In 1993, a fantasy martial arts romance film adapted from Liang Yusheng's novel "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" was released, telling the love tragedy of Wudang's disciple Zhuo Yihang and the wolf girl practicing neon clothes, although the scale of the magic change is extremely large, but due to the blessing of Zhang Guorong and Lin Qingxia, Bao Dexi's photography has become a martial arts classic with a beautiful and unique light and shadow painting style.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >1, "magic reform" Liang Yusheng, Lin Qingxia rescued the scene</h1>
This film is very different from the general new martial arts film style. The director, Yu Rentai, came from an advertising agency and was not good at making costume films. However, the year 1993, when the film was released, was the most popular year for Hong Kong martial arts films. Yu Rentai as a producer and director Gao Zhisen collaborated on the hit film "Happy Affair in the Flower Field", Gao Zhisen was optimistic about the famous martial arts novelist Liang Yusheng's "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" novel original, and persuaded Yu Rentai to talk to Liang Yusheng and adapt the novel into a movie.
Yu Rentai has no experience in directing costume films, and he is forced to visit. Liang Yusheng's novels are not as popular as Jin Yong's, so it is easy to agree to hand over the novel to the two people for "magic reform".
Yu Rentai's first choice is Zhang Guorong playing the male protagonist Zhuo Yihang, Zhang Guorong was invited to act, in addition to contributing his appearance and acting skills to this film, he also created a theme song for free. According to director Yu Rentai, at that time on the set, the song was improvised.
The first choice of the heroine is the famous beating woman Yang Ziqiong, the script has been written, and there are a large number of action scenes. However, Yang Ziqiong did not have a schedule and chose to refuse, and the producer Huang Baiming found Lin Qingxia to come to the rescue. Lin Qingxia was also nervous in the original schedule, but she heard that the male protagonist was Zhang Guorong, so she came.
The heroine was replaced by Lin Qingxia, and the script was deliberately modified into a fantasy martial arts romance. Yu Rentai was also blessed, as he himself did not have any experience in shooting costume films with more action scenes. As a result, this film has become a structure based on literary drama.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2, Zhang Guorong Lin Qingxia's largest scale of love</h1>
Director Yu Rentai found Huang Baiming, the boss of Oriental Film, and paid a lot of money to invite two of the most popular stars, carrying huge box office pressure. The box office champion in 1993 was Stephen Chow's comedy "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", and this year was also the peak year of Jet Li, and all 5 action films were released at the box office. Of course, the literary drama-based "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" is difficult to win the box office in such a fierce competitive environment as 1993, so it was decided to add a beautiful scene and attract the audience with a large-scale love between handsome men and beautiful women.
Zhang Guorong's acceptance of large-scale films is acceptable, but this film is the largest scale that Lin Qingxia has faced since the film. The director must have asked for the intimate scene of the wet body, and asked the two to find a feeling of "the flesh is tighter", which gave Lin Qingxia a certain pressure.
Lin Qingxia and Zhang Guorong are close friends. Lin Qingxia later recalled in her autobiography "Window in the Window" in 1993 that when they filmed "East Evil and West Poison" and "The Legend of the Eagle Hero", the crew lived in the Wan Chai Hui Jing Ge Apartment and took the company's minibus to the set every day. Once, during the drive, he asked me if I was doing well, and I didn't say two words before the big tears rolled down, and after a few seconds of silence, he put his arm around my shoulder and said, "I'll be good to you." "From that moment on, we became friends." The friendship between the two in this cooperation also smoothly allowed such scenes to be filmed smoothly without embarrassment.
In order to shoot the love of the orphan wolf girl from the Demon Sect and Zhuo Yihang, a cynical disciple from Wudang, who was born in wudang, to dry firewood, the director knew very well that Lin Qingxia, a big star of the coffee position, could never shoot a real large scale. So the focus was on the expression of the big head of the card, the light atmosphere, and finally the film was full of highlights, but if you look closely, you will find that in fact, nothing is revealed.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >3, childhood shadow siamese</h1>
In addition, the large-scale sense of this film also comes from the demon sect leader Ji Wushuang, which can be called the shadow of childhood, the magic cult full of strange atmosphere with red light tones, and Wu Zhenyu who is a dancer is also out of print. The character's personality is set in a strange and vicious and terrifying setting, and the representative line is: "Exterminate the dog generation, add my magic life!" "The Sect Leader said that someone kept coughing, so he killed his men.
