At the end of February 2021, Hong Kong comedy star Wu Mengda died at the age of 69 in Hong Kong Yan An Hospital due to ineffective liver cancer treatment.
Uncle Da participated in Li Hanxiang's "Yingtai Crying Blood" in 1973, and worked hard in the film and television circle for 48 years, but he was never nominated for an Academy Award for actor.
Chen Jiashang, who was the chairman of the Academy Awards, once said in the program: The Academy Awards owe Wu Mengda a movie emperor.
In his acting career, Uncle Da has been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award 10 times, and only won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1991, when he participated in the film "Heavenly Love".
"Heavenly Love" has a very special significance for Uncle Da, director Chen Musheng and heroine Wu Qianlian, who participated in the film. It is Chen Musheng's first independently directed theatrical film, Wu Qianlian's debut film, and a representative work of Hong Kong love films.
One
The story of the film takes place in Hong Kong in the 90s, and Hua Di (Andy Lau) is the illegitimate son of a cabaret dancer.
When Hua Di was very young, his mother jumped off a building and committed suicide, so Hua Di, who was raised by his mother's three sisters, joined the underworld from an early age and became a subordinate of the seventh brother (Zhu Tiehe), and was a brother with Tai Bao (Wu Mengda) and Ah Cheng (Yuan Bin).
Tai Bao is a scumbag of the War Five Scum, relying on Hua Di's help to dominate the work of valet parking on a street, but is often harassed by the subordinates of the rival leader of the gang, Horn (Huang Guangliang).
The power of the trumpet in the gang is very large, he is arrogant, bent on being the dragon head, and the seventh brother has always had contradictions, and he is also incompatible with The Hua Brother.
In order to raise money to fight the lawsuit, the seventh brother ordered Hua Di and the horn to rob the bank, and Hua Di was responsible for driving to respond.
On the day of the operation, there was an unexpected situation, after the horn and others took control of the bank, a police car appeared on the street outside, and Hua Di, who was in charge of the wind, had to lead the police away first, and then drive back to pick up people.
Although he successfully picked up The Horn and others to evacuate with money, Hua Di was surrounded by the police, and in the panic, he took a hostage before fleeing the scene, which was jojo (Wu Qianlian), a female college student.
Because JoJo saw the appearance of Horn and the others, Horn decided to silence her, but was stopped by Hua Di and sent her home safely.
When he was parting, Hua Di persuaded JoJo not to call the police, but the next day he was arrested by the police early in the morning, and it turned out that JoJo's handbag left at the scene provided clues to the police.
However, when JoJo arrived at the police station, he did not identify Hua Di and Horn, which made Hua Di feel good about her and decided to protect her from harm.
When The horn led his men to the door to kill JoJo, Hua Di was stabbed to protect her, but fortunately, the seventh brother arrived and saved two people.
Since then, JoJo has also had a good feeling for Hua Di, and went to find Hua Di on her birthday, and the two finally opened their hearts and established a love relationship and spent a good time together.
But the disparity in origin and status between the two doomed them to no good outcomes — the Hua Ge people couldn't help themselves in the jianghu; JoJo came from a wealthy family and was also bound by the family.
When the leader of the gang is assassinated by a rival gang, Hua Di is also involved in the underworld vendetta; at this time, JoJo's father also came to Hong Kong to take her to Canada to study.
Hua Di and JoJo did not think of being together, after Hua Di was slashed, he hid in his grandfather's house in Macau to recuperate, and JoJo followed him to Macau.
In the face of a rare peaceful life, Hua Di began to consider quitting the jianghu.
But they all have to face the reality, Hua Di and JoJo have their own things that they can't put down.
JoJo's parents, in order to find her, reported warning Hua Di to kidnap their daughter.
Hua Di's society is also facing a big reshuffle, the horn wants to compete for the dragon head, and the seventh brother completely turns his face, and the street where the Taibao valet parking is also occupied by the horn's men. Hua Di must go back to support the negotiations between The Seventh Brother and the Horn.
When the two returned to Hong Kong, Hua Di was arrested by the police.
In order to persuade his parents to withdraw the accusation against Hua Di, JoJo had to agree to the conditions for them to study in Canada. Before leaving, she went to Hua Di's house, cleaned up the house for Hua Di and left a note telling him that she was going to Canada.
Brother Seven took Hua Di and Ah Cheng to the AA restaurant to negotiate with the horn, and as a result, in order to cover the evacuation of the seventh brother, one was hacked to death by the horn's men; the other was hit in the back of the head by the horn with a gas canister, resulting in serious head injuries.
Fortunately, Taibao arrived in time to save Hua Di, who had lost his combat effectiveness.
Hua Diqiang endured the pain to see JoJo for the last time, he drove a motorcycle with JoJo on the road, stole a wedding dress from the store for JoJo to wear, and took her to church, and put a ring on JoJo in front of Jesus. But then Hua Di abandoned JoJo and left, and he used his last breath to kill the horn.
However, at this time, Hua Di had reached the end of the crossbow, and although he ambushed the horn, he was killed by his men and fell under a pool of blood. At this time, Taibao rushed out with a knife and stabbed each other with the horn, and both of them were hit by multiple knives in their bodies, and finally died together.
