lee's opinion.
The film only took more than 20 days to shoot, because after the change of director storm, and then changed according to Bruce Lee's opinion, so the plot is incoherent, there are hard wounds.
At the beginning, the original director's design of the plot was roughly like this: newcomer Zheng Chao'an, under the leadership of his predecessor Xu Jian, rebelled against the evil boss with his co-workers and saved the toiling public from water and fire, this kind of hero scene of the two male protagonists, referring to zhang Che's Dillon and Jiang David's double male hero story combination routine. Take a look at that year's box office rankings to understand why it was designed. In addition to "Big Brother Tangshan", the other top ten movies were basically the world of Zhang Che jia Dillon and Jiang David.
Xu Jian, played by Tian Jun
Bruce Lee, played by Bruce Lee at the beginning of the movie
We know that the later film "Big Brother Tangshan" was completely changed according to Bruce Lee's meaning. In the front, Zheng Chao'an's image as a young man who has just come out to work in the countryside is a bit of a "rural old catcher", this setting should be for the role of Xu Jian in the back of Tian Jun, and one old becomes a young man who echoes each other. As a hero movie story, a basic logical core of the interior is what the motivation of the hero's actions is. Like the traditional chivalrous battle righteousness, in the past as mentioned in the costume film, in this realistic theme, it is necessary to lay a good foundation so that the behavior of the characters is more reasonable. Like Xu Jian at the beginning, he beat up the good hooligans who bullied the good, and then helped the old Ma family who were addicted to gambling and gave them money to live. The standard traditional chivalrous hero fights the righteous persona, and uses this character setting as the spiritual sustenance of the vast number of low-level Chinese audiences in Southeast Asia, so that they temporarily forget the injustice of reality in the chivalrous dream created by the movie. Therefore, the original setting of this film, Tian Jun is the male number one equivalent to Dillon's position, bruce Lee is the male number two equivalent to The position of Jiang David.
The country mother's advice not to fight
The third uncle asked others to ask a question and you answered
In the opening scene, Bruce Lee is basically a soy sauce player, neither can fight (the country mother's instructions can not fight), nor can he say more (the third uncle let others ask a question you answer). Then Qiao Mei, played by the heroine Yi Yi, had an interactive scene with Bruce Lee at the beginning. The emotional drama between the two should have been originally designed as a side line that runs through the whole play. After the boss robbed Qiao Mei, Zheng Chao'an heroic rescued the United States, defeated the boss, this is for personal affection, although reasonable but than Xu Jian's hero selfless righteousness in the end is a grade worse. Such a setting, how bruce Lee can do it, he is ready to make a name.
At the end of this paragraph is Bruce Lee's solo performance
Therefore, when the previous director Wu was removed, Bruce Lee, with the acquiescence of the new director Luo Wei, changed the plot of the back to the front completely and not on the same tune. First of all, the hero must be bruce Lee, the male number one played by Tian Jun must not be able to change the male number two, so let him die, and the hero directly let me come. This is a chaotic change, directly changing the tone of the previous story, and the character personality cannot be picked up. In the story of the Chinese cultural context, the good people who do good deeds are stabbed to death by the bad guys in the middle of the story, or a chivalrous warrior who pins the hopes of the weak, that is called good people are not good rewards, but Bruce Lee feels reasonable, the first you can't do kung fu, the second good thing is called you to do, where do I swing?. You see the next shot of Junzhong's knife falling to the ground in the film suddenly turns to a close-up of Bruce Lee's face. The next scene is basically Bruce Lee's one-man play. First he started hitting, and all of a sudden he hit a dozen or so people. Many viewers wonder why Bruce Lee dragged on for so long before he started playing, and that's why. Bruce Lee himself was actually more anxious than the audience watching the play.
Shandong girl Yiyi, acting very well, is completely in line with the character setting
A scene of speechlessness
Secondly, the heroine's play, Bruce Lee also has to change, because the classical image of the traditional virtuous type of Qiao Mei played by Yi Yi is inappropriate in Bruce Lee's view, and he feels that it is too unreliable. So first Zheng Chao'an got drunk at the factory director's banquet, spent the night with the woman, got up in the morning and met Qiao Mei at the door of the courtyard (which added a little comedy to the movie), and then after going to work, he was abandoned by the workers as an outlier. This is a routine in American movies, talking about the contradictions and bitterness of the individual and the environment, which is already the opposite of the chivalrous spirit of the previous article.
Further down, the movie can not be watched, Luo Wei or Jiahe's Zou Wenhuai should have convinced Bruce Lee again, and the movie returned to the previous chivalrous route. First of all, arrange qiao mei to continue to be snatched away by the boss, in fact, this is redundant. Then arrange for the boss to kill all the workers and accumulate an emotional atmosphere for the final battle, in fact, this is also impossible, before the workers have broken with Zheng Chao'an, to drive him out of the gang as a worker thief. Luo Wei knew that the front and middle of the play were already disconnected, so he had to start to make amends, in order to connect the chivalrous routine in front of the last paragraph, in order to cultivate the atmosphere, and even let Bruce Lee hold the body of the Li Kun worker who scolded Bruce Lee the most fiercely, and face to face for half a minute. Finally, the scene of Bruce Lee's ideological struggle by the river makes excuses for the final death struggle.
I didn't see that the two had such a deep relationship
The previous plot is not in place, here is a remedy
Curiously, the movie actually has a cut-out scene that Bruce Lee asked to add. The content is like this, Bruce Lee made up his mind from the river to find the boss desperately, and first ran to the courtyard to make a shot. After refreshing, I pulled out and took half a packet of biscuits on the table to eat before leaving. So in the closing paragraph, when he's in front of the boss's gate, we see that he has one more paper bag in his hand than the previous shot. According to Bruce Lee, Zheng Chao'an is a simple-minded person, plus this play will be more in line with the character. This shows that Bruce Lee does not have the concept of chivalry in his mind, which is traditional Chinese culture, and all he has is Western pragmatism. Fortunately, in the end, Zou Wenhuai cut this paragraph.
After watching the movie, the overall feeling is that the sense of patchwork is relatively strong, the story lacks a normal sense of dramatic rhythm, flat and direct narrative, although the paragraphs can be connected sequentially, but the audience's emotions are not unified, it is scattered.
A simple example: Miao Kexiu's scene adds a little too much meaning of not taking the audience seriously. A character who has nothing to do with the story of the film, the director actually gave a close-up close-up and appeared many times. This kind of operation without artistic principles is one reason why Hong Kong films cannot produce world-class directors and works.
Of course, this does not affect the box office hit after the release of the film, which is mainly because Bruce Lee's real kung fu in martial arts has played a decisive role in this efficient selling point, the old-school martial arts movie has passed his glory period, the movie audience is also alternating between the old and the new, Bruce Lee is just in time. This film successfully opened up the new genre of Hong Kong kung fu films and became a work of the founding school in the history of Hong Kong cinema.
This "Big Brother Tangshan" is actually quite dissatisfied with Bruce Lee. Therefore, after getting the self-directing power from Jiahe, he used the story structure of "Tangshan Big Brother" to make a movie that he was satisfied with - "Raptors Across the River".
Monday Afternoon, June 8, 2020 (Summer Heat Begins)