If you are a veteran Hong Kong martial arts film fan, then the Hong Kong film scene in 1989 is definitely a memorable day.
The most eye-catching in those years was never Ling Huchong and Jin Yong, but Chen Xiaodao and Gao Jin.
Gambling films are indispensable for the development of Hong Kong cinema because it is diversified.
It can be comedy, it can be tragic, it can also be urban and middle class.
In the early 1980s, there was a gambling boom in Hong Kong.
But when it comes to really fully developing this special film genre of gambling films.
It is still "God of Gamblers" written and directed by Wang Jing and starring Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau in 1989.
Zhou Runfa was portrayed as the "God of Gamblers" for a long time, and the rest of the characters were only copied and copied.
"God of Gamblers" is one of the few blockbuster movies that Wang Jing has to take on the role relationship more seriously.
The plot is through the accidental amnesia of Gao Jin, the god of gamblers played by Zhou Runfa, resulting in a plot that looks like a child, and after transforming classical works such as Li Hanxiang's "Qianlong Under Jiangnan", the focus of the role is on the relationship between Chen Xiaodao, played by Andy Lau, and Gao Jin.
Through the obvious conflict between the magic of gambling and the condition of the characters, "God of Gamblers" has become a highly entertaining movie.
And such a plot has been continued by Wang Jing into "Macau Storm 3".
You call him the "king of bad films", but you also have to admire his vision, creativity and market adaptability.
Because almost 80% of Hong Kong-made gambling films are works in which Wang Jing has a part.
He spent most of his time as a director, either indirectly as a screenwriter or producer.
Wang Jing was a screenwriter, and in 1980, the TV series "The King of a Thousand Kings" written by him and Liu Shiyu came out, and the ratings beat the TV station "Grace of the Earth" of ATV's predecessor Li.
After 1 year, the TV series "A Thousand Kings" written by Wang Jing, directed by Du Qifeng and starring Ren Dahua Zhou Runfa was released.
The characters in "The Thousand Kings Heroes" have a very Cantonese flavor.
The form of "gambling" is also very different from the current form of Macau casinos - Pai Gow.
This almost extinct form of modern gambling was in the ascendant at the time.
"Gambling film" at this time, Only 25 years old Wang Jing may have a different idea in her mind.
So he deliberately added this young color to "The Society of a Thousand Kings".
There is no suspense, the summit ratings of "A Thousand Kings" have laid the foundation for Wang Jing's future hegemony in the gambling film industry.
After 2 months of the hit "Thousand Kings Society", he hit the iron while it was hot to create Shaw's first film in the middle and late stage gambling style, "Thousand Kings Fighting Thousand Kings".
How popular was this movie in Hong Kong at the time?
He had mentioned in the interview:
"I didn't think it would be so good, when the Shaw box office record was "Seventy-Two Tenants", which dragged to six million, winning five million from Bruce Lee's "Raptors Across the River", and as a result, I received five million for my first play."
Although the new wave of thought cannot be completely linked to Wang Jing, the language of Hong Kong cinema has a different interpretation in the hands of Wang Jing.
His film career is like that of Japan, but everyone can't ignore the TV industry's promotion of gambling films.
Because the two flew together, they created a new wave of Hong Kong gambling films.
At that time, the model of Shaw's, New Art City, and Jiahe Pictures circulating the set created the most interesting "big three yuan" film with small profits and big profits.
The 80s were the era of TV fishing, coupled with the joint efforts of Shaw and TVB Wireless, this era produced two gambling geniuses - Wang Jing and Wei Jiahui.
Wang Jing is a representative figure of gambling films can not be denied, his father Wang Tianlin is an old predecessor in the film industry, perhaps Jingge does not want to follow the old path of his father's artistic style, so his films are biased towards entertainment and madness.
In addition to Wang Jing, of course, there are other gambling films.
Even after 2000 there was.
For example, "God of Gamblers", "New Year's Wealth" (2002), "Bird Saint" (2005), "My Wife is a Gambler Saint" (2008), "Poker King" (2009) and so on.
Pushing a little further, the black-and-white Cantonese films of the 50s and 60s already had the theme of gambling in family melodrama.
But during that time, gambling was seen as an evil act, and gamblers often carried huge gambling debts, which led individuals to depravity, leaving gamblers in financial difficulties and shattering their families.
But by the 1970s, things had changed.
The 1970s were a time when materialism and the working class were slowly emerging, and traditional moral values slowly withdrew from gambling films, in exchange for gambling as an opportunity to make money, just like the red-hot stock market at that time.
