Some people say that 1994 was the year God wanted to watch movies. In this year, 14 classics of film history were born in Hollywood.
"Forrest Gump" competes with "The Shawshank Redemption".
The former won 6 awards at the 67th Academy Awards (1995) because it was more in line with mainstream American values;
the latter had a poor box office when it was released, but the video sales did miracles after it was released, and it was praised by movie fans. It is a movie that "life is not complete without watching it", and it is also the number one movie on Douban and IMDb.
James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger collaborated for the third time to launch "True Lies".
This entertaining action blockbuster was released in mainland theaters the following year in 1995 and grossed 103 million yuan at the box office, becoming a symbol of the marketization of Chinese films.
Steven Spielberg, who is as famous as Cameron, also handed in a "full score".
His "Schindler's List" was fully released on February 4, 1994, and won 7 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the 66th Academy Awards of the same year, telling the world that It proves that he can not only make commercial blockbusters, but also be equally good at artistic films.
In the same year, Luc Besson released his masterpiece "The Killer Is Not So Cold";
Quentin Tarantino also released "Pulp Fiction" and collaborated with Oliver Stone on "Pulp Fiction". The controversial violent movie "Natural Born Killers";
Jim Carrey's famous work "The Man in Disguise" established him as the king of Hollywood comedy.
"Speed" made Keanu Reeves famous overnight.
Brad Pitt has also joined the ranks of Hollywood's first-line movie stars with "Days of Love" and "Interview with the Vampire" with Tom Cruise;
There is also Johnny Depp's "Ed. Wood" and Hugh Grant's "Four Weddings and a Funeral" are both films that you will never tire of watching.
Looking back at our Chinese movies, we also achieved brilliant results in 1994.
Not only is the Hong Kong film market, known as the "Hollywood of the East", flourishing, but the mainland and Taiwan have also released many excellent films.
Now, looking back at the year 1994, when the Chinese film industry was "competing among the best", the story behind it is actually more exciting than the movie.
1. Chow Yun-fat rejected Wong Jing, and Stephen Chow became a director for the first time. He did not use Ng Mang-tat, but still made a lot of money
"Double Weekly" is an iconic figure in Hong Kong, among which Stephen Chow is the unrivaled comedy in the 90s King of.
His movies often require low investment and high profits, so his net worth is the highest in Hong Kong. From "Star Boy" to "Star Master" he is gradually called.
As the most popular action movie star after Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan is not only popular in China, but also has a high reputation in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, and European and American countries.
In comparison, Chow Yun-fat, who has a vague positioning, does not seem to have the appeal of these two people. But in fact, Chow Yun-fat has a wide range of dramas. "If you don't make a sound, you will be a blockbuster."
The Hong Kong local box office champion in 1994 was Chow Yun-fat's "God of Gamblers 2".
In 1989, Wang Jing assembled Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Wang Zuxian and Zhang Min to film "God of Gamblers", and even the boss Xiang Huaqiang was roped in to play supporting roles.
This comedy film that combines gambling, action and gunfights sold a box office of HK$36.29 million, becoming the box office champion of the year.
However, in 1990, Stephen Chow came out. "The God of Gamblers" directed by Yuan Kui and Liu Zhenwei obviously followed the trend of "God of Gamblers", but it was "outperforming", with a box office result of 41.33 million Hong Kong dollars, breaking the "Gambler". "God" box office record.
In the same year, "The Gambler", co-produced with Wang Jing and Andy Lau, also achieved an astonishing result of HK$40.34 million.
I thought that such a heaven-defying box office record would be difficult to break again, but Wong Jing successfully persuaded Chow Yun-fat, who had been dormant for a year, to come back to film "God of Gamblers 2".
This time, Wang Jing arranged for Gao Jin a powerful and brutal opponent, Qiu Xiaochi, played by "Master Wen" Wu Xingguo, which also brought enough freshness to the audience.
"God of Gamblers 2" once again topped the box office with HK$52.53 million. In the same year, "Shaolin", a collaboration between Chow Yun-fat and Liu Zhenwei, also ranked among the top ten at the box office with a revenue of HK$37.03 million, which shows his status in the world. Unshakable.
But after that, Wong Jing wanted to strike while the iron was hot and release "God of Gamblers 3", but was ruthlessly rejected by Chow Yun-fat, because he actually hated gambling since he was a child, so Wong Jing had to find Lai Ming to make a prequel.
Chow Yun-fat predicted that the development prospects of Hong Kong movies were not optimistic, and it would be difficult for him to make a breakthrough. After participating in Wei Jiahui's "Peace Hotel" the following year, he set off for Hollywood.
