In the early 1990s, the mansion of Hong Kong's mega-rich Zhao Shizeng, "Zhao Yuan" at 200 Dolly Road, Moxingling, was loaned by him to shoot two films.
One of them is Jackie Chan's "Police Story III Super Cop", and the other is Stephen Chow's "Love Saint".
The spaciousness of this mansion is believed to be dazzling, whether it is the movie of that year, or the 2010 Zhao Shi and nineteen Miss China swimsuit beauties who had lunch here.
Zhao Shi was the son of Zhao Congyan, one of the king ships in Hong Kong, and the chairman and founder of Hong Kong Zhuoneng Group. Because of its popularity, it has been dubbed "Hong Kong's first player" by the media.
He had never been married in his life, and had threatened to have been in more than five figures with women he had been with, and had been screened, otherwise the numbers would have been even more staggering.
Therefore, this film filmed by "Zhao Yuan" and finally named "Love Saint" was hyped by the media at that time.
However, even if the gimmick is complete, even if the two full-weight film companies "New Art City Pictures" and "Universal Pictures" jointly produced, "Love Saint" is still far from meeting the box office expectations of Stephen Chow's films.
It can be said that this movie is the last time before Stephen Chow completely canonized the gods, and it is questioned that the box office is not unstable enough.
The director of the film, Li Lizhi, also sat on the cold bench for a while after he had just transformed from television to film.
"Li Li held you to shoot the wrong film!" The name of the play is "Love Saint", the audience thought that watching "Hardcover Chasing Girls", entering the room to know that the single stick film changed, the scene will laugh, but to the corridor will be scolded! ”
Xiang Huasheng, the boss of Yongsheng, who has always had a unique vision, once commented on this movie.
In his view, although "Love Saint" can make the audience laugh, there will still be too many people who do not buy it because of "hanging sheep's head and selling dog meat".
Huang Yishan, who made a cameo appearance in "Love Saint" that year, believes that the problem with the film is the loss of the CP pair of Uncle Da and Xingye.
In a video, he not only gossiped that the car that Chow Xingchi "touched porcelain" in "Love Saint" was his own private car; he also talked about his views on the film's poor box office.
Compared with the effect of Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi's partnership, the replacement of the noon horse is much inferior. As for the reason, li Xiuxian still can't accept that Uncle Da and Xingye will double the salary.
"Before, I originally started a movie called "A Whole Cake" with Zhou Xingchi, saying that Zhou Xingchi was a pastry chef, but then it was filmed for two days and then it failed. Because Lee Soo-hyun and Mai Jia didn't like the story very much, it was canceled. The improvised script became "Love Saint". ”
When Li Lizhi talked about "Love Saint" that year, he once said such a paragraph.
Although this is the first time he has officially named a film director, for whatever reason, "Love Saint" is a film he rarely mentions.
It can only be said from This recollection of Li Lizhi that the hasty change from the planned "A Whole Cake" to "Love Saint" may be the most important reason why the film's box office did not meet expectations.
It grossed nearly 17 million and ranked 17th at the Hong Kong film box office in 1991.
In fact, purely from a movie, the results of "Love Saint" are enough to pass. Moreover, the film was also regarded as a classic by most fans later.
The problem is only that this is a 1991 Stephen Chow movie, and "Love Saint" is more than half the box office of many of his works in the same period, which is the main reason why the film has been criticized for not meeting expectations.
However, time has changed, whether it is the box office failure of that year or the later Hong Kong film classic, compared with the film itself, the past of Chow Sing Chi and "Bo Le" Li Xiuxian and "Royal" Li Li is more mentioned.
"Love Saint" is the end of the reality of Zhou Xingchi's gratitude to Sir Li, and "Love Saint" is also the beginning of the official formation of CP between Xingye and "Vigorous" in the film circle.
"In 1988, there was no drama one night, and Zhou Xingchi went to the Disco ballroom to play and happened to meet Li Xiuxian. Li Xiuxian was a big director in the film industry at that time, and he greeted him politely. ”
I don't know what the reason is, in the reminiscence article of TVB senior producer Xiao Sheng, a story of Zhou Xingchi and Li Xiuxian's acquaintance was revealed.
