In 2002, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" turned out to be the beginning of the era of Chinese cinema blockbusters, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang quickly followed up to shoot "Wuji" and "Night Banquet" respectively, and the first experience of these three famous directors is still talked about today.
However, there is a blockbuster film made by a non-famous director that seems to have been forgotten, and when we talk about the first generation of blockbusters of that year, the first opening is "Hero" and "Wuji", and few people mention that between "Hero" and "Night Feast" and "Wuji", there is a real blockbuster "Heroes of Heaven and Earth".
I. "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" that should not be ignored
We look at the box office list in 2003, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" ranked fifth with 41 million yuan, although the ranking is not the top, but its box office and the first Feng Xiaogang movie "Mobile Phone" is only more than 10 million, and the "Matrix" series is also between Bo Zhong, and even to suppress the star-studded "Infernal Affairs 3".
From the box office performance, at least it proves that "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" was also recognized by the audience that year, after all, the film did not have the word-of-mouth foundation of "Infernal Affairs" and "The Matrix", and the second did not have the popularity foundation accumulated by Feng Xiaogang Geyou.
In addition, the director of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", He Ping, is not very well-known among ordinary audiences, but the lead actors Jiang Wen and Zhao Wei were the top streams at that time, one can guarantee quality, the other can guarantee traffic, and there is also a Nakai Takaichi who is called "Ken Takakura's successor" by the Japanese media.
Therefore, whether from the box office or the actors, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" seems not to be ignored and forgotten, not to mention, the author believes that if the success of blockbusters, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" can be comparable to "Heroes", far better than "Night Feast" and "Wuji".
Second, polish the script for twenty years
The soul of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is the director He Ping, this director is not very famous, many people will confuse him with He Qun, the director of "Fire King Kong", or He Qun is also a well-known director, as long as he Ping and Jia Zhiguo's daughter-in-law are not confused.
Sadly, for ordinary audiences, Ti Heping's name is not easy to recognize, but to say that the mental patient who sells DVDs in "Big Shots" may be more familiar to everyone.
He Ping began to create a script twenty years before the release of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", when the name of the script was "Desert Lonely Smoke", with this script, He Ping was transferred to Xi'an Film Studio, of course, this is also related to his father He Wenjin and mother Yuan Yuehua are cultural and film celebrities.
However, He Ping's idea was too grand, the Xi'an Film Studio at that time could not shoot, he could only continue to polish the script, in the early nineties, he cut a small part of the plot from the script to adapt, made the famous film "Double Flag Town KnifeMan", and won a series of awards in those years.
The success of "Double Flag Town KnifeMan" still failed to make He Ping's idea of making "Desert Lonely Smoke" come true, and after another decade, on the eve of Chinese films entering the blockbuster era, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" finally began filming.
Third, the plot and picture of the blockbuster
The story of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is not complicated, the story is set in the Western Regions during the Tang Dynasty, Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen) is unwilling to kill the women and children in the captives, and is forced to lead his loyal subordinates to resist and abscond, and his subordinates live in seclusion.
Captain Li alone encounters the camel caravan returning to Chang'an from India, the camel team encounters a storm with only one soldier and a monk (Zhou Yun), the soldiers save Lieutenant Li, Lieutenant Li promises to help them escort the camel team back to Chang'an, he finds his subordinates, and recruits the "old immortal" (Wang Deshun) as an escort, and the group marches to Chang'an.
At the same time, the imperial court sends Tang envoy Laiqi (Nakai Kiichi) to the Western Regions to hunt down the wanted criminal Lieutenant Li. The Turks bribed the leader of the Western Regions, XiangMazi (Wang Xuexi), in an attempt to intercept the camel caravan and seize the Shakyamuni relics they were escorting.
Xiang Mazi and Lieutenant Li's camel caravan fought three major battles in succession, and Colonel Li's men and the "old undead" and others suffered heavy casualties, and finally were surrounded in an abandoned Tang army stronghold.
