After writing the legendary Hong Kong director Luo Wei, known as the "King of Leaks" and "King of Followers", there have been many controversies in his life, from the early "million director" who was as famous as Zhang Che, to the end of a bankruptcy and died in embarrassment.
A friend left a message wanting to talk about "A Knife in the City", which bankrupted Luo Wei, and wanted to understand the social background of some leftist films.
It's a big topic, and it's important to talk about it and write a book. This article is concise, and only a general description is made easy for everyone to understand.
First of all, let's continue the previous topic, talk about Rovi.
In the early 1990s, Luo Wei picked up Jet Li, but he didn't take advantage of it, but was robbed by his son David Luo, and abducted Jet Li to change the door and sign into Golden Harvest. Luo Wei didn't want to break up with his son, but he was still not convinced.
I still remember what I said earlier, after picking up Bruce Lee, the two broke up and no longer cooperated, Bruce Lee flew solo and filmed "Raptors Across the River", and Luo Wei held his breath to shoot "Cold-faced Tiger", wanting to compete with Bruce Lee. Of course, he lost.
Later, he missed Jackie Chan again, and finally broke up again, and Jackie Chan chose to run away. Seeing Jackie Chan's popularity, Luo Wei chose to continue to consume Jackie Chan, and first took out Jackie Chan's work "One and a Half Moves into the Rivers and Lakes", which was hidden because he looked down on it, and made a lot of money.
This is not over, he also reused the waste, cut out the materials in the library when Jackie Chan was shooting old films, carefully edited, and pieced together a "Dragon and Tiger Leap", and made another profit. But different films are cut together, and there must be flaws, for example, the clip of stealing chickens and loaches is from "Fist Spirit", and the ending battle is from "Laughing Fist Tricks". The two leading actors didn't even have a rivalry with the real Jackie Chan, it was all Luo Wei's editing work, and it was all a riotous operation.
When he missed Jet Li, but once again watched Jet Li run away, he became popular because of his role in "Once Upon a Time". Luo Wei once again launched a riot operation.
In addition to being good at "picking up leaks", Luo Wei is also good at "following the trend".
praised Jackie Chan, followed the trend of "Jingwumen", and created "New Jingwumen" for Jackie Chan, but returned with a fiasco. In order to support Jet Li, he followed the fashion action drama and created "Dragon in the World" for Jet Li, and once again failed miserably.
In the 1990s, Luo Wei saw the late Qing Dynasty movement booming, and the craze brought by "Huang Feihong" lasted for a long time, and the stories of Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu, Lu Acai, Huang Qiying, Su Can (Su Qier) and others in the "Ten Tigers of Guangdong" were all filmed. Huo Yuanjia, Chen Zhen, Ma Rongzhen, and Shanghai Tang stories in "Shanghai School" are also popular. The "Top Ten Masters of the Late Qing Dynasty" in the Northern School of Dadao Wang Wu, Yanzi Li San, Sun Lutang and others were also made into movies and became popular.
Luo Wei felt that this was an opportunity, invested a huge amount of money, and spent a huge amount of 18 million yuan to go to the mainland to film, based on the story of Dadao Wang Wu and Tan Sitong, to create a big production "One Knife Falling City".
Filming "A Knife in the City", Luo Wei put on a "fairy-level" main creative lineup-
The director is Sammo Hung, and the screenwriter chose Zhang Tan, the screenwriter of two "Once Upon a Time" films, to create the script;
In terms of actors, Dillon, one of the "Four Little Dragons of Hong Kong", played the starring role, "Changshan Zhao Zilong" Yang Fan, Donnie Yen's master, and "Prince of Martial Arts" Zhao Changjun strongly helped; In addition, there are also "Hong Kong's No. 1 classical beauty" Guan Zhilin, "Michelle Yeoh's successor" Yang Lijing joined, as well as Liu Xun, Zou Zhaolong, Huang Jinjiang and other powerful supporting roles;
All this made the producer and producer Luo Wei full of confidence.