At that time, Sir Li just thought that this young man was familiar, but he did not have much impression.
However, when he remembered the young man who played with Wan Ziliang in "Journey of Life", Li Xiuxian asked Xingzai if he was interested in trying a new play.
"You director Li asked me to make a movie, and I don't have to pay to go." Of course, Stephen Chow cheerfully agreed, and as soon as he auditioned, it was OK, and this movie was "Thunderbolt Pioneer".
At that time, the film was released in Hong Kong at the end of June, and in early November, Zhou Xingchi stood on the stage of the Golden Horse Awards, and he won the 25th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
On the podium, Xingzai thanked many people, but the first one was Li Xiuxian.
However, because Zhou Xingchi had not yet filmed "Gestapo" and "He Came from the Jianghu" at that time, not many people understood his comedic talent.
Therefore, he signed a contract with Sir Lee, who is good at shooting police films, and Xingzai continued the route of "Thunderbolt Pioneer".
It was not until 1990, after Zhou Xingchi was loaned out, after breaking the box office record in Hong Kong film history with two consecutive "gambling films" "Gambler Saint" and "Gambler", Li Xiuxian arranged for him to shoot "Descendants of the Dragon".
Moreover, "Universal Pictures" is independently produced, and there is only one Stephen Chow comedy directed by Li Xiuxian, that is, "Descendants of the Dragon".
Although the income of more than 23 million yuan in "Descendants of the Dragon" at that time was only moderate at the box office of Stephen Chow's works, it was enough for Li Xiuxian to actually feel the value of Xingzai.
Unfortunately, at this time, Zhou Xingchi and "Universal Pictures" only have one drama contract left, how to make this movie help himself earn enough, Li Xiuxian can not think carefully.
To this end, Li Sir, who is not good at comedy, found "skinhead" Mai Jia to jointly launch "Love Saint", and the result was that the box office of the film disappointed him.
Therefore, for Li Xiuxian, because the "last vote" did not meet expectations, it was not pleasant for Zhou Xingchi to be reasonable, not to mention that he later said that he signed Zhou Xingchi for several years, but did not shoot a few plays.
TVB artist manager Feng Meiji once said: "In the film industry, the initial contract of Xingzai was signed to Li Xiuxian's universal film company, and the price was of course very cheap. ”
Film remuneration is probably the most core problem in the eyes of most people after the discord between Zhou Xingchi and Li Xiuxian.
In fact, as far as the actual value of Zhou Xingchi signed Li Xiuxian, the film remuneration is naturally very low.
The question is only whether he can still get a reasonable salary from Lee Xiu-hyun after the soaring price of "Gamble Saint": 700,000 Hong Kong dollars, or some other figure.
Anyway, later they never got each other's dog blood because of the film pay.
"Thank you so much Lee Soo Hyun for making my first big movie." In 2002, Zhou Xingchi still mentioned Li Sir in his thank you for winning the Academy Award for "Shaolin Football".
However, after "Love Saint", they have never intersected since.
As for Li Xiuxian, when he talks about Zhou Xingchi, he usually questions Xingye's behavior: "He is so afraid of being taken advantage of, so he locks the back door all day long and calculates everything clearly." ”
"Li Lizhi was the director of my first unit drama "Brother's Girlfriend", and after that, many of the dialogues in "Gestapo" and "He Comes from the Jianghu" were conceived by him, so we called those 'nonsense dialogues'."
After the success of "Gestapo" and "He Comes from the Jianghu", Zhou Xingchi said this when talking to the media about the director.
His cooperation with Li Lizhi began with TVB's unit drama "Brother's Girlfriend", when The Star Boy had just got rid of the identity of the dragon set, and "Vigorous" was also from ATV wireless.
"'Brother's Girlfriend' is not a comedy, in fact, only one of Zhou Xingchi's characters has comedy, and as a result, his performance is too eye-catching, so that everyone thinks it is a comedy."
