This is a sad news that shocks Wu Mengda, Chen Musheng and Lin Lingdong.
According to Hong Kong media reports, the famous producer and actor Shi Tian died of illness at the age of 72.
In terms of the status of the jianghu, he is the big brother of Chen Musheng and Lin Lingdong, and he is already a representative of Hong Kong-style comedy long before Wu Mengda joined hands with Zhou Xingchi.
Nowadays, many people know Xu Ke, know Zeng Zhiwei, are more familiar with Hong Kong films, know Huang Baiming, who has retreated behind the scenes, and those who have watched many old films can also know Mai Jia, who retired early, and probably few people will really know Shi Tian.
Meet the seven monsters of the new art city that once dominated the Hong Kong film industry in the 1980s.
Jackie Chan is great, right?
Hong Jinbao is powerful, right?
Their boss, Zou Wenhuai, is legendary enough?
It was these well-known names that they met powerful opponents in the '80s.
At that time, their He Film Company had just snatched the position of the leading big brother from Shaw's Shaw Company, who knew that the New Art City Film Company, which was founded in 1980, took less than two years to grab the annual box office champion of Hong Kong films.
The "Best Partner" series, the first three hit the Hong Kong box office from 1982 to 1984, is really that lyric sung.
How invincible, how lonely.
What does this have to do with Shi Tian?
Shi Tian is the executive producer of this series.
It was he who founded the New Art City together with the boss Mai Jia and the old third Huang Baiming, and later won over Xu Ke, Shi Nansheng and his wife, as well as Zeng Zhiwei and Teddy Robin, to form the Seven Monsters of the New Art City, using the "de-directing" co-creation model to break the monopoly of Jiahe and Shao's double factory.
The strength of the new art city forced Jiahe to let the two generals, Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan, who originally fought separately, join forces for the first time to create the "Fuxing Series", which reversed the decline in one fell swoop.
At that time, Jiahe also used the "loss move", using Zeng Zhiwei, who had left the development of New Art City, to win over the cooperation of the boss Mai Jia, causing chaos in the internal morale of New Art City and entering a trough period.
In 1985, Shi Tian represented New Art City in the most important Spring Festival stalls, and his self-written and directed "Wishing you prosperity" was crushed by Jackie Chan and Hong Jinbao's "Fuxing Gaozhao", which he was also greatly shocked, feeling that his comedy style had passed, and later left the United States to relax.
Shitian's peak was in the late 1970s.
At that time, Hong Kong films were still in the fierce competition between Shaw and Jiahe, and after the death of Bruce Lee, Jiahe was relayed by the comedy genius Hui Guanwen, thus opening up the comedy era belonging to Hong Kong films.
In the early 1970s, Shaw relied on the small-budget comedies and wind moon films of big director Li Hanxiang to fight Bruce Lee, and after Li Hanxiang's physical condition began to deteriorate, in order to cater to the comedy wave, he could only add comedy elements to the action films he was good at.
Jackie Chan was on fire for developing kung fu comedies. In Shaw's, Shi Tian, who is good at comedy, has also been given the opportunity to play, assisting Jackie Chan's "Snake-shaped Executioner", which is the foundation of kung fu comedy.
After getting to know Mai Jia, the two hit it off.
Mai Jia's best partner in front of the stage is Xu Guanjie, and behind the scenes is Shi Tian.
Before and after the establishment of the new art city, the third huang Baiming was mainly responsible for the screenwriter, the eldest Mai Jia was the supervising producer, and the second in command Shi Tian was the undisputed starring actor.
The pioneering work "Funny Times", Shi Tian imitated Chaplin's exquisite portrait, which is very distinctive, and the film was successful at the box office, which also became one of his representative roles.
In addition to the starring role, as well as various affairs behind the scenes, Shi Tian is also responsible for the dubbing of Chinese, making the number one contribution to the output of New Art City in China.
The director of "Funny Times" is Wu Yusen.
Wu Yusen and New Art City have an interesting past, not to elaborate here, interested readers can find the past [New Art City Legend] to find out.
Anyway, in 1986, in the trough of New Art City, it was Wu Yusen who stood up, and his "Hero's True Colors" went against the tide in the era of comedy prevalence, creating a new trend of gangster hero films in Hong Kong films.
Of course, it has to be mentioned that the supporter behind it is Xu Ke.