Just as Wei Jiahui's "Big Time" was created in this context.
But when we generally talk about gambling films, most of them take "God of Gamblers" as the dividing line.
Prior to this, gambling films did not enter the golden age.
2 years after the launch of "God of Gamblers", Liu Zhenwei immediately filmed "Gamble Saint", and the box office also closed sharply.
The master of the second creation, of course, is not "Gamble Saint".
This is a set of movies that spoof "God of Gamblers", but it broke the Hong Kong box office record and made Stephen Chow on the stage.
From "Star Boy" to "Star Lord", since then, Star Master movies have also become a must-have for the New Year.
Set subversion and curiosity in one, "Gamble Saint" breaks the original setting of "God of Gamblers" with special functions, there is no superb gambling, only crazy nonsense.
In fact, strictly speaking, special functions are another way to get out of the way.
Hong Kong's gambling films do not pay attention to realism, what is good to look at is psychological tactics, the gambling table is deceitful, mutual guessing, climax ups and downs...
It's also a gamble.
The equation of "gambling + comedy" pioneered by Liu Zhenwei officially reached its peak in 1991, and since then, crazy and funny gambling films have been launched.
However, the originator of Hong Kong-produced gambling films should be the earliest one in 1972 zhang Zengze's "Auspicious Gambling House".
Written by Ni Kuang, through the encounter of people running a gambling house in the jianghu, he tells the harm of gambling, and talks about gambling harming people, which is a warning film.
The person who created the equation of "gambling + comedy" should be Cheng Xiaodong's father Cheng Gang, who directed "The Great Deception of the Gambling King" in 1976.
In 1981, Cheng Gang filmed "Rogue Thousand Kings" again, but it did not become a climate that year.
If the "gamble" in Xu Guanwen's "Ghost Horse Double Star" is no longer regarded as a crime, then the gamble in "The Great Deception of the Gambling King" is even more praised, and it is a means of robbing the rich and helping the poor.
Most gambling films of the 90s probably follow the formula of this plot.
This is true of God of Gamblers, and it is also true of the funny "Gamblers".
In the matter of "gambling", Wang Jing's "God of Gamblers" absolutely follows the practice of "The Great Deception of the King of Gamblers".
On closer inspection, "The Great Gambler's Hoax" is the real gambling film:
The plot is a showdown between a righteous gambler and an evil gambler, and the final big showdown is to weigh on wealth, life, and property.
"The Great Deception of the Gambler King" can be called a modern martial arts movie, but the battlefield has changed from the martial arts to the gambling world and the old thousand worlds.
It is divided into two concepts – gambling and thousand skills.
Gambling is like a martial art, passed down from generation to generation.
As for the Thousand Arts, everyone shouted and beat, even if they were full of "martial arts", they still couldn't escape the fate of chopping their fingers.
Techniques such as hearing dice points, super memory, transfiguration cards, and issuing cards that you want have become relatively simple moves.
As for the key to really making Gao Jin known as the god of gambling, it lies in his various unexpected and almost all-out pre-arrangements.
Because of this, in addition to the distinctive personality, even unexpectedly made many mousse and chocolate brands make a lot of money.
Such as invisible liquid crystal developing glasses, the fake action of stealing the chicken to touch the ring in the first 500 decks, and the must go to the high seas and many other reversal plots and related lines.
In this way, it became the most impressive part of "God of Gamblers" and is still freshly remembered today.
Shortly after the success of God of Gamblers
Originally, I just wanted to take a ride to joke - "Gamble Saint", co-directed by Liu Zhenwei and Yuan Kui, unexpectedly used the nonsense funny way with Zhou Xingchi, who had just become popular.
In this way, it set a box office performance that was even better than "God of Gamblers", and even broke the record of Hong Kong film history at that time.
In addition to making "Gamble Saint" an indiscriminate work after the box office myth of Stephen Chow, it also opened up a completely different direction for the gambling film.
Compared with the entertainment of "God of Gamblers" combined with the scam-style movie, the plot of "Gamblers" actually cares more about exaggerated comedic effects.
The description of the small people in the city is also set off by the golden combination of Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda, as well as the supporting roles such as Yuan Kui and Wu Junru, which is more vivid and interesting than "God of Gamblers".
As a result, it has resonated with a wider audience.
As for the plot, "Gamble Saint" completely abandons the layout.
