1991 Big Star Era
1991 was a legendary year for the big stars. Back then, it was very different from today's internet focus era, and in today's information cocoon, everyone is partying and encircling themselves.
In 1991, turn on the TV, walk into the theater, you can't avoid Andy Lau, Stephen Chow... Those faces are known to everyone, even your distant seventh uncle and grandfather, they know them.
It really doesn't live up to the word "star".
Reddest: The Four Heavenly Kings
The 1991 years of Chinese movie stars, starting with Andy Lau, are always not wrong.
If there is a mistake, it is also blamed on the head of "The Night Feast of the Giants".
That year, the flood in East China, in order to raise funds for disaster relief, most of the most popular Hong Kong stars, rushed to catch up, with a miraculous speed, in four days to shoot this movie.
The quality of the film is naturally mediocre, the star effect is pictured, it is lively and lively, and it raises donations.
In this all-star movie, the opening "guest" is Andy Lau.
This year, there were no "four heavenly kings", but it was almost inseparable, and in 1992, this saying came out.
Andy Lau's top position is beyond doubt.
13 plays are released a year, and if you don't want to roll the drama, you have to roll.
People in the rivers and lakes, involuntarily.
For example, the big guys of the Bamboo Gang want to make a "Burning Island" to record their "prison storm", indicating that the most handsome and popular stars should play themselves.
"The most handsome, the most red", how can Andy Lau escape?
Andy Lau also set up his own production company "Tianmu" in this year.
However, at this time, he was not the Andy Lau who later looked at "Crazy Stone".
In 1991 alone, he lost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.
This year, Andy Lau played Inspector Leiluo, laying a foreshadowing for him to play "Chasing the Dragon" in the new millennium; he also played the pair of heroes with Mei Yanfang in "91 Divine Eagle Heroes", and only after ten years did he know how to sigh.
And Aaron Kwok, who is only four years younger than Andy Lau, played Andy Lau's son in "The Biography of Inspector Leiluo 2: Father and Son Love".
Although the "Four Heavenly Kings" is a concept in the music world, the "Heavenly Kings" were already the latest force in the film industry in 1991.
It was in this year that Jacky Cheung was shortlisted for three nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards, one for Best Actor and two for Best Supporting Actor. Among them, the nomination for the best actor comes from "Blood Street", Wu Yusen's representative work.
The nomination for Best Supporting Actor came from "Ghost in the Shell 2: The Way of the World" and "Laughing At The River". The male protagonist lost to Zhang Guorong ("The Legend of Ah Fei"), and the male supporting team lost to Wu Mengda ("Heavenly Love").
The slowest to move forward in the film world is Dawn.
In 1991, he experienced perhaps the biggest crisis of his career.
At this year's disaster relief party, he was temporarily ordered to sing, and under the lack of preparation, he walked into the scene of a car accident, and was doubted whether he could sing in the end. Perhaps because of this, he concentrates on music, and the scene is slowly filmed.
It will not be until four years later that he is the "fallen angel", and five years later, he will sing the song "Sweet Honey".
In the past 30 years, the media's star-making movement has not stopped, and the use of nouns has been repeated, but there has never been such a national title as "Four Heavenly Kings".
The most "multi-gold": double Monday
In the "night banquet of the giants" in 1991, there was also a very nonsensical stem: "A Xing" from Kuwait wanted to invite out their grandfather, and when the music sounded, it was Zhou Xingchi who made a grand appearance - "It turned out that Zhou Xingchi was a star master!"
In 1991, Zhou Xingchi was called a star master, which was also reasonable. For two consecutive years, the box office champion in Hong Kong, China, is the work starring Stephen Chow, in 1990 it was "Gamble Saint", and in 1991 it was "Truant Weilong".
In the next two years, the championship throne also did not fall.
It was the legendary "double Monday" era, and in the 13 years from 1985 to 1997, Zhou Runfa, Zhou Xingchi, and Jackie Chan took turns to occupy the box office champion position.
At this time, Zhou Runfa was comforting the frustrated Wu Yusen.
He did not count the remuneration, but also came forward to invite Zhang Guorong and Zhong Chuhong to support Wu Yusen to direct the new work "[Across the World]." Investors have objections to Wu Yusen's directing and want to change people? That has to be changed, even Fa Ge to replace it together.
Box office guarantees that Fa Ge has this right to speak before capital.
