Jin Yong and Gu Long are the martial arts novels that everyone has seen more when they were young, and their novels have adapted more film and television works, and when it comes to Jin Yong's novel movies, everyone will think of Xu Ke's "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" trilogy, Jet Li's "Demon Sect Leader of the Dragon Slaughtering Record", Wang Jing Zhou Xingchi's "Deer Ding" series, etc.
When it comes to Gulong novel movies, there must be a person who can't get around, he is Chu Yuan, not only the person who shoots the most Gulong novels, but also the director who is the most good at making Gulong novels, and no one has surpassed him so far.
At the end of the 1960s, Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che created the era of Hong Kong's new martial arts films with "The Drunken Man" and "One-Armed Knife" respectively, and Chu Yuan, as one of the four directors of Shaw with their equal name, also had a high level of achievement in martial arts films, and was the best spokesperson for Gu Long's strange martial arts novels.
In 1976, director Chu Yuan put Gu Long's novel "Meteor Butterfly Sword" on the big screen for the first time, which was a great success, earning 1.59 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 7th in the annual box office list.
Chu Yuan hit the iron while it was hot, and in the same year, he produced "Tianya Mingyue Knife", which won 1.05 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, although it did not sell more than "Meteor Butterfly Sword", but the film's reputation was better, and the skills and style also tended to mature, which was a well-deserved cologne movie.
Chu Yuan's move ushered in a new peak of Hong Kong martial arts cinema and also created the era of Gu Long's films. Because most of the male protagonists of the Gulong movies were played by Dillon in the future, an iron triangle composed of Chu Yuan, Gu Long and Dillon was also formed, a trio of people, a stable box office, and then represented a martial arts era.
There is also a small story that has been widely circulated here, once upon a time, Jackie Chan's big brother had a rough journey, and his father Rovilla drank with Gu Long and wanted to ask for a tailor-made script. But our Cologne is Yan Control, who said to director Luo Wei: My script is not written for him, it is written for Dillon and Jiang David. Then Jackie Chan cried in the bathroom, and David Jiang hugged him for comfort.
Back to the point, back to "Tianya Mingyue Dao", in 1974, Gu Long wrote "Tianya Mingyue Dao" in Taiwan Province, because the concept was too advanced, it was only serialized in the China Times for less than two months before it was stopped, and had to be transferred to Hong Kong Wuxia Spring and Autumn Serial.
That year, Gu Long was 37 years old, which was the mature stage of Gu Long's creation, and Fu Hongxue and the villain Gongzi Yu in the book were also exactly 37 years old.
Gu Long, who has gained fame and fortune in middle age, uses the language of prose and poetry to create a martial arts novel that seeks innovation and change, which is creation and introspection mixed with pain. However, this novel with obvious personal imprint and novel form has been treated coldly.
A year later in Hong Kong, director Chu Yuan also fell into a career dilemma. In 1975, the famous Cantonese film director in the past, who once beat Bruce Lee's "Dragon Fight tiger fight" at the box office with "Seventy-Two Tenants", had no movie to shoot for several months, and Chu Yuan was discouraged.
Who knows that after the trough, it is the beginning of the re-climb to the top. At this time, Gu Long's friend Ni Kuang found Chu Yuan, personally acted as a screenwriter, and recommended his friend's new work "Pop Butterfly Sword" to him.
In March 1976, Chu Yuan made "Meteor Butterfly Sword", and the first Gulong movie was born, and the effect was surprisingly good. Chu Yuan also became the first person to make a Gulong movie.
In the same year, Chu Yuan filmed "Tianya Mingyue Knife" non-stop. Compared with the experimental nature of "Meteor Butterfly Sword", "Tianya Mingyue Knife" poured more effort into Chu Yuan, and the quality of the film was also of better quality, and it was also a great success after its release.
"Tianya Mingyue Knife" shoots Gu Long's consistent style, that is, the conflict between the eerie plot and human nature. At the beginning of the film, on the ruins of the Dead Town Phoenix Set, Wang Sun swordsman Yan Nanfei (Luo Lie) is enjoying fine wine and singing, and the dark and desolate background contrasts strongly with the gorgeous character dynamics.
Fu Hongxue (Dillon), the world's fastest knifeman, came here to compete with Yan Nanfei. Fu Hongxue was dressed in black with sackcloth and a dark knife. Yan Nanfei attacked a white shirt, a rose sword, and the two fought, and the scene was full of sense.
