There are many gold medal martial arts directors in the Hong Kong film industry, and many have later become famous action film directors.
The most senior ones are Yuan Heping and Liu Jialiang, and the Seven Little Fortunes represented by Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao, and Yuan Kui.
Among the five major martial arts instructors in Hong Kong, the most easily overlooked is Cheng Xiaodong.
Cheng Xiaodong is known for his martial arts films, and his martial arts style pursues imagination, elegance and beauty, so it is very ornamental.
But in terms of directing, Cheng Xiaodong's work is easy to underestimate, for no other reason:
Cheng Xiaodong's early films of "Ghost of Qiannu" and "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" series were labeled as Xu Ke's works because the supervising producer was Xu Ke, and coupled with the films directed by Cheng Xiaodong in recent years, almost all of them were low-scoring bad films, such as "The Legend of the White Snake" and "Xue Xian 1".
In the hearts of fans, Cheng Xiaodong is definitely an underrated director in the field of Hong Kong martial arts films.
Even without mentioning the many masterpieces he has collaborated with Xu Ke, Shan said that Cheng Xiaodong's personal directorial debut is a martial arts masterpiece that has been underestimated for many years in the history of Chinese film.
The film was filmed 38 years ago, and only 2,000 people on Douban have seen it, far less than Cheng Xiaodong's other directorial works, but it maintains a good rating of 7.5, and many comments believe that:
The film is the most underrated of the Hong Kong New Wave martial arts films of the 1980s.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's relive this unpopular martial arts god work from 38 years ago!
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="25" > Life and Death</h1> Decision
Duel To The Death
The film was produced by Jiahe and released in 1983.
Director Cheng Xiaodong is considered to be the second generation of stars, and his father is the famous Director Cheng Gang of Shaw.
Because of his father's relationship, Cheng Xiaodong grew up on the set, and later entered the Oriental Drama School to start learning Peking Opera and Northern Kung Fu, and joined Shao at the age of 17 as a dragon and tiger martial artist, and first did the deputy martial arts instructor in "Fourteen Female Heroes" directed by his father Cheng Gang.
"Fourteen Female Heroes"
In 1980, Cheng Xiaodong met the most important Bole Xu Ke in his career. In 1980, he was recognized as a martial arts instructor for Tsui Ke's Type I Danger. Subsequently, he participated in the filming of films such as "New Shushan Swordsman" as a martial arts instructor one after another.
"New Shushan Swordsman"
The cooperation with Xu Ke allowed Cheng Xiaodong to be appreciated by the producer Fang Jiahe, so in 1983, at the age of 30, Cheng Xiaodong filmed his directorial debut "Life and Death Decision", which was regarded as a representative work of the New Wave martial arts in the early 80s and Xu Ke's "Butterfly Change", "New Shushan Swordsman" and "Famous Sword", "Heroic Hero", "Bishui Hanshan Death-taking Gold" and other works.
These martial arts films were all aimed at innovating the Shaw martial arts films that were popular on the market at that time, and tried to use new styles and new technologies to innovate traditional Hong Kong-made martial arts stories, just like Xu Ke's "Butterfly Change" is essentially a suspense film, Tan Jiaming's "Famous Sword" is a literary and art film, and Du Qifeng's "Bishui Hanshan Deadly Gold" is a film noir with a martial arts coat, this "Life and Death Decision" is a sword film imitating the ancient dragon.
The story takes place in the fictional late Ming Dynasty, where the Southeast Coastal Wokou are rampant, and there is often friction between the Chinese and Japanese martial arts.
At that time, zhongyuan wulin and the Japanese samurai community agreed to conduct a swordplay duel every ten years, and each side selected a top swordsmanship master to decide for life and death, so this battle was not only related to the prestige of Sino-Japanese martial arts, but also directly affected the honor between the two countries.
If you are a fan of Gulong novels, it is estimated that you will not be unfamiliar with this plot setting of this film.
In Gu Long's "Huanhua Washing Sword Record", the opening chapter writes that the white-clad man of Dongying who is obsessed with martial arts crosses the Central Plains in the west, kills dozens of famous masters of the Central Plains Wulin with the strength of one person, but it is difficult to meet the opponent, but in the end he defeats the Purple Yihou and leaves an agreement to fight in the Central Plains after seven years.