While emphasizing the character of the protagonist's small characters, it also gave him the talent of martial arts films, so that the "special function" became a common element of Hong Kong films in the next period of time.
Even As soon as Wu Mengda heard Zhou Xingchi call him "Third Uncle", he would immediately have a funny arrangement of congenital runaway disorder.
This has also become the most representative role of Uncle Da, and the action setting has been repeated many times in the future.
Just after Gamble Saint, works of the same genre began to appear more frequently.
Even Liu Zhenwei and Yuan Kui also found Mei Yanfang and Zheng Yuling to play the same role in the original class of "Gamble Saint".
Stephen Chow only made a brief cameo at the beginning and end of the film, and then continued to launch the authentic sequel of "Gambler".
However, it is not "Gambler" who really receives the dividends of "Gamblers", but adopts a somewhat foul method.
He combined "God of Gamblers" and "Gamblers" as if they were a piece of "Gambler".
Then again, gambling films are also variants of martial arts films.
The spirit of martial arts is to talk about morality and brotherhood.
Or it is the purpose of defeating the adulterous horn, so there are a large number of sword and light sword shadow fight scenes in the gambling film, and occasionally join the underworld or evil forces to coerce the protagonist.
Due to the heavy taste of jianghu and masculine taste, female characters rarely appear on the gambling table.
Although it is very unfair, it is true that the female characters in the bet film are just vases.
In addition to "Gambler", there is also the Japanese Sengo Goldfinger in "Rogue Thousand Kings", these female characters are already very few examples.
Although I look back, I will feel that compared with "Gamblers" and "Gamblers", Zhou Xingchi gives people the feeling that it is still obviously much greener in "Gamble Saint".
But in fact, the release time of "Gambler" in Hong Kong is actually only slightly less than 4 months later than "Gambler".
It can be said that it completely shows the production characteristics of Hong Kong film production that respects "fast".
It is worth noting that many people now tend to describe "Gamblers" as the forerunners of the "movie universe".
But in fact, "Gambler" actually only uses the audience's impression of "Gambler Saint" to create an illusion similar to the "movie universe".
Basically, it's not the same as the situation with Marvel or DC.
Because of this, if you look closely enough, you will find that Zhou Xingchi, who was originally called "Zuo Songxing" in "Gamble saints", became "Zhou Xingzu" in "Gambler".
The film uses the way that most of the time still calls him "A Xing", so he and Wu Mengda's third uncle are moved into the cosmology of "God of Gamblers".
Even later, he took the whole bowl away, so that Zhou Xingchi was so anti-guest-oriented, becoming the protagonist of "Gambler 2: Gambling on the Beach".
But just from the perspective of "Gambler", Wang Jing did successfully combine the characteristics of "God of Gamblers" and "Gamblers".
Let Chen Xiaodao and Zhou Xingzu face different opponents with their own characteristics at the card table.
Even Gao Jin, the god of gambling, was cut into the end of the film by Wang Jing without Zhou Runfa at all, creating the illusion that he had a cameo in this film.
In the end, this work, which is the only work that has gathered the God of Gamblers, Gamblers and Gamblers, has lived up to expectations and become the runner-up in the history of Hong Kong film at that time second only to "Gamble saints".
In 1994's "God of Gamblers 2", Wang Jing finally let Gao Jin return to the gambling world.
Although there are no Chen Xiaodao or Zhou Xingzu in the play, the roles played by Liang Jiahui, Wu Qianlian, Qiu Shuzhen and Xu Jinjiang have filled the vacancy.
In the end, at that moment when Hollywood's "Jurassic Park" was invincible, "God of Gamblers 2" still won more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in Hong Kong.
In addition to becoming the first film in the history of Chinese films in Hong Kong at that time, it is also regarded as the final peak of Hong Kong gambling films so far.
As far as the plot is concerned, "God of Gamblers 2" does not care about character management as much as the previous game, basically just cares about funny.
At the same time, the focus is put back on the strategic layout in "God of Gamblers", and even the "special function master Zhang Baosheng" is used as the prototype to strengthen the plot, and the final flip effect.
Therefore, compared with "God of Gamblers", this film is actually only left with those lines related to gambling, which is enough to really make an impression.
As for the prequel "God of Gamblers 3: The Young God of Gamblers" played by Li Ming, although the film is also written by Wang Jing, the plot has obvious contradictions with "God of Gamblers".
Hence its name although authentic sequel.
But in terms of coherence, there is even a more obvious conflict between "Gamblers" and "Gamblers".
