In the 1980s, disco music was all the rage Chinese mainland.
In many cities at that time, similar scenes could be seen:
The young men wore toad mirrors, flared pants, and carried Sanyo's brick single-card tape recorder.
Maximize the sound while twisting and humming along with the deafening melody and rhythm.
If you are a friend who has experienced that era, you will definitely remember a disco song of that time:
People from their teens to their 50s would hum a few words:
Ali, Ali Baba, Alibaba is a happy youth!
The song was first composed by The German composer Karl-Heinz Merkel in the late 1970s, originally titled "1001 Nights", which was very popular once it was released, and was covered by Hong Kong singer Lin Zixiang as a Cantonese version of "Ali Baba" in the 1980s, but the cover influence of this version is far less influential than Lin Zixiang's previous cover of "Genghis Khan".
At the same time, the famous Taiwanese musician Peter Chen launched the Chinese version, and more and more singers began to cover the song, so that more than 30 years ago, the song could be heard everywhere in the streets and alleys of China.
It is said that even Ma Yun gave his startup the same name because he loved this song when he was young, and many years later, the company he founded has become a website that has influenced many Chinese and changed many Chinese lifestyle habits. Later, at the 15th anniversary celebration of Ali in 2014, the original songwriter and Peter Chen were specially found to re-arrange and sing the song, which shows Jack Ma's feelings for this golden song.
For young audiences, even if they have not heard the song, most of them can see from the lyrics that the song is adapted from a fable in the famous "One Thousand and One Nights" (also known as "Heavenly Nights"), "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", which has been recited as a classic fairy tale in ancient and modern China and abroad.
In the European and American film circles, there have been many versions of film and television animation works, the most influential of which is "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" filmed by the French film master Jacques Baker in 1954, a classic opening magic spell "sesame door opening" has been passed down to the present.
However, the "New Alibaba" to be recommended today is a magic special fantasy comedy produced by Taiwan Province of China.
The film was shot in 1987, and the writers mixed the stories of Ali Baba with Aladdin.
It is worth mentioning that the main actor of the film is Qi Qin, the godfather of the Taiwanese pop music scene!
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let us relive this classic in childhood memories together-
The New Alibaba
Also known as: Alibaba of the Legend of the New Celestial Night
The story takes place in the remote desert of the Middle East.
According to legend, deep in the desert there is a sacred mountain that hides the mysterious treasure of King Solomon.
And this treasure has boundless mana, and whoever gets it can fulfill any wish.
The ambitious evil magician, Adusa, searched the desert for ten years and finally found the Holy Mountain.
After entering the cave, a lamp is placed in the center of the cave.
Seeing that the treasure was close at hand, Yadusha couldn't help but sigh that years of hard work had finally paid off.
I was about to go forward to take away the divine lamp, but unexpectedly, a blue elf actually ran out of the lamp, which was the guardian spirit of the divine lamp.
Although Adosha was proficient in magic, he was a mortal after all, and he could not get the lamp, but was teased by the elves of the guardian spirit lamp.
Helpless, Adusha returned home in sorrow and learned from his own eight-clawed witch that the lamp had a spell.
It turned out that King Solomon had forbidden the lamp of God during his lifetime, and only those who were born on the same day as himself on the same day of the same month,
It is only allowed to enter the cave to get the lamp, and the qualified person is in a village near the desert.
He is a young woodcutter named Ali Baba (Qi Qin), an optimistic and kind upright young man.
On this day, Ali Baba rode a donkey to chop wood while singing a classic children's song:
I have a little donkey that I never ride, and one day I rode to the market on a whim.
At this moment, nearby slave traders are beating up a young child, An'an.
An An did not want to be trafficked, so he fled privately, only to be caught up by the slave traders and beaten to no end.
As the protagonist, Alibaba's road is uneven, of course, he has to pay for help.
But he was also a happy poor egg, he couldn't come up with any money at all, so he could only take An An around and fled around and came to the market.
In order to avoid being pursued, Alibaba, with his astute skills and an An's cooperation, the two of them made a big fuss together and successfully got rid of the slave traders.
While talking, Alibaba's brother Alimama (Zeng Zhiwei) returns home injured.
It turned out that the slave trader could not find Ali Baba, so he found his brother at the stall and beat him up.
Watching his brother being dragged down so badly by himself, Alibaba couldn't help but daydream:
If you have money, you don't have to be so miserable!
On this day, Alibaba used to go to the nearby mountains to collect firewood, only to bump into the nearby bandit gang Desert Forty Eagles.
Ali Baba quickly hid aside, only to see forty thieves come to the door of a temple in the mountains.