The box office failure of "Ji Gong" the year before made Johnnie John depressed for a whole year, and it also affected Stephen Chow to some extent.
In 1994, Stephen Chow did not dare to take risks, but continued to cooperate with comedy professionals Li Lichi and Wang Jing to launch three movies: "The King of Destruction", "The Nine-Pin Sesame Official" and "Domestic Lingling Paint", all of which successfully squeezed into the box office. top ten.
During this period, Stephen Chow's image style became increasingly mature, and he began to try to add new popular elements to his movies.
For example, "Lord of Destruction" has added a lot of comic elements. The title of the film comes from the comic "Lord of Destruction" by Lord Basumori, and the nickname of the senior brother "The Human Weapon" comes from "The Human Weapon" by Lord Basumori. "Devilman" comes from "Devilman" by Go Nagai.
The film also features the Terminator, Coffee Cat, Iron Sand Palm, Iron Shirt, Blood Drop, Salted Egg Superman, Indian God Oil, "The Legend of Heaven and Dragon Slayer", "Jin Ping Mei", Wen Tailai, etc., all of which can The elements that serve the story are all at your fingertips.
Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat worked well together and contributed their best performances, making this movie a classic in Stephen Chow's film list.
"Nine Levels of Sesame Official" is the best collaboration between Stephen Chow and Wong Jing.
As a talented screenwriter, Wang Jing is very good at discovering and utilizing the strengths of actors.
For example, he collaborated with Jet Li in "Once Upon a Time: The Chicken Fights the Centipede", which combined nonsensical comedy with Jet Li's master image, and was able to produce a good film with strong selling points, no less impressive than Tsui Hark.
In 1993, CTV's "Bao Qingtian" became popular throughout Southeast Asia. Wang Jing also wanted to take advantage of this trend and shoot a public case-themed movie.
However, Wong Jing, who was at the peak of his IQ, did not seek cooperation from Jin Chaoqun. Instead, he and Stephen Chow created a replica of Bao Gong, "Bao Longxing". Stephen Chow was also responsible for lighting and art, integrating nonsensical elements into the film.
Although Wong Jing was the director of the movie, during filming, Stephen Chow became the "super director" on the set.
Wong Jing is well aware of Stephen Chow's pursuit of excellence in plot and camera presentation, and while controlling the overall situation, he gave him enough room to play freely.
Compared with Johnnie To's "The Death Judge", the plot of "The Nine-Rank Sesame Official" is more unrestrained and has better effects.
"Domestic Lingling Paint", a collaboration with Li Lichi, was the first movie that Stephen Chow participated in directing.
Different from previous Stephen Chow movies, the creation of "Domestic Lingling Paint" is based on an all-round spoof of the Hollywood spy film "007" series. This is a Hong Kong comedy film and the first attempt to parody "Laughing Through the Iron Curtain" Waiting for a kind of imitation of nonsensical European and American movies.
The golden gun used by the villain in the film is from "007: The Man with the Golden Gun". Agent Linglingqi's weapons, the butcher knife and the flying knife, are both from martial arts movies, with distinctive local characteristics.
As an agent in logistics, Dawenxi is responsible for weapons development, but the weapons he develops are all weird and useless weapons, which add a lot of laughter to the movie.
Despite the absence of Ng Mang-tat, the film still won the audience with its solid script and the outstanding performances of supporting actors such as Anita Yuen, Luo Jiaying, Chen Baolian and Zheng Zu, and achieved a high box office of 37.52 million Hong Kong dollars.
"Domestic Lingling Paint" is also a landmark film in which Stephen Chow's personal style has matured. Among his many works, it ranks second only to the "Westward Journey" series.
2. Jackie Chan and Liu Jialiang "turned against each other". Jet Li's best action movie was only released for 2 weeks before it was removed from the shelves
Hong Kong's two action superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li faced off head-to-head in 1994.
In order to help the newly established Action Stuntmen Guild to build a venue, Jackie Chan and Lau Kar-leung collaborated for the first time to release the action film "Drunken Master 2".
Anita Mui, Ti Lung, Huang Rihua, Lu Huiguang and other stars joined the cast, and the entire film was shot on the Jiahe Studio, which is extremely frugal.
Liu Jialiang was at the helm of the action design. Several fight scenes in the film showed a hard-fought and hard-fought routine rarely seen in previous Jackie Chan films, which was refreshing to the audience.
However, when designing the final fight scene at the end of the film, the two people had different opinions.
