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If you ask me which director in film history is the most sorry, Pigo will not hesitate to say the name of "Hu Jinquan".
Hu Jinquan, one of Shaw's three directors, is good at shooting aesthetic martial arts films with lofty artistic conceptions. Most of his works are of high artistic value, and he also has a very "self" pursuit. However, this kind of style of work was not liked by the audience at that time, and after its release, it failed miserably at the box office, and its directing career was also full of tragedy.
However, in 1992, the art master Hu Jinquan rarely made a commercial fantasy martial arts film "The Yin and Yang King of the Painted Skin", and even invited Wang Zuxian, Zheng Shaoqiu, Hong Jinbao, Lin Zhengying and other celebrities to help.
However, such a work with a star cast did not succeed, and was withdrawn after only 6 days of release in Hong Kong, and the final box office was fixed at HK$1.32 million.
What is even more tragic is that Hu Jinquan has been in a difficult situation since then, and until his death in 1997, no new works were released, and this imperfect work became his posthumous work.
More than two decades later, there are still many questions about this work: why did Hu Jinquan shoot such an "unusual" commercial film? Why did the film fail so badly after its release?
Today, Pigo will talk to you about the past of this movie.
01. The "crux" of Master Hu Jinquan's heart in his later years
In 1982, after the launch of the two films "The Great Reincarnation" and "The First in the World", Hu Jinquan "blocked" his martial arts film territory, and at this time he had only one idea in his heart - to put "The History of Chinese Workers' Blood and Tears" on the big screen.
He began to prepare in 1982, but after 10 years of not being able to raise enough funds, the investors he found were generally still praising greatness in the first sentence, and the latter sentence became "Love can not help".
No one is willing to vote, so they have to "make money" by themselves, so Hu Jinquan has a new plan in his mind: follow Xu Ke, Wang Jing and others to make a commercial blockbuster, as long as there is something to achieve at the box office, you can make "The History of Chinese Workers' Blood and Tears" take the first step.
To this end, he "broke the ground" to cater to the market, made a great compromise in the story, weakened the texture of the jianghu in previous works, and tried to create a fantasy martial arts film that was most loved by the audience.
In terms of cast, Hu Jinquan is also rare in "big strokes", he found the "half of the country" of Hong Kong fantasy films - Wang Zuxian, Wu Ma and Liu Xun of the "Ghost of Qiannu" series, Hong Jinbao and Lin Zhengying, who pioneered zombie genre films, and Zheng Shaoqiu of "New Shushan Swordsman", all joined.
From the theme to the actors, they were the most appealing in the Hong Kong film industry at that time, and the industry also expected Hu Jinquan to break the "box office curse" this time, and Hu Jinquan himself was also full of confidence.
02, the fantasy story told by the film
"The Yin and Yang King of the Painted Skin" is adapted from the "Painted Skin" story in "Liaozhai Zhiyi", this title with a strong earthy flavor, it seems to be similar to the current style of the network movie, but the simple title is also intuitive and clear, with the cast, may be able to enhance the appeal.
The beginning of the story is also much the same as the plot of the novel "Painted Skin", wang shunsheng (played by Zheng Shaoqiu), a scholar of the first place, met the beautiful young woman You Feng (played by Wang Zuxian), because she learned that she was a concubine who had sneaked away from a large family, so she had a non-divided idea and wanted to accept her as a concubine.
Wang Shunsheng's original wife, Chen Shi, found that You Feng turned out to be a female ghost with a painted skin, and the couple was greatly shocked, and Wang Shunsheng risked his death to go to the Qingfeng Temple of Erlonggou to ask for help from Zhang Daoling (played by Liu Xun), a Yuqing Daoist. Zhang Daoling and his brother Feng Daoren (played by Noon Ma) went down the mountain to meet the female ghost, and it was also from this that he learned the origin of the female ghost You Feng.
Originally, there was a middle zone between the yin and yang realms, called the yin and yang realms, which was ruled by a yin and yang dharma king who had cultivated mana. This Dharma King is a being who is neither human nor ghost, nor god nor immortal, nor a Buddha, and he intercepts the ghosts that pass by between the yin and yang realms and prevents them from reincarnating in order to increase his own strength.
You Feng was a dramatist before she was born, and once she had an accident while performing on stage, but after her death, she was intercepted by the King of The Law in the Yin and Yang Realm, so that she could not reincarnate again. Yu Feng fled without the king's preparation, and if he was caught, he would be severely punished.
You Feng asked Zhang Daoling and Feng Daoren for help, but the two were not high in mana and it was difficult to deal with the King, so they had to take You Feng to ask for help from the High Man Taiyi Shangren. At this time, in order to track Down You Feng, the King also came to the Yang Realm and attached himself to Wang Shunsheng's body.
Tai Yi Shangren took Zhang Daoling and You Feng to find the King, and along the way killed the demons and exorcised the demons, and fought with the King of the Fa Lily. In the end, his king was still unable to match the mana of The Taiyi Shangren, and after stubborn resistance, he was destroyed.
You Feng was finally able to reincarnate, and before leaving, she removed the paint skin on her face, revealing her original face, and after reincarnation, she became the son of Wang Shunsheng and Chen.
03, Hu Jinquan's "Change and Invariance" in this movie
Although it is a fantasy martial arts film, from the scene creation of the movie, we can still see some characteristics of Hu Jinquan's previous works.
The whole film was filmed in Datong, Wutai Mountain and Beiying Studio in Shanxi, and according to Hu Jinquan's preferences, it is naturally indispensable to admire the landscape, like the snow scene of Wutai Mountain at minus 20 degrees.