This film may also borrow from this plot in Gu Long's novel, also using the competition between Chinese and Japanese martial arts masters as a guide.
The story begins at the Shaolin Temple, where a group of ninjas attack the temple at night.
This group of ninjas, well-trained and skilled, entered the Scripture Cabinet and rummaged through the bookshelf, but turned a blind eye to the martial arts secrets placed, obviously with no other intentions.
After some searching, the ninjas found a bamboo book called the Complete Book of Divine Names, so they quickly printed it.
However, during the evacuation, the ninjas were found by the Shaolin warrior monks.
At this time, the Shaolin abbot was leading the monks to meditate and chant, and seemed to turn a deaf ear to the melee in the Tibetan Scripture Cabinet.
The only young man in white with a sword in white could not hold back, this person was none other than the Shaolin layman disciple Bu Qingyun (Liu Songren), who was also the most outstanding swordplay genius among the young generation of the Central Plains Martial Forest.
The abbot saw what Bu Qingyun was thinking and agreed to his hand, just in time to try the results of his swordplay in Shaolin that he had studied for many years.
Bu Qingyun struck back the ninja with a few moves, but the ninja leader hid the register of rubbings on the beach before he died, waiting for his accomplices to come and get it later.
It turned out that Bu Qingyun was the representative of the Central Plains Martial Forest of this ten-year sword covenant.
Although he had high hopes, Bu Qingyun was an uninhibited hero in his bones, and he did not attach much importance to the desire to win or lose the game.
At the same time.
Inside the Kinkaku-ji Temple in Japan, there is also a young samurai with extraordinary swordsmanship and martial arts, named Miyamoto Ichiro (Xu Shaoqiang).
Miyamoto, like Bu Qingyun, was extremely talented in young arts, he was a shogunate samurai and a master of the Shinin sect of the Yanagi clan in Japan, and was chosen to go to the Central Plains to compare swords because of his extraordinary swordsmanship.
Both the shogun and the master of the Shinin faction had high expectations for Miyamoto Ichiro's participation in the tournament.
Before leaving, Miyamoto and the master and brother of the New Yin Sect drank and celebrated, but when they left, they were assassinated by a masked killer.
Ichiro Miyamoto performed his martial arts skills and easily killed the Assassins, only to find out that the Assassins were his master.
It turned out that although Miyamoto was extraordinary in swordplay, he was a gentle young man by nature. The New Yin Sect hoped that Miyamoto would be able to defeat the Central Plains Martial Forest and restore the declining prestige of the Sect, so it did not hesitate to test his sword and remind Miyamoto with blood and life:
The principle of the warrior is that the battle must be won, the attack must be overcome, whether it is life or death.
Miyamoto, who had undergone the test of the division, officially set out for the Central Plains, but what he did not know was that this sword match had long been shrouded in conspiracy.
Just after Miyamoto left, the shogun approached the Iga ninja Kaneda Hachi (Takao) and instructed him to go to the Central Plains to conduct a secret operation.
Coming to the Central Plains, it is already the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the rivers and lakes and the people are hotly discussing the upcoming ten-year sword covenant.
In the eyes of the public, the Japanese samurai are vulnerable, and only the Chinese national art is orthodox. People expect Bu Qingyun to defeat the Japanese samurai and defeat the arrogance of the Orientals.
The location of the engagement was set at the famous Sacred Sword Village on the rivers and lakes, and the first swordsman who defeated the Japanese samurai came from the Sacred Sword Village.
Xiahou Yuan, the current owner of the Sacred Sword Village, took this opportunity to widely distribute heroic posts and invited all kinds of masters to come and witness this amazing battle.
Bu Qingyun rushed down the mountain to the Sacred Sword Village, passing through the street market and encountering a group of Japanese ronin samurai who were making trouble.
Ronin arrogantly committed evil, Bu Qingyun had planned to teach a lesson, but he did not expect that a young swordsman suddenly jumped out of the crowd, and easily killed Ronin with a clever sword skill.
