Nowadays, no one will question the status of Korean films in the world film industry.
In the past two decades, Korean cinema has risen rapidly in the international film world with an unexpected posture. A group of directors have emerged in batches with distinct personal styles and ethnic genre narratives, which are unique in the whole of East Asia, and have almost made filmmakers in other countries almost eye-catching.
Whether it is a commercial genre or an artistic exploration, Korean cinema has spawned many masterpieces and masters. Especially at this year's 92nd Academy Awards, "Parasite" directed by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho became a big winner, winning four major awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay.
The film thus became the first non-English-language dialogue film to win best picture, the first best film with asian actors, and the first time a South Korean director won best picture. Many commentators believe that the Oscar jury did not award the award to director Bong Joon-ho alone, but to Korean filmmakers for their contributions and innovations in the world film world.
Compared with the popular world of South Korean films, neighboring North Korea is low-key and mysterious in the development of the film industry.
The reason for this is that North Korea was once an important film force in the Asian film industry, especially in the mid-to-late 1950s to the mid-to-late 1980s, and it was the boom in North Korean film creation, and a large number of films of various genres emerged.
"Flower Girl"
During this period, the Korean film industry was unprecedentedly prosperous, war films, comedies, historical films and even realistic films blossomed, and even big figures personally went to the stage to direct a film "Flower Girl" directed by a nominal director, and published a related film theory academic work "Film Art Theory", which shows the influence of the North Korean film industry.
Many elderly friends will have the impression that China has always been an important market for North Korean films, and since the 1950s, North Korean films have been translated and released in Chinese mainland, and reached their peak in the 1960s and 1970s. According to statistics, from the introduction of the first North Korean film in 1952 until 1992, a total of 97 North Korean films were introduced in The country.
Among them, there are many well-known classics, such as "The Story of a Nurse", "The Women of Nanjiang Village", "Flower Girl", "Invisible Front", etc., which have been popular after being introduced into China. Since the 1980s, the North Korean film industry has also begun to test the waters to shoot genre films with strong commercial attributes, and many well-known films have been born.
Famous North Korean monster film "Pyongyang Monster"
For example, "Pyongyang Monsters" produced in 1985 is the most successful close-up monster film in the history of North Korean cinema, and the filming process behind the scenes of the film is even more legendary.
In this issue of "Imported Films Forgotten by the Times", it is recommended that a Korean costume martial arts film was filmed 34 years ago.
The film was once introduced to China in the late 1980s, and after its release, it was once popular in the north and south of the river, and its influence even surpassed that of the Hong Kong-made martial arts films of the same period, and it has been talked about by countless post-70s audiences.
"The Young Man of the Divine Flute, Hong Ji Tong"
Hong Kil Dong
The film was shot in 1986 and was introduced to China in 1988 for distribution.
Changchun Film Translation Studio is responsible for the translation and dubbing work, and now what can be seen is basically Chinese translation and production.
The story is adapted from the Korean classical literary masterpiece "The Biography of HongJi Tong", which is the first korean literati to independently create a native language novel, which has an extremely important position and influence in the history of Korean literature. The novel is a chivalrous novel that tells the legendary life experience of Hong Ji-tong, a rogue in Korean folklore.
Contemporary scholars generally believe that the book was influenced by China's classical masterpiece "Water Margin", and the protagonist Hong Jitong has thus become a classic IP in the history of Korean and Korean cinema.
In addition to the North Korean filming of "The Young Man of the Divine Flute Hong Ji Tong", South Korea has also launched a number of versions of film and television dramas and anime, the more famous ones are the costume light comedy "Fast Knife Hong Ji Tong" and the modern version of the movie "Thief Also Has a Way".
The North Korean version of "The Young Man of the Divine Flute" basically follows the setting of the original work, and the style of the film is obviously influenced by the Hong Kong martial arts films of the same period, and the production alone can be said to be no less than the domestic martial arts films of the 1980s.
