China's earliest domestic western adventure film was called "Mirage".
In 1982, director Zhang Xinyan came to the Shaolin Temple in Songshan in the mainland to shoot "Shaolin Temple", which created a precedent for Hong Kong and the mainland to co-produce ancient costume martial arts films.
Director Xu Xiaoming also launched "Kapok Robes" in 1985, which became popular with Xu Xiangdong, the main force of the Hebei Martial Arts Team, and Yu Rongguang, the son of Peking Opera Wusheng.
As the boom in Shaolin Temple movies faded, Xu Xiaoming saw the potential of adventure films such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", so he took a different path and adapted Ni Kuang's novel "Virtual Image" to make a domestic Western adventure film "Mirage".
The mirage, also known as the mirage, is said to be an apparition formed by the smoke emitted by a sandworm called a mirage in the desert. But in fact, from a scientific point of view, this is the illusion formed by the refraction and total reflection of light.
In the mirage we can usually see the scenery of buildings, trees, city outlines, etc., and sometimes we can see people walking.
Like this movie, we see the beautiful goddess in red, and the story of this film is also started by this goddess in red.
Gazalova, played by the Uighur goddess Pasha Umar, is dignified, confident and full of wild temperament, and her beauty has fascinated many audiences.
The male protagonist, the explorer Tang Tingxuan (played by Yu Rongguang), is also a Yan control, and he is attracted by seeing a shadow in this way, and is determined to go deep into the Xinjiang desert to find the goddess in his heart.
What a romantic story!
But the best thing about this movie is that it does not follow the audience's ideas, takes the most cheesy route, lets Tang Tingxuan get what he wants and the goddess in his heart to experience a good marriage, and then let them "have lovers and eventually become dependents", but the sword takes the side and puts them on the opposite side, so that they just met and turned against each other.
Gazalova is the Silk Road Empress in the desert, in charge of the gang inherited from her father, engaged in murder and arson.
She also fell in love with Tang Tingxuan, who was angry, but her status as empress forced her to put away her tenderness and express her love in a tough way.
But Tang Tingxuan, who was on the side of justice, could not come together with her, so the two began to love and kill each other, fighting each other to the death.
In the end, the Uighur tribes and caravans formed a coalition, and they entered the nest of the bandits in one fell swoop, and the Silk Road Empress Gazalova and the bandits also went to the top of the gun battle together.
Director Xu Xiaoming paid a lot for the film, not only editing the script, but also taking into account the martial arts instruction, action design and stunt performances in the film.
Several of the large-scale gunfights and action scenes in the film are choreographed by Xu Xiaoming, who also does it himself, puts on an asbestos suit, and ignites a full-body ignition performance of a flying car stunt in the film, whose fighting spirit and extraordinary courage are admirable.
"Mirage" won 16.24 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in Hong Kong that year, and it was also a sensation in the mainland, so Yu Rongguang became a household action movie star, and director Xu Xiaoming also embarked on the peak of his career.
Now that the film has been released for 34 years, what is the situation of the actors who participated in the film at that time?
1. Yu Rongguang (played by Tang Tingxuan)
At first, Xu Xiaoming originally wanted Xu Xiangdong to play the role of Tang Tingxuan, but Xu Xiangdong insisted on going to the Beijing Institute of Physical Education for further study, which gave Yu Rongguang the opportunity to turn around and star.
Since then, Yu Rongguang's acting career has also been on the right track, and in the 90s, he worked hard in the Hong Kong film circle and got a lot of opportunities to perform, although the film remuneration was not as high as Jet Li, but the drama road was wider than Jet Li.
After 2000, with the decline of Hong Kong films, Yu Rongguang turned to the mainland television circle. He has starred in a blockbuster anti-war drama like "Wolf Poison Flower" and played Guan Gongchang in Gao Xixi's "Three Kingdoms" in 2010, and he also has a good performance, even if compared with Lu Shuming of CCTV's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Since directing the TV series "A River of Spring Water" in 2002, Yu Rongguang has changed his career to directing.
His "Legend of Dance Music", "The Legend of the Heroes of the Southern Overseas Chinese Mechanics", "Mufu Fengyun", and "The September Storm of the Chinese Criminal Police" have all received good reputations, and he also has roles in these dramas.
Even now as a director, Yu Rongguang has not given up his hobby of acting, and occasionally participates in TV series and portrays different roles.
Yu Rongguang is also a very active person, and he can often see photos posted by him and likes on Weibo sent by others. However, the recent Jin Yong drama "Tianlong Babu" directed by him is a bit less optimistic, and the broadcast time has not yet been determined.
2. Xu Xiaoming (played by Mao Dewei)
Director Xu Xiaoming also played a role in the film, playing Tang Tingxuan's good friend and follower Mao Dewei, not only contributing to the play, but also starring in the flying car stunts.
Xu Xiaoming is an all-rounder with the same name as Chen Xunqi, he learned to sing at the age of 5, learned martial arts at the age of 9, and wrote, directed, acted, sang, martial arts and stunts in the film and television circle.
In fact, before "Mirage", we mainland audiences had already seen his word-of-mouth TV series "Grace of the Earth", "Huo Yuanjia the Great Hero", "Chen Zhen", "Huo Dongge" and "Journey to the Tiger Mountain Again". These were the most positive dramas imported from Hong Kong at that time, leaving a deep impression on the post-70s and post-80s audiences.
As a Hong Konger, Xu Xiaoming himself is very patriotic, and even in the most difficult times he firmly stated that he was a Chinese, often singing "The Great Wall Never Falls" in different venues.
