Hong Kong director Zhang Cheung is a martial arts master and a benchmark for Shaw Brothers movies in the 1960s and 1970s.
His disciples have many disciples, including Wang Yu , Fu Sheng , John Wu and others.
In 1974, after the movie "Five Tiger Generals" directed by him was released, it also made Lee Xiuxian, David Kang, Di Long, Chen Guantai and Wang Zhong famous.
After that, these five actors were called " Shaw Brothers Five Tiger Generals", leading a brilliant history of Hong Kong films.
Now, as the years pass, they have reached their twilight years, but their current situations are different.
1, Li Xiuxian Li Xiuxian is the third generation disciple of Zhang Che, the golden partner of Zhou Runfa , and the leading figure in the Hong Kong police and gangster crime film.
He was born in Shanghai in 1953 and moved to Hong Kong since childhood. He dropped out of school early due to his poor family.
Because when he was a child, he saw gangsters in the city domineering and domineering, he felt quite unfair and planned to apply for a police academy to be a policeman, but his mother firmly stopped him. Although he failed to get what he wanted, he later realized his dream in a police and gangster film.
In 1970, he was admitted to Shaw Brothers' artist training class. Less than a week later, Zhang Che was attracted by him. The other party arranged for the producer to sign a contract with him.
years, Li Xiuxian made his official debut with the movie " Double Heroes ", and began his acting career for nearly half a century.
But in the first few years, he had almost never served as a starring actor and had been "green leaves" for other big-name actors.
In order to gain more opportunities, Li Xiuxian began to learn behind-the-scenes work such as film editing, dubbing, screenwriter, and filming, laying a solid foundation for future transformation.
In 1984, after the movie " Public servant " was released, it not only achieved good reputation and box office success, but also won the best actors in the Golden Horse and Golden Horse in one fell swoop, and was nominated for the Best Director.
Since then, Lee Xiuxian began to shine in police and gangster films, producing and directing films on criminal investigation themes such as "Rogue Public Service", " Royal Farm ", "Iron Blood Mounted Police", " Pili Pioneer ", and shaping countless police images.
He has also worked with Chow Yun-fat many times, starring in movies such as " Dragon and Tiger Storm ", " Yimo Wushu ", " Jianghu Love ", " Bloody Two Heroes ", and became the "unfallen two heroes" on the screen in the late 1980s.
In 1987, Li Xiuxian founded Universal Film, which mainly filmed police, gangsters, gun battles and crime records, and established a highly realistic, thrilling world of police and gangster crimes.
Perhaps because he had a period of unknown time, he always spared no effort to support his younger generation.
In 1978, he discovered Cheng Kui'an and entered the industry and allowed the other party to participate in a large number of films he produced.
988, he met and reused Stephen Chow through ,000 Ziliang . The early works of Stephen Chow "The Road to the Storm", " Love Saint ", " The Heir of the Dragon ", etc., were all produced by universal companies.
In 1989, Lee Xiuxian also discovered the Zhang Jiahui , who was born in ATV, and invited him to star in his screen debut "Ambition and Ambition"; in 1992, he also tailored the movie " Accompanying Me in the Horoscope" for Aaron Kwok , which returned to Hong Kong from Taiwan.
Anthony Wong, Louis Koo and others have also grown into big names that support half of the Hong Kong film industry with his support and help.
In addition to taking care of the younger generation, Li Xiuxian is also the one who is the most filial to his master Zhang Che among his fellow disciples.
Although Zhang Che discovered him into the industry, he did not provide him with many opportunities. He was able to get to this day mainly by his own efforts.
However, he respected and grateful to his master, and had stopped all his work and devoted himself to organizing a celebration party for Zhang Che's 40th anniversary - " Yidae Heroes ".
This film brings together many Shaw disciples, and the main creators in front and behind the scenes do not get paid, and they work voluntarily for Zhang Che. After the movie
was released in theaters, Li Xiuxian and his brothers agreed in advance to give all the more than 8 million yuan of income after deducting the expenditure to Zhang Che.
Zhang Che died in 2002, and it was Lee Xiuxian and David Jiang who contributed money and efforts to take charge of the master's funeral.
respects the teacher and respects the truth, and returns kindness to the younger generations. No wonder the Hong Kong film industry respects Li Xiuxian as "Brother Xiu" and respects his righteousness and pride.
In the past 20 years, Lee Xiuxian has rarely made appearances in movies in occasional cameo appearances.
