Yu Rongguang, born in a Peking Opera family, is the son of the famous opera master Yu Mingkui.
In 1982, he was discovered by director Xu Xiaoming and starred in "Kapok Robes" and "Mirage", which once caused a sensation.
In the 1990s, with the tide of mainland film stars arriving in Hong Kong, Yu Rongguang also came to Hong Kong and participated in nearly 50 film and television works.
As one of the few actors in the mainland who can gain a firm foothold in Hong Kong, there are still many people who like to compare the glorious Hong Kong acting road with Jet Li.
Different from Jet Li's "less but fine" film selection habits, Yu Rongguang has "never been picky" in the past 10 years, and has cooperated with zhang Xinyan, Cheng Xiaodong, Yuan Heping, Qiu Litao, Tang Jili, Wang Jing and other directors.
The films he has participated in also cover a variety of genres, and are not limited to action movies, such as the strange love film "Cixi Secret Life", the literary and art film "Air Hostess", and the public case film "The Kidnapping of the Rich Man".
He is not a star in these various movies many times, and even receives a bento less than 2 minutes after coming out like in "Domestic Lingling Paint".
But there are also some amazing performances that are not the protagonists, and what Pi Ge has always remembered is his performance in the thriller "The Fifteenth Of the First Moon" directed by Qian Shengwei.
Released in mid-May 1994, the low-budget film was released from theaters after only one week of screening, earning HK$4.14 million at the box office, but was widely circulated in the mainland piracy market.
Today, Pigo will talk to you about this movie and its behind-the-scenes story -
One
The film is old, so let's revisit the story
The story of the movie takes place at midnight —
The wife of police officer Zhou Tom (played by Zhou Wenjian) follows a strange man to a parking lot because she is bored on the way home, but witnesses a murder.
Tom and his old partner Kong Ming (Played by Liu Qingyun) are ordered to investigate the case and discover that the suspected culprit is a bandit who was killed in a robbery 5 years ago.
Tom discovers that the murdered man, Chen Zai, has a girlfriend named Wang Wenwen (played by Jiang Rong), which seems to be related to the case.
But during questioning, Wenwen said that she and Chen Zai had only just been in contact and did not have much intimate relationship.
Just when Tom and Kong Ming were puzzled, a few days later, there was another murder in a dance hall, and the victim's death was extremely horrific.
Kong Ming found a ring at the scene of the crime, and he intuitively believed that it was dropped by the murderer. From eyewitnesses, it was learned that the killer was tall, powerful, and wearing a pair of military boots.
The man is haunted, but Kong Ming believes that he is related to the robber who was shot in the head in the robbery 5 years ago, so the two go to the funeral home to investigate. After investigation, Tom and Kong Ming found that although the robbers from 5 years ago were killed on the spot, they did not leave a body.
Because of the fire in the funeral home on the night of the crime, the guard Chen Bo said that he saw a figure coming out of the fire and disappeared.
Tom and Kong Ming went to investigate Wenwen again, and they found that as early as 50 years ago, there was a woman named Wang Jingjing, who was also born on the fifteenth day of the first month with Wenwen, and she and Wenwen looked very similar.
Wenwen once dreamed that she was in a pavilion called Xi Beiting, and a man dressed as a soldier (played by Yu Rongguang) regarded her as Wang Jingjing, and she could not tell who she really was.
At this moment, a voyeur opposite the Wenwen Building was killed, and Tom and Kong Ming arrived at the scene just in time to encounter the murderer, and the two were two-on-one but still beaten by the man.
This man came for Wenwen, and his motive for killing was to protect Wenwen.
It turned out that the murderer's name was Yu Junsheng, a soldier, and Wang Jingjing was a couple.
When the war broke out in 1950, Junsheng had a life-and-death pact with Jingjing before going to the front, but when Junsheng returned to his hometown after the war, Jingjing had already married a wife and settled in Hong Kong.
Junsheng also followed to Hong Kong, but searched for Jingjing to no avail, he had been shot many times in the clash with the police, and suffered a fatal wound to the head, but because of the support of the persistent belief in love, he never died, and still maintained the appearance of his youth.
When he meets Wenwen, he treats Wenwen as a jingjing, and all the scumbags who try to take advantage of Wenwen will die at his hands.
But Wenwen is not Jingjing after all, and the real Jingjing is already a white-haired old man.
Jingjing was not as persistent as Junsheng, and in the second year after Junsheng left, she married another man and followed the man to Hong Kong. It is also because she has changed her mind that her appearance will become older and older, and she cannot still maintain the appearance of her youth like Junsheng.
After the death of her husband, Jingjing remained alone in this world, waiting for the appearance of her former lover, because of this obsession, she was able to survive to this day. And when she re-encountered her lover, Jingjing also made up her wish, lying in Junsheng's arms and calmly dying.
After losing his lover, Junsheng also lost the hope of life. For 50 years, Junsheng has been turned into a living dead by the support of love and faith, and at this moment, he has given up his life in despair.
Junsheng slowly stood up and roared angrily at the sky, and at this moment his face also changed, and the bullet hole that had been shot before also exploded at this moment.
In the end, Junsheng fell next to his lover, and this time he did not stand up again, because he had already seen his lover, and his obsession had disappeared.
The shot of Junsheng falling at the end of the film is particularly shocking, although the production level is average, but it can still see the creator's intentions.
