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Known as the "Godfather of Hong Kong Films" Wu Siyuan once said:
"The best moves in martial arts films are all in " New Dragon Inn "."
Another director Wu Yusen said:
" Tsui Hark is the one who is 'the most capable of filming women' among Hong Kong directors, which is most vividly reflected in the two female characters in "New Dragon Inn"."
The best action and The role of a woman makes Tsui Hark's "New Dragon Inn" a martial arts classic that is independent of the "A Chinese Ghost Story" and "Swordsman" series.
It is said that Tsui Hark witnessed the chaos around Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s. In the chaos, there were old forces who fled to Hong Kong, and there were also adventurers who came here to dig for gold. The Chinese people all over the world met with suffering and hope. When they came together, the sworn knot of Jin Lan worshipped Guan Gong, and for a while, the "Jianghu" in Hong Kong had a very moving color. The era of
gave Tsui Har a deep impression, so he began to create the dream of light and shadow of martial arts after he returned from his studies in the United States.
and then there is this "New Dragon Inn", from the role to the action, it is still a classic after 30 years.
a
The destined role
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch of the East Factory Cao Shaoqin ( Donnie Yen ) framed and exiled Yang Yuxuan, the remnant of the minister of the army, and wanted to exile him. .
Yang's former subordinates Zhou Huai'an ( Leung Jiahui ) ask Jianghu chivalrous woman Qiu Moyan ( Lin Qingxia) to rescue Yang's orphan, and meet at the Longmen Inn at the border of the desert. They encountered the vanguard troops dispatched by Cao Shaoqin - Jia Ting ( Liu Xun, ornaments), Cao Tian ( Xiong Xinxin ornaments) and Lu Xiaochuan ( Wu Qihua ornaments), the third gear head of
East Factory. In addition, Jin Xiangyu ( Maggie Cheung ), the proprietress of the Dragon Gate Inn, has a secret affection for Zhou Huai'an, but Zhou Huai'an has a heart. After a secret passage out of the customs, in order to rescue Yang's orphan, he did not hesitate to marry Jin Xiangyu, but Cao Shaoqin's men and horses were killed at this time.
Qiu Moyanxiang killed Jade, Zhou Huai'an fled with Yang's orphan, Jin Xiangyu set fire to the inn and followed him...
Tsui Hark reenacted her performance in "Swordsman" for Brigitte Lin. The classic scene in The Undefeated of the East"——
raised his head to drink
was just the tears of the unrepentant lover in Yiren's eyes when he was drinking heavily. This design made everyone very satisfied. Brigitte Lin, who was originally appointed by Tsui Hark to play Jin Xiangyu, was very dissatisfied with the vulgar proprietress design. In addition, Tsui Hark accidentally saw Maggie Cheung calling friends and friends during a one-day gathering. They decided to change the roles of the two. Maggie Cheung said there was no problem, and Brigitte Lin felt even more happy. Later, there were Jin Xiangyu's laughter and scolding in response to the dangerous rivers and lakes, and Qiu Moyan's single-minded journey to the desert.
InnkeeperBright conjuring lamp, the two women compete for spring.
It should be said that both Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung have found suitable roles at the right time, and made John Woo's comment that "the best woman is the best".
So, what about the rest of "Zhou Huaian"? The original candidate for the role of
was Li Lianjie . Later, due to some problems, he had to suspend his acting career. This was relayed by Tony Leung, who was on the rise at the time. The latter did not disappoint Tsui Hark. Before "Strange", the serious Tony Leung Ka Fai also presented the audience with a chivalrous person who is far away from all corners of the world and maintains a dignified manner.
That is to say, the three main characters of "New Dragon Inn" have all changed their original candidates, but the world is so wonderful, the combination that Tsui Hark finally settled on came out and surprised the audience.
Whether it is Maggie Cheung, who is naked in the afterglow of the desert, singing provocative love songs, or Brigitte Lin raised her head and weeping with wine to relieve her sadness, or Zhou Huaian's helplessness to protect others, at least in the history of Chinese film, these three men and women The actor finally presented the love-hate entanglement that has always been cut and unreasonable in the world.
As for their reunion next time, they will have to wait for "Dongxie Xidu" and " East and West become ", one is so depressed that you want to cry, the other is so noisy that you can laugh, neither of which is "New Dragon Gate". Inn" is so wide open, bright and easy to understand.
2
A supporting role like a god assist
In Tsui Hark's "New Dragon Inn", those who are interested will find many faces that are common in his films, such as Mr. Liu Xun, who played Huang Qiying, Xiang Wentian, Purdue Cihang and Master Baiyun are admirable when they are upright, but terrifying when they are evil. He is the only one in the inn who has been dealing with the knights with the other two stalls.
is different from the factory boss in "Swordsman". In this film, Liu Xun plays the big boss with a little more sophistication, and he plays an official master who has seen the ups and downs of the sea and has seen cold and warm for a long time.