Jackie Chan's 1991 was not so smooth.
He spent a staggering HK$115 million this year on "The Flying Eagle Project", which traveled across three continents in Asia, Africa and Europe, but this expensive film was subordinate to "Truant Weilong" in the annual box office list.
Another Jackie Chan movie in 1991 was the "hijacking" of Andy Lau's "Burning Island". But not only Andy Lau, but also Leung Ka Fai, who was filming "Lover" in Vietnam at the time, but he expected that the guys of the Bamboo Gang broke into the door and robbed him to shoot.
No, "double weekly success" can be said to be the hardest brand in the whole Hong Kong and even the whole Chinese film industry at that time, but in the face of some forces, even they are helpless.
Chinese movies are soaring, and those crazy behind the scenes are like a movie in themselves, but behind the dazzling money, there are inevitably shadows. When this kind of helplessness is helpless, people can't help but wonder if everything is just a crazy phantom.
The most beautiful: Xiangjiang Mingdan
One of the few superstars who did not show their faces in "The Night Feast of the Giants", Jet Li is one.
There was a reason for the incident, when he was filming "Huang Feihong", there was a scene, jumping from the roof, the crew thought that this height, for Jet Li is nothing, which knows a moment of carelessness, his leg is broken, the next scene can only use a stand-in.
He was originally worried not about his own injury, but about his fists and feet without eyes, hurting the great beauty Guan Zhilin, and even once said to Xu Ke, don't let Guan Zhilin play the thirteenth aunt, too good-looking, afraid of hurting the face.
At that time, the Xiangjiang, beautiful women such as the carp across the river, did not know who it was, hard to select the "four famous Dan", Guan Zhilin is one of them.
The other three are Zhong Chuhong, Maggie Cheung, and Wang Zuxian.
However, Zhong Chuhong in 1991 has decided to retire.
It was her last year of making films.
This year, she pushed back many film contracts, including "91 Divine Eagle Heroes". In the end, she only made two films, one of which was "Across the Seas" that Zhou Run tried to persuade her to agree to.
In 1991, it was also the last few years of Wang Zuxian's acting career.
That year, she filmed "Qiannu Ghost 3: Dao Dao", but she also said that in the future, unless Xu Kelai made an appointment, she would no longer play a female ghost, "afraid that she would not be able to cast a fetus in the next life."
She had been planning to cut back for several years, and by 1991, she had only two plays on her hands.
Two years later, she also gradually faded out of the film world.
The only one left is Maggie Cheung. She has just said goodbye to the "vase" label, and there are many movies waiting for her to act.
This year, she was frustrated and proud of her career.
When filming "A Tale of Two Cities", she fell in love with the art director, and at this time she had broken up, and her ex-boyfriend was angry and sold her love letters to the media.
Guan Jinpeng later said that I guess she substituted this anger of being betrayed into "Ruan Lingyu".
People are fearful in their words, and people are fearful in their words. This kind of human drama is one, but it can no longer be.
At the end of that year, Maggie Cheung won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress, and the following year, she won the Berlin Silver Bear.
It's just that Lin Qingxia, who was partnered with Maggie Cheung at that time, has also reached the end of her acting career.
They co-starred in 1990's "Rolling Red Dust", when no one expected that Lin Qingxia would marry a woman a few years later and no longer be an actress.
The best actress at the 1990 Golden Horse Awards was Lin Qingxia.
When she won the award, she said: "Thank you for the best actor in my mind, he has been acting with me for eighteen years, and he has not finished acting, and I don't know how many years he will play." Thank you "Rolling Red Dust" actor Qin Han. "Where to know, there are no good years to act. With the end of this scene with Qin Han, Lin Qingxia also changed a fold of the scene, and when she filmed the hundredth work, she stopped filming and married Xing Liyuan.
When I think about it now, what ended these flowers was not only their own film path, but also an era.
Since then, there have also been the most brilliant generations since then, and the country has fallen into the city, but it has always seemed to be the brightest at that time, so bright that you can't open your eyes.
The most sassy: big stars and big girls
Speaking of Danjiao, in the December 1991 issue of "Outside the Horn", several photos of Hua Dan's shape were published. But the person in the painting is not a woman, but a boy. On the photo, it is Zhang Guorong.
Within a few days, the news of Zhang Guorong's starring in "Overlord Farewell" was announced.
