At the beginning of 1980, Hong Kong Zhongyuan Film Company rushed to the mainland to shoot "Shaolin Temple", and the film received strong support from the mainland at that time, and was able to select professional martial arts champions from the national martial arts team to star in the film, including: Jet Li, who won the national martial arts championship for five consecutive years, Yu Chenghui, the drunken sword master, Yu Hai, the mantis boxing king, And Ji Chunhua, the eagle claw boxing master.
The huge "Shaolin Temple" was released two years later, and it is needless to say that the film successfully opened the boom of martial arts films in the mainland at that time, and major studios competed to shoot martial arts films and kung fu films, so that a special film and television star was born in that period: the film and martial arts double star.
As the name suggests, in addition to being screen stars, these actors also have martial arts masters with many years of martial arts literacy. Among them, the most representative is Jet Li, who is popular in "Shaolin Temple", and in the same period, zhao Changjun, Xu Xiangdong, Fan Dongyu, Wang Qun, Qiu Jianguo, etc., each of them has extraordinary skills and has played a piece of the sky on the mainland screen.
In the previous 1980s kung fu film review series, Miyingjun has reviewed the classic masterpieces of these martial arts actors separately, and in this issue, we will talk about a 1980s film and martial arts double star, known as "Two-Handed Sword Saint" Yu Chenghui.
He became famous for playing the role of Wang Renze, the main villain in "Shaolin Temple", he was the coach of the Ningxia Martial Arts Team at that time, a swordsmanship master, who won the name of martial arts champion many times with a set of drunken swords, and in the long-term practice of martial arts, he understood and completed the concept of the two-handed sword "Mantis Through the Forest" and created the Mantis Sword Method.
After "Shaolin Temple", the producer Yindu Pictures and the actors in the film signed a multi-year contract to shoot the same type of martial arts kung fu films in the mainland, so Yu Chenghui and Jet Li continued to cooperate in the two films "Shaolin Boy" and "North and South Shaolin".
In 1987, Zhang Xinyan, the director of "Shaolin Temple", conceived a martial arts film and decided to let Yu Chenghui, who has always starred as a villain supporting role, play the protagonist of "Reforming Evil and Returning to Righteousness". At that time, Yu Chenghui was 48 years old, and the investor originally did not agree to let him star, afraid of bad box office, but Zhang Xinyan tried to exclude public opinion and wanted to record his swordplay style with a movie.
The film was a huge success after its release, with 450 copies released, ranking first at the domestic box office in 1988.
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's relive a classic martial arts film from 37 years ago.
"The Yellow River Hero"
yellow river fighter
The film was released in 1988 and was co-produced by Zhongyuan Pictures and Western Film Studio.
Director Zhang Xinyan directed "Shaolin Kid" after "Shaolin Temple", and two Shaolin films were sold in succession, resulting in the collection of follow-up works at that time, and various Shaolin martial arts films were uneven, resulting in Shaolin martial arts films lasting only four or five years before fading.
Feeling that the popularity of the Shaolin theme has decreased, Zhang Xinyan decided to innovate and start filming "The Yellow River Hero".
Another director of the film is Zhang Zien, an old director of the Western Film Studio, who has a rich resume. In 1986, he wrote and directed the costume legend film "Divine Whip" based on Feng Jicai's novel, which was a great success, and for young audiences, it is more familiar to a series of costume dramas filmed by director Zhang Zien, such as "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", "Kangxi Micro Service Private Interview", "On the Wrong Flower Car Marrying Lang", etc., these episodes have long become childhood dramas in the hearts of a generation of audiences.
In addition to starring Yu Chenghui, there are also martial arts masters such as "Condor" Ji Chunhua, Yu Hai, Sun Jiankui, and other martial arts masters, as well as the ghost foot Seven Bear Xinxin, who starred in "North and South Shaolin", all of which have appeared in the film.
