The author of this article: Grand Duke Petropavlovsk of Habsburg
Part 1: "The Terminator" is the ultimate in Hollywood's slow-swallowing action films?
Part 2: Although "Kung Fu" is good-looking, it is by no means a typical representative of Hong Kong action movies
As mentioned last time, after the bloody storm of Hong Kong films in the 50s, a generation of dragon and tiger martial artists in Hong Kong has been formed, and the talent reserve has been basically completed. They lack opportunities, and what they lack even more is two things, one is money, and the other is culture.
Let's not talk about the issue of opportunity, because these two groups, the film company and the martial artists, are actually a two-way process. Martial artists are just for food, and film companies don't need martial artists to fill the façade of movies. This led to the fact that before Bruce Lee, the income of martial artists was several orders of magnitude higher than that of a serious contracted actor (Shaw Brothers' Ha).
But if you want to develop better, that's a different story.
The salary of the martial artist is high, to put it bluntly, it is a life-selling money, the salary of the actors is low, but there are still channels for rising.
The martial artists are different, their "bridges" have to be laid by themselves. Otherwise, it will always be the part of the protagonist who is defeated by the powerless chicken in the movie. That's the case, I don't believe you go to see our protagonist "The Drunken Man" in this issue to see if the heroine Zheng Peipei is powerless.
To put it bluntly, the martial artist was a high-paid senior "trickster" at that time, and where was the single-plank bridge so easy to build. They need "money" to invest in the initial funds for making a movie, and they need "culture", without culture, how to build the initial framework of a movie?
In 1949, it was said to be turbulent. According to the well-known UP master of Xiaopo Station, John Khan, a small incident happened in China.
This small incident led to the explosion of Hong Kong's population, brought an unprecedented boom in the labor force, and then stimulated the explosive development of various industries.
That is, the demographics of Hong Kong have changed.
In this British colony, the upper class insects and pigs spoke ghost animal language, the lower class cattle and horses spoke Cantonese, and the well water did not interfere with the river water, and the situation was very good, but after the vigorous and vigorous development of all things, a large number of northern people who spoke various dialects and could generally communicate in the Chinese language suddenly poured in.
How many people are in this group? Historically, there are different theories, with some saying that they account for half and some saying that they account for two-thirds.
In short, the population base is different, and the population structure is very different.
It turns out that the Cantonese-speaking population is generally a lower-class cattle and horses, and movies are their entertainment, so naturally there is no good financial support. As New Wave director Tsui Hark said in the later hard bridge and hard horse kung fu masterpiece "Full of Gold and Jade": Dry fried Niu River, you can't get on the stage!
Isn't it, the low-level cattle and horses can only afford to eat fried beef river and chicken balls! Their entertainment level is here, and the market audience determines the quality of supply.
As a result, the demographic structure has changed, and the taste of dry-fried beef river and chicken ball buns is not suitable for northerners.
So what should I do?
In the face of this kind of population structure, it is difficult for Cantonese films not to die.
After that, Cantonese films were revived again, which was the beginning of the successful remake of Chu Yuan's "72 Tenants".
That's a later story, and I'll talk about it if I have a fate, after all, Li Xiaotian won't let me write it. He asked him to write kung fu (this XXX is becoming more and more like Shao Lao Liu!Now I can bear it, if there is another Fang Yihua, I will go crazy.) ）
At that time, the whole of China, no, the film resources of the entire Chinese-speaking circle were in Hong Kong, and the white terror in Taiwan was no worse than that in the mainland, and the film industry under the Information Bureau of the Executive Yuan was not even a drop of water at that time.
But Hong Kong is a broken fishing village, (it was really a broken fishing village, that was in 1949), and the real prosperity was after that, and Li Ka-shing was still tinkering with plastic tweed at that time. The market is small and scary, so the market for Hong Kong films is mainly not in Hong Kong.
It's the whole Chinese-speaking world. To be precise,
At that time, the mainland and Taiwan will still be playing the game that we can't say.
So this market is in the South Seas.
The market determines fate. At that time, the Shaw Brothers Company, which distributed complex films in Nanyang, was quite dissatisfied with the quality of the finished films of the Shaw Brothers and Sons Company, which was responsible for the production in Hong Kong, so Shao Laoliu returned to Hong Kong to seize power and officially included the Shaw Brothers and Sons Company in Hong Kong.
Shaw Brothers (producer) was formally established. At the same time, he built a studio in Clear Water Bay, ready to do a big job.