As for Xiong Xinxin outside " Ghost Foot Seven ", although she looks a lot cleaner, she still has a grumpy temper, but unfortunately there are not many scenes.
In addition, there are two characters that are almost ignored by most of the audience, that is, the two officials who originally escorted Yang's orphans and then abandoned the dark to the light. One of them is Yuan Xiangren and the other is Ren Shiguan. The former is acceptable, but the latter is very unusual:
in Tsui Hark's movie "Swordsman" as Ren Woxing, as well as Yan Zhendong in "Once Upon a Time", and in "The Lu Ding Ji" Feng Xifan, who played the role of an old eunuch who lived from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the future in " Three Heroes of the East " (starring Anita Mui , Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh), the sentence "China cannot live without an emperor" makes me remember it to this day.
As for the appearance of , Xu Jinjiang, , Donnie Yen, etc., this movie also adds a lot of color. The appearance time is not much, but it still makes the audience unforgettable.
Therefore, every character in the film has brought Tsui Hark to the extreme. There are so many wonderful characters in and out of an inn, which is really a wonderful feeling.
three
textbook martial arts
Before "New Dragon Inn", the martial arts action dramas in Hong Kong and Taiwan paid special attention to "one move and one move" -
"You" come, "I" go, the moves cannot be messed up, and the audience must see everyone's actions in the camera The location and the corresponding interaction, since the 1980s, to be precise, mainland audiences have to see such "rules" in the Huang Rihua version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". It's a bit ridiculous, but at the time, everyone was fighting like this, you can do it, right?
Tsui Hark is really on.
"New Dragon Inn" breaks this stereotyped and conventional routine, subverts the "you come and I go" before the 1990s with the fast rhythm of freehand . The more important parts to consider are whether the moves are realistic or not, and whether the characters conform to Newton's laws become less important.
As for the heroine Qiu Moyan's fight with Dongchang masters in the desert, and her trial with Jin Xiangyu in the inn, the action design and moves during the period are extremely beautiful.
Since then, martial arts is no longer purely for "fighting".
is different from Tsui Hark's predecessor Hu Jinquan Master's "Dragon Inn". Back then, Tsui Hark, who liked subversion and breakthrough, hoped to find another world, but he also understood that as long as it was between mountains and rivers, he would not be able to win against Hu Jinquan, a famous scholar in the Ming Dynasty. So he simply went to the other extreme:
The background of the story is all in the desert, and the heroic loneliness of "the desert is solitary, the long river is setting yen" is written into a love and feud.
The sense of desperation in the desolation adds a bit more tragic and solemnity to the film, and the ordinary fights seem to be more murderous in the yellow sand.
And the action design Mr. Cheng Xiaodong is even more clever:
"Let the shop's second knife cut Cao Shaoqin."
This happy foreshadowing was buried as early as when the shop assistant Diao Buyu ( Wang Tongchuan ) appeared, just to pave the way for the climax at the end of the movie.
4
Conclusion -
The children of the troubled times will not teach the idiots to love them.
I think Tsui Hark has a preference for gold inlaid jade:
It stands to reason that gold inlaid jade could have cleaned up the battlefield and then continued to open a black shop, with both money and men. But she set fire to the inn and followed Zhou Huai'an for a piece of paper. Later, Xu Laogua made Maggie Cheung a "green snake", still exuding strong coquettish and stubbornness, but it was also unforgettable by men and envied by women——
What kind of grievances? There is only love in the eyes of the old lady!
Thirty years later, Tsui Hark has become a master of Chinese martial arts movies. He created a new school of martial arts, and has always advocated the flow of technology, bringing the most advanced and developed special effects technology to the Hong Kong film industry.
It's a pity that the technology has developed, but the martial arts have lost the style of the year. In the martial arts movies with infinite dazzling skills, more special effects are piled up.
On the contrary, in the later "'s martial arts ", when I saw the paranoid Feng Yuxiu ( Wang Baoqiang ) was shot to death by the policewoman, it seemed that I finally understood a kind of martial arts warrior back then. Desolation and helplessness in the desert:
Kung fu is no match for foreign guns, and martial arts gradually enter the desert. Since then,
has been thinking back to the past:
only used a piece of white yarn, a white horse and a sword to make Brigitte Lin transform from the undefeated East to a heroic girl who draws a sword to help her.
only used the sentence "Those who don't look at me are not men", and Maggie Cheung became the cinnabar mole in the hearts of men, hot and enthusiastic. Insanely scary and a little wanting to get over it. Martial arts like
, who are righteous and eager, have been intriguing for 30 years.
