On August 15, 1991, "Wong Fei Hung" premiered in Hong Kong, marking the 30th anniversary.
Huang Feihong is the most heavyweight traffic IP of Hong Kong movies, and this "Huang Feihong" starring Jet Li is one of the best martial arts films of the 90s.
The film is produced by Jiahe, xu ke producer + director + screenwriter, jet Li, Guan Zhilin, Jacky Cheung, Yuan Biao, Zheng Zeshi, Ren Shiguan starring, Kasi's luxury, the crown of the whole series.
Huang Feihong to Jet Li, just as Little Ma Ge to Chow Yun Fat, Chen Jiaju to Jackie Chan, supreme treasure to Chow Sing Chi, are all key roles in injecting soul into his actor's career.
Since the beginning of this film, Jet Li, a Hong Kong drifter from the mainland, officially has a place in the Hong Kong film industry, and is the most box office appealing movie superstar on a par with Bi Zhou Cheng and Andy Lau.
Behind the success must be hardships, and the creation of classics must have twists and turns. Today, we will talk about the twists and turns and grudges behind the scenes of the classic "Huang Feihong".
In 1982, Jet Li starred in "Shaolin Temple", which was released in the mainland, and the film set a box office of 161 million yuan with a dime ticket price; in the same year, the film, as the first mainland kung fu film released in Hong Kong, won a box office performance of 16.16 million Hong Kong dollars, breaking the hong Kong kung fu film sales record.
In 1983, Jet Li continued to star in the Shaolin movie "Kung Fu Kid". The film's final box office in Hong Kong reached 22.29 million, ranking third in the year, second only to New Art City's "The Secret Order of the Queen of the Best Partner" and "Merry Christmas", which attracted the attention of mainland superstar Jet Li.
Around the same time, Xu Keye had the idea of remaking "Huang Feihong", but he was suffering from the fact that he could not find a suitable candidate. After the popularity of "The True Colors of Heroes", he had planned to find Dillon and Zhou Runfa to partner to star in "Huang Feihong", but the image of Xiao Ma Ge was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and then playing Liang Kuan has lost its convincing.
After several years of development in Hong Kong, Jet Li's port drifting road did not go as smoothly as imagined, but he suffered a lot of cold treatment in a foreign land. So in July 1988, he went to the United States as a visiting scholar and later stayed in the United States to promote Chinese martial arts. During this period, he cooperated with Zhou Xingchi and Li Zhi in a "Dragon in the End of the World".
In 1989, Xu Ke and Wu Yusen parted ways and filmed "Hero Essence 3 Sunset Song" alone, but unfortunately suffered box office Waterloo. Therefore, he decided to abandon the field of police films and enter the world of martial arts films. During the filming of "Smiling Proud of the River", Xu Ke went to the United States to visit Jet Li to discuss cooperation.
After a heated conversation, the two hit it off immediately, and then tested the water to cooperate in a "Dragon Walks the World". Jiahe believes that Jet Li is already a thing of the past and no longer has box office appeal, so he sealed the film. However, after this cooperation, Xu Ke basically confirmed that Jet Li is the best candidate for "Huang Feihong".
After a long loading process, Xu Ke finally believed that all aspects of the conditions were ripe. In 1990, with the support of Jiahe, Xu Ke officially began filming "Huang Feihong", pulling in a vote of Hong Kong superstars such as Guan Zhilin, Jacky Cheung, Yuan Biao, zheng Zeshi, etc., to match the mainland boy Jet Li.
Like "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" and "Undefeated in the East", during the filming of "Huang Feihong", Xu Ke continued to break the tradition and innovate to ensure that it was different from the previous action film style. In the action design, he ignored the opposition of Liu Jiarong, Yuan Xiangren and other martial artists, and incorporated a lot of personal ideas.
