One
In 2002, Stephen Chow won the Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for the first time after more than 10 years of filming.
Although the opening of the award guests Leung Ka Fai and Mui Yanfang was very funny, Stephen Chow was a little nervous. Looking at the trophy in his hand, he made a solemn speech: "Allow me to say a few words seriously." ”
So he then "solemnly" thanked some of the people who had helped him, including his idol Bruce Lee, Lee Xiu-hyun, who took him to make his first film, and Wan Ziliang.
Li Xiuxian also praised Zhou Xingchi in a later interview, praising him for his intelligence.
In response to the rumors of discord between the two of them before, he said: "Whatever others say." After working with an actor, how he develops later depends on himself. ”
He also gave the example of Zhou Runfa, saying that everyone in the film industry is busy with their own work. After he and Zhou Runfa finished cooperating, he rarely moved around, "not to say that drinking tea is a good friend."
The two seemed to be at peace. Moreover, his relationship with Zhou Xingchi is a matter of the last century, and the two have no intersection after the Academy Awards.
It is reasonable to say that the two of them should always be at peace with each other, but things don't seem to be so simple.
In 2009, at a film forum in Hong Kong, Lee was full of disdain for Stephen Chow in front of the media.
He bluntly said that Zhou Xingchi had problems in making friends, saying that Zhou Xingchi was too calculating: "I have not calculated how much money I helped him take on the role, but there is no cup of milk tea - but I am not rare to drink." ”
He also sent a message to Zhou Xingchi: "Be loyal to others, money is not omnipotent, and friends are more precious." ”
At that time, it was the storm of Xiang Tai, Wang Jing and others," and his words made Zhou Xingchi's character a lot of questions. Cut the door and keep the money? ungrateful? The negative rumors about Star Lord were difficult to distinguish between true and false for a while.
The strangest thing is Li Xiuxian's change of attitude - I don't know if it is necessary for him to make friends often to "drink tea"?
Speaking of this, we have to mention Wan Ziliang, another predecessor of Zhou Xingchi.
Strictly speaking, Wan Ziliang is the Bole who discovered Zhou Xingchi.
Two
Stephen Chow grew up in a poor single-parent family in Hong Kong, and his only spiritual sustenance as a child was movies.
At the Academy Awards, he thanked Bruce Lee because it was Bruce Lee in the movie that made him feel that he had the space to vent his emotions and develop his abilities as a child.
At that time, he had a camera, and whenever he had time, he liked to carry the camera to assign roles to his friends to simulate filming.
However, reality is not so polite to Zhou Xingchi after adulthood, which makes him more introverted and even inferior.
——Zhou Xingchi did not pass the examination for the artist training class at the beginning, and then it was the neighbor Qi Meizhen who helped him win the opportunity to go to the night training class of the training class to study.
After graduating from the training class, he did not go directly to the film, but silently worked as a children's program host for 6 years.
The biggest blow to Stephen Chow was that he was once assigned to participate in a play.
Having dreamed of filming for so many years and originally full of confidence, he did not expect to be completely blinded when he arrived on the stage. What theories, acting skills, etc. are completely useless on the real stage.
Zhou Xingchi was particularly disappointed, he felt that after so many years of hard work, he might not be an acting material at all, and he thought of giving up.
Fortunately, he soon met Wan Ziliang.
Wan Ziliang's fame in the late 1980s was no worse than that of Zhou Runfa.
After working with Zhou Xingchi for several scenes, he praised each other's talents.
And since then, he has often given Stephen Chow some help in life, and has also said good things about Stephen Chow in front of some directors. All this gave Zhou Xingchi great confidence.
Li Xiuxian also began to pay attention to Zhou Xingchi after watching the "Wind Catcher" they cooperated.
Three
Lee was a big figure in the Hong Kong film industry at the time, and he entered the shaw film training class as early as 1970, and then began to participate in films by the big director Zhang Che.
Lee's greatness lies in the fact that he ushered in an era of Hong Kong police films.
The characters he portrayed were always heroic and righteous, making him a heroic image in the minds of many Hong Kong people at that time. And in reality, Li Xiuxian also attaches great importance to love and righteousness.
Zhang Che first used him, but in the early days of Zhang Che's films, the protagonists have always been Dillon, Jiang David and others, and Li Xiuxian rarely has the opportunity to play.
It wasn't until the 1980s that he started directing on his own, especially after he founded Universal Pictures in 1987.
Even Zhang Che himself said, "Li Xiuxian is not popular with me, I just brought him into the industry." ”
But Li Xiuxian has always regarded Zhang Che as his master.
In 1988, he devoted all his strength to the universal company and Jiang David to launch the film "Righteous Courage", which was a tribute to the teacher; after Zhang Che's death in 2002, they also single-handedly handled the aftermath of the teacher.
The move made hong Kong celebrity Cai Lan feel greatly emotional, saying that Li Xiuxian was the most filial among Zhang Che's many apprentices.
Perhaps in Li Xiuxian's heart, Zhou Xingchi should also be like himself, and he should always respect those who discover his own entry like his father.
But Stephen Chow obviously didn't.
Zhou Xingchi and Wan Ziliang's "Wind Catcher" was not very popular, and at that time, he still felt that he was out of the picture.
And Li Xiuxian was at the time when the energy was at its greatest.
