In 2011, 37-year-old Wu Jing was interviewed by the "New Movie Legend" program.
In the show, he mentioned his early experience of going to Hong Kong alone, bluntly saying that it was his "darkest moment".
Later, Wu Jing also adapted this experience into the movie "Black Fist" with the support of director Luo Shouyao.
In the movie, Wu Jing has an impressive line, he plays the martial arts champion Gao Gang refused the invitation to the underground boxing match, he explained to his girlfriend: "If you fight, you can't go back to the martial arts team, I want to win two more times and be the second Jet Li." ”
Wu Jing described himself in the interview as not having to act at all when he said this sentence, which is what the director told him to tell the truth after listening to his experience, and this play is a true portrayal of his hard work in Hong Kong at that time.
When you look back, you find that time is just such a flash, and all the pain has become yesterday in the blink of an eye.
Looking back on the ups and downs of this road now, even this tough guy will have mixed feelings.
01, with the "golden key" debut, but the road is getting narrower and narrower
Wu Jing was born in Beijing in 1974 to a martial arts family.
His family was the Manchu Uzanala clan of Zhengbai banner, a descendant of Dorgon, who changed his surname to "Wu" after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.
Because his family has been practicing martial arts for generations, Wu Jing was also sent by his father to the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing to practice martial arts at the age of 6, and became Jet Li's disciple.
In 1986, at the age of 12, Wu Jing won the national wushu championship in boxing, gun and knife, and three years later, he officially entered the Beijing Wushu team, where he studied under The coach wubin who trained Jet Li.
In 1991, at the national wushu competition, 17-year-old Wu Jing won the championship of marksmanship and pair training, and three years later, at the age of 20, he won the championship of the national wushu competition elite gun art and confrontation training.
Since then, he has become an ace in the martial arts team, deeply respected by Wu Bin.
After entering the 90s, Jet Li ushered in a new beginning in his acting career with the "Huang Feihong" series, while director Zhang Xinyan, who had discovered Jet Li, was struggling to find an action star who could cooperate with him.
He supported Chun Yu Shanshan, Yu Rongguang, and Wang Qun to launch "The Thief of Change", "Dongying Ranger" and "Huang Feihong's Boy Serve the Country", but unfortunately failed.
At this time, he thought of using a new person, so he revisited the Shichahai Sports School and borrowed Wu Jing from Wu Bin after many twists and turns.
In 1996, Zhang Xinyan joined hands with Yuan Heping to launch the comedy kung fu film "Kung Fu Kid Breaks through the Love Pass", in which Wu Jing showed the Chen's Taijiquan taught by Wang Zhanjun and staged a wonderful duel with Zhen Zidan's apprentice Darren Sahrawi.
Unfortunately, the script of this film lacks polishing, its story is old-fashioned, and Wu Jing's acting skills are too young, and it failed to achieve good results after its release, and only earned HK$740,000 at the box office in Hong Kong.
But Zhang Xinyan's confidence in Wu Jing was not affected, and he decided to remake the TV series, so two years later he launched "Taiji Master" based on the story of the martial artist Yang Luchan in the late Qing Dynasty.
As the Hong Kong film market was in a period of contraction at the end of the 1990s, a large number of film and television practitioners poured into the mainland in search of opportunities, and the mainland TV drama market also ushered in a new start.
The appearance of "Tai Chi Guru" coincided with this wave of craze, its story is smooth, and Wu Jing's Tai Chi performance is eye-catching, so the series has achieved extremely high ratings in the mainland.
Later, Wu Jing starred in dramas such as "Little Li Flying Knife", "New Shaolin Temple", "Golden Silk Rain" and became a well-known TV drama actor in the mainland.
However, the more TV dramas he has acted, it will also limit his development in the film circle, and during this period, he only participated in two movies, "The Legend of Shushan" and "Drunken Horse", which did not cause much repercussions.
Since his debut, Wu Jing has carried the label of "Jet Li's successor", and the taijiquan he played was used by Jet Li; the "Shaolin Temple" he played was also filmed by Jet Li.
He has always been under the aura of Jet Li and has not gone out of his own way, which is the reason why Wu Jing's acting path became narrower and narrower in the early 2000s.
02, Wu Jing, who found a new drama road, still can't escape the "magic spell"
Fortunately, in 2005, Wu Jing's acting career had a new turnaround.
Zhen Zidan, who returned from Hollywood, felt the decline of Hong Kong action films at that time, and joined hands with Ip Wai Shin and Hong Jinbao to create the police film "Kill the Wolf".
Donnie Yen introduced the MMA mixed martial arts technique that was just emerging at the time into the film, rekindling the fire of Hong Kong action movies.
Wu Jing was also invited to participate in the film, in which he played Hong Jinbao's subordinate Ajie.
This is a ruthless killer with few lines, who is agile and good at using knives. After eliminating almost all the supporting characters in the film in a fierce way, he ushered in a classic duel with Zhen Zidan in the back alley.
There are still many legends and controversies surrounding this fight scene, and many netizens still think that Zhen Zidan's "fake drama and real fight" at that time made Wu Jing suffer a lot.
But no matter how hard the filming process of this scene was at that time, it is undeniable that it was a wonderful fight scene, and Zhen Zidan and Wu Jingjing benefited from this scene.
Since then, Wu Jing seems to have found a new direction in the show business circle.
He is no longer "Jet Li's successor", but has changed into the image of a cold killer.
