Since July 21, the names of many Hong Kong stars have also appeared in the list of stars who have come to henan, Tse Ting-feng and Chen Weiting have donated 1 million yuan, Cecilia Cheung, Joey Yung and Cai Zhuoyan have donated 500,000 yuan, Zhong Xintong and Li Keqin have also donated 300,000 yuan, and Li Ruotong has donated 200,000 yuan. Behind this move, of course, it can be seen that hong Kong stars are always concerned about the disaster in Henan.
I think of 30 years ago, when there was a serious flood in East China, when the Hong Kong performing arts industry directly donated the box office of a public welfare film, more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars.
Coupled with the concert income of the four kings on the same stage and donations from the public, in just ten days, the total amount of fundraising reached more than HK$470 million.
However, when the years pass, the most talked about, the audience remembers the most, is still the film made in 4 days, even with many emotional points, its Douban score is still only 6.9 points, only better than 50% of the comedy, it can be said that this is a bad film.
But it was "rotten" and shook its intestines.
Douban netizens said: In front of this movie, I am afraid that no Hong Kong film dares to boast of its "strong lineup".
In this movie with bugs in the history of Hong Kong films, directors Xu Ke, Gao Zhisen, Zhang Tongzu and Zhang Jianting have stuffed more than 200 stars in the Hong Kong film industry in 90 minutes, except for Jackie Chan Chow Yun Fat, all the Hong Kong stars who counted that year have arrived, including the four kings. And all cast members, zero film remuneration charity performances.
The story of the film is not worth mentioning, the typical Hong Kong film is in a hurry, but the reason why the film is brilliant is because behind it, there is the most brilliant galaxy of Hong Kong films in the 90s.
In 1991, the Hong Kong film industry took shape in two weeks, the names of the four kings were about to resound in The Xiangjiang River, superstars such as Zhang Guorong Mei Yanfang still shine, Hong Kong film beauties were at the peak of their lifetime, and the Hong Kong film industry was still called Oriental Hollywood.
In a word, it was the golden age of Hong Kong films.
But the film has also become the last portrayal of the golden age of Hong Kong films.
Just two years later, Hong Kong films lost an important Taiwan market and began to decline all the way, never to return to the light. And this movie, therefore, is more like a grand night feast, that night the streamer floats, the dance hall song stage, the entire night sky, are illuminated by the stars, everyone in front of and behind the scenes, think that the song will never stop, but people eventually disperse after the banquet, the feast finally becomes a thing of the past, an old dream, no longer like yesterday.
In the following 28 years, there were superstars who died, there were red stars withering, beauty grew old with the rivers and lakes, and the rivers and lakes accompanied the beauties grew old, and Hong Kong films have never had a feast since then.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > the era of the stars and the four kings, thus opening the curtain</h1>
The origin of the film is the flood in East China. Mui Yanfang, then president of the Hong Kong Performing Arts Association, Hui Guanwen, vice presidents hui guanwen and Tsang Chi-wai, launched a series of fundraising plans, including the "Forget Me Show" large-scale concert, as well as this "Night Feast of the Giants".
The biggest cast and the strongest lineup in the history of Hong Kong film were born.
The directors are Xu Ke, Gao Zhisen, Zhang Tongzu, Zhang Jianting, the screenwriting lineup includes Wang Jing, Xu Ke, Gao Zhisen, Chen Jiashang, the photographer is Liu Weiqiang, who later filmed "Infernal Affairs" and "Chinese Doctor", and the soundtrack is Lu Guanting, a soundtrack master who canonize the gods with "Love of a Lifetime".
The goal of the main creator is very clear, that is, to shoot a short and fast popular comedy, the whole movie, is to tell the story of the upstart Zeng Xiaozhi (Zeng Zhiwei), with the assistance of agent Zhang Yayou (Jacky Cheung), and the sworn enemy Hong Dabao to compete for the big real estate project in the hands of Kuwait's rich man (Lin Zixiang). In order to please the filial prince, they transformed their father Zeng Bo (Wu Yaohan) into an "upper-class person", wanting to hold a "night banquet for the giants", the final ending is naturally everyone's joy, Zeng Xiaozhi in order to celebrate the night banquet in the food block, the reunion ending...