Since 2014, he has even only acted in one movie "Anti-Dragon Racing".
Now, at the age of 70, he is gray-haired and wrinkled, and looks full of oldness.
But his contribution to Hong Kong movies will not be forgotten by everyone.
2, David Jiang David Jiang is an actor familiar to all ages. He comes from a drama family. His father Yan Hua , his mother Hongwei , and his brother Qin Pei are all actors, and his half-brother Er Dongsheng is a well-known director.
He moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong at the age of 3, and walked on the screen at the age of 4, and co-starred with his brother Qin Pei and his sister Jiang Huimin in movies such as " Street Children's ", "The Beauty of the Country", and "The Little Hero on the Road".
But after adolescence, he was facing transformation and could hardly receive any show. He gave up his studies because of poor grades. His brother Qin Pei introduced him to work as a martial arts craftsman.
In 1968, he was appreciated by the great director Zhang Cheol. He became famous after starring in the movie " Rangers " and was praised by Shaw Brothers as the leading actor.
In 1970, David Jiang became the first Asian actor in Hong Kong film history for starring in " Revenge ", and the first male actor to win the Best Actress in Southeast Asia.
Since then, he has starred in many films such as " Thirteen Taibao ", " Rebellious ", " Spurs ", etc., with lonely and melancholy eyes and clear actions, which have won the love of many viewers.
He also once became the idol of girls in Hong Kong. The three talented women, Yishu , Li Bihua , and Ann Hui are all his fans.
, and even many rich women tried their best to pursue him, but they were rejected by him.
However, he has had many love stories, but most of them ended in vain.
It was not until November 1970 that David Jiang met actor Li Linlin at his friend's wedding, and finally settled down.
Li Linlin has been a disciple of Peking Opera actresses pink chrysanthemum to learn Peking Opera. In 1963, she was admitted to the actor training class of Hong Kong Dianmao Film Company. After graduation, she filmed many movies such as "Call me Don't Miss Her", "Children in Troubled Times", "Women's Heart".
David Jiang fell in love with Li Linlin at first sight, and the two soon fell in love and got married in 1974. After marriage, they gave birth to two daughters and a son.
Although David Jiang had a rich love history before marriage, he was consistent after marriage. He had to talk to his wife every day when he went out to film. He would explain it to his wife as soon as possible due to rumors of a filming scandal.
When a reporter asked David Jiang how he viewed the "blessing of all people", he also firmly replied: "Monogamy, no matter what era it has been, it will not be eliminated. I do not agree with retro."
After marriage, his career developed well, and he transformed into a director and directed films such as " Save the Life of God and Him" and "Handling Unheard HTML ".
He also made guest appearances in movies such as "The Years of Dragon City", " Common God's Eyes ", and "Daisy".
In 2013, he also played the elderly version of the male protagonist Prodigal Gua in the film " Rooftop Love " directed and acted by Jay Chou .
Not to mention, these two big names really look like they were carved from the same mold, with amazing similarity index.
However, since Li Linlin was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2011 and underwent surgery, David Jiang has reduced her workload.
Except for occasionally making guest appearances, he rarely films again and spends his time and energy with Li Linlin's fight against cancer.
In 2017, Li Linlin finally successfully fought cancer. She was thin but had a rosy complexion. She was taken good care of at first glance.
Now, 75-year-old David Jiang has gradually gained weight and has wrinkles on his face.
But his appearance is more kind and his temperament is more elegant.
3, Dilong The impression of Dilong in young audiences may be Emperor Qianlong in "My Fair Princess 3".
In fact, in the 1970s, he was hailed as "the number one handsome man in Xiangjiang", with outstanding appearance, authentic kung fu and excellent acting skills.
Dilong was originally named Tan Furong. He had a "martial arts dream" since he was a child, but because of his poor family, he dropped out of school in his teens.
He works during the day, practices at night, and works hard to learn English by himself, always preparing for his dreams.
html When he was 322 years old, Dillon finally got admitted to Shaw Brothers' Southern Actor Training Class and successfully became a new player under Shaw Brothers. After running a supporting role for a year, director Zhang Che chose Dillon from the 10 new actors and allowed him to star in the movie "Dead End".
He met David Jiang in this drama, and the two became inseparable good brothers, and both became the royal male leads directed by Cheung Cheh. He has worked together nearly 30 times since then.
With a series of films such as "Thirteen Taishang Insurance", " New One-Armed Knife ", " Water Margin ", and other films, the "Hong Kong Gemini" quickly became famous in Hong Kong.
