In 1995, After filming "Peace Hotel", Zhou Runfa resolutely left Hong Kong and went to the United States, starting another journey in his acting career. Since then, the hometown has changed to another place, and this trick has been 10 years.
Zhou Runfa's departure also kicked off the prelude to the Chinese superstar's conquest of Hollywood.
Zhou Runfa, who broke into Hollywood, unloaded the aura of "Fat Brother" and transformed into "Chow Yun fat", although the eyes are still sharp, the acting skills are still explosive, but in Hollywood, all this seems to have become worthless - Hollywood has never lacked acting skills, let alone macho men.
Chow Yun-fat's first Hollywood movie was "Stuntman", with an investment of only 30 million US dollars, and the heroine was Mira, who had just won an Oscar. Sorvino, the standard B-movie lineup.
It can be seen that Hollywood does not attach much importance to this Chinese superstar, of course, this "lack of attention" is also justified. After the release of "StuntMan", the reputation collapsed, the audience scolded, and the box office was only a pitiful 19 million.
The next year, Zhou Runfa was ashamed and brave, and even the reputation of making two movies was still good, but it was still difficult to escape the doom of losing money. "The Border Warrior" cost $25 million and only grossed $15 million; "Anna and the King" cost 96 million and only 56 million at the box office, making it even worse.
The most regrettable thing is this "Anna and the King", which was widely reported by the domestic media that year, believing that it would be Zhou Runfa's turnaround. But unfortunately, due to the lack of screenwriting skills, this film that could have done a lot has become a boring work that shows off exoticism.
After the blood loss of "Anna", Zhou Runfa, a Chinese superstar, has since sat on the cold bench of Hollywood, and there has been no drama to shoot for 3 years. If it were not for the fact that he happened to meet Ang Lee, who was preparing to shoot "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and it happened that Jet Li pushed off the role of Li Mubai because of Li Zhi's pregnancy, Zhou Runfa would probably be in a slump.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" broke through the North American box office of 120 million US dollars, is the highest-grossing Chinese film in North America ever, and Chow Yun-fat's Journey to Hollywood peaked, becoming the first Chinese superstar to stand at the Oscars.
The irony is that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" achieved Chow Yun-fat's face, but did not achieve his "Lizi" - after sitting on the cold bench for 3 years, the situation is very embarrassing.
Zhou Runfa just walked Jackie Chan and followed close behind, breaking into Hollywood again.
Jackie Chan's trip to Hollywood is more special, as early as the early 80s in Hollywood to try out the bull knife. However, that break-in was not complete, for two reasons, one is that most of Jackie Chan's Hollywood works during this period were invested by Jiahe, not pure Western films; second, Jackie Chan's main position is still in Hong Kong, which is considered "part-time" in Hollywood.
After "Glass Bottle" in 1997, feeling that the Asian market was shrinking in an all-round way, Jackie Chan officially opened the Journey of Hollywood. Like Chow Yun-fat, Jackie Chan's first Hollywood work was fully smashed on the street, and "Starlight Dragon Gate Array" was outrageously rotten and frank.
But Jackie Chan is Jackie Chan, and he quickly made changes after the first defeat. He realized that the reason why the film failed was because he had lost his right to speak, and that a movie without Jackie Chan's brand was not a real "Jackie Chan movie".
So Jackie Chan released harsh words in Hollywood, if you want to find him to make a movie, you must have absolute dominance. In the face of Jackie Chan's powerful box office ability, Hollywood can only give in, so the familiar "family class" has appeared again, following Jackie Chan to shoot one Hollywood masterpiece after another.
In 1998, Jackie Chan's first Hollywood work "Rush Hour" was released, costing only 33 million US dollars, breaking 244 million at the global box office, and earning nearly 10 times the DVD revenue!
The owners of the 8 major studios in Hollywood all look stupid, and since then they have been obedient to Jackie Chan, and they can do anything. The vast majority of Jackie Chan's Hollywood movies are profitable, and the pinnacle is undoubtedly the "Rush Hour" series, the three films broke through the global box office of 600 million US dollars, and Jackie Chan took 560 million yuan in just film remuneration.
