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On February 13, 1999, Stephen Chow's movie "The King of Comedy" and Jackie Chan's movie "Glass Bottle" were both released, winning the New Year file.
The two met in cameos in each other's films, competing for the top box office in the Lunar New Year with a gentleman's attitude.
In the end, "The King of Comedy" won 29.85 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office and topped the annual box office list; "Glass Bottle" ranked second with 27.54 million Hong Kong dollars, but once again proved the supremacy of the two in the Hong Kong film industry.
"The King of Comedy", as the second film produced by Xinghui Company, is a work that carries on from top to bottom.
In the minds of film fans, its status is comparable to that of the "Journey to the West" series, and the stories from the front of the curtain to the backstage are still talked about today.
First, I invited TVB big brother Wan Ziliang to participate, but eventually had to be replaced by Wu Mengda
As Stephen Chow's semi-autobiographical film, the struggle story of yin Tianqiu, the protagonist of "The King of Comedy", reflects Stephen Chow's experience before becoming famous.
Director Li Li held the intention to invite Wan Ziliang, the tvb big brother who had promoted Stephen Chow, to come out of the mountain and play a role in the film.
However, Wan Ziliang withdrew in the middle of the shooting, resulting in a stop in the middle of the film shooting, and Zhou Xingchi had to find Wu Mengda to fight the fire, completely abandoning the shot that Wan Ziliang had already shot.
For many years, it has been rumored that a mistake by Zhou Xingchi during the filming process made Wan Ziliang angry, and finally the two sides could not reconcile, and Wan Ziliang chose to quit. And since then, Wan Ziliang and Zhou Xingchi have a bad relationship, and Wan Ziliang has also said hurtful words such as Zhou Xingchi's face is a pile of in front of the media.
The people who created the rumors portrayed it in a colorful way, making it difficult to distinguish between true and false, and the parties Zhou Xingchi and Wan Ziliang both chose to face them in silence and never clarified them, so that these statements have long been common on the Internet, and everyone thinks that this is the case.
It was not until 20 years later, when "The King of New Comedy" was released, that Tian Qiwen, who starred in the guest role, was interviewed by the media and told the truth.
It turned out that this negligence accident was caused by underdeveloped communications. At that time, Wan Ziliang often went to the mainland to run a clothing business, and after arriving at the port every day, he would call back to Hong Kong from the hotel where he was staying and inform the crew of the hotel's phone number.
The night before the crew started up, they would first call the hotel to inform Wan Ziliang to come back the next day to shoot the scene.
That time, because the work was too late the night before, Zhou Xingchi and Li Lizhi decided to start work again the next afternoon, and they also had to call the hotel to inform Wan Ziliang that they would not arrive until the afternoon of the next day.
At that time, It was Tian Qiwen's phone call, notified to the front desk of the hotel, what he did not expect was that Wan Ziliang just finished his business that day and did not return to the hotel directly back to Hong Kong, went to the set and waited for a morning without seeing anyone, immediately got angry, and quarreled with a confused Zhou Xingchi and Li Lizhi.
In fact, this kind of thing is not big, it is all because of misunderstanding, if Wan Ziliang wants to leave because of this little friction, it is inevitable that it is too small belly chicken intestine.
The fact is that after Tian Qiwen arrived at the group, the misunderstanding was quickly eliminated, and Wan Ziliang did not think about it anymore, or continued to shoot.
But Wan Ziliang left because of something else, he was very busy at the time, in addition to business, there were also family affairs to be separated.
His niece was going to get married at the end of the year, and Wan Ziliang was going to be the main marriage, and he had already told Zhou Xingchi in advance that he would have to leave one day. As a result, because the script of the film was changed again and again, the shooting was repeatedly postponed, and Wan Ziliang had to leave when the date was reached.
It is said that Chow Xingchi sought wan Ziliang's consent at that time before looking for Wu Mengda to replace him in his role, and Chow Xingchi also paid a lot of remuneration.
When Wan Ziliang left, he also encouraged the whole crew to make the film well, so it is complete nonsense to say that the two have been in love since then, they just have no cooperation now, they have no conflict of interest, and they are not completely falling out like Zhou Xingchi and Li Xiuxian.
Second, in order to catch the release of the New Year file, the production was hasty, and the ending plot was a big failure
Wan Ziliang's withdrawal, Wu Mengda's joining, all the scenes must be remade, which is bound to make the already tense construction schedule more tight.
Throughout the film, the traces of rushing to work are very obvious, among which the undercover plot at the end and the atmosphere of the whole film are the biggest failures of the film.