In order to make the protagonist Huang Feihong fight brilliantly, Jackie Chan designed him to go through a group fight and unleash his potential in a critical moment to turn defeat into victory.
Liu Jialiang's father, Liu Zhan, studied under Lin Sairong. As the direct descendant of Huang Feihong's Hongquan, Liu Jialiang naturally did not want to see his ancestor beaten into that "bear look".
Due to the dispute, Liu Jialiang left the set with Liu Jiaban in anger, and the remaining fighting scenes were taken over by Chengjiaban. Therefore, we see two different styles of martial arts throughout the film.
Since "Drunken Master" is Jackie Chan's famous IP, it naturally attracted the attention of Hong Kong people. After the film was released, it achieved a high box office of HK$40.97 million, ranking third in the box office list, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Action Director.
Among the several films competing with "Drunken Master 2" for this award, the most powerful one is "Fist of Heroes", a collaboration between Jet Li and Yuen Woo-Ping.
Jet Li decided to remake Bruce Lee's classic "Fist of Fury" due to doubts at the time that he could not make a fashion film. Due to copyright reasons, the movie was renamed "Fist of Fury". On the basis of retaining the framework of the original story,
director Chen Jiashang reshaped the character of Chen Zhen based on Jet Li's own personality traits, making him avant-garde, calm, radical, and decisive.
The addition of combat master Billy Chou, karate master Yasuaki Kurata and Chang Chek's close disciple Qian Xiaohao, as well as realistic martial arts action designed by Yuen Woo-Ping, give the film a hard-core temperament rarely seen in Hong Kong films.
and is still sought after by movie fans all over the world today and is regarded as a rare classic in kung fu movies.
Unfortunately, "Fist of Heroes" was replaced after only two weeks of release, with a box office of HK$14.79 million, and it also narrowly lost to "Drunken Master 2" at the Academy Awards.
If we want to analyze the reasons for the failure, Pi Ge believes that the mistake was in the "topic selection". Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" occupies a sacred position in the hearts of Hong Kong people. No matter how good "Fist of Fury" was, It is also difficult to replace.
Jackie Chan only had one movie in 1994, while Jet Li, who was in his high-production period, released three.
In addition to "Fist of Heroes", his "The Five New Shaolin Ancestors" and "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" are also masterpieces that can never be tired of, and the action designer Yuan Jiaban also received two nominations for the best action director, It's a pity that they all lost to "Drunken Master 2".
In terms of box office performance, "The Five New Shaolin Patriarchs" (produced by Yongsheng), which was the highest among the three movies, ranked 15th on the box office list with only 19.39 million Hong Kong dollars. The box office of "The Bodyguard of Zhongnanhai" was only 11.19 million Hong Kong dollars. None of them are ideal.
Therefore, although Jet Li was the most popular mainland movie star in Hong Kong in the 1990s, his box office appeal is still difficult to compare with the "two-week success".
Brother Pi believes that there are three reasons for this phenomenon:
First, Jet Li’s Zhengdong Company is a small company, and it will be difficult to obtain high-ranking films in the competition with large companies like Jiahe. ;
The second is that compared to the seriousness of Jet Li's movies, Hong Kong people prefer action comedies;
The third is that Jet Li is a mainlander, and Hong Kong people are somewhat xenophobic.
Therefore, Jet Li's development in Hong Kong in the 1990s was not as smooth as imagined. He also faced the survival pressure of poor box office performance and company losses.
When he saw that the Hong Kong film market was increasingly sluggish and his own development also encountered bottlenecks, Jet Li finally chose to go to Hollywood.
3. Wong Pak Ming's "breakout", Chen Kexin's literary film made Anita Yuen popular, Tsui Hark failed 4 times, Wong Kar Wai unexpectedly became the biggest "winner"
In 1994, among the top 10 Hong Kong box office, except for 3 imported blockbusters (" In addition to "Speed", "True Lies" and "Forrest Gump"), there are 6 movies in the "bi-weekly 10%" movies, which shows that these three people have a solid position in the Hong Kong film industry.
Huang Baiming and Gao Zhisen's "The Rich Family" ranked fifth with a box office of 37.37 million Hong Kong dollars. It is the only movie in the top 10 that does not have the participation of "Double Monday 10%".
As early as the New Art City days, Huang Baiming knew that the Spring Festival and comedy movies were a perfect match. "The Good News" in 1988 and "Family Fun" in 1989 both achieved very good results.
