Many people grew up watching Hong Kong films in their childhood.
When it comes to the characteristic genres of Hong Kong films, the zombie movies represented by Lin Zhengying must not be mentioned.
In 1985, "Mr. Zombie" starring Lin Zhengying was released, which not only sold 20 million at the box office, but also was nominated for 11 nominations for the Following Year's Academy Awards, which successively set off a boom in zombie films in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and other places, thus opening up the glory of Hong Kong zombie films.
Since "Mr. Zombie", more and more zombie images dressed in Qing Dynasty official clothes and walking upright on the screens of Hong Kong and Taiwan have appeared.
Later Hong Kong film historians recall that zombie films were the hottest years:
There were 17 zombie movies filmed at the same time, and the size of zombies jumped around on the set of the wilderness ridge.
The zombie fever in the film industry soon spread to the emerging television platforms.
As early as 1984, TVB, which had a keen sense of smell, made a TV series with the theme of spiritual kung fu , "Heavenly Master Holding Position", starring Miao Qiaowei, the most popular student in wireless at that time, and "Huang Rong" Weng Meiling. As soon as the drama was broadcast, it received great acclaim and became the crown of TVB ratings that year, thus strengthening TVB's determination to shoot zombie dramas.
When it comes to TVB's zombie drama masterpieces, it is the "zombie trilogy" filmed from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, namely "Zombie Raiders" in 1989, "Big Head Green Fighting Zombies" in 1993 and "Zombie Lucky Star" in 1996.
These three dramas are mainly featuring zombie spiritual elements, many plots are deeply influenced by Lin Zhengying's zombie movies at that time, and the starring lineup is strong, the stars are gathered, and it is a divine drama in the childhood memories of many audiences who grew up watching zombie movies, including the author.
In this issue, I will review this TVB ancient zombie drama 31 years ago——
Zombie Raiders
The series aired in 1989 and was TVB's early test of the zombie horror genre.
Although the reputation and influence are not as good as the later "Big Head Green Fighting Zombies", the whole drama is full of big coffee, which can be called dazzling.
The director is Du Qifeng, who later founded Galaxy Image, who entered TVB in 1972 to start from miscellaneous work, and was admitted to the wireless artist training class in 1974, and then transformed behind the scenes, following the big director Wang Tianlin (that is, Wang Jing's father) as an assistant director, because of this teacher-inheritance relationship, Du Qifeng became one of the important directors of TVB in the 1980s.
In 1983, Wang Tianlin filmed the famous 83 version of "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter", Du Qifeng served as the executive director, and then filmed many martial arts dramas on TVB, such as the 84 version of "Deer Ding", the 85 version of "Snow Mountain Flying Fox", etc. This "Zombie Soldier" was his last episode shot at TVB, and then he focused on the film business.
Du Qifeng on the set of "Shooting Eagle" in 83
In terms of starring, they are also familiar faces of Hong Kong dramas.
One of the male protagonists, Zhang Zhaohui, is also a famous student of Hong Kong dramas in the 1980s. He joined the wireless artist training class in 1982, and was a classmate of Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xingchi and Wu Zhenyu, and began to play the leading role in some TVB dramas in the late 1980s, and for young audiences, it is more familiar to young audiences that Yang Xiao, who contributed in 2001's "Yi Tianjian Slaughtering Dragon Knife", can be called a classic role in TVB martial arts dramas.
The other male protagonist is played by Hong Kong actor Leung Hung-wah, this name may not be familiar to many people, but he is an important figure in the history of Hong Kong horror films in the future, and when it comes to the work he directed, it is definitely the childhood shadow of countless people, and the representative work is the famous "Old Corpse of Mountain Village".
In terms of actresses, the three heroines Mao Shunjun, Lin Yiyi and Gao Miaosi are all the masters of TVB in the 1980s, Mao Shunjun and Lin Yiyi are still active in the film and television circle, Mao Shunjun has won two Academy Awards, and Gao Miaosi is a student of TVB's first artist training class.
In terms of supporting roles, there are "Ouyang Feng" Yang Zelin in the 83rd edition of "Shooting Eagle", the gold medal green leaf Xia Yu, the supporting role Huang Yifei, which often appears in the future Star Ye movies, etc., and the actor who plays the villain vampire in the play is the famous Hong Kong singer Jia Sile.
