Hugh Jinquan (1932-1997), Hong Kong director and screenwriter.
joined Shaw Brothers in 1958. In 1964, he independently directed "The Children of the Earth". He has since written and directed martial arts films, directing new martial arts films such as " Drunken Hero " and "Longmen Inn". In 1975, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" won the highest technical award at the Cannes Film Festival, pushing Chinese martial arts films into the world. In early 1997, he unfortunately passed away during a cardiac catheter balloon dilation surgery.
Hu Jinquan is a master of Chinese martial arts films. He is the first "author" director in the history of Hong Kong film and the closest master in the Hong Kong film industry. Hu Jinquan first innovated the trend of genre films in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and then became famous in the international film industry for a series of works, elevating martial arts films that focus on popular fun and sensory stimulation to the highest level of integrating Chinese traditional culture and film aesthetics.
Hu Jinquan said: "I don't know anything about martial arts. The movements I shoot were completely borrowed from Chinese dramas. My martial arts movements combine dance, music, and drama. I break down the movements of the flat opera and try my best to achieve the most amazing and outstanding effect in the movie." He is good at using Peking Opera facials. The characters portray loyalty and treacherous characters clearly seem simple and rigid, but with instruments such as opera gongs and drums, sheng, flutes and zheng, they have a vivid and elegant unique charm. The conflicting locations of his story are mostly selected in Biansai Inn and Zen Forest Temple, or there are sparse and dense bamboo forests, reeds, and grass stains, or there are ancient treasure halls, pagodas, carved beams and painted buildings decorated with dust and dust in the years. The ancient style is striking, forming a unique style: both simple and elegant, yet vigorous and magnificent; both cultural ambitions and responsibilities, as well as compassion for the world and transcendence in facing life. His old literary temperament is overwhelming in his movies, making viewers unable to hide. Like John Ford's Wild West and Kurosawa Akira 's Samurai River, Hu Jinquan's aesthetic elaboration is unique.
Hu Jinquan's martial arts movies include literature in martial arts and Zen in heroes. He uses Peking Opera and exerts a high level of film style and is full of oriental characteristics. He started from historical legends, then from the outside to the inside, from shallow to deep, and finally became an extraordinary person and became a saint, abandoning martial arts and seeking Zen. This level of progress is in line with traditional philosophy and has a wonderful intention. Perhaps it is because of the superb cultivation and realm, it is difficult for ordinary directors to have such skills and level, so "literati martial arts " began with Hu Jinquan and ended with Hu Jinquan.
Due to Hu Jinquan's pursuit of excellence, his life's creation was not fruitful, leaving only less than 10 works, but almost all of them were classic, which had a profound impact on later generations. In 1973, the great Francis Coppola made "The Godfather". When we watch all the later gangster films, we will see a rewrite of a Coppola-like empire. Hu Jinquan's martial arts films are obviously a repetition of the "Godfather" phenomenon in the East. With the rise and fall of several martial arts films, people have discovered that the subsequent martial arts films are just the old bottles of new wine from Hu Jinquan's martial arts films under different packaging.
Only in Hu Jinquan's world can there be a chivalrous and chivalrous smell, and only in Hu Jinquan's world can there be a truly handsome knight.
1. "The Drunken Man" (1966) Classic Index ☆☆☆☆
The story of the film is quite simple compared to the previous theme of the Sword Immortal. The female constable Jin Yanzi of the government wanted to rescue her brother who was captured by the bandits in the world, and broke into the place where the bandits were haunted alone. Finally, with the help of the Drunken Hero, he led the officers and soldiers to eradicate the scum of the martial arts world who was evil. There are no unique martial arts skills, no hard practices, and no deep hatred. The plot is very ordinary in sequence.
Although the story itself is relatively thin, the overall characteristics and quality of the film still push it into the ranks of Chinese classics. First of all, the scenery used in the film has a very strong and simple atmosphere, which completely presents a distant and tranquil beauty, which is very suitable for the artistic conception of martial arts stories in the Chinese martial arts world.Secondly, Jin Quan's contribution to Chinese martial arts films lies in the successful shot editing. With the same shooting material under the combination of Hu Jinquan, the rhythm of the shot conversion has been significantly improved, thus making the fight scenes in the film more visible.
Although it is Hu Jinquan's first martial arts film, it is a bit immature. But it is hard to hide Hu Jinquan's talent, small bridges, flowing water, mountains, wild forests, inns and temples, which are unforgettable.
2. "Longmen Inn" (1967) Classic Index ☆☆☆☆
This film won the Best Script Award at the 6th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards in 1968.
This is a film that occupies an important position in the history of Chinese martial arts films. Martial arts films can get rid of the shoddy situation for a long time before and become the same genre as warrior films and western films.
Beautiful photography and exquisite art design make the film reach an unprecedented historical atmosphere in martial arts movies. It can be seen from this that Hu Jinquan's highly artistic treatment of colors, clothing, weapons and various props.
Delicate plot promotion, compact shot alternation, meticulous background arrangement, and solemn and harmonious concise dialogue make the whole film look like a rainbow. The forest background of the great martial arts battle is also unique, especially those with huge rocks, lush leaves and strong branches, or bald and stern people, which is quite consistent with the characters' stories.
3. "The Legend of the Goddess" (1970) Classic Index ☆☆☆☆☆☆
This film is a three-year work of King Hu. The plot is ups and the atmosphere is cold. After its release, it received a buzz of praise. It also won the "Best Technology" Award and "Visual Effect" Award at the 28th Cannes Film Festival. It also won the "Maximum Comprehensive Technology Award" of the Cannes Film Festival in France. It became the first Chinese film to win awards at the Western International Film Festival, writing a milestone page for Chinese films.
