In 1982, "The Scary Man" was a classic spiritual action film directed by Wu Ma and starring Sammo Hung and Lin Zhengying. Lin Zhengying starred in the film for the first time as a Taoist priest from Maoshan, officially opening his movie universe as a "zombie Taoist Priest".

In 1982, "The Scary Man" was directed by Wu Ma and starred by Sammo Hung and Lin Zhengying. Lin Zhengying starred in the film for the first time as a Taoist priest from Maoshan, officially opening his movie universe as a "zombie Taoist Priest".

1. Sammo Hung pioneered the fantasy action film

The death of Bruce Lee in 1973 suddenly plunged the Hong Kong kung fu film industry into confusion. At this time, the film industry giant Shaw Brothers began to pay attention to the film and television version of Gu Long's novels. Director Chu Yuan became famous and appeared in many films with a box office of tens of millions.

On the other hand, Chow Wenhuai and He Guanchang's Golden Harvest chose the direction of comedy, took the lead in implementing the independent producer system, and supported Golden Harvest's satellite company, Xu Guanwen's Xu's Pictures.

At that time, Sammo Hung was playing a small role in the blockbuster film "The Ghost Rider" of Hui's Pictures, and served as a martial arts instructor. Later, when Sammo Hung gained enough experience, he proposed the idea of ​​becoming a director to Zou Wenhuai.

Zou Wenhuai, out of the idea of ​​​​promoting young people, let him give it a try, so he produced "The Three Virtues and the Sixth Crushed Rice". The film's box office performance was pretty good, ranking 6th on the annual box office list.

The success of "The Monk of Three Virtues and the Crumb Rice" made Sammo Hung gradually become a unique Jiahe general. The following Hung family members were also full of talents. Later, they made a series of action movies such as "The Miscellaneous Family Boy" and "Lam Sai Wing".

But Sammo Hung’s ambitions didn’t stop there. In 1980, with the support of Golden Harvest, he established Baohe Film Company. The first movie produced was "Ghost Fighter", a true spiritual fantasy action film in the history of Hong Kong movies, opening up a new era. type.

2. Guangdong folk customs with no taboos, the Maoshan Taoist introductory teaching film

After "Ghost Fighting", Sammo Hung and Jiahe quickly released "The Scary Man". This film is Lin Zhengying's first time playing a Maoshan Taoist priest, and the whole film is full of Guangdong folk customs. Ancestral halls, funeral rituals and even techniques of raising the dead.

1. One of the techniques of Maoshan Taoist priests: seeing and catching ghosts. Use grapefruit leaves, dip them in talisman water (the gray water after burning paper talisman), and put it on your eyes to see ghosts. This setting was continued by "Mr. Zombie" in 1985.

The wicker is used to fight ghosts, and it is shortened by three inches.

2. Maoshan Taoist Technique No. 2: Use magic to let Ma Linxiang, also known as Wu Ma’s soul, enter Sammo Hung’s body, and Sammo Hung’s soul leave his body.

There is a time limit for spell casting, so you must be back before dawn.

3. Maoshan Taoist Technique No. 3: Soul Resurrection

In the film, Xiaoyun (played by Zhong Chuhong) is determined to save Sammo Hung. The second uncle pointed out a method to her: holding a wedding ceremony with her with a rooster, which represented her marriage to the deceased Sammo Hung, because this method can only be used by wives.

At the same time, the theory is also very complicated: the seventh day after death is called the first seven days, and the first seven days are the days when Zhu Hongli (Sammo Hung) met with disaster.

"Scourge" is the energy that the dead hold in their hearts, and the soul of the living. When this air passes through the corpse, it will turn into a dark wind, called a ghost, which is the "ghost" that "haunts and lingers".

Xiaoyun needs to light an eternal lamp behind the coffin, in order to let Zhu Hongli's ghost remember how to get to Huangquan from here, and he also needs a bowl of "head-turning rice".

previously introduced the operation of the first seven, and the second uncle Lin Zhengying continued to give theoretical teaching to Zhong Chuhong: the second seven is the return of evil spirits, and the return of evil spirits is the day when the ghost returns home. She will prepare a five-color ladder and a reed flower to put in the chimney.