The film has a strong reasoning style, winning with a detective novel-like plot, and the story development is unexpected.
The underworld leader Gongzi Yu (Tang Jing) sent a killer to kill Yan Nanfei, and Fu Hongxue chose to protect his opponent, in order to prevent Gongzi Yu from dominating the martial forest, Fu Hongxue and Yan Nanfei defeated Gongzi Yu's five major killers "Poetry Painting Qinqi Sword", and jointly won the peacock plume ranked first in the weapon spectrum.
However, Yan Nanfei is actually a stand-in for Gongzi Yu, and the beauty Mingyue Xin (Tian Ni) is the Lady Gongzi Yu who has set a trap for Fu Yan and the two of them. Behind all the scenes is Gongzi Yu, in order to continue the prosperity and wealth, he is looking for the world's first master to be his own stand-in puppet, but finally died under Fu Hongxue's knife.
Fu Hongxue wearing a black linen cloak, the image of holding a black knife is very deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, this shape is mostly referenced by later film and television dramas, 30-year-old Dillon will Fu Hongxue played very well.
Gu Long novel characters have many wisdom heroes, such as Lu Xiaofeng, Chu Liuxiang, and Fu Hongxue, who also have Sherlock Holmes-style wisdom, which is rare in traditional martial arts movies.
The blind man disguised as a killer, the murderous female beggar, the vendor pretending to sell steamed buns, the Sven drunkard who is the driver, and the seemingly innocent children under the ghost grandmother are all recognized by Fu Hongxue.
The film is very brilliant, Gongzi Yu's killers "poetry", "painting", "qin", "chess", "sword" have their own characteristics, Gu Feng, Fan Meisheng, Xu Shaoqiang, Gu Guanzhong and other martial arts actors joined to make the martial arts scene highly observable. Compared with the first Gulong movie "Meteor Butterfly Sword", the fight scene is more smooth.
Compared with the strange changes in the plot, Gu Long pays more attention to the conflict of human nature in martial arts novels, but the script is far from the original work, coupled with the nature of commercial films, the presentation of this human nature is obviously weakened, but the themes of chivalry and loneliness are still presented in another narrative way.
Fu Hongxue resisted violence, sympathized with the wind and dust woman's little pity, and exuded the brilliance of humanity and the spirit of chivalry.
At the same time, Fu Hongxue is also a real individual with flesh and blood, unlike the omnipotent lonely hero in traditional martial arts, the middle-aged Fu Hongxue paid the price of loneliness because he competed to be the first in the world in his early years.
Fu Hongxue had no relatives or friends. Qiu Yuzhen (Jing Li) asks Fu Hongxue if she is afraid of loneliness, and daxia frankly says that she is afraid of loneliness, but she is used to it.
In order to practice martial arts hard, he gave up his past peaceful life, and returned to his hometown after he became famous, but the door was still the same, and the face was completely different. For many years, he walked alone between heaven and earth, alone, with a knife, from dusk to night, from the cape to the end of the world, in search of a place to return.
At Gongzi Yu's Tianwai Mountain Villa, Fu Hongxue saw the bright moon heart and his own coffin coming out of the bath. Faced with the bright moon heart, which symbolizes money and beauty, Fu Hongxue chose to refuse, because he understood that being a stand-in for Gongzi Yu came at a price. If the price of being Fu Hongxue is loneliness, then the price of being a Gongzi Yu is fear and death.
Gongzi Yu is just an illusion representing wealth and power, and whoever has the highest martial arts skills is Gongzi Yu. In order to enjoy the glory and wealth forever, Gongzi Yu is a man of literary style, and the great hero of the rich side has become the head of the underworld, and money and desire have made him full of white hair. And Yan Nanfei also died in order to be a stand-in for Gongzi Yu, because there will always be stronger people in the jianghu.
In Gongzi Yu's concept, whoever is strong has everything, but the high price is always ready to be replaced, always ready to die, and not at all peaceful for a moment, until he is killed by Fu Hongxue.
Since then, Hong Kong and Taiwan have blown up the "ancient dragon wind" for ten years, in just five years, Chu Yuan has made 18 films adapted from gulong, including "Chu Liuxiang", "White Jade Tiger", "The Sword of the Three Young Masters", "The Ruthless Sword of the Amorous Swordsman", "Xiao Shiyilang", "Full Moon Curved Knife", etc., almost all of which are fine, and Chu Yuan has also become the director who has filmed the most Gulong movies. (Written by ching)