The part of the Yin and Yang Realm was filmed in the Ming Tombs and Huairou, which also shows the atmosphere of Hu Jinquan's films. The slow movement of the mirror, with the walking of the characters and the transformation of the scene to promote the development of the plot, is also in line with Hu Jinquan's consistent approach.
In addition, Tai Yi Shangren led everyone to the king's lair, and fought with the ghost demon along the way, which was also very similar to the performance method in "Chivalrous Woman".
In the plot role part, Hu Jinquan also adapted the original book according to his personal feelings, such as Wang Shunsheng, Chen Shi and the painted skin ghost are all from the original novel of "Painted Skin", but the Yin and Yang Dharma King is Hu Jinquan's "private goods".
Because of his long-term residence in the United States, Hu Jinquan felt that he had left his homeland for a long time, and his living habits and mentality were very different from those of his countrymen. In the United States, he has always been treated as an outsider and suffered all kinds of discrimination.
The Yin-Yang Dharma King and his lonely ghosts wandering in the Yin-Yang Realms were similar to Hu Jinquan's situation, always in an awkward situation, difficult to tolerate in heaven and earth. Therefore, the setting of "Yin and Yang Dharma King" has its own unique cultural connotation, which is a kind of expression method used by Hu Jinquan to use ancient irony to the present.
However, in the use of some unique fantasy elements, it can also be seen that Hu Jinquan's "compromise" is to make the audience like.
For example, the special effects such as magic weapons and spirit runes in the fighting process are actually the same as those zombie films of "Ghost of Qiannu" and Lin Zhengying.
Actors such as Wang Zuxian, Wu Ma, Liu Xun, and Hong Jinbao are originally from these two types of movies, not to mention the cameos of the zombie Dao commander Lin Zhengying, and their participation can also allow the audience to recognize the "legitimacy" of the film.
04, the biggest problem of the film
Pigo believes that the biggest problem with "The Yin and Yang King of Painted Skin" is mainly in three aspects: narrative rhythm, character shaping and visual effects.
Hu Jinquan's first cut was more than 2 hours long, but he did not have the final editing rights, perhaps to increase the schedule, the film was cut to 95 minutes before the release, a large number of plots were cut, and the narrative of the film was affected.
This is also why many of the plots in the film are very abrupt, even inconsistent, such as Wang Shunsheng's wife Chen Shiming has been strangled by the King, but the end of the film appears again; Feng Daoren first appeared at night selling dog meat noodles to tease Wang Shunsheng, and I don't know what the intention was; the female ghost painting given to Wang Shunsheng by Tai Yi Shangren also appeared inexplicably.
In terms of character shaping, it has not been able to reach the level of Hu Jinquan's previous works, which is also the direct reason for the low evaluation of the audience.
For example, at the beginning of the appearance of the scholar Wang Shunsheng played his own small calculations, thinking of wrong and timid and afraid of things, the character personality has just stood up, but in the blink of an eye, he is possessed by the king and becomes another look.
In addition to showing her poor life, the female ghost You Feng covered her face with cloth throughout the whole process, wrapped tightly and solidly, and had neither personality characteristics nor beauty.
And Zhang Daoling, Feng Daoren, Taiyi Shangren, Ziyi Daoist and other Daoists only showed their ability to lower the demon Voldemort, and there were not many scenes that showed the character of the characters.
In contrast, the Yin-Yang Dharma King, as a villain, is more brilliant, and being able to see his arrogance and scheming is a highlight of the film.
The backwardness of the film's special effects also makes the viewing of the whole movie discounted.
Objectively speaking, this is not under hu Jinquan's control, after all, this is not what he is good at, and it is difficult to have the creativity of going to heaven and earth like Xu Ke and Cheng Xiaodong. Therefore, several special effects and fights in the film are unsatisfactory, and the fight is lively but not good.
05, a regrettable ending
The special effects are not good, there is no good story, the character plot can not justify itself, and finally "The Yin and Yang King of the Painted Skin" was replaced by the offline line just 6 days after its release (see the picture below for the duration of the release: September 18, 1993 - September 23, 1993), with a total box office of 1.32 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 117th in Hong Kong (the first local film was "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", with a box office of 40.17 million Hong Kong dollars).
The film's box office failure is naturally not surprising, and all this seems to confirm Hu Jinquan's "backwardness".
His films are excellent, but after entering the 90s, they have gradually failed to keep up with the times.
The failure of the film also caused Hu Jinquan to suffer a heavy blow, his life was once in trouble, and it was difficult to launch new works.
However, he still pushed forward the filming of "The History of Chinese Workers' Blood and Tears" against all odds, and it was not until the end of 1996 that he received half of the investment from the British Goldcrest company; the American company of Zhang Jiazhen and Wu Yusen undertook the other half, preparing to officially start production in the spring of 1997.
In January 1997, in order to be able to devote himself to the shooting of the new film with peace of mind, Hu Jinquan decided to do a heart catheter balloon expansion surgery under the advice of doctors, but on January 14, complications occurred after the operation, and Hu Jinquan died in the evening of the same day.
A generation of film legends finally passed away with unfulfilled wishes, which made people sigh at Providence.
In 2000, Wu Yusen wanted to complete Hu Jinquan's last wish to shoot "The History of Chinese Workers' Blood and Tears", but until 2008, when he completed "Chibi", there was still no action. More than 20 years have passed, and Wu Yusen is now powerless, and presumably this movie is difficult to complete.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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