Xu Ke and Shi Nansheng established their own film studios in the low period of Art City, nominally as a company of New Art City, but the films they produced no longer followed the market, but pursued art and word of mouth.
Xu Ke did not forget the frustrated Shi Tian.
In order to help the second leader of the seven monsters regain his self-confidence, in "Hero True Colors 2", Xu Ke and Wu Yusen tailored a jianghu gangster role for Shi Tian who had retired for many years - Dragon Fourth, and the role was even heavier than Zhou Runfa's "Little Ma Brother 2.0".
The success of the film temporarily pulled Shi Tian back, and also made more mainland audiences recognize him later, and called him "Uncle Four".
The new art city was also revitalized, and a tug-of-war with Jiahe was launched.
However, at this time, the new art city is no longer the original co-creation model.
The seven monsters of new art city still remain in the company, which is already fighting for themselves and taking responsibility for their own profits and losses.
Mai Jia supported Lin Lingdong, and "Prison Storm" suddenly emerged;
Huang Baiming relied on the "Happy Ghost" series to fight steadily, and his subordinates also cultivated proud protégés such as Gao Zhisen and Du Qifeng;
Xu Ke is not only in the "Hero's True Colors" series, but also in the "Ghost of a Woman", "Laughing Pride of the River" These costume productions have become classics.
And Shi Tian, who also led a team himself, really couldn't get up.
After cooperating with Xu Ke's team, "Uncle Cai's Sweep of a Thousand Troops", also did not perform well at the box office, Shi Tian realized that not only his own era has long passed, but Also Hong Kong films will have a day of failure.
Mai Jia, who had the same feeling, changed careers with Shi Tian and bid farewell to the film world.
Founded for 10 years, new art city also announced its closure.
When the audience sees the two of them together again, it is already 2016's "My Secret Agent Grandpa", and it is also thanks to Hong Jinbao's face that the two can be invited back.
When Hong Jinbao fought most fiercely in Jiahe and New Art City, although it was the Jiahe camp, in fact, at the beginning of the new art city, he also helped a lot, and had a good friendship with Mai Jia and Shi Tian.
The two sides are more of a healthy competition, between large companies and large companies, and the same is true within the company, which is one of the reasons why the golden age of Hong Kong cinema was so powerful.
Shaw's TVB has also been deeply influenced, so it has a well-known mountain culture.
The legend of the new art city has passed, but the seven monsters of the new art city are still there.
At the 2017 Golden Horse Awards, the contribution of the Seven Monsters to Chinese cinema was paid special attention to. It is also a great pity that Mai Jia and Shi Tian attended the relevant retrospective activities of New Art City the previous year, but they could not appear at the Golden Horse Awards, and the seven of them could not come to the same frame again in public.
When they really reunited, it should be because of Lin Lingdong's death.
According to the return of Wei Junzi, the director of "Dragon tiger martial artist", in his personal program, the seven monsters of the new art city gathered at the memorial service of Lin Lingdong, and the scene was quite emotional.
Who would have thought that Shi Tian, at that time, was actually suffering from cancer.
After the news of his death came out, the media contacted One of the Seven Monsters, Shi Nansheng, who was also one of the producers of "Chosin Lake".
Shi Nansheng said that he remembered that two years ago, that is, the year of Lin Lingdong's funeral in 2019, Shi Tian was cured of cancer, and they had seen it 1 year ago, and they could not confirm the authenticity of the news.
But unfortunately, more news has confirmed Shi Tian's death.
It is reported that Shi Tian's younger son confirmed that Shi Tian left in September this year.
On September 7, Huang Baiming and Shi Tian had a final text message conversation and learned that Shi Tian had cancer.
Huang Baiming regretted that he could not hold a relevant memorial service for Shi Tian in time, which may be that Shi Tian wanted to leave quietly (there are reports that his last wish is to deal with the affairs behind him in a low profile), so he did not inform the outside world in time.
The specific time of death needs to be further confirmed.
The ruthless years, after all, still attacked the seven monsters of the new art city.
After Shi Tian's low-key departure, the seven monsters of the New Art City really had no chance to be in the same frame again.
At this time, the world really woke up.
Perhaps the seven monsters of the new art city can still live in the image and live in the memory, but the cruel reality is that only six of the seven monsters are left, and there is no new art city seven monsters in the jianghu from then on.
Only their legends and stories remain.