As for one of the main actors, Chun Yu Shanshan, she was originally a dancer and was the successor of Jet Li, who was the director of Zhang Xinyan. The role of Che Tian, a jianghu artist in "The Hero of the Yellow River", was originally intended to be played by Li Lianxing, but at this time Jet Li had become popular all over the country because of "Shaolin Temple", and the film contracts continued, and there was no time to star. As a last resort, Zhang Xinyan had to choose another protagonist.
It happened that Jet Li and his ex-wife Huang Qiuyan went to Shenzhen to develop, founded a martial arts culture company, and organized a martial arts group performance called "Shenzhou Wu soul". Chun Yu Shanshan is one of the actors of this song and dance performance, handsome appearance coupled with solid dance skills, was selected by director Zhang Xinyan to star in the movie "Yellow River Hero", and then jumped into the film and television circle.
Speaking of the story, the film takes place in the chaotic world of the late Tang Dynasty and the division of the king of the domain.
At that time, the imperial court was dim and unable to govern the various feudal towns, and in the northwestern Yellow River Valley, there were three forces such as Duan Wang, Liu Wang, and Li Wang, who attacked each other, all trying to eliminate the other two forces and dominate the world, resulting in years of local wars and people's livelihood.
In the winter of that year, Duan Wangfu was captured by the hostile Liu Wang's army, and Duan Wang's army was defeated, so he abandoned the palace and fled, and Liu Wang led his men and horses to pursue him closely behind, and the two sides fought all the way to the edge of the frozen Yellow River. Duan Wang, who was covered in wounds, was about to die soon, and at the critical moment, he was actually saved by a mysterious sword master.
This master held a sword in both hands, and the sword technique was profound, and he fought with the Liu King, and with his clever sword skills, he repelled the Liu King. The saved Duan Wang thanked the master who drew his sword to help him, and asked for the name of the hero, and had the heart to accept it for his own use. However, the hero has always been high and cold, and the other party put on the bucket and turned to the horse and left.
This great hero with extraordinary swordsmanship is the male protagonist Ma Yi, who has been practicing swordplay since he was a child, in order to seek a breakthrough in martial arts, so he has been practicing swords in the mountains for many years, and now he has achieved success in the mountains. He was about to go home to visit his wife and children who had been separated for a long time, but he did not expect that the road was uneven and so he came out with a sword to help, but he did not want to get involved in these political battles, so he left alone after saving people.
The scene of Ma Yi fighting with his sword to save people was seen by King Li, who was watching the fire from the other side, and he was immediately angry. On the other hand, King Liu was defeated at the hands of Ma Yi, which made his heart fiercely determined to take revenge, so he led his troops to wash Ma Yi's hometown in blood, and Ma Yi's wife and daughter also died tragically under the sword of King Liu, and the deep hatred in the blood sea was formed.
Although Ma Yi was strong in swordplay, he had limited manpower and could not save the lives of his wife and daughter. Since the tragic death of his family, Ma Yi has spent all day drinking to dispel his sorrows, living in pain and sorrow, lingering in the liquor stores in the market.
On this day, Ma Yi was borrowing wine to dispel his sorrows, but accidentally met Che Tian, a jianghu artist who made a living by playing with flower drums. When he saw that Ma Yi was strong in martial arts, he tried his best to please him, and used Ma Yi's "drunken sword" to set up a show to sell his art, and everywhere he went, he was applauded by the audience, and the two gradually became partners in walking the rivers and lakes.
However, the two walked in the downtown area with such a high profile, which naturally attracted the attention of the enemy family.
The ambitious King Li coveted Ma Yi's Gaishi martial arts and sent people to persuade him to fail, so he secretly designed and mixed poison in the wine to mutilate Ma Yi's eyes. Ma Yi mistakenly believes that his poisoning is Che Tian's manipulation in the drink, and he loses his mind blindly and chases Che Tian to the yellow river beachhead.
Ma Yi was unconscious because of poisoning, and eventually fell into the rolling Yellow River water, fortunately Che Tian desperately saved each other, and the two turned enemies into friends. Just at this time, King Duan, who had been saved by Ma Yi, sent troops to welcome Ma Yi into the palace, and Che Tian also went with him and enshrined him as a guest.
