In 1976, the release of Meteor Butterfly Sword ushered in a golden age of gulong film adaptations. This is the first Gulong film directed by Chu Yuan, with which he won the Double Lion Award for best art design at the 22nd Asian Film Festival, and the "Master of Strange Feelings Martial Arts" ushered in the second peak of his career.
Everyone knows that Gulong Martial Arts is freehand and ethereal, too stream-of-consciousness, and the martial arts action is brushed over, and it is difficult to adapt it into a movie plot.
But "Meteor Butterfly Sword" is a special case, more like a suspenseful spy film wrapped in the skin of a martial arts film, which can be called the 70s martial arts version of "Infernal Affairs".
In Hong Kong in 1976, for the bored general audience, to see so many reversals in a movie, it was worth the ticket price in terms of movie-going experience.
The audience probably didn't have time to pay attention to the love between the male protagonist Meng Xingling and Fluttershy, and the energy was poured into reasoning which people in each camp were traitors.
The plot is reversed to a suspicious life, never knowing how close the traitor is, which is a unique gulong fan of martial arts novels.
The characters have complex personalities and there is no clear distinction between good and evil. For example, The last killer of Lao Bo's trust, Han Tang, was besieged, and when the rescuers came, they killed this reclusive master from behind.
"Meteor Butterfly Sword" is the most compact of all Gu Long's novels, the pace is so fast that the audience is slightly distracted, and the people who have just appeared have already received a box lunch.
Lu Xiangchuan went to visit The King of Wanpeng, and Nangong Yuan, a doorman who had been around the King of Wanpeng for many years, actually jumped back, kidnapped the King of Wanpeng to let The Law Xiangchuan leave safely, and then committed suicide by cutting his abdomen, from the appearance to the box lunch, in an instant.
The characters in the movie are very characteristic of gulong, they must be rewarded with kindness, light life and heavy righteousness, and they cut themselves when they do not agree. Fate said no, don't see the slightest hesitation.
Ye Xiang, played by Ling Yun, learned that the woman he met that year was Fluttershy, and Fluttershy was the daughter of Lao Bo, because he was afraid that Meng Xing's soul would not know the truth and killed Lao Bo and killed Xiao Fei, he gambled his life to go to Lao Bo to inform Meng Xing's soul, and then cut himself to death.
The whole story is preaching a truth, no matter how close or distant people around you, may turn their eyes in an instant. Almost everyone dies of believing too much in the people around them, except for the old man.
Meng Xing's soul was recruited into the palace by the old uncle, thinking that he had the trust of the old uncle, contacted the elder elder who had arranged in the old uncle's mansion many years ago to determine the time, and then sneaked into the old uncle's garden to assassinate the old uncle, but the old uncle leisurely picked flowers, had already prepared, and the image of the old uncle's godfather was established.
Lao Bo's right-hand man for many years, Yue Hua played by Lu Kagawa betrayed Lao Bo and escaped after failing to seize power. He has raised a friend for more than a decade, which is to use him as the last retreat. But who knows, this person was also bought by the old man.
The male protagonist of this film, Meng Xingling, has almost become a tool person used to string together the plot, and the real charm lies in the power struggle between Lao Bo and Lu Kagawa.
In the end, the case of Ryokagawa was closed, and after Lao Bo got Meng Xing soul as his right-hand man, he decided to let him leave with Fluttershy, because he would definitely become the next Lyukagawa, reflecting the image of Lao Bo's insightful big man.
In 1972, after the end of "Deer Ding", Jin Yong completely announced the closure of the pen. In the 1970s, the high production period of Cologne began to arrive.
Although there have been few adaptations of Cologne in recent years, in the 1970s, there were several films and televisions almost every year.
Even the writers who are now popular will not have so many film and television projects, and at that time, GuLong was a well-deserved top high-traffic IP writer.
The most filmed and televisionized Gu Long's works was naturally the martial arts film "Big Factory" Shaw at that time. Shaw has produced as many as 24 Gulong films.
Chu Yuan, known as the master of strange martial arts, is the Shao director who has made Gu Long's works into movies the most times: Chu Yuan has made 20 martial arts films, 2 are adaptations of Jin Yong's novels, and the remaining 18 are all adaptations of Gu Long novels. Since 1976's Meteor Butterfly Sword, Chu Yuan has begun a long-term cooperation with Gu Long.
The novel "Meteor Butterfly Sword" is not the most famous one among the ancient dragon martial arts, far less famous than Chu Liuxiang, Lu Xiaofeng, Xiao Li Flying Knife, and Peerless Double Glory.