About the movie war between Shaw Brothers and Denmao, it is not our topic, we have talked about it many times before, here is a mention in passing, in 1955, Yan Fengying starred in the mainland film Huangmei Opera movie "Tianxian Pei" became popular all over the country, so Li Hanxiang burst out of inspiration and prepared a small job, Run Run Shaw also wanted to get a piece of the pie in this wave of trends, so the Huangmei Tune movie that led the 20-year trend in the future film industry was born.
Note that the mainland "Tianxian Pei" is a Huangmei opera movie, and Li Hanxiang is a Huangmei tune movie, these two are not the same thing.
The mainland's "Tianxian Pei" was changed by the Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe from the traditional Huangmei Opera repertoire "Dong Yong's Selling Body". It was originally an old drama of Huangmei Opera.
The mainland has this cultural heritage, as long as cultural people are willing to dig deeper, just like minerals, there is a steady stream.
And Hong Kong, where Li Hanxiang is located, does not have this background, so he can only plagiarize frantically from other dramas, anyway, the tunes of these traditional repertoire are not patented, write a word, and sing it with the tune of Huangmei.
That's why it's called Huangmei tune. And not Huangmei opera. After all, Cantonese opera, Yue opera, Kunqu opera, and a hundred flowers are blooming in the song. A serious Huangmei opera can't be so devoid of martial arts.
This play is called "Diao Chan", starring Lin Dai.
This drama is the beginning of Huangmei Tune movies, and it is also the beginning of another film category of Li Hanxiang in the future, because in this very "conservative", "old" and "serious" Huangmei Tune movie, Li Hanxiang actually arranged a scene for Lin Dai to dance in a modern bikini, showing Lin Dai's big breasts and fat buttocks is called a blood rush!
It was 1958, and it was a long time before the birth of Fengyue Film.
In short, since then, Shaw Brothers has begun to get rid of the production of fashion literary films in the early stage, and has fully turned to costume Huangmei films, and its Clear Water Bay studio has also begun to carry out various large-scale construction projects for this. All kinds of antique pavilions began to be built in the studio. Various costume costumes also began to be produced, and a new climax of costume movies was born.
You may ask, aren't you talking about action movies, martial arts movies, kung fu movies?
Young man, don't worry, you can't get around.
"Diao Chan" is just a work to test the waters, and Li Hanxiang's real Huangmei movie masterpiece is "The Beauty of the Mountains". Starring Lin Dai and Zhao Lei, we talked about this film, the actor Zhao Lei is actually the actor I want to write about the most, and he is also the actor of the original 1960 version of "A Chinese Ghost Story". (Crossing the door: Internet celebrity Xiao Pan Pan performed the naughty version of "The Female Horse", who was embarrassed?)
The most evil thing about "Jiangshan Beauty" is his supporting role, this person has a standard Chinese face, handsome, handsome and chic, with a lofty atmosphere, a standard Beijing film, his mouth is smooth like lubricating oil, there is a cross talk cavity, and on the subtitles, his name is Jin Quan.
It was the one who ran to the house of the master of the martial arts master Huanzhu Mansion in Beijing and listened to the story.
In the future, the world's top five directors and the founding representative of the new school of martial arts --- Hu Jinquan.
At that time, he was promoted by Li Hanxiang, or he came to Shaw Brothers by fooling, and he was very valued by Li Hanxiang, and it was the same for giving him such a big supporting role. In the near future, Li Hanxiang also asked him to be a director and made his debut film, and we also talked about the prototype story of "Official I Want", --- "Yutang Chun"!
Hu Jinquan himself did not admit that this film debuted. He is a native of Beijing and loves Peking Opera. This Huangmei tune movie is not his preference, it is a proposition essay, and he reluctantly catches ducks on the shelves (just like this series).
But this debut film shows his excellent directing skills, and the shooting is decent, but the starting point is very high, three or four stories high, there is a gap with Li Hanxiang's level, but it is visible to the naked eye.
At least that's what Shao Liuzi sees.
At this time, Li Hanxiang and Shao Liuzi had a little friction, Li Hanxiang himself and Run Run Shaw had a black face (and then never came back in vain in their lives), and the boss of Dianmao took advantage of the situation to trick Li Hanxiang into leaving, so they broke up.
But Lu Yuntao, the boss of Dianmao, is a literary young man who loves movies very much, and he can't rub sand in his eyes, and it is rumored that he is very unwelcome to Li Hanxiang stuffing a bikini scene in the costume drama Huangmei tune in the costume drama "Diao Chan", and letting Lin Dai imitate the scene of striptease dancing in a Taiwanese beef farm. Li Hanxiang dug it up, but instead of giving it to himself, he sent him to Taiwan to support him in opening a new company.