Duan Wang was surprised to see Ma Yi blind, but Ma Yi said that although he could not see it now, it did not affect the sword technique at all, so he let Che Tian hang candles on his body, closed the doors and windows in the room, and hit the candle on Che Tian's body with his sword in the dark, duan Wang believed that although Ma Yi was blind, his sword technique was still magical.
King Duan had the intention of recruiting Ma Yi, so he treated Ma Yi and the two as "engongs", rewarded many gold and silver maids, and entrusted them with heavy responsibilities to make them his personal bodyguards. Later, King Duan took Ma Yi to the temple to sacrifice, but was assassinated by the Assassins, but fortunately Ma Yi intervened, and eventually killed several Assassins.
The Assassin's confession was directed by King Liu, and Ma Yi, feeling king Duan's kindness, and the death of his wife and daughter at the hands of King Liu, decided to get rid of King Liu. Then it was decided to take Che Tian with him to the Liu King's City to submit the battle book, and the two sides of the new hatred and the old hatred agreed to fight to the death.
King Liu was narrow-minded, and he was unwilling to let Ma Yi leave, so he decided to take the opportunity to get rid of the blind Ma Yi, so he began to fight in the city. Fortunately, Che Tian carried firecrackers with him, and by creating chaos, he was able to successfully escape from the city, and after several bloody battles between the two sides, King Liu finally died at the hands of Ma Yi.
King Duan had one less political enemy, so he rewarded Ma Yi with a kendo hall, and Ma Yi decided to recruit disciples and teach sword skills. On the day of the opening of the kendo hall, a young man with cockfighting eyes expressed his displeasure with Ma Yi, a blind swordsmanship master, so he took to the stage to compete, and was finally convinced by Ma Yi's lessons, and Ma Yi became a well-known local swordsmanship master.
One day, when Ma Yi was out, he was besieged by a group of masked robbers who besieged a young woman. Remembering the tragedy of his wife and daughter being killed, Ma Yi angrily came to his aid, and finally saved the woman and took her back to the Kendo Hall for temporary residence. The woman felt Ma Yi's righteousness and sincerity, so she told her identity, it was Actually The Daughter of King Li Zhenzhen, and the two gradually developed a good feeling.
After that, Ma Yi decided to escort Zhenzhen back to King Li's domain, and when King Duan learned of this, he said that he wanted Ma Yi to take the opportunity to escort King Li's daughter and take the opportunity to repair relations with King Li and restore peace on both sides of the Yellow River.
However, when Ma Yi led the team to Li Wangcheng, Li Wang opened the palanquin and looked at it, and suddenly found that there was only one female corpse inside, and it was the real appearance of the clothes. King Li believed that King Duan had killed his daughter, so he blamed Ma Yi and ordered his men to hunt down Ma Yi, and the two sides began to fight.
Ma Yi resisted and fought with King Li, but because King Li was fatal, Ma Yi killed King Li in order to protect himself, but he did not expect to be rushed to see this scene by Zhenzhen. It turned out that all this was the conspiracy of the black and vicious Duan Wang!
On the surface, King Duan pretended to be worried about the country and the people, and pretended to be benevolent and righteous, but in fact he was ambitious and wanted to unify the two banks of the Yellow River. He knew that Ma Yi was loyal and righteous, so he deliberately pretended to be righteous and awe-inspiring to recruit Ma Yi and make him use it for himself. Later, he used the fake corpse to pretend to be the real one, so as to provoke King Li, and finally used Ma Yi's hand to get rid of King Li again, so that he could dominate the world.
Ma Yi saw zhenzhen coming, and in guilt, he gave up resistance and was eventually captured by Duan Wang's soldiers. Duan Wang took the opportunity to turn his face and blamed all the charges on Ma Yi and Che Tian, and also handed them over to Zhenzhen for disposal. Unexpectedly, Zhenzhen had witnessed Ma Yi rescue people, and was convinced that he could not do this, so he released the two and let them go.
