When it comes to Hong Kong movies, martial arts films are a genre that can't be bypassed.
Since Xu Ke created a new wave of martial arts, martial arts films have ushered in a spurt of development in the 90s of the last century.
The popular superhero movies today satisfy the audience's heroic dreams.
And martial arts films are to satisfy the audience's jianghu dreams.
Here's an inventory of the top 10 highest-grossing martial arts films in Hong Kong in the 1990s:
10th place: "Laughing at the River"
Starring: Xu Guanjie, Ye Tong, Jacky Cheung, Zhang Min, Yuan Jieying
Box office: HK$16.05 million
Although the film grossed more than 19 million yuan, due to the serious overrun of shooting costs, the film did not make money, and also caused Xu Ke and Hu Jinquan to fall out.
The reason why he overspended was because Hu Jinquan was dissatisfied with Xu Ke's repeated revision of the script and angrily quit the crew.
Xu Ke almost pushed the part of Hu Jinquan's shooting down and reshooted it.
Although the film made the investor lose money, the film's reputation was very good, and the investor decided to prepare for the sequel to "Smiling Proud of the River".
This is what we later became known as "Laughing at the East 2 Undefeated".
The combination of Xu Ke and Cheng Xiaodong ushered in a new era, reinterpreting the charm of martial arts.
That song "A Laugh in the Sea" has become an immortal classic.
9th Place: "New Shaolin Five Ancestors"
Starring: Jet Li, Xie Miao, Qiu Shuzhen
Box office: HK$19.38 million
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Under Wang Jing's lens, Qiu Shuzhen will always be the most beautiful one.
With YuanKui's action martial arts guidance, Jet Li's fighting scenes are still pleasing to the eye.
The biggest surprise was Xie Miao, who played Jet Li's son.
In order to make this movie, Wang Jing went north to look for child stars, until she saw Xie Miao, wang Jing directly decided that it was him.
Semyon also lived up to expectations and was too good at acting.
The 9-year-old is in the same frame as Jet Li and Qiu Shuzhen, and he is not timid at all.
Semyon became a hit with this film, and many directors rushed to find him to make martial arts films.
But his father resolutely decided to let Xie Miao continue to study and quit the entertainment industry.
Many years later, Semyon returned to the entertainment industry, but unfortunately there was no longer his place.
If Xie Miao had chosen to stay and continue filming, would his name be included in the list of Hong Kong action movie stars?
8th Place: "Absolute Double Pride"
Starring: Andy Lau, Lin Qingxia, Zhang Min, Wu Mengda
Box office: HK$19.64 million
It may be hard for you to imagine that the director of this film is Zeng Zhiwei.
After "Qiannu Ghost" was fired, Wang Zuxian became a female ghost professional household;
After "Oriental Undefeated" became popular, Lin Qingxia became an anti-string professional household.
Zeng Zhiwei as a director, martial arts can not spell Xu Ke, funny spelling can not spell Liu Zhenwei, all he has to do is follow the trend to rub a martial arts heat.
The most subversive estimate is the small fish and the flowerless Lang Love Concubine Yi Sword.
Zhang Min's invitation to the moon palace master is so stunning.
This kind of film is a picture of a music, the plot is messed up, showing the rough texture of Hong Kong films.
But I can't stand the Hong Kong stars who want to have good looks and martial arts at that time.
They are the real masters.
7th Place: The Legend of the White-Haired Witch
Starring: Zhang Guorong, Lin Qingxia, Wu Zhenyu, Lv Shaoling, Lan Jieying
Box office: HK$19.86 million
Zhang Guorong and Lin Qingxia's second cooperation has dedicated the largest scale in the history of their screen.
"The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" shows Lin Qingxia's feminine side as a woman for the first time.
The most beautiful scene in the whole film is bathing in the water of the neon dress.
After "Ah Fei Zheng Biography" and "Overlord Farewell", Zhang Guorong has become an exclusive presence in the Hong Kong film industry.
Admittedly, this is certainly not Zhang Guorong's best movie.
But only Zhuo Yihang, played by him, can play a big female lead movie equally.
At that time, watching this movie was only regarded as a strange martial arts film.
Only after re-brushing did I realize that the most underrated person in the whole film was Wu Zhenyu.
The conjoined ji wushuang, played by him, is the childhood shadow of many viewers.
The two siblings share a common body. Two people joined together curled up separately, like two wings on a butterfly.
This scene is revisited many years later and feels very heavy and full of cult flavor.
On the surface, it is a fantasy martial arts film with heavy taste, but in its bones, it is actually a love film full of tragic colors.
With the theme song "Red Face and White Hair" sung by Zhang Guorong, it is more like an elegy written for love:
Red face and white hair, before and after, have it overnight, is this not counted, falling in love with a whitehead.
6th Place: "New Dragon Gate Inn"
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Lin Qingxia, Leung Ka Fai, Donnie Yen
Box office: HK$21.5 million
The film was originally scheduled to star Jet Li.
But jet Li's agent, Cai Ziming, was shot dead, and he was horrified and went back and forth to Beijing several times to avoid the limelight.
In the end, the male protagonist was replaced by Leung Ka Fai.
At that time, Zhen Zidan was not yet famous, and the scene where the feet of the villain he played were shaved to bones became the childhood shadow of many people.
Lin Qingxia is popular because of "Oriental Undefeated" and Liang Jiahui is popular because of "Lover", but the biggest beneficiary of the film is Maggie Cheung.
The innkeeper lady who was full of wind and bone became a page in the history of martial arts films that could not be jumped.
In the future, I am afraid that no one can play better than Maggie Cheung playing the boss lady in the Jianghu Inn.