During the 2008 Olympic Games, he also found two good partners Xu Xiangdong and Yu Rongguang to create the movie "Winning the Bid", but that film was eventually destroyed by Zhang Weijian.
Today, Xu Xiaoming is the ceo of Hong Kong's SunShine Film Company, and his last work was the 2013 TV series "The Legend of Kublai Khan", but the reputation is only average.
Xu Xiaoming also like Yu Rongguang often brush Weibo, send some selfies and videos, and in the future, he will also launch a costume drama "Daming Guozijian", which is worth looking forward to.
3. Fan Dongyu —— (Played by Xiao Fan)
Fan Dongyu, a graduate of the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy, debuted in 1985 in the action film "Shaolin Layman's Disciple", playing Cheng Yipeng, a young master of the Cheng family who was obsessed with martial arts. In this film, he played a supporting role xiao Fan, and there were also many action scenes, although there were not many scenes, but also left an impression on the audience.
After this film, Fan Dongyu starred in the action film "Dragon Stunt Team" with the story of stunt performers as the main line, and then cooperated with Yu Rongguang again in "Ruan's Three Xiongs". But after the Republic of China action film "Killer Love", Fan Dongyu faded out of the film circle for 10 years.
Returning to the film and television circle in 2003, Fan Dongyu became the director of the TV series "Sword Out of Jiangnan".
The most acclaimed work he directed in recent years was the 2007 film "Wen Liang Zhu", but he retired after the release of the film "June Flying Snow" in 2018.
4. Cao Rong—— (Played by: Villain Leader)
Xu Xiaoming's two apprentices, Cao Rong and Lin Dian, both played soy sauce in the movie, playing the two leaders of the gang and being the villains in the film.
Cao Rong should not be unfamiliar to everyone, his classic lines are too many, including: "My combat effectiveness is only 6000", "You abolish my martial arts", "I haven't shot yet, you have fallen".
The first role played by Cao Rong is Toshio Akino in the TV series "Huo Dongge", but everyone is most familiar with the yuanyin monk who "has only 6,000 combat strength" in "The Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slayer".
In fact, his previous main work was behind the scenes, acting as an action director and director in film and television works.
In 1999, Cao Rong was selected by Yang Jie to serve as the action director of the "Journey to the West Sequel", and played Prince Mo Ang in the play.
Then Shaanxi Tv filmed "Journey to the West Sequel", because the six-year-old child did not want to star, the crew selected him to play Sun Wukong. It is said that because he had a neck injury at the time, in the play he created a Sun Wukong who did not turn his head.
The biggest feature of "Journey to the West" is that every action of the ghost animal martial arts in the play has to be played back three times, and Cao Rong is still an Internet celebrity because of this drama.
He is also very active and often interacts with netizens online.
Last year, he was idle, re-edited "Journey to the West", removed the ghost animal martial arts that was played back and forth three times, and made the martial arts drama smooth. However, because he did not have the copyright, he could only divide the edited drama into small videos of 5 minutes each, which made netizens extremely mad.
5. LinDian (as the leader of the villain)
At the age of 9, Lin Di'an studied Kung Fu with Xu Xiaoming, including Northern Shaolin Mantis Boxing, Tai Chi and Karate.
At the age of 17, Lin Dian began to learn to shoot with Xu Xiaoming, from photography, props, and stand-ins to producers and assistant directors.
In the 1990s, he followed Cheng Xiaodong, and he served as a martial arts instructor for "Three Heroes of the East", "The Legend of Modern Heroes" and "The Flying Dragon of the Demon Domain".
After 1998's "Reign of the World", he got the opportunity to go abroad, participating in Hong Jinbao's TV series "Crossing the River Dragon", as well as the production of Hollywood blockbusters such as "The Matrix" series, "Deadly Romeo", "Spider-Man 2", and also participated in the filming of the Korean movie "Daisy".
And this year he will launch the TV series "Black Gold Storm", starring Lin Feng, Zhou Xiuna, Huang Haoran, etc., which deserves the attention of netizens.
6. Pasha Umar (as Gazalova)
Pasha Umar is a Uighur dancer who was chosen by Xu Xiaoming to be the heroine for her outstanding performance in the song and dance film Tianshan Song.
Pasha Umar is born with good acting skills and a stubborn personality, which is very consistent with the image of the Silk Road Empress Gazalova in the film, and also brings the impression of a tough woman to the audience.
But Pasha Umar didn't like to develop in the film and television industry, and after starring in the films "Cheetah Strike" and "International Rescue", she faded out of the film circle.
In 1993, Pasha Umar settled in Hong Kong, working as a part-time lecturer in the dance department of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and living an ordinary life.
Pasha Umar found that there are no Uighur restaurants in Hong Kong, and it is difficult for Xinjiang people in Hong Kong to eat the food of their hometown. So she decided to bring food to Hong Kong, where she opened a restaurant called "PASHA", which specializes in Xinjiang cuisine.
As the boss, Pasha Umar, although he is no longer young, still maintains a young mentality. Whenever there was a whim, she would always dance in her restaurant, which also led to the restaurant's business.
Pasha Umar did not choose to stay in the film and television circle like Yu Rongguang, but her beautiful figure will always remain in this movie.
"Mirage" has not yet launched a Blu-ray, nor a clearer version, which is particularly unfortunate. Circulating on the Internet are all the versions of the discs that year, including the Japanese version named "Tianshan Cloister" with hard subtitles in Japanese.
Perhaps the copyrights to "Kapok Robes" and "Mirage" are still in Xu Xiaoming's hands.
Pigo hopes that these two films can be restored and remade, so that more young people can appreciate the commercial and artistic heights that our domestic action films have reached.
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