"What kind of sword is it? A golden ring sword; what kind of sword is it? A sword of shame for the moon."
As soon as the familiar melody sounded and the lyrics came out, my thoughts suddenly flew back to 29 years ago. The image of the white-browed hero came to mind.
These seemingly bizarre lyrics are from the TV series "White Eyebrow Hero" broadcast in 1995. This is the origin of martial arts dramas in mainland China and became popular all over the country as soon as it was broadcast.
According to Shan Tianfang's narration, the White-Eyebrow Hero "has a face like a purple sheep's liver, a water snake's waist, three curves, big teeth with black roots, a pair of white eyebrows, the corners of the eyes drooping downwards, and the corners of the mouth turning upwards, "Double flower-arranged darts, carrying a large gold-ringed sword on his back," he still spoke with a Shanxi accent.
Although this image is not as handsome as other heroes, he is brave, powerful in martial arts, resourceful, open-minded and studious, and has a bold and righteous personality. It can be said that he has all the advantages of a hero.
In the TV series "The White Eyebrow Hero", Zhao Hengxuan's acting skills have to be admired, and he vividly portrays the upright character of Xu Liang, the white eyebrow hero, who likes to fight against injustice.
It is worth mentioning that some members of the Noon Sunshine team can also be seen in this drama, such as Kong Sheng who was the cameraman at that time, deputy cameraman Hou Hongliang, and Wang Yongquan (Langya) who played the role of the leader of Qingfeng Village in the drama. Xia Shouzun of the list) and so on.
In addition, many stories that the audience did not know also happened during the filming process.
01. The director chose Zhao Hengxuan against all opinions. During the filming process, Wia broke three times.
Zhao Hengxuan undoubtedly subverted the ugly appearance of Xu Liang in Shan Tianfang's work, and instead acted with a righteous look.
However, the appearance still retains the characteristics of "white eyebrows", and in order to make this image more natural, Zhao Hengxuan needs to shave all his eyebrows and glue on a knitted white eyebrow.
And Zhao Hengxuan got this role because of a sentence he said back then.
Back then, Zhao Hengxuan and Wang Wenjie were both Peking Opera actors. One was a martial arts actor and the other was a civil and martial arts veteran. The two hit it off at the dinner table.
At that time, Wang Wenjie said to Zhao Hengxuan: "Your plays are very good. If I direct in the future, I will definitely ask you to act."
When Wang Wenjie got the opportunity to direct "The White Eyebrow Hero", he rejected many offers. As for the actor to play Xu Liang, I firmly chose Zhao Hengxuan against all opinions.
This is also very important to Zhao Hengxuan, because his financial situation was not good at the time and he almost lived on his wife's income.
Because of this, Zhao Hengxuan cherished this opportunity and tried his best to shoot as well as possible even if the shooting conditions were difficult.
During the filming process, the crew used wires that were only 1 mm thick (normally they should be 3 mm and 5 mm). During the filming process, Zhao Hengxuan