From "Sacred Gambling" to "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" and "Journey to the West", Stephen Chow in the 1990s has always been with the aura of genius, breaking the box office record and at the same time clustering the peak of nonsense. In 1994, Stephen Chow directed and performed "Domestic Lingling Paint" and "The God of Cookery", which made him live up to his genius.
By the end of the last century, Stephen Chow had a sudden change of style and filmed the autobiographical film "The King of Comedy", which was controversial and also ushered in a watershed in Stephen Chow's career.
It is true that "The King of Comedy" contains too many private goods. In Stephen Chow's past comedies, the sadness is hidden behind the laughter, such as the laughter of Tang Bohu in "Tang Bohu Points Autumn Fragrance" and the laughter of Bao Longxing in "The Nine Pins of Sesame Official". All just to hide the cold and sadness of the characters. When
waited until "The King of Comedy", Stephen Chow didn't want to hide anymore.
In 1998, Zhou Xingchi seemed to be an abruptly mature. Although the filming of "A Chinese Journey to the West" was completed only four years after the filming of the peak of nonsense, and "Through a Dragon" was just released, as his age and experience increase, his movie has become more important. Essence transformation.
used to be good at pursuing madness and restlessness in his comedy works.
can be in "The King of Comedy", but Stephen Chow began to obliterate the past "contributions." The character design becomes formal and the plot performance becomes more serious. Of course, to outsiders, Yin Tianqiu is as ridiculous as ever, but in essence, this character lacks self-strengthening, and has a sense of fatalism that a small person cannot resist.
Yes, Stephen Chow began to face the embarrassment in his heart.
This is his long-lost work reflects his heart, he wants to be a good actor.
traced back to the peak period of Stephen Chow's career. Although the stars of the 1990s had brilliant achievements, they actually failed to receive the recognition of the Golden Horse Awards. Comparing with the other two people who were also known as "Double Mondays" in 1999, Chow Yun-fat won three gold figures with his "Heroes", "Dragon and Tiger" and "A Lang's Story" in 1999, and even Jackie Chan, who is a comedic style With "Police Story" and "Mr. Crime Squad", there are two Golden Horse trophies.
So, Zhou Xingchi, who was about to step into knowing the destiny, began to seek change.
"The King of Comedy" allows Zhou Xingchi to return to the "Chaplin style" performance, so that Zhou Xingchi no longer serves purely for comedy, but also for film art and performance. What really implements this kind of change is even more. The controversial "Shaolin Football".
The 21st century has begun, and Stephen Chow also chose to start again.
If "The King of Comedy" is the first wall that Zhou Xingchi broke, allowing him to look directly at the movie and return to the original intention of acting to seek the inner branches, then "Shaolin Football" opened up a new world of Zhou Xingchi, after that He began to seek a balance between comedy and self.
You must know that in the past works of Star Master, the movie seems to be only for comedy.
such as "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" and "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier", it seems that the nonsense in the film is just his weapon, and the joke is the theme of his eternal pursuit. Therefore, he is extremely crazy, paranoid and jumping in the work, even though there is hidden sadness in it.
can be reflected on the surface and still be responsible for the audience’s laughter.
can be in "Shaolin Football", but he doesn't want to cater to the audience so much. The most direct manifestation of
is that his role is no longer static. In previous works, the role played by Stephen Chow can always be labelled with Stephen Chow, because his works are built around "Zhou Xingchi" comedy, such as arrogant, crazy, absurd and perverse.
Of course, this is not a derogatory meaning. Just like the costumes of the comedy master Chaplin in "City Lights" and "The Great Dictator", in all works, he also shows people with fat pants, torn hats, mustaches, and big-toed shoes. It is this uniformity that has created his great image in film history.
However, this kind of performance can create greatness, but it cannot be recognized nowadays. Chaplin is like Stephen Chow. At that time, despite his extraordinary reputation at the box office, he received poor results at the awards.
arrived in "Shaolin Football", Zhou Xingchi's creation began to transform from outside to inside. There is a clear classification on
genre, and a clear direction on the theme. As for the character setting and performance method, the nonsensical Zhou Xingchi has been lost, and the actor form is embedded in the film setting. In this way, Stephen Chow also gave up his previous self and began to truly regard film expression as the core.
in "Shaolin Football" at the beginning of the filmFind a clear intention, that is a dream. The story is embodied in the plot, which is the story of the poor star (played by Stephen Chow) who created the Shaolin football team and achieved success. In other characters, this idea also runs through. If
was devastated by the design of his teammates, Ming Feng (Wu Mengda) was interrupted by his right foot in a match, and Mei (Zhao Wei), who was ugly and laughed but possessed special skills.