The date of the release of "A Knife in the City" in Hong Kong is July 15, 1993, a proper summer vacation, prime time.
However, I never expected that after the release of "A Knife in the City", Luo Wei suffered a career Waterloo: the box office of the film was dismal, and it was removed from the shelves after only 9 days of release, and only got more than 1.8 million box office, which made Luo Wei's coffin a loss.
Both mentally and in life, it was a great blow to Rowe. Since then, Rowe has lived a bleak life, and three years later, he died of heart failure at the age of 78.
How to say it, the film's choice to be released in 1993 is a tragedy in itself. Because this year is recognized as a big year for world cinema, and even hailed as the greatest year in the history of film, global films have exploded in this year, and excellent works have emerged one after another.
Hong Kong, as the Oriental Film Capital, released 234 movies this year, reaching the highest in history. Specific to martial arts/action movies, it has also reached 33. This year, Wang Jing directed 9 movies alone ("Truant Weilong 3: The Year of the Rooster", "City Hunter", "Laughing Man Chu Liuxiang", "Huang Feihong's Iron Fighting Centipede", "Seven Princesses of Martial Arts", "Super School Overlord", "Chasing Boys", "Supreme Thirty-six Strategies: Stealing the Sky", "Heaven and Dragon Slayer: The Demon Sect Master"), in addition, he also served as the producer or producer of the funny ghost film "New Human Skin Lantern", the comedy "King of a Thousand Faces" and other films, and served as the screenwriter of "Nerve Knife and Flying Lynx" and other films. One person has created 12 films, what is the spirit?
It was still 1993, and the Hong Kong movie with the theme of Wong Fei Hung was released in 8 versions, including the orthodox "Wong Fei Hung 4: The King of the Heroes", "Wong Fei Hung: Iron Fighting Centipede" starring Jet Li, who was abducted by Wang Jing and went out, and the sequel to the spoof comedy "Wong Fei Hung Laughing Biography" starring Alan Tam "Wong Fei Hung vs. Wong Fei Hung", there is no Wong Fei Hung at all, only the ghost foot seven biography "Wong Fei Hung: Ghost Foot Seven", Zhang Xinyan, who almost became a grandmaster, directed another version of Wong Fei Hung's "The Legend of Shaolin Heroes" (also known as " Huang Feihong's boy should serve the country"), Yuan Heping and Donnie Yen collaborated on two "Heroes and Heroes: Su Qier" (also known as "Huang Feihong and Su Qier") and "Young Huang Feihong: Iron Horse".
There are so many movies this year, and people are dazzled to watch. "A Knife in the City" is mixed in, which is indeed not eye-catching, and all indicators are not outstanding enough. Dillon, the biggest actor in the film, has passed 6 years since "The True Color of Heroes", and the popularity accumulated by Dillon has long since dissipated. What's more, Dillon was already in an outdated state at the time of "The True Color of Heroes", and he turned over a rare time, and the heat was not enough to support it until 1993.
Although Kwan Zhilin and Sammo Hung only starred, they were all cameos, and in the context of not many scenes, the two were also unable to pull the box office. Zou Zhaolong was still called Ni Xing at that time, far from being famous, and Yang Lijing also belonged to the newcomer status, and she was also unable to drive the movie.
As for Yang Fan, who played the fifth king of the big sword, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" had not yet started broadcasting at that time, and Zhao Yun, who he played, became popular a year later, and he was not famous at this time.
Zhao Changjun, who plays Yuan Shikai, although he is strong, has no choice but to have a villain face, which has no effect on the box office.
In this way, an unattractive cast, coupled with a late Qing Dynasty action martial arts story that was not new to the time, it is understandable that the box office hit the streets.
However, with the passage of time, the reputation of "A Knife in the City" has gradually deflected, and the score has risen little by little, and the Douban score has reached 8.2 points, which is already the score of a high-quality masterpiece. Among the many works directed by Sammo Hung , this is the highest-rated work, and it is the only work with more than 8.0 points, ranking second with a score of 7.9 points "Food Truck" and "Five Lucky Stars", and "Ghost Fighting Ghosts" and "Loser" with a score of 7.7.