Bu Qingyun saw that the other party was extraordinary, obviously from a famous sect, and was very admired.
This night, on the nearby beach, another group of masked ninjas came to dig up the roster stolen from the Shaolin Temple by their accomplices.
Unexpectedly, she was discovered by a nearby sword-wielding woman who fought with the masked ninja with a clever sword technique.
How can the other side be so powerful that the heroine is gradually invincible.
In a critical moment, Bu Qingyun, who passed by the beach, intervened to repel the ninja gang and save the woman.
When I saw the other party's face, I found that it was the young swordsman who met in the downtown a few days ago, and the other party was a woman dressed as a man that day.
The woman did not want to tell the identity, Bu Qingyun did not force it, and after bandaging the woman, the two sides said goodbye.
Bu Qingyun finally arrived at the Sacred Sword Village, just as Ichiro Miyamoto and the Japanese ninja Yatsuya Kaneda had just arrived.
The two sides debated the plum blossoms painted in the hall of the Sacred Sword Village.
As a Japanese, Miyamoto did not understand why the Central Plains people admired plum blossoms so much.
Bu Qingyun replied that because the plum blossoms bloom in winter, it is only because of a proud bone, symbolizing the cultivation and integrity of the Central Plains people.
Miyamoto responds with Japanese cherry blossoms, which are short in bloom but brilliant when they open.
In the debate between the plum blossoms and cherry blossoms here, the screenwriter uses two kinds of flowers to symbolize the differences in personalities and concepts between the two sides of the competition.
Bu Qingyun is a humble gentleman but a noble and upright man, and he is arrogant and arrogant, not bound by worldly fame and fortune, while Miyamoto Ichiro is just the opposite, he carries the expectations of the gate sect and the heavy responsibilities of the shogunate, and he will never give up to achieve his goals, even if he sacrifices himself to become a benevolent person.
The cherry blossom distinction between the two hints at the covenant of the sword and is destined to lead to a tragic end.
Returning to the plot, Bu Qingyun reunites with the Woman in White at the Sacred Sword Village.
The other party changed back to men's clothing again, and it turned out that she was Xiahou Shengnan, the young lord of the Sacred Sword Village.
Led by Xiahou Shengnan, Bu Qingyun and Miyamoto met Xiahou Yuan, the owner of the lake, who was fishing in the middle of the lake.
The other side sat alone on a bamboo raft in the center of the lake to set up a banquet, the purpose was to test the kung fu of the two, so Bu Qingyun and Miyamoto each performed light exercises.
Bu Qingyun used his sword to resist water, while Miyamoto used a samurai sword as a springboard, and the two sides showed their magic methods, and they were evenly matched.
Under the guidance of the old lord of Xiahou, Bu Qingyun and Miyamoto visited the cast sword rock and hero's tomb in Xiahou Mountain Villa before the official competition. The former is the place where the masters of the past left their names to hide their swords, and the latter is the grave where they buried their bones and buried their corpses.
Standing in front of the hero's tomb, Bu Qingyun and Miyamoto Ichiro couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness in their hearts——
The people who have participated in the sword competition in the past are all masters of the world, but no matter how high their martial skills are, even if they win the opponent, they will not be able to withstand life, old age, illness and death.
Bu Qingyun asked from this: In the end, is the victory or defeat of this sword competition really so important?
Obviously, at this time, Bu Qingyun's heart was no longer firm, and he felt that this contest was not necessary at all.
However, just as Bu Qingyun and Ichiro Miyamoto arrived at the Sacred Sword Village, the conspiracy had already begun.
Many martial arts masters set off for the Sacred Sword Zhuang because they were invited by the Sacred Sword Village, but on the way, they were attacked by the Japanese ninja gang one after another, including Bu Qingyun's master in Shaolin.
It is worth mentioning that this Japanese ninja vs. Shaolin monk's martial arts scene is very imaginative.
Only to see a few Japanese ninjas first combined together, actually able to turn into giant ninjas, so that the Shaolin monks also felt afraid,
Then they separated and sneaked in with earth escape, and one of the female ninjas took off her clothes and took advantage of the opportunity of the monk's bowing his head and closing his eyes to sneak up and subdue the monk.