The design of the comedy section of the film is not advanced, the story content and narrative logic can be called inexplicable, but the nonsense spirit is exerted to the extreme, and the guest stars mostly appear in the film with the most impressive image of the audience impression, and it can be said that counting stars is the biggest attraction of the film.
The first star in the film to introduce the film is Andy Lau, the king who has been practicing art for 40 years.
But at that time, Andy Lau was still half a year away from being named the Four Heavenly Kings by the Hong Kong media.
That year, Hua Tsai, who stepped into the standing, acted in 10 movies a year, nominated for the golden statue male protagonist with the "Half Billion Inspector Leiluo Biography", and his Tianmu Company's opening masterpiece "91 Condor Heroes" won more than 24 million at the box office, but he never made a blockbuster movie since then, and then Hua Tsai spent 10 years desperately filming to pay off debts, and ran farther and farther on the road of Hong Kong entertainment model.
Like Andy Lau, who has just started the life of the Heavenly King, there is also Dawn.
The film directly copied the role and style of him and Wu Mengda's "Gang Head Lucky Star", and Dawn played a boy who had a dream of being a singer but sang out of tune.
Prior to this, at the Scene of the East China Disaster Relief Fundraising Concert, when the dawn performance ended and he was preparing to leave the stage, some viewers said that he would donate 500,000 yuan more if he sang another song.
Dawn immediately returned to the scene, without communicating with the musicians, he raised mai to sing, and as a result, he sang out of tune twice, and was later ridiculed by the Hong Kong media as "the king of running tunes" for many years.
But dawn turns around and throws off the baggage in the film, and comes to a self-deprecation.
In the movie, it is not only Dawn who plays with the terrier, but also Jacky Cheung, who plays the most scenes in the film among the four kings, playing a worker who tries his best to please the boss in order to make money.
His funniest passage is at the end of the film, the frustrated Jacky Cheung sang "Do you know I am waiting for you" to the "wife" Wang Zuxian who returned after leaving, and Wang Zuxian immediately replied with a completely unreliable sentence of "love you more every day" - in fact, it was the popular song title of Hong Kong films that year.
Aaron Kwok, who has the least role in the Four Heavenly Kings, plays zhang Guorong's younger brother, although there are few scenes, but it is meaningful, and Zhang Guorong said to him in the film, I heard that you mix well in Hong Kong.
In 1991, when the era of The Hong Kong music scene came to an end and the four kings were ready to go, this drama was like a handover of the baton of the music world.
Since then, the era of the four great kings of the red and red has opened the curtain.
The emergence of the four kings has raised the public's pursuit of stars to an unprecedented height, and since then the figures of the four people have spread throughout every corner, hair salons, song halls, campuses, and even the background board of "Star Chaser" starring Cai Ming, which represents the official golden age of Hong Kong entertainment.
And in this golden age, of course, there is one person - Zhou Xingchi.
In 1991, Zhou Xingchi, who was at the peak of his appearance, could be described as a good order at that time.
If 1990's "Gamble Saint" broke the box office and relied on luck, then this year's hit "Truant Veyron" completely laid the status of the star in the film industry.
In "The Night Feast of the Giants", he just played soy sauce, and Zeng Zhiwei shouted: "Zhou Xingchi? He corrected with a serious face, "It's Star Master." The title of Star Lord, which has since been recognized, appeared in "Gamble Saint" and confirmed in "Night Feast of the Giants".
Although Star Ye only appeared in two scenes, both scenes are classics.
One is the self-deprecating gambling film -
Zeng: It's this kind of move again, can it be changed?
JC: You don't like it?
Zeng: No! JC: Are you tired of it?
Zeng: Not what I mean, that's what everyone means.
JC: But speaking of which, I feel a little tired of it myself.
Who wrote this line is no longer available, and I deeply suspect that it is Wang Jing, one of the screenwriters, whose "gambling film series" was on the big screen.
But the audience was also somewhat tired of aesthetic fatigue. And Wang Jingxingye is the "black powder" of his own films, which will never appear in a second place in the world's films, and Hong Kong films are therefore unique.