So that when the film was introduced into the domestic release, the promotional words were all benchmarked against "Shaolin Temple":
Why open the Shaolin Temple, please see the fast knife Hong Ji Tong!
The film opens with a standard martial arts film style, where a group of men in black are plotting to act in the dark.
At this moment, there was a sudden sound of a flute nearby, and the man in black who was the leader of the group noticed that things were different and immediately signaled to stop.
Following the direction of the flute, the man in black looked at the roof of a large mansion and saw the back of a piper.
The man put away his flute, turned to look at the man in black, and announced the name:
Flute Boy Hong Ji Tong!
The title appears and the story officially begins.
The male protagonist, Hong Jitong, is the child of Uncle Hong Fan, an important minister of the imperial court, and the maid of the family.
Therefore, Ji Tong has not been valued since he was a child, and he can neither call the eldest son Ren Heng an older brother, nor can he call the old man his father.
Therefore, although Hong Jitong was early and wise at an early age and showed great intelligence, he has always been treated unfairly.
At this time, bandits were rampant in northern Korea, and Uncle Hong Fan was sent to suppress bandits in Jingbian because of the defeat of the imperial court party.
Before leaving, Uncle Hong Fan was worried that Ji Tong's mother and son would be bullied by Mrs. Zhengfang after he left, so he arranged for the mother and son to live elsewhere.
Unexpectedly, the mother and son encountered a gang of robbers on the road. The other party was actually instructed to take the life of Ji Tong's mother and son.
The young Hong Jitong desperately protected his mother, and the bandit leader drew a knife and slashed at Ji Tong.
At a critical moment, an old man with crane hair and a childlike face descended from the sky, performed a highly skilled martial art, and snatched the blade from the bandit's hand with his bare hands.
The robbers saw that the old man was strong in martial arts, so they planned to rush to win more.
As a result, the old man performed a magical point kung fu, and only one back and forth subdued all the robbers.
Looking at the robber who had been lit up and stood still, the young Ji Tong resolutely knelt down and worshiped the white-haired old man as his teacher.
From then on, under the strict teaching of the old man, Ji Tong began to practice Taoism hard and gave Ji Tong a golden flute.
Fast forward a few years, Hong Jitong has grown into a handsome teenager with high martial arts and great heroism.
He often played wild game in the mountains, going to the small hotel at the foot of the mountain to exchange some food and drinks that the master liked.
Once, after going down the mountain, Hong Jitong accidentally performed a kung fu while eating at the inn.
Throwing out a chopstick, he shot a poisonous snake coiled in a tree.
Hong Jitong's kung fu attracted the attention of another group of people in the tavern, and the leader deliberately tried to test Hong Jitong's martial arts.
Seeing that Hong Jitong was extraordinary, the leader immediately proposed to solicit him and wanted him to join the company.
As a result, Hong Jitong noticed the upper bite mark on the other party's palm, and immediately remembered——
The gang in front of them was the robber who wanted to kill his mother.
So the two sides fought without a word, and in the end, the leader of the robbers was killed by Hong Jitong, and the other robbers scattered and fled.
After the robber fled in a hurry, he left a sack in the tavern.
Hong Jitong unwrapped the sack, and inside was a beautiful girl who had been kidnapped, who was the latest "booty" of the robbers.
Seeing that the girl was in a coma, Ji Tong took her to the mountain, and under the care of her mother, the girl woke up.
After asking Ming about his origins, Fang learned that the eldest lady of the Girl Seoul Lin family was named Lotus.
In the days when Lotus was recuperating on the mountain, she gradually had a secret affection for Hong Jitong, who saved her life.
The two are a young hero, a beautiful and gentle woman, and they are in love with each other, and they have already secretly promised their hearts.
The beauty is by the side, so that Hong Jitong gradually indulges in love, and as a result, the martial arts are abandoned, and they are discovered by the strict master.
The master did not want Hong Jitong to waste martial arts, and ordered him to send the lotus back to Seoul, and although Ji Tong did not give up, he could only endure the pain of separation.