973, Dillon won the Special Award for Excellent Acting at the 11th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and the Excellent Acting Award at the 19th Asia Pacific Film Festival for his villain Ma Xinyi in the movie "The Stupid Horse".
However, after becoming famous, Di Long gradually drifted away from David Jiang.
In 1975, the two collaborated on "The World and the City", and Di Long became the noble Emperor Guangxu, but David Jiang played a little eunuch.
Rumors broke out for a while. It is said that David Jiang did not want to play the eunuch and was even more reluctant to shave his head, which caused Di Long to be very dissatisfied and caused the two to become estranged.
Some insiders also revealed that there was a "bad guy" provoking the disagreement, which led to the two parting ways.
But they did not respond at the time. David Jiang said many years later after repeated questioning from the media: Friends can share hardships, but not wealth and honor, which makes sense.
Dilon believed that it was the result of many misunderstandings and frictions over time. No one was willing to bow his head first, and in the end he could only break up with one beat. After saying goodbye to David Jiang, Di Long became the "iron triangle of Jianghu" with Gulong and Chuyuan .
The heroes he interprets, such as the passionate swordsman Li Xunhuan, the handsome Chu Liuxiang, and the world's number one sword Fu Hongxue, won the recognition and praise of Gu Long.
But after middle-aged, Di Long accidentally fell from his face while filming, causing his bones to collapse, and his skin to sag as he grows older, and he can no longer find the "No. 1 Beautiful Man in Xiangjiang" in his prime.
, and Shaw Brothers also lost its former glory and gave up its cooperation with him. He had to develop into modern films and starred in films such as "The Legend of Heroes" and "The People's Heroes".
In 1986, he played the down-and-out brother Song Zihao in " Heroes' True Colors ", and won the 23rd Taiwanese movie Golden Horse Award.
Unfortunately, his other subsequent works were not as popular as "The True Character of Heroes", and gradually changed from a protagonist to a supporting role.
But he loves acting too much. If he can't act martial arts, he will act in literary dramas. If he can't act as his brother, he will act as his father. He has been active in front of the stage.
He didn't put his effort into it. He would put 13 metal rings on each of his arms every day to practice boxing, carrying about 12 kilograms of weight.
He also does it himself in action scenes. Regardless of whether the crew has purchased insurance or not, he almost doesn't need a stand-in, and he has to do dangerous actions by himself.
Until 2019, 73-year-old Di Long was still challenging himself and played the role of the dumb uncle in the musical "The Wrong Car". He had no lines and relied on sign language and expressions to express the character's heart.
Not only did he specialize in learning sign language, but he also suddenly added a show to himself during the performance and rolled down the steps, scaring the heroine to cry on the spot.
In March last year, he also participated in the online drama " Hotel Legend " and was unwilling to give up his performance in his seventies.
Now 76 years old, Dillon has severe skin and a high hairline, and he can't tell what he looked like when he was young.
However, his madness and selflessness towards performance are still touching.
4, Chen Guantai When it comes to the name "Chen Guantai", young people today may feel unfamiliar with it.
He is the starring actor of "Ma Yongzhen", the founder of Hong Kong gangster films. He did not use a stand-in throughout the whole process and personally completed all the difficult fighting scenes. He can be said to be the first generation of "kung fu boss" in Hong Kong gangster films.
Chen Guantai has been very developed in motor nerves since he was a child. was an athlete in middle school, good at football and javelins, and once studied martial arts under a martial arts family.
In 1963, he entered society after graduating from high school and became a firefighter.
Later, when he participated in social activities, he met some friends who made movies and entered the entertainment industry to become a martial arts profession.
968, Chen Guantai participated in the action film "Eight Steps Chasing the Soul". In May of the same year, he also won the championship with five battles and five victories in the first Southeast Asian National Art Competition lightweight group A held by Singapore .
It was through this game that director Zhang Che was shocked by his real kung fu, signed him to Shaw Brothers, and tailored the classic movie "Ma Yongzhen" for him.
In order to make Chen Guantai famous, Zhang Che also asked David Jiang, who had become famous at the time, to match him. After the release of the
movie, Chen Guantai successfully joined the ranks of first-line kung fu stars with his solid skills, and was once as famous as Bruce Lee . After
, he has successively starred in movies such as "The Sting Horse", "The Big Sword King Wu", " Shaolin Children ".
