Eighteen years ago, in 2003, the Southern Metropolis Daily broke the news that Du Qifeng was about to cooperate with Xiang Huaqiang's China Star Company to start filming the movie "Dragon City Fighter".
Johnnie
The year before, "Infernal Affairs", which was hailed as the rescue work of Hong Kong films, turned out to be a return to the light of Hong Kong films, and the 20 million investment plus the peerless lineup of Andy Lau's partner Leung Chao-wai finally exchanged for more than 55 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, and in 2003, it was robbed of the remake rights by five Hollywood companies, and finally Warner Bros. won with a price of 1.75 million US dollars.
Infernal Affairs
"Infernal Affairs" has greatly boosted the morale of Hong Kong filmmakers, and for a time, various film companies have wanted to invest in film works with high quality and "desperate bets" and strive to reproduce the glory of Hong Kong films in the "post-Infernal Affairs" era.
According to media news at the time, the production cost of "Dragon City Fighter" was unprecedentedly high as HK$150 million, which is roughly equivalent to about HK$1.5 billion in 2021 according to the inflation rate, which is a huge investment even in today's mainland, not to mention Hong Kong, which is now in the twilight of Hong Kong.
Xiang Huaqiang is a famous film producer, producer and producer in Hong Kong, not only co-founded Yongsheng Film Company with his younger brother Xiang Huasheng, becoming the most influential Hong Kong film company in the early 1990s, but also built a film studio in Shenzhen in 1993 to cooperate with the mainland to produce films.
Tok Ki Fung is the soul of Galaxy Image, one of the most personal film directors in Hong Kong, whose works have greatly influenced and changed the trend of Hong Kong and even Chinese films.
At the time, Dragon City Fighter was the most highly anticipated Hong Kong film after Infernal Affairs.
"Dragon City Fighter" is Du Qifeng's film masterpiece prepared for many years, as early as the mid-1990s with Yongsheng Film Company to prepare shooting matters, at the beginning the two sides wanted to shoot an epic jianghu film (gangster movie), somewhat similar to Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" trilogy, but unlike the "Godfather" trilogy, "Dragon City Fighter" is not a family, and the time span is as long as three generations, from post-war Hong Kong until the dissolution of the anti-black group in 1983. Initially, it was expected to be made into at least three films. In terms of casting, the three male protagonists are proposed, namely Chow Yun Fat, Leung Chao Wai and Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat is the first male lead, Liang Chao wei and Andy Lau are very interested in starring in this movie, as long as Zhou Runfa agrees to participate, Liang and Liu will not refuse, and at that time, many insiders and fans who knew the inside story were extremely looking forward to this film, but unfortunately, Chow Yun Fat had already shot too many films of this type in Hong Kong at that time, plus decided to go to Hollywood to start a new journey of movies. Therefore, Du Qifeng has never been able to persuade Zhou Runfa to join "Dragon City Fighter", and the result is that it has been delayed again and again, and finally it has not been solved.
Dragon City Fighter original cast
Despite this, "Dragon City Fighter" has always been Du Qifeng's "love complex", and Du Qifeng, who grew up in the Kowloon City Walled City in Hong Kong, has seen the jianghu forces and underworld gangs, so he has always wanted to make a black jianghu gang movie that can truly reflect his "personal will".
In addition to super investment and super time, the media in 2003 also reported on the "Dragon City Fighter" project: the film will be Played by Andy Lau and Gu Tianle as father and son, Cecilia Cheung as the heroine as the gangster sister-in-law, the first part of the film about the protagonist played by Andy Lau how to start when he was young, the second part will be Led by Andy Lau to play his son Gu Tianle, the third part of the candidate has not yet been finalized. Du Qifeng said in an interview with the media: "'Dragon City Fighter' has been preparing for many years, but it has not had the opportunity to shoot, because this drama is expensive to produce, there are many characters, there are 7 male protagonists alone, plus it involves political factors and jianghu love and hatred, so the script should be handled with special care. ”
The seven male protagonists, the chronicle biography of The Owl, politics, gangs, rivers and lakes, coupled with the subtle and sensitive geopolitical colors of Hong Kong, make this "Dragon City Fighter" full of endless charm and attraction.
Hong Kong
A year later, in June 2004, NetEase Entertainment and other platforms broke the news that "Dragon City Fighter" would start in July of that year, and disclosed more content. First, the script has not been reviewed in the mainland, screenwriter Wei Jiahui said that although the script has been revised more than a dozen times, but it still contains too many sensitive topics such as politics and violence, even if the new script has been unrecognizable, the story is still too dark, and changing the script can only be a "waste of time and energy", Du Qifeng pointed out that "the bad theme is a drawback, measuring the positioning is a good way out, the mainland market is of course very large, but what we lack is not a return on money, but a good movie." Secondly, the Chinese star broke out that because Du Qifeng had too many film projects that year, "Dragon City Fighter" will be directed by Wei Jiahui, and Du Qifeng will be changed to the position of supervising producer, to which Du Qifeng only responded with a sentence of "Where did you get your news from?". The third is that Wu Zhenyu, who had previously argued with Du Qifeng for the details of the creation and even quarreled with people to shoot the table because of the cooperation movie "Gunfire", will join the film strongly under the introduction of Andy Lau, and Du Qifeng also expressed his appreciation and affirmation for Wu Zhenyu's initiative to donate his previous suspicions. Finally, because of the poor financial situation of China Star Company, the original investment of 150 million will be reduced by one-third, the original trilogy will be reduced to two parts, and the production cycle will be limited. In terms of plot, the first two parts of the original trilogy tell the history of the male protagonist played by Andy Lau, and the third part tells his son Gu Tianle, and the focus is revised to tell the entanglement of enmity between Andy Lau, Wu Zhenyu and Liu Qingyun. Three months later, Gu Tianle revealed to the media that "Dragon City Fighter" is about to start in Hong Kong, and he will play an important role in the upper and lower parts, and said that this is his fourth cooperation with Du Qifeng, and the title of the film may not be called "Dragon City Fighter", and the movie will be very different from the previous jianghu films.
Later, everyone knows that this set of movies filmed in the upper and lower episodes is not "Dragon City Fighter", but "Underworld". To some extent, "Underworld" can be seen as a novel of "Dragon City Fighter". Unfortunately, as Du Qifeng's directorial career may be the most ambitious gangster masterpiece, "Dragon City Fighter" was not filmed in the end.
The Underworld
And "Underworld 3", which has also been remembered by countless "Du Sir" die-hard fans for many years, still has no news.