Therefore, it can be said that "A Knife in the City" is Sammo Hung's best work as a director.
Why is this reversal happening?
Is it a plot? Is it a fighting action?
Of course not.
In terms of plot, Tan Sitong, Yuan Shikai, and Dadao Wang Wu in the late Qing Dynasty married Jinlan and broke into Beijing together. However, at the fork in the road of life, at the time of the choice of the fate of the country, they made different choices, Tan Sitong chose to recommend Xuanyuan with my blood, determined to die to clear his will, in order to wake up the sleeping sons and daughters of China; Yuan Shikai chose to betray the revolution and became the leader of the republic; The fifth king of the big sword chose to be himself, devoted himself to the revolution with his own martial arts, and dedicated himself to the revolution.
"A Knife in the City" is a very tragic story. But it is very ridiculous, after all, there is no intersection between Yuan Shikai and Dadao Wang Wu in history, and there is not much intersection between Tan Sitong and Yuan Shikai. The three of them have never met at all, how can they worship Jin Lan and become righteous brothers?
Moreover, the story involves Tan Sitong, Yuan Shikai, and the Wuxu Change, the theme is grand, and the film is magnificent, but "A Knife in the City" has been made into a gangster movie. Tan Sitong, Yuan Shikai and Dadao Wang Wu got acquainted between their own fame, and then traveled to the capital together, and finally chose completely different paths, lost their brotherhood, and became life and death rivals. A few young people, fledgling, roaming the rivers and lakes, and finally meeting each other and fighting each other, this routine is too cliché in Hong Kong films.
That's right, "A Knife in the City" is very routine, it was not a pure original, but Luo Wei's follow-up work, adapted from the 1973 Zhang Che directed, Chen Guantai starred in "The Big Knife King V", and even the ending completely follows the original version. The adapted version only added Yuan Shikai to further complicate the contradiction.
The setting of these elements is not new to Hong Kong audiences in 1993, and for mainland audiences, it is too bloody, too far away from history, and the two sides are not good, and the box office is not wronged.
So is it a fight?
Neither is it.
Some people say that the fights in "A Knife in the City" are not very good. This is just a joke, this is Sammo Hung's own martial arts instruction, and there are still people who doubt his ability? Sammo Hung is not alone, he has a team of the Hung family class, which is the top martial arts design team and the most powerful dragon and tiger martial artist team in Hong Kong.
Sammo Hung's design is certainly no problem, and the fights in this film are also exciting. However, there must be a shortness in the ruler, Sammo Hung is good at hand-to-hand combat, this kind of action will be very good in fashion action dramas, and in costume dramas, there are some disagreements.
The long shirt and robe in "A Knife in the City" are on the body, of course, it is a costume drama. Moreover, films such as "Huang Feihong" and "Fang Shiyu" have already defined this type of action, and the kind of wide-opening, elegant, and flying movements involved in Yuan Heping are even better. Sammo Hung in "A Knife in the City" action design is contrary to Yuan Heping's definition, he obviously doesn't want to repeat the old way and wants to innovate, but he didn't consider the audience's acceptance, nor did he consider the 33 action movies that will be held in a year. In this way, there are some problems with the actions of "A Knife in the City", and some of the goods are not right, but this does not mean that the actions in the film are not exciting, but the problem of audience acceptance.
So, what made the reputation of "A Knife in the City" reversed?
It's an ideological concept, and it's a good line.
This brings us back to the concept of "leftist cinema" at the beginning of the article.
When it comes to "leftist films", this is indeed a huge topic, dating back to Shanghai in the 1930s, when there was a clear leftist culture and leftist films. With the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a large number of intellectuals in Shanghai went south and entered Hong Kong due to the war. Xu Anhua's "When Will the Bright Moon Exist" contains the story of the Dongjiang Column organizing the rescue of leftist intellectuals such as Mao Dun and Zou Taofen in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong in the 1940s, left-leaning movies became popular, and leftist stories like "The Marriage of Little Erhei" were filmed in Hong Kong. Even in the 1950s and even in the 1960s, Hong Kong leftist cinema was still active and public.