I saw the robber's big boss, standing at the door of the temple, came to an awkward dance, and then read a mantra:
Sesame open the door!
The gate of the temple opened automatically, and the robbers put the looted treasure into the temple and then left on horseback.
After the robbers left, Alibaba was curious.
So he also did an awkward dance at the door of the temple and read out the opening tips.
Unexpectedly, the temple was indeed opened, and inside it was full of gold and silver treasures, and it turned out that this was the treasure house of the forty thieves.
The good-natured Ali Baba was not at all moved by the treasure in front of him,
However, thinking that he needed money to redeem his friend An An, he finally decided to take two bags of gold coins.
Ali Baba, who returned home, not only distributed the gold coins to the poor villagers,
He also went to the slave market to redeem An An, and used the extra money to redeem a beautiful girl, Diane Fen (Yang Lin).
Alibaba originally wanted to let Dian fen go home, but in order to repay the favor, she expressed her willingness to take the initiative to stay with Alibaba.
After returning home, the elder brother Alimama thought that his younger brother had made a fortune, so he repeatedly asked Alibaba where the money came from.
The younger brother was simple, so he told his brother that all the gold and silver jewelry came from the treasure house of the forty thieves.
Unexpectedly, the brother was greedy and went to the treasure house the next day.
After opening the treasure chest according to his brother's method, Alimama was mesmerized by the mountain of treasures in front of him.
As a result, he was trapped in the cave because he forgot the opening spell and could not get out.
Just when he was anxious, someone outside the door reminded him:
It's sesame seeds that open the door!
Only then did Alimama open the door of the temple, and it turned out that there were forty thieves standing outside the door.
Later, Under the pressure of the forty thieves, Alimama confessed that someone had stolen some treasure before him.
The forty thieves then took the initiative to let Alimama go home, but unbeknownst to him, the robbers deliberately let him go, in order to send someone to follow him and find the last person who stole the gold coin.
When Alimama returned home, Diane fen first noticed that something was wrong and found that the door had been marked by robbers.
So Diane Fen immediately came up with a plan,
Let An An put similar marks on the doors of all the villagers in the vicinity to mislead the forty thieves and delay time.
Then, in order to repay the favor, Diane Fen took the initiative to throw herself into the net and cover alibaba's escape.
But the kind-hearted Ali Baba did not want to drag others down, and as a result, he went back and forth, and was eventually caught by the forty thieves.
It was at this time that Adosha, who had been searching for Alibaba in the desert, appeared.
He took the initiative to rescue him from danger and used this as a threat to obey his orders to take the lamp.
Under the leadership of Yadusha, Ali Baba walked in the desert for a long time and finally came to the holy mountain.
At Adusha's command, he entered the cave and managed to get the lamp.
Unexpectedly, after obtaining the divine lamp, the ill-intentioned Yadusha crossed the river and demolished the bridge and killed Ali Baba.
During the dispute, Ali Baba kicked the lamp into the cave again.
Aware of the unfavorable situation, Alibaba followed the divine lamp that had fallen into the cave and fled into the cave to avoid pursuit.
Because there was a forbidden spell in the cave, Yadusha could not enter, so he could only seal the entrance to the cave and threaten Alibaba to hand over the lamp.
I don't know how long I was locked up, but the hungry Ali Baba mistakenly thought of the lamp that fell on the ground as a chicken leg.
I wiped it casually, and as a result, an elf actually flew out of the lamp, named Ding-Dong.
Although this elf has powerful powers, because he has been imprisoned for five hundred years, his personality has become capricious.
Knowing that it was Alibaba in front of him who released himself, not only did he not thank the other party, but he wanted to kill him.
Fortunately, Ali Baba was smart enough to see the weakness of the Lamp Elf's iq that was not too high.
So he deliberately said:
How could you be so tall that you could burrow into such a small lamp, I don't believe it, unless you do it for me.
The spirit of the divine lamp had developed limbs and had a simple mind, and in order to prove his ability, he burrowed back into the divine lamp, and the result could not come out again.
Alibaba took the opportunity to make an oath with the Lamp Spirit, and finally succeeded in subduing the Elf.
At this time, in order to rescue his brother and Diane fen, who were captured by the forty thieves, Ali Baba asked the elves to help him.
Therefore, the elf took out a magic carpet that could fly in the sky and the divine fury of a hundred hairs, and handed it to Alibaba.
Relying on the opening and hanging of the artifact, Ali Baba returned to the village, successfully defeated the forty thieves, and rescued his family.
After this ordeal, Alibaba was also touched by Diane Fen's behavior of risking her life to protect herself, and the two became fond of each other.