But the most classic, or at the end of the movie, the director specially arranged the Hong Kong comedy of the year to carry the handle "cold face laughter" Xu Guanwen, and the new generation of "comedy king" of the red to confront.
Special reminder to Chow Sing Chi next to this, not only one of the screenwriters of the film, but also the screenwriter of "Truant Weilong", Huang Bingyao, who had died when the film was released. There is reason to believe that this fragment should be from his handwriting.
In the film, the king of two generations of comedy grabs a chicken head at the dinner table, and finally although Xu Guanwen grabs the chicken head, Zhou Xingchi eats a full plate of chicken, and the baton of Hong Kong comedy is officially completed in this seemingly nonsensical bridge section.
The next 1992, the annual top ten high-grossing films, Xingye monopolized seven, and the top five are him, the era of Zhou Xingchi, officially arrived.
In the following beautiful nights of Hong Kong films, countless young people saw Stephen Chow's comedic talent and remembered the king of comedy. Years later, they exchanged that gratitude for "We owe Star Ye a movie ticket." Many years later, when the Star Master comedy was no longer at the peak, the sentence became "Star Master owes us a movie ticket."
The beginning of the story is this "night feast of the giants", as for the future, to paraphrase a line from the Star Ye movie:
"I guessed the beginning, but I couldn't guess the ending."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="137" > Gongli acted in "The Night Feast of the Giants"? </h1>
Also unable to guess the future is Gong Li in the film.
In fact, Gong Li not only participated in the show, but the screenwriter also played a gossip terrier fiercely.
In the film, Xingye appeared to treat Zeng Xiaozhi's wife with special functions, turning people into Gong Li.
In the play, Gong Li woke up and said to Zeng Zhiwei: I like you, you are mr. Zhang who is personable!
Zeng Zhiwei blurted out: I am not Zhang Yimou!
Gong Li: I said you are Zhang Guorong.
Zeng Zhiwei said that he was not surnamed Zhang, and at this time Xingye spoke, telling him that your real surname was Zhang, and he did not believe in looking in the mirror.
Then Zeng Zhiwei looked in the mirror and saw his face turn into Zhang Guorong's nonsensical paragraph.
After Xingye sent Zeng Zhiwei away, he began to chat with Gong Li: Miss Gong, the little surname Xing, you call me Xingye.
Gong Li appeared more than once, and the end of the dish session appeared again, and the plate of white cut chicken that Xu Guanwen and Zhou Xingchi fought over the chicken head was brought up by Gong Li.
In that golden age of Hong Kong films, there were only Gong Huang among mainland actresses, who could sit on an equal footing with top superstars like Xingye.
At that time, many Hong Kong film actresses privately bought the lighting master, hoping to make more lights to make themselves look beautiful. And Gong Li didn't need to say anything, Li Li held Wang Jing to take the initiative to tell the lights, the lamp of Gong Li must be enough, and everything that can be played will be hit.
It is said that Gong Li wears a northeast flower pants every day on the set, and the director endured for a long time and finally couldn't bear it, asked her, Gong Li said: Comfortable to wear, I brought a lot of strips.
Although Gong Li and "Personable Mr. Zhang" in the film have no rivalry, two years later, the two will eventually cooperate in a peak of the Chinese film industry, "Personable Mr. Zhang" Zhang Guorong, will reach the peak of personal performance in the film.
This movie is "Farewell to the Overlord".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="139" > love and hate, all in this movie</h1>
Looking back at "The Night Feast of the Giants", the more I watch it, the more magical it feels, because the film was just a star-studded nonsense comedy in the past, but now it looks like a prophecy of a Hong Kong film.
Ruthless field, not jianghu.
In the film, the boss Zeng Zhiwei pointed to Liu Jialing and Maggie Cheung and said to Liang Chaowei: You go and greet them both.
Liang Chaowei looked embarrassed: "Both of them, I can't say hello...
Now the audience must think that they are ridiculing the scandal of Liang Chaowei, Liu Jialing, and Maggie Cheung, but in that year, this scandalous story that was constantly cut and sorted out did not actually begin.