Unexpectedly, King Duan was unwilling to let Go of Ma Yi. At the critical moment, Zhenzhen escaped in order to cover Ma Yi, and was shot dead by Duan Wang's arrow, and Che Tian also died of serious injuries in the breakout. The fleeing Ma Yi came to the Miaofa Temple outside the nearby city, and was rescued by the abbot of the temple, escaping the pursuit of King Duan and healing his eyes.
When King Duan saw that the great trouble in his heart had been eliminated, he tore off his disguise and prepared for the king's landing. Ma Yi allowed the traitor to succeed, so he mobilized his own disciples and set up an ambush to attack him when he went to the monastery to make a wish, trapping him in the monastery.
The two sides engaged in a scuffle, and finally Ma Yi and Duan Wang fought a decisive battle on the banks of the Yellow River. Between life and death, Ma Yi killed King Duan with a sword. At this point, Ma Yi's wish had been fulfilled, so he wanted to take refuge in Buddhism, but the presiding master told him:
"There are many killings in the world, and we still need swordsmen to be flat."
After this, Ma Yidan rode a sword and walked away from the rivers and lakes to fight for righteousness, and he had the name of the Yellow River Hero.
This film was originally called "Blind Man", but because it was too similar to Japan's "Humpback City" series, and was renamed "Yellow River Hero" in the middle of the shooting, the film was filmed in the northwest Yellow River Basin, because of the strong support of the Western Film Studio, the film appeared in the domestic film at that time rare costume war scenes, the opening scene of the confrontation between the two armies was quite shocking in that era without special effects.
As a martial arts film, the film has a strong Western color like the later "Double Flag Town KnifeMan". The director places the story in the Gobi of the Yellow River in the northwest, and the long yellow sand of the northwest plateau can bring the film a grand momentum, and also add a sad and thick artistic conception to the background of the vendetta and conspiracy struggle in the film.
Unlike the kung fu boy comedy like "Shaolin Temple", the overall story atmosphere and pattern of "Yellow River Hero" are larger and more serious. The plot of the film is no longer a simple revenge to learn martial arts, but integrates the hatred of family and country, saving the country and saving the people, killing the rich and helping the poor, and the great righteousness of hegemony and liang, so that the film has an additional layer of edutainment and educational ideology in addition to the martial arts action elements of the sword and light sword shadow.
This can be seen from the ending song, the lyrics are written passionately, sadly and sadly, and full of home and country feelings:
Returning to the countryside, the people groaning bitterly,
Looking at the earth, the wanderer is terrified.
The scorched earth could not bear to look, and smoke and dust rose on both sides of the great river.
A cavity of blood spilled on the end of the world, the three-foot dragon spring hated unevenly,
How many bitter things in the world, when will we be able to achieve peace!
In addition to its ideological and production level, there is another reason for the success of "Yellow River Hero", which cannot be ignored, that is, the wonderful martial arts scenes and action design in the film. Different from Zhang Xinyan's previous works, the martial arts scenes in this film highlight the effect of actual combat and the style of traditional martial arts, although there is no lack of difficulties and tricks, but more simple and simple.
And what dominates all this is the starring Yu Chenghui's unique swordplay kung fu, who is both the main actor and the swordplay director of this film, so he can perfectly show his flowing and dashing magical swordplay in the film. As for the role, the image of the protagonist Ma Yi is almost tailor-made for Yu Chenghui, and his long sword and bucket shape and resolute and cold face are very in line with the image of the ranger in the novel.
In the following decades, Yu Chenghui participated in the creation and starred in many martial arts film and television dramas, and many of them appeared as the image of the peerless masters, such as "Smiling Proud of the Rivers and Lakes", Huang Laoevil in "Divine Eagle Hero" and Fu Qingjue in "Seven Swords Under the Heavenly Mountain", becoming a veritable martial arts master.
On July 4, 2015, Yu Chenghui passed away at the age of 76. Nowadays, although Old Master Yu has driven the crane to the west, the classic martial arts images he left on the screen are still fresh in people's memories, and he is willing to fight the sword all the way to the great hero and say goodbye to the rivers and lakes.