【Picking up flowers and flowers, Hong Kong film classics】
"Green Snake" is a fantasy film directed by Xu Ke and starring Maggie Cheung, Wang Zuxian, Zhao Wenzhuo and Wu Xingguo. The film is adapted from Li Bihua's novel "Green Snake", which tells the story of the green snake and the white snake who were born in the purple bamboo forest under the Qingcheng Mountain, cultivated together for 500 years, and the second snake wandered the world and was confused by love. The film was released in Hong Kong on November 4, 1993, and is celebrating its 28th anniversary!
Behind the scenes of "Green Snake":
The film "Green Snake" is the 20th anniversary celebration work of Siyuan Film Company by Xu Keen's teacher Wu Siyuan, because producer Wu Siyuan and director Xu Ke attach great importance to it. Xu Ke's favorite green snake and white snake are Gong Li and Mei Yanfang, Xu Xian's best candidate is Zhang Guorong, and as for Fahai's candidate, Xu Ke is the most entangled, and the reason for the entanglement is to let the male actor play Fahai or let the actress reverse Fahai. Fahai had a scene in which qing snake helped him with his cultivation on a very large scale (what we see now is the effect of abstraction). If you let the male actor play Fahai, it may become a restriction, and let the actress reverse Lin Qingxia is the best candidate. Xu Ke's assistant tentatively asked Lin Qingxia's wishes by phone, but Lin Qingxia neither refused nor agreed.
When Xu Ke prepared for the work, he asked Gong Li and Mei Yanfang to join "Green Snake". Only then did I learn that Gong Li and Lin Qingxia joined Xiang Huaqiang to produce "Tianlong Babu". No one chose to miss Gong Li, and Xu Ke wanted Mei Yanfang to decorate the two horns of the green snake and the white snake. Mei Yanfang once starred with Gong Li in "Green Snake", but because Xiang Huaqiang gave a higher salary, Gong Li and Lin Qingxia went to shoot "Tianlong Eight Parts"! In addition, Mei Yanfang considered that it was too difficult for one person to play two roles, and it was not easy to be thankless, so she gave up the opportunity to star in "Green Snake". At this time, Xu Ke's love will Guan Zhilin take the initiative to ask Guan Zhilin to play the green snake, Xu Ke believes that Guan Zhilin's temperament is inconsistent with the green snake, and refuses Guan Zhilin's invitation to play the green snake. At the same time, Xu Ke supervised the production of "New Crane Needle" is also being cast, Xu Ke said to Guan Zhilin that the heroine Bai Yunfei in "New Crane Needle" is very suitable for you, in this movie you and Mei Yanfang are double heroines, guan Zhilin agrees with Xu Ke's suggestion to join the "New Crane Needle".
Missing Gong Li and Mei Yanfang, abandoning Guan Zhilin's self-recommendation, the role of the green snake eventually fell on Maggie Cheung's head. The candidate for the White Snake was still undecided, and Xu Ke thought of asking Wang Zuxian to love the general. Wang Zuxian became the best actress after Lin Qingxia with the "Ghost of Qiannu" trilogy and "The Undefeated Rise of the East", and she declared that she would not act as a non-female number one. So Xu Ke personally called Wang Zuxian, and promised to tailor "Lin Dai Biography" for her after filming "Green Snake", Lin Dai is a legendary actress in Hong Kong in the 60s, she single-handedly interpreted the ancient "four beauties" such as "Sable Cicada", "Xi Shi", "Wang Zhaojun" and "Yang Guifei" and the ancient empress "Wu Zetian", won the best actress of the Asia-Pacific Film Festival four times, and her legendary degree has not been surpassed so far. Wang Zuxian's film is very popular in the market, and the only drawback is that it failed to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. With the biopic "Ruan Lingyu", Guan Jinpeng not only won the Golden Statue and the Golden Horse Film Queen, but also won the Best Actress Award at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival. Xu Ke was already at the level of "undefeated in the East" in the commercial field at that time, and he saw that guan Jinpeng's biographical theme "Ruan Lingyu" was favored by the European art halls, so he also wanted to shoot a biographical film to enter the European market and become "undefeated in the East and west", and by the way, he helped Ai General Wang Zuxian win the crown of film queen. Wang Zuxian was grateful for Xu Ke's promotion, so he gladly agreed to play the white snake.
