丨This article was first published in the Pippi movie
The world knows that Li Hanxiang is the master of "wind and moon films", but few people know, he is also known as the "studio chameleon".
"Those comedies I made, the wind and moon films, were all for the sake of selling money."
When Li Hanxiang said this, perhaps he did not expect that today, more than 20 years later, his films are being recognized by more and more fans.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > radical youth who are not willing to be ordinary</h1>
Born on April 18, 1926 in Jinxi County, Liaoning Province, China, Li Hanxiang experienced the hardships of war and chaos in his childhood, and then moved to Beiping to study Western painting at the National Beiping Art College.
During his studies in painting, Li Hanxiang, a radical thinker, was expelled from school for participating in the student movement many times.
By chance, he participated in the drama "The Flower of Tang Di", and was appreciated by Ma Yanxiang, a dramatist who watched the performance, and entered the Shanghai Municipal Drama School for meritorious study.
In the same year, he participated in the movie "Full of Wind and Rain" and has since entered the film circle.
In 1949, Li Hanxiang entered the Great Wall Company as a contracted actor, because of his outstanding acting talent, he soon won the 17th Asian Film Festival Film Emperor.
If the original "actor" line continues to develop, Li Hanxiang will definitely be a film star who has taken a picture history, but he is not here.
At the same time as filming, Li Hanxiang also shouldered the drawing of art sets and advertising boards, and studied editing with Wang Chaoxi and Chen Yiqing. Later, he studied under Yan Jun and Dan Duyu, and finally he slowly transformed from an actor to a director.
In 1955, Li Hanxiang directed his debut film "Snow Red" for Yadong Film Company, which was appreciated by Shaw and switched to Shaw, officially starting his Shaw film career.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, separated from Shaw's grudge</h1>
In 1956, the mainland Film Studio launched the Huangmei drama "Tianxian Match", inspired by it, Li Hanxiang filmed several Huangmei-tuned films such as "Sable Cicada", "Jiangshan Beauty", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai".
After the release of the film, the box office performance was impressive, and the protagonists of the film, Lin Dai, Ling Bo, and Lottie, also became the hot actresses at that time
However, although Shao gave Li Hanxiang a chance, when he rose, Shao was not able to cherish it.
At that time, Shaw implemented a contract system, and the distribution of directors' remuneration was also a work remuneration system, and although Li Hanxiang made a lot of money for the company, he received only 8,000 Hong Kong dollars per month.
In contrast, Shao spent a lot of money to dig Tao Qin and Yue Feng to his subordinates, and they can get 20,000 to 30,000 Hong Kong dollars for each film, which makes Li Hanxiang's psychological gap extremely large, coupled with various restrictions on the filming process, Li Hanxiang, who has accumulated deep resentment, finally made up his mind to leave Shao.
In 1963, Li Hanxiang came to Taiwan with the support of Lu Yuntao, the owner of International Film Co., Ltd., and formed his own League Of Nations Film Company.
However, Li Hanxiang's entrepreneurial history is not smooth...
In 1964, Lu Yuntao died suddenly due to a plane crash, which made the League of Nations film lose its biggest backing.
In 1965, Li Hanxiang made a desperate bet to make "Xi Shi", but it failed at the box office, making the League of Nations film completely bankrupt.
Li Hanxiang had to return to Hong Kong, but what Li Hanxiang did not expect was that at this time, Shaw's Shaw ran-fu did not care about the previous suspicions and took the initiative to seek a reunion.
The two men rebuilt it...
Saying that Shaw has the capacity to tolerate people, saying that Li Hanxiang can flex and stretch, the two hold hands again, in fact, because Shaw is facing the biggest existential crisis since its establishment -
Its CEO Zou Wenhuai was also dissatisfied with the salary system, poaching He Guanchang and several other fierce generals to run away and form Jiahe Film Company.
Coupled with Shaw's blindness and missing Bruce Lee, he signed a contract with Jiahe, from "Big Brother Tangshan" to "Raptors Across the River", which has successively refreshed the historical box office record in Hong Kong.
At this time, Li Hanxiang's return undoubtedly injected confidence into Shao's.
The cooperation between Li Hanxiang and Shaw lasted for 12 years, and Li Hanxiang directed more than 30 films for Shaw, of which more than 20 were Wind Moon films.
For example, "The Great Warlord", "Wind and Moon Strange Tan", "Northland Rouge" and so on, of course, these movies have also brought huge economic benefits to Shaw.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, zhi is not in the "wind moon"</h1>
As Li Hanxiang said, "Those comedies I made, the wind and moon films, are all for the sake of selling money."
As a director, what really fascinates him is the "historical film"
In 1975 and 1976, Li Hanxiang successively filmed two historical blockbusters, "Falling into the City of the Country" and "Yingtai Weeping Blood", and the film achieved unprecedented success, which also created an opportunity for Li Hanxiang to go to the mainland to shoot.
In 1983, with the full support of the relevant departments in the mainland, Li Hanxiang filmed two classic historical films, "Burning the Yuanmingyuan" and "Listening to the Government with the Curtain Down". After the release of the film, it not only won a high box office of 27.46 million Hong Kong dollars, but also made the fledgling Leung Ka Fai the youngest film emperor in the history of the Hong Kong Academy Awards.
After Li Hanxiang invested great energy to prepare for the filming of "The Last Emperor" based on Puyi's life experience, he repeatedly applied for approval from the mainland, and only afterwards did he learn that he had collided with the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, and the other party had been approved one step ahead of him.
He had to retreat to the second place, and cooperated with Leung Ka Fai to shoot "the second half of the life of Ai Xinjue Luo Puyi" - "Fire Dragon".
In 1989, he filmed "A Generation of Demon Queens" and completed the finale of his "West Empress" trilogy, (the Hong Kong name "West Empress", the plot is different).
After that, he returned to Hong Kong from the mainland to take in those who were proud and ambitious, and revived his Fengyue movies, at this time, although Li Hanxiang had thousands of ideas, he was helpless to be old.
In 1996, invited by his best friend Liu Xiaoqing, Li Hanxiang returned to the mainland to shoot the TV series "Burning Afang Palace", unfortunately, Li Hanxiang died at the age of 70 due to overwork during filming and a heart attack.
This also makes Liu Xiaoqing, who invited him to film, always unable to let go, and whenever he thinks about this, he regrets that he should not invite him to shoot in the mainland.
But Li Hanxiang, a director who has put his entire life in artistic creation, is actually his life in film and television works!
Looking back on his life, his creation is "free", whether it is a delicate and feminine "wind and moon film", a "comedy film" with a smile on the wrist, or a magnificent and deep "historical film", he can grasp it.
Hong Kong Wind Moon Film, without him, will lose half of the color, Hong Kong history film, without him, will lose half of the depth.
Compared with now, among today's Hong Kong directors, it is difficult to find, and there are traces of masters like Li Hanxiang...
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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