Another passage in the film is the frustrated Zeng Xiaozhizhi returning home and beginning to sing the English version of "Emperor Girl Flower", playing the Cantonese opera Hua Dan is Maggie Cheung and Liu Jialing, accompanied by the famous Beyond band, and as if the preview of the future story, Maggie Cheung and Liu Jialing in the Cantonese opera paragraph are competing for the position of the main palace.
This story, until 2008, Liang Chaowei and Liu Jialing tied the knot to be considered the finale.
In addition to the complaining couples in the film, there are two real couples, one is the waiter who flashes in the tea house, it is Jacky Cheung's wife Luo Meiwei.
There is also a pair of non-face-to-face Lin Zixiang, who plays the Kuwaiti prince Ali Baba
And Ye Qianwen, who came to borrow the toilet.
At that time, the two were definitely the top streams of the Cantonese music scene.
Xu Ke's "Huang Feihong" was released, and he found Huang Xia to cooperate. After listening to the "General's Order" hundreds of times, Huang Xia wrote "Boys Should Strengthen Themselves". When Lin Zixiang went to record the song, he didn't even have a band, and he sang the Chinese classic at the piano.
In the same year, Ye Qianwen launched "Dashing Walk Once", a sentence "I bet my youth on tomorrow, you exchange true feelings for this life" for everyone to empathize.
Subsequently, these two singers, because of a "choice" love is set for life, Lin Zixiang and the original partner broke up. 6 years after "The Night Feast of the Giants", the two married in Canada, and since then they have faded out of the entertainment circle and become the fairy lovers of the Hong Kong Music River.
The story inside and outside the play is like murakami's saying- "The lost are lost, and the people who meet will be reunited." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="142" > those superstars, never to be seen again</h1>
But there are also some people who will not meet the audience again.
In this movie that year, almost all the supporting roles of the dragon set were big names, including Zhang Guorong, who had quit the music scene at that time, and flew back to Hong Kong, China, from Canada in order to participate in the one-day scene in "The Night Feast of the Giants".
Two years later, the superstar will complete his acting masterpiece and eventually pass the Cannes film emperor by only one vote, because a judge voted him best actress. Twelve years after "The Night Feast of the Giants," the superstar jumped and April Fool's Day took on a different meaning.
There are too many nostalgic superstars in the movie, and Mei Yanfang, who has a thousand manners in the film, plays herself who came to the Zeng family to borrow a toilet, and it is also twelve years later, the generation of diva will wear a wedding dress and complete the last concert of her life in the company of Andy Lau.
Huang Xia, who once wrote "a laugh in the sea" and "a rushing wave", played a fish egg vendor in the film. A generation of talents laughed and scolded by people, but in the end it was difficult to escape the changes of the times, and the last classics of his life were almost all contributed to Xu Ke.
There was also the Beyond band, which was popular in Asia at that time, which also starred in the film, and was fired from the role of Zeng Zhiwei.
That year, Huang Jiaju's style was brilliant and talented, but he was not very proud musically, and was once suppressed by the Grasshopper Band in the Top Ten Golden Melody Awards and other awards, coupled with too many film and television dramas and variety shows in the Hong Kong entertainment ecology, which eventually prompted Huang Jiaju to lead the band to the Japanese market, and finally ushered in the fate of a generation of geniuses there.
Equally lamentable, of course, is Wu Mengda, wu Mengda in the film plays a fried rice hero, and Wu Mengda outside the film is reborn after nearly ten years of suffering, and finally became the most dazzling supporting role in the golden age of Hong Kong films, until the golden age of Hong Kong films is gone, and Uncle Da also bids farewell to us.
Someone once sighed: "The Hong Kong people's nostalgia for Zhang Guorong and Mui Yanfang is actually a nostalgia for that golden age." At that time, Hong Kong was in the position of cultural export, from a port city to an international metropolis, and Hong Kong people saw in them their own cultural identity and found self-confidence. ”
And when the superstars leave, an era is gone, the glorious years that have passed, who resonates?
In "The Ghost of Qiannu", Huang Xia wrote: "Life is, beautiful dreams and hot hopes. But "in the dream, there are faint tears."