The Turkic cavalry and Xiangmazi jointly surrounded the stronghold, and during the battle, Lieutenant Li and Laiqi were all killed, but under the protection of Shakyamuni's relics, Lieutenant Li and Wenzhu (Zhao Wei) eventually returned to Chang'an with the relics.
From the plot point of view, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" has the potential of a blockbuster, four crucial battles are carried out in the hinterland of the desert, the types of battles include street battles (camps), canyon pursuit battles, desert field battles and fortress attack and defense battles, comprehensive look at the picture and action scenes, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is even better than "Heroes".
In particular, the final fortress attack and defense battle in the film reminds me of the fortress battle in "Galaxy Team", which is also exciting enough with technical content.
Of course, the acting skills of several of the main actors in the film also add a lot to the film.
Fourth, the cast of stars
Jiang Wen, who plays Lieutenant Li, does not need to be repeated by the author, but only three interesting things related to him:
Before filming "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", Jiang Wen has begun to transform into a director, he directed and acted in a movie "The Devil Is Coming", in 2000 he took "The Devil Is Coming" to the Cannes Film Festival to participate in the exhibition and won the Jury Prize, but because of the illegal participation, Jiang Wen was punished by the Film Bureau as "can not serve as a director in five years", so in the next five years he could only be an actor, starred in four films in a row, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is the second. At the end of the five-year period, he immediately made "The Sun Also Rises".
Playing the monk Juehui is Zhou Yun, a big beautiful woman cut her long hair to play the monk unexpectedly, it is estimated that many viewers did not find out that this little monk with a clear eyebrow was actually a beautiful woman.
At that time, Zhou Yun was still a student of the Central Academy of Drama, and debuted by shooting advertisements with Liang Chaowei, and his teacher Zhang Renli was also Jiang Wen's teacher, but Jiang Wen and Zhou Yun did not know each other before starring in "Heroes of Heaven and Earth".
According to Jiang Wen, the shooting environment was quite boring at that time, and he found that Zhou Yun often ran far away alone under the tree and quietly blew a pipe, the desert in the western region, the yellow sand was full of sky, one person and one hoop, there was no more beautiful picture than this. Since then, Jiang Wen has remembered this girl.
Jiang Wen and his French wife at the time, Sandrin, gathered less and more, but he and Zhou Yun got closer and closer, and the two quit the crew at the same time during the filming of "The Barber", and the scandal spread. In 2005, Jiang Wen and Sandlin divorced and married Zhou Yun at the end of the year.
That is to say, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is also a matchmaker for Jiang Wen and Zhou Yun.
As mentioned above, Jiang Wen had already begun to be a director at that time, and when filming "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", he integrated a lot of his own ideas into the film, but this matter was complained about by Nakai Takaichi.
Before the release of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" in Japan, the Japanese side published a memoir of Kiichi Nakai shooting movies in China in order to promote the film, in which Nakai Kiichi was somewhat dissatisfied with Jiang Wen's directing style, he said that Jiang Wen was smaller than director He Ping, but the director called him "Jiang Wen Teacher" every time, and Jiang Wen directly called the director's name "He Ping".
When filming, Jiang Wen often put forward his own views on a scene, and then repeatedly consulted with the director, resulting in the rest of the crew can only wait for them to discuss, sometimes according to Jiang Wen's meaning of the second time, in the effect is actually no different from the director's first time...
Wait, Nakai's memoirs caused a stir at the time, and he also publicly apologized, but his apologies were not that the content was wrong, but because of the discussion caused by the memoirs, that is, he thought there was nothing wrong with him.
It can only be said that Mr. Takaichi Nakai is too ignorant of the unspoken rules of the domestic showbiz industry, in the Japanese film industry, the director is definitely bigger than the actor, but in the Chinese showbiz industry, this is not necessarily the case.
The author likes Nakai Takaichi's performance in "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", his own appearance is very ancient, coupled with his jerky Chinese, playing a strong martial arts envoy to the Tang Dynasty as if it were real.
It is said that Takaichi Nakai did not want to take the film at first, but Ken Takakura told him that the value of making a film abroad is equivalent to ten in Japan.
