The "Five Lucky Stars" series is one of director Hong Jinbao's masterpieces, but also a landmark existence in Hong Kong cinema, from birth to its end it lasted 13 years, a total of 7 films, these movies are superstars no matter which one is full of laughter
Many of the classic shots in the film are also models for latecomers to emulate, although they are the product of being forced to be helpless, but Hong Jinbao not only used it to save Jiahe's defeat, but also gradually disintegrated the seven monsters of the new art city, creating a brilliant era of Hong Kong comedy films, today let us walk into the background of the "Fuxing series" movies and relive the classic stories of those years
As we all know, the start of the "Five Lucky Stars" series is to fight against the "Best Partner" series of New Art City, in 1982 Jackie Chan's new movie "Dragon Young Master" was released, as the highest-grossing martial arts star in the film industry at that time, but also the head of Jiahe, I thought this movie would have a good result, but the last 17.94 million box office, compared with the 26.04 million of "Best Partner" in the same period, can be said to be a fiasco, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to Jiahe Pictures, which has dominated the film industry for more than ten years
At the same time, it also made it feel the threat from New Art City Pictures, so in order to save the situation, Jiahe joined hands with Shaw to screen each other's movies with their respective theaters, but did not expect to still be unable to beat New Art City, in 1983, New Art City launched "Best Partner 2", this film continued the glory of the first part, and also achieved good box office results
Seeing that the development of new art city is getting better and better, Jiahe really has no way, and now it is probably not possible to count on Jackie Chan, so they found Hong Jinbao and asked him to make a movie within three months, it is best to release it in the summer file, so that he can suppress the sharp edge of New Art City
Hong Jinbao, who was in danger of being ordered, also did not slacken off, and immediately began to conceive the script after receiving the task, since it was to fight against the "Best Partner" of the Lunar New Year file, it was simply to use the mode of the New Year film to create this movie, and the stars gathered There is always a star you want to see, so the five male protagonists of the movie have a prototype
The first part of the "Lucky Star" series is "Strange Tricks Five Lucky Stars", because it is a film that rushes out to fight against the new art city, so it has a deliberate imitation of the form of "Best Partner", which is a collection of elements such as comedy police gangster action, in addition to the plot of "Best Partner" may be better, in the star lineup Local comedy elements Action scenes, "Strange Tricks Five Lucky Stars" can be said to be perfect
The five main actors in the movie have their own characteristics and complement each other, obsessed with stealth, the handsome but flowery Vaseline, the rational but cunning Lanx, and the simple and kind curly hair and teapot, although they have shortcomings, but the five people together are very tacit understanding, they accidentally hit and bumped into the police to crack the gangster's counterfeit money case, it can be said that it is a group of particularly interesting guys
The most impressive thing in the film is the scene of stealth, Wu Yaohan thought he had learned the art of invisibility, he began to act around in the room, others pretended not to see in order to tease him, so he went naked to peek at Zhong Chuhong taking a bath, but he did not expect that people were wearing bikinis, and finally they were recognized by the noon horse who delivered the letter, which ended this absurd farce
And the idea of this stealth technique was later copied by "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu Xiang's Four Talents", in fact, in addition to this idea, there is a scene in the film that was also imitated by a later movie, Jackie Chan's pulley skating chase car shot, in 2020 "Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn" also appeared, it can be seen that as long as it is a classic, there will always be latecomers to follow suit
The cameo star in the film is also a highlight of this play, Yuan Biao Li Saifeng starred as a roadside couple
Lin Zhengying starred as the housekeeper in the mansion
Noon Ma played the postman who delivered the letter, and Ye Tong played Jackie Chan's girlfriend
There is also a literary film director Xu Anhua also made a cameo appearance as a cashier in this film
Even screenwriter Wong Ping-yiu made a face in the movie
So under the leadership of Hong Jinbao and the blessing of big-name stars, after the release of "Strange Schemes and Five Lucky Stars", it won a box office performance of 21.97 million, although slightly inferior to the 23.27 million of "Best Partner 2", but overall it was still good, which also made Jiahe finally see hope
So after that, the Fuxing series became a magic weapon for Jiahe against the "Best Partner" series, and its second "Fuxing Gaozhao" was released in the Spring Festival in 1985, setting a new box office record in Hong Kong with a box office of 30.75 million, and also beating the previous year's release of "Best Partner 3"
"FuXing Gaozhao" follows the routine of the first season, but it has been reshaped in terms of characters, with Wu Yaohan becoming a big life, Vaselin Qin Xianglin becoming a ginseng, Lanx Feng Quenching Fan becoming rhinoceros skin, teapot Hong Jinbao becoming partridge, and the original curly Hair Accumulation Cen Jianxun replaced by Luo Han Guo Zeng Zhiwei, so that the new five male protagonists were formed, and this lineup continued until the end of the series
It is worth mentioning that this movie not only defeated "Best Partner" at the box office, but also laid the groundwork for Hong Jinbao to slowly disintegrate the seven monsters of New Art City, because from this season, Zeng Zhiwei, one of the seven monsters, will play the role of Luo HanGuo, earlier because he directed "Best Partner 2" did not get dividends, Zeng Zhiwei was slightly dissatisfied with the salary system of New Art City, he wanted to leave the way to make a living, did not expect to receive an invitation from Hong Jinbao at this time, so with a gambling mentality, he participated in "Lucky Star High Photo"
It is also to take this opportunity to express their dissatisfaction to others in the new art city, the development momentum of the Fuxing series is good, in 1986, Hong Jinbao also dug up the Mai Jia of the new art city, and the two jointly filmed the "Best Lucky Star", and the people of the new art city came to help Jiahe shoot a film
Such behavior undoubtedly caused dissatisfaction between Huang Baiming and Shi Tian, but because Mai Jia was the boss of the big three, they did not have much to say, and later Shi Tian and Huang Baiming also had differences in filming, and the "Seven Monsters of New Art City" began to become real in name only
In the early 1990s, the "New Art City" completely disintegrated, and the Fuxing series produced two more after this, although it did not have its previous glory, but it was also the final winner