Not afraid of sacrifice for the revolution, not afraid of revolution for sacrifice
"The Iron Fist of the Five Tigers of Guangdong Invincible Sun Yat-sen"
[The most underrated Hong Kong director Li Lizhi, whose masterpiece is not only Chow Sing Chi's "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang"】
Li Lizhi, who was an assistant editor of the TV station, began to cooperate with Zhou Xingchi in the late 1980s, and was once known as the royal director of Zhou Xingchi, collaborating on classic films such as "Love Saint", "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", "The King of Destruction", "God Eater", "Shaolin Football" and so on.
However, Li Lizhi was also bombarded by Wang Jing, saying that he did not have that skill, and the real director of "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang" was actually Zhou Xingchi. Later, Li Lizhi's 2010 independently directed "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang 2" only had a score of 3.9, and the final "Chang'an Fu Demon" with Wu Mengda was only 4.0 points, which seemed to verify this.
However, Wang Jing herself later filmed a version of "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang 2019", and the result was only 2.9 points for Douban. Isn't that a slap in the face?
Wang Jing is recognized as the king of bad films, but he has also made many classics, such as "God of Gamblers", "Gambler", "Nine Pin Sesame Officer", etc.; similarly, when Li Lizhi and Zhou Xingchi cooperated, there was indeed a situation of nominal directors, but they were definitely directors with ability and ideas.
In fact, Li Lizhi had a good relationship with Wang Jing at that time.
1994's "Sky in Love", also known as "Four Lustful Women", starred Qiu Shuzhen, Wu Junru, Wu Jiali and Zhong Liti.
The film is co-written by Wang Jing and Li Lizhi, li Lizhi, Lin Weilun, Liu Weiqiang and Wang Jing, who directed four segments of "Superstitious Woman", "Greedy Woman", "Woman Who Is Not a Woman" and "Woman Who Relies on Robbery".
"Four Lustful Women" proves that Li Lizhi and Wang Jing not only had a harmonious relationship, but also integrated styles, and even the level of directors and screenwriters was half a pound and eight two, which was equal.
Released on March 30, 1995, "The Whole Deception King" is a follow-up work of "The Whole Deception Expert", written by Li Lizhi and Gu Dezhao, directed by Li Lizhi, and produced by Wang Jing Company.
Lee Is probably the most underrated Hong Kong director.
【Li Lizhi】Born in Hong Kong on May 10, 1961, his ancestral home is Dongguan, Guangdong Province, with a height of 178.
On August 15, 1984, Li Lizhi officially joined ATV Hong Kong as an assistant choreographer and director with a monthly salary of HK$1400. Previously, he was a Coulomb administrator and had a monthly salary of 1600 yuan. For the work of this assistant, he wrote to ATV for 4 consecutive months, and was finally discovered by ATV producer Liu Jiahao, who recruited Li Lizhi to work as his assistant choreographer.
In 1987, Master Liu Jiahao switched to wireless, and Li Lizhi followed suit, all the way from assistant to screenwriter, coordinator, screenwriter, director, but also as a producer, planner and actor.
At wireless, Li Lizhi and Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda, who have not yet become popular, know each other.
At that time, Stephen Chow had just moved from a children's program to a TV drama department, and Wu Mengda was also honing his acting skills after undergoing a ban. Li Lizhi, who also idolized Bruce Lee, was very close to Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda.
Relying on classic dramas such as "Brother's Girlfriend", "Gestapo", "He Comes from the Jianghu", the partners of Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda are becoming more and more skilled, and the nonsensical performance form has also begun to take shape, which is inseparable from Li Lizhi's contribution. For example, the martial arts comedy "Gaishi Hao" was co-directed by Liu Jiahao and Li Lizhi, who also participated in the screenwriting.
In 1990, Stephen Chow and Wu Mengda became popular with a "Gambling Saint" and then left wireless to enter the film industry.
In 1991, Li Lizhi directed the film "Love Saint" for the first time independently, and cooperated with Stephen Chow. At the box office of 16.55 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 17th in the year, it is 1 place higher than Liu Zhenwei and Yuan Kuina's "Gambler".
Li Lizhi is also the screenwriter of "Love Saint", and there are many classic bridges in the film, such as Zhou Xingchi seeing Ye Zilin swimming, taking off his clothes while rushing to the pool and finally smashing on the glass. Although immature, it is very nonsensical, and it also exposes some of Li Li's tastes and taste preferences.
Wang Jing's style is called and fart, Liu Zhenwei's style is more advanced and literary; while Li Li's style is between the two, and there is the vulgarity of and, and there is a pseudo-high who loves to throw school bags.
Li Lizhi often likes to play some pornographic edge balls, point to the end, such as "SplashIng Wet Mary" in "The King of Destruction", and Wang Jing simply shoots grade III films directly.
There is also a difference between Li Lizhi and Wang Jing, that is, he will not often fry old rice, using some used old stems. On the one hand, the number of Li Lizhi's works is small, on the other hand, the status of the jianghu is not enough, and there is not such a high dominance.
