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In 1989.
He Ping, a 32-year-old director, would not have imagined that the films he made in the western desert this year would make him famous 2 years later.
I would not have thought that this film, which is different from other orthodox films, will be replayed by the CCTV movie channel for 23 consecutive years, becoming an immortal "monument" for domestic western martial arts films.
This film is "Double Flags Town KnifeMan"
(The movie channel began broadcasting in 1996, 23 years since its inception, and "Double Flags Town Knifeman" will be repeated several times a year)
The first draft of the script of "Double Flag Town Knife Man" was written by Yang Zhengguang, and later He Ping wrote and directed himself.
The whole film is filmed in the western desert full of loess and sand, and the street scene of Shuangqi Town, which cost 200,000 yuan to build, is full of depression, and the costumes of the characters are also tattered.
However, its story is simple and thought-provoking, and the goodness and ugliness of human nature are exposed, but it is worth pondering and recalling.
And the audience who has watched it often comments like this: simple and rude, no line is nonsense
Director: He Ping
Writers: He Ping / Yang Zhengguang
Starring: Gao Yiwei / Zhao Mana / Chang Jiang / Sun Haiying / Wang Gang
Genre: Action / Adventure / Martial Arts
Country of Production: Chinese mainland
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Release: 1991-05-17(Chinese mainland)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Douban: 8.2
The Western Wuji Knife Rider rarely encountered opponents in the world, and after his death, he left a son named Bao Ge, who had followed his father to practice the Wuji Sword Technique since childhood, and had done his true transmission. But the child brother is kind by nature, proud and unscrupulous, lacks experience in the jianghu and is cowardly and afraid of things, and has not been put in the eyes of people anywhere.
In accordance with his father's will, the brother went to Shuangqi Town to find his father's former lame son, and asked the cripple to marry him the daughter who had previously negotiated with his father and was married.
Along the way, the child brother met the old jianghu Sha Lifei, and when he learned that the child brother was carrying the money he was going to marry, Sha Lifei flicked away half of his money.
Arriving in Shuangqi Town, the child brother quickly found the future husband's lame family, but was disliked by the lame man and his daughter's good sister.
It turned out that when the Wuji knifeman was there, the lame man followed up like a fart worm, and took the initiative to give his daughter to the knifeman's son, originally wanting to find a good backer for his daughter. I didn't expect the knifeman to die so quickly, leaving a son who had no skills and no skills, and a silly head and a silly brain, and it was not safe to hand over his daughter to such a yellow-haired boy.
Nowadays, although the lame man is not rich and wealthy, he runs a not small tavern and has a good business. Therefore, the lame man was reluctant to agree to the child's offer, but left him to work in the tavern, hoping that he could live here with peace of mind.
But people can't help themselves in the jianghu, sometimes you don't want to cause trouble, but the trouble takes the initiative to find the door.
One day, there were a few uninvited guests in the tavern, they were bandits who were entrenched around the town of Shuangqi, and their leader was a sword immortal with high martial arts and fierce hearts, and the human setting was similar to the flying dragon in "Knife", all of which were big bosses who didn't talk much.
The bandits were full of wine and food, touched the lame man's house, and when they saw a beautiful and beautiful girl, they grabbed her and threw her wild in the tavern.
The men drinking in the tavern, seeing the bandits' ugly deeds, dared to be angry and turned their heads to the side and pretended not to see.
And the cripple rushed out to see that he only dared to kneel on the ground and plead bitterly, and did not dare to resist at all.
Only the child brother ran out from inside to drink, and after being bullied by the bandits, he finally couldn't bear to draw his sword.
Only to see the bandit fall to the ground in response, but no one saw the child's sword technique.
The bandit died, and the child brother formed a bond with a knife fairy, causing big trouble.
The crippled man was afraid that the child's brother's life would not be guaranteed, so he asked him to pack his bags overnight and flee shuangqi town with his good sister at dawn, but he was surrounded by villagers who rushed to the wind, and they would not let him go.
Brother Bao also lacked confidence in making enemies with a sword immortal, and he thought that he could go to Sha Lifei, but sha Lifei was fooled by the remaining half of the money.
Soon a knife immortal and a gang of bandits arrived, surrounding the town of Shuangqi to the point of no return, and the knife immortal himself got off his horse and walked into the town step by step.
But the boy was already waiting there, ready to fight it.
There are still righteous people in the town, and the lame, blacksmith, and drunkard all want to stop a knife fairy, but he stabs him and goes down to get a bento.
When the knife immortal walked step by step to the front of the child brother, the child brother drew a double knife again. At this time, the wind and sand suddenly arrived, obscuring the audience's view, we don't know how the two fought, and when the wind and sand passed, a knife fairy fell down in response.
Speaking of this, we have a lot of capacity to see that this is just the strengths and weaknesses of the film creators, and the mainland movies have always been short in action design, so the film creators simply abandon those gorgeous actions, refer to the American Western style, and let a knife fairy directly kill him.
As for why the child brother can always "take things from the air" and "suck" the two knives tied to the calf into his hands?
If you've seen the Star Wars series, you know, isn't that a simple "Force" effect?
At the end of the movie, the old jianghu Sha Lifei appeared again, and without saying a word, he took a knife fairy's sabre and left.
After burying the cripple, the brother left Shuangqi Town with his good sister.
In fact, the creators of Xi'an Film Studio originally wanted to shoot a Chinese version of the Western, so there were a lot of imitations of the classic Western movie "Red Dead Redemption" in the movie, and even the appearance of the duel with the knife was completely copied from the way the cowboys in the Western were dueling with guns.
Brother Bao has only made three knives in the whole film, one is to cut meat; the second is to kill bandits; the third is to kill a knife fairy, and only the knife that cuts the meat can be seen clearly by the audience.
Some people say that this is a gulong-style mood, in fact, the real master duel often determines the victory or defeat in an instant, and the film also clearly contains the traditional style of Westerns.
Desert, wind and sand, lone rangers, small towns, bandits, these are the standard features of Westerns.
But for the portrayal of cowardice and ugly humanity, the affirmation of the pride of the jianghu is the characteristic of martial arts movies.
It is precisely because of these two characteristics that "Double Flags Town KnifeMan" can be affirmed by Chinese and Western filmmakers, not only won the Top Ten Chinese Film Awards at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards, but also won the International Film Critics Award at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.
However, it is a pity that "Double Flag Town Knifeman" was released in 1991, creating a peak of domestic Westerns, but it has also become a masterpiece, and in the 28 years since this time, there has been no domestic similar film that can surpass it.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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