In the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese film industry set off a wave of beating women, of which Yang Ziqiong, Yang Lijing, Li Saifeng, Hui Yinghong, Hu Huizhong, etc. are the most widely known, in fact, such a tradition can be traced back to the 60s and 70s, like Zheng Peipei, who is known as the "Empress of Martial Arts", Shangguan Lingfeng, who has the reputation of "Wuxia Film Queen", and Mao Ying, who is another famous female beater, during which the Chinese film industry also produced another famous beating woman, she performed a total of 50 movies, and cooperated with the great director Hu Jinquan six times. Xu Feng, known as the "generation of heroines".
Xu Feng was born in Baoying, Jiangsu Province, in 1950 in Taipei, Taiwan, due to the early death of her father, her mother remarried, at the age of 16 she was admitted to the Federal Film Company in order to raise tuition fees, the following year with Hu Jinquan's "Dragon Gate Inn" (1967) came to the fore, in the play she played Yu Qian's daughter Yu Xin is a very small role, but let Hu Jinquan see her enthusiasm for acting, so two years later, Hu Jinquan tailored for Xu Feng to create a "Heroine Girl" born from Pu Songling's novel "Liaozhai Zhiyi", after the film was released, Won the highest comprehensive technical award at the 28th Cannes Film Festival, and Xu Feng also attended the Cannes red carpet with other creators, and became famous internationally, at that time, she was only in her early twenties.
During the filming of "Heroine", Xu Feng was seriously injured, at that time, an actor who played with her accidentally cut his head, which made Xu Feng suddenly bleed, fortunately, he was sent to the hospital in time to leave no major trouble, and the heroic performance in the play, and the attitude of desperate dedication outside the play, also jointly achieved the title of "Chivalrous Woman" that accompanied Xu Feng's life.
In the 1970s, Xu Feng successively participated in Hu Jinquan's "The Storm of Yingchun Pavilion", "Zhonglietu", "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" and "Legend in the Mountains", Hu Jinquan's 11 films, 6 of which have Xu Feng, which shows his love for this actress.
Many years later, when talking about his mentor, Xu Feng said: "He is a very strict director, never praise me in person, but not long after shooting his film, I felt that Director Hu was really talented, and it would be much easier to shoot other directors' plays in the future", Xu Feng also said, "He taught me how to act, only with sincere dedication and drama in his eyes, can he act well."
Later, Xu Feng won the Golden Horse Award for "Most Promising New Actress" and "Best Actress" for "Ten Days of Dragon City", "Assassin" and "Source", respectively, not only becoming another "martial arts film queen" after Shangguan Lingfeng, but also pushing her personal acting career to the peak.
In 1980, Xu Feng, who was in the golden stage of his career, announced that he was married to Tang Junnian, the founder of the Tomson Group and a wealthy businessman, and then disappeared. The two had two sons after marriage, the eldest son Tang Zijia was born in 1981, the second son Tang Zitong was born in 1983, later, he changed his name to "Tang Jiacheng", because of his handsomeness and gold, he was once named a national husband by netizens, and was known as "the dream of nine hundred million girls".
However, After the film, Xu Feng did not choose to become a wide wife who only knew how to enjoy pleasure, and she could not put down the movie in her heart, and used the 4 million investment money given to her by her husband to establish the "Tomson Film Business Company" in 1984, from an actor to a producer role. Since then, "Tomson Pictures" has invested in many popular masterpieces, such as the "Good Boy" series, which was once popular in the mainland, "Tonight's Stars Are Brilliant" directed by Xu Anhua, "Rolling Red Dust" directed by Yan Hao, the tragic film classic "Soaring City" by Lai Dawei and Andy Lau, and "Wind and Moon" by Chen Kaige zhang Guorong for the last time.
Perhaps many people do not know, was once rated by the American "Time Magazine" as one of the "Top 100 Immortal Films" "Overlord Farewell" is also invested by Xu Feng, that year, she read Li Bihua's original book and was deeply attracted by it, so decided to buy the copyright and adaptation rights of the novel and plan to make a movie, and later at the Cannes Film Festival she happened to meet Chen Kaige, the traction of fate plus the deep impression left by "The Child King", and finally Let Xu Feng decide to use him to direct the film. In the end, "Farewell to the King" not only became the only Chinese film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in France, but also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the nomination for the 66th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, creating a highlight moment for Chinese films.
After filming the movie "Wind Moon" in 1996, Xu Feng fell seriously ill due to overwork, and the film investment business was suspended for a while, until 2004, when he returned to the film industry with "Beautiful Shanghai". However, at the same time, her husband Tang Junnian died of illness at the age of 56.
The relationship between the two husbands and wives has always been very deep, and her husband's departure not only caused Xu Feng to suffer a huge blow, but also made her have to give up her film work and take over the Tomson Group run by her husband. Xu Feng, who had no business experience before, relied on his strong will to lead the group company back to the right track step by step, and also cultivated his two sons into excellent entrepreneurs who could take over the group's business in an all-round way.
In 2015, Xu Feng returned to the film industry, which she has always been difficult to give up, and in the same year, she self-funded a 4k restoration of her masterpiece "Heroine" and toured the "Hong Kong Film Festival" held in Shanghai.
At the event, Xu Feng revealed that she has always had a knot in her heart for her mentor Hu Jinquan: the original "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" was originally invested by Tomson Pictures, Hu Jinquan was the director, and Xu Ke was the supervising producer, but later, Xu Ke decided to pull Hu Jinquan to "go it alone", which also made it difficult for Xu Feng to intervene in the film shooting, and it was not expected that there was a huge difference of opinion between Hu Jinquan and Xu Ke in the middle of the way, and a generation of big directors felt that they were disgraced and could only withdraw from the crew in anger. In Hu Jinquan's later years, the cooperation opportunities between the master and the apprentice passed by like this, and I believe that it is naturally a great regret for Xu Feng.
Xu Feng is not only deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but also has an extraordinary status in the international film world - in 1991, at the 13th Three Continents Film Festival held in Nantes, France, the organizing committee specially held a special exhibition of "Xu Feng Review" for her, and also set up a "Xu Feng Award"; in 1992, the Lincoln Center Film Society held "Female Warrior: Review of Xu Feng's Films" at the Wall Reed Theater in New York to commemorate and pay tribute to her passion and achievements for martial arts films. Xu Feng also became the first Ever Chinese filmmaker to enjoy this prestigious award; in 1998, she was awarded the "Most Outstanding Producer Award" at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 2017, the Golden Horse Awards awarded Xu Feng the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to acting and production.
From the early years of the screen heroine, to the producers, investors and business women who retreated behind the scenes, Xu Feng's role switching is rare in the film world, and her life experience is like the screen trajectory of her heroine, wonderful and rich!