That's not what I said. is a well-known film critic in Hong Kong, Mr. He Guan said, published in "New Life Evening News" This is his pen name, his real name is Zhang Che!
Now, this is not his time. But in two years, that's it.
Yes, just two or three years, very fast.
Li Hanxiang ran away, but the Shaw Brothers movie will not hurt the muscles and bones, which is different from Zou Wenhuai's Golden Harvest later, the Shaw Brothers are full of talents and have a deep heritage. The director has a lot of reserves, unlike when he got a good card like Bruce Lee from Golden Harvest, but he could only send the fat-headed and big-eared Luo Wei to take over, which made Luo Wei, a dead fat man, known as the "King of Leaks".
A genius like Bruce Lee, who can't produce a single one for hundreds of years, how can he send a five tigers to match in the future, no matter how bad it is, he should also send a dog, and the result is that he shot a pig!
Alas!
But Li Hanxiang's level is not available to everyone.
He is a standard cultural person, his foundation in Chinese culture is unfathomable, and his directing skills are also very sophisticated, and he pays attention to four words when making films: fast, ruthless, accurate, and good!
Generally, directors don't have the ability to do this, these four words, and completing two is already the best in the world.
Therefore, Li Hanxiang can be strict to the extreme in the limited budget of Shaw Brothers, in the limited set resources, and in the harsh production environment, and can also shoot the movie quickly, shoot well, the subject matter is ruthless, the budget card is accurate, and the quality is very high.
Hu Jinquan does not have this ability, he will be one of the world's top five directors in the future, but he can only complete three of these four words.
He couldn't get up "fast".
This can be seen in his second film at Shaw Brothers, which is also "Children of the Earth" that he wrote, directed and acted in, I won't talk about the quality of this movie, I will leave it to the introduction of Mr. Li Xiaotian, the pillar of this station, so stay tuned.
Speaking of achievements, the film won the Best Screenplay and the Best Special Award for Promoting the National Spirit at the 4th Golden Horse Awards.
Pay attention to the latter award, this is an anti-Japanese movie, in Taiwan at that time, this award with strong political significance was specially issued to this patriotic film, what does it mean?
You must know that Taiwan is a Japanese colony, and it has been educated by the Japanese emperor for 50 years, until after the new millennium, Taiwanese director Wei Desheng can still shoot the anti-Japanese masterpiece "Saidek Bale" with his left hand, and take out the seriously pro-Japanese "Haijiao No. 7" and "Kano" with his right hand, the Kuomintang has only been defeated and retreated to Taiwan for a few years, and Taiwan was not a movie without anti-Japanese elements at that time, but it was mostly a 007-style sensational movie like a spy film, and the anti-Japanese resistance was just a background, or a gimmick.
"Children of the Earth" directly dealt with the anti-Japanese issue at that time, portraying the oppressed life and feelings of ordinary people after the Japanese army occupied the local county town, and organizing guerrillas to fight bravely, which was innovative on the film screens of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 60s. This is also very in line with the atmosphere of white terror at that time, those who are interested can check it, at that time, the New Life Movement was no worse than that in the mainland, Taiwanese people didn't even dare to speak Xiamen (Hokkien dialect), many years later, Taiwanese director Zhu Yanping let Hao Shaowen recreate that tragic history in "Dog Egg Soldier".
So, this is an out-and-out patriotic film at the time.
However, this politicization is not always a good thing.
Especially for the boss Run Run Shaw.
According to the book "Hu Jinquan's Film World", the film was originally expected to be three hours, but due to "the implementation of anti-race laws in Singapore and Malaysia, Shaw Brothers was forced to cut a large number of scenes of Japanese atrocities and Sino-Japanese confrontations, especially the scenes of the national flag were all cut out, leaving only two hours and 20 minutes". The DVD released by Celestial Pictures is 107 minutes long, and the second half of the film is mainly based on the gunfight between the guerrillas and the Japanese army, and the shots of Japan and the blue sky and the white sun flag are also there, so it is obviously not the original three-hour or two-hour and twenty-minute version. It remains to be verified which version of the film was released in Hong Kong at the time, but what is certain is that the film deals with the theme of racial confrontation, and the content has been greatly reduced by the Singapore-Malaysia censorship system, which has greatly affected the box office.
For Run Run Shaw, winning an award is meaningless, and whether to sell or not to sell for money is fundamental.
Because this film is an anti-Japanese movie, the sets, costumes, and props are all reset at a lot of expense. In Shao Laoliu's base camp Nanyang, he can't sell it for money, so he uses it to win a prize in Taiwan.