Heroes are no match for the years and the times. When the wind blows and the clouds disperse, there are still traces of birds flying in the sky.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="144" > "a long shed for thousands of miles, no unbroken feast"</h1>
Some netizens said: The biggest climax of the film is the cast list after the end.
But are there really only those brilliant superstars who have passed away with the wind? Of course not only.
Ren Dahua, who had not yet become a film emperor at that time, continued the role modeling of the blockbuster film in the film, and later this kind of Hong Kong film disappeared.
At the banquet, Dillon and Zeng Jiang were responsible for passing the dishes, and behind Zeng Zhiwei were two great directors, Chu Yuan and Wu Yusen. The two directors, representing the era of traditional Martial Arts films and hero films made in Hong Kong, respectively, have also dissipated.
The family of the "Rich and Powerful" series at the banquet, Shen Dianxia, Dong Biao, and Li Lizhen, are still keen to buy lottery tickets, but after shen Dianxia's death, the traditional Hong Kong-style civic comedy has gradually disappeared. After Li Lizhen bid farewell to this classic series, she finally embarked on the acting path that was completely opposite to that of Jade Girl.
In the film, when Mrs. Zeng, played by Zheng Yuling, asked Zeng Zhiwei after he woke up from a dream and asked him who he dreamed of becoming, there was such a dialogue: Zheng: Then who have I become? Zeng: Zheng Yuling. Zheng: Well, I like her! Zeng: She is so low-level you like her, do you have a problem? Zheng: Low-level what, she has good acting skills, fool. Zeng: Acting is useless...
In the golden age of Hong Kong films, Zheng Yuling was known as the Zheng Jiu Group, and Hong Kong comedies were popular at that time, and there were Zheng Yuling everywhere. Later, the classic Hong Kong-style comedy declined, and Zheng Yuling was no longer the Zheng Jiu group.
There is also Wang Zuxian, who plays Jacky Cheung's wife in the film, is still Xiao Qian's eyes,
When she and Zhang Guorong presented the award together, Zhang Guorong said, why did she and Liang Chaowei have a kiss scene in the third part of "Ghost of Qiannu", but not her two films? Wang Zuxian said, let's shoot the fourth part together.
But "Ghost of a Woman" filmed the third part, there is no longer a sequel, in 2001, Wang Zuxian finished filming "Dream in the Garden" announced the end of the film, since then quit the entertainment circle, Hong Kong-style fantasy films, but also passed away with the wind.
There is also Maggie Cheung, who plays a Cantonese opera celebrity in the film, participated in "Ruan Lingyu" in 1991, and finally with superb acting skills, completely broke the doubts of the outside world, won the Berlin Film Queen, and once again sealed the Academy Award, Maggie Cheung stood on the stage, with a proud face: "The award is in my hand, no matter what you say." ”
However, when "Fancy Years" created the peak for Hong Kong-made literary and art films, Maggie Cheung gradually faded out of the Chinese film scene, and Hong Kong-style literary and art films no longer had Fancy Years.
Who would have thought that hui Yinghong, who played the waiter in "The Night Banquet of the Giants", finally sealed it again after many years of suffering, but instead supported half of the Hong Kong actresses in the Academy Awards.
The ups and downs of the movie, like life, are so exciting.
But in that year, the future has not yet happened, Hong Kong films are still star-studded, and Hong Kong stars have also gathered again and again to help charity.
In 1993, east China once again sent a flood, and Hong Kong and Taiwan stars held charity performances again. The four kings, Jackie Chan, Principal Tan, Mei Yanfang and many other stars have worked together to raise nearly 20 million yuan;
In 2008, HK Star once again raised funds for the Wenchuan earthquake, performing for nine consecutive hours and raising 32.37 million yuan in one night.
In April 2010, artists held a grand performance at the Red Pavilion to raise funds for the Yushu earthquake in Qinghai. In the end, 35.06 million yuan was raised.
In a sense, the gathering again and again also recorded the thousands of stars in the glorious era of Hong Kong entertainment.
In fact, "The Night Feast of the Giants" could have had a sequel.
