Jin Yong has a beautiful and immortal strange woman named Wang Yuyan, although she has no power to bind the chicken, she is familiar with the martial arts secrets of various schools, and she is familiar with all kinds of martial arts moves and movements.
In the film industry, there is also such a group of behind-the-scenes heroes, but most of them are the "big masters" who have really practiced their families, because of their existence, we can see so many wonderful action scenes on the big screen. This group of people is called "action coaching".
In fact, "action directing" has its own particularity, which can be said to be a special kind of work created by early Hong Kong films. In the 1970s and 1980s, when kung fu movies flourished, most of these people entered the industry as "dragon and tiger martial artists", served as stand-ins and ran through dragon suits; slowly, some people with relative talent and qualifications changed from martial artists to "action directors" (mostly used in action movies and police films), and some were called "martial arts directors" (mostly used in kung fu films and costume films), and their main task was to design martial arts actions for actors in combination with the plot.
Later, some movies will also give the big-name action directors the name of "action directors", and their tasks include the scheduling of all action scenes, the design of the camera language, and the post-editing of the action scenes in addition to the design of the action. But most of the time, there is no particularly clear definition of the functions and powers between action directors and action directors (this article is based on the general term of action directors), and with the development of the mainland film market, they have gradually spread to the entire Chinese-speaking circle.
Overall, this is a group of people who have really struggled in the film industry, even fighting for their lives, and have also created many classic screen clips. Even if you don't often watch such films, you will most likely have heard of kung fu masters such as "Foshan Shadowless Legs", "Rulai Divine Palm", and "Iron Head Gong".
However, with the gradual decline of traditional kung fu films and martial arts films, the expansion of the connotation of action movies, and the fact that many action directors have grown older for many years, the overall situation of action directors is also facing greater external challenges.
Here, the film sir sorted out 100 action directors behind Chinese films. Combing through the sequence of their works and analyzing their backs, we can see the rise and fall of traditional Chinese kung fu movies along the way.
remark:
1. The action instructions in the table are arranged according to the first letter of the last name;
2. The action director list has a comprehensive box office of more than 100 million domestic movies and Douban Chinese movies TOP100 income, and at least one or more of the movies;
3. Deceased action directors such as Liu Jialiang, Lin Zhengying, And Ling Zhihua are not included; filmmakers with multiple identities such as Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, Tang Jili, Zhen Zidan, Xu Haofeng, etc. are included;
4. Data sources such as Maoyan Professional Edition, movie subtitles and other public channels, if there is any omission, welcome to correct
The skills are derived from peking opera, and the inheritance of masters and apprentices has formed a major team
Compared with other behind-the-scenes jobs in the film industry, action directing has two more distinctive characteristics, that is, the skills are derived from Peking Opera performances, and at the same time, there is a strong inheritance of master and apprentice.
Just as there are factions in martial arts in the world, there are certain categories of action instruction. But if you want to trace the source, in addition to coming from a kung fu family like the deceased Liu Jialiang , his father Liu Zhan is a disciple of Huang Feihong's apprentice Lin Shirong, that is, Hong Quan, and most of the action directors who are active in the film and television circle have studied drama in the early days, singing and sitting, opera juggling, and have a deep foundation in opera performance.
Yuan Heping ,the famous martial arts instructor Yuan Heping (the masterpiece "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), who is now revered by insiders as the "Eight Masters", his father Yuan Xiaotian was a Peking Opera actor, Yuan Heping was taught by him since he was a child, plus he also studied under another Peking Opera master, Yu Zhanyuan, and practiced a basic skill.
▲ Action guide Yuan Heping
From his first action director in 1970 to his first film "Snake-shaped Diao Hand" in 1978, when he also directed and also served as an action director, and later "Drunken Fist", the success of Yuan Heping's action direction was also recognized, and led by yuan brothers such as Yuan Xiangren (the representative work "Qimen Dunjia") and Yuan Xinyi (the representative work "Yangtze River Seven") formed the "Yuan Family Class".
Zhen Zidan (masterpiece "Kill the Wolf, Greedy Wolf") was also a member of Yuan Jiaban in the early days, from the end of the 1990s, he formed his own team, until 2003's "Thousand Chances Change", "Zhen JiaBan" began to take shape, members include Kenji Tanigaki (representative work "Catch the Demon 2"), Yan Hua (representative work "Wandering Earth"), Yu Kang (representative work "Chasing Dragons"), Zhuang Yuanzhang (representative work "Crazy Aliens") and so on.
