Text | Wang Zhenyi
Edit | Sun Dasheng
On February 27, 2021, the famous actor Wu Mengda, known as the "golden supporting role", died of illness at the age of 70.
When the news came out, netizens and insiders have sent articles of condolences, and many netizens have bluntly said that the youth of a generation is over.
When Wu Mengda died, everyone also paid attention to the attitude of Zhou Xingchi, who was once the "best partner" with Wu Mengda. Some Hong Kong media interviewed Zhou Xingchi and told him the news of Wu Mengda's death, and Zhou Xingchi bluntly said that he was "very sad and sad, unwilling to accept" and "at present I can't accept it."
Everyone lamented that the "best partner" could no longer cooperate, and not long ago on the variety show was asked whether he would cooperate with Zhou Xingchi, Wu Mengda frankly said: "As long as I don't die, he has not retired, we will still cooperate." ”
In addition to paying attention to Zhou Xingchi's attitude, everyone also noticed that from Wu Mengda's illness to his death, the person who had been announcing the news on behalf of the Wu family was Tian Qiwen. And when the outside world questioned Zhou Xingchi's indifference to Wu Mengda's illness, Tian Qiwen debunked the rumors in time, telling the outside world through the media that Zhou Xingchi was very concerned about Wu Mengda's condition and was willing to help, and his sister also came to visit Wu Mengda instead of him.
So why is the spokesperson for Wu Mengda's condition Tian Qiwen? What kind of story does he have between him and Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi?
The past is like a cloud, and listen to me slowly.
01
Born in Hong Kong in 1961, Tian Qiwen's family's financial situation is very bad, and he has four younger siblings.
Therefore, when he read to the second year of junior high school, Tian Qiwen had to drop out of school. In order to support his family, he learned to cook and became a cook.
In the process, he watched the movie "Five Poisons Tianluo" directed by Chu Yuan, and he was so moved that he cried so much that his parents thought he had been bullied.
It is precisely because of this movie that Tian Qiwen has the dream of being an actor.
He told his family about the idea, and his father poured cold water on him directly, saying to him: "You simply do not meet the conditions in this entertainment industry."
His father listed five reasons for him, that is, he was not tall and ugly, he read less, he was unprofessional, he had no background, and his family was poor.
What his father said made sense, and Tian Qiwen could not refute it.
He continued to work as a chef, but he never gave up his dream of being an actor. In 1979, at the age of 18, he resolutely threw himself into the acting world despite his father's opposition, doing group performances, making scene notes, and doing drama work, so he met Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi.
02
Tian Qiwen knew Wu Mengda earlier than Zhou Xingchi, and he witnessed the first big ups and downs in Wu Mengda's life.
In the year he entered the acting industry, Wu Mengda starred in the role of "Hu Tiehua" in the TV series "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang".
After the broadcast of "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang", the ratings were very hot, and Wu Mengda became famous overnight.
Fame and fortune pounced on Wu Mengda, who swelled and lost, he drank, played, gambled, and owed 300,000 gambling debts. And because he did a lot of absurd things, his TVB hid him in the snow.
In order to pay off the gambling debt, he asked his good friend Zhou Runfa to borrow money, but Zhou Runfa refused.
He thought about suicide.
Because he was afraid of death, he finally gave up the idea of suicide and decided to change his mind and become a man again.
He gathered the creditors together and made a promise to repay the money, and then he spent 4 years to continuously improve his acting skills, and started from the dragon set and started over.
What he did not expect was that although Zhou Runfa did not lend him money, he recommended him to many crews and improved his life. Years later, knowing this truth, Wu Mengda was very touched and grateful.
When Wu Mengda paid off his debts, he met his "best partner" Zhou Xingchi.
03
In 1988, Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi collaborated on "Gestapo". In 1989, the two collaborated on "He Comes from the Jianghu", and because the two lived close together, the two often discussed and communicated, colliding with a nonsensical way of performing.
This way of acting was well played in 1990, when they were invited to appear in the movie "Gamble Saint". As a result, as soon as the film was released, the box office reached 41.32 million Hong Kong dollars, breaking the record of the historical box office of Hong Kong films at that time.
Zhou Xingchi became popular, and Wu Mengda successfully turned over.
Zhou Xingchi's popularity attracted the attention of a movie tycoon, who signed a number of film contracts with Chow Xingchi, and this big guy was Xiang Huasheng, the younger brother of Yongsheng Film boss Xiang Huaqiang.
At the end of the year of the success of "Gamble Saint", Yongsheng launched "Gambler" starring Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda.
After the release of "The Gambler", it reached HK$40.34 million at the Hong Kong box office, ranking second in the Annual Box Office List in Hong Kong.
Zhou Xingchi has become a fragrant bounty for Yongsheng Pictures to make money, and Yongsheng Pictures attaches special importance to Zhou Xingchi.
Attention is paid to arranging for someone to shout Zhou Xingchi to get up every day, and the person who shouts Zhou Xingchi to get up is Tian Qiwen, who is already working at Yongsheng Pictures.
Although Tian Qiwen and Zhou Xingchi initially had an ordinary working relationship, in 1994 Zhou Xingchi was impressed by Tian Qiwen.
04
In 1994, Stephen Chow and Wu Mengda filmed the movie "Nine Pin Sesame Officers". In this movie, there is a scene in which Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda look for evidence in the morgue, while Tian Qiwen plays a corpse.
