In the 1960s, Hong Kong cinema was in full swing, many film and television companies were born, and many filmmakers gathered in Heung Kong to dedicate themselves to the film industry.
Among them, Shaw Pictures is the most successful film company, which can be described as a standout, not only the production and quality of the film are far ahead, but also gather a group of powerful directors, screenwriters and actors.
At that time, there was no "four directors", but there were "four aces", the best directors in Shaw's early days, Li Hanxiang, Luo Zhen, Tao Qin, and Yue Feng.
Luo Zhen, formerly known as Li Mengfei, was born in Shanghai in 1923 and came to Hong Kong in 1947 to join the Great China Film Company as a screenwriter, field reporter and assistant director.
After the company closed its doors, he worked as a freelance screenwriter, winning the Best Screenplay Award at the 3rd Asian Film Festival in 1956 for "Long Alley"; it was also in this year that he directed his first work, Fresh Peony.
He joined Shaw in 1961 and was one of Shaw's early famous directors, and his first work directed by Shaw, "Burning To Fire", established its status as the "four aces", becoming the second director second only to Li Hanxiang.
Li Hanxiang used black and white photography to direct "Back Door" at the Asian Film Festival and won twelve awards, and later directed "Yang Guifei", "Wang Zhaojun", "Wu Zetian", "Fall of the Country" and other films, the artistic standard was very good at that time, won many awards, Lin Dai also won the Asian Film Queen for four consecutive years.
Although he won so many awards, the box office was not good, and Run Run Shaw even said: "I don't make movies to win awards, I want to make money!" ”
As a result, Luo Zhen was taken seriously, and his "Hotel Mandarin Duck" achieved good box office results; since then, many heavyweight works have been written by him.
Luo Zhen's directing style is known for its boldness and pungency, and during his time at Shaw, he directed a number of films with good reputation and box office, and his Chinese art films were his strengths.
1962's "Second Spring", 1963's "Qiao Taishou Chaos Mandarin Duck Spectrum", 1966's "Beacon Of Love", 1969's "Naked Blood" and "Wild Flow of Desire" are very bold, and they are very advanced in the plot and camera use; Ding Pei's "Night Flower" (1970) and "Romance Three Thousand Miles" (1973) are also fame and fortune.
Because most of the film time has passed too long and has no resources, only found "Wild Flow of Desire", after watching it, I was shocked, more than half a century ago, Chinese films can be made so boldly, the script, shooting techniques are very mature, the plot is more avant-garde, and the cast can also be described as luxurious.
The two heroines Hu Yanni partner Yu Qian, Qiao Zhuang, Yang Fan, Chen Honglie, Tian Feng, Ouyang Shafei, as well as the young Gu Feng and Wu Ma.
The male protagonist Lin David is a rich man's son, usually addicted to wine, one day asked the woman to go home, turned on the lights, it turned out that a pair of men and women in the dark climbed up, it turned out that his sister was at home to open a party, and the sister was even more indescribable with the man he liked in the bedroom.
Until one day, he met the woman he liked, Zhu Danfeng, played by Hu Yanni, fell in love at first sight, and since then he has decided to reform himself and cultivate his personality...
And Lin David's friend Chen Hanmin has long been like-minded with Zhu Danfeng, Chen saw Lin's crazy pursuit of Zhu, sacrificing his love, adult beauty, and promoted the marriage of the two.
But after the marriage, Lin David suspected that his wife and Chen Hanmin had an affair, and the two suffered injustices; in order to show his innocence, Chen planned to go to Europe to leave here, so he and Zhu Danfeng made a final farewell, just at this time, Lin was watching the figures of the two people behind the screen and listening to the conversation between the two people.
He was furious with just a few words he heard, and picked up a shotgun...
After watching this film, I can't help but think of 1948's "Spring in a Small Town", which is also the story of a woman and two men.
The difference is that "Spring in a Small Town" is more subtle, and the husband Dai Liyan's performance is more stoic, even willing to sacrifice himself for his wife; while David Lin of "Passion" is more direct, more grumpy, and more selfish.
The treatment at the end of "Furious Flames" is also just right, and the appearance of the psychiatrist makes the ending of the story relatively satisfactory.
Although there is "desire" in the name, and the lens language is also expressed very directly and boldly, the core of the whole story is love, using the treatment of literary and artistic films; I have to say that Luo Zhen does have a hand in directing literary and artistic films!
Luo Zhen left Shaw in the early 1970s to co-direct Mad Killer with Wu Siyuan; returned to Shaw in 1974, directing more than 20 films for Shaw by 1976, most of which were self-written and directed.
After leaving Shaw, he went to Taiwan to continue directing, and his last work was the 1982 crime film "Beast Heart", which later left Taiwan to move to the United States, where he died of a heart attack at home in the United States in 2003 at the age of 82.
Luo Zhen has a profound influence on the development of Hong Kong literary and art films, Li Lihua starred in "Red Tears", lingering pity, earn people tears; "Beacon Of Fire" to the chaotic world, this film won the 4 major awards of the Golden Horse Awards that year; "Mountain Song Love" and "Dying Swan" are also very classic literary and art films.
To this day, the expression of many literary and art films has more or less the shadow of Luo Zhen's films.