Leftist films were based on the three major companies of the Great Wall, Phoenix, and Xinlian, and later merged into the "Silver Capital", which highlighted the national consciousness in the early days, while taking into account Hong Kong's local colonial culture, and the works were mainly based on social realism and family ethics, both tragicomedy and comedy, emphasizing education and entertainment.
Of course, around 1949, a large number of mainland intellectuals moved south to Hong Kong, and conservative rightists naturally rose. Right-wing films are mainly based on Shaw Brothers and Denmao, introducing Western modern film trends, Westernizing ideas, examining the new social strata with an open attitude, and embracing trendy love.
At the end of the 1960s, the mainland entered the Wenge period, and ultra-leftist ideology emerged. The left-leaning ideology in Hong Kong could no longer keep up with the situation, and it slowly took the lead. However, with the rise of the "New Left" in the West, Hong Kong is not lagging behind, and after the 1980s, there was also a "New Left".
This "New Left" is more inclined to the international left, which is very different from the left in our textbooks. Among the current Hong Kong directors, Chen Guo has obvious New Left tendencies, and the "Prostitute Trilogy" directed by him is obviously full of typical "New Leftist" ideas, focusing on people at the bottom of society, and even having a strong local consciousness. Ann Hui's film also has the thinking of the "new left", which also focuses on the bottom of society and fairness, but "When Will the Bright Moon Exist" is a typical traditional leftist way of thinking.
As for Hong Kong literary films in recent years, they basically reflect the ideas of the "New Left", such as "Drifting in Turbid Water", "Under the White Sun", and "Narrow Road Dust", all of which focus on the people at the bottom of the society and pay attention to social care. On the other hand, conservative rightist thinking is also looming like a snake gray line, such as "Wisdom Teeth", "Murder", "Kill a Dusk", "When the Wind Rises Again" and other films, the conservatism and nostalgia shown, as well as the dissatisfaction with the current society, are all shown under the distortion of the camera. This is also the performance of Hong Kong films after leaving the pure commercial market and beginning to return to the essence of literature and art, which deserves continuous attention.
Talking back to "A Knife in the City", the leftist ideas it shows are typical of traditional leftist films, that is, they are full of desire for revolution, identify with revolution, yearn for revolution, identify with republicanism, oppose speculation, oppose coercion, and oppose counter-revolution.
Earlier, when I wrote Hu Jinquan's "Dragon Gate Inn", I made it clear that it belongs to the attributes of leftist films, and you can go back and flip through it.
The left-leaning of "A Knife in the City" is also reflected in the fact that it directly copies Mao's quotations without changing a word, which is really refreshing.
"10,000 years is too long, seize the day."
"Of the stars, fire can start a prairie fire."
There are so many delicate rivers and mountains, leading countless heroes to bend their waists. ”
......
I believe that such words are familiar to everyone, and they are all classic words of the chairman.
The other lines are also classic.
"I can't shake the tears of heroes, and I can't forget the hatred of my family and country. I can't finish drinking the wine in the cup, and I can't finish singing the parting song. If you can't let go of the knife in your hand, you can't kill the head of the enemy. ”
"The country is not a country, there is a home without a home, the world is so big, where is there a place for my king."
"Eight thousand miles of rivers and mountains, thousands of dawns, what is the difference between one more knife and one less knife!"
"I hope that the world will be comfortable, and what is personal fame and fortune?"
"It has been a lot of hard work for the worldly torrent to stand on its feet, and it may be more difficult to get ahead than to ascend to the sky."
"The end of the world is far away, it is better to fly together."
"People who have never worried about the country have been sad for the ages."
"As long as you are like-minded, even if it is full of wind and frost, there will always be a day when the sun will shine."
"Life in the world is the pursuit of hope, but often all you get is memories."
"Blood spattered on the yellow sand road, one death in the world."
"Wang Wu: Brother Tan, let's go.