Chen Kaige was finally determined after seeing a photo of his Hua Dan style. It is said that it is the "Outside the Horn" group of blockbusters called "Odd Double Society".
That year, Zhang Guorong had already won the Academy Award for Best Actor for "The Legend of Ah Fei". This is the first acting award he has won, and looking at his aura that is difficult to hide and difficult to reproduce, it seems that there are still many awards to be won.
Zhang Guorong wants to cooperate with Gong Li, which is the name that you can't hide from in those years.
From "Red Sorghum" and "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" to "Farewell to the Overlord", Gong Li seems to have "monopolized" the most important movies in those years.
In 1991, she was filming "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit". But screenwriter Liu Heng always felt that she was not like Qiu Ju, and suspected that Zhang Yi was selfish.
He complained to Zhang Yimou, "As long as I think that Gong Li plays Qiu Ju, I can't write and play." That was because he hadn't seen Gong Li's magical transformation ability yet.
The actress of that year was another aesthetic of the times.
The previous article said that the Hong Kong stars are "bright", and this "bright" all the way north meets the cold air and crisp accent, and gives birth to a cool atmosphere. At the moment, such as Gong Li, counting forward, it is Liu Xiaoqing and Pan Hong, and counting backwards, it is Xu Fan.
30 years later, people loved to select "Little Flowers", and at that time, everyone was a big girl, the eldest sister who wanted Jiang Wen to be the director, the fierce woman Du Shiniang, and Zhang Yimou who made sure that she play the empress Gong Li once.
Even the big grinning look, like Xu Fan, appeared "small" in front of a "big" girl predecessor.
Feng Xiaogang commented after watching "The Big Satan": "The film is good, the heroine is almost there. ”
In 1991, the "Comedy Three Musketeers" officially formed a successful team, Ge You, Liang Tian, Xie Yuan were neatly organized, and "The Story of the Editorial Department" had not yet been broadcast, but it was also fast.
In 1991, "Jiao Yulu" won 130 million at the box office at a cost of 1.3 million, and Li Xuejian took the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Double Film Emperor, but he said in his acceptance speech: "Suffering and tiredness have made the good man Jiao Yulu suffer, and fame and profit have let the stupid boy Li Xuejian get it." ”
In 1991, Jia Hongsheng was a rising star, and before he graduated, he acted in the films of Li Shaohong and Huang Jianxin.
In 1991, Zhang Zhen was only 15 years old, and was called by Yang Dechang to perform "The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street", in order to make him perform a shocked expression, Yang Dechang scolded him and locked him in a small black room for half an hour, which provoked his most naïve and broken performance.
Looking back 30 years later, 1991 was really the craziest and most ostentatious year for the big stars, they bloomed like gardenias, just like this, fragrant and painful, fragrant you can't open Shan.
When the director is in progress
1991, a year that is not an integer year, seems unremarkable.
But many of the directors who now seem most important, 1991, was a pivotal moment in their artistic lives.
Some of them met noble people at this time, some people made their most important movies, some people just took the first step towards movies, and some people were completely transforming.
Twilight of the gods
In 1991, a "family cook" finally took off his apron.
The family cook had been squatting at home for six years, thinking he would never get a chance to make a movie again, but it was at this time that his script won the award.
When he received the news, he only had $43 in his pocket, not even the money to fly back to Taiwan.
On April 10, 1991, this script, "Pusher", was launched.
In 1991, for the first time, Ang Lee was called "director."
In 1991, Cai Liangming had been filming unit dramas on television for several years.
On this day, he was going to shoot an episode called "Kids" and go to a video game store to shoot, where a young man working there caught his attention.
The young man had never learned to act at all, and the action was always half a beat slower, who thought that Cai Liangming had filmed his debut film "[Teenager Nezha" the following year, and the male protagonist was this young man.
Yes, he is Xiao Kangsheng, Li Kangsheng, the male protagonist of every movie after Cai Liangming.
In 1991, Cai Mingming met Li Kangsheng.
In 1991, Yang Dechang filmed "The Murder of a Teenager on Muling Street." Two years further on, Hou Xiaoxian won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for "City of Sorrows".
Looking at the film standards and awards, 1991 was a really good time.
But they were also worried. The annual output of Taiwanese films fell off a cliff.
In 1989, 103 films, in 1990, 82 films, and by 1991, only 33 films were produced in a year.