In 2020, Gu Tianle Zeng Zhiwei raised funds for the Hong Kong showbiz circle, and once rumored to start filming a new giant night banquet, but the movie was finally called "Always Love in Isolation", douban score 4.3, even if Jackie Chan, who missed "The Night Banquet of the Giants", came back and turned over the heel that year, the movie was still dismal at the box office.
Why can't Hong Kong films make "The Night Feast of the Giants" anymore?
A big reason may be that the influence of Gu Tianle and Zeng Zhiwei is not as good as that of Mei Yanfang, who launched the "Night Feast of the Giants".
But in the final analysis, the success of "The Night Feast of the Giants" may still be attributed to the Hong Kong film industry in the 1980s and 1990s, with film ghosts such as Gao Zhisen and Xu Ke, with god editing such as Hu Dawei, with gold medal cameras such as Liu Weiqiang, and with grain superstars in the golden age, otherwise it would be difficult to complete a comedy of unprecedented scale in 4 days.
The final achievement of "Night Feast of the Giants" is not only the elite in front of and behind the stage, but the golden age of Hong Kong films, the big directors and big stars involved in that year are countless, but the production cost is not more than one million, in order to avoid the next star show fundraising schedule, it must be completed within four days, and all the staff work all night.
The stars have no complaints about the number of scenes, the bad shooting location, etc. Zhang Guorong flew back for a play. All red stars shared a village house borrowed by the crew as a lounge, and all of this is of course unimaginable for the traffic peanuts of today's internal entertainment.
In order to accommodate Zheng Yuling's schedule that year, the crew began to shoot the big scene of the night banquet in advance. The 185-square-meter space is packed with hundreds of people, no air conditioning, and hundreds of headlights that make the stars sweat.
But after Xu Ke finished explaining, the four cameras immediately started; all the actors immediately put into the performance, and the situation of "people waiting for him, he waiting for others" did not appear at all. Zhang Guorong, who flew back to shoot this scene, arrived at the scene early and buried himself.
And now, those who created the classics, the lively, united, and star-studded Hong Kong films, the glorious years of the Hong Kong films, have long gone. Even Gu Tianle could not replicate that "night feast of the giants".
At the end of the film, the night banquet was not completed, and Zeng Zhiwei invited the neighbors to eat, eating a night food stall.
Those pyrotechnic neighbors in the city are the same people in the dream. At that time, Maggie Cheung did not know that she would compete with Liu Jialing for the palace, Zhou Xingchi and Xu Guanwen did not know the next king of comedy, Zhang Guorong Mei Yanfang, would not know the fate of the future, those superstars who were looked up to, also fell into the red dust, life and old age and illness and death, resentment and hatred, love and separation, can not be sought, everything must be experienced.
"Dream of the Red Chamber" said it well: "Thousands of miles to build a long shed, there is no feast that does not disperse." ”
Today, when we watch "The Night Feast of the Giants", we miss not only Zhang Guorong, not only Mei Yanfang, not only Zhou Xingchi and the Four Heavenly Kings who are just young, not only those golden supporting roles who have passed away, but also the golden age that belongs to Hong Kong films.
Back to one night two years before the filming of the film, Zhang Guorong, who was preparing to retire from the singing world, had dinner with Chen Shaoqi and Li Xiaotian. My brother said that he wanted to write a theme song for the farewell concert as a finale song.
Chen Shaoqi then said: "Your famous song is called "The Wind Continues to Blow", so it is better to write a song "When the Wind Rises Again". When the wind rises like this, everyone will think of you. ”
Later, Zhang Guorong sang: "In the precious years / Looking for the poem in my heart / When the wind rises again / In the middle of the silent night, I think of your support for me / I hear cheers crying out my thanks again / Although I have said goodbye / There is still a hint of warmth ..."
When I watched "The Night Feast of the Giants" in the video hall, I shouted out every time I found a familiar Hong Kong star with my childhood playmates. The result was called from the beginning to the end, and the mood of the day did not appear since. That was the last glory of Hong Kong films in the early 90s, and it remained in the hearts of every audience.
Looking back now, it is the mood in Zhang Guorong's song. "Although it has been said goodbye / there is still a hint of warmth".
Thank you, Hong Kong Piece.