There are still many people, especially Stephen Chow fans, who hope to find an explanation for the rationality of this plot, but they are futile and unconvincing.
Pigo has always had one thing to say, and feels that there should be two reasons for the appearance of this undercover plot:
First, the screenwriter really can't think of how this movie should end, let Yin Tianqiu reap success, and finally everyone is happy is certainly not Chow Xingchi's will, but to bring a tragic ending, it is too heavy for a New Year movie.
Second, in order to meet the needs of overseas markets, we all know that some countries and regions like to watch Hong Kong-made gunfight films, especially South Korea, and regard "The True Colors of Heroes" as a textbook. Instead of not knowing how to end it, it is better to add a gunfight at the end, which is both beautiful and safe.
Therefore, we see the ending now, the previous Yin Tianqiu struggled for his movie dream, just at the end of the road, was wu Mengdala to go undercover, but also recognized by the bandits, and finally shot and killed people.
Seeing here in the movie is like seeing Lin Daiyu wearing a noble Hanfu, mentioning an ak-47, and walking out of the Grand View Garden is as strange as a firefight. How to explain it does not make sense, and not to tune is not to tune.
Third, Zhou Xingchi's semi-autobiography is sad and compassionate, full of feelings
In addition to this awkward ending, the whole story is indeed a rare masterpiece, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is Stephen Chow's most important film.
The character of Yin Tianqiu, although he was born poor and had nothing, he had a noble temperament on his body, which was particularly eye-catching in this chaotic world.
He is obsessed with playing a good role, does not miss any opportunity to perform, claims that the actor who runs the dragon set is also an actor, and he will be able to receive a lunch box as an affirmation of his own efforts.
Yin Tianqiu is lonely, but he is kind-hearted, and in his eyes, people are not noble and inferior, even in the face of the lost girl Liu Piaopiao. He is cautious about love, but he is extremely determined, even if he is penniless, he dares to say such heartfelt words as "I raise you".
What is even more rare is that later he finally got the appreciation of the big star Juanjie, and when he sat in the luxury car, he still attached importance to his commitment, which is called not forgetting his original heart, and only people with high moral character can do it.
It is precisely because of the presentation of this character arc that we are moved and deeply impressed by this movie, and it is still mentioned again and again to this day.
Although Yin Tianqiu has not been able to truly achieve understanding until the end of the movie, he has found true love and is still optimistic and firm about his goals, which is enough!
A truly inspirational film doesn't need to allow us to see success, but just to see the light of hope.
"The King of Comedy" has changed a lot of screenwriters, in addition to Zhou Xingchi, there are Zeng Jinchang, Li Min, Zheng Wenhui, Feng Mianheng and Liang Jiajie, which shows that the completion of the script is not smooth, and in the process of shooting, it must have been modified many times.
According to Pigo's empiricism, this kind of script changed and changed the film, and there will definitely be something wrong with the final film, and the result is indeed the same.
The film can present the things that Zhou Xingchi experienced before becoming famous, and can also create the character of Yin Tianqiu, which is already a success.
Fourth, because of the regrets, 20 years later finally made "The King of New Comedy"
Maybe because Stephen Chow is also not satisfied with the undercover plot at the end of the movie! This matter has been grumpy until 20 years later, when "The King of New Comedy" was filmed, I wanted to fulfill the regrets of that year, but I didn't know that now I was a person, not the Hong Kong of the 90s.
"The King of New Comedy" made the heroine leap into fame and won the queen laurel, which is naturally much luckier than the ineffectual Yin Tianqiu, but it has already fallen into the inferiority.
The heroine played by E Jingwen is like a dream, from acting skills to character modeling are a mess, and Pi Ge feels that she is even inferior to the supporting actor Zhang Quanegg.
In the figure of Ru Meng, it is obvious that there is a noble temperament like Yin Tianqiu, nor is it as pregnant as Yin Tianqiu.
She just inherited a tendon from Yin Tianqiu, and was self-centered, doing stupid things with zero IQ. And this kind of person finally only needs to shoot everything, and then run to get the queen of the film, this bowl of poisonous chicken soup forgives Pigo not to drink!
"The King of New Comedy" and "The King of Comedy" are not in the same grade at all, it opened high and low in the 2019 New Year file, and was finally surpassed by "Bear Haunting Primitive Era", only gaining 624 million, and the screenwriting and character shaping are not the biggest reasons.
In fact, for movie fans, we have "The King of Comedy" is enough.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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