Nowadays, the film card division is attracting more and more attention.
The filmmakers pay more and more attention to finding selling points on actors, relying on the actors' team to bring a wave of traffic before broadcasting, and they are eager to invite big stars for each role.
For movie fans, who doesn't like to watch the stars?
But it is difficult to really achieve "star hugging", budget is a big problem, 2009's "Chibi" light actor salary exceeded 100 million, which was an astronomical amount at the time.
This has also directly led to fewer films like crazy accumulation of stars, before there was Hong Jinbao's "Rich Train" pulled by connections, and then there was "East into West" to solve the budget overrun of "East Evil and West Poison", but there were indeed few.
And there is a film that perfectly circumvents the restrictions of breaking through the budget and stars, and invites stars with zero film remuneration for all employees, and this film that does not play according to the routine is:
"The Night Feast of the Giants"
This is a film prepared by the Hong Kong showbiz industry in 1991 in the East China flood, due to the urgent progress, the crew hastily filmed for 4 days and 4 nights.
Despite the rush of filming, almost all the Hong Kong film industry is in full swing, from the front of the scene to the backstage.
Behind the scenes, controlled by a group of film masters, the film is jointly directed by the martial arts film giant Xu Ke, the director of "Happy Ghost" Gao Zhisen, and the chairman of the Academy Awards Organizing Committee Zhang Tongzu, and others, and different styles are blended in the film.
The screenwriting team was controlled by Wang Jing, Chen Jiashang, Xu Ke and others, and the soundtrack was responsible for Lu Guanting, the composer who composed the big story Journey to the West, "The Love of a Lifetime".
The lineup in front of the stage is even more terrifying, with hundreds of Hong Kong showbiz first- and second-tier stars participating, starring Tsang Chi-wai, Cheng Yu-ling, Wu Yaohan, Hong Jinbao, Jacky Cheung, Wang Zuxian, Leung Ka-fai, Kwan Chi-lin, Leung Chao-wai and Lin Zi-xiang.
There are also Zhang Guorong, Tan Yonglin, Zhou Xingchi, Mui Yanfang, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Liu Jialing, Aaron Kwok and others who appear briefly and even run the dragon set.
Hundreds of stars participated, which can be said to be a five-star diamond-set level configuration.
The film is based on the Hong Kong film of the same name in the 1950s, and as its name suggests, it tells a comedic story triggered by a "feast of wealth".
The poor boy played by Zeng Zhiwei became a rich businessman after marrying the rich family Zheng Yuling, and Hong Jinbao was his shopping mall rival.
The Kuwaiti prince Ali Baba, played by Lin Zixiang, visited Hong Kong, which triggered a new round of "business war" between Zeng Hong and the two.
In order to win over the prince, Zeng Zhiwei took his father Wu Yaohan, who had not been in contact for many years, back home to win the favor of the prince, who was known for filial piety.
He also held a luxurious night banquet to welcome the prince, under the disturbance of Hong, the night banquet caused a series of misunderstandings, and zeng's filial piety aura almost wore a gang, thanks to the old father Wu Yaohan's timely rescue.
After this night, the male protagonist understood the preciousness of his family's companionship, he gave up the forced sponsorship, and set up a banquet at the intersection to invite a group of relatives and friends, and the real "night banquet" began.
In that year's Hong Kong box office rankings, this film, which gathered more than 100 showbiz stars, ended up only ranking 15th. Although the box office is average, it has distinct highlights.
01 King Fried Lineup! The cast is better than the plot
In the Douban Liang review, a netizen once commented on the movie: The climax of the whole film is the cast list at the end of the film.
As netizens said, the highlight of this film with more than 200 showbiz stars participating is really "counting the stars".
The protagonist Zeng Zhiwei unfolds the plot, and everyone around him is a star. His father is Wu Yaohan, his wife is Zheng Yuling, and his sister-in-law is Guan Zhilin and Liang Jiahui.
The hand is sitting on Liang Chaowei Jacky Cheung's two big dragon and phoenix chicks, Jacky Cheung's wife in the play is still Wang Zuxian, and the star flavor of the Zeng family group is also too heavy.
The above stars are still a lot of drama, and many big coffee just come out and show their faces.
In Zeng Zhiwei's dream, Zhang Guorong, Zhou Xingchi, and Gong Li starred in their true colors, and at the Zeng family's banquet, Mei Yanfang ran to borrow a toilet and left.
Some stars get a few seconds of dragon set roles, in addition to Jacky Cheung, the other three "Four Heavenly Kings" are here to play soy sauce.
Dawn is the chef in charge of the spoon at the night banquet, Aaron Kwok came out at the end of the film to toast, Andy Lau did not even have a role, he and Mao Shunjun were only responsible for the curtain.
The dragon set also includes a Hong Kong actress, Maggie Cheung, Liu Jialing and Tsang Chi Wai sing together, Zhang Liu and Liu have a lot of scenes, Wu Junru, Li Jiaxin, Hui Yinghong, Yuan Jieying played waiters in the film, and the total appearance time may be less than 1 minute.
Passer-by A on the sidelines is also a "sweeping monk" level figure, the boss who sells sweet potatoes at the beginning of the film is played by Huang Xia, and the two big directors Chu Yuan and Wu Yusen sit silently in the corner of the banquet.