In 1994, Pigo was still just an ignorant teenager, but when he watched the film, he was still infected by this plot, and his heart could not be calm for a long time.
Two
Yu Rongguang has no intention of planting willows, willows are shaded, and flaws are not hidden
Yu Rongguang starred in many low-cost "miscellaneous" films at that time, many of which were performed vigorously, but the quality of the finished film did not dare to compliment.
His performance in this film is regarded as a "friendship starring", although he is a big villain, he has achieved an obsessive role that can impress the audience, which also corresponds to the saying: there is a heart to plant flowers and flowers, and there is no heart to plant willows.
Pigo believes that this is a rare thriller film, which can become a masterpiece of Hong Kong's 90s thriller films.
Its advantages are very obvious, but there are also some shortcomings, let's first talk about the advantages of this movie:
First of all, the film takes the rough male combination of Zhou Wenjian and Liu Qingyun as the protagonists, continuing the weird and funny style of "July 14th", and on this basis, the story line of the film is improved, making it more fluent than the previous work, which is the most valuable.
Secondly, although this film is a thriller genre film, it has added a lot of comedy elements, and Zhou Wenjian and Liu Qingyun are constantly creating jokes from beginning to end, which makes the plot of the film itself not look dull outside the eerie atmosphere, which is really suitable for the public's appetite.
Finally, the theme of the film's concept of love and outlook on life, the love between Junsheng and Jingjing runs through the film as a dark line, and finally leads to "adherence to love", "persistence and letting go", "ideal and reality", which can trigger the audience to think deeply, so that the ideological nature of the film theme has been greatly improved.
Let's talk about the shortcomings of the movie:
The shortcomings of the film are that, limited by the length of the film, the length of the love between Junsheng and Jingjing is obviously not enough, and it is not seriously unfolded, which greatly reduces the integrity of the film story.
This shortcoming is also a common problem of Hong Kong movies in the 90s, there was a good story, but in order to facilitate the ranking, the length of the film was generally limited to about 90 minutes, and the plot of many movies was not well unfolded, and a lot of good works that could have become classics were wasted.
Three
The actors in the film: Hong Kong's "ghost queen", has since surfaced and become a classic role in Hong Kong films.
Director Qian Shengwei launched the thriller "July 14th" in 1993, when Zhou Wenjian and Liu Qingyun formed a funny police group, plus popular singer Chen Mingzhen, and earned 6.84 million Hong Kong dollars after its release, which made a good start for the series.
"The Fifteenth of the First Month" is the sequel to "July 14th", and the protagonists Zhou Wenjian, Liu Qingyun, Liu Yida, Luo Lan and Liang Simin have all returned.
The film maintains the suspenseful atmosphere of the original work, and the story logic is much better than the original.
Although Yu Rongguang starred as a villain, he is the central character of the film and the most obsessive villain in the history of Hong Kong films, and the main line of the whole film revolves around the story of the characters he plays.
Although the response to the film after its release in Hong Kong was general, it was removed after only 7 days of release, but fortunately it was only a low-cost production, and it was still a steady profit, so director Qian Shengwei also launched a series of thrillers with date as the title of the film, such as "February 30", "Dragon Mother of July 13", "April 4th", "July and Fourteen Believe It or Not".
Because Roland's "Dragon Woman" image in this series of movies is particularly stunning, he has also been given the name of "Dragon Woman" since then, floating out of the surface of the show business circle and being recognized by everyone.
In the later sequel "Dragon Woman of July 13th", she carried forward the image of "Dragon Woman", and brought it into another series of "Yin and Yang Road" to shine, the popularity of Lin Zhengying Daochang, became the most classic role in Hong Kong ghost films, Roland was also called "Ghost Queen" by fans.
It is a pity that Neither Zhou Wenjian nor Liu Qingyun returned in the sequel. The duo actually began with a cameo in Jackie Chan's "Police Story Sequel" in 1988.
After this film, in the same year, they also co-starred in Chen Huiyi's "Fortune Boy", and since then they have parted ways, and there is no collaborative work to this day.
Zhou Wenjian was also a very promising movie star, tall and strong, and his acting skills were also affirmed by the directors of the Hong Kong film industry. In the 90s, he also got a lot of opportunities, starring in many low-budget movies, but unfortunately the box office was not satisfactory, and gradually marginalized. However, he will join the new film "When the Wind Rises Again" to play fat Guy Han in the future, which makes Pi Ge also look forward to it.
This film is also the debut of the heroine Jiang Rong, her image and temperament are not inferior to Chen Mingzhen of the previous work, and the feminine image in the film is intoxicating.
At that time, she was also highly praised, starring in films such as "Neon Light Tube Hanging High Woman's Apartment", "999 Who is the Murderer", "95 Gun Policewoman", "Meng Bo" and other films, but now it has faded out of the film circle.
Pi Ge felt that the best development of these movie stars now was Liu Qingyun and Yu Rongguang.
One is still an A-list star in the film industry; another has turned to the television circle and gradually retreated behind the scenes to become a director, and has also launched word-of-mouth films such as "Legend of Dance Music", "The Legend of the Hero of Nanqiao Mechanics" and "Mufu Storm".
The "14th of July" and "The 15th of the First Month" they left behind, as excellent works in the Hong Kong thriller films of the 90s, still feel good when they are taken out and revisited.
In fact, it is not difficult to make a good thriller, as long as there is a good story, the production intentions of the creator, and do not have too many restrictions, it is not impossible to achieve classics.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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