"Ji Wushuang" is actually the name of the Conjoined Person played by Wu Zhenyu and Lü Shaoling, the two are connected by their backs, and the quilt is suddenly thrown into the air, revealing the naked bodies of the two people, and the two sacrifices are very large. Wu Zhenyu's voice is like a yin and yang person with a dumb voice, and her sister is the same crazy laugh.
The wolf girl was raised by Ji Wushuang from a young age when she picked up the Demon Sect, and Ji Wushuang gradually fell in love with her. But after she and Zhuo Yihang were together, he was in great pain. The two brothers and sisters lay on their sides and talked, and the sister said to Ji Wushuang, who would like someone like you.
Lian Ni Pei said to Ji Wushuang, "As long as you promise to let me leave the Demon Sect, whatever you want, do as you please." "So I put on a red wedding dress and waited for Ji Wushuang's violation." Brother, you don't even know how women react normally. "Her heart has long been given to someone else." Ji Wushuang faced Lin Qingxia, who had no reaction, while being ridiculed by her sister and poking at the pain points.
Ji Wushuang was on the verge of madness and asked angrily, "What did he give you?" ”
"He gave me a name, and my name now is Lian Neon, not Wolf Girl." Everyone should have a name at the beginning of birth. ”
The sister laughed wildly and laughed at the name, saying, "Turns out she just wanted to be an ordinary person." "But Ji Wushuang just can't do ordinary." This was probably the reason why he destroyed his last self-esteem and chased after the Wudang Grand Hall and practiced the final duel between Nie Pei and Zhuo Yihang.
Finally, on the Wudang Hall, the two were cut open, and blood spurted.
Ji Wushuang sighed that it was so comfortable to sleep like this, he got the life of an "ordinary" person, but at the same time he lost his life.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >4, monster film style photography and fine art</h1>
The biggest features of this film are photography and fine art. At the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1994, it won three awards: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography. The costumes, settings, tones and lighting of this film are completely different from the traditional martial arts film model, more like the style of the monster movie, creating a dazzling semi-realistic and semi-unreal fantasy and even comic martial arts atmosphere.
This film was filmed in the summer, the sweltering weather made the crew difficult, the director simply decided to shoot at night, all the lights are artificially lighted, a lot of use of silhouette effects, but can produce a unique light and shadow effect, to create a unique atmosphere.
Most of the tones of the film use the color contrast of blue and red. Wu Zhenyu's Demon Sect base is red, and the Wudang Sect Hall is blue, full of incompatible metaphors, and also shoots Zhang Guorong and Lin Qingxia's anti-heavenly appearance.
The film's costumes are written by Japanese costume designer and Oscar winner Emi Wada, and it is said that more than 200 costume demos were designed for the film. She has designed costumes for Akira Kurosawa's "Chaos" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero". Lin Qingxia's debut is a wolf girl, and the gems and shells of the headdress, ancient coins, ivory and so on are unique.
A red dress with intricate patterns. White and red can highlight the innocent and warm personality of Lian Nisheng, played by Lin Qingxia.
Zhang Guorong and Lin Qingxia's hairstyles are also from Wada Emi's hand, Zhang Guorong's fluffy hair with a braid highlights the cynical personality, while the white-haired Lin Qingxia highlights the desperate beauty after being betrayed.
In 2020, as the 17th anniversary of Zhang Guorong's death, Oriental Pictures re-screened the films "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" and "Midnight Song" starring Zhang Guorong and directed by Yu Rentai for 4K restoration. Among them, "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" was released in Hong Kong on May 8 and in Taiwan Province on May 15, and students with conditions can see their brother on the big screen. (Reported by: Mankei Wu)