[Without Shi Banyu, Zhou Xingchi would not necessarily be on fire in the mainland; and without him, Shi Banyu would certainly be unknown to anyone]
In 1995, Stephen Chow's nonsensical comedy film "Journey to the West" was released in two episodes: "Moonlight Treasure Box" and "The Great Saint Marries Relatives". As a result, the box office of both films entered the top ten of Hong Kong's annual box office list, but they were not enough to add up to Jackie Chan's box office runner-up work "Thunderbolt Fire". In the mainland, it only achieved a box office of more than 200,000 yuan, and it was replaced by other domestic films within 2 days of release.
With the momentum of Chow Sing Chi's continuous sweep of the box office list in the early 90s, such box office results are very unsatisfactory, especially this is still the production of Chow Sing Chi Cai Xing Film Company.
However, what I did not expect was that 2 years later, these two "Journey to the West" were wildly circulated in various universities and networks in the mainland and quickly became popular. Then, "Journey to the West" became the most profound and thoroughly deconstructed work in Stephen Chow's films, and it was also the highest rated of all Stephen Chow films. Even more from the beginning of "Journey to the West", Zhou Xingchi was pushed to the altar by fans in the mainland and became the king of comedy.
Behind this, in addition to the "Journey to the West" movie itself, such as Chow Sing Chi's performance, Liu Zhenwei's screenwriter and director, there is another person who provides a huge thrust for Chow Sing Chi's canonization, he is Shi Banyu, who was later known as Chow Sing Chi's royal dubbing.
Because the soundtrack of Hong Kong movies is all Cantonese, except for parts of Guangdong and Guangxi, all other areas of Chinese mainland are non-Cantonese-speaking areas. Therefore, the Chinese version of "Journey to the West" dubbed by Shi Banyu is an absolute contributor to helping Zhou Xingchi gain most mainland film fans.
It can be said that Zhou Xingchi can have such an influence on the mainland, and Shi Banyu is greatly credited. But it certainly cannot be said that without Shi Banyu, Zhou Xingchi would not have been able to catch fire in the mainland; Zhou Xingchi became the king of comedy, and the most fundamental thing was to rely on his own strength.
[Audiences who generally understand Cantonese will choose the Cantonese soundtrack when watching Hong Kong films, and will never watch the dubbed version.] There are also many people who have learned Cantonese because they watched Hong Kong movies, but they can't say it. 】
On the contrary, there is a person who discovered Shi Banyu, which gave him the opportunity to dub Stephen Chow's films, and it was he who really achieved Shi Banyu. Without him, Shi Banyu would probably still be an obscure Taiwanese provincial voice actor. He is veteran filmmaker Zhang Haijing.
Hong Kong films represented by Stephen Chow and Stephen Chow have a wide audience on the mainland, but before 1995, the vast majority of mainland audiences watched through videotapes and VCD, and they were basically pirated. Because at that time, the mainland had not yet let go of the introduction of Hong Kong and Taiwan films.
At that time, Taiwan Province was the largest foreign port market and source of funds for Hong Kong films, so for the film market in Taiwan Province, Hong Kong films had to be equipped with a Chinese version.
The most famous example is "Gambler 2 on the Beach Gambling Saint", we see the version starring Stephen Chow and Gong Li; but because Gong Li is a mainland film queen, so for the Taiwan market, another Taiwanese provincial actor Fang Jiwei was found, and a version was filmed in Taiwan Province.
An earlier example is that the "Run to the Fury Sea" was going to be filmed in Hainan; Chow Yun-fat gave up acting for the Taiwan provincial market, but he also made Andy Lau, because at that time he did not have a Taiwan provincial market to lose. In 1983, Andy Lau's classmate Leung Ka Fai became the youngest film emperor in the history of the Academy Awards with "Hanging curtains and listening to the government". However, because "Hanging curtains and listening to the government" was filmed in Beijing, it was banned by taiwanese film dealers and reduced to a stall.
[However, earlier, back to the early days of Shaw's films, the older generation of Hong Kong filmmakers all came south from Shanghai, when all Hong Kong films spoke Chinese, and then slowly switched to Cantonese originals.] 】
Zhang Haijing is a native of Taiwan Province, and his father, Zhang Zizhu, was a famous politician in Taiwan and one of the founders of the Chinese Youth Party. In the late 1970s, after obtaining a master's degree in film and television communication from Los Angeles, Zhang Returned to Taiwan Province to work as an editor and producer at China Television.
During his work at Taiwan's Huashi Television, Zhang Haijing accumulated rich experience in film and television production and discovered many TV stars. At that time, it was the heyday of Hong Kong cinema, and the influence of Hong Kong films covered all of Southeast Asia, so Zhang Haijing gradually transformed into a film direction.
At that time, the communication and cooperation between Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers was very frequent and close, and many Taiwanese film superstars achieved success in Hong Kong, such as Zhang Aijialin Qingxia and so on. There are also many Hong Kong filmmakers who have opened up markets in Taiwan, such as Hu Jinquan, Hong Jinbao, Tsang Chi Wai and so on.
In the late 1980s, Xiang Huaqiang founded Yongsheng Film to Huasheng Brothers, at which time Zhang Haijing brought funds into the shares, became an important partner of Xiang Brothers, and participated in the preparation and production of many films. Later, Yongsheng changed its name to Yongsheng Film, zhang Haijing served as the general manager, supervised the production of many movies, and also discovered many movie stars. Because Zhang Haijing is a Taiwanese, he is more responsible for the development of the market in Taiwan Province.
In 1990, Stephen Chow became popular with a nonsense comedy "Gamble Saint", and the powerful Yongsheng quickly signed Stephen Chow to his banner. Then let Stephen Chow and Andy Lau collaborate on a sequel to "God of Gamblers", and at the same time it is a sequel to "Gamblers".
Zhang Haijing was responsible for the post-production of "The Gambler", including the selection of Chinese voice of Stephen Chow for the Taiwanese version, and finally the selection of Shi Banyu, who had never played the main character before. [Positive idols like Andy Lau have long had voice actors with thick voices, but no one knows them.] 】
【Shi Banyu】Born in 1961 in Taiwan Province, his ancestral home is Guilin, Guangxi, shih benefactor hosted variety shows on Taiwan Provincial Radio in his early years, starred in radio dramas, and entered the dubbing industry in the mid-1980s.
However, Shi Banyu's voice is too sharp and thick enough to dub the general positive characters, which are not reused in the dubbing industry, and are more small roles with some eunuchs and cannot be the protagonists. Until 1990, Shi Banyu met Zhang Haijing and made him the special voice of Zhou Xingchi in "Gambler".
Stephen Chow's comedy films are nonsensical style, the performance is very exaggerated and anti-traditional, and Shi Banyu can grasp the rhythm and evidence of Stephen Chow's language very well, and exert the exaggeration to the extreme.
Since "The Gambler", all the Chinese dubbing of Chow Sing Chi films have been handed over to Shi Banyu, allowing him to obtain the title of Chow Sing Chi's royal dubbing.
Then, with the wide spread of Stephen Chow's films, Shi Banyu became the most well-known hall-level dubbing superstar in the three places across the Taiwan Straits. Shi Banyu's achievements are inseparable from Zhang Haijing's insight into pearls.