Throughout the entire film history, there have been 4 "climaxes" of martial arts movies.
Among them, for the first time, there was an unprecedented grand occasion that was rarely seen.
It is said that after the release of "Burning the Red Lotus Temple", the alleys were empty for a while, and since then it has attracted countless imitators.
From 1928 to 1931 alone, 227 martial arts films were born, driving the first boom in the history of film.
With the success of a series of martial arts classic IP remakes such as "Huang Feihong", "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu", "New Dragon Gate Inn" and so on, the call for "Burning Red Lotus Temple" is also increasing.
So director Lin Lingdong pulled Xu Ke and began to adapt and remake the movie "Burning Red Lotus Temple".
The film's unique and bold and avant-garde plot seemed out of place in the film market at that time.
Banned for 7 days of release, the box office was only 1.82 million, Xu Ke's martial arts film was born at the wrong time and was buried for 27 years:
"Burning Red Lotus Temple" 丨Burning Paradise
The original work "Burning the Red Lotus Temple", in fact, is called "The Legend of the Strange Heroes of the Jianghu", and the author is the famous martial arts novelist pingjiang buxiaosheng of the Republic of China.
The novel incorporates stories such as Ye Shi and rumors such as "Zhang Wenxiang's Stabbing Horse", one of the four strange cases in the late Qing Dynasty, and involves the enmity and hatred of the two major martial arts sects.
The main plot of the movie "Burning Red Lotus Temple" is taken from the sixty-fifth to eighty-sixth times of "The Legend of the Strange Hero of the Jianghu".
After the release of the film, it was extremely popular, and the filmmakers took advantage of the situation to pursue, shooting 18 consecutive episodes in three years, which became an important milestone in the history of martial arts films.
However, due to the early age of the original version of "Burning Red Lotus Temple", most of the time, the new version will be used to reminisce.
What a pity! The originator of Chinese martial arts films, which was remade by Xu Ke into Cult films, was banned for 7 days.
Whether from the perspective of technology accumulation or from the perspective of theme expansion, the new version of "Burning Red Lotus Temple" is a classic.
First, a wonderful story
The story takes place during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, when Southern Shaolin was surrounded and suppressed by the imperial court for supporting the "anti-Qing restoration".
Fang Shiyu (Ji Tiansheng) and Uncle Zhishi are forced to flee to the desert to escape the pursuit of the Blood Droplets (Cheng Dong) of the Imperial Eagle Dog.
On the way, the two meet Doudou (Li Ruotong), a wind and dust woman from Congliang.
The intelligent master learned that Doudou's mother had just died, and Fang Shiyu fell in love with Doudou at first sight.
However, the good times did not last long, and the blood droplets still tracked down Fang Shiyu's master and apprentice.
Blood Droplet took the opportunity to abduct Doudou and threatened the two to surrender, and finally The Wise Master uncle died tragically.
And Fang Shiyu did not want to implicate innocent people, so he laid down his weapons and tied his hands.
Subsequently, Fang Shiyu was escorted by officers and soldiers to the Red Lotus Temple in the desert along with other Southern Shaolin disciples who had been captured by the Qing army.
The Red Lotus Temple is not an ordinary temple, but a heavily guarded and heavily organized prison for repeat offenders.
The one who was ordered to run the Prison of the Red Lotus Temple was the great general Shengong (Huang Jinjiang), who was fierce and moody, just like the underground emperor, who committed evil here.
On the first day that Doudou was captured, he forcibly occupied it.
After being imprisoned in the Red Lotus Temple, Fang Shiyu has been trying his best to escape, trying to overthrow the rule of the Shengong with his Shaolin disciples.
Unexpectedly, his brother Hong Xiguan (Yang Sheng) was also here, and he also became a subordinate of the Shengong and assisted in the abuse.
At the critical moment, Fang Shiyu wanted to kill shengong, but he did not expect that the other party was a top master.
Not only did he seriously injure him, but he was also ordered to be thrown into a well.
What he didn't expect was that here he met the Zhishan Master of the Shaolin Temple.
On the other hand, the Shingong perceives that Hong Xiguan may have surrendered to himself in order to steal the map of the Red Lotus Temple.
Hong Xiguan saw that the matter had been revealed, and led the Shaolin disciples under the leadership of Master Zhishan to escape from the dark passage in the well.
Later, after the powder storehouse was detonated, the main structure of the Red Lotus Temple was also destroyed.
Fang Shiyu and Hong Xiguan merged and joined forces to use the "Tiger Crane Double Form" to fight with the Shengong.
Although Shen Gong was strong in martial arts, he was difficult to defeat with two fists and four hands, and eventually failed miserably.
Since then, the Red Lotus Temple has ceased to exist, and Shaolin disciples have been reborn.
Second, a rare classic remake
Lin Lingdong, who has a sharp style, joined hands with "ghost talent" Xu Ke to make the new version of "Burning Red Lotus Temple" highly anticipated.
In the old version of "Burning the Red Lotus Temple", although the story and special effects are not surprising, at the time, the scenes of sword light fighting, flying in the sky, and palm tortoise in the film were absolutely shocking.
Lin Lingdong's work is a martial arts action movie full of black, eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
However, the story only borrows the setting of "Burning the Red Lotus Temple", and the overall structure and human settings have basically nothing to do with the original version.
Because it coincided with Jet Li's "Fang Shiyu" and "New Shaolin Five Ancestors" that year, the protagonists in the movie also became the disciples of the Southern Shaolin laymen represented by Fang Shiyu and Hong Xiguan.
Xu Ke originally planned to pay tribute to the originator of martial arts films, the 1992 version of "Burning red lotus temple".
Unexpectedly, after matching Lin Lingdong's iconic violent aesthetics, he made the movie into a "Cult" martial arts film.
In addition, the film also created a unique Red Lotus Temple.
The director deliberately creates a hellish "secret room", revealing a cruel, depressing and cold scene everywhere.
And the role of the god gong is even more terrifying to the Red Lotus Temple.
It is not difficult to find that such a dark and depressing martial arts film is actually Xu Ke's intentional change, especially in the later "Broken Knife".
It is worth mentioning that Li Ruotong, who had not yet starred in the "Little Dragon Girl" that year, was amazed the first time he filmed a costume drama.
In the film, Li Ruotong sacrificed the image of the jade girl in the past and gave a lot of bold performances.
In general, although "New Burning Red Lotus Temple" failed at the box office and word of mouth, the film itself is a classic.
After all, that year was the "martial arts year" of Hong Kong movies, and the audience will inevitably have aesthetic fatigue.
Another important reason is that the style of the film is too heavy and does not conform to the film trend of the time, and the audience prefers to see entertaining works, such as Zhou Xingchi's "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang".
However, after this battle, Lin Lingdong felt frustrated and said a very frustrated sentence:
"Xu Ke created a new era of martial arts films, but I have become the terminator of martial arts films!"
But from another point of view, this "small episode" invisibly satisfies Xu Ke's selfishness and treats the majority of martial arts movie fans.