In 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, Stephen Chow won the annual box office title of Hong Kong film for four consecutive years.
However, he is not satisfied with the status quo, but seeks to transform and make some different movies.
So from 1994, Zhou Xingchi launched a series of self-directed and self-acting works, four of which have epoch-making significance.
"The King of Comedy", "Shaolin Football", "Kung Fu", "Journey to the West".
And "Shaolin Football" is a work of Stephen Chow's career as an actor, marking a change in his film style.
The film is not only well known in China, but also has a great influence in the world, and the World Cup in 2006 and the European Championship in 2008 both bought the rights to the film and played it repeatedly on the stadium.
At the same time, the film was also selected by Time Magazine as one of the "25 Best Sports Films in the History of World Cinema".
As we all know, "Shaolin Soccer" combines the two elements of "kung fu" and "soccer" and has become a major selling point of the movie.
However, this idea was not pioneered by Stephen Chow, but a reference to two movies.
One is "Bo Niu" starring Yuan Biao in 1983, and the other is "Kyoto Ball Man" starring Zhang Fengyi in 1987.
There is no doubt that "Bo Niu" is the first film to combine kung fu and football.
From the story level alone, the inspiration of "Shaolin Football" is to borrow from this old movie, and the golden right foot played by Wu Mengda in the film is directly copied.
In contrast, "Shaolin Soccer" uses a lot of film special effects, while "Bo Niu" is all real kung fu, and the skills shown are more realistic and professional.
From the perspective of character design, "Shaolin Soccer" is closer to "Kyoto Ball Man".
The story is based on real historical events, in 1906 there was a Sino-British football match in Beijing, and the Chinese team won with a score of 2-0.
Later, in 1980, cartoonist Xu Yuan adapted the story into a comic strip "Kowloon Cup".
Many years later, screenwriters Cao Hongxiang and Li Xin wrote the script of "Kyoto Ball Man" based on these folk tales.
At that time, the cast of the film can be described as very strong, including Zhang Fengyi, Wang Ji, Jiang Kun, Tang Jiezhong, Chen Peisi, and the famous French actress Paulina Lafang.
The whole story is witty and humorous and extremely ironic, not only a screen classic of the 80s, but also repeatedly broadcast by six sets of CCTV, and is listed as a representative work of patriotic themes.
1. The original intention of the script creation
In the filming of "Kyoto Ball Man", Xie Hong, as a screenwriter for films such as "The Mysterious Buddha" and "Wulin Zhi", has long been famous, but he has no experience in independently directing films.
Until 1985, Teng Jinxian, the director of Emei Film Studio, handed him a script, which was "Kyoto Ball Man".
At first, after Xie Hong read the script, his first reaction was to think that the film was a farce.
The story has no connotations and does not carry much stuff and needs to be further modified.
Coincidentally, in Beijing, he witnessed the "5.19 Incident" and immediately decided to make a Chinese-style comedy with shocking power and a strong sense of nationality.
The May 19 incident here actually occurred in the 1985 World Cup qualifiers.
This is the third time that the Chinese football team has launched an impact on the World Cup, and originally played quite well in the qualifiers, as long as the last match was tied with the opponent, it could qualify from the group.
Before the start of the match, almost everyone thought that it was a game without suspense.
As a result, the Chinese football team made the mistake of light enemies at the most critical moment and lost the opportunity to enter the World Cup.
Tens of thousands of fans on the scene were very dissatisfied with the result of the game, which triggered a series of conflicts.
2. The core of comedy is tragedy
The so-called comedy is to tear the tragedy apart for the audience to see.
Often the stories in comedy are closely related to life, and those who dedicate comedy are actually just clowns in the eyes of most people.
The story takes place in the late Qing Dynasty, when europe's pirate soccer team and the chinese embassy team held a soccer match in Beijing.
This rare "gadget" has attracted a lot of people to watch.
Since the Countrymen did not yet understand football, after the game, there was no applause for the victorious side, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the Captain Harry of the Pirates.
So he kicked the ball at the onlookers and officials, causing chaos in the scene, and the officials were timid and afraid of things, and did not dare to offend the "foreign lords", so they had to swallow their anger.