Hou Xiaoxian later made it clear: "Taiwan can't even make commercial films now, and everyone is still desperately making exhibitors." "It's just that even if it is also filming an exhibition film, there has not been another Yang Dechang or Hou Xiaoxian in those two years."
1991 is already the twilight of the gods for Taiwanese films.
Midday sun
At that time, the audience on Treasure Island welcomed Hong Kong films more.
In 1991, Hong Kong film directors were in a good time, crazy, and overheated. Fire to the point that the wicked are red-eyed.
At the end of 1991, Gao Zhisen spent 13 days filming "Happy Things at Home", but within a few days, Huang Baiming had just taken a bath, and he received a call from the printing factory, saying that just after Gao Zhisen left, there were several masked people who came to rob, not to rob money, but to rob movie negatives.
Even the robbers knew that this negative was worth a lot.
The films made by Gao Zhisen and Huang Baiming, from the "Happy Ghost" to the "Rich and Powerful" series, which is not easy to earn tens of millions?
This time, "There is a Happy Event at Home" is that the two people have combined to continue the success of "Rich and Powerful". Fortunately, this gang of miscreants was dark under the lights, and they tied the cutter to a strong and strong, but they didn't see it, and the negative was at the feet of the cutter.
Low cost, fast shooting, and more money, at this time, the directors of commercial films in Hong Kong, China, are the proud sons of heaven.
Wang Jingguang is in 1991 a year, there are five movies released, worthy of the name of Hong Kong film speed.
Action film directors are not as high as Wang Jing's production, but their control over the genre is fast and accurate: Lin Lingdong's "Hair-trigger", Tang Jili's "Magic Domain Flying Dragon", Chen Musheng's "Belt Son Honglang"... Liu Zhenwei is also a prolific money-making small expert, after all, Confucius said, "Take the prize to find Wong Kar-wai, and make money to find Liu Zhenwei." ”
But this year, Liu Zhenwei's most important task is not to direct "[Gambler", not to write the screenplay for "91 Divine Eagle Heroes", not to prepare "92 Black Roses to Black Roses", not how much money he earns, but that he is helping Wong Kar-wai find money.
Wong Kar-wai in 1991 has been a screenwriter for many years, but the director's works have just been two, "Carmen in Mong Kok" and "The Legend of Ah Fei". "Ah Fei Zheng Biography" has made investors lose money. His friend Liu Zhenwei is trying to find a way to help him find investment.
Talk about business to have a name, have a company, like a little bit. Liu Zhenwei's wife proposed that the company name be "Jet Tone". As I read it, it was transliterated as "Zedong" Film Company.
Some potential stocks are even targeted by Hollywood.
Wu Yusen's "Street of Blood" was miserable, and in 1991, he wanted to make some relaxed films to adjust his mood, so he invited Zhou Runfa, Zhong Chuhong, and Zhang Guorong to France to shoot "Across the Seas" to relieve his boredom.
Where did he know that Fox's executives, who were watching "Blood And Two Heroes" at this time, were going to hand him the Hollywood guide. (He rejected Fox, but in the future, Universal will hand him an olive branch.) )
At this time, it has not been 10 years since Yuan Heping went to Hollywood to do the martial arts instruction of "The Matrix".
Later, the director who shined brilliantly, at this time, was just starting out.
In 1991, Chen Kexin had just made his debut film "A Tale of Two Cities". Du Qifeng has already filmed a lot, including "Ji Xing Arch Photo", "Happy Ghost Bumping Into Ghost", "Ah Lang's Story"... The two films in 1991 were "Beach Boy and Master Zhou", and "Supreme Supreme II: Eternal Domination"].
Left pat, right pat, but he is not Du Qifeng yet.
The directors of the New Wave in Hong Kong, China, stabilized by this time.
However, Guan Jinpeng, who was Xu Anhua, Yan Hao, and Tan Jiaming's deputies, made "Ruan Lingyu" in 1991, plus the previous "Rouge Buckle", which can be described as an independent side.
The most noteworthy thing about this group of people in the new wave in 1991 was Xu Ke.
At that time, Hong Kong films were still lively and lively, and no one thought that one day, some people would shout out the slogan "Hong Kong films are dead" with great pain.
Liu Zhenwei and Wang Jing have not yet set their sights on the Chinese mainland market.