Let's talk about the story.
The plot of this drama is obviously a reference to the Hong Kong and Taiwan zombie films of the same period, and the screenwriters of TVB play a style of take-ism, integrating the standing elements of Chinese and Western zombie films into one furnace, which is completely a "Chinese and foreign zombie brawl"!
The series follows the usual era setting in zombie movies, and the story takes place during the Republic of China.
In London in 1920, in an ancient castle, there lived a vampire family that had lasted for hundreds of years.
The owner of the castle is a vampire count who is ambitious and wants to establish a vampire kingdom.
So he asked his Chinese comprador Wang Youren to go to the local Chinatown to pick up prey.
Wang Youren claimed that there was a show dance performance in the castle, luring lustful people into the castle.
When this group of old color critics indulged in the beauty of the dancers, but unexpectedly, the other party suddenly showed their fangs and bit down on the neck of a man under the stage, and then a vampire hunt began!
Just as the crowd panicked, the priest who was lurking among them, Qiu Li, took out a cross to fight the vampires.
However, after all, vampires have many ghosts, and Father Qiu Liyi is also unable to support himself, and is eventually caught by vampires.
The Count ordered that Qiu Liyi be sent to the altar for sacrifice to Nicotine, the son of the Newly Adult Earl.
At the moment of crisis, the exorcists of the Holy See of Europe suddenly entered with holy light and crosses to save Qiu Liyi.
With the help of the exorcist, the vampire legion scattered, and even the Count was killed by a special silver bullet.
However, what the people of the Holy See did not expect was that there was a fish that slipped through the net in this exorcism.
The earl's son Nicotine was placed on the right side by the demon king Satan when he was a child, so he escaped the deadly remnants of the silver bullet and escaped with the help of his slave Wang Youren, but was also seriously injured.
Therefore, Nicotine decided to inherit his father's legacy and fled to China with the help of Wang Youren to rebuild the vampire kingdom.
Because nicotine was injured and the vampire was afraid of light, Wang Youren put nicotine in a coffin.
Sail across the ocean and reach the town of Sanjiang on the coast of Guangdong.
Coming to Sanjiang Town, Wang Youren entrusted the local wealthy merchant Liu Dacang to haul the coffin of nicotine.
Liu Dacang was greedy for money and lost, and when he saw the money in his eyes, he did not ask the other party what the other party let drag.
I promised to come down, but I didn't expect an accident on the road!
Liu Dacang has a sworn enemy in Sanjiang Town, who is also the local security captain Zhang Yujiao,
The two had previously jointly participated in the election for the position of mayor of the town, and as a result, Liu Dacang lost to Zhang Yujiao.
This made him very unconvinced, and since then, he has been competing with Zhang Yujiao in the open and in the dark, and gradually becoming a fire and water.
Zhang Yujiao learned that Liu Cannon was hired by someone to haul a piece of goods,
So he deliberately ordered the security team under his command to disguise themselves as bandits who robbed the road and rob the goods.
One can retaliate against Liu Cannon, and the other can profit from it, which has led to a scuffle.
Zhang Yujiao, who had succeeded, did not recognize this kind of Western coffin, and thought that it was a box containing treasures.
Before he could see it, he was approached by Liu Cannon to recover the stolen coffin.
Just when the two were arguing, the Zhang Fuxia who was responsible for guarding the coffin was found to have died mysteriously and tragically in the coffin.
The corpse had two tooth marks on its neck.
The nicotine, which had been hungry for a long time, sucked human blood, recovered a certain amount of physical strength, and escaped from Zhang Province.
At the same time, in the Yizhuang in Sanjiang Town, there lived a father and daughter.
His father's surname was Zhang, and he used to be a Maoshan Taoist monk, and later settled down in Sanjiang Town in order to take care of his daughter Zhang Jingjing, and made a living by helping people collect corpses.
Master Zhang has a brother-in-law, who is a corpse-driving road chief who specializes in exorcising corpses for a living.
Recently, he drove a group of corpses through Sanjiang Town, but just as he passed by the deserted outskirts of the town,
The Dao Commander found that there was actually an ancient tomb in the local area, and the stele said the tomb of pengmen Cuishi, and the cemetery emitted a very heavy yin qi, as if there was a strong ghost.