From 1993's "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang", 1994's "The King of Destruction", "Domestic 007", 1996's "God of Food", "The Great Inner Secret Agent Zero Zero Hair", 1998's "A Dragon of Fortune", 1999's "The King of Comedy", to 2000's "Shaolin Football".
In addition to the evolution of Stephen Chow's film style, it is also the growth of Stephen Chow's directing ability and the upgrading of his directorial dominance.
When "Tang Bohu Orders Autumn Fragrance", the director was signed by Li Lizhi; "The King of Comedy" was co-directed by Stephen Chow and Li Lizhi, and in "Shaolin Football", Li Lizhi was the most executive director, and the last to win the Academy Award for Best Director was Stephen Chow.
Therefore, from "The King of Destruction" to "A Dragon of Fortune", how much is filmed by Li Li and how much is filmed by Zhou Xingchi, it is really unclear.
Fortunately, without Zhou Xingchi, Li Lizhi still has a representative work.
In 1992, Li Lizhi directed a "Huang Feihong Laughing Biography", written by Li Lizhi and the debutant Gu Dezhao, starring Tan Yonglin, Zeng Zhiwei, Wu Mengda, Ren Dahua, Leung Ka Fai, Mao Shunjun and so on.
Under the lens of Li Lizhi, Huang Feihong became a pseudo-master who did not love martial arts and loved the kitchen, and Tan Yonglin added the comedic effects of Wu Mengda, Zeng Zhiwei, Liang Jiahui and Mao Shunjun, and even did not lose to Chow Sing Chi and Wu Mengda.
In 1992, when Stephen Chow dominated the box office list, "The Legend of Huang Feihong" achieved a box office of 19.8 million Hong Kong dollars, which was better than Chow Yun Fat's "Hot Hand Detective" and Andy Lau's "Absolute Double Pride", and only 100 million less than Jet Li's authentic "Huang Feihong 2 Boys As Self-Reliance".
In 1993, he took advantage of the situation to launch a sequel "Wong Fei Hung to Wong Fei Hung", which grossed more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
After "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang" was offline, Li Lizhi's "Guangdong Five Tigers' Iron Fist Invincible Sun Yat-sen" was released, with Tan Yonglin and Zhong Zhentao and other Wen Na Five Tigers starring, the heroine was Chen Farong, Huang Qiusheng played the main villain, chen Baixiang, Yuan Qiongdan and other Zhou Xingchi comedy team to do the matching.
This is a commemorative work of the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Five Tigers of Wenna, and the combination of The Five Tigers of Wenna, Tan Yonglin, Zhong Zhentao, Chen You, Peng Jianxin, and Ye Zhiqiang is the biggest attraction, and the biggest highlight is the cameo of Wenna's old friend Chen Baixiang.
Chen Baixiang continues the tradition of being beaten in every movie, more legendary being caught by Japanese soldiers once a run, he is caught every time he escapes magically and bizarrely, and the use of bridge design and lens, although nonsensical, is quite wonderful.
Moreover, "The Iron Fist of the Five Tigers of Guangdong Invincible Sun Yat-sen" has many connotations and profound meanings, which is similar to "Domestic 007" and is the best work in Li Lizhi's works.
In 1995, Zhang Min became his own boss and invested in a comedy romance film "One Thousand and One Nights of Dreamers", starring Liang Jiahui, Wu Qianlian, Chen Baixiang and Luo Jiaying, directed by Lin Qinglong, and produced by Chen Jiashang.
After filming, Zhang Min felt dissatisfied and wanted to make up a few shots when post-editing, and as a result, Liang Jiahui and other protagonists had no schedule. Therefore, Zhang Min found Liu Qingyun and Wang Minde, Zheng Danrui, Gu Juji and others, personally went to the battlefield as the heroine, and remade a "Chasing Girls 95 Dream" with the same story, the director is Li Lizhi, and the screenwriter is Li Lizhi and Gu Dezhao.
Released on 17 June 1995, "Dreamer of 101 Nights" ranked 61st in the year with a Hong Kong box office of HK$3.11 million, and "Chasing the Dream of 95 Girls" was released on June 24, 1995, with a Hong Kong box office of HK$10.32 million, ranking 20th.
The same plot, two groups of people with the same position, made into two movies, released 7 days apart, and the result was a 3 times difference in the box office.
This should be the most beautiful battle that Li Lizhi won!
Therefore, in 1995, Li Lizhi directed a fantasy comedy "Ten Brothers", starring Zhang Min and Zhong Zhentao, who were about to end the film, bringing together Luo Jiaying, Xu Jinjiang, Huang Yifei, Yuan Qiongdan and other old teams, as well as Shi Xiaolong and Hao Shaowen, the hottest child star combination.
In the movie, the ten brothers who are more prosperous than Huluwa are all strange and have special skills, which is also a good memory for many post-80s fans.
After "Shaolin Football" in 2000, Li Lizhi left Stephen Chow, and there were no works from the peak era.
On the one hand, the peak period of Li Lizhi has passed, on the other hand, the peak era of the entire Hong Kong film has passed.