At this time, only one person stepped forward and kicked the ball back to Harry.
This person is called Zhou Tian, nicknamed "Kicking the Sky", who came back from studying in the United Kingdom and has a very high talent and achievement in football.
Seeing this, Harry was instantly interested in Sunday, hoping that he could form a team to compete.
Soon, Empress Dowager Cixi issued a "holy decree" asking the Eunuchs to form a soccer team of the Imperial Forest Army, but only allowed to lose and not to win, so as not to anger the foreigners.
Because Zhou Tian violated the law against the foreigners on the court, Qing Bing wanted to arrest him.
In order to avoid the pursuit, Zhou Tian had to hide, and with the help of his friend Lame Zifei, he privately visited the capable masters hidden in Beijing and formed a folk football team, the Green Dragon Team.
Among these people, 6 were masters of extraordinary skills: the brothers Liu Er and Liu San, who sold art in the jianghu; Zhao Fox, the thief; Hao Leopard, the leader of the Boxer Rebellion, who had divine feats; the iron claw fence with special claws and the yellow whirlwind of the righteous hero.
So with Gianni's help, he found a safe training ground for the Green Dragons, and often covered them to avoid being hunted by the government.
During this time, Gianni also fell in love with Sunday and broke off his marriage with Harry.
On the day of the match, the Royal ForestErs soccer team made a difference on the field, and the Pirates led 6-0.
At the critical moment, the Green Dragons stepped forward, with the support of foreigners such as Harry and Gianni, with a six-point deficit behind, to take over the royal forest army football team and the pirates.
Thus, the two sides began a football match that was crucial to national self-esteem.
After the game began, the members of the Green Dragon Team each showed their housekeeping skills.
There are those who can do martial arts, there are those who can do qigong, and there are even scenes of monkeys grabbing the ball.....
Harry watched as his goal was kicked in, but he couldn't help it.
In the end, the score was fixed at 10-9, and the Green Dragons narrowly won by one goal.
However, the matter is not over, the original game between the Green Dragon Team and the Pirates Team, winning or losing is harmless.
However, the officials represented by the eunuchs, fearing that the foreigners would be angry, ordered the qinglong team to be beheaded on the grounds of endangering Jiangshan Sheji.
In the end, Sunday refused to let Gianni save him in the name of "fiancé", and resolutely followed the team members to the execution ground.
3. Real black humor
Throughout the story, "Kyoto Ball Man" looks like a comedy, but in the end it is a tragedy cloaked in comedy.
From the surface, the film is very entertaining, the material is novel and fascinating, only Chen Peisi played by the "thief" Zhao Fox, people can't help but be happy from beginning to end.
But from the inside, this is another positive drama with mixed feelings.
Not only is it that it has a rich theme, but it also seeks a comedic form that appropriately presents the theme.
While savoring the film, you can still appreciate the power of its mockery.
That is, to focus on the criticism of the decadent culture and power, as well as the criticism of the foreign mentality.
Director Xie Hong seems to be trying to mix comedy and tragedy, but it is not the opposition between joy and sorrow, but the fusion of comedy and drama.
This kind of boldness has embarked on a path of daring to make new explorations in the form of farce, and to have this depth, people cannot but be impressed.
Therefore, in my opinion, "Kyoto Ball Man" is a treasure of the times, a screen classic that cannot be surpassed.
To be honest, if it weren't for Chen Peisi, I probably wouldn't have known such a movie existed.
When he received the film contract of "Kyoto Ball Man", Chen Peisi had just finished filming the comedy "The Young Master's Tribulation", and he wanted to refuse.
But Xie Hong assured him that as long as he played "Zhao Fox", he would definitely win the award, and only then persuaded him to star.
Later, Chen Peisi did indeed become the best supporting actor of the "Hundred Flowers Award".
In the film, the thief Zhao Fox, played by Chen Peisi, usually has unclean hands and feet.
However, he is very righteous, and at the end, he is generous and righteous for the sake of the country, which brings the ideological nature of the film to a new height.
Such a story also confirms the saying: small people can also do great things, and grassroots are also heroes!