In 1991, New Arts City was dissolved due to the withdrawal of Mai Jia. With the support of the company behind the scenes, Princess Jin, Huang Baiming decided to go it alone and established Oriental Films, insisting on making comedy films.
The 1992 Lunar New Year film "A Family Affair" won the runner-up at the box office with 48.99 million Hong Kong dollars; the 1993 "Flower Field" won the third place at the box office with 35.48 million Hong Kong dollars, which is enough to prove that his judgment of the market is accurate.
These two movies have established a "囍事" movie model. There will be three couples in the film, each developing an independent story, and finally the union of the three couples will serve as a happy ending.
"The Rich Man" is also a work created under this model. The audience is happy to see such a funny movie with a happy ending and everyone is happy during the Spring Festival.
Although Stephen Chow is missing, the additions of Tony Leung Ka Fai, Leslie Cheung, Lau Ching Wan, Kwan Tak Hing, Wong Chan, Joseph Tsao and Cheng Yuling also add a lot of color to the movie.
It is worth mentioning that Leslie Cheung and Mo Shunyun are a couple in the film. Mo Shunyun was the love of Leslie Cheung's life. Before his death, he always cared about Mo Shunyun. Looking back on this movie now, it is inevitably sad.
Gao Zhisen does not only make comedies. His other song and dance romance film "I Have a Date with Spring" also achieved good box office results.
This is a film adapted from the Hong Kong Repertory Theater's famous play of the same name. It is similar in style to "Thirteen Sons of the South China Sea" and has distinctive Hong Kong local characteristics and rich cultural connotations. The box office result of HK$21.41 million also proves that Hong Kong people are very fond of it. love.
At the 14th Academy Awards, "I Have a Date with Spring" also received 7 nominations, and finally won Best Screenplay (Du Guowei), Best Supporting Actress (Luo Guanlan) and Best New Actor (Liu Yali) 3 awards.
The series of the same name launched by ATV in 1996, written by Du Guowei and directed by Ye Zhaoyi, also achieved good ratings.
The literary film with the best box office performance in 1994 was Peter Chan's "Golden Boughs and Leaves". This romantic comedy about a triangle relationship not only earned HK$29.13 million at the box office, but also won Anita Yuen the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Her short hair style in the film is eye-catching, and her superb acting skills not only conquered the audience, but also conquered the Academy Award judges.
The musician Gu Jiaming in the film is Leslie Cheung's true performance. Some people say that they can recognize He Baorong, Twelve Young Masters, Song Zijie, Ouyang Feng and Ning Caichen, but they cannot distinguish Leslie Cheung and Gu Jiaming because He is so similar to this character.
Two years later, Peter Chan made another film, "Golden Leaves 2". Both of these films are masterpieces starring Leslie Cheung.
But the biggest winner in art films this year was not Ko Chi-sen and Peter Chan, but Wong Kar-wai.
His two films, "Chungking Express" and "Ashes of Time", caused investors to lose all their money, but they received a total of 19 nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. , 7 awards including Best Actor and Best Cinematography.
"Chungking Express" tells the emotional experiences of two police officers numbered 223 and 663. It is Faye Wong's masterpiece.
stars Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung and Carina Chow. They are all handsome men and beauties. The image style is bizarre, the lines and dialogues are refined, and there is a strong petty bourgeoisie sentiment. It is very good now, but the box office at that time was only 7.68 million Hong Kong dollars.
"Ashes of Time" is adapted from Jin Yong's famous work "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", but its story has long been separated from the original work. It attempts to deconstruct Ouyang Feng's "evil" and Hong Qigong's "evil" from a unique subjective perspective. "Xia" and Huang Yaoshi's "love".
Sammo Hung's participation not only designed dazzling action scenes for the movie, but also played a significant role in the creation and revision of the script.
Unfortunately, he only received one nomination for Best Action Director that year and failed to win the award in the end.
"Ashes of Time" was originally a 1993 movie. Due to Wong Kar-wai's slow filming schedule, it was delayed until 1994 and its style was difficult for ordinary audiences to understand. It was finally released for 26 days and the box office was only HK$9.02 million. .
If the box-office failure of Wong Kar-wai's films was predictable (his films are inherently difficult to sell), then Tsui Hark's failure is somewhat surprising.
He has produced and directed 4 films in total, none of which did well at the box office. But when we look back now, we find that they are all remarkable classic films.
First of all, he served as the producer. "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" directed by Lin Lingdong was a reboot of the classic martial arts IP in old Shanghai during the Republic of China. It starred the rising martial arts star Ji Tiansheng and spent a lot of money to create a real-life scene in the mainland. Shoot.