This is the soul that Stephen Chow found for the film, about dreams.
In the film, all of them are "junk" abandoned by the times but with dreams in mind. In the noisy era, they chose to report the group to keep warm and then chase unrealistic dreams together.
Therefore, when the role setting of "Shaolin Football" is self-consistent and logical, it lacks a shell.
So the film is labelled Kung Fu type under the story about dreams. In the film, the protagonist set up a "Shaolin Team" to promote Shaolin martial arts, and he recruited seniors who know iron head skills, second seniors who can sweep the legs of the house, and third seniors who know how to use diamond masks.
In this work, Zhou Xingchi's "flowers" are much less. The nonsensical style of
in the plot has been watered down, and the absurd jokes have also been sharply reduced. On the contrary, Stephen Chow began to perform seriously, and no longer highlights the embarrassment of the role. Although in terms of expression, the way the little person faces distress is still as absurd as Zhou Xingchi’s previous works, this absurdity is more of a force forced by life.
So Stephen Chow can wear monk clothes and gag on the stage.
So Zhou Xingchi will be crazy and neurotic when being pushed out.
But the audience seems to find it difficult to laugh arrogantly, because Zhou Xingchi began to show his emotions, began to dig out the background of his heart, and told the audience that he is not an emotional comedian.
Zhou Xingchi finally truly moved from nonsense to compassion.
"Shaolin Football" represents his true transformation. Since then, "Kung Fu", "Yangtze River Seven", and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", his works continue to expand the boundaries of kung fu, fantasy, mythology, etc., and at the same time From the works to the real person Zhou Xingchi laughed less and less.
So someone said Zhou Xingchi is going backwards? Starting from "Shaolin Football"...
actually, Zhou Xingchi has grown up. Starting from "Shaolin Football", he no longer insists on being a pleasing clown, let alone being a comedian, he began to use his works. A complete interpretation of his inner pain and happiness.
He began to march towards the art of cinema in the past of comedy movies.
"If you don't have a dream, what is the difference from a salted fish?" This sentence of
comes from the golden sentence of "Shaolin Football", Zhou Xingchi is talking about himself. When "Shaolin Football" was released, Stephen Chow was about to enter his early years, and he also had a different understanding of Wulitou and began to pursue higher goals.
In the previous works of Stephen Chow, the joke is the self-torture of the performer, so in his works he almost stubbornly expresses through laughter and curse, but with the increase of experience, Stephen Chow has become more and more mature. The mature can face ridicule and make things difficult. Ripped performance in the movie.
In fact, the star in "Shaolin Football" is more like his true self. In reality, he gags to make people happy, just like the idealist star in the movie, lobbying to save everyone in the quagmire. On the other hand, Zhou Xingchi, like the stars in the movie, always accepts self-denial and torture.
Zhou Xingchi, who finally dissected himself, was finally recognized by the Academy Award.
In 2002, "Shaolin Football" directed and performed by Stephen Chow won seven awards at the Golden Statue Award, among which Stephen Chow won the Golden Statue winner for the first time. Of course, for Zhou Xingchi, award recognition is of little importance to him, after all, his genius does not require an award certificate.
However, this award internally promoted Stephen Chow's style transformation to the end.
must know that after the appearance of "Shaolin Football" at that time, it was questioned, especially the nonsensical expression was downplayed and Zhou Xingchi's performance was abandoned. It seems that everyone thinks that Stephen Chow's genius road is dead, but in fact Stephen Chow's genius continues after "Shaolin Football".
just opted to perform in another form as the times changed.
Times are different, and Wushou will die with the wave after all.
Stephen Chow, who has entered the new century, understood this truth when he directed "The King of Comedy". The future market is not in Hong Kong, and the nonsensical model will also be innovated. So after that, Stephen ChowThere are different considerations in film production. In his new work,
no longer pursues the immutable performance, exaggeration and banter, he began to present the film in a new situation and adapt to the general trend of the new era. After all, the times are changing, the characters are changing, and the unchanged will be abandoned by the times.
So in the new century, Stephen Chow strives to change, and continuously filmed "Shaolin Football" and "Kung Fu". Although the public is not accustomed to the style change, the two works are still rare masterpieces in Chinese, and this also allowed Stephen Chow to successfully transform, and not like other Hong Kong directors...
was drowned in the self-ambush before going north.