In order to propose marriage, Ali Baba made a wish to the divine lamp and conjured up a luxurious palace.
And all this was seen by the magician Adusa, who was hiding nearby.
When he learned that Ali Baba had taken the Lamp, he was furious and decided to join forces with the Forty Thieves to regain it.
Later, Adosha became an oil lamp merchant and used the excuse of exchanging new lamps for old ones to swindle the lamp from Diane Fen.
Then he summoned the lamp elf and, under his divine power, abducted Dianeffin.
On the other hand, the forty thieves went into the village and captured Ali Baba alive, intending to split his five horses into corpses.
At the moment of crisis, the elder brother Alimama rushed out with the villagers to resist the gang of robbers who had been burning and looting.
After a scuffle, the crowd drove away the forty thieves, while Ali Baba rode on a magic carpet to save Diane Fen.
At this time, in Adusa's castle, Adusa forced Dianeffen to marry him
But Diane Fenning died, and Adusha, annoyed and ashamed, cast a spell to turn Diane Fen into a puppy.
When Ali Baba arrived at the castle, he was attacked by the octopus witch under Adusha, who was disguised as Diane Fen.
Thanks to the aura of the protagonist, he escaped the disaster.
After that, Adosha appears and wants to perform magical hypnosis to hypnotize Ali Baba.
However, Ali Baba relied on the crossbow to break the magic of Adusa, and the two immediately began a chase battle into the heavens and the earth.
Eventually, Ali Baba, riding the magic carpet, caught up with Yadusa and shot yadusa with an arrow from the crossbow.
And Diane Fen has finally changed back into a person and lives happily with Alibaba.
This concludes the story.
The film was produced by Taiwanese Scholar Film Company and released in 1988.
The director of the film, Chen Junliang, was a well-known director in Taiwan's film and television circles, and also a famous director of fantasy films at that time, who was best at shooting mythological feature films. In the 1990s, he co-directed "Bao Qingtian" swept the three sides of the Taiwan Straits, and for younger audiences, it may be more familiar with his fantasy drama "Pawnshop No. 8".
However, what really catches the eye is the film's starring cast.
Playing the male protagonist Ali Baba is Qi Qin, a singer-turned-singer. In 1985, after Qi Qin retired, he released the album "Wolf's Album", which immediately blew a whirlwind in the Taiwanese music scene, and was immediately praised by the agency. In order to expand his popularity, Qi Qin began to test the waters of the film circle, starring in his debut film "Yerba Bu Lian Tian", and thus met the heroine Wang Zuxian.
"New Ali Baba" was filmed in 1987, which was also the peak of Qi Qin's singing career. The second album was two consecutive golden songs "About Winter" and "The Outside World", so this "New Ali Baba" attracted much attention when it was released, but unfortunately compared to the smooth sailing of the singing career, Qi Qin's film did not cause a great response.
At that time, the little brother was still very young, completely as an idol newcomer held by the agency, and of course, there were not too many highlights in his acting skills.
The actor who plays the heroine in the film is also a Taiwanese artist Yang Lin, who is a singer.
It is worth mentioning that she also sang the theme song of the film "The Story of Aladdin" with Qi Qin.
In addition, in terms of the supporting roles of the film, Hong Kong laugher Tsang Chi-wai plays the brother of the protagonist Alibaba, who is the comedy director of the film, and he also serves as the planner of the film. The magician Yadusha who plays the main villain of the film is Taiwanese action actor Huang Zhongyu, who is also the actor of the turtle immortal in the Taiwanese version of "New Dragon Ball".
In the 1970s and 1980s, Taiwan Province was influenced by Japanese close-up films, and there was a wave of special-time fantasy films, and its imagination was wild and breathtaking, and this film was born in this period, along with "Momotaro" based on Japanese folklore, "Child King" based on zombie themes, and "New Dragon Ball" based on Japanese cartoons.
This "New Alibaba", like many Taiwanese special films at the time, is mainly for the youth market, focusing on fantasy comedy and family fun genre style, the film retains the classic bridge section in the original version, and adds the story of "Aladdin", the plot is strange and full of exoticism.
In order to shoot, the crew went to Jordan in the Middle East to shoot, and found local people to make cameos, so that the film presented a distinct, Arab folk customs. But the movie is essentially a relatively Hong Kong-style nonsense farce, the plot is low and young, and many laughs are very exaggerated, such as: Ali's big brother is called Ali Ma, Grandma is called Ali Grandma, and even the chickens raised at home are called Ali chickens.
The biggest question after watching this film:
I don't know what Alibaba's father and mother should be called, after all, the names are occupied by these two brothers!