It's the height of summer and the sun is like fire, but the enthusiasm of the people on the green field is better than the sun, because the European Championship is in full swing.
When it comes to football, it is natural to think of Zhou Xingchi's "Shaolin Football" 20 years ago, Shaolin Kung Fu plus football, very interesting.
The film is not only well known in China, but also has a great influence in the world, and the organizers of the 2006 World Cup in Germany bought the copyright and played it repeatedly on the stadium;
In 2008, the European Championship also bought the rights to broadcast, and was also named one of the "25 Best Sports Films in the History of World Cinema" by Time Magazine.
It is worth mentioning that Andy Lau also sang the theme song "Kick out a Future" and the interlude "Boy's Chronicle" for the movie, which is also the second cooperation between the two after "Stars Society".
01, the preparation of three years to complete, the early no one invested but created a box office miracle
In 1999, Zhou Xingchi, who had already been on fire with films such as "Gamble Saint", "Truant Weilong", "The King of Comedy", and "God Eater", can be said to be a complete box office guarantee.
At this time, because of a football game, he had the idea of shooting a football movie, and paid tribute to his idol Bruce Lee.
Of course, in the process of creation, Zhou Xingchi should have referred to Yuan Biao's "Bo Niu" and Zhang Fengyi's "Kyoto Ball Man".
When creating the script of "Shaolin Football", Zhou Xingchi, who was full of confidence, hit a wall when pulling investment.
At that time, there were very few football-themed films, and coupled with the dismal development of the Hong Kong film industry during that period, most investors were reluctant to waste money on movies.
There is also an unreliable claim that Xiang Huaqiang once threatened: Whoever invests in Stephen Chow in Hong Kong is his enemy.
But this statement is not credible, after all, Xiang Huaqiang attended the premiere of "Shaolin Football" that year, and praised the movie in an interview: good-looking, special themes, good stunts, and turning martial arts into sports, I think it is very fresh.
After finding a circle of investors, Lin Xiaoming of "Huanyu" finally solved the dilemma and the film was successfully filmed.
The release of "Shaolin Soccer" injected a shot in the arm for the dismal Hong Kong film, earning 60.73 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, breaking the box office record of Jackie Chan's "Police Story 4".
"Shaolin Soccer" successfully saved the market, and the following year's Academy Awards won a big victory, and Stephen Chow became the only winner in the history of the Academy Awards to win the best director and best actor at the same time for the same film.
In addition, that year's conference also added a "Outstanding Young Director Award", which was also won by Stephen Chow.
If there is any regret, it is that the film has not been released in the mainland, and some people say that the reason for the national football team is actually related to the "Shaolin Temple".
At the beginning of filming, the Shaolin Temple felt that the name of the film was detrimental to the reputation of the Shaolin Temple, so it asked it to change its name, and the film department leaders also considered the sensitive religious issues involved, so they negotiated to change it to "Kung Fu Football".
But somehow, before the film was released, it was still promoted with "Shaolin Football", which the leaders naturally could not accept, so "Shaolin Football" was banned in the mainland.
Not only that, but later there was a "huge lawsuit" between Zhou Xingchi and "Huanyu", and "Huanyu" accused Xingye of swallowing more than 20 million by-product proceeds of "Shaolin Football". (By-products such as game software and comics)
On the side of Xingye, the counterclaim "Huanyu" did not divide the account according to the contract, you came and went, the two sides pulled a long tug-of-war, and finally this lawsuit ended on February 21, 2003, with Xingye's counterclaim victory.
02, Xingye cleverly uses clever tricks, and does not spend a penny to invite many group performances
It is understood that the shooting scene of the last football match in the film requires a lot of group performances to avoid embarrassing the stadium.
However, the cost of group performances is extremely expensive, and it is very likely that they will exceed the budget, resulting in the film not being able to shoot normally; and even if you do not invite group performances, the use of special effects to achieve this effect is also very expensive.
This made everyone in the crew sad, and finally Xingye came up with a good idea, he directly advertised when shooting: anyone can come to watch the filming, and you can also take a photo with Xingye through the lottery.
After this advertisement was published, the shooting scene was instantly crowded, and the surrounding residents came to watch, which naturally served as a group performance of the stand position.
Moreover, Xingye's fame is very large, and there are endless "group performances" every day during the filming, so that not only the number of group performances is enough, the scene is good, and the cost of group performances is also saved.
03. After the film was released, Zhao Wei was "scolded" by Qiong Yao
After the release of "Shaolin Soccer", it has achieved good results in both box office and film evaluation. But there was only one person who was scolded, that is, the heroine Zhao Wei.