The Dao Commander came to the Yizhuang in the town, and after seeing his disciple Master Zhang, he said this,
The two brothers were worried that there was a ghost in the tomb, so they planned to join forces to do a ritual on the night of the full moon.
Wanted to surpass the deceased in this tomb.
That night, the two dug out the coffin,
It was found that the face of the female corpse had not been decayed at all, and it was obvious that there were already signs of corpse change.
Therefore, the two quickly opened the altar and wanted to burn the female corpse excessively.
Unexpectedly, I happened to bump into Zhang Yujiao, the patrol leader of the patrol, and regarded the two as tomb robbers.
Involuntarily, he was imprisoned in a cell, resulting in the transgression ceremony not being completed.
Although the female corpse was burned, the resentful ghost escaped with a paper umbrella and became a lone ghost.
This female ghost's name is Cui Xueyan, she did not pass the door that year, her husband unfortunately died of illness,
Widowed, she eventually died depressed, dying in her twenties.
In addition, the place of burial is extremely heavy, and it is called the White Tiger Cave on the feng shui,
Thus it further aroused his resentment after his death, and became a "ghost bride",
He also controlled the two zombies under the hands of the corpse-chasing dao chief.
Since then, more and more bizarre events have occurred in Sanjiang Town.
Female ghosts want to find a substitute, so all kinds of demons,
And the foreign vampires who are on the run,
Nicotine, which was bent on restarting the vampire kingdom plan in Sanjiang Town, has bitten many people and gradually cultivated a group of vampire henchmen.
What's more troublesome is that foreign vampires can't rely on the Maoshan techniques of the East to deal with.
The two Maoshan governors died tragically in the course of fighting vampires, causing the entire town of Sanjiang to be shrouded in the shadows of vampires.
At this time, the headquarters of the Holy See far away in Europe learned that nicotine was being used in China.
So he once again sent a Chinese priest, Qiu Liyi, to help.
After all, the foreign monks chanted well, and relying on Western exorcism methods, the vampire nicotine was finally repelled.
But at this time, nicotine has become a trend, and it cannot be destroyed by Qiu Li alone.
So he was only able to help Master Zhang's daughter Zhang Jingjing, Liu Dacang's son Liu Hanliang, and Zhang Yujiao's daughter Zhang Xiaopi, and everyone joined forces to fight the vampires.
For a time, The Battle of Chinese and Western zombies, ghosts and monsters, Maoshan warlocks, and exorcists began...
As the biggest selling point of zombie films, it is undoubtedly the creation of a terrifying and supernatural atmosphere and the fighting scene of demon exorcism.
This "Zombie Raider" focuses on zombies and supernatural elements, naturally it is no exception, the play also involves a lot of horror and grotesque bridges with folk colors, while also integrating a lot of Western legends, many plots and settings are absolutely brain-opening at that time.
For example, there is a scene where Father Qiu Liyi is mistaken by the villagers as a big demon who steals children to practice magic, so he beats him badly into serious injuries.
Causing Qiu Liyi's life to be in danger, at this time Qiu Liyi's soul was out of the box and turned into a wisp of lonely soul,
When she meets the female ghost Cui Xueyan, she begs Cui Xueyan to save herself, so Cui Xueyan decides to go to the underground mansion to find one of Qiu Liyi's lost three souls.
The portrayal of the prefectural government in the play is very modern, which makes people have to admire the whimsy of the TVB screenwriter.
According to the setting in the play, there is a train connecting the yang and the underworld, just take this "hades train" to hell,
You can pass through a railway into hell, and there are eighteen stops along the way, that is, eighteen layers of hell.
Of course, due to the production cost and the technology at the time, there are also many scenes and details in the play that are very eye-catching today.
For example, the shape of the ghost in the play, if you look closely, gives people a taste of brotherly ♂ philosophy!
In addition, the protagonist group in the play finally eliminated the vampire nicotine and used all kinds of methods to fight zombies.
First, he tried silver bullets and wooden stakes, and then he used maoshan magic to induce thunder to eliminate vampires, but he did not succeed.
Finally, according to the fable left by a Hebrew missionary who came to the East a thousand years ago, a sword in stone was found.
According to the fable, only the legendary Sanhua Seven can pull out the sword in the stone and destroy the demons that have been destroyed in the human world.