▲ Donnie Yen and Kenji Tanigaki
Yu Zhanyuan also has another group of very famous apprentices, the "Seven Little Blessings", the main members are Yuan Long (Hong Jinbao, representative work "Ip Man"), Yuan Lou (Jackie Chan, representative work "Kung Fu Yoga"), Yuan Kui (representative work "New Shaolin Temple"), Yuan De (representative work "Journey to the West").
Among them, Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan have the most outstanding achievements in action guidance, and the two are also rare all-round players. After the "Seven Little Blessings" entered the film circle to make a living, Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan successively formed the Hong family class and the family class.
Such as Chen Dongtai (representative work "The King of New Comedy"), Guo Yong (representative work "Journey to the West Daughter Country"), Huang Mingjian (representative work "Chasing the Dragon 2"), Han Ping (representative work "Sweeping Drugs 2"), Lan Haihan (representative work "Dragon Gate Flying Armor"), Wei Yuhai (representative work "Dangerous City"), Qian Jiale (representative work "Apostle Walkers" series) and other people have all been members of the Hongjia class.
▲ Hong Jinbao, Jackie Chan, Yuan Biao
Among them, Qian Jiale has grown into the backbone of Hong Kong's new generation of action directors, and he has also formed his own "Qian Jia Class" to design thrilling action scenes for many Hong Kong films such as "Cold War" and "Apostle Believer".
For example, Huang Weiliang (representative work "Wolf Warrior 2"), Han Guanhua (representative work "Animal World"), He Jun (representative work "Evil Does Not Pressure Justice"), Li Zhongzhi (representative work "Wolf Warrior"), Tang Jili (representative work "Kung Fu Yoga"), Wu Gang (representative work "Detective Chinatown" series), Wu Yonglun (representative work "Climber"), Yi Tianxiong (representative work "Poison War"), etc. are members of the family class at different times.
If the above action guidance can be traced back to the Master inherited from the ZhanYuan school, then Cheng Xiaodong (the masterpiece "Hero"), who has a very different style, is the Master inheriting the Tang Di school. In addition to being influenced by his father, Cheng Xiaodong also studied drama at the Oriental Drama Academy founded by Tang Di, and was talented and established his own style very early. For example, Pan Jianjun (representative work "Ferryman"), Xu Zhongxin (representative work "Qiannu Ghost") and others have also worshiped Tang Di as a teacher.
▲ Cheng Xiaodong was on the shooting scene of "Xue Xian"
As one of the top hills in the field of hong Kong action guidance, Cheng Xiaodong has also promoted many "descendants", such as Yuan Bin (masterpiece "Wisdom to Conquer the Tiger Mountain"), Lin Di'an (masterpiece "Bomb Disposal Expert"), Ma Yucheng (masterpiece "Fengyun 2"), Li Cai (masterpiece "Wulin Waichuan"), etc. have all followed the process Xiaodong around, and then they have their own teachers.
Dong Wei, who served as the action director of "Mekong Action", is another famous Peking Opera actor Fan Juhua, who has long been famous for his rich experience in the industry.
Overall, it is not difficult to find from the table that these action directors, who have been immersed in the skills of pear garden and grew up in Hong Kong, have almost won most of the high-grossing or high-reputation Chinese films, and it is they who have introduced this skill to the mainland, indirectly cultivating most of the mainland action guidance talents.
For example, Sang Lin, who has received attention with the "Embroidered Spring Knife" series, has studied with YuanKui for ten years; Liu Mingzhe, who is one of the action directors of "My Motherland and Me", was once Dong Wei's assistant; Zhuang Yuanzhang, a member of the Zhen family class mentioned above, graduated from Shandong Sport University; Li Cai, who once followed Cheng Xiaodong, is also a popular action director in mainland film and television dramas today.
▲ Sanglin was filming at "Embroidery Spring Knife 2"
In addition, there are actually many action directors from South Korea. Park Ju-tin (masterpiece "Assemblage"), who has cooperated with Feng Xiaogang for many times, Liang Jiyong and Shen Jae-won, who served as the action directors of many films such as "Finding the Dragon", "The Great Golden Robbery", Lu Nanxi, the action director of "A Good Drama", and Yoon Dae-won, who passed by "From Your World", are all from South Korea.
However, on the whole, in view of the special era of the birth of the action guidance profession, the action guidance from Hong Kong is still the majority, and the Yuan family class, the Hong family class, the Cheng family class, the Zhen family class, and the Qian family class are the mainstay.