From this recollection of Li Lizhi, it can be seen that their first cooperation with Xingzai has made him feel the comedic talent of this young man.
But they didn't have a chance to work together again anytime soon. It wasn't until Zhou Xingchi was taught by Wan Ziliang in "Journey of Life" and the acting skills of "Fighting Qi Family" seemed to suddenly open up, that "Gestapo" let them meet again.
"After "Fighting Spirits", there were some opportunities, plus my first film "Thunderbolt Pioneer" won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor, TVB began to realize that there was this person, so it gave me the right "Gestapo"."
In 1989, after the decision of wireless producer Liu Jiahao, Xingzai filmed this "Gestapo Hero" with Li Lizhi as the choreographer, which was his first male number one, and it was also the pioneering work of Xingye's "nonsense".
His lines in the play, such as "Sit down, drink a cup of tea, eat a bag", etc., are popular among the citizens. And these "nonsensical" things are basically co-created by Star Boy and "Vigorous".
In the same year that "Gestapo" was released, Li Lizhi also wrote and directed the wireless 22nd anniversary Taiwan celebration drama "He Comes from the Jianghu", and Xingzai was also selected for the drama because of the performance of the previous work.
"He Comes from the Jianghu" successfully laid the foundation for the cooperation between Uncle Da and Zhou Xingchi, this major drama they were not originally the protagonists, but because of the subversion of the traditional way of performance, it is extremely eye-catching.
For these two dramas that have made Stephen Chow start to become popular, Xingzai still did not forget to mention Li Lizhi in the face of the media at that time: "This is the result of the joint efforts of me, Dage, Liu Jiahao (producer) and director Li Lizhi. ”
"I became an executive producer, specialized in TV movies with Du Qifeng, Chen Musheng, Qiu Litao, Zhuo Botang, etc., and I made "Tears of Heroes" and two episodes of "Yue Yu Fei Long", and the response was very good at that time."
In 1990, Li Lizhi began to be noticed by the film circle because of TVB's two TV movies, and Li Xiuxian started filming "Descendants of the Dragon" for Stephen Chow, and he was asked to serve as an executive director.
At that time, the film was actually directed by "Vigorous", and the film box office was good, and "Love Saint" He was naturally helped to be the director.
It should be said that during the filming of "Descendants of the Dragon" and "Love Saint", although Zhou Xingchi has become popular, based on their cooperation in the TV period, the initiative of shooting is mainly on the side of Li Lizhi.
However, by the stage of "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang" and "Domestic Ling Ling Lacquer", Li Lizhi was actually unable to control Xingye.
When a reporter went to visit the crew of "The King of Destruction", he once said to Zhou Xingchi: "I heard that you have become a director. He also needs to explain in particular that Li Lizhi is the director.
"Except for me, except for Gu Dezhao, there will be no other one, who can continue to shoot and continue to be friends after being scolded by him." Li Lizhi once said such a sentence.
During the filming of God Eater and King of Comedy, he has probably become an executor completely. Until "Shaolin Soccer", this relationship is completely untenable.
Li Lizhi later recalled that zhou Xingchi did not object to their co-signed director before and after the filming began.
However, near the end of the filming, Xingye suddenly informed him that he would be an independent director of the film, and Li Lizhi's identity was the executive director.
Unable to swallow this breath, Li Lizhi moved out of his office in "Xinghui" in a rage, and the two's years of cooperation ended.
"I've always been a director, and when "Shaolin Soccer" was about to finish filming, I suddenly changed from director to executive director, and it was time to withdraw from his office, bye-bye! As an artist, he has played to the extreme, as a director, I also do my best responsibility, he wants to be a director, not in front of the screen, I congratulate, and thank you for having so many brilliant performances in front of me, but really enough!
"I think there must be love in the movie, but my love is a more generalized love, it not only has love, but also like the love between friends, brothers and sisters, people between various feelings in the depiction." 」
In mid-2000, Stephen Chow once said such a passage during an interview.
He is a director who knows how to portray feelings in movies, and an actor who can completely invest in movies. So all that's left is a lone genius.