Hong Kong Cult director Lan Naicai has always been known for his bold image style, and his comic films "The Peacock Prince", "Asura" and "Force King" are all recognized as gods.
In addition to his fondness for adapting Japanese stylized manga, Lan Naicai also has a soft spot for Ni Kuang's Wesley series of novels.
He released the 1986 adventure action film Hara and Wesley, which was well-made and even seems outdated. At that time, the film achieved a box office performance of HK$10.22 million, which was the only collaboration between Chow Yun Fat and Qian Xiaohao, and also set a benchmark for Hong Kong adventure genre films in the 1980s.
In 1992, Lan Naicai once again brought "Old Cat" from the "Wesley" novel to the screen, this time by Ni Kuang's friend Cai Lan as the producer, Ni Kuang himself personally checked, and both of them made cameos in the film. Lan Naicai exerted his own expertise, using visual effects to make a science fiction film into a horror film, and achieved a classic in the post-80s "childhood shadow" film list.
Today, Pigo will talk to you about this movie and its behind-the-scenes story -
One
Let's start with the story
The film tells the story of Wesley's (Li Zixiong) friend Li Tong (played by Liu Xixian) who visits his house one day and tells him about a mysterious miracle he encountered.
Li Tong is a typical Hong Kong worker, living in a high-rise building. Recently, upstairs residents have been making noises late at night, making people unable to sleep.
Li Tong couldn't bear it and knocked on the door of the upstairs resident, only to see an old man (played by Liu Zhaoming) and a young girl (played by Ye Yunyi) living upstairs, as well as a big black cat.
Both the two and the black cat gave people a gloomy and terrible feeling, and Li Tong saw that the old man's hands were stained with blood, which scared him so much that he could not speak, and did not dare to ask more questions and left.
The next day, when Li Tong went to work, he saw that the old man and the girl were going to move away, so he went forward to ask the old man what he was doing in the room at night, but the old man refused to reveal the truth.
Li Tong was very curious, so he secretly went upstairs, and found a lot of animal offal in the room, which scared him and quickly called the police. The police later took the internal organs to check, only to learn that they were all cat's internal organs.
This incident made Li Tong have a lingering suspicion in his heart, and also made Wesley who heard about this matter intrigued, and Wesley immediately decided to investigate.
Wesley asks for the new addresses of the old man and the girl from the moving company, sneaks into their new home when no one is there, but is quickly discovered by the black cat, and Wesley is knocked unconscious by the old man.
But the old man spared Wesley under the persuasion of the maiden, who turned out to be aliens, the maiden was an alien princess, and the old man's name was Iloilo, who was the princess's servant like the black cat.
The princess's planet is invaded by enemies, and Illo and the black cat escort the princess to Earth.
The Alien Killer followed, a strangely shaped mushroom-like creature.
In order to return to her planet, the princess needs to collect several magic artifacts called octagonals, and the last two are kept in the museum. So the princess, Yi Luo, and the black cat all came to the museum, and the black cat was responsible for stealing the octagonal.
After arriving, they were attacked by large mushrooms, and although they escaped, several museum security guards were killed.
Wesley followed the policeman Wang Jiemei to the museum to investigate, and Wesley picked up some cat hair at the scene and determined that the black cat had stolen the octagonal. He thinks he needs to find a big dog to deal with the black cat, so he finds the dog-owning Old Chen (played by Ni Kuang) and borrows a big black dog from him.
There is one last octagon left in the museum, and Wesley and the police use the octagon as bait and wait for the rabbit to arrive. In the night, the black cat did arrive, and the big black dog and his battle three lilies were still invincible, but the black cat encountered Wesley, desperate, and broke his tail in order to escape.
Wesley examined the broken tail, but found that the broken tail belonged to a cat that had been dead for a long time, which made Wesley very confused.
Just when he wanted to break his scalp, the princess and Yi luo came to the door with the black cat to ask for the cat's tail, and they revealed the truth to Wesley, who immediately returned the tail, but saw that the princess quickly reconnected the tail.
By this time, the policeman Wang Jiemei had been controlled by the big mushroom, and he took a heavy weapon to kill Wesley's house. Yi Luo sacrificed to protect the princess, and Wesley led the crowd to fight and retreat, and finally came to the observatory and made contact with the alien planet.
Alien civilizations are already highly developed, they have already invented the transmission technology of the flesh, and they can achieve interstellar travel without relying on spaceships.
Just when the princess wanted to leave with the black cat, the big mushroom chased after him, and at the critical moment the black cat jumped into the mouth of the big mushroom and detonated it.
At the end of the film, the princess takes the black cat and "flies" back to her planet in the form of an electric wave.
Wesley wrote about his bizarre experience in his Wesley series of novels.
Two
Different from other Wesley films
In the Wesley series of films, this film is somewhat similar to the story told in 1987's "Wesley Legends" directed by Teddy Robin, in that aliens have wandered to Earth and need to find and use certain tools to return to the storyline of the home planet.
The difference is that "Wesley Legends" did spend manpower and material resources to build a dragon-shaped alien spaceship at the result; the film's use of the so-called "octagonal" to send people away through "transmission" is somewhat cutting corners.
In terms of investment and spectacle, this film and "The Legend of Wesley" are not the same.