During the filming process, Zhou Xingchi played with his heart, and he used the clip to clip Tian Qiwen, but Tian Qiwen did not move at all. When this scene was finished, Zhou Xingchi asked Tian Qiwen if he was in pain? Tian Qiwen said it hurt.
Zhou Xingchi asked him why he didn't shout and not move since he was in pain? Tian Qiwen told Zhou Xingchi that he could not move because the director did not shout to stop.
Zhou Xingchi was touched by Tian Qiwen's professionalism and looked at him with admiration. In 1999, he put this experience with Keiwen Wada into the movie "The King of Comedy".
In the third year before this, Zhou Xingchi and Yang Guohui founded Xinghui Company, and Zhou Xingchi became the boss.
Zhou Xingchi, who became the boss, did not forget Tian Qiwen, he took Tian Qiwen under his command, Tian Qiwen became his assistant, and later became his agent, and was responsible for the company's image promotion, business development, acting agency and the film's supervising and planning affairs.
In 2004, Yang Guohui and Zhou Xingchi turned against each other, and Zhou Xingchi promoted Tian Qiwen to become a director of the company.
Tian Qiwen's position in the company is second only to Zhou Xingchi.
While Xinghui Company is highly powerful, he has cooperated with Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi in many films, and his relationship with Wu Mengda is getting better and better.
It's just a pity that after cooperating in "Shaolin Football" in 2001, Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda never cooperated again. There are also many voices in the society accusing Stephen Chow.
For these voices, Tian Qiwen frankly admitted that everyone misunderstood Zhou Xingchi, in his opinion, Zhou Xingchi is not right about things, and he is particularly serious about righteousness. Tian Qiwen said bluntly: "Xingye is very righteous towards his friends, and there is a lot of news related to him, but he has never stood up to tell who is bad. Why? The reason is simple, he doesn't want to hurt anyone, especially friends. ”
Only in 2008, Tian Qiwen also chose to leave Zhou Xingchi.
05
For the reason for leaving Zhou Xingchi, Tian Qiwen did not avoid it. He told the media that it was mainly Stephen Chow who only made a movie in 3 years, and the pace was very slow.
In Tian Qiwen's view, this rhythm is very suitable for Zhou Xingchi, but it is not suitable for the company's employees, especially the artists signed by the company. A drama in 3 years means that the company's artist exposure rate is very low and the development is slow, and it also means that the company's employees do not need to do much.
For his own development, Tian Qiwen finally decided to leave, he opened a film and television drama production company, and also developed into screenwriters, producers, directors and other aspects.
Although he left Zhou Xingchi's company, his relationship with Zhou Xingchi did not freeze, but continued to maintain friendship.
In October 2018, Stephen Chow filmed the new movie "The King of New Comedy", and Tian Qiwen was also invited to play a director's role.
Also in this year, Wu Mengda gave an interview to the media, he said that after so many years of supporting roles, he also wanted to be a protagonist, he wanted to act in an autobiographical movie "Wu Mengda", and he was his own protagonist.
He also named Tian Qiwen, Huang Yifei and Lin Zicong to play, and he also said that he could also let Stephen Chow and Andy Lau participate, but he then added: "I may not be able to find them to help, try my best." ”
It's just that the autobiographical movie "Wu Mengda" has not yet come out, and Wu Mengda has an accident.
06
At the end of 2020, while filming a promotional video for the movie "The Legend of Debao of shaolin temple", Wu Mengda suddenly felt heart discomfort and was forced to stop working.
He then went to the hospital for examination and was diagnosed with liver cancer.
Tian Qiwen, who learned the news, was very sad and actively contacted Wu Mengda's family. Because of the frequent rumors when Wu Mengda was hospitalized, Tian Qiwen, who was deeply trusted by Wu Mengda's family, began to refute the rumors and publish various correct news.
In addition to being trusted by Wu Mengda's family because of his good relationship with Wu Mengda, Tian Qiwen's ability to serve as a spokesman for Wu Mengda's illness is also related to his identity.
In 2016, Tian Qiwen succeeded Wu Siyuan as the president of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, contributing to the protection and protection of the rights and interests of Hong Kong filmmakers.
In 2018, Lan Jieying died, and he took the lead in assisting Lan Jieying's aftermath.
In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Hong Kong film industry was deeply affected, in order to protect the lives of grass-roots employees in the industry, Tian Qiwen and Gu Tianle, Liu Weiqiang, Yu An'an and Qian Jiale organized a "Hong Kong Filmmaker Epidemic Support Program" to raise a sum of money to help the grass-roots employees of the Hong Kong film industry.
It can be said that outside of Wu Mengda's family, no one is more suitable than Tian Qiwen to serve as a spokesman for Wu Mengda's condition. And because he and Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingchi are familiar, he can pass on information for the two as quickly as possible, and Zhou Xingchi also expressed concern for the first time after learning the news.
It can even be said that because of the existence of Tian Qiwen, Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda silently cared about each other. After all, Zhou Xingchi wanted to know how Wu Mengda was doing, and it was enough to ask Tian Qiwen. Wu Mengda wanted to know how Zhou Xingchi was doing, and he could also ask Tian Qiwen.
Tian Qiwen inadvertently became a bridge between their emotional links.
Now that the Si people have gone, they hope that the families of Tian Qiwen, Zhou Xingchi and Uncle Da will mourn and change.
Uncle Da, all the way.