For example, Huang Feihong's "shadowless feet" is a new trick that Xu Ke insisted on joining, and the "ladder war" at the end of the film is the inspiration that Xu Ke got when playing video games. He said: "I'm used to innovating while shooting, so I keep shooting and creating. ”
Halfway through the film, Jet Li injured his leg and could not continue shooting. As a result, most of the martial arts scenes in the later period were completed by the stuntman Xiong Xinxin.
Before Jet Li, the most popular image of Wong Fei Hung in the Hong Kong film industry was Kwan Tak Hung. According to statistics, Guan Dexing has acted in more than 70 Huang Feihong films, almost monopolizing this subject, which has led to many of Jet Li's previous remakes ending in failure.
However, this remake was not only a success, but also a blue. The film not only retains many characters in the original story, but also adds the love line between Huang Feihong and aunt Thirteen, and at the same time, the plot also integrates more national righteousness, making the whole story richer and fuller.
Before the film was finished, Xu Ke came up with the English name "Onceuponatimein China" for "Huang Feihong", that is, "Once Upon a Time in China".
When I watched "Once Upon a Time in America" before, Xu Ke liked it very much, and he realized and merged the two ideas of "Huang Feihong" and "China Past" at the same time.
"Wong Fei Hung" has many places involving the clash of Chinese and Western cultures, which in addition to Xu Ke's study abroad experience, but more importantly, after the signing of the agreement between China and the UK in the 1980s to reclaim Hong Kong, many people believe that this is an unstable era.
Xu Ke believes that Hong Kong people have forgotten that we have been growing up in this environment for so many years, and when filming this scene, we still have to tell everyone that we still have to focus on roots. So the film is about a family concept and collective life.
On August 15, 1991, "Wong Fei Hung" was released in Hong Kong, a box office hit, ranking eighth in the annual rankings, second only to "Truant Weilong", "Lame Hao", "Across the Sea", "The Whole Trick Expert" and other films. Since the beginning of this year, Jet Li and Jackie Chan, Zhou Runfa, Chow Xingchi and Andy Lau have formed a trend of "five hegemons standing side by side".
At the Academy Awards ceremony the following year, Xu Ke and Ma Dangxiong made a big splash. "Huang Feihong" won four awards such as best director, best editing, best soundtrack, and best martial arts, while "Lame Hao" won the best film and best screenplay awards.
Seeing jet Li turning red again, Jiahe took out the movie that was sealed two years ago and renamed it "92 Huang Feihong's Dragon Walks the World", ready to rub hot spots to make a big profit, but unfortunately it backfired, and the box office performance of the film was not ideal.
In addition, Jiahe also proposed to Jet Li to renew his contract for two years. Originally, it was a win-win thing, but after Jiahe's various unequal treaties and bullying behavior, Jet Li angrily called off filming "Huang Feihong 2", which caused an uproar.
Jet Li stressed: "I have lost my hand in filming for Jiahe, and I have paid an effort and price for every action, and I cannot treat him differently because I come from the mainland." Everyone should have their own rights and dignity, and I don't want to be bullied for the rest of my life. ”
Isolated and helpless, Rich Arts boss Cai Ziming stepped in as Jet Li's new agent. Under Cai Ziming's series of iron fist means, the arrogant and unreasonable Jiahe could only compensate and apologize in the end and terminate the unfair contract. In addition, Cai Ziming also offered 40,000 Hong Kong dollars to Jet Li for the purpose of settling down.
When jet li and Cai Ziming, two guests from other places, were preparing to show their grand plans, on April 16, 1992, Cai Ziming was sniped by gunmen in the Tsim Sha Tsui Center, and died six times in the body, shocking the whole hong Kong, and Jet Li's film career fell into a trough again.
Many film companies across Hong Kong want Jet Li to die, but the Kung Fu Emperor is not soft. In 1992, Jet Li formed his own Zhengdong Film Company and served as a film producer under the name of "Li Yangzhong", officially starting a career of free entrepreneurship.
(This article was first published on the public account: the birth of a word)