"Liaozhai Zhiyi" is a treasure trove of Chinese films, and over the years its film and television works have emerged in an endless stream, such as "Flower Girl", "Painted Skin", "Ghost of Qiannu" and so on.
When it comes to "Painted Skin", the pictures that pop up in the minds of many young audiences are all films partnered by Chen Kun, Zhao Wei and Zhou Xun.
But the older generation of film fans, think of the 1969 Hong Kong version of "Painted Skin", which was introduced to the mainland in 1979 and released, belonging to the childhood shadow of a generation.
Directed by Bao Fang, the "sweeping monk" and co-starring Gao Yuan and Zhu Hong, this film is the first Hong Kong horror film introduced by New China.
At that time, the mainland had little understanding of external affairs, and although the production of "Painted Skin" was a bit rough and the shooting technique was rudimentary, most of the horror pictures were shot with real props. So the sense of reality is absolutely guaranteed, and the scalp is numb and immersive.
The film is 94 minutes long, I don't know if it is because it is too scary, and later the CCTV version was cut by about 20 minutes, and the 74-minute version was able to broadcast on the "Six Princesses".
01, painted skin beauty clever seduction talent
The story of "Painted Skin" should start from a family surnamed Wang, the Wang family has two sons, the eldest son Wang Chongwen, full of economy, talented, is a reader who wants to get a meritorious name.
The second son, Wang Chongwu, likes to play with knives and sticks, and although he is strong in martial arts, he still chooses to go out to practice.
Although Wang Chongwen read the book diligently, Xu was unlucky and failed the township examination for many years.
On this day he met a god-talking fortune teller who told him that tonight in the middle of the night in the northwest outside the city, he would meet a noble man who could help him.
Wang Chongwen was ill and rushed to the hospital, and indeed went out in the middle of the night to look for it, and came all the way to a broken temple. It was also a god, and in the middle of the night, there was a woman dressed in white sobbing alone in the broken temple.
Looking at the woman in front of her, the pear blossom with rain, a shy face, Wang Chongwen was momentarily confused.
However, the woman seemed to be frightened by the sudden appearance of Wang Chongwen, and turned and hurried away, leaving Wang Chongwen with only a handkerchief that had accidentally fallen.
After returning home, his wife and mother arranged a separate yard in order to let him rest assured that he could review. However, Wang Chongwen still had in mind the woman in white.
It is said that there must be an echo of the thought, and on this day, just when Wang Chongwen was studying, the woman in white suddenly broke into the courtyard. Beauty descended from the sky, and Wang Chongwen was overjoyed.
After some conversation, Wang Chongwen learned that the woman's name was Mei Niang, and her father was the chief examiner of the township examination. The stepmother wanted to marry Mei Niang to an old man who was more than half a hundred years old, and Mei Niang was unwilling, so she escaped to this place.
Hearing this, Wang Chongwen was overjoyed in his heart, if he could have a good relationship with Mei Niang, wouldn't he have climbed the main examiner of the township examination? The matter of the name is as simple as probing the bag.
With this in mind, Wang Chongwen began to live with Mei Niang, and the two of them were dashing and happy in this separate courtyard, completely forgetting his wife and mother.
However, Mei Niang's heart is more than this, she secretly induces Wang Chongwen to poison his wife, who expected Chongwen's conscience not to be abandoned.
She used her mana to frame Chongwen's wife and the servants in the house for adultery, forcing Chongwen to drive his wife out of the house.
In desperation, the wife planned to hang herself, who expected to meet her younger brother Chongwu who was returning home. Chongwu believes in his sister-in-law's personality and comes to the house to secretly inquire about the beautiful woman.
It turned out that the beautiful lady was actually dressed by a female ghost, and her good appearance was only a painting skin.
In order to drive out the female ghost, Chongwu invited his master. At the end of the film, the female ghost is pierced through the heart by the master's sword, leaving only a picture skin on the ground.
It is said that heroes are sad to be beautiful, in fact, readers also love the story of talented women, meet the beautiful women, how many people can sit still?
02, behind the scenes production is real
It is said that when a version of "Painted Skin" was released, it scared an old lady to death, and as for which version, some people say that it is a version co-produced by the mainland and Hong Kong, which is still banned.
There is also a saying that there is no co-production version at all, but several versions of the netizens are confused. We can't verify its authenticity today, but various claims also illustrate the horror of Painted Skin, no matter which edition.
Take this version of "Painted Skin", the clip of Wang Chongwen being dug into the heart by the female ghost in the film can be called the most terrifying in the film.
The bloody heart was taken directly from the chest, and it is said that in order to shoot this shot, the prop team specially found a male corpse and truly performed the scene of the heart digging.
In addition to shooting realism, the male and female protagonists who starred in "Painted Skin" were also hot big stars at that time.
Wang Chongwen's actor Gao Yuan, born in an artistic family, has starred in countless movies after entering the industry, and has a high reputation, and the movie "Golden Eagle" in which he starred has set a record of one million in Hong Kong, known as "Million Little Students".
Zhu Hong, the actress of the heroine Mei Niang, the white moonlight in the hearts of all audiences in the 60s and 70s, is an actor born for the screen.
Zhu Hong's version of the goblin is extremely feminine, and one of the most impressive shots is when she concentrates on depicting herself "painting skin", and suddenly turns around and follows a zombie-like vicious face, which can't help but make people shudder.
Zhu Hong is both a costume beauty and a "changeable beauty", and the roles she plays have a variety of personalities, but every interpretation can be three points.
Gao Yuan and Zhu Hong are also old partners in the Hong Kong film industry, and their cooperation in another classic movie, "The Trial wife", is also seamless.
03, greed is the evil ghost
At the end of the film, the little boy asks Pu Songling, "Is there really a ghost in this world?" Pu Songling frowned and sighed, "Say there is, say there is no, say no, there is."
This dialogue is quite a bit of a Zen machine, and the little boy seems to ask questions unintentionally, but it leads to the core of the whole film.
Ghost, none of us have ever seen it, and no one knows if it really exists. But there seem to be a lot of stories about ghosts in people's mouths, and even it has been made into a movie in the form of a painted skin.
Thinking about it, may ghosts really exist? In fact, it is not so much a ghost as a person. Most of the ghosts in people's mouths are evil and inconsistent, using beautiful appearances to hide their evil purposes.
Isn't that like some people in life? On the surface, it looks good, but behind the scenes, there is a bad stomach. If people are not careful, they will be eaten by these evil spirit-like people.
Most of the evil ghosts are people with unstable minds, such as Wang Chongwen in the film, on the one hand, he wants to ask for merit, on the other hand, he wants to get something for nothing, step up to the heavens, such people can not withstand the temptation the most, and the painting skin can easily make it fall into the obstacle.
Compared with Zhou Xun's version of "Painted Skin", 1966's "Painted Skin" is more pure and direct, it does not over-render the complex emotional relationship between the characters, but uses the simplest picture and plot to hit people's hearts.
Evil spirits are all around us, inward, greed is evil, outward, ill-intentioned villains are evil spirits.
The saint said that if I want to get rid of the shackles of evil spirits, it would be a good choice to reflect on myself. (Written by: Miki)