With such an image of "people not talking much", he has participated in "Black Fist", "Boy's True Colors", "Capture the Handsome" and other films.
Among them, "Black Fist" is Wu Jing's autobiographical film, which we mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Director Luo Shouyao created a script based on Wu Jing's Experience in Hong Kong, but the story of the film is still very hollow, and the male protagonist Gao Gang, played by Wu Jing, is not pleasing to the eye, and when it is introduced to the mainland, it encounters large-scale deletions and changes, and eventually becomes a failed mediocre work.
In 2008, Wu Jing directed and starred in the movie "Wolf's Tooth" for the first time.
However, the male protagonist Abu he plays in the film still has not gotten rid of the cold killer image, so it lacks freshness.
The HK$4 million low-budget action film grossed HK$2.3 million in Hong Kong and only HK$4.23 million in the mainland, making it still a money-loss film.
Looking back at Wu Jing's Hong Kong experience, we can see his efforts to get rid of the past label, but the "cold killer" is also not suitable for Wu Jing's image.
The first reason for this is that this image does not conform to Wu Jing's original personality;
The second is that it is a villain-oriented image, lacking plasticity, and even if it is popular at the beginning, the audience will soon have aesthetic fatigue.
Therefore, in the period after "Wolf's Tooth", Wu Jing became more and more confused in the film and television circle, and even rolled in the series of bad films that could not be put on the table in "Robot Man", "Yueguang Treasure Box", "Whole City Alert", "West Wind Spirit", "Love 36 Count", "New Shaolin Temple (Movie Version)", and "Happy Magic".
03、
In 2012, Wu Jing starred in the TV series "I Am the Blade of the Special Forces Out of the Sheath", which allowed him to find a new direction for development in the film and television circle.
In order to play the role of He Chenguang, the wolf tooth special combat sniper in the play, Wu Jing went deep into the army to participate in special training, lived in the army for 18 months, and in addition to practicing the basic skills, he also mastered all the skills of the soldiers.
Due to its excellent production, this drama caused a strong response after it was broadcast on Jiangsu Satellite TV, which made Wu Jing see the great potential of shooting military-themed action films.
So he put together 77.45 million yuan of investment, in 2015 launched "Wolf Warrior", although the level of costumes and production is obviously rough and cheap, but still earned 525 million yuan at the box office, so that Wu Jing for the first time tasted the joy of success.
The success of Wolf Warrior created possibilities for a sequel.
Wu Jing and investors also have confidence in this IP, Wu Jing quickly raised 200 million yuan of funds, and the sequel "Wolf Warrior 2" in 2017 has become a veritable big production.
The action scenes in the film have been upgraded to an unprecedented level, with aircraft, tanks, and naval warships, which makes the audience very addicted.
Therefore, while the film earned 5.681 billion yuan at the box office, becoming the highest box office of mainland movies, Wu Jing also became the most popular action star in the mainland.
At this time, Wu Jing has been debuting for 21 years, and after 21 spring and autumn in this circle, he finally walked out of his own way, and it is most appropriate to describe it as "a big instrument and a late success".
Wu Jing's success did not stop there, and two years later he participated in an epoch-making science fiction film "The Wandering Earth".
Originally, Wu Jing was only a cameo in this movie, he was touched by the sincerity of director Guo Fan, and agreed to play the role of liu Peiqiang, the father of the male protagonist, in the film, but due to the arduous shooting process, he stayed in the crew for 31 days.
Later, the film encountered the situation of shooting funds, and the side plot of Liu Peiqiang's character was forced to be cut.
After Wu Jing got the situation, he took out 60 million yuan of funds to invest in the film as a producer, which made him unexpectedly get a huge profit. The final box office of "The Wandering Earth" reached 4.618 billion yuan, including a copy of Wu Jing.
2019's "My Motherland and Me" is a gift film for the 70th anniversary of the National Day, with a box office of 3.146 billion yuan, which is the third historical mainland box office top 10 work in which Wu Jing participated.
Because of these three films, Wu Jing has become the "king of the box office" in the mainland film market, and some people think that this is his luck, but "with the help of the way", a person's luck and his character are inseparable.
Since his debut 25 years ago, Wu Jing has already established his own image in the entertainment industry.
He has a straightforward personality, loves to hate, is quick to speak, and often speaks witty words in the face of the media.
He was low-key and enthusiastic, and during the Wenchuan earthquake, he not only donated money and materials, but also personally went to the disaster area to participate in the disaster relief and slept with the officers and soldiers, but this experience was not exposed by the media until many years later.
04、
Because of these flashpoints, Wu Jing has maintained a high popularity in the mainland and has attracted a large number of fans, especially many teenagers regard him as a role model to learn.
In the era of traffic, compared with some actors and stars, Wu Jing under the aura of "king of the box office" has always remained sober,
He knows that an actor can go further and rely on the work to speak, and after such a high achievement in the "Wolf Warrior" series, he did not rush to consume this heat, but slowed down his pace and laid his heart on the learning and improvement of his acting skills and directing level.
This year, in addition to starring in the war blockbuster "Chosin Lake", Wu Jing participated in another movie worth paying attention to, that is, "The Wandering Earth 2" with Andy Lau.
The film is still directed by Guo Fan, and after the success of "The Wandering Earth", this sequel will definitely be able to present more excitement.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
© Original 丨 Article Copyright: Ppdianying
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization