When I was a child, I was very curious about why zombies were wearing Qing Dynasty official uniform . Later, when I grew up and looked up the information, I realized that they were wearing not official uniforms, but Chinese shrouds that were very popular during the Republic of China period. Dead people wore this kind of clothes when they were buried.
Therefore, when Li Amao and zombies were filmed in the 1940s, the zombies in the film naturally wore the Chinese shrouds that were popular at that time. In the following decades, this theme has not been developed, but has only appeared occasionally in horror movies, such as Sammo Hung 's ghost fighting ghosts. Zombies are just one of many horror elements and are not the theme of the film. Later, when people were scared and everyone was in a dilemma, this element was kicked out directly. As the box office of several sequels fell one step at a time, Sammo Hung gave up this theme. However, Liu Guangwei, a photographer who beats ghosts, has a new idea about this subject, because the elder in his family is Maoshan Taoist priest , so he has liked this kind of strange stories since he was a child, so it is the memory of his childhood. He invited three screenwriters, Huang Bingyao, , Situ Zhuohan, , and Huang Yan, to write the script of Mr. Zombie, and then found his elder brother Sammo Hung, saying that he wanted to shoot it. Sammo Hung liked to promote his brothers, but when he saw that Liu Guangwei's script was pretty good, he directly invested in him and started the filming.
The scheduled investment at that time was 4.5 million, but Liu Guangwei had only shot two films before, and his own experience was not very good, so he overspent one after another, and finally spent 8.5 million to shoot the film. According to Sammo Hung's original idea, the man who earned less than 7 million yuan, and this film could not exceed this number method. It seems inevitable to lose money. Liu Guangwei was even a little discouraged and began to think about going back to continue working as a photographer. However, the result after the film was released was much beyond their expectations. The film not only won HK$20 million in Hong Kong, ranking among the top five in the year, but also won NT$20 million in html NT$1 in in Taiwan. The Southeast Asia and Japan and South Korea markets achieved good results, which gave Jiahe Movie an unexpected revenue that year.
Of course, the main reason why this film can be sold well is because of the quality of the film. Liu Guangwei borrowed the setting of becoming a zombie after being bitten in Western zombie movies, and then added Maoshan spells, such as glutinous rice ink line, peach wood sword , yellow paper talisman, etc., all of which were integrated into the movie. In addition, Chinese folklore legends were also brought into the movie, and the audience was introduced to the origin of the zombies through the mouth of Uncle Jiu.
This film also created a setting that pauses breathing and zombies cannot see it, which has affected countless zombie movies in later generations. Therefore, the name of the Taiwanese version of the movie was changed to temporarily stop breathing. Relying on this setting, the screenwriter cleverly designed various scenes, which are both nervous and funny. I believe that many people would hold their breath with the characters in the movie when they watched this movie when they were young and experience the dangerous feeling in person.
In addition to excellent scripts, Lin Zhengying's wonderful performance in is also an important reason for the success of the film. He is the top martial arts coach in Hong Kong and has learned good skills, so he has outstanding image and temperament. It is perfect to play the role of Uncle Jiu, a majestic Taoist priest of Maoshan. His serious expression was paired with a single-faced eyebrows, holding a peach wood sword, wearing an Taoist priest uniform, and he painted talismans and chanted spells with seriousness. No matter what kind of horror situation, as long as he appeared, he would be full of security.
In addition to Lin Zhengying, the other actors are also very distinctive. Li Saifeng is pure and cute, adding a lot of color to the film. Wang Xiaofeng is charming and charming, with the charm of a Chinese Studio. With the combination of those ghost brides, the audience will never forget it once they watch it. There is also Qian Xiaohao and Xu Guanying make jokes in the film, frequently creating jokes, and complementing Lin Zhengying's seriousness.Therefore, at the Academy Awards award ceremony in the second year, Xu Guanying was nominated for the best supporting actor, but he was naturally the leading actor in the film, so he refused the invitation to nominate and became the first person in the history of the Academy Awards to refuse the nomination. In fact, it’s hard to say who the protagonist of this film is, after all, Lin Zhengying was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor at that Film Awards.
Although Hong Kong is a developed city, people generally believe in the theory of ghosts and gods. There are many mysterious words derived from this movie. For example, Huang Bingyao, one of the screenwriters who claimed to have died of a deadly scissors' feet, died suddenly due to a heart attack, and another screenwriter Huang Ying was beaten to death by a creditor at home. There is also the ninth uncle Lin Zhengying died suddenly at the age of 45. Although Xu Guanying died at the age of 60, the date of his death was November 8, which was Lin Zhengying's death day. This coincidence is inevitable that people will make people guess. But compared to these ghosts and gods, Hong Kong people still love money. After seeing Mr. Zombie making a big splash, countless filmmakers entered this field and followed the trend to shoot such movies. In the years that followed, countless zombies jumping around in the suburbs of Hong Kong at night and the cameras following them.
It can be said that Mr. Zombie has driven the prosperity and development of a sub-genre film with his own strength. It is reasonable for me to lose to the film in Xincheng. After talking about this, I seem to have been talking about Jiahe and Xinyicheng without Shaw Brothers . In fact, the biggest thing in 1985 was not Sammo Hung's Five Fortune Stars, nor was it the police story of Jackie Chan , nor was it the Liu Guanwei , Lam Zhengying's zombie, but Shaw Brothers movies that have dominated the Hong Kong film industry for decades, and were announced to be closed and suspended in this year. It has been more than a hundred years since I watched Chinese movies. If you ask which family has the greatest impact on this industry, it must be the Shaw family. As early as 1925, the eldest son of Shaw Brothers, Shao Zuiweng, led the second son of Shao Village, the third son of Shao Renmei, and the sixth son of the sixth son of Shaw, who had just turned 18, established Tianyi Film Company in Shanghai.
But compared with his peers at that time, the style and creative concepts were greatly damaged. Run Run Shaw had to follow his third brother Shao Renmei to go to Nanyang to develop his film business. In 1930, the Shaw Brothers Company was officially established. Shao Zuiweng also took his second brother Shao Village to Hong Kong to develop a few years later. Although Nanyang's business is booming, the business led by Shaocun people has stopped moving forward. The Shaw Family and Son Film Company, which he established with his son, has no sense of existence in Hong Kong at that time. Therefore, in the mid-1950s, Run Run Shaw and his third brother, Shao Renmei, came to Hong Kong and accepted the production business of Shaw's father and son. In 1958, Run Shaw's Hong Kong Brothers Film Company was established, with Run Shaw in charge of the election. In the following decades, Shaw Brothers Film built a studio and established acquiring cinemas, forming a large-scale assembly line model of self-produced and self-selling. The company's directors, actors, screenwriters, art and other positions at its peak have reached more than 2,000, and has launched countless superstars in the film industry. Big directors such as Li Hanxiang , Chu Yuan , Zhang Che , and Screen superstars such as Wang Yu, Dilong , and David Jiang have all become popular through Shaw Brothers.
Hong Kong movies have the title of Oriental Hollywood, and the earliest reference was Shaw Brothers movies. However, it was precisely because of their huge model that Shaw Brothers movies were not innovative enough. They lost to Jiahe in the 1970s and were beaten by New City in the 1980s. By 1985, this outdated empire was already full of holes and difficult steps. Run Run Shaw had to cut off his wrist and arms, dismiss most of the company's employees, and announced the suspension of production. Although the production of the video has been suspended.
