In 1989, when Hong Kong's traditional Maoshan zombie films were gradually losing their audience due to numerous imitations, Lam Ching-ying made drastic innovations and introduced Western vampires into zombie films.

In 1989, when Hong Kong's traditional Maoshan zombie films were gradually losing their audience due to a large number of imitations, Lam Ching-ying made drastic innovations and introduced Western vampires into zombie films.

"One Eyebrow Taoist", which he directed and starred in, became a spectacle in a Hong Kong zombie film in which a Chinese Taoist priest uses traditional Maoshan techniques to fight Western vampires.

01, Lin Zhengying directed and acted for the first time, and left the road in frustration. movie

After making several zombie movies, Lin Zhengying also followed the trend of Golden Harvest Film Company to support new directors and set up satellite companies, and met with the famous Hong Kong cult film director Lan Naicai. Together they found Cai Lam, the vice president of Jiahe at the time, to prepare for Dalu Pictures.

The first movie produced by Dalu Pictures was "Yimei Taoist" directed and starred by Lin Zhengying. Chua Lam also served as the film's producer.

Lam Ching-ying was in the mood to revitalize Hong Kong zombie movies, so the filming period of "The Taoist" was surprisingly long. At that time, Hong Kong movies were generally shot and produced very quickly, identifying popular trends quickly and quickly seizing the market to collect funds.

Before

, the production cycle of the first three zombie films starring Lin Zhengying, "Mr. Zombie", "Zombie Family", and "Mr. Ghost" rarely exceeded 3 months, but "Yimei Taoist" lasted nearly a year.

The production of "Yimei Taoist" is also obviously very sophisticated, and the special effects, props, scenery, etc. can all taste like money. The bugs in the first three films where makeup and Wia's makeup and lenses were reused in editing basically never appeared in "Yimei Taoist".

In the scene where the banana ghost is captured at the beginning, the crew spent a lot of money to plant the banana trees one by one. It is said that it took eight hours to prepare the scenery before filming started.

In fact, this banana forest was planted by Lam Suet, the later Johnnie To's supporting actor: Lam Suet, who was born in 1964, lived in poverty after moving to Hong Kong at the age of 14, and started acting in movies at the age of 18. In the 1980s, he often worked on film sets.

During the filming of "One Eyebrow Taoist", Lin Zhengying promoted Lin Xue, who was working on the set of Dalu Film at the time, and asked him to make a cameo in a scene where the "unjustly killed female ghost" Liu Yuting was possessing Lu Fang and recalling her life. Among them were: One customer was Lin Xue.

After a year of careful production, the film was released on July 26, 1989, but in the end it only earned 11.19 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 22nd on the annual box office list. Although

is a movie that has reached the threshold of "10 million box office", due to the high production costs, it did not make much profit in the end. Chua Lam also mentioned in "Mourn for Lin Zhengying", ""The Taoist" was a good seller. If it didn't make a lot of money, it would definitely not lose money.

But Lin Zhengying had that personality and took the responsibility on himself. In a word Not saying anything, he quietly left the company.

After the box office failure of "The Taoist Man," it was not until 1994 that Lin Zhengying regained his confidence and directed the movie "The Green Hornet", which was a tribute to his old friend Bruce Lee. movie, but due to the poor script, the film's rating is only 5.9.

However, Jiu Shu Lin Zhengying's directorial talent cannot be underestimated. "The Taoist" scored 7.7. In 1995, he was invited by ATV to film the TV series "The Taoist Master". It is the childhood memory of many classmates. What is even more rare is that this series is written, directed and acted by

02, the cutest little zombie in Hong Kong movies

Speaking of "Yimei Taoist", nothing leaves the most profound impression on the audience. It's a cute little zombie.

The little zombie raised by Lin Zhengying in the film is dressed in the traditional zombie costume of the Qing Dynasty, but his character is very naughty and cute. One of his weaknesses is his ticklishness, which was cured by Qian Xiaohao and Lu Fang's feet. .

The little zombies don't suck blood, maybe because they are all red.

They are very jealous of Master Yimei Taoist Lin Zhengying, and they look like ordinary father and son. He speaks and communicates with everyone on a daily basis through the notes that appear after opening his hat. Sometimes even cartoons of Lin Zhengying appear.

At the same time, his IQ and force value are also top-notch. In the film, he played an important role in saving Lin Zhengying from prison and helping Lin Zhengying fight Western vampires.

The little zombie serves as the punchline of the film, giving the film a stronger comedy style. The little zombie is played by Hong Kong child actor Lam Ching-hong. Although his name is very similar to Lam Ching-ying, he is not related.

Lin Zhenghong became popular after his debut in "One Eyebrow Taoist". He has filmed some major roles in movies and TV series, such as the childhood Xiaoqiang in "The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village" and Xiao Nezha in "The Legend of the Gods". Now he has disappeared.

03, China's Maoshan Taoist priests fight against Western vampires

Western vampires are Lin Zhengying's most important idea in this film, setting up the spectacle of a battle between China and the West to attract the audience.

However, the Chinese Taoist priests fighting Western vampires is not Lin Zhengying's original work. It has appeared in the 1972 Shaw Brothers film "Seven Golden Corpses", but due to poor production, it suffered a miserable loss.

In a certain respect, "Yimei Taoist" is the first time in the true sense that Chinese Maoshan Taoist priests fight Western vampires.

In the movie, the Yimei Taoist played by Lin Zhengying went to the village to help the villagers do Feng Shui and discovered unusual bats. The church is near the village, and there was a conflict with Sister Maria because of the bat investigation. The villagers want to burn down the church, and the nuns want to save the church and try to win the believers to Christianity.

The nun took her apprentices to find Lin Zhengying at his home. Lin Zhengying happened to not be wearing trousers, so she asked her apprentices Qian Xiaohao and Lu Fang to buy them.

Although Lin Zhengying was very panicked when he was hiding in Tibet, the nuns still saw Uncle Ying. This is probably the great contribution of Uncle Ying, who is always serious and neatly dressed, in the zombie movie universe. Later, Lin Zhengying even arranged an unexpected kiss scene for herself with the abbot of the monastery.

In the movie, the abbot has a sense of justice. In reality, the "fat mother" Maria is also a patriotic artist. She sang the episode "Light of Friendship" in "Prison".

Maoshan Taoist priests fight against Western vampires, but how useful it is? The explanation in the movie is that Maoshan magic is useful and can hurt the vampire, but it is not enough to defeat him. For example, the money sword commonly used by Lin Zhengying will be harmed by vampires when touching it.

If a money sword is inserted into the eye, black "blood" will flow out.

The ultimate move released by Lin Zhengying is a physical charm made of rope on the ground.

There is an angry villain next to the rope charm...

The charm emits red light and attempts to swallow the vampire, but it fails.

Taoist Yimei had no choice but to use physical methods: blasting the vampire with explosives, but still failed.

Fortunately, a swamp was discovered in the forest, and the vampire was trapped in the swamp and allowed to sink. Only then was the crisis resolved.

Although Maoshan Technique had almost no effect in the end, the fight between Maoshan Taoist priests and Western vampires was also a strange scene in the eyes of the audience at the time.

Two years after "The Taoist with One Eyebrow", the unwilling Lin Zhengying made another zombie movie. He even changed the scene to Africa and made "The African Monk". He continued to play the Taoist from Maoshan and used Qing Dynasty zombies to mingle with the native Africans. , also running wildly on the road of "zombie + foreign elements". (Written by Mankei Wu)