People who know the film industry know that Stephen Chow has a title in China called "The King of Comedy", which is not only a name for film fans, but also the joyful reward brought by many post-80s and post-90s to the audience's childhood Stephen Chow movies
In the early years, such a meme was popular on the Internet called "A Movie Ticket Owed to Zhou Xingchi", although later, movies such as "Mermaid" and "The King of New Comedy" let the audience pay off this account, but his influence in the comedy film industry is still unmatched, and any work will sell well as long as it takes the name of Zhou Xingchi, because fans have not yet seen the appearance of Xingye, and they are unwilling to believe that the former god of comedy has been exhausted
So the question is, as the king of comedy, Zhou Xingchi has made many movies in his life, but which one is a masterpiece that can truly represent its highest level?
If I had to answer this question, I would choose "Domestic Lingling Paint"
"Ling Ling Lacquer" this movie is a 1994 director Li Lizhi, Gu Dezhao screenwriter, Chow Sing Chi, Yuan Yongyi, Luo Jiaying, Chan Po Lin and other Hong Kong stars together to shoot a work, strictly speaking, the audience at that time for its film criticism is not high, even now, "Domestic Ling Ling Lacquer" on the Douban score is not the highest in Chow Sing Chi's works, belongs to the lower middle level
But in my cognition, "Domestic Lingling Paint" is definitely an outlier in Zhou's comedy, but also Zhou Xingchi's own attempt to break through the role, many of the settings of the role of Lingling Lacquer are from foreign movies of the same name, but Zhou Xingchi does not show the iconic nonsense label in this work, compared with Tang Bohu, Bao Longxing, Su Qi'er, Zhou Xingxing, this exaggerated, fast-paced character, Zhou Xingchi's Lingling paint is very slow, and even the use of the scene is much smoother than the usual work
As a former famous undercover, Ling Lingqi's slowness is reflected in the movement and mentality, he can taste a cup of martini very leisurely, the equipment for going out is not as complete as that of ordinary agents, the things he brings are always the necessities of life, razors and hair dryers, he has been pursuing elegance, even if he goes out shopping, he must wear a suit
At the same time, the role of Ling Lingqi is very classical, his weapon is a kitchen knife, and it is personally cast by the general Mo Xie, his stunt is a flying knife, a person who moves so slowly is flying a knife but as fast as lightning, and even can use the air to transport the knife, a moving and static character forms a sharp contrast, just like the opening girl said the line, "A man like you, no matter where you hide, is like a firefly in the night, your melancholy eyes, the scum of the beard, and the cup of dry martini, all betrayed you."
In addition to the character of the combination of movement and static, the highlight moment of Zhou Xingchi in this movie is the song "Li Xianglan" sung when attending the cocktail party, whether it is the singing voice, the performance state or the cigarette stuck to the mouth, which is in stark contrast to the identity of his agent and the reality of the butcher, at this time he has become a real pork prince
Finally, looking at Zhou Xingchi's overall style in this movie, you will find that the role of Ling Lingqi has no exaggerated lines and actions, and even rarely shows a smile, his lines are one-sided, serious and indifferent, but he can tease the audience in one second, the characters in this state have surpassed the exaggerated performance of characters in ordinary nonsense comedy, and to the realm where the connotation is not exposed, it can be said that the role of Ling Lingqi has exceeded the setting of Zhou Xingchi's ordinary acting label
Followed by the appearance of the gold medal supporting role Da Vinci, there is a very interesting point is that in 1994, Zhou Xingchi and Wu Mengda have a good relationship, the cooperation between the two is in the honeymoon period, it is reasonable to say that the role of Da Vinci should be wu Mengda, but Zhou Xingchi still chose Luo Jiaying, the reason here is most likely Luo Jiaying's own personality, because da Vinci's role is the same as Ling Lingqi, old-fashioned, serious, cold and humorous, wu Mengda playing this role The contrast is too big
Da Vinci and Ling Lingqi in the movie are a perfect match, one is a butcher who sells meat, one is a vendor selling vegetables, the hidden identity of the two is also very interesting, a secret agent undercover, an invention expert, Da Vinci has invented countless "cutting-edge weapons" in the process of performing the mission, super spy chair, light flashlight and the most powerful "3000 to kill you", but unfortunately Zhou Xingchi has only used one in the whole mission, and he also hit his head and broke the blood, that is, the "box god"
In Luo Jiaying's film and television career, the two most famous roles are in Chow Sing Chi films, one is Da Vinci and the other is Tang Monk, the two roles have commonalities but are independent, and later Luo Jiaying entered the mainland with the popularity of these two roles, and became successful within a few years, and became one of the most well-known gold medal supporting roles in the mainland
It is worth mentioning that "Domestic Lingling Paint" also has great significance for Zhou Xingchi, because in this work, Zhou Xingchi is shooting as an actor and director for the first time, and many of the plots in the film are temporarily changed by Zhou Xingchi on the set, because the successful release of this film has given him the idea of setting up his own company to make movies
Later, Luo Jiaying commented on Zhou Xingchi: "The emergence of Zhou Xingchi is not accidental, but inevitable, because his talent will definitely succeed, "Journey to the West", "Tang Bohu Dian Qiu xiang" these works, it seems that others are directing, in fact, Zhou Xingchi alone on the set to direct, especially "domestic Lingling Paint", his creativity, with the god of film to describe it is not too much"
It's just a pity that there are often nonsense in the film industry, but it is difficult to see Zhou Xingchi's nonsense, and comedy works have changed year by year, but movies similar to "Domestic Lingling Paint" are basically extinct
What do you think about this?