Back on the side of the Sacred Sword Village, there are also masked ninjas sneaking in, trying to assassinate Bu Qingyun.
However, Miyamoto Ichiro took the initiative to fight off the ninja, he attached great importance to this sword match, and took the samurai's faith very seriously, and in order to be fair, he would never allow others to interfere.
During the few days of living in the Sacred Sword Village, Bu Qingyun developed a favorable feeling for Xiahou Shengnan and encouraged her not to carry too much.
However, Xiahou Shengnan was asked by his father Xiahou Yuan to wear men's clothes from an early age, and even his name was called Shengnan, the purpose of which was to hope that he could reproduce the former prestige of Xiahou Villa, and Xiahou Shengnan had to obey his father's arrangement and regard the revitalization of the gate sect as his life's mission.
The time came to the eve of the agreed decisive battle, and according to the custom, Xiahou Mountain Villa was going to hold a dinner party.
At the banquet, the ninja Kaneda Hachi attacked again, trying to poison Bu Qingyun's drink, but Miyamoto Ichiro, who had long been suspicious, stopped Kaneda's action.
Late at night, Ichiro Miyamoto finds Kaneda hachi and asks him why he is plotting against Bu Qingyun.
Kaneda, however, told him that he was only following orders and handed over the shogun's secret orders to Miyamoto.
It turned out that the contest was just a cover, and the elimination of the Central Plains Martial Forest was the real purpose.
The shogunate general had already bribed Xiahou Yuan, the owner of the Sacred Sword Villa, and had the Iga ninjas under Kaneda Hachi steal the Complete Book of Divine Names from the Shaolin Temple, and then slaughter these martial arts masters according to the list on the roster, and the best chance of assassination was on their way to the Sacred Sword Village to watch the battle.
For the shogunate, the outcome of the contest did not matter at all. Therefore, he asked Kaneda Hachi to find a way to assassinate Bu Qingyun first, and then replaced by Xiahou Shengnan, the young lord of the Sacred Sword Villa, and finally in the competition, Let Miyamoto Ichiro take the initiative to lose the competition.
Taking this opportunity, the Sacred Sword Mountain Villa can once again become famous as a martial artist, and the Japanese samurai have completed the purge of the Central Plains Wulin.
Ichiro Miyamoto, shocked to learn the truth, couldn't believe that what he regarded as a lifelong ideal for the sword was just a pawn in the shogunate's conspiracy.
On the other hand, Jin Tian's assassination of Bu Qingyun failed, so Xiahou Yuan decided to take matters into his own hands to get rid of Bu Qingyun.
Therefore, he designed the story to pretend that the Sacred Sword Zhuang was attacked by the enemy and cut off his feet to make Bu Qingyun believe.
As a result, when Bu Qingyun broke into the hall, he was caught in a trap because he was defenseless, and was locked up by the Sacred Sword Zhuang.
At this time, Bu Qingyun only knew about the plot of Xiahou Yuan, the lord of the Sacred Sword Village, because he was born with a disability and could not stand on his legs, so he could not make a breakthrough in swordplay, but he gave birth to a daughter, so he could only pin his hopes on his daughter.
In order to achieve his daughter's success, he must personally eliminate Bu Qingyun and let his daughter win the opportunity to compete with the sword.
However, Xiahou Yuan did not expect that Miyamoto Ichiro, as a competitor, would help Bu Qingyun get out of trouble.
At the same time, Miyamoto told Xiahou Katsuo that her father colluded with the prodigal ambitions of the Japanese to disappoint his father.
When Xiahou Yuan saw that the plot had been exposed, he wanted to kill Bu Qingyun in the villa, and Bu Qingyun was reluctant to hurt Xiahou Shengnan's affection, but Xiahou Yuan was fierce.
At the critical moment, Xiahou Shengnan took the initiative to block the fatal sword for Bu Qingyun, and at the same time repaid his father's sins.
After that, KanedaHachi took his men and planned to secretly transfer the Central Plains martial arts masters who were imprisoned in the Sacred Sword Village.
Ichiro Miyamoto despised this conspiracy, and he went alone to stop it, and with his martial arts, he immediately killed the evil Kaneda Hachi.
