On December 26, 2020, THE FIRST GODDESS OF TVB, OU Jiahui, passed away, and sadly, on January 4, TVB's old drama bone Li Xiangqin also left us at the age of 88.
The death of "Sister Qin", many filmmakers who have cooperated with him have posted articles of remembrance, Wang Mingquan: Always miss you, all the way; Lin Feng: "R.I.P Dear Concubine"; Zeng Huaqian: "She really cherishes our descendants, never had a shelf"; Li Lizhi: The support you gave me, I will never forget.
Li Xiangqin is from the Cantonese opera industry, was the first supporting actress in Cantonese opera in her early years, and later entered the film circle and became a classic villain role in cantonese old films, representative works: "Mandarin Duck River Hate", "Street Queen", "Nine Nine Nine Strange Three Murderers" and so on.
Of course, everyone is more familiar with her performance in Hong Kong dramas, such as Liang Chaowei's version of the extermination master Tai of "YiTian Slaughter dragon", Chen Jinfeng, the big mother of "The Winner is King", and Yu Junli of "The Storm of the Heart 2 House good moon 2".
In addition, she has portrayed the mothers of many superstars in Hong Kong films, such as the mothers of Huang Baiming, Cheung Kwok Wing and Chow Sing Chi in "Family Has Happy Events", Andy Lau's mother in "Dancing with the Dragon", Leung Ka Fai in "The Rich House", and Mao Shunjun's mother. At the same time, she is also the mother of Lu Liangwei and Wan Ziliang.
Li Xiangqin's many works, the most personally watched is "92 Family Happy Events", in the film in addition to Li Xiangqin, there are two actors are also gone, Zhang Guorong does not need to introduce more, has left us for 17 years.
The other is Guan Haishan, who starred as a husband and wife with Li Xiangqin, known as Uncle Shrimp, a Cantonese opera veteran, a golden supporting role in Hong Kong films, a detective of "The Legend of Leiluo", Uncle Hai of "Hot Hand Detective", and a qi assistant of "Plan A", unfortunately, it was gone in 2006.
As a classic New Year film, "92 Families Have Happy Events" is full of stars and jokes, full of nonsense wisdom of Hong Kong filmmakers. Compared to the funny content, the behind-the-scenes story is also worth exploring.
01, Zhou Runfa Lin Zixiang missed, Zhou Xingchi sky-high film remuneration
During the New Art City period, Huang Baiming filmed "Eight Stars annunciation" and won the box office champion in 1988.
In the 1990s, Huang Baiming remade the series, but by then the new art city had disintegrated, so he founded the Oriental Film Company and hired his old partner Gao Zhisen to direct.
In terms of actors, Huang Baiming naturally wanted to find Zhou Runfa to continue his "brotherly love", but the new art city disintegrated, and he also left. By the time Huang Baiming found him, Zhou Runfa already had a contract for "I Love Twisted Chai", and the scheduled schedule was also the New Year file, and the two films were competitors.
Zhou Runfa has no schedule, Huang Baiming retreated to the second place, began to find Lin Zixiang, ready to let him play the eldest brother, play the "girly" second brother himself, Zhang Guorong played the playboy old third.
But but there was still a change, Lin Zixiang's house in the United States burned, helplessly Huang Baiming found Zhou Xingchi, Xingxing as a popular fried chicken, put forward two conditions, one is a high salary of 8 million, the other is to play a rival role with Maggie Cheung, playing the role of playboy old trinity.
Huang Baiming was also more difficult at the beginning, after all, the arrangement was for Zhang Guorong to play the third oldest, and it was also coincidental that Zhang Guorong said that he played the "girly" second brother as soon as he returned from Canada, and wanted to play with Mao Shunjun. (As for why mao mao is chosen, there is no need to say more)
Unintentionally planting willows, Zhou Xingchi and Zhang Guorong both picked their own opponents, and the remaining big brother was naturally None other than Huang Baiming. All of this seems to have been predestined, and now it seems that this lineup is impeccable.
In the end, the film also sold 48.99 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking second in the annual box office list, while Chow Yun-fat's "I Love Twisted Chai" ranked 6th, because the first five were strongly contracted by Stephen Chow.
02, two versions of the ending
In the glory days of Hong Kong films, the cast alone can get investment, and the film has not yet started shooting, and the copyright has already been sold.
"92 Happy Events" was still in the filming stage that year, and Korean filmmakers had come to negotiate the copyright, and they put forward a condition, that is, Zhang Guorong must have a gunfight scene.
Why must Zhang Guorong have a gunfight scene? Just because my brother is too hot in South Korea, the boom of the "Hero's Nature" series has not yet passed in South Korea, and the beginning of "Please Answer 1988" is enough to prove it.
"92 Happy Events" as a New Year film, should have been lively, now requires fighting and killing, there must be a gunfight, it sounds very difficult.
But this request is a piece of cake for Hong Kong filmmakers, in the end of the Korean version, Gao Zhisen joined the scene where Wu Junru was kidnapped by three kidnappers, and then the three brothers heroically saved the United States, and specially gave Zhang Guorong a large number of dashing shots with guns, which can also be regarded as a comprehensive satisfaction for Korean audiences.
As for the Hong Kong version of the ending, it is what we generally see, and the whole family uses a touching song "Why did you ever know each other" to change the heart of the sister-in-law.
Drama is like life, life is like a drama, the Korean version of the ending has three kidnappers, in real life, the negative of "92 Happy Things" was almost snatched away by three masked thieves with guns, fortunately, in the end they did not find the negatives, only snatched some wool films, otherwise we may not see this classic.
03, 13 days of quick classics
In the glorious period of Hong Kong cinema, large and small crews were working, and actors and behind-the-scenes personnel had to run back and forth in multiple crews, so they created their high efficiency and shooting speed.
As we all know, "East becomes West" was filmed for 27 days, "Gunfire" for 19 days, and "Ancient Puzzle Boy 2" for 14 days, but "92 Family Happy Events" is even more desperate, and it took only 13 days to shoot.
What is even more rare is that they are not only fast, but also a variety of funny bridges and tribute clips are not lacking, such as "Man Ghost Love" two people make ceramics together, "Wind and Moon Pretty Lady" custom female hook-up, "Ten Days of Danger" bundle play, "The Shining" classic vertical sawing door, "Edward Scissorhands" snow ice sculpture, "Terminator" wind motorcycle tribute to Governor Schwarzenegger and so on.
In addition, director Gao Zhisen and screenwriter Gu Dezhao also do not forget to spoof Zhang Guorong's classic "Ah Fei Zheng Biography" and "Qiannu Ghost", breaking the film boundaries with the ease and uninhibited of popular culture, which is also one of the charms of Hong Kong films.
More than 20 years have passed, and many bridge sections have been vividly remembered, such as the brother's sentence "It will hurt to give birth to a child", the Eiffel Tower kissing of Chow Xingchi and Maggie Cheung, Zhou Xingchi swallowing his fist, Li Lizhen's friendship cameo for a few minutes, and the "living treasure" of Li Xiangqin and Guan Haishan, etc. Finally, I just want to say that "Sister Qin" has gone all the way. (Author: Quan Guanqing)