is a smash hit commercial film in the 1980s, and Hong Kong zombie films have countless loyal fans throughout the Chinese region.
As we all know, the world’s living dead movies are divided into two major types- Western-made zombies, and Chinese zombie . The former is alive and dead, the latter is alive and dead, one has a negative attitude, and the other is a little cute.
And this cute and somewhat lovable character originated from Chinese movies-zombie.
The legend about zombies originated from the Yellow Emperor period. The earliest zombie in the legend is the Yellow Emperor's daughter, the Mandrill. In order to help her father achieve his great cause, the Dry Girl Mandrill put a curse on Chi You's army. But when the Yellow Emperor's great cause was completed, the Dry Lady Mandrill could not ascend to the God Realm due to too many killings, and eventually turned into a zombie due to too much resentment.
Of course, the above are only the legendary stories in the "Shan Hai Jing". Since then, although the records of zombies have appeared from time to time, they are all too rare. To say that the work that really records zombies in detail is the Taoist "Da Qian Lu", in which "the limbs are stiff, the head is not low, the eyes No slanting, no separation of legs, no decay of the corpse", which is very consistent with the zombie image in the Hong Kong film. After "Da Qian Lu", Yuan Mei's "Zi Bu Yu" and Ji Xiaolan's "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes" are also "zombie books" highly regarded by the audience, and they are even called "zombie encyclopedias".
Like the zombie culture in the West, China’s zombie culture has a long history, even after a long period of development-
1939 Ma Xu Weibang’s "The Walking Dead in the Old House", which tells the story of the ancient house causing zombies; Wu Village’s "Li Amao and Li Amao" in 1940 In "Zombies", there are the zombies of the Qing Dynasty;
In 1941, Mei Qian’s "Female Zombie" created the image of a female zombie, but it was resurrected through drugs and experiments, more like Western zombies;
In 1954, Yang Gongliang’s "Walking Dead" ", depicts the Revolutionary Party using a walking dead to disguise its identity against warlords; director Yang Gongliang has directed over a hundred films since the 1930s, including "Laughing Marriage", "Judgment of the Dead", "Weird Hero and a Plum", etc.
In 1957, Wang Jing’s father Wang Tianlin , who has always been involved in a wide range of subjects, was already at his fingertips in commercial and literary films, so he filmed a movie titled "Choosing the Corpse in Xiangxi" to test the waters. This film tells a story about an anti-drug transaction. In the story, the characters in the film conceal their drug trafficking activities in the name of chasing corpses, but the truth is revealed later, triggering a battle between humans and corpses.
In 1959, Hong Kong director Zhou Shilu, who was born in photography, filmed "Zombie Revenge". The method of surrendering zombies at the end of the film is to learn the Western vampire-making magic-killing zombies with iron nails. It can be seen that the zombie films at that time did not have the "folk characteristics" of Lin Zhengying's movies, and had to learn from Western movies.
In 1974, in order to internationalize its own film, Shaw Brothers cooperated with the British Hammer Company to shoot the zombie film "Seven Golden Corpses", which first combined Western vampires and China's "Xiangxi" elements, Western zombies VS Chinese zombies, The concept can be described as advanced, and an attempt similar to "King Kong vs. Godzilla" was made in advance. Although "Seven Golden Corpses" is a combination of erotic, horror and fantasy, and the starring is David Jiang, it did not become popular due to the general quality, and it was unable to drive the trend of filming.
In the 1970s, Hong Kong films were almost dominated by kung fu films, martial arts films and comedy films. The value of zombie films was not really developed until 1980's "Ghost Fighting Ghost".
"Ghost Fighting Ghosts" is directed by Sammo Hung, written by Huang Ying, starring Sammo Hung, Zhong Fa, Lin Zhengying and others. The movie is extremely watchable and rich in entertainment elements, which makes zombie movies from "unpopular" to "genre". In the film, the zombies meet Chinese Kungfu, and the end of the film invites the gods to show off. Sammo Hung finishes his monkey boxing and then uses the red tasseled spear... Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer Hong Kong films for serious entertainment.
"Ghost Fighting Ghost" received 5.67 million box office that year, ranking third in that year. Since then, Hong Kong movies have added another genre: zombie movies. Some people also concluded: Sammo Hung's move is actually a "resurrection" of the Hong Kong Kung Fu movie.
In 1985, Sammo Hung supervised "Mr. Zombie". The film is still made according to the model of "Ghost Fighting Ghost" and "Scary Man". The story does not need any connotation, it should beJust play when it’s time to laugh, and laugh when it’s time to laugh. Everything is for entertainment, and it does have a good effect.
"Mr. Zombie" turned out to be a total of two superstars, one is an outstanding representative of folk feudal superstition- Lin Zhengying , and the other is the ugly-looking zombie . They are bringing childhood shadows to countless 80s and 90s audiences, and at the same time they give countless laughs.
In fact, it can be seen from the cast list at the end of the film that the protagonists of the film are Xu Guanying, Li Saifeng, Qian Xiaohao, and Lin Zhengying ranked fourth. As a result, the image of "Nine Uncles" became popular. From then on, the word "" The eyebrows, cold humor, and even the spells and spells have styles." The zombie leader has accompanied the growth of several generations of teenagers in the mainland.
Alright, the most important characters of zombie films have already appeared. What are the interesting behind-the-scenes stories of Hong Kong zombie films in the 80s and 90s? We will talk again next time.
(to be continued...)