As a science fiction film, the science fiction elements involved in the story are very small, and the alien technology is not displayed at all, at least most people do not regard it as a science fiction film, but only as a horror movie.
But "Old Cat" has its own distinct personality characteristics, its scenes and props are unique, and the visual effects are very strong.
Its elaborate mushroom-shaped alien creatures continue the bad taste of the peacock prince and the asura. Pigo believes that his image is somewhat a reference to the 1982 Hollywood film "Strange Shape", and also carries the shadow of the 1980 film "The Shining".
Scenes such as alien creatures devouring humans, cat-dog wars, and alien invasion buildings are all filmed with sound and dynamics.
Among them, the cat and dog war section was widely praised, using real cat and dog real shooting, frame-by-frame photography, model shooting, rapid editing and other means to skillfully edit the action of real cats and dogs and the pictures of fake cats and dogs to create a cat and dog "martial arts blockbuster".
The scene where alien creatures attack and devour humans clearly refers to the shooting routines of Hollywood movies of the same type.
Those mushroom-shaped aliens are all physical props, the use of real-life means to increase the sense of reality, the viscous design is disturbing and frightening, which greatly increases the sense of horror brought by the film to the audience.
At the end of the film, the mushroom-shaped alien becomes unusually large and engulfs the entire building.
Although the special effects of this vivid shot are very fake from the current point of view, they are already very avant-garde in terms of the level of Hong Kong special effects at that time, and it feels very shocking.
As far as the story itself is concerned, its eerie atmosphere that envelops the whole film and the suspenseful plot that always drives the audience to get excited can also attract the audience to watch it until the end of the movie is revealed.
Therefore, as a science fiction horror film, the production of "Old Cat" is still very good.
It is a pity that the classic character Bai Su, played by the goddess Wu Yongwei, does not have much room for her to play, but under the limited lens, Wu Yongwei still fully shows her sexy charm.
Some people say that Lan Naicai deliberately shot these edge ball shots, but these undoubtedly add a lot of fun to the movie.
Three
The director quit the film circle, and the heroine Ye Yunyi's life was stressful after divorce
"Old Cat" was released in Hong Kong in 1992, and after only one week of release, it was difficult to be accepted by the market due to the horror of the plot, and it was removed from the shelves, earning 2.75 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office.
Lan Naicai's comic adaptation "Li Wang" launched in the same year made even worse results, only grossing HK$2.15 million at the box office, and causing great controversy, and is still considered to be the largest film in Hong Kong in the 90s, and the childhood nightmare of many post-80s teenagers.
The box office failures of two consecutive films and the bad reviews of the news media have made Lan Naicai feel exhausted. After reflection, he made a decision that made the Hong Kong film industry very sad, that is, he quit the film circle and no longer served as a director, and "Li Wang" and "Old Cat" became his last works.
After years of silence, in 2008 Lan Naicai suddenly appeared in the public eye. But this time he was no longer a director, but participated in volunteer work in an orphanage in the mountainous area of northern Guangdong. Later, as an executive member of the Jianxiong Love Association of China Hope Project Zone, he participated in the work of poverty alleviation in remote areas of China.
Lan Naicai's hobby has also changed from a director to a travel photographer, taking some photos of high artistic value while traveling the world. Together with amateur essayist Chen Xiuling, he also published a collection of travel essays called "Croatia's Winter to Spring".
The big black cat in the movie is, of course, no longer there, but Ye Yunyi, who plays an alien princess, is still active in the film and television circle.
Ye Yunyi has starred in Lan Naicai's "Peacock Prince", "Asura", "Force King" and "Old Cat", which can be said that Lan Naicai is red. At that time, she was only 19 years old, her image and temperament were good, and she also took the route of a young and beautiful girl.
But all the stars in the entertainment industry who take this line, although they can turn red and purple at the beginning, they certainly can't last long. Because the majority of fans are "like the new and tired of the old", within two years will lose the original freshness. And when the aura recedes, what is needed is the hard power of the star itself and the spirit of hard work.
Whether Ye Yunyi has these abilities, we don't know, because she chose to quit the show business circle in 1995 and married toy businessman Chen Baihao. However, the marriage only lasted until 2000, and although the court ruled that Chan Pak-ho needed a one-time compensation of HK$8 million, he did not pay compensation because of the bankruptcy of the company, and Ip Yunyi had to come back to filming because of the pressure of life.
It is another sad story of the goddess meeting the scumbag, and it is sad that with the increase of age, Ye Yunyi has long ceased to be the young and beautiful girl she used to be, but has become a middle-aged woman with a big belly. The grind of life is engraved on her face, and Ye Yunyi, who is now called "Grandma Ye", has less childishness in her eyes and more determination about life.
Although Pi Ge was very smaller than Ye Yunyi, in the 90s, like many boys of the same age, she was once regarded as a favorite girl. Ye Yunyi's acting skills can't actually be talked about, but her characteristics lie in the simple and pure temperament that emanates from her bones. Coupled with the attraction of the big black cat, Pigo has always had a good feeling for this movie.
Legend has it that director Lan Naicai is disappointed in today's film market and believes that there is no place for a director like him now, which is the reason why he has been unwilling to come back.
Pigo does not know the authenticity of these rumors, but he does feel that movies like "The Peacock Prince", "Asura" and "Old Cat" are now difficult to see, let alone the shocking "Old Cat" and "Force King"?
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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