The biggest challenge is how to innovate
The existence of action guidance is not only for kung fu films, action movies and other films that require a lot of action scenes, even if it is a general drama film, it actually needs action guidance, as Luo Yimin, who has participated in films such as "Flying Life" and "Return to 20 Years Old", said, "Some scene action guidance participation will present the audience with a real and beautiful picture." ”
Of course, as an action director, it is basic to design a set of extremely explosive and ornamental actions for the film. Some of the early immature action guidance will inevitably flow into routine design, and the moves of one board and one glance are easy to make the audience have aesthetic fatigue, and in the process of accumulating month by year, slowly, everyone has gradually formed different styles.
For example, the martial arts actions designed by Yuan Heping are often fast, accurate and fierce, known for their "realism", focusing on the dismantling of moves; Cheng Xiaodong belongs to the romantic school, and his designed actions are more dashing and freehand; Jackie Chan's actions are more comedic, often with the help of props and scenes, taking the road of adventure stunts.
▲ Jackie Chan's "Secret Agent Maze" stills
So much so that some netizens have summarized the characteristics of several famous domestic action guides with "East Evil Cheng Xiaodong, good at flying in the sky with Weiya; Western Poison Hong Jinbao, who specializes in sharp and bright; Southern Emperor Jackie Chan, specializing in thrilling and humorous; Liu Jialiang, who is focused on realism and toughness; and Yuan Heping, who is characterized by rigidity and softness".
However, just as the world's martial arts are unfathomable, the style of action guidance cannot be summarized in a simple sentence or two. After all, no matter how prominent the style is, as one of the behind-the-scenes work of a movie, the action director still has to follow the director's advice, and use the script and actors as the starting point to design the action, in this regard, even the most big-name action director must be "soft" to a certain extent.
That's why we've always heard that a movie changes its action direction several times during the filming process, which may not be the difference between the levels of action direction, but it depends on whether it meets the needs of the director at that time based on the film.
▲ Action director Dong Wei
When Chen Kaige filmed "Wuji", the initial action director was Lin Dian, and then replaced by Dong Wei because of his "inability to keep up with the director's imagination"; and Dong Wei was also replaced for similar reasons when designing actions for Zhang Yimou's "Hero", and Cheng Xiaodong took over.
A more widely known example is when Stephen Chow filmed Kung Fu, the initial action direction was Hong Jinbao, and then replaced by Yuan Heping. In fact, the level between them has its own advantages, but Zhou Xingchi's needs are different. Facts have proved that after the release of "Kung Fu", some people were amazed by the bridge section of the three masters of the night attack (designed by Hong Jinbao), and some people could not forget the amazement of Rulai Divine Palm and Toad Gong (designed by Yuan Heping).
▲ Stills of "Kung Fu"
Of course, the communication between the action director and the film director is actually a process of mutual compromise. An important responsibility of them is to remind the director, as Dong Wei said in the master class of the Golden Horse Film Festival, "The director can be imaginative, I as an assistant director have to face the possibility of actual operation, and sometimes I have to remind the director that such a shooting method may lead to no money in the next scene, or try to do 80% of the time can not meet this idea, hard shooting will lead to the back of the scene is not good, both ends can not be on the shore." ”
At the same time, another of their responsibilities is to ensure the safety of the actors and the crew on the spot. Because of this, they often need to combine the scene environment and the actor's own conditions to design reasonable and beautiful actions, and cannot blindly pursue stimulation and abandon the principle of safety.
As an action director, the biggest challenge in his work is actually to innovate the action. Especially when facing actors who are also kung fu masters, it is often necessary to design better, more novel, and more special actions to meet their needs. In the words of Yuan Heping, who once racked his brains for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, "How can a person, two arms, two hands and two legs still fight?" Think of new tricks all day. ”
▲ Stills of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
It is precisely for this reason that when we lament the martial arts scenes on the big screen that make us adrenaline soar, in addition to the superb performances of the actors, it is actually the painstaking efforts behind the action directors, and it is also their tacit cooperation with the directors, producers, photography, art and other departments, so that there are those wonderful moments.
Industry Status:
Traditional kung fu films have declined, been affected by CG, and are not connected
It can be said that from the rise of Shaw's martial arts films in the 1960s and 1970s, to Bruce Lee's promotion of Hong Kong kung fu films, after which Jackie Chan became a representative of a new generation of action films with kung fu comedies, until "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and then a new round of costume martial arts films emerged, in the past 30 or 40 years, this type of film with kung fu and movement as the main form of performance has become a unique existence on the big screen.