Bu Qingyun arrived and rescued the master Shaolin monk.
At this time, he deeply felt that because too many people had been killed and injured in this competition, he had no intention of fighting again and was planning to leave.
Unexpectedly, Miyamoto suddenly took out his sword and killed the Shaolin monk on the spot, forcing Bu Qingyun to draw his sword to fight.
At this point, Bu Qingyun could only draw his sword, and this life-and-death duel finally began.
The two were on the cliff by the sea, facing the terrifying waves, sword and sword, standing in the air, ready to attack.
The sword was sheathed, and the two sides immediately exchanged hands, and the martial arts of the two were not inferior, and it was difficult to distinguish between them for a time.
Bu Qingyun was able to stab Miyamoto, but he had to fight for the price of hanging up the lottery himself.
Obviously, life and death are on the line, but the two feel sorry for each other.
In the competition, Miyamoto fell off a cliff and stepped to the rescue, but was stabbed in the shoulder by Miyamoto.
After Bu Qingyun rescued Miyamoto, Miyamoto took the initiative to stab himself in the same position on the shoulder to show that the duel was fair.
Bu Qingyun saw that the other party's attitude was so resolute, and finally understood that only by deciding to die could the competition be concluded.
The two sides went to war again, and finally the fateful showdown came to an end with Bu Qingyun becoming the finger of the discarded arm and the other hand, and Miyamoto paid with his life.
The story of the film also ends abruptly here.
Although this film is not a remake of Gu Long's novel, and the plot is only a paraphrase of the setting in "Huanhua Wash Sword Record", it invisibly combines the core theme in Gu Long's original work: two top masters who cherish each other in order to pursue the supremacy of martial arts, and at the same time are forced to be wrapped in the conspiracy and revenge of fame and fortune, and finally have to stage a fateful duel, and the fatalistic sadness and helpless regret conveyed behind the whole story coincide with Gu Long's novel.
The film adopts the narrative mode of the duel between the two males, the screenwriter boldly portrays and portrays the Japanese samurai who are mostly villains in the past film and television works, and the Japanese samurai Miyamoto Ichiro played by Xu Shaoqiang is no less than the protagonist Bu Qingyun played by Liu Songren, and whether it is a martial arts contest or a debate between the two, it is not conventional.
The sword of the benevolent warrior against the sword of the warrior, and finally the step Qingyun broke his arm and finger, and Miyamoto was also stabbed in the abdomen with a sword, which was a lose-lose situation, full of tragic meaning.
If you look at it from today's point of view, the two protagonists in this film are afraid that they will have to be made up by the netizens' brains to make up for the CP sense of love and killing each other.
On the other hand, the film is quite good in art, photography and storyboard composition, the crew filmed in South Korea throughout the whole process, and was quite careful about the creation of the classical oriental aesthetic atmosphere in martial arts films, and many scenes have influenced later martial arts film history dramas.
For example, in 1996, ATV remade the martial arts drama "Sword And Howling Jianghu" of Gu Long's novel, liu Songren and Xu Shaoqiang were invited to star, and the two in the center staged a duel on behalf of the Central Plains Wulin and japanese samurai respectively, which is undoubtedly a tribute to this "Life and Death Decision".
Of course, the biggest attraction in the film is the martial arts scene designed by Cheng Xiaodong. The biggest difference between Cheng Xiaodong and other action directors is that his action design pursues aesthetic beauty and freehand, in addition to martial arts moves, sometimes borrowing hanging Weiya and post-editing to make the martial arts scenes more gorgeous and cool.
Even so in the martial arts scenes in this film, the imaginative martial arts action design, coupled with rapid action editing, not only makes the character's actions appear explosive, all the moves are in full swing, but also the romance and freehand of martial arts films are played to the extreme, which is undoubtedly a very advanced technique in the field of martial arts films of that era.
Therefore, even from today's point of view, this "Life and Death Decision" is a classic martial arts movie that is not outdated. Unfortunately, 38 years later, the influence of martial arts dramas has long been greatly reduced, and such a pioneering martial arts film, we can no longer make it!