In 1991, Xu Ke pulled Yan Hao and went to Taiwan to shoot "The King of Chess", but Yan Hao couldn't talk to him and ran away after 28 days of shooting.
Pushing forward two years, he and Cheng Xiaodong went to Beijing together to shoot "Ancient and Modern Wars of Qin Figurines".
He has traveled all over China, and the joint shooting must count him to lead the way.
Dawn of Heroes
The male protagonist in "Ancient and Modern Wars qin figurines" is the director Zhang Yimou.
In 1991, his "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" was released, which was the same intense red color as "Red Sorghum" three years ago, but "Red Sorghum" was wild and uninhibited, and "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" emphasized the composition rules.
Zhang Yimou's old friend Chen Kaige is doing the post-production of "Singing While Walking" released in 1991. He invited screenwriter Reed and writer Li Bihua to watch the first cut.
Reed read it and made a request to Chen Kaige: The script I am writing, you don't move, you want to change what you mention, but you don't want to be a screenwriter.
That script is "Farewell to the Overlord".
At this time, it was Gu Changwei who gave Zhang Yimou the head of the camera, and it was still very early before he made "Peacock". He also photographed Tian Zhuangzhuang.
Tian Zhuangzhuang's 1991 work is "The Great Eunuch Li Lianying".
Playing Li Lianying is Jiang Wen, Jiang Wen has a lot of ideas on the set, Tian Zhuangzhuang said half-jokingly, you direct it, I will make you an actor.
He was not the only one who had said something similar to Jiang Wen.
However, in 1991, the guide tube was closer than Ever before to Jiang Wen.
Because, in this year, a new neighbor moved across the road from his house, named Wang Shuo. The next year the neighbor would throw him a copy of "Harvest," which featured the novel "Animal Fierceness", which he had just written, which would later be "Sunny Days."
At this time, Wang Shuo's works have long been sought after by many directors, among which the director who appreciates him the most is Xia Gang, who filmed "Half Seawater, Half Flame" according to Wang Shuo's original work, and after that, there was also "The Great Satan".
In 1991, Xia Gang was nominated for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director, but the film that made him nominated was not written by Wang Shuo, but By Feng Xiaogang, whom Wang Shuo introduced him.
The year before, Wang Shuo took Feng Xiaogang's "Encounter with Passion" to Xia Gang. Xia Gang looked at it and only kept the last 50 lines.
Feng Xiaogang rode a bicycle every day and came to Xia Gang's house to change the script, which was changed seven times.
At that time, these big directors were still from major film studios. Zhang Yimou at Guangxi Film Studio, Chen Kaige at Beijing Children's Film Studio, Tian Zhuangzhuang at Beijing Film Studio, and Huang Jianxin at Xi'an Film Studio.
They went through the reform of the studio system, but changes were also happening, and the next generation of directors decided to go it alone.
After Zhang Yuan graduated, he did not have a film studio, but in 1990, he shot "Mama".
Wang Xiaoshuai went to the Fujian Film Studio in 1991, but he found that to become a director here, he had to spend many years in seniority, and in 1992, he returned to Beijing to find three or five friends to shoot "Winter and Spring Days".
One of his friends who appeared on camera was Lou Ye, a bunk at the Beijing Film Academy.
Lou Ye's 1991 was counted as an "automatic resignation" by Shanghai Television for not going to work for a long time. He shot commercials in Beijing and was also very concerned about feature films.
Two years ago, he was still in his dormitory, a boy ran in to borrow a fire, and a friend told Lou Ye that the boy was Jia Hongsheng, who had acted in several movies.
Lou Ye was looking for an actor for the graduation short film at the time, and he fell in love with him.
At that time, Lou Ye may have thought that he could shoot Jia Hongsheng for a lifetime.
There was only one person, not on the road yet.
In 1991, Jia Zhangke was still in the art class of Shanxi University. That year, he accidentally saw "Yellow Land", and after only a few minutes of watching it, he cried bitterly and decided to switch to film.
However, he still had to take the exam three times before he could pass the Beijing Film Academy, and the return was the first few of the professional courses, and the culture class failed.
But he didn't seem to have any other way. "At that time, there were 16 state-level film studios in China, all of which were in big cities, and for young people in a small place, they really didn't know how to become a director."
But he is already part of the change.
A more dynamic film era is coming.