The cast is cow, the audience is not in the number of stars, and a few have not come, in the first-line coffee position, almost only Jackie Chan, Zhou Runfa, Jet Li, Lin Qingxia did not participate, Jet Li went to the United States for surgery at that time, the other three although not participated, but also participated in the charity party in the same period.
Overall, this is a standard king-fried lineup. As soon as this star card was played, the Chinese film industry could only politely reply: Big brother, don't afford it!
02 Crazy play terrier, the stars on the battlefield to play treasure
In "The Night Feast of the Giants", the stars are piled up, anyway, they are all "stars", and the star baggage does not exist, and in the film they let go of various ways to play.
First of all, there are some spoof elements, especially the funny rehearsals of Maggie Cheung, Liu Jialing and Tsang Chi Wai are impressive.
The three of them came to a pure English version of Cantonese opera, with exaggerated and funny accents and exaggerated body language, making this play full of joy.
This disturbing performance also led to the appearance of BEYOND, and Huang Jiaju led the team to leave the scene in anger: it is too ugly, I don't want this money.
Tan Yonglin's fake Ali Baba and his two subordinates, Huang Baiming and Huang Guangliang, are all kinds of tricks, and they are seriously teasing you.
There are also some teasing stems, and here is Zeng Zhiwei who makes a splash with his height.
Over there, Dawn teases himself about walking in the charity performance, and in the film, he sings the "Sorry I Love You" while flipping the spoon.
A conversation between Stephen Chow and Tsang Chi Wai also ridiculed the phenomenon of Hong Kong film genre films piling up, when Xingye appeared as the god of gamblers, Zeng Zhiwei complained that his moves were too old, and Xingye's answer was:
"Are the audience tired of watching?" I'm actually tired of it. ”
There is even a bridge section with strong inheritance significance, in the end of the film, Zhou Xingchi and Xu Guanwen sandwich a piece of chicken at the same time, and two generations of laughers debate about whether the meat is chicken butt or chicken head.
Xu Guanwen has basically faded out of comedy shooting since the 1990s, while the popular Stephen Chow has gradually risen in the same period, and the meaning of this group of dialogues is quite inherited.
The most "out of the circle" of the whole film is undoubtedly the first time to shout out the star, in Zeng Zhiwei's dream, the fake Alibaba team moved the rescue soldier "Star Ye".
Zhou Xingchi appeared in a handsome suit, and Zeng Zhiwei suddenly realized: It turns out that you are Xingye.
Xingye's nickname also became popular unexpectedly because of this bridge section, and for thirty years, in the show business circle, Xingye was equivalent to Zhou Xingchi.
03
The "bad film" in the plot, the good film in the intentional pattern
The two highlights of the film are visible to the naked eye, but the disadvantages are also, from the plot point of view, it can even be said to be a bad film.
For example, the plot routine is obvious, around the Zeng family father and son from cold to the final reconciliation, the laying of clues and the direction of the plot make it easy.
The protagonist pretends to have cancer to deceive his father, accidentally hits and is moved, and the plot similar to the routine is completely insufficient to watch in the peak of Hong Kong films.
Then there is the relatively flat character image, especially reflected in the supporting roles, a few years later, the same all-star "East into the West", people remember the sausage mouth of Liang Chaowei, the feminine Liang Jiahui and the jacky Cheung who sang high.
But the same actors in the "Night Feast of the Giants" but no light, the role is not less their image is obviously diluted, in addition to Jacky Cheung still contributed memes, the overall performance is flat, tending to tool people.
From the perspective of the film, this drama is not a film with many highlights and a diluted character image, and the box office ranking of 15th in the year is reasonable, and even "extraordinary play".
But if you mention the "core" of the film, the intention and pattern of the film go up.
At that time, it was the flood in North China in 1991, and five provinces and autonomous regions in China suffered serious floods, and the most serious province, Anhui, had 48 million people affected, accounting for 70% of the province's population, which was also the first time in China's history that it openly sought assistance from the international community.
After the disaster, compatriots in hong Kong's showbiz organized disaster relief at the first time, and they first held a 7-hour disaster relief party called "Forget Me Big Show", which included Mui Yanfang, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Lin Qingxia, Faye Wong, Andy Lau and hundreds of other people in the entertainment industry.
Subsequently, at the suggestion of the Hong Kong Performing Arts Association, this "Night Feast of the Giants" for the purpose of fundraising was produced, and the actors were all paid zero and completed the filming in 4 days.
At that time, many stars were rolling other scenes at the same time, and after filming in other crews, they stopped by to make a scene.
This film, which embodies the love of Hong Kong filmmakers, has received 28 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office after its release, and this donation has supported the disaster area in time.
Counting the spontaneous donations of showbiz people and a series of other activities, the total amount of relief fundraising in Hong Kong exceeded HK$600 million.
From the perspective of the film, this film does not have a particularly big highlight, but considering the humanistic story behind it, the entire Hong Kong performing arts industry has mobilized all its staff for the disaster area, and the scale and depth of the intention are enough to make this film enter the history of Chinese films.
Overall, "The Night Feast of the Giants" has set an insurmountable benchmark for "all-star movies", although the plot is really lackluster, but seeing the funny of a group of stars putting down their baggage, and the humor contains a warm core, we are enough to feel the love and sincerity of Hong Kong filmmakers, and we are reluctant to call it "rotten".
It can be said that this is a rare film with a plot that does not have much highlights but can still receive applause.
In our free time, we may as well open this movie, from this dazzling star group drama, feel the conscience of the showbiz industry in the 90s!
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