Lotus returned to the Lin Mansion, hoping to get her father to visit Uncle Fan Hong to discuss their affairs.
Uncle Hong Fan, since he was separated from Ji Tong's mother and son, mistakenly thought that they were no longer alive.
Now that he learned that the mother and son were alive, he hurriedly asked his eldest son Renheng to go to the mountains to find Ji Tong's mother and son and take the two home to live.
At the same time, Ji Tong's martial arts skills were complete, and the master let him go down the mountain and told him:
Teaching him martial arts and Taoist techniques himself is to let him defend his family and defend the country in times of national crisis and save the people from water and fire.
Therefore, Ji Tong took his mother with him and followed his brother Ren Heng back to Hong Province in Seoul, and his father Hong Fan Uncle was very happy about this.
However, Lady Hong, as the main room, regarded Ji Tong's mother and son as a thorn in her eye, and the status of mother and son did not change at all.
What is even more tragic is that Lotus's father, Lord Lin, is a courtier and learns that Hong Jitong was only born of a maid.
So he immediately proposed to repent of Ji Tong's marriage with Lotus, which made Hong Ji Tong, who had lived in an inferior identity since childhood, suffer a blow.
One night, a killer actually broke into Hong Mansion and wanted to assassinate Hong Jitong.
Thanks to Hong Jitong's martial arts, he finally subdued the killer, who was actually the younger brother of the leader of the gang of robbers.
The other party is both for revenge and hired to carry out assassinations, and the mastermind behind it is Lady Hong.
It turned out that there were so many conspiracies and vendettas in his own home, and this series of blows made Hong Jitong disheartened.
So he entrusted his mother to the care of his brother, who had a generous personality, and then left hongfu alone.
After saying goodbye to his sweetheart Lotus, Ji Tong disappeared into the night and embarked on the road of walking the rivers and lakes.
Coming to a village, Hong Jitong saw that some officers and soldiers had plundered the local people, so he angrily intervened and taught the other side a lesson.
Hong Jitong did not want to cause more trouble, and after teaching the two officers and men a lesson, he let them go.
Unexpectedly, the other party actually came to the village with a large group of people and horses, wanting to arrest Hong Jitong and retaliate against the villagers.
Hong Jitong did not want to harm the villagers, so he decided to eradicate the troubles and teased the officers and soldiers.
When the government could not catch Hong Jitong, it arrested the innocent local people and tortured them, and Hong Jitong made a big fuss in the official government.
He eliminated the group of evil officers and soldiers, and cut off one of the officers' arms as a lesson to make them feel good.
After this incident, Hong Jitong won the support of the people and further understood the suffering of the people.
At this time, the imperial court was faint, and all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, coupled with the corruption and perversion of the law by officials, led to the people's lack of livelihood.
Therefore, Hong Jitong acted heroically and righteously all the way, teaching corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and asking them to open warehouses to release grain and provide relief to the victims of the disaster.
When encountering mountain thieves and bandits who burned and looted, Hong Jitong saw the righteous and courageous deeds and punished the evil and eliminated the adultery.
Even the younger brother of the bandit leader who once wanted to kill Hong Jitong was influenced by his chivalrous righteousness and abandoned evil and good.
Since then, the legend of a highly skilled martial artist "Divine Flute Young Hero" has been spread, and Hong Jitong's chivalrous name has spread.
Soon after, an evil force appeared on the rivers and lakes, calling itself the "Dark Shadow Army".
They are always dressed in black and masked, using the night to break into people's houses, and then rely on smoke to commit crimes, looting money and good family girls.
The officers and soldiers encircled and suppressed several times without success, but instead the Shadow Gang broke into the palace and stole the emperor's jade seal.
Even the residence of The Imperial Court's regent, Lord Lin, was not spared, and the Lin Family's Eldest Lady Lotus was also abducted by the Shadow Legion.
Hong Jitong, who learned of this, was determined to ask for the people's life, and he mobilized peasant armies everywhere to find the dens of the Shadow Legion.