"Tan Sitong: I'm not leaving. Out of the prison, out of the world.
"Wang Wu: If we can go tonight, we will have tomorrow.
Tan Sitong: Tomorrow's things are left to tomorrow's people. What I am doing today is to be generous and inspire everyone with my blood.
After speaking, his fingers lightly touched the big knife in Wang Wu's hand, wiped the blood, and wrote a desperate poem.
"Wang Wu reads: I smiled at the sky from the horizontal knife, and went to leave the liver and gallbladder two Kunlun. Brother Tan, you're right! Doing great things, either a big success, or a big defeat, today you lose, only defeat in the number of gas, China will always follow your path.
Tan Sitong smiled miserably: China will always follow my path?。。。。。。。 Fifth brother, I want to sleep, I haven't had a good night's sleep for a long time. ”
......
Such exquisite lines are all over the place.
Now, it's rare to see such classic lines.
Zhang Tan, the screenwriter of "A Knife in the City", has almost written his definition of a leftist on his face.
If "A Knife in the City" is not enough, you can take a look at the lines in "Huang Feihong" he wrote.
"Fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come." (This is also a word-for-word quote from Mao)
"I hope that the morning sun will always shine on my land, and don't forget the blood of the martyrs."
"Either way, you have to survive tonight, and then your generation will see the sunrise tomorrow."
"In the opinion of the small people, we not only practice martial arts to strengthen our bodies to resist foreign enemies, but more importantly, we should open up our voices and unify our military affairs, which is the way to make the country rich and the people strong.
......
Not to mention anything else, just these lines, family, country, and feelings, are all there, and the pattern of the film can't be lowered.
Therefore, as long as you don't stick to the historical framework and only watch the film, you can be moved.
However, not at the time.
Because the year before 1990, the well-known events on the mainland dealt a blow to the traditional leftists overseas and made them extremely isolated at home. In this case, it is actually unwise for "A Knife to the City" to focus on leftist consciousness, and the time has not yet come.
"Once Upon a Time" is very smart, it focuses on nationalism and condenses national consciousness, so it cleverly skips the differences between the left and right wings and seeks the greatest common divisor.
But the story of "A Knife in the City" explores the issue of reform and revolution, and it can no longer be avoided. What's more, 97 is not far away, just around the corner, Hong Kong's right-wing thinking is even better, and the main focus is on the topic of apocalypse, in this case, "A Knife in the City" is particularly out of place.
As mentioned above, the mainland audience felt that it was too discordant, and it was too nonsense to let Tan Sitong and Yuan Shikai and Dadao King Wucheng worship brothers. Moreover, this kind of brotherhood is also too cheap, with an obvious temperament of "Crazy Boy".
It's just that with the passage of time, the new generation of audiences has gradually grown up, no longer has the burden of history, and is more tolerant.
It's just that Luo Wei has long passed away, and he no longer knows about the reversal of the reputation of "A Knife in the City", which is a pity.
Yes, some readers said that they had the impression that "A Knife in the City" was released under the name of "Big Knife King V". This is a mistake and confused. When it was released in the mainland, it was called "The First Knife in China", but it was not called "Big Knife King V".
"A Knife in the City" is a Hong Kong movie. In fact, films with the theme of "Big Knife King Five" have been filmed, as early as 1950, there were Cantonese films such as "Big Sword King Five Bloody Battles Little Overlord" and "Big Sword King Five Bloody Annihilation and Hatred" were filmed. In 1973, Zhang Che also filmed a version of "Big Sword King V", starring Chen Guantai.
On the mainland, a version of "Big Knife King V" was also filmed in 1983. Wang Wu of the big knife in history, there is a person in history, his name is Wang Zhengyi, and he is a Hui person, because Wang Wu also wrapped a piece of cloth around his head in the film. Many mainland audiences' memories of Dadao King V actually come from this version.
Okay, Lala miscellaneous, I've written so much, I can't expand it anymore, a lot of topics, you can open a separate article just by showing it, and this article will summarize it so much
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