Two
Although this film was directed by Chen Musheng, who was still a rookie at the time, Du Qifeng, as a producer and producer, played a great role.
Andy Lau once recalled that he did not know that Chen Musheng was the director of the film throughout the filming, because Du Qifeng was the one who talked the most on the set. Therefore, the film presents the tragic color of Du-style films, which is not the style of Chen Musheng's films.
But the story of the movie comes from Chen Musheng, who wrote the story outline of "Heavenly Love" based on his young racing experience, which was recognized by Du Qifeng, Lin Lingdong and Wang Jing.
Later, it was adapted and created by screenwriter Ruan Shisheng, and eventually became this movie, and Chen Musheng was also promoted to director, but it was Du Qifeng who really took the helm.
Even the heroine Wu Qianlian was also chosen by Du Qifeng, who picked a black-and-white student photo of Wu Qianlian in a stack of actress photos, and saw the stubborn expression between her eyebrows.
Therefore, Wu Qianlian, who was still in the second year of art school in Taiwan and sang at Rolling Stone Records, accidentally entered the industry and began her acting career.
Wu Qianlian's appearance is not outstanding, her appearance can only rank in the middle of hong Kong actresses, but due to her high cold temperament, she has also received many performance opportunities, and has cooperated with Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat, Li Ming, Aaron Kwok, and Liu Qingyun.
It is a pity that she has been nominated for the Academy Award three times in her acting career (including this film), but has never won an award, which is also a pity.
The only person in the film who won the award was Uncle Da, who did not play much in the film, but firmly grasped the opportunity to appear every time, and successfully created an image of a small living at the bottom of society and precarious.
The role of Taibao is low in front of others, and a few harsh words vented behind others vividly explain the contradictions and complexities in this person's heart.
At the end of the movie, the sudden appearance of taibao, the courage and determination when fighting the bayonet with the horn, and the long roar in the sky after the horn fell, all show the little man's eyebrows after completing the "feat" of assassinating the horn.
Even Taibao himself would die of his wounds, but for him it was a death without regrets.
Although the image of a small character such as Taibao is a classic character image often created by Uncle Da in his acting career, the image of Taibao when he assassinated the horn is completely different from the other roles played by Uncle Da.
This scene makes the character of Taibao become flesh and blood, so Uncle Da's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is well deserved.
Three
Huang Guangliang, who plays the horn in the film, has also been affirmed by the audience for successfully shaping this evil image, and his fierce image was once hated by Andy Lau's fans.
Some fans resented him for smashing the back of Andy Lau's head with a gas canister, causing him to have nosebleeds the whole time.
This scene looks heart-wrenching, and fans also vent their anger on Huang Guangliang's body.
It is said that he would be scolded on the street for a long time, but later he was also "blessed by misfortune" and was selected by Hong Kong film fans as one of the "four evil men in the Hong Kong film industry", along with Ho Ka-ju, Cheng Kui-an and Lee Shau Kee, the three big brothers of the jianghu.
However, Andy Lau, who had at least "1 liter" nosebleed in the second half, did not even get a nomination for a movie emperor.
He was also accused by Du Qifeng for having to subconsciously tease the squashed hair every time he took off his helmet, and the two had a conflict for a while.
Andy Lau was one of the film stars in Hong Kong in the 90s who profoundly influenced mainland audiences, and at that time, he sold the image of a handsome male god in the sunshine, and he would care so much about his hair. But in front of Du Qifeng, who has always only paid attention to acting skills, this kind of look really made him unbearable.
Later, when the two collaborated on "Full-time Killer" in 2001, Du Qifeng only made one request to Andy Lau, that is, to try to be as handsome as possible in the film. This requirement made Andy Lau, whose acting skills were already pure at the time, feel very embarrassed, after all, after 11 years, Andy Lau's state of mind was completely different from before.
The image of Hua Di was particularly handsome, and after the success of the movie, it was actually written into his "Ancient Puzzle Boy" comic by the cartoonist Cowboy, becoming the image of the male protagonist Chen Haonan.
Later, "Ancient Puzzle Boy" was adapted into a movie, and Wang Jing also invited Andy Lau to star, but he refused, and he was reluctant to play the role of the big brother of the society at that time.
Four
In the movie "Heavenly Love", more is the love scene left for Hua Di and JoJo, which is also the reason why the movie can become a romance film classic. In the following years, those bridges in the film have been copied and borrowed by many films.
Director Chen Musheng found Aaron Kwok's partner Wu Qianlian in 1993 to shoot "Heavenly Love 2 Days and Long Days".
Although another heavenly king, Aaron Kwok, replaced Andy Lau, the film story is much the same as that of "Heavenly Love", so the influence is small. Later, in 1996, Du Qifeng and Andy Lau collaborated on "Heavenly Love 3 Beacon Lady".
Last year, the news of the death of director Chen Musheng suddenly came out, and the fans once could not accept it, and this year Uncle Da also left us, which made people lament the impermanence of life.
Uncle Da has been very prolific over the years, but after the cameo "The Legend of Debao of Shaolin Temple", no work has been launched; director Chen Musheng has another "Fury Serious Case" to be released this year, which is worth our expectations.
(Rotten Tomatoes Movie Editorial Department: Blood Dan Heart)