In his memoirs, Nakai not only complained about Jiang Wen and He Ping, but also included the female number one Zhao Wei.
If we carefully examine the plot of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", you will find that Wen Zhu, played by Zhao Wei, is almost an indispensable role in the film, and the author guesses that director He Ping is probably not exempt from vulgarity, and wants to borrow the heat of XiaoYanzi that year.
Nakai Takaichi believes that Zhao Wei's acting skills still need more effort, if she does not hone her acting skills, the future road will be difficult to go. I have to say that Nakai Takaichi will indeed watch and say that Zhao Wei's acting skills in the film are really embarrassing, especially the sentence she said to Lieutenant Li in the shower, "You are a good person", there is no acting skill at all, which makes people get goosebumps and instantly play.
However, Nakai Takaichi also thinks that Zhao Wei is very smart, and Zhao Wei once told him that "I am now red because I am young, and my appearance is still relatively rare in China, but once I am old, I will not be able to do it", which proves that Zhao Wei is very sober and wise. Sure enough, later Zhao Wei took the initiative to return to school for further study, continued to polish her acting skills, and when she starred in "Painted Skin", her acting skills had a feeling of being reborn.
In "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", I would like to talk about some other actors.
Playing the big villain An Daren is Wang Xuexi, his performance in the film is also eye-catching, a body of muscles makes his play very convincing and very handsome, and his evil spirit and narcissism also make this villain shine.
Another muscle man Wang Deshun plays the "old immortal", but also from this movie author began to know this old man with very good acting skills, there was a feeling at that time, this old man's acting skills are so good, the lines are so good, the body is so strong, how did not hear of it before. Fortunately, he can be seen often in various movies and TV series later.
The performance of several other Lieutenant Li's subordinates, such as "Wu Lao'er", "Bald", "One-Eyed Eagle", "Ma Stick", "Zhao Zimo" and so on, is also very outstanding, it can be said that there is no bad acting skill except Zhao Wei in "Heroes of Heaven and Earth".
Five, the last three minutes ruined the whole film
The online rating of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" is very dismal, only 6 points at the beginning, and slowly rose for more than a decade before it rose to 6.6 points, and even far from the early "Double Flag Town Knifeman".
The author believes that the reason why this movie is not highly rated, there are several points that are debatable.
One point is that Jiang Wen is a little too prominent in the movie, the star is actually a double-edged sword, there is no box office appeal without a star in the movie, and the star is too prominent, which will affect the movie perception. Jiang Wen's plays and performances in "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" are too "Ginger Culture", making the big film color of the whole movie become a little top-heavy.
Another point is Zhao Wei's role and acting skills, as mentioned above, Wen Zhu's role is purely superfluous, there are her five or eight without her forty, coupled with Zhao Wei's acting skills to let people play in minutes, making her and the atmosphere of the whole movie seem out of place, especially her and Jiang Wen's opponent play, every time she sees it, she wants to fast-forward.
The last and most important point is the handling of the ending, when the author saw the fortress attack and defense, I thought that there would be Reinforcements from the Heavenly Army of the Tang Army, just like in "Galaxy Team". And there is also a small cushion in front of the film, Lieutenant Li released the small guard "Earth Tiger" in the cave and gave him money. Therefore, the author speculates that the earth tiger may go to the neighboring Tang Army stronghold for help, and then bring the Tang Army back to kill, although this ending is cheesy, but it is a fairly normal ending.
Unexpectedly, director He Ping chose a "mythical" ending, so that Shakyamuni's relics were manifested, and the dead were resurrected to kill the evil An Daren... The author has no disrespect for the Buddha, but I believe that many viewers will put a big question mark in their heads when they see this, what movie did I watch?
Zhang Yimou's "Hero" clearly explains who the hero is, and He Ping's "Hero of Heaven and Earth" does not clearly explain who the hero is in addition to the suspicion of rubbing heat in the title.
To sum up, "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" can be regarded as a domestic blockbuster with a completion rate of 95%, and an important reason for being forgotten and ignored is probably the last three minutes.