There is such a kind of movie, it suffered a double reception at the box office and word of mouth when it was released, but it was regarded as a classic by everyone many years later.
For example, there is Stephen Chow's self-written and self-directed "Journey to the West", which doubled box office and word-of-mouth after the release, so that Stephen Chow's Color Star Film Company directly collapsed;
More than a decade later, it ranks 17th in the Douban Top 250 with a score of 9.2 points, and can earn nearly 200 million at the box office after multiple re-screenings.
Similarly, there is Wong Kar-wai spent 40 million Hong Kong dollars and filmed "East Evil and West Poison" for 2 years, and the box office after the release of the film was only 9 million Hong Kong dollars, which made the producer Liu Zhenwei use the original team of people and horses to spend 27 days to make up for the big hole in funds;
Today, "East Becomes West", a literary and artistic film cloaked in martial arts, surpasses 98% of martial arts films in Douban with 8.6 points.
It can be said that some films, because of their advanced creative methods and aesthetic awareness, could not be quickly accepted by the audience when they were released, and it was not until many years later that they found that they were "wronged".
In addition to the well-known films above, this article Chenchen wants to recall a martial arts film "Sword Rain" released in 2010, which is actually an underrated movie, and Big S has made great sacrifices for this movie.
Produced by Wu Yusen and written and directed by Su Zhaobin, the film brings together Yang Ziqiong, Zheng Yusheng, Wang Xuexi, Xu Xiyuan, Yu Wenle and other super starring lineups.
Many people may not know much about the director and screenwriter Su Zhaobin, although he is nearly 30 years old to enter the industry, but whether it is the "Love of the Running Hand" written by him, or the "Strange Silk" written and directed by himself, the works have been nominated for the Golden Horse Award many times.
For many mainland audiences, because of Chen Sicheng's "Detective Chinatown 2", they only learned about Su Zhaobin's "Double Pupil".
And Wu Yusen was also impressed by Su Zhaobin's talent, so he chose to serve as a producer to escort him.
However, since the film was released on September 28, 2010, there were Zhang Yimou's "Love of hawthorn trees" and then Xu Ke's "Di Renjie's Heavenly Empire", and the pinched "Sword Rain" finally only earned 66 million at the box office.
11 years later, the reputation of this seemingly inconspicuous movie is gradually rising, and the score on Douban has changed from the original 6 points to 7.4 points, and judging from the latest reviews, many people have begun to "rehabilitate" it:
"What an interesting film, underestimated."
An underrated martial arts film, the best Chinese martial arts film in 10 years.
In particular, a comment that was not approved by most people during the film's release has now been praised:
"The best martial arts film since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Such an evaluation is quite high, but it is not exaggerated, after all, after the millennium, how many acclaimed and popular martial arts films have been born?
Many of today's martial arts films are not so much martial arts films as they are more like fantasy and magic films stacked up with special effects, and the charm of martial arts is also like a drifting cloud that is difficult to become an atmosphere.
Therefore, the appearance of "Sword Rain" is rare, under the cloak of its commercial film, but inside it is filled with a chivalrous atmosphere that makes people feel refreshed.
01. What kind of martial arts story?
Whether it is a world-class sword or a martial arts secret book, just like the battle for the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Slaying Sword in "The Book of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavenly Dragon", the bloody storm that set off in the "Sword Rain" was the body of the Tianzhu high monk Rama, who was divided into two parts: the upper and lower parts.
In order to obtain the body of Rama with the mystery of the Peerless Divine Skill, the assassination organization Black Stone, led by the King of the Wheel (Wang Xuexi), sacked the mansion of Zhang Haiduan, the head of the dynasty who had half a body at that time.
However, The BlackStone Organization's first-class master, Drizzle (Lin Xilei), took advantage of the chaos to take away the body and disappeared from sight, so the Blackstone Organization issued a hunting order and rewarded her head with a heavy reward.
In the process of drizzling, Lu Zhu (Li Zonghan), a highly skilled monk with outstanding martial skills, in order to restore peace to the jianghu, after three months of fighting with drizzle, finally gave up her life to ignite drizzle and persuade her to put down the butcher knife and leave this way of killing.
After waking up, Drizzle finds the divine doctor Li Ghost Hand (Jin Shijie) and changes his appearance, and from then on, under the pseudonym Zeng Jing (Yang Ziqiong), he lives in seclusion between the wells in Jingcheng City and becomes an ordinary cloth seller.
