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If you ask me which director is the most regretful , Pigeon will say the name of " Hu Jinquan " without hesitation.
Hu Jinquan, one of Shaw Brothers' three major directors, is good at shooting beautiful martial arts films with lofty artistic conception. Most of his works have extremely high artistic value , and he also has the pursuit of 's extremely "self". However, this type of work was not popular with the audience at that time. After its release, lost at 80% of the box office, and its directorial career was also full of tragic .
But in 1992, art master Hu Jinquan rarely filmed a commercial fantasy martial arts film "The Painted Skin: Yin and Yang Dharma King" , and even invited Wang Zuxian , Cheng Shaoqiu, Sammo Hung , Lin Zhengying and other celebrities to help.
However, such a work that combines a star lineup failed to succeed and was removed after only 6 days of release in Hong Kong. The final box office was frozen at HK$1.32 million .
What's even more tragic is that Hu Jinquan was in trouble since then, and no new work was released until his death in 1997. This imperfect work became his last work .
To this day, more than 20 years have passed, and there are still many questions about this work : Why did Hu Jinquan shoot such an commercial film ? Why did this film end up in such a defeat to after its release?
Today, Brother Pi will talk to you about the past of this movie.
1. The "critical" in the heart of Master Hu Jinquan in his later years
1982, after launching two movies, " Great Reincarnation " and "The World's No. 1", Hu Jinquan "blocked" his martial arts film layout . At this time, he had only one idea in his heart - to bring "History of Blood and Tears of Chinese Workers" to the big screen.
He started preparing in 1982, but he still couldn't raise enough funds for 10 years. The investors he found generally praised the greatness of the first sentence, and the latter sentence became "I can't help" .
No one is willing to vote, so he has to "make money" by himself. So a new plan emerged in Hu Jinquan's mind: follow Tsui Hark , Wang Jing and others to make a commercial blockbuster. As long as he makes some achievements in the box office, he can take the first step of "The History of Blood and Tears of Chinese Workers".
For this reason, he "for the first time" caters to the market , making great compromises in the story, weakening the texture of the martial arts in previous works, and trying to create a "A Chinese Ghost Story"-style fantasy martial arts film that is most popular among the audience.
In terms of the cast, Hu Jinquan is also rare to make "big deals". He found "half of the country" of the Hong Kong fantasy film - Wang Zuxian, Wu Ma and Liu Xun , Sammo Hung and Lin Zhengying , and Zheng Shaoqiu , which created the zombie type film, and Zheng Shaoqiu , and New Shushan Swordsman , all of them joined.
From the subject matter to the actors, they were the most appealing in the Hong Kong film industry at that time. The industry also expected that Hu Jinquan could break the "box office curse" this time, and Hu Jinquan himself was also full of confidence.
2. The fantasy story told by the film
"Painted Skin: Yin and Yang Dharma King" is adapted from the story of "Painted Skin" in " Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio ". The title of this film has a strong earthy flavor, which seems to be similar to the current online movie style, but the simple title is also intuitive and clear. With the cast, it may actually enhance the attractiveness.
The beginning of the story is also similar to the plot of the novel "Painted Skin". The failed scholar Wang Shunsheng (played by Cheng Shaoqiu) met the beautiful young woman You Feng (played by Wang Zuxian). When he learned that she was a concubine who sneaked away from a wealthy family, he had an indecent idea and wanted to take her as a concubine.
Wang Shunsheng's original wife Chen found out that You Feng was a female ghost in the painted skin. The couple was shocked. Wang Shunsheng risked his life to Erlonggou Qingfeng Temple for help from the Yuqing Taoist Zhang Daoling (played by Liu Xun).Zhang Daoling went down the mountain to meet the female ghost together with his senior brother Feng Daoren (played by Wu Ma), and learned about the life experience of the female ghost You Feng.
It turns out that there is an intermediate zone between the two realms of Yin and Yang, called the Yin and Yang Realm, which is controlled by a Yin and Yang Dharma King who has cultivated magic power. This Dharma King is an existence that is neither human nor ghost, neither god nor immortal, nor Buddha. He intercepts those passing ghosts between the yin and yang realms to prevent them from reincarnation and strengthen his strength.
You Feng was an actor during his lifetime. Once an accident occurred while performing on stage, but after his death, she was intercepted by the Dharma King in the Yin-Yang Realm, which prevented her from being reincarnated. You Feng escaped while the Dharma King was unprepared. If he was caught back, he would suffer serious punishment.
You Feng asked for help from Zhang Daoling and Feng Daoren, but the two of them had low magic power and could not deal with the Dharma King, so they had to take You Feng to the master Taiyi, the master of Taoism. At this time, in order to track You Feng, the Dharma King also came to the world and possessed Wang Shunsheng.
Master Taiyi took Zhang Daoling and You Feng to find the Dharma King, slashing demons and eliminating demons along the way, and then fought against the Dharma King Shang Lily. The Dharma King was ultimately unable to match Master Taiyi's magic power, and was still destroyed after tenacious resistance.
You Feng was finally reincarnated. Before leaving, she took off the painted skin on her face and revealed her original face. After reincarnation, she became the son of Wang Shunsheng and Chen.
3. Hu Jinquan's "change and unchange" in this movie
Although it is a fantasy martial arts film, from the scene creation of the movie, we can still see some of the characteristics of Hu Jinquan's previous works .
The entire film was filmed in Datong, Mount Wutai and Beijing Film Studio in Shanxi. According to Hu Jinquan's preferences, it is naturally an amazing landscape, like the snow scene at minus 20 degrees below the Wutai Mountain is as beautiful as a picture.