But it was precisely this novel that was recommended by Ni Kuang to Chu Yuan, whose career was in trouble at that time. Chu Yuan grasped this life-saving straw, and suddenly the salted fish turned over and became a representative of the new trend of martial arts films.
It should be known that the end of the 1970s was the embarrassing year when Hu Jinquan's masterpieces "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" and "Legend of the Mountain" hit the street at the box office, and the view that "martial arts films are dead" was very popular.
Since the release of "Meteor Butterfly Sword" in 1976, Gu Long has instantly become the hottest figure in the Hong Kong film and television industry, and is always followed by the producers, directors and actors of Wu Yang Wu Yang.
Gu Long loves money, and his love and principle for his works are far less than Jin Yongqiang. Gu Long personally wrote more than 20 scripts, and the novel "Xiao Shi Yi Lang" was changed into a novel according to the script.
In fact, the official title of "Meteor Butterfly Sword" is "Meteor Butterfly Sword". Interestingly, since the beginning of Meteor Butterfly Sword, the three-paragraph title of the film market has become crazy popular.
Even Jackie Chan, who became popular before filming "Drunken Fist", was not exempt from vulgarity, and films such as "Wind, Rain, Double Meteor" and "Sword Flower, Smoke and Rain, Jiangnan" that sounded like a film that did not match Jackie Chan's style in any case, and there was no basis for thinking that rubbing such a title could catch fire.
There is also a well-known story between Jackie Chan and Gu Long, Jackie Chan once went to visit Gu Long to ask for a role, but was ridiculed by Gu Long for "ugly looks", which made Jackie Chan, who was not yet famous at the time, deeply shocked, and ran to the toilet to hold Jiang David and cried.
In fact, Chu Yuan was originally surnamed Zhang, the son of Cantonese opera master Zhang Huoyou, who debuted from directing the Cantonese film "Poor Parents' Hearts in the World" and entered Shaw in 1971.
Although Chu Yuan is not as good as Zhang CheTao and Li Are all over the world, the Shaw box office in the 70s still relies on Chu Yuan to support it, known as "Chu Ten Million", nicknamed .10 million.
In terms of style, The ancient dragon martial arts movies under Chu Yuan are obviously different from Zhang Che, Zhang Che is simple and masculine, and the Chu principle is romantic and gorgeous, known as the "Strange Love Martial Arts Master".
One is the set of Chu Yuan. In the era of Hu Jinquan's martial arts, the usual practice was to be on the ground, waiting for a day for a sun angle, which was obviously not acceptable to Shao Shi, who pursued efficiency.
Chu Principle places the containers of space in the interior of the studio. Chu Yuan is accustomed to the flexible use of props and lights, using rockeries, plants, water bodies and lights, smoke, design, no need for outdoor shooting, directly directing people to set up scenes in the studio, it is since "Meteor Butterfly Sword".
Achieving a certain depth of field in the studio, but not appearing too fake, without a sense of cheapness, is chu yuan's cleverness.
Fluttershy's residence is a more typical Chuyuan-style set. Meng Xing's dialogue with Fluttershy here uses spring and butterflies to allude to the brevity of love, directly transforming the written language of Gu Long's novel directly into dialogue.
Chu Yuan's shots often hide behind plants to accentuate the mystery of the characters. For example, in the shot of the tall boss's bedroom, the camera hides behind a vase and a gauze tent, and a lot of indescribable pictures are added to the set, and the desire is gushing out.
In fact, Run Run Shaw and Fang Yihua were also more interested in this aspect, and especially advised Chu Yuan that "indescribable shots can be added here."
Boss Gao is very dissatisfied with Ye Xiang because his love with Fluttershy has collapsed. The dialogue between Ye Xiang and The High Boss, the lines are outrageous, the indescribable and funny are perfectly integrated, and it has become a famous scene in this film.
In addition, Chu Yuan's play is not like Zhang Che's violent beauty, "Meteor Butterfly Sword" pursues simple freehand, and even focuses on the nearby branches, blurring the two people who fight, only seeking atmosphere, not talking about action, such a new style has become popular.
In 1976, "Meteor Butterfly Sword" was released in Hong Kong, and without the help of Dillon Jiang David, Chu Yuan sat in the top position of Hong Kong martial arts director. In the same year, "Tianya Mingyue Dao", the following year's "Chu Liuxiang", "White Jade Tiger", etc., with the help of Dillon and Er Dongsheng, repeatedly broke the box office record of Taiwanese films, opening up the prosperity of gulong novel film and television in the next 10 years. (Author: Mankei Wu)