Before filming this film, Zhao Wei had already become popular all over the country with "Huan Zhu GeGe", and her iconic big eyes were deeply rooted in people's hearts, and in people's eyes, Zhao Wei was both agile and beautiful.
In an interview, Zhao Wei mentioned that after the release of "Shaolin Soccer", Qiong Yao immediately called her and severely "scolded" her:
"I watched your movie and I was very disappointed, I worked so hard to make you so beautiful and cute, you actually ran to make a movie, made yourself so ugly, you simply ruined what I created, you broke all this!" 」
Although what Aunt Qiong Yao said was very blunt and hurtful, Zhao Wei's mentality was very good and she was willing to dedicate herself to art. Including her later image in the movie "Dear", it was also a breakthrough for her.
04, the double heroine was cut into a single heroine, and the "star girl" Li Hui finally failed to catch fire
In this film, in addition to the acting skills of Xingye, the nonsensical plot, and Zhao Wei's bald head, there is also a girl who attracts people's attention: that is, a fashionable and beautiful woman who dresses beautifully in the film but steps on a banana peel and falls.
Although she did not play much in this film, she remembered it for the audience.
It is understood that when this film was first prepared, it was set in the form of "double heroine", and this fashionable and beautiful woman named Li Hui was one of the protagonists and one of the "star girls" who were strongly praised by Zhou Xingchi.
However, due to various reasons (one said that Li Hui's acting skills were not online, and the other said that the movie timed out), Xingye finally chose to delete Li Hui's role, and everyone finally saw only this ten seconds of footage of stepping on a banana peel.
After "Shaolin Soccer", Li Hui also participated in film and television works such as "Young Bao Qingtian 2" and "Kung Fu Zhuangyuan", but did not splash any water.
Li Hui, the "star girl" with the lowest sense of existence, recently posted on social accounts, using "I dedicate my youth to Zhou Xingchi" to recall her and Zhou Xingchi's past.
Through the article, Li Hui was still a student, participated in the audition of "Shaolin Football", and stood out in the final 9 places, she once asked Xingye why she chose her, Xingye replied: "Because you can speak Cantonese."
05. Final cooperation with Wu Mengda
It is understood that at the shooting site of the film "Shaolin Football", Zhou Xingchi had conflicts with many people because of his seriousness about the movie.
In the 1990s, the relationship between director Li Lizhi and Zhou Xingchi was very good, and the two of them collaborated on many excellent works, co-directing "The King of Destruction", "Domestic 007", "King of Comedy", "God Eater" and "King of Comedy".
However, the final director of "Shaolin Football" was only Zhou Xingchi, and Li Lizhi was only the executive director, which made him very unhappy, so he left the "Xinghui" film company, and the two have not cooperated since.
Li Li, who left Zhou Xingchi, held the director, no longer had a good work, and occasionally shouted that Zhou Xingchi would come out to act again, implying that he was not a director.
"Master Brother" Huang Yifei is the most outstanding performance among several division brothers, and also won the honor of best supporting actor, but this honor is smashed by the real bottle.
But the two turned their faces not because of "Shaolin Soccer", but because of a beer commercial later, when filming "Shaolin Soccer", Huang Yifei only took 2,000 films.
Shooting beer advertisements, the "Xinghui" film company called Huang Yifei: "Fei Brother, come up and play, eat and live, give two thousand pieces to you." ”
After "Shaolin Football", Huang Yifei won the award, the value naturally rose, he felt that 2,000 yuan was humiliating himself, so he refused, and later gradually alienated from Zhou Xingchi, but he also always emphasized that Zhou Xingchi is an artistic genius.
As a gold medal green leaf, Wu Mengda and Zhou Xingxing are the best partners, and any contradictions on the set in the past were mediated by Wu Mengda.
In "Shaolin Football", the "golden combination" of the two of them adds a lot of glory to the whole film, and in the film, Wu Mengda still continues his own style, and together with Stephen Chow, he carries out the nonsense to the end.
But unfortunately, this film is the last film the two of them will work together, whether it is because of the schedule or the gap between the two, they have not cooperated anymore.
In February this year, Wu Mengda died of illness, and the two of them no longer had the opportunity to cooperate.
20 years ago, with his dreams and love for movies, Zhou Xingchi wrote and directed his own "Shaolin Football", which aroused the motivation of countless people to fight;
20 years later, the film is still a classic, especially the sentence "If you don't have a dream, what's the difference between that and salted fish!" The lines are still enshrined as a motto and inspire countless people with dreams.
Perhaps, this is the power of dreams, but what line do you remember the most? (Author: West Window Snow)