In 1975, Chen Guantai left Shaw Brothers and went to Taiwan to develop. In 1976, he formed his own Dasheng Film Company and directed and starred in the action movie "Shaolin Huang Feihong: Iron Monkey".
In 1978, he returned to Shaw Brothers, playing "Wang Jinyong" in " Shanghai Beach Tycoon ", and "Guo Jing" in " Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu ".
In 1990, Chen Guantai established Weikai Film Company and produced many movies, such as the crime comedy " Thief A Xing " directed by Chu Yuan, and the action movie " Abandoned Sect" directed by Huang Zhiqiang, etc.
Until 2015, he was active on the big screen, but he played supporting roles and didn't have many roles, so young audiences were not very familiar with his name.
His career has developed smoothly, but his relationships are complicated, and he cheated on Shaw Brothers actresses Yingying and Fang Yizhen, and gave birth to a child with them.
Later, he first divorced his ex-wife and married Fang Yizhen. In 2017, he divorced again, marrying his beautiful wife who was 30 years younger than him.
Because of the hard work in filming in the early years, 76-year-old Chen Guantai has not had a good physical condition in recent years, has too high white blood cells, and has almost suffered from stroke , and needs to take long-term medicine and injection to control the condition.
In order to recuperate, he spent most of his time living a semi-seclusion life in the mainland, except for occasionally returning to Hong Kong to film.
A generation of kung fu masters back then also became an old man with gray hair and beard. Time is really a killer.
5, Wang Zhong Compared with other actors in the "Five Tiger Generals", Wang Zhong is less well-known because he faded out of the film and television industry early.
Wang Zhong was also born in Shanghai. His original name was Jiang Peijun. It is said that he was David Jiang's cousin. The two families moved to Hong Kong together.
David Jiang started acting early, but Wang Zhong believed that he was not good-looking, so he did not consider entering the entertainment industry, but went to the acrobatic troupe to learn acrobatics.
It was not until 1968 that Wang Zhong accompanied David Jiang to the crew for an interview. David Jiang was successfully signed by Shaw Brothers, and he followed his cousin to join Shaw Brothers.
But David Jiang, who has good looks and good acting skills, began to act as the starring actor as soon as he entered the company and soon had the opportunity to become famous.
Wang Zhong has been working as a martial artist and a supporting role, and has almost no chance of being photographed.
973, Zhang Cheung finally starred in the movie "Police", but unfortunately the limelight was overshadowed by another starring actor Fu Sheng.
Fu Sheng quickly became popular, and there were constant drama appointments, but Wang Zhong continued to sit on the bench. In the end, he had to find another way out and decided to write a script and film himself.
In 1980, the movie "Golden Finger" written, directed and acted by Wang Zhong was released, creating the mainstream of realistic police and gangster films. He is therefore called the founder of realistic police and gangster films.
But Wang Zhong, who finally became popular, has another big event.
Wang Zhong starred in dramas such as "The Real Man" and "The Great Accuse" with police and gangsters as the themes for Lishi from the 1970s to the early 1980s.
In 1981, after Australia helped Lissi, he praised Wang Zhong, Pan Zhiwen, Zhu Jiang and others as "high salary without call", that is, they criticized their high salary but no corresponding box office appeal, and settled their appointment.
After that, Wang Zhong gradually moved to behind-the-scenes work. After playing "Elder Mo" in " Martial Arts Top Scholar Su Qier " in 1992, he faded out of the entertainment industry.
In 2005, in the movie "The Underworld", the audience once again met Wang Zhong.
He was only 58 years old at the time, but he looked extremely old. The outside world suspected that he was in poor health, but no relevant reports were reported.
In 2011, he was in "The Defence Team: Departure Team! friend! 》 made a guest appearance as a restaurant owner, and then completely faded out of the public eye.
Even his cousin David Jiang could not contact him, and he did not understand his situation in his later years.
In 2021, Hong Kong media reported that 74-year-old Wang Zhong died of illness. Although
are both "Five Tiger Generals", Wang Zhong's experience is really sad.
Conclusion:
Nowadays, the superstars in the brilliant era of Hong Kong film industry are either getting old or leaving regretfully.
But as pioneers in the film industry, they have actively contributed their strength and created the legend of Hong Kong films. Which of the five actors do you like the most among the five actors?
#Shaw Brothers Five Tiger Generals#, #David Jiang#, #Dillon#
Author: Chaomu
Editor: EYELINER
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