Since its release, "Changjin Lake" has accumulated more than 5.3 billion yuan at the box office, pointing to the box office champion in Chinese film history, "Wolf Warrior 2".
As an unprecedented domestic film, this commercial blockbuster with more than one billion yuan will truly restore the tragedy and cruelty of the war, which is not only recognized by word of mouth, but also has been richly rewarded at the box office.
I remember commercial blockbusters like "Chosin Lake" indiscriminately coveted Zhang Yimou's 2002 "Hero".
In fact, as early as the 1980s, with the improvement of the film creation environment, many commercial productions emerged in the mainland, especially from "Shaolin Temple", and many martial arts and action films co-produced by the mainland and Hong Kong triggered a continuous movie-watching boom.
For example, in 1987, Hong Kong director Xu Xiaoming's "Mirage", the film received a lot of praise after its release, and after its release in Hong Kong, it also received more than 16 million box office.
The desolate desert scenery, fist-to-flesh fight scenes, especially the mysterious beauties looming in the mirage, have left indelible memories in the hearts of countless audiences.
01, the beauty of the mirage
In the early 1980s, because of the popularity of "Shaolin Temple", many Hong Kong directors shot Shaolin-themed films in the mainland, and Xu Xiaoming was one of them.
In 1985, Xu Xiaoming's Shaolin-themed film "Kapok Robes" was well received by the public after its release in the mainland, becoming a representative work of "post-Shaolin era" films.
After the Shaolin-themed films gradually lost their popularity, Xu Xiaoming decided to adapt the adventure novel "Imaginary Image" by Ni Kuang, one of the "Four Talents of Hong Kong", into a movie in order to continue to explore the mainland market.
However, after some negotiations, Xu Xiaoming did not get the copyright of the novel, and he had no choice but to find another way to change the names of the characters in the novel under the premise of retaining the plot of the novel.
The story of "Mirage" takes place in the 1930s, when the talented photographer Tang Tingxuan was attracted by a beautiful woman riding a horse in a mirage while passing through the desert, and he took a photo and decided to find this woman.
Among those who traveled with him were his friend Amao, who grew up with him, and Ai Nur, a Uighur girl who had a crush on him, and everyone worked hard to find the woman's whereabouts in the depths of the desert.
Tang Tingxuan did not expect that the other party was the fierce and vicious female bandit leader Gazalova, after a fight, Tang Tingxuan was captured by bandits, and Gazalova forced him to marry her.
From the gentle and lovely beautiful woman in the mirage to the fierce and ferocious "Silk Road Queen" in front of him, the gap in reality disappointed Tang Tingxuan, allowing him to finally wake up from his fantasy.
At the end of the film, Tang Tingxuan and others fought with the bandit gang to the death, and in the end, Ah Mao sacrificed himself to ignite the bandits' arsenal, and Gazalova also died in the fire.
There is no happy ending for everyone, and the beautiful vision of "having a lover eventually become a family member" is only a dream of Huang Liang after all, and under the shell of the thrilling story, there is actually a deep thinking about reality and fantasy.
02, in order to achieve the real effect, the director almost died
"Mirage" is all filmed in the desert of Xinjiang, so it is very grand in terms of vision, and the endless desert style is unforgettable.
As an action-adventure film, the most exciting thing in the film is the real gun fight scene and special effects scene, such as the thrilling desert chase scene, the female bandit head stabbed the male protagonist's beloved BMW "chasing the wind" to death and drank blood.
In the era when various facilities were generally backward at that time, the film basically adopted the method of real shooting in order to pursue real effects, and truly presented various thrilling scenes.
Among them, Xu Xiaoming, as a director, played an indispensable role.
In the film, he has several positions, both as a director and an action director, and he also starred in the second male Ah Mao, who has a heavy role.
Although Ah Mao, who has a lively personality and a healthy body in the film, is a supporting role, he has been liked by many people, and the final sacrifice of the film is also tearful.
What is less known is that the tragic scene of Ah Mao sacrificing himself to blow up the arsenal and burn with a raging flame on his body was completed by Xu Xiaoming himself, who wore an asbestos suit and lit a fire on his body to achieve the greatest sense of reality.
Afterwards, Xu Xiaoming did not dare to tell his wife, until the day of the premiere, Xu Xiaoming's wife saw this scene in the film and was stunned, which knew how much her husband had paid for making this movie.
As an all-round talent in the Hong Kong film industry, Xu Xiaoming, a Cantonese opera actor, entered the film industry with the good kung fu he practiced when he was a teenager, and initially did martial arts guidance for many movies, and also cooperated with Jackie Chan, Yuan Kui and others many times.
After becoming a director, Xu Xiaoming made many popular masterpieces, such as "Huo Yuanjia" starring Huang Yuanshen and "Chen Zhen" starring Liang Xiaolong, which swept around once it was broadcast, and how many people's childhood memories were remembered.
After filming "Mirage", Xu Xiaoming directed works such as "Wesley's Overlord Unloading Armor" and "China's Big Husband", which won a good market response.
After 2000, Xu Xiaoming launched films such as "Ink Attack", "Tracking" and "Li Mi's Conjecture" as a producer, but in recent years, there has been almost no news of him.
Compared with Xu Xiaoming, Yu Rongguang, the male protagonist of "Mirage", is still active in the film and television circle today, and the new version of "Tianlong Babu" directed by the director some time ago has also been criticized a lot.
In the mid-1980s, Yu Rongguang, an actor who was originally a Peking Opera actor, was appreciated by Xu Xiaoming to star in "Kapok Robes", and became famous with the villain Qi Tianyuan, and has since embarked on the show business circle.
In addition to having wonderful performances in Xu Xiaoming's two films, Yu Rongguang also starred in many classic Hong Kong films, especially a series of villain roles in films such as "Ancient and Modern Wars of Qin Figurines" and "Letter to Daddy", which made him completely famous in the film industry.
03, the heroine became a restaurant owner, and one of the supporting roles later played "Sun Wukong"
In addition to the two male protagonists, the few female characters in the film are also impressive.
For example, the female bandit leader Gazalova, sweet and moving in the mirage at the beginning, is in strong contrast with the image of the cruel female demon head later.
When chasing after Tang Tingxuan, her sentence "Today I drink the blood of the horse, tomorrow I drink your blood", the image of the snake and scorpion beauty makes people can't help but be creepy.
Pasha Umar, who played Gazalova, was originally an actor in the Xinjiang Song and Dance Troupe, and after filming this film, she starred in films such as "International Rescue" and "Cheetah Attack", and then quit the show business circle.
In 1993, Pasha Umar moved to Hong Kong, where she opened a Xinjiang restaurant and lived a leisurely and comfortable life.
In addition, Xu Xiaoming's apprentice Cao Rong played a villain leader who played soy sauce in the film, but compared to his status as an actor, his more well-known title is martial arts director, who works as an action stunt for the films of Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao and others.
It is worth mentioning that Cao Rong and "Journey to the West" are also quite fateful.
At that time, director Yang Jie was preparing to shoot the "Journey to the West Sequel", invited Cao Rong to act as an action director, and also made a cameo appearance in the role of "Prince Mo Ang" during the shooting.
Later, Cao Rong played Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West", a role that also made him well known to the public and is still talked about by many viewers.
Although 34 years have passed, "Mirage" has not been forgotten, but has been constantly mentioned because of its wonderful action design and the excellent interpretation of a group of actors, becoming a classic of commercial films in the 80s. (Author: Pippi Shrimp)