In addition to making his own cop films, his company is also boldly experimenting with different scenes and using new directors and actors. People like the big fool Cheng Kui'an, Zhang Jiahui and so on were all cultivated by him.
It also includes the depressed Zhou Xingchi.
What Zhou Xingchi did not expect was that Li Xiuxian signed a contract with him for 10 movies at once. And the first one was "Thunderbolt Pioneer", which won him the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.
What Li Xiuxian did not expect was that he had worked under Zhang Che for 10 years without fire, but this "star boy" only took one or two years to be like the sun in the sky.
After "Thunderbolt Pioneer", Stephen Chow filmed the wireless "He Comes from the Jianghu", starred in "A Comic Book Breaks the World", and in 1990, "Gamble Saint" with Liu Zhenwei earned more than 40 million box office, breaking the box office record in Hong Kong.
This marks the arrival of the era of Stephen Chow.
As a result, Zhou Xingchi became a "star master", and various film companies and various film contracts came to him. He experienced the feeling of "becoming famous in one fell swoop and soaring in value".
However, in Li Xiuxian's eyes, Zhou Xingchi is still a "star boy"; no matter how high his value is in the eyes of the outside world, he can only make movies for himself at the old price.
Zhou Xingchi also fell into the rules, so he made two more movies at his price, "Descendants of the Dragon" and "Love Saint".
Although these two films are very average compared to Chow's other works, they are enough to set a box office record for Lee Xiu-hyun.
Is Lee Soo Hyun at a loss? He certainly doesn't lose.
Not only that, after filming these two films, Li Xiuxian transferred the remaining contract to Xiang's Yongsheng Film Company, and gorgeously earned a "transfer fee".
Zhou Xingchi actually did not lose money, Li Xiuxian's "transfer" gave him and Yongsheng the opportunity to cooperate in many blockbuster movies such as "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang" and "Truant Weilong". It also made him completely establish his position in the comedy film industry.
But the two have not cooperated since. It was not until the late 1990s that Rumors came out that Li Xiuxian accused Zhou Xingchi of "not recognizing people after developing".
One day in 2001, when Cheng Kui'an attended the event, he also pointed out that Zhou Xingchi had "forgotten his roots". Accusing him of making a taboo with that line in the 1993 film Jigong.
Four
Is Stephen Chow really an "ungrateful" person?
Almost at the same time, there were also rumors of Zhou Xingchi's discord with Wan Ziliang. It is said that when Zhou Xingchi filmed "The King of Comedy", he originally invited Wan Ziliang to play the role of Wu Mengda, but because he was unhappy, he was replaced by Wu Mengda.
Zhou Xingchi's serious attitude towards the film and his harshness have long been heard of by many people, and it may be inevitable that he has some practices that make his predecessors dissatisfied.
But Zhou Xingchi is not so faceless and unrecognizable.
Wan Ziliang did not have a role in "The King of Comedy", but Zhou Xingchi still paid him a salary and signed the end of the film to thank him specially.
In 1992, when Wan Ziliang got married, Zhou Xingchi served as his chief groomsman, and in 2002, when Wan Ziliang got married again, Zhou Xingchi was unable to attend, but Xingma's mother came to congratulate him on his behalf.
Cheng Kui'an's accusations against him also made people cry and laugh.
"Li Xiuyuan" was originally the original name of Jigong, how to change this? Moreover, Zhou Xingchi originally played "Li Xiuyuan" in the movie, why didn't he say that this was a tribute to Li Xiuxian?
Therefore, Zhou Xingchi always respects Wan and Li, otherwise he would not have specifically mentioned them on an occasion like the Golden Statue Awards that is rare in ten years.
In addition, although Li Xiuxian said something about Zhou Xingchi's inconsiderateness in front of the media in 2009, he also said that he was not sad because "he didn't owe me anything." ”
- Always a man who understands.
Five
The most noteworthy thing is that no matter what others' evaluations are, Zhou Xingchi has never responded positively.
There may be two reasons. On the one hand, Zhou Xingchi is intoxicated with movies and has no time to deal with various human affairs; on the other hand, it is difficult to explain this matter.
Li Xiuxian is right to have his own traditional concept of master and apprentice, but what he brings to Zhou Xingchi is actually a contractual relationship - a cooperation that sees value for each other.
And the result also proved that their cooperation reached a win-win situation.
What more bikes do you want! Zhang Che did not ask him for a bicycle after he became popular.
At least this matter cannot explain what is wrong with Zhou Xingchi's character.
Huang Yishan, who has worked with Zhou Xingchi on many films a few days ago, posted a video about Zhou Li's grudge, and he concluded:
In fact, they did not have any heart disease, Zhou Xingchi has always been grateful to Li Xiuxian, and Li Xiuxian has always been appreciative of Zhou Xingchi. The so-called "discord" is just a misinformation from the outside world.
This is perhaps the perfect summary of their decades-long relationship.
In fact, the so-called "right and wrong" is not "yes" or "non", and many times it is "plausible". Therefore, it is often "difficult to distinguish between right and wrong", and it is even more difficult to distinguish who is right and who is wrong.
However, no matter who is right and who is wrong, the relationship between Zhou Xingchi and these predecessors has no meaning to their respective lives now.
Calming down and being well should be the best choice for everyone.