The video begins to show suspense everywhere, such as the handling of characters appearing one by one, each of them is confused in life and mysterious, which makes the viewer develop great curiosity as the characters are mysteriously created. In addition, the abandoned Tun Castle where Miss Yang moved into Heroes also depicts the gloomy and desolate environment with empty mirrors from multiple angles. When Gu Shengzhai first entered Tun Castle at night, the plot atmosphere was made into a ghostly and suspenseful and creepy. All of this has to be attributed to the meticulous art design, the clever use of suspense lens aesthetics and the smooth editing. In addition, using precise editing to create multiple immortal martial arts scenes is the essence of the film, such as "Battle of the Bamboo Forest". In addition to many realistic and intense martial arts movements with both form and spirit, the film's atmosphere treatment also makes the dynamic beauty and natural landscape juxtapose into poetic and picturesque "dance" scenes.
Hu Jinquan, who has devoted his life to shooting martial arts movies containing "heroes" culture, has reached the peak of Chinese martial arts movies with "Heroes".
4. " Yingchun Pavilion Storm " (1973) Classic Index ☆☆☆☆
This film has a strong cast, especially Li Lihua plays the female shopkeeper's charming and charming. Her image is so sexy that it has become a classic martial arts film. Later, the Jinyingyu, which was interpreted by Maggie in " New Longmen Inn ", was actually born from this.
"The Storm of Yingchun Pavilion" is a collection of the great achievements of "Longmen Inn" and "The Drunken Heroes": the background of the Ming Dynasty, inn, northwest landscape, northern folk customs, eunuchs and knights, heroines, formations, fighting courage and wits, national complexes, etc. These shiny elements together constitute the prosperity and atmosphere of the entire movie; at the same time, under the strong control of Hu Jinquan, the overall feeling is amazing.
"The Storm in Yingchun Pavilion" is a woman's drama. A group of women occupy the inn, and people come and go, and cannot tell the truth from the black and white of loyalty and treacherous. Although the plot is complicated and conspiracy is numerous, the atmosphere on the surface is leisurely and comedic. Many passages can remind people of Lao She's "Teahouse". Hu Jinquan is using the movie to pay tribute to the old Beijing he misses. He grew up in Beijing, where he was the root of his memory.
5. "Loyalty and Martyrdom" (1975) Classic Index: ☆☆☆☆
In Hu Jinquan's movie, "Loyalty and Martyrdom" seems to be a watershed. Since then, his management of the martial arts scenes in the film gradually decreases and begins to emphasize more metaphysical thinking. This film describes the story of a group of loyal and righteous knights in the Ming Dynasty who resisted the invasion of Japanese pirates. The most exciting thing is that Hu Jinquan used a large number of creative ideas to set up a formation with "chessboards" to describe the confrontation between the enemy and us.
After the release of this film, it not only attracted great attention in Hong Kong, but also attracted the interest of the international film industry in martial arts films.
You can also see the young appearance of later martial arts stars such as Jackie Chan , Sammo Hung , Yuanbiao , and Yuanhua . Jackie Chan's life was not good at that time. Considering his situation, Hu Jinquan asked him to make more money as much as possible. After sending him to play a soldier, he asked him to play a pirate, so he could only play later and prevent the audience from seeing his appearance. So Jackie Chan performed for thirty-six days, but the scene of his appearance was difficult to tell.
6. " Kongshan Lingyu " (1979) Classic Index: ☆☆☆☆☆
"Hongshan Lingyu" style is obviously different from his previous "Drunk Heroes", "Longmen Inn" and "The Storm of Yingchun Pavilion". The protagonist is no longer a chivalrous character in the past. The opposing sides are not clear in the past, and they are either dead or I am dead. It can be said that this movie no longer follows the existing pattern of martial arts movies. Just as Kurosawa Akihiro's "Seven Samurai" is not a samurai movie in the general sense, Hu Jinquan brought martial arts movies into a higher spiritual realm that includes human thinking and Buddhist Zen.
Hu Jinquan is a martial arts film master. Although "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" can no longer be called a martial arts film, the fighting scenes are still full of inspiration and full of courage. When the audience is used to watching Tsui Hark, Donnie Yen , and then looking at Hu Jinquan, they may really feel a little bland. But martial arts is not flying around, not fast cameras, not dazzling stunts and numerous lights. In "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain", there are neither masters nor tricks. Every fight is simple and solid. There is no internal strength to shake people back, and it is even more real.
In this film, the environment is one of the explanatory themes of the film. Hu Jinquan's lens is full of the artistic conception of Chinese painting. Any screen is cut off, and it is a brilliant Chinese painting.
7. " Legend in the Mountain " (1979) Classic Index: ☆☆☆☆
This film won the 16th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Award - Excellent Drama Film, Best Director Award, Best Photography Award, Best Color Film Art Design Award, Best Movie Original Music, Best Recording Award and many other awards.
"Legend in the Mountain" is a work that Hu Jinquan strives to reflect his personal creative will. It is a meticulous and ingenious work, but it is also a popular cultural product that completely deviates from the rules of film production and is unqualified. It cannot be included in a certain type and opens a gap with Hu Jinquan's past chivalrous classics.
Hu Jinquan is an extraordinary film author and art master. "Legend of the Mountains" born in 1978 is Hu Jinquan's "last masterpiece" and a symbol of his spiritual perfection. Although he has made several films since then, including the 1990 "The Smiling and Proud Wanderer" (which was a Tsui Hark-style work), he has never been able to achieve free control of the film anymore. He has spent more than ten years of his life in his twilight years almost in a state of confusion and unfulfilling ambitions.
After spending tens of thousands of times in the world, the master is great and destined to be lonely.