In this ordinary day, Zeng Jing and the station Mafu Jiang Asheng (Zheng Yusheng) gradually fell in love, and the two married.
However, the good times did not last long, in a robbery, Zeng Jing, who was forced to shoot, exposed his skills, and was later identified by the Wheel King, and the coerced Zeng Jing had to start a collection plan for Rama's body with Black Stone.
As Rama's body was found, Jiang Asheng's true face and the secret of the Wheel King gradually surfaced.
02. What is the style of martial arts films?
Whether it is the remains of Rama, the martial arts elements of the Blackstone Organization, or the martial arts plots of the anonymity, past and present lives, "Sword Rain" undoubtedly has the classic paradigm of martial arts films, outlining the jianghu world that belongs to it.
Just as the so-called "where there are people, there are grievances, there are rivers and lakes, and people are rivers and lakes", the shaping of character group portraits is particularly important for martial arts films.
The character group portrait of "Sword Rain" is undoubtedly successful, first of all, from the perspective of the appearance and kung fu of the characters, it has achieved unforgettable.
The heroine Drizzle, wearing a bucket hat and a dark cloak, holding a very flexible water sword, the eyes are decisive, the sword moves are fast and dense, erratic, and the whole body reveals the atmosphere of "not being easy to mess with".
Although The personality of Drizzle is serious and gloomy, Lin Xilei's beauty adds a little beauty to her, and with the pure temperament of some iceberg beauties, the complexity of the character comes out.
And Zeng Jing, who has become the "face of an ordinary person", has a generous speech and behavior, and is merciful to his subordinates in one move and one style, which adds to the beauty of the quiet and good years.
The male protagonist, Jiang Asheng, is dressed in coarse cloth and looks honest and thick, but under zheng Yusheng's interpretation, he holds the innocence and maturity just right;
Yi Rongqian is actually Zhang Renfeng (Guo Xiaodong), the son of zhang Haiduan, the first assistant, and he uses a jagged sword of different lengths, which is in line with his unusual body structure.
From the perspective of the black stone organization, the black stone leader wheel king, wearing a dark red cloak, often masked with a black veil, equipped with a wheel sword, the force is as heavy as a knife, mysterious and majestic;
Ye Xiqing (Xu Xiyuan), who killed her husband's entire family on her wedding night because she "couldn't do it", was young but fierce, and had a pure face, and had a desire for love that could never be satisfied;
Lei Bin (Yu Wenle), ostensibly a sell-out, is actually a hidden master, using steel needles of different lengths as a secret weapon;
In particular, the color opera master, wearing a cloak with European colors, mixes magic and weapons, and can use the most fantastic martial arts in the jianghu ,"Immortal Suo", which can take users anywhere and take lives, mysterious and curious.
Secondly, from the perspective of character motivation and behavior, it captures the depths of human nature and implies tragedy.
Appearance and kung fu are like the "skin" of the character, and the outstanding character shaping must be indispensable to the "soul" of the character.
The world of jianghu is often not absolutely good or bad, more often it is about choice, and it is between this seemingly non-right and wrong different paths, but there is often a fierce collision.
From drizzle to Zeng Jing, from killing countless people to retiring to the rivers and lakes, she only wanted to live an ordinary life, but the unjust retribution finally got a blood debt.
From Zhang Renfeng to Jiang Asheng, from the destruction of his family to the incognito, he only wanted to avenge Xue Hate, but found that the person he hated the most was also the person he loved the most.
Lu Zhu, a senior monk who was originally the "first in Buddhist martial arts in the past forty years", moved his heart when he advised Drizzle, and between the contradiction between Buddhism and private feelings, he chose to give his life, enlightened Drizzle, but also redeemed himself.
In particular, the reincarnation king, who is the leader of the organization who is the first killer of the jianghu, has spent his life and obtained rama's body by any means, just to become a "real man", which is ridiculous and sad.
The so-called people in the rivers and lakes can't help themselves, under the seeming opposition of good and evil, every character in the film always revolves around a theme -
I want to live again from scratch.
03. What does it bring to martial arts films?
Just like the old martial arts Hong Kong films that were brilliant in the 1980s and 1990s finally declined, the stories of the fights between the various factions in the rivers and lakes, the opening and upgrading of the male protagonists have gradually become old-fashioned, and the martial arts films have also entered a bottleneck.
While inheriting the bridge section of the daughter of the classic martial arts film who fell in love with the daughter of the father and the enemy, "Sword Rain" also showed the large-scale appearance and comedy elements of the big S required for commercial film gimmicks, and rarely opened up a new style of martial arts films in the new era.
