"The Heroes" is an important watershed in director Hu Jinquan's works. The pioneering new elements of martial arts films have set a benchmark for successive martial arts works and have also become a representative work of new-style martial arts films, and a pioneering work that h

 "The Heroes" is an important watershed in the works of director Hu Jinquan . The pioneering new elements of martial arts films have set a benchmark for successive martial arts works and have also become a representative work of new-style martial arts films, and a pioneering work that has attracted much attention from the international community. Among the list of the 100 world classic movies released by Time Magazine, there are only four Chinese-language films, and "The Legend of the Goddess" is among them. "The Knight" contains rich cultural images and it is not easy to interpret this classic of the times in a few words. Today we will only introduce this work from the perspective of action design and martial arts film style. 

"The Legend of the Goddess" is adapted from the chapter "The Legend of the Goddess" in Pu Songling "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". The down-and-out scholar Gu Shengzhai lives in a small town in a calligraphy and painting shop, supporting his mother at home. He accidentally met Yang Zhiyun, who had newly moved from the nearby abandoned Tunbao, and secretly fell in love with her. It happened that Ouyang Nian, a spy from Dongchang, came to inquire. He fought with a nearby blind fortune teller. Gu Shengzhai and his mother met him. He then brought the injured blind fortune teller to Yang Zhiyun nearby, and learned that they were Yang Huizhen, the daughter of the left deputy censor Yang Lian, who was shot dead for impeaching the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, and General Shimenqiao, who defended Zhongliang. Because both of them were chased by the court's wanted East Factory, Gu Shengzhai set up many strategies in the fortress, and got the help of the eminent monk Huiyuan, in order to get rid of the pursuers of the East Factory and escape.

martial arts films incorporate Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism philosophy

Compared with the violent aesthetics of Zhang Che, another leading figure in the new martial arts films, Hu Jinquan used the beautiful pictures and the emphasis on love and righteousness of the female hero as the theme of the film as early as the era of " Drunken Hero ".

Director Hu Jinquan

"The Legend of the Goddess" incorporates many traditional Chinese elements and innovates it, and the character setting is clearly distinct. The English name of "The Heroes" is "A Touch of Zen" (a little Zen meaning). In addition to martial arts, it also integrates Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism and Zen theory. In terms of the picture style, multiple shots are filled with scenes, and the opening scene is filled with smoke to create the elegant Zhong Ling in the woods. The scenery under the camera is like Chinese landscape paintings, with weeds in ancient vegetarian camps, rugged rocks, gurgling water, and swaying mountains. In

, every time a monk who rescues hero appears, he will shoot from a look-up angle, and at the same time, there is sunlight coming from behind the wizard, which is a metaphor for the Buddha's light shining everywhere. The ancient house where the protagonist lives is haunted and rarely visited, so it is covered with weeds and four knots of spider webs, reflecting the director's exquisite technique of using scenery into emotions.

In terms of role settings, the male protagonist is busy making a living. His mother always reminds him to follow the traditional Confucian scholar path to obtain fame and fortune and start a family; the court was loyal and kind, and was forced to retire to the mountains and forests to escape disasters; Buddhist monks were earnest and always wanted to use reason to persuade the villain to turn back. The film brings out strong Chinese Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist philosophical characteristics from the picture design, theme and character setting. The application of

trampoline in motion design, the most important element of the martial arts film is action design, "The Legend of the Goddess" has also set a precedent for many action designs. The martial arts instructor of "The Legend of the Goddess" is Han Yingjie. Unlike Zhang Che who handed over the full power of the action design to the martial arts Liu Jialiang or Tang Jia's design, Hu Jinquan will actively discuss with the martial arts meter, and can only be filmed with the consent of Hu Jinquan. "The Heroes" has many innovative action shooting methods. For example, in the classic bamboo forest war, the trampoline is used with a short lens to quickly edit and flash various aerial scenes to create the effect of warriors flying around the walls, and the principle of metal conductivity is used to create sparks when weapons touch each other.

Take the classic bamboo forest battle as an example, and film critic Roca uses "Chinese-style combat" to describe this martial arts action design. The spies in the East Factory fought to the death in the bamboo forest. The spies would only feel that the bamboo forest was in trouble and were killed. However, the smart chivalrous would use the situation, combine the bamboo and people with rebounding force, jump into the air and then dive down to kill the enemy. This situation turned into a situation that was beneficial to me, and he had the wisdom of "The Art of War".

"The Legend of the Goddess" has a profound impact on the development of Chinese martial arts films. Many elements and themes have been imitated by later generations. Hu Jinquan's apprentice famous director Ang Lee When filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in Hollywood, he said that he would pay tribute to his master. In "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the role of Michelle Yeoh in is distinctive, and the scene of Ziyi and Zhou Runfa in the bamboo forest battle is a variation of similar scenes in "Hello Girl".