Needless to say, this plot was written by the screenwriters borrowing from the famous British "Legend of King Arthur".
As for the three strange people in the play, it is a combination of Chinese and Western, the protagonist Liu Hanliang was poisoned by the corpse, drank human blood, and was opened by the Western priest, so the body gathered the three forces of the human ghost god, so the name of the three transformations is one.
Good guys, the screenwriter can really be blind!
At this time, the most thunderous scene of the play appeared, when the male protagonist pulled out the sword in the stone, he instantly transformed.
The shape after the transformation is simply bright and blinding, just look at the hairstyle and cape style, it is not difficult to find that it is in the cottage Superman,
But at the same time, the stylist also intimately changed the S on Superman's chest to the dragon pattern embroidered on the dragon robe of the ancient emperor.
Chinese and Western combined with the combination of earth and the ocean, the stylist this design my clothes!
On the other hand, this "Zombie Raider" can be said to be a typical TVB-style horror comedy.
The logic of the plot cannot be studied, but it is better than the compact plot, the story is strong, and some horror elements come from time to time in addition to being relaxed and funny, and the overall entertainment is good.
However, TVB's screenwriters are always keen to spend a lot of time in the series to explain the relationship between the characters, from time to time to stir up a love, a variety of parents in the short plot and happy enemies, bitter love and sadism routines have been tried and tested, with today's eyes to see the plot is not tacky.
The protagonists in the play are two couples, first of all, Zhang Xiaopi, played by Mao Shunjun, fell in love with Liu Hanliang, played by Zhang Zhaohui.
The relationship between the two is a "Romeo and Juliet" style love tragedy, their father is a sworn enemy who has been hostile for many years, and they do not fight or know each other when they first meet.
In order to avenge Zhang Yujiao's revenge for snatching the vampire coffin, Liu Dacang ordered his men to kidnap Zhang Yujiao's daughter Zhang Xiaopi, but he did not expect That Zhang Xiaopi's personality was hot and hot, and after being tied to Liu Mansion, he actually cleverly escaped, and also kidnapped Liu Hanliang, liu Dajiao's sole proprietor, but he did not expect that the hostages actually fell in love with the female kidnappers.
After that, in order to get rid of the arranged marriage at home, Liu Hanliang eloped with Zhang Xiaopi. However, the love of this pair of bitter Mandarin ducks is doomed to go badly. Liu Hanliang was accidentally poisoned by the corpse and needed to drink blood to continue his life, so Zhang Xiaopi cut off his arm and fed his husband with blood every day, and finally the two experienced danger and finally became dependents.
The other couple in the play is more complicated, it should be said that it is a love triangle.
Qiu Liyi, who was born as a priest, was defeated by the vampire nicotine, and was saved by the female ghost Cui Xueyan when he was in danger, and the two expressed their feelings.
At the same time, after the death of their father by a vampire, Zhang Jingjing and Qiu Liyi, who inherited their father's Maoshan Technique, became partners in fighting zombies.
Therefore, it also has a good feeling for it, and the relationship between the two people and a ghost can be described as constantly rational and chaotic.
Watching this "Zombie Raider" now, you can't help but feel that the plot of this drama is cheesy, and the production is slightly rough, far less than the boutique production of TVB costume dramas in the same period.
However, in the 1980s, the drama was one of the few classic horror dramas on TVB at that time, and it once left a lot of shadows on many people's childhood.
It is worth mentioning that there are some hidden big names in this drama, as an assistant director is Du Qifeng's later founding of Galaxy Image's right-hand man You Dazhi, and later with Du Qifeng, Wei Jiahui and called "Galaxy Image Iron Triangle".
The soundtrack of the play is the Hong Kong soundtrack master Hu Weili, the theme song is composed by Lai Xiaotian, Zheng Guojiang filled in the lyrics, and the classic theme song "Ghost Bride" in "Mr. Zombie" is composed by Zheng Guojiang, so the opening song of this play", "Stepping on the Moon", is also very similar to "Ghost Bride" in terms of style.
Quietly watch, quietly watch, the moon turns yellow
It is emitting, it is emitting, a cold light
In the breeze, sing softly, eyes full of longing
Sigh at the impermanence of personnel transformation...