The movie constructs an eerie underground prison. Its style is very bold and avant-garde. The bloody and violent scenes stimulate the nerves, but on the contrary make the audience disgusted.
Although Li Ruotong, who is at the peak of his looks, Lin Quan, a powerful mainland star, and Yang Sheng from the family team are joining the cast, the action design is also very particular, and several fight scenes are spectacular, but the Hong Kong audience did not buy it.
Coupled with the scandal between Ji Tiansheng and Li Ruotong, Ji Tiansheng's character collapsed and he was called a "married scumbag" by Hong Kong people. This also made the film's failure worse, with the final box office only being HK$1.82 million.
"Butterfly Lovers" directed by Tsui Hark himself, starring Wu Qilong and Yang Caini, using popular stars to interpret the classic love story, using Tsui Hark's unique perspective to criticize the feudal marriage system and interpret the true meaning of love.
From today's perspective, the excellence of "Butterfly Lovers" has long surpassed Shaw Brothers' "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" in 1964, but its box office that year was only HK$18.64 million.
Another movie by Tsui Hark is "Once Upon a Time in the City: Dragon City".
Since Jet Li left, the "Once Upon a Time" series taken over by Zhao Wenzhuo has completed a purely commercial action film. The previous film "Wind of the King" still had a box office of 11.19 million, which made Tsui Hark feel that this IP still has potential to be tapped, so he assembled "Dragon City Destroyer" was launched with a full lineup.
The movie begins when the Eight-Power Allied Forces occupy Beijing and Huang Feihong drags his family back to the south.
After arriving in Guangzhou, Huang Feihong and others met with Thirteenth Aunt, Zhu Zhurong, and Yaca Su, but they had to face the pirate Cheung Po Tsai.
Because there are too many characters, the story line of the movie becomes very complicated, there are many and chaotic action scenes, and many gunfight scenes are added, which makes the audience confused.
Compared with the previous four works, the length of "Dragon City Destroyer" is also much shorter, only 101 minutes. Even the love run between the couple Huang Feihong and Aunt Thirteen throughout the series has an ending. Didn't explain clearly.
Even loyal fans of this series will find it unsatisfactory, so the box office was only 4.9 million, and this IP has come to an end.
There is also a mainland film "The Sword" produced by Tsui Hark, adapted from Lu Xun's short story, starring Ma Jingwu, telling the story of the general Mo Ye who forges a sword.
The movie is very loyal to Lu Xun's original work and has the same sense of humor as Lu Xun's works. Unfortunately, it was not released in Hong Kong and has little influence in the mainland.
In addition to the above, "The Overlord of Western Chu", "Flying Tiger Ambition", "Heaven and Earth", "The Boy in the Laughing Forest", "The Six-Finger Piano Demon", etc. were also released in 1994. piece.
4. Jiang Wen and Zhang Yimou "Available as Gods", Ang Lee filmed Douban 9.2
html In the 1990s, although the mainland's film production could not be compared with that of Hong Kong in its glory days, Jiang Wen's "Sunny Days" and Zhang Yimou's "Sunny Days" also appeared A great movie like "Alive". "Sunny Day" is adapted from Wang Shuo's short story "The Ferocious Animals". It is also Jiang Wen's directorial debut. It tells the story of Ma Xiaojun, a boy in the army compound, and Milan, a girl. It ranks No. 120 in Douban's Top 250 movies, with some 625,000 people scored 8.8 points.
Xia Yu won the Silver Lion Award for Best Actor at the 51st Venice Film Festival with this film, and Jiang Wen also became famous with this film.
"Alive" is adapted from the novel by contemporary writer Yu Hua. It won the Jury Prize in the Main Competition, Best Actor (Ge You) and the Catholic Humanitarian Spirit Award at the 47th Cannes Film Festival.
is ranked No. 29 in Douban’s Top 250 movies, with a score of 9.3 points.
In addition, Ang Lee in Taiwan also filmed "Eating Man and Woman", which was the best Taiwanese film in 1994. It starred Lang Xiong, Yang Guimei, Wu Qianlian, and Sylvia Chang. It tells the story of Taiwanese Chinese cuisine master Lao Zhu and his three daughters. s story.
"Eat Drink Man and Woman" also entered the Douban Movie Top 250, ranking No. 61, with 634,000 people giving it a score of 9.2.
At the end of the article, recalling the past, the prosperous years, Chinese movies are blooming, which is eye-catching for thousands of years. I look forward to the future of Chinese movies and recreate the glory of 1994!
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