Jackie Chan's most bullish thing is that even if he loses money, he still has dramas to shoot, and the film remuneration is getting higher and higher. In 2004, "Around the World in Eighty Days" lost 50 million yuan, but three years later, Jackie Chan still got 120 million yuan of investment to start filming "Rush Hour 3", and the film remuneration was an unprecedented 20 million + global box office share. Few people in the world alone can do that.
Jackie Chan created 4 miracles in Hollywood: 1, as a Chinese to obtain the film dominance; 2, got the top salary at that time; 3, the only Chinese actor to shoot a series in Hollywood; 4, most of the movies are profitable.
Of course, most of Jackie Chan's brilliant Jet Li has also done it.
Jet Li should have been the most successful artist to break into Hollywood, but unfortunately, the "Matrix" of that year was resigned by him and lost the world classic.
Hollywood is not friendly to Jet Li, and the first film "Deadly Weapon 4" only paid 500,000 films, playing a villain supporting role. But Jet Li is worthy of the "Kung Fu Emperor", and he shocked the North American audience with one shot, and since then Qingyun has become the protagonist.
Among the three superstars, Jet Li's Hollywood movies are the most, "Deadly Weapon", "Cosmic Pursuit Order", "Dragon's Kiss", "Ranger", "Savior", etc., almost all of them make money, so Jet Li is praised by the North American media as the "king of B-grade films".
When Jet Li was in Hollywood, Jason Statham was only a small supporting role in front of him. When Jet Li was at his most brilliant, the owners of the 8 major studios personally went to the door to ask for a film appointment, and waited for two hours at the door of Jet Li.
Of course, Jet Li's trip to Hollywood is also regrettable. First, he has never been able to dominate the film, and second, he has always been able to make only B-grade films, and has never starred in any A-grade films. These are also the two main reasons why Jet Li is generally considered inferior to Jackie Chan.
Whether jackie Chan or Jet Li, their success has a common foundation - Bruce Lee. Don't forget, Bruce Lee was the first Chinese to conquer Hollywood!
As an unborn wizard, Bruce Lee has done too many miracles. He only made 4 and a half movies in his lifetime, but set off a boom in kung fu films around the world; his acting career was only a few short years, but he was remembered by the world for more than 50 years; he was the only Chinese and yellow people whose popularity, status and influence were comparable to legendary superstars such as Michael Jackson, Jordan, and Maradona.
To put it bluntly, Bruce Lee was both a grandmaster of the Founding Sect and a great artist of violent aesthetics.
Many people don't know that Bruce Lee was also the first, and possibly the only, artist to explicitly point out the discrimination of Chinese in Hollywood. In 1971, Bruce Lee was interviewed by the North American media and frankly said that the stereotypes of Chinese in Hollywood movies such as "jumping around with braids" and "hanging eyes" were "out of place".
This alone deserves to be remembered and respected by all Chinese. People like this may not be able to produce one for hundreds of years, to be honest.
There are only 4 Chinese superstars who have officially entered Hollywood, of which only Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are the only ones who really win glory for the country. Bruce Lee needless to say, Jackie Chan in the Western-dominated world to get the absolute dominance of the film, for the Chinese people to earn face; with the unique Jackie Chan style to conquer the fans, in the world once again set off a Chinese kung fu boom, for the Chinese people to earn a lot of money.
Jet Li and Zhou Runfa have done something wrong. Although Jet Li claimed that "Danny the Wolfhound" was an anti-violent art film, even French and North American audiences felt that there was naked racial discrimination when it was released, and the masses angrily tore up the poster, which more or less showed that the film did have problems.
Jet Li may not quite understand that compared with "art", it is obvious that the image of the Chinese is more important, and the image of countless Chinese people who have worked hard for decades cannot be destroyed in our hands.
Zhou Runfa made the same mistake, playing the villain in 2007's "Pirates of the Caribbean", who was criticized and insulted by domestic fans because of his resemblance to "Fu Manchu". Even Filipino fans were greatly dissatisfied and called to complain about the film's "insult to the Philippines".
Jet Li and Zhou Runfa have gilded a layer of gold in Hollywood, the film remuneration has gone up, and the experience has increased, but it is a pity that they have not made positive contributions to establishing and improving the image of the Chinese.
The things of the past life, the teacher of the aftermath. I hope that my generation of artists will have self-respect and self-improvement, and always remember that the Image of The Chinese is more important than any so-called "art" while pursuing art, and do not fall into the "art" of the people.