It is also from this movie that I really saw the plasticity of Maggie Cheung:
Gentle, dusty, innocent, melancholy, without a role she can't control.
5th Place: "Chinese Heroes"
Starring: Zheng Yijian, Shu Qi, Yang Gongru, Yuan Biao, Lin Xiaofeng, Nicholas Tse
Box office: HK$23.36 million
This movie can be seen as our own superhero.
Liu Weiqiang used stunts to repackage martial arts films, although the special effects were too rough with the current vision, but it was also an innovative attempt at the time.
In just 100 minutes, there are action scenes, there are love stories, there are brothers who turn against each other, there are intrigues and tricks, and there are patriotic feelings.
Zheng Yijian's two good friends, Lin Xiaofeng played a slave.
Although Chen Xiaochun did not appear, the dubbing of the ghost servant brother in the Cantonese version was specially matched by Chen Xiaochun.
The actor Lin Di'an (also the martial finger of this film) is also a Hong Konger, and he also needs to be specially replaced.
What a friendship years.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, due to Jackie Chan's departure from Hollywood, Stephen Chow cut production.
Zheng Yijian, who became popular with "Ancient Puzzle Boy", carried the banner of Hong Kong movies.
The combination of Liu Weiqiang + Zheng Yijian is equivalent to today's Feng Xiaogang + Ge You.
In terms of the popularity of the movie, Zheng Yijian at that time was indeed the existence of the "Four Heavenly Kings".
4th place: "Huang Feihong" series
Starring: Jet Li, Guan Zhilin
Box office: The four works in the series averaged more than HK$20 million
Hong Kong has made hundreds of films about Wong Fei Hung. Only Xu Ke directed and Jet Li starred in the "Huang Feihong" series became a classic and was recognized as the best Huang Feihong film.
Huang Feihong, played by Jet Li, has both the calm and heavy weight of a middle-aged man and the shyness and shyness of young people who do not understand the style.
Another big selling point of the movie is the love scene between Aunt Thirteen and Huang Feihong played by Guan Zhilin.
For Xu Ke, in addition to the innovation of the new school of martial arts, there is also thinking about the collision of East and West.
Who says Hong Kong directors can't shoot home and country feelings?
When the song of "Boys Should Be Self-Reliant" sounded, it was really bloody.
Foreigners are unreliable, the imperial court is unreliable, the underworld is rampant, infighting is just happy, and the name is not good, what can the people rely on?
There is only "self-improvement.")
3rd Place: "Fang Shiyu"
Starring: Jet Li, Xiao Fangfang
Box office: HK$30.73 million
This is Jet Li's first work after he set up his own company.
Only success is not allowed to fail.
From the preliminary preparation to the start of filming, Jet Li poured a lot of effort.
This box office performance has given Jet Li a firm foothold in the Hong Kong film industry.
Years later, I learned that there was Cai Kangyong in the screenwriter.
The plot also appeared in the future because of "Crazy Stone" Guo Tao, the end of the film Zheng Shaoqiu made a cameo, and the villain Zhao Wenzhuo was even more heroic. You can't help but say that it was a wonderful and wonderful time.
Xiao Fangfang is one of the only actresses who can not fall behind in the drama with the two flagship idols of Stephen Chow and Jet Li.
In this kind of film dominated by male characters, the female characters are generally vases.
But in this film, Xiao Fangfang is responsible for both funny and kung fu, while still retaining the sentimentality characteristic of female characters.
2nd Place: "Laughing Pride 2: Undefeated in the East"
Starring: Jet Li, Lin Qingxia, Guan Zhilin, Li Jiaxin
Box office: HK$34.78 million
Xu Ke's use of Lin Qingxia to play Dongfang Undefeated seemed to be a shocking decision at the time.
As Xu Ke's friend, Jin Yong, the author of the original novel, also came out to persuade Xu Ke to give up this idea.
Huang Xia heard the news and rushed to ask Xu Ke: What do you think, looking for a big beautiful woman to evolve sex people?
But in the end, Xu Keli was out of the crowd and had to choose Lin Qingxia.
Lin Qingxia's costume Oriental Undefeated set of femininity, heroism, and domineering in one body is really a person who has never come after the ancients.
Completely overshadowed by the other two beauties in the film, Guan Zhilin Li Jiaxin.
Many people are completely in love with Lin Qingxia because of this movie.
Lin Qingxia's image of both male and female and inverted sentient beings in the play has made her career reach a new peak, becoming one of the very few star representatives who can span the two extreme types of literature and art and martial arts.
1st Place: "The Storm Dominates the World"
Starring: Zheng Yijian, Aaron Kwok, Shinichi Chiba, Yang Gongru
Box office: HK$41.53 million
It is still a combination of Liu Weiqiang + Zheng Yijian.
The film's importance in Hong Kong film history is not because of how good the plot is, but because it pioneered the adaptation of popular comics and the extensive use of computer stunts to create excellent special effects.
Previous Hong Kong films were not good at playing special effects, so "Wind and Cloud" can be regarded as one of the peak works of Hong Kong film comics.
In the late 1990s, when martial arts films were declining, "Dominating the World" overpowered jackie Chan and Stephen Chow's films and became the annual box office champion in Hong Kong that year.
Truly achieve "domination of the world".
END
Even if "Wind and Cloud" has such an impressive box office performance, this is just a return to the light of martial arts films.
Inefficient reproduction, shoddy fabrication, actor disconnection, shrinking overseas markets, local markets crushed by Hollywood blockbusters...
Hong Kong cinema itself has accumulated a lot of money.
There are eggs under the nest, and the end of martial arts films is the trend of the times.
Martial arts like the kind of martial arts jianghu of the early 90s will never be there again.