In the shadow of the sword and light, the happiness and revenge, Su Zhaobin integrates the suspense and love elements that he is good at, which has more of a "hidden" meaning than the bluntness of many previous martial arts films.
And the deepest hidden in the film is the true face of Jiang Asheng, when you thought he was an iron man, but you didn't expect him to be a powerful faction who dressed up as a pig and ate a tiger.
One of the highlights of the film is that Jiang Asheng took out the jagged sword buried in the ground, but the sharpening knife was able to single out the black stone with his own strength, killing Lei Bin and Ye Xiaoqing and fleeing, which was really unexpected and very happy!
On the one hand, it is the hiding of the value of force, and on the other hand, the hiding of feelings, about Jiang Asheng, the film actually leaves a question -
When did he know that Zeng Jing was drizzling?
In the film, although Jiang Asheng claims to have known from the beginning that Zeng Jing was a drizzle and approached her with the purpose of revenge, judging from Jiang Asheng's shocked expression when he opened Zeng Jing's grave and his behavior of not being able to kill her afterwards, this statement may have been deliberately made up by him in order to let Zeng Jing leave.
Whether it is the romance of the two people hiding under the eaves of the roof when they meet in the rain, or the spoiling of saying "Wife, it seems that this time you have broken into a lot of trouble", the emotional portrayal of the film is very delicate and natural.
If Jin Yong's "the great hero, for the country and the people" is the ultimate belief of the hero, then "Sword Rain" is describing the most ordinary appearance of the hero who has faded the "aura of the hero".
It turns out that people with extraordinary skills sometimes have shy pockets and can't afford to invite their beloved women to drink a cup of hot tea;
It turns out that as a master of the killer organization, he usually loves to study noodles the most, as well as his wife and children's hot kangtou;
It turns out that the killer leader who is superficially calling the wind and rain only wants to be an ordinary man...
Which of the "big rivers and lakes" for the country and the people and the "small rivers and lakes" for the sake of the family is the real jianghu?
The answer from Sword Rain is: they are all.
The most chewable thing about the whole movie is that it is chivalrous and affectionate, with a Zen meaning.
It condenses on the recurring image of the "bridge" in the film.
In the film, when Lu Zhu discovers that there is a fatal flaw in drizzle's water sword method, he uses iron chopsticks to teach the cracking trick of "hiding clumsy in cleverness, using obscurity and clarity, clarifying in turbidity, and bending for stretching", and every move is ethereal.
For Lu Zhu, who moved his heart, the arrival of the so-called "Zen machine" is not only the opportunity for the drizzle to have an epiphany, but also the "not to live up to the qing" that Lu Zhu paid for with his life.
Just as the high monk Jianyi (You Benchang) told the story of The Drizzle's interpretation of Lu Zhu's words before his death, when the Buddha's disciple Ananda met a young girl on the bridge before he became a monk, and the Buddha asked him how much he liked the young girl, Ananda replied:
"I would like to incarnate as a stone bridge, subject to five hundred years of wind, five hundred years of sunshine, five hundred years of rain, but I ask this young girl to walk over the bridge."
Since then, Drizzle has learned how to love, to love people in the way he taught himself to love;
Since then, her movements have incorporated his shadow - Lu Zhu has become a part of Drizzle's life.
One is the confession of a monk, and the other is the possession of a eunuch, whether it is Lu Zhu, who sacrificed his life, or the wheel king who buried Ye Xiaoqing under the bridge, the bridge represents the deep desire of human nature.
It can be said that the whole movie is well played, the plot is reversed, and the details are also intriguing, but it is not without a little flaw, as director Su Zhaobin commented on the performance of Big S in a post-screening interview:
"Because of this role in her play, the performance should be more open, and it can also be filmed a little more freely." Not open enough, really not enough. ”
Although the big S in the film has made great sacrifices, her acting skills and lines are still somewhat dramatic, and the film still has the shortcomings of Jiang Asheng's characters lack of preparation and some plot logic is slightly far-fetched.
But in general, the whole movie has excellent acting skills, brilliant action design, and ups and downs in the plot, between the boundary between the real and the unreal, bringing fireworks to the legend, and it is a martial arts film worthy of a name for 20 years!
The existence of "Sword Rain", released in 2010, tells us:
Sons and daughters are long-term, the rivers and lakes are still there, and chivalry will always exist!
Bluestone Film Editorial Office | Morning
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