Besides, the box office of this film in Hong Kong is also average!
So Hu Jinquan didn't dare to spend any more money lavishly, so save a little and use Shaw Brothers' ready-made costume sets, ready-made costumes, and ready-made costume props, and then make a costume film.
The good news is that there is no need to make Huangmei movies.
The world has changed.
Just like 10 years ago, a "Tianxian Pei" in the mainland swept the market and let Hong Kong films run into Huangmei costume movies, another movie shot in the north, "Golden Eagle" filmed by Hong Kong leftist film company Phoenix Pictures in Inner Mongolia, became a big hit in Hong Kong.
How popular is it? It's similar to this year's "Bad Tongue Lawyer"!
"The Bad Tongue Lawyer" is the first film in Hong Kong history to exceed 100 million at the box office.
And "Golden Eagle" is the first film in Hong Kong history to exceed one million at the box office. You know, it was 1964.
"Children of the Earth" was released in 1965, and it has not been sold for money, can Shao Laoliu not be blushing when he looks at "Golden Eagle", which sold for 1 million?
Besides, costume martial arts films, the props are ready-made, the sets are ready-made, it saves money!
So Hu Jinquan came out!
Hong Kong movies have entered the new martial arts era like this.
The movie is 。。。。。。。
Don't worry, in the next issue, I think the word count is about the same.
But
It's not over yet.
At the same time, the film critic He Guan mentioned above is Zhang Che.
Also got an errand.
Or because of the fire of Phoenix's "Golden Eagle" in 1964, Shao Laoliu's eyes were red to death, so he asked Zhang Che to test the road of martial arts films.
Phoenix's "Golden Eagle" Shaw Brothers can't be copied, it is a leftist film company, which can go north to make films, and there is no real scenery outside Inner Mongolia in Hong Kong, and there is no real Mongolian Hercules wrestler in Hong Kong. But the old Cantonese film era "The Palm of the Gods" can no longer be played.
So Zhang Che was ordered to test whether he could rub the martial arts hotspots set off by "Golden Eagle".
It's really just a test, you must know that a few years ago, Li Hanxiang's "Beauty in the Mountains" was already a color widescreen movie.
But Zhang Che only received a bunch of old black and white photography equipment, and he couldn't go into the studio to shoot, and the expensive studio had to make other movies to make money. So Zhang Che could only take a group of young people with strong blood and strength up the mountain bitterly, because it was to test the skills of new martial arts, so there was no need for martial arts instructors from the troupe, and the old school of martial arts was not just a flexible somersault and toss, if we want to play, we can play really. Weapons don't use props, they all use real knives and real guns, but what should I do if real knives and real guns are dangerous? Then sharpen the blade and not cut it.
But these people are sturdy guys, not dragon and tiger martial artists, do you think you don't need skills to play with real knives? A real steel knife weighs more than ten pounds? Not to mention a day, you haven't practiced, and you can hurt your cruciate ligament dozens of times.
Do you think that if the knife is not opened, it will not hurt anyone? The stick is also not bladed, and you let him try to hit a stick?
This is the first attempt to modernize Hong Kong action films, the first time that it hopes to abandon the system of traditional theater troupes and southern martial arts people, and the first time to start a systematic experiment with modern action movies.
The result?
Here's an excerpt from the text:
So, every day, there are people with blue noses and swollen faces, and it is said that they are injured seven or eight times a day.
Later, when I looked at the copy, everyone was dumbfounded, all the shots were a long snake formation, and the geese were lined up with wings in a pot of porridge, either in the middle or in the big distance. The stupid boy sleeps on a cool kang, and he is all strong with firepower, but it still can't work.
So after a while, it was over.
The above remarks are not what I said, they are Li Hanxiang's original words in "Thirty Years of Jokes from the Beginning", I don't believe you to check.
It is said that Zhang Che was incarnated when he was unwilling in the early days, and he did not criticize Li Hanxiang a lot.
Li Hanxiang had already gone to Taiwan, and he was not polite to Zhang Che and his Shaw Brothers.
Look at this scolding.
This black-and-white experimental film is called "Tiger Man Annihilation". Sensei is unpopular, and there is not a single long comment on Douban. There are only 2 short comments.
But it is said that the box office is not bad.
But Li Hanxiang should be to the point.
At that time, the movies were too old and the techniques were old-fashioned.
It's just that he didn't expect that Hu Jinquan made the movie to save money.
That's what we want to solve.
Since then, new martial arts movies have been born. At this time, Zhang Che's "Tiger Heroes" has only been released for less than two months.
This movie is
"The Drunkard"!