The selection of Maggie Cheung as the green snake, Wang Zuxian as the white snake, the casting of Xu Xian and Fahai has become a top priority. Xu Xian's best candidate is Zhang Guorong, who believes that Xu Xianren has set up too much nest, and the audience hates this character. In addition, he and Wang Zuxian's "Ghost of Qiannu" has become an insurmountable classic, and if the two cp again in "Green Snake", it is inevitable that the audience will be compared, so Zhang Guorong refused Xu Ke's invitation. Just when Xu Ke was worried about choosing Xu Xian, the stage play "The Legend of the White Snake" performed in Taiwan entered Xu Ke's sight, so he went to watch the stage play and found that Xu Xian's actor was very attractive. After Xu Ke inquired, he learned that Xu Xian's actor was named Wu Xingguo, so he personally found Wu Xingguo to talk about his understanding of "The Legend of the White Snake", and found that Wu Xingguo's understanding of "The Legend of the White Snake" was very deep, and there were many aspects similar to himself. So I asked if I was interested in starring in Xu Xian in the movie "Green Snake". Wu Xingguo was overjoyed by Xu Ke's invitation, but after all, he was a stage actor who knew nothing about movies. Xu Ke expressed his willingness to guide him from scratch, and told him that the two heroines who played with him were Maggie Cheung and Wang Zuxian, and Wu Xingguo immediately decided to agree to play Xu Xian. Xu Ke retained a large number of white lines in "Green Snake" according to the characteristics of Wu Xingguo.
The Green Snake, White Snake and Xu Xian were selected, and Fahai was the most critical person. The Fahai character in the movie "Green Snake" is set as a world policeman, which contains Xu Ke's doubts about the divinity of the overriding, he collects demons regardless of good or evil, only according to the status hierarchy, is professional but blindly dogmatic, according to his own values to reduce demons and exorcise demons, but engage in a miasma of human smoke. The importance of this character is no less important than that of the green snake and the white snake. Producer Wu Siyuan believes that in order to ensure the box office, this role must be "double Monday". Zhou Xingchi, Jackie Chan and Zhou Runfa have all been promoted by Wu Siyuan, and as long as Wu Siyuan opens his mouth, they will give face. On the fit of the character image and role, Zhou Runfa is the most appropriate, but when Zhou Runfa broke up with Xu Ke and Wu Yusen's "Two Heroes of Blood", he supported Wu Yusen's refusal to accept the scene of Xu Ke Film Studio. Therefore, Xu Ke and Zhou Runfa were not happy, and eventually refused to cooperate with Xu Ke. If Fahai, who retains Zhou Runfa, has to change the director, then it will be more costly. So Wu Siyuan proposed to let Liang Jiahui play Fahai, and Liang Jiahui was an emperor of a thousand faces who could control any role. Xu Ke is the most attractive director in Hong Kong, and he is also the target of countless actors who want to cooperate, but he is disliked by Zhou Runfa. Xu Ke wanted to prove his box office appeal and directing ability, so he abandoned Wu Siyuan's proposal to invite Liang Jiahui to play Fahai.
At that time, Andy Lau proposed to play Fahai, but Andy Lau's starlight was too high. When filming Du Qifeng's supervised production of "Heavenly Love", Du Qifeng disliked Andy Lau's idol faction and couldn't stop tidying up his hair. Andy Lau believes that Du Qifeng has not left long hair and does not understand the inner state of people with long hair. The two were very unhappy because of the shooting of this detail, and even appeared in the paparazzi magazine. A few years later, Andy Lau starred in Du Qifeng's film "Dark War" again, fully trusted Du Qifeng, and his acting skills exploded under Du Qifeng's tutelage, and won the Academy Award for Best Actor in one fell swoop. Xu Ke believes that Andy Lau's temperament is inconsistent with Fahai, and the starlight is too high to control. And Xu Ke wants to praise his film studio newcomers Yu Rongguang and Zhao Wenzhuo. Yu Rongguang starred in the film studio "The Undefeated Rise of the East" and "Young Huang Feihong's Iron Horse" Male No. 1, and Zhao Wenzhuo starred in "Huang Feihong's King's Wind" Male No. 1. Yu Rongguang and Zhao Wenzhuo both have neither star aura nor box office appeal. Such an actor is best controlled, and if the box office is high, it can best prove the strength of the director. In the end, a corner of Fahai was on Zhao Wenzhuo. Zhao Wenzhuo took off the robe of "Huang Feihong" and replaced it with the robe of "Fahai", becoming the youngest Fahai in history...!
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