As an indispensable action director behind these films, he once had a higher status and treatment in the industry. Cheng Xiaodong once mentioned that when he first did directing the film "Life and Death" in the 1980s, "the director fee is only a little more than 20,000, the salary of doing martial arts instruction is about 80,000, and the value of martial arts guidance is greater than the value of my director." ”
Even Qian Jiale, who joined the Hongjia class as the youngest member as a martial artist, said in an interview that Hong Jinbao gave him a basic salary of 15,000 Hong Kong dollars per month, "Even if he only plays for one day in January, or is injured and cannot start work, 15,000 can not be wrong." "It was quite good working conditions at the time.
▲ Action director Qian Jiale
And they can not only get preferential treatment at home, but also have the respect and recognition of foreign counterparts. For example, Yuan Heping was invited to serve as the action director of the "Matrix" series, "Kill Bill" and other films, Yuan Kui also participated in "X-Men" and "Extraordinary Human Traffickers" as an action director, and Luo Lixian, known as the "King of Asian Stunts" (the masterpiece "Burning Heart"), participated in the filming of "Transformers 4" and "Mission Impossible 3" and other films.
It is not difficult to find that in the heyday of kung fu films and action movies, this group of action directors from Hong Kong not only influenced the entire Chinese-speaking circle, but also indirectly shared this work concept with foreign colleagues. However, since then, as the Hong Kong film market has gradually shrunk, the mainland film market has further expanded, and other genres of films have occupied the market, and traditional kung fu films have slowly embarked on a decline.
As a result, the situation of the action directors has become more uncertain. In addition, with the continuous development of technology, CG should be more and more extensive in the film and television industry today, and many times, in order to save shooting time, some shots are completely handed over to post-processing.
▲ Action director Luo Lixian
However, for some films to rely on special effects, such as Luo Lixian does not agree: "Smoke floats on people, fire burns on people, these computers can not do it, even if they are made, it is too expensive, money is wasted, it is not real." After we grasped the accuracy, we shot it in two hours, real people shooting, real scenes. ”
In general, whether it is special effects or live-action depends on the overall budget of a crew and the director's ideas. But it has to be said that the development of these technologies does have a certain degree of impact on the action guidance.
In addition to the stimulation and change of the external environment, in fact, the internal movement guidance is also changing. Most of the older generation of action directors were born in the 1950s and 1960s, and yuan heping, who was born in the 1940s, is 75 years old this year. In the field of action guidance, from martial arts to action coaching, it takes several years to train a new person to come out, and it also needs enough opportunities to give them exercise.
▲The celebration of the 40th anniversary of the family class
In addition, relatively speaking, engaging in this profession requires the belief that you can bear hardships and even not be afraid of death. Most of them started as martial artists, and for them, it is common for them to be injured in filming and mentally stressful. The sudden death of Ling Zhihua, who served as an action director for films such as "Red Sea Action" and "Guild Wars" last year, not only made everyone stunned, but also sounded the alarm for everyone's health problems.
With all these factors superimposed, there may be fewer young people who are really interested in this profession today than in the past. In order to cultivate new people in action, Qian Jiale, who founded the "action actor training class", once said bluntly that even newcomers are "in their thirties." "It's not the same as the situation they were in.
Of course, the environment is changing, and the people in the bureau must also change to adapt to the environment. Although from the current market point of view, there are few traditional kung fu films, but the combination of other types of films such as comedy elements, suspense elements of action films can still get good market feedback, there are also character biopics like "Ip Man" are sought after.
As a result, the action directors have a new place to play. For example, the fragments of the downtown chase and the big police station designed by Wu Gang in "Detective Chinatown" not only fit the plot of the film, but also allow the audience to see a little bit of the shadow of Jackie Chan's play, and the inheritance of skills is reproduced on the big screen in this way, which is also a good story.
▲ Action director Wu Gang
All in all, from the perspective of the audience, "action drama", which can bring a pleasant viewing experience, will still win the hearts of the people, but it depends on how to play. In addition, there are many action directors who either become actors or transform into directors. Regardless of the actual combat results, for them, this is also an additional employment option.
Looking at the Chinese film market, there are still many filmmakers who love traditional kung fu movies and action movies. Stephen Chow is actually a director with a kung fu background, Lin Chaoxian also personally designed the action for "Red Sea Operation" and "Emergency Rescue", and there are directors in the mainland who are committed to promoting new martial arts films like Xu Haofeng.
Behind the scenes, there are still a group of martial artists and action directors who love movies, many of whom may not have had the opportunity to participate in large-scale films until now, and may not have been adequately protected in terms of personal insurance, crew welfare, etc., but still silently stick to the industry, for several years or even more than ten years, only hoping to get what they want.
I think it is the existence of this group of people that has formed a bloody Chinese film light and shadow atlas. We also hope that in the near future, we will be able to see more amazing play clips on the big screen.