On February 20, 1987, "Heroes" premiered in Hong Kong, marking its 37th anniversary. Today we will talk about the behind-the-scenes story of this most luxurious hero movie in the 1980s.
This film and "江湖情" form the upper and lower parts, jointly produced by McDonald and Xiang Huasheng, produced by McDonald, written by Xiao Ruoyuan and Wen Jun, directed by Huang Tailai, and photographed by Qiu Litao.
In front of the stage, there is a lineup of movie kings and queens such as Chow Yun-fat, Alex Man, Danny Lee, Alan Tam, , Andy Lau, Ko Jun-hsiung, Yang Qun, Wang Xiaofeng, Carina Lau, , etc. The lineup is quite prosperous.
Even the two supporting actors, Tsui Jin Jiang and Cheng Kui'an, are both hall-level villain professionals in the Hong Kong film industry. Such a terrifying lineup is rare in the entire gangster movie system.
In 1986, in the Hong Kong film industry, which has always been dominated by comedies and action films, "heroes" rarely led the wave of hero films.
At that time, people from all walks of life were eyeing Chow Yun-fat, the ace in the film industry. In addition to "Dragon and Tiger", which was started by New Art City, Ke Junxiong "invited" him to make a guest appearance in "Yibenwuyan", and Deng Guangrong asked him to be his voice in "The Fight between Dragons and Tigers".
Seeing such a battle, Xiang Huasheng was not willing to be lonely. But Yong Sheng has always put entertainment first. He mainly produces comedies and is not good at gangster films. Therefore, Xiang Huasheng invited McDonald, a master of male thieves and female prostitutes, to jointly produce this flashy "Heroes".
Many of the leading actors in this film have given excellent performances, among which Wan Ziliang is the most outstanding. He plays the role of an ambitious and ruthless boss to perfection. Therefore, this film is also the most popular and widely circulated representative of Wan Zi. One of the works.
Since his debut, Man Tsz-leung has been a favorite of Li TV. He once followed McDonald's bravely across the world and fought in Mount Wutai. After moving to the film industry, Mak often provided him with excellent performance opportunities. Even the original casting choice for "The Lame Man" was him.
Xiao Ruoyuan believes: Wan Zi's acting skills are very good. He is quite mature in the early stage and a little exaggerated in the middle stage. It would be better if he can be more restrained. Although it's a little over-exerted, this style just makes it "semi-villain". 's character is both good and evil, and it perfectly suits Wanzi's play style.
I still remember that the first scene at the beginning of the film was the funeral in the cemetery. Wanzi spent a lot of time thinking about this scene. As a result, he actually put on the kind of sunglasses that can open the lenses, and flip the lenses up and down with a "plop".
In this film, Wan Zi's role is the third protagonist and the first villain. Although he cannot shake Fa Ge's leading role, there is still a lot of room for him to play. The reason why he designed this way is actually to deliberately steal the show. And judging from the actual results, he also succeeded.
In addition, before filming a negotiation scene, Wan Zi deliberately rejected Fa Ge's proposal to confront the scene in advance. During the actual shooting, he was aggressive, standing up and moving unexpectedly, trying to move the camera and monopolize the scene. And Fa Ge suddenly poured a glass of water on Wan Zi's face to stabilize the situation.
Wanzi also took over the role, and the temporary responses of both parties were quite exciting. In this negotiation scene, the two sides were at war with each other, and it was quite exciting. It is no exaggeration to say that in this scene where the two kings are having a great show, the performances of other actors will be eclipsed no matter how good they are.
In this movie, Wan Zi showed his sharpness and was very popular, and he once stabilized the protagonist Fa Ge. Because of this, he was praised by later generations of movie fans as the only man who could suppress Fa Ge's aura.
Of course, this statement is limited to a discussion of character design, and there is no need to escalate it to a comparison of actor strength. is meaningless, but anyone who has successfully passed compulsory education will not take it too seriously.
Fa Ge has a broad playing field, strong tolerance, and can stimulate his opponent's status at any time. One of him and Wan Zi is restrained, the other crazy, and their two extreme performances together hold up the entire movie.
In addition to the wonderful acting competition between Chow Yun-fat and Man Tsz-leung, the behind-the-scenes production of McDonald's is also quite interesting. The main scene at the end of "Heroes" was filmed in Qinglongtou.McDonald led the staff to inspect the location and planned to rent a villa for filming, but was sternly refused by an old watchman:
"I haven't rented this place to others for filming in more than ten years. It used to be My brother-in-law is named McDonald. During the filming of "Ten Strange Cases", he threw the boy into the swimming pool and almost drowned the boy. also left a lot of blood in the swimming pool. It couldn't be washed clean for three months. It smelled so bad. Post it! I will never use anyone else to film movies in the future!"
What is funny and sad is that this old man did not recognize that the middle-aged man talking to him in front of him was his brother-in-law more than ten years ago. ——McDonald’s! What kind of evil was done in this villa?
After Lao Mai pretended to be crazy and stalked him, the old man finally agreed to borrow it again. However, he never expected that this time the fun would be bigger than "Ten Mysterious Cases" because the crew was filming a serial explosion scene in a villa.
After the shooting, the villa was almost razed to the ground, which made the old man look confused. What’s even more funny and sad is that old man didn’t know until the end that the same villa was lent to the same person.
After "Heroes" was released, the box office response was very good, and it was once on par with "Dragon Tiger". Xiang Huasheng believes that there is still a lot of material that has been shot that has not been fully utilized, enough to make another movie, pursue the victory, and continue to sell money.
So, Xiang Huasheng and Mai Danxiong decided to edit the prequel "The Love of Rivers and Lakes" using discarded scenes. also recruited Wang Jing to assist in the screenwriting and add a character named "Mai Yingxiong". As a result, they hired singing superstar Alan Tam to fill in the scenes in just four days.
At the end of May 1987, less than three months before the completion of "Heroes", the prequel "The Love of Rivers and Lakes" was released, with a box office of 21 million, and the total box office of the first and second episodes exceeded 40 million.
The recycling and reuse of discarded materials can allow the film company to make another fortune. It can be called an excellent display of flexibility and flexibility in the industrialized production of Hong Kong films, and it cannot but be admired.
After "A Better Tomorrow", most of the films that followed the trend were too cool but not enough in content, ruining the reputation of heroism and violent aesthetics.
"Heroes" adheres to the moral principles of heroes, portrays the true nature of heroes, and adds a bit of heroic tenderness to the violent and bloody world.