In addition, the storyline has become more gloomy and heavy, making the box office of "God of Gamblers 3: The Young God of Gamblers" have a significant decline, so it temporarily interrupted the legend of Gao Jin's God of Gamblers.
Following Zhou Runfa, Wang Jing is committed to winning the successor of the red gambling film Andy Lau.
However, Andy Lau can neither surpass Chow Yun-fat's big brother style, nor can he open a new scenery for gambling films with his unique comedy cells like Stephen Chow.
Although Andy Lau has starred in gambling films many times in his acting career, he has not been able to shape the classic.
Stephen Chow's autonomy is very strong, and the directors he has worked with have said that they cannot control him.
(This is also a joke why Stephen Chow is called "Star Master" and Andy Lau is called "Hua Tsai")
Wang Jing could not get benefits from Zhou Xingchi, so she had to find another successor.
Later, he found Ge Minhui and Li Ming to star in "Gamble Saint 2: Street Gambler Saint" and "God of Gamblers 3: The Young God of Gamblers", and the market response was not very good.
Therefore, after the wave of "God of Gamblers" passed, after the return of Ninety-Seven, there was no spirited gambler, only the old thousands of people who wandered the rivers and lakes.
There are no more large casinos in the movie, only private gambling stalls, playing horses, shooting dragon gates and gambling waves.
Thus, "Gambler 1999" came into being.
How to say, as the second-to-last score of Wang Jing's gambling film series, it is actually very sad.
But it also has a budding edge, as one of the successors of the star master Zhang Jiahui, he played the "bone dragon" is very fresh as soon as he appears, so that the film is between sadness and joy, unique.
In the following years, Wang Jing still launched several movies with the word "gambler" in the title.
However, Andy Lau in these movies does not play Chen Xiaodao, and the story has nothing to do with previous works.
Even in terms of plot elements, the various confrontations at the table have been greatly reduced.
This makes the film look almost like a simple hoax, and naturally it cannot be compared with the classics of the past.
However, at the end of 2015's "Macau Storm 2" and 2016's "Macau Storm 3", Wang Jing turned back to summon Gao Jin and Chen Xiaodao, and let Chow Yun Fat directly play two different roles in the film, including Gao Jin.
However, although this series has received a higher box office in the mainland than one, the film evaluation is unbearable.
It also allowed Wang Jing to create two classic characters of gambling films, which were destroyed in his hands so late.
Let the final residual value of the god of gambler and the gambler be consumed in this way.
But it is conceivable that "Macau Storm" can be released in the Spring Festival file, and the "God of Gamblers" series occupies a lot of weight in the hearts of the audience!
To put it simply, the 3 episodes of "Macau Storm" are just self-replicates of Wang Jingjiang lang's talents, and more indeed, it is his journey from "King of a Thousand Kings" to "God of Gamblers" and "Gambler".
Despite many failures, Wang Jing still did not give up the gambling film.
He used Meng Yao, one of the crystal girls, as the heroine to star in his "Que Sheng" series, which focuses on female gambling, in an attempt to combine his "Lamb" series with the gambling film to attract the attention of the audience.
But even if you don't hesitate to borrow the sexy carcass plot that shows women, you can't save his empty script and clichéd vulgar jokes.
However, if you think about it, even if the creators of those gambling films really shoot new works in the way they were then, so that the classic characters of "God of Gamblers", "Gambler" and "Gamblers" will appear in front of our eyes again with their original characteristics.
However, due to the change of times, everything is bound to look different from the past.
In this day and age, these topics are really less accessible than smuggling into the high seas.
The Hong Kong-made gambling films in the low period from 1998 to 2003 were different from the domineering spirit of "God of Gamblers" in the scenery period, the joy of the "Gamblers" and "Gamblers" series, so that the hilarity of the subsequent series was different, less confidence and less ostentatiousness, more helplessness and despair.
Like "A Bad Bet Legend" released in 2001, it is a life tragedy wrapped in comedy, which is initially absurd enough to make people sigh in the end.
But in any case, when we re-watch those classic gambling films, we can still think of those classic pictures.
There are some different views on some of the details in the play, or the actors who play those roles.
But fortunately, no matter what, these classic gambling films still leave us with a lot of catchy lines, providing us with a lot of jokes that can be spoken at any time when we are with family or friends such as the Spring Festival, bringing more fun and laughter to the family poker game.
Even if I know that the era of Hong Kong gambling films is gone, there is always such a humbleness, looking forward to its appearance one day in the future...