Eventually, the two bandits of the Shadow Legion followed them to the seashore, but in the woods, the robbers suddenly disappeared.
After a search, the crowd became suspicious of the nearby tavern.
Unexpectedly, the old woman who ran the tavern was disguised as a robber.
Following the bandit's trail, the crowd finally found the Shadow Legion's underground lair.
Unexpectedly, this gang is good at ninjutsu, and can easily be evacuated and watered,
In the end, under the leadership of Hong Jitong, the peasant army and officers and soldiers joined forces to eliminate all the members of the Shadow Army.
Hong Jitong also fought the final battle with the leader of the Shadow Army, and finally killed him.
After this fierce battle, Lotus was rescued, and Hong Jitong was also praised by the imperial court for his heroic and righteous actions
But even if he becomes a great hero who benefits all the people, Hong Jitong still cannot change the fact that he comes from a humble background.
His affair with Lotus was doomed to bear fruit, so Hong Jitong had to leave by boat with his mother and Lotus.
He is looking for a paradise without class divisions, rich and poor, and full of warmth, and the story of the film ends here.
As a martial arts film that was filmed more than thirty years ago, this "Divine Flute Young Hero Hong Jitong" is actually quite standard.
The production team of the film obviously refers to the style of Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films, and although the overall story structure is more cheesy, it also covers the common elements of martial arts films, such as young heroes, learning from teachers, conspiracies and revenges, twisting love, adventure stories of running into the rivers and lakes, etc. These standard elements of traditional martial arts films have been inherited and played in this film.
Not only that, in terms of martial arts design, the film uses the technique of hanging Weiya, the protagonist's various flying places, the action design is also quite wonderful, in addition, there are ninjutsu in the earth and dark weapons and other martial arts scenes.
The overall performance is decent, at least the standard of Shaw's martial arts films in the 1970s, and not much less than the domestic martial arts films filmed in the mainland in the 1980s. In particular, the method of using Hong Jitong to practice light exercises has been imitated by many domestic young audiences, learning to jump over small saplings with the protagonist's legs tied to sandbags.
In addition, the film was shot in full location, the photography and picture are quite elaborate, and many scenes have a classical charm. The picture of Hong Jitong and the lotus flower making love in the mountains, the distant mountains are hidden in the smog sky, the male and female protagonists stand alone on the cliff, and the close-up scene is the red maple of the cang pine, and the photographic composition has a sense of landscape painting. Coupled with the excellent soundtrack, it is very compatible with the atmosphere of the film.
Although Li Yinghao, who plays the male protagonist, has little information, he looks quite handsome and heroic, which at first glance looks very similar to Er Dongsheng in the era of Shaw's martial arts films, and has been talked about by many audiences so far. Some netizens have commented: a collection of people like Zheng Shaoqiu, Huang Rihua, and Wu Yanzu.
Of course, as a North Korean film, although the film is a martial arts film, it is essentially a propaganda film that criticizes feudal etiquette and praises class struggle. The most obvious plot is reflected in the end of the film, Hong Jitong becomes a hero, but the emperor did not give marriage, in the hierarchical feudal society, Hong Jitong's love is destined to be a tragedy.
As a result, Hong Jitong could only flee the feudal land with his beloved girl and flee to an ideal country full of hope and happiness without class oppression. Where is this ideal state? Although the director did not say it explicitly, it was actually self-explanatory.
From today's point of view, the film is relatively simple, but in that year, it was popular among the Chinese people. In the boom of mainland martial arts films that flooded after "Shaolin Temple", this heroic growth story that took place in North Korea in the 17th century brought a different and fresh feeling to the audience.
Not only that, but the film was particularly successful in places such as Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, even surpassing many Hong Kong and mainland Chinese films starring martial arts stars, and movie tickets had to be booked within 3 days to buy. Even Japan, which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, has purchased "The Young Man of the Divine Flute" and released the videotape, which is distributed by The Japanese Shochiku Co., Ltd., which shows the unprecedented influence of the film.