The Yin-Yang Realm part was filmed in the Thirteen Tombs and Huairou, and it also shows the grandeur of Hu Jinquan's movies. The slow movement of the mirror is also in line with Hu Jinquan's usual practice.
In addition, Master Taiyi took everyone to the Dharma King's lair, fighting with ghosts and demons all the way, which is also very similar to the performance techniques in "The Legend of the Goddess" .
plot character part, Hu Jinquan also adapted the original work based on his personal insights. For example, Wang Shunsheng, Chen and the Painted Skin Ghost are all from the original novel "Painted Skin", but the Yin-Yang Dharma King is Hu Jinquan's "private product" .
Because of living in the United States for many years, Hu Jinquan felt that he had left his hometown for a long time, and his lifestyle habits to mentality were very different from those of the Chinese. In the United States, it has always been regarded as an outsider and suffered various discrimination.
Yin and Yang Dharma King and his lonely ghosts who wandered in the Yin and Yang realms are similar to Hu Jinquan's situation. They are always in an awkward situation and are difficult to tolerate in the world. Therefore, the setting of "Yin and Yang Dharma King" has its unique cultural connotation, which is a method of expressing how Hu Jinquan uses the past to satirize the present .
However, in the use of some unique fantasy elements, it can also be seen that Hu Jinquan's "compromise" , with the purpose of making the audience like it.
, such as magic weapon, talisman and other special effects in the battle process, are actually exactly the same as those zombie films of "A Chinese Ghost Story" and Lin Zhengying.
Actors such as Wang Zuxian, Wu Ma, Liu Xun, and Sammo Hung are originally from these two types of movies, not to mention the cameo appearance of the zombie Taoist Priest Lin Zhengying. Their participation can also make the audience recognize the "orthodox" of the movie.
4. The biggest problem of the film
Pige believes that the biggest problem of "The King of Painted Skins: Yin and Yang Dharma" mainly lies in three aspects: narrative rhythm, character shaping and visual special effects .
Hu Jinquan's first cut version is more than 2 hours long, but he does not have the final editing rights. Perhaps in order to increase the screening, the movie was cut into 95 minutes of by before it was released. A large number of plots were cut, and the narrative of the movie was also affected.
This is why many plots in the film are abrupt, even inconsistent. For example, Wang Shunsheng's wife Chen, obviously had been strangled to death by the Dharma King, but the ending appears again; when Feng Daoren first appeared, he sold dog meat noodles to tease Wang Shunsheng at night, and he didn't know what the purpose was; the female ghost painting given to Wang Shunsheng by Master Taiyi also appeared inexplicably.
In terms of character creation, also failed to meet the level of Hu Jinquan's previous works, which is also the direct reason for the low audience's evaluation.
For example, the scholar Wang Shunsheng, who appeared at the beginning, was thinking about his own little abacus, and was timid and timid. The character had just stood up, but in a blink of an eye, he was possessed by the Dharma King and turned into another appearance.
female ghost You Feng, in addition to showing his poor life experience, covered the whole process with cloth and wrapped tightly, without personality traits and lack of beauty.
And Taoist priests such as Zhang Daoling, Feng Daoren, Taiyi Master, and Ziyi Taoist only showed their ability to subdue demons and demons, and did not have much role in expressing the character's personality.
In comparison, as the villain, Yin-Yang Dharma King is more outstanding. Being able to see his arrogance and scheming is a highlight of the film.
The video special effects lag behind , which also reduces the viewing of the entire movie.
Objectively speaking, this is not something Hu Jinquan can control. After all, this is not what he is good at, and it is difficult to have the creativity of heaven and earth like Tsui Hark and Cheng Xiaodong . Therefore, the special effects and fights in the film are difficult to satisfy, and the fights are lively but not good.
5. The regrettable ending
special effects are not good, there is no good story, and the plot of the character cannot be justified. In the end, "The Painted Skin: Yin and Yang Dharma King" was replaced and removed from the line in just 6 days after the release of (see the picture below for the release time: September 18-September 23, 1993), with a total box office of .32 million , ranking 117th in the annual box office of Hong Kong (the first place in local films is "Tang Bohu's Autumn Fragrance" , with a box office of 40.17 million hrs). The box office failure of
is naturally not surprising, and all of this seems to confirm the "outdated" of Hu Jinquan.
His movies are very good, but after entering the 1990s, has gradually failed to keep up with the times . The failure of the
movie also caused Hu Jinquan to suffer a heavy blow. His life was once in trouble and it was difficult to launch new works.
But he still overcome all difficulties to promote the filming of "History of Blood and Tears of Chinese Workers". It was not until the end of 1996 that he received half of the investment of Goldcrest Company in the UK; Zhang Jiazhen and John Woo 's American companies took on the other half and were preparing to officially start the filming in the spring of 1997.
By January 1997, in order to be able to devote all your efforts to film the new film, Hu Jinquan decided to undergo a cardiac catheter balloon dilation surgery under the advice of the doctor. However, complications occurred after the operation on January 14, and Hu Jinquan died in the evening of the same day.
A generation of film legends finally passed away with an unfulfilled wish, which makes people sigh that God will make people foolish people.
In 2000, John Woo wanted to fulfill Hu Jinquan's last wish and film "The History of Blood and Tears of Chinese Workers", but he still didn't see any action until he completed "Red Cliff" in 2008. More than 20 years have passed, and John Woo is now powerless, and I believe this movie will be difficult to complete.
Text/Pipi Movie Editorial Department: Hot Blood Danxin
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