The ghost will turn into a beetle, but there are many insects at night. The way to identify which one is Zhu Hongli is to spread lime on the roof. If there is an insect with feet covered with lime, it is Zhu Hongli. After catching the beetle, wrap it with a "big aunt" belt, and you won't be able to find it.

When Zhu Hongli returned to evil spirits, he was being held hostage by the evil spirits and could not stay for a long time. So a lot of sacrifices need to be prepared.

's special dish for Yinzai: put eggs in a wine jar, because the setting in the film is that Yinzai likes to eat eggs, and if you put them in a wine jar, you have to drink up the wine to eat the eggs.

Such a shady person will definitely get drunk, and Xiaoyun will have time to find Zhu Hongli who has turned into an insect to perform the above operations. As long as he can endure the light of day, Zhu Hongli can return to his soul.

Yincha's styling design is very ET style, which is also a manifestation of the crazy creativity and imitative power of Hong Kong movies at that time.

3. A street comedy unique to the Cantonese region.

The comedy style in "The Scary Man" has the unique street comedy style of the 1970s and 1980s in the Cantonese region.

It is not easy for Sammo Hung to pretend to be a paper man and be moved by his second uncle Lin Ching-ying. The performance of "the most flexible fat man in the world" who feels as light as a swallow is a famous and hilarious scene in this film.

At the funeral, Sammo Hung dressed up as a man with paper sticks and his butt was burned with incense by naughty children. The expression and makeup of the man with paper sticks made people laugh.

Sammo Hung ran for an autopsy because he suspected that his old friend Ma Linxiang (Wu Ma) was poisoned to death. But Wu Ma was not dead at this time, and he still had to remain calm as a dead person when his old friend looked at him with his hands up and down.

The funniest thing is the monk who was invited by the Ma family to perform services at Ma Linxiang's funeral. The monk had evil intentions and returned to the mourning hall in the middle of the night with the intention of stealing Ma Linxiang's funeral objects. As a result, what happened to happen was the "corpse" of Sammo Hung who had not had time to put on clothes after the "autopsy". He was very surprised and disappointed: "Did someone get there first?"

In the end, the monk found a valuable item: gold dentures. The process of removing dentures is also full of laughter.

Another hilarious scene in this film is that Wu Ma borrowed Sammo Hung's body to go back to seek revenge on his fake wife, but failed. Sammo Hung's body could not be retrieved, and the two souls had to carry their second uncle Lin Zhengying, who was unable to move, to find his fake wife. Look for the body everywhere. Because Wu Ma and Sammo Hung were ghosts, Wu Ma and Sammo Hung carried Lin Zhengying and flew down the street. What passersby saw was Lin Zhengying flying away in the air.

As a 1982 movie, its creativity and sense of humor were widely recognized by the audience. It ranked ninth on the box office list with a box office of 10.1 million, saving a little face for Jiahe, which was badly beaten by the rising New Art City Company at that time.

4. The inheritance between Sammo Hung and Lam Ching-ying

In "Scary", Lam Ching-ying, who played the second uncle, said that he would pass the mantle to his "grandnephew" Sammo Hung after his death. But in fact, in terms of the inheritance of zombie comedies, it was Lin Ching-ying who took over the mantle of Sammo Hung and maintained the kung fu elements and hilarious style pioneered by Sammo Hung in the ghost films.

In fact, Sammo Hung is also considered a nobleman of Lin Zhengying - the first zombie film Lin Zhengying participated in was "Ghostbusters", playing a head catcher. In 1982's "The Scary Man", although there were no zombies, Lin Ching-ying played the Maoshan Taoist wearing a yellow robe for the first time, which became the beginning of Lin Ching-ying's film universe.

Although Sammo Hung and Lin Zhengying are not Peking Opera masters, they were both dragon and tiger martial arts masters of the same period. In the 1970s, Lin Zhengying was Bruce Lee's right-hand man and was highly appreciated by Bruce Lee.

After Bruce Lee passed away, Sammo Hung invited Lin Ching-ying to join the Hung Family Ban. Most of the zombie movies Lin Ching-ying starred in were produced with the support of Sammo Hung's Baohe Company.

In reality, the relationship between the two is also very good. Sammo Hung once said: "Lin Zhengying is a very good brother of mine. He is a very upright person." Now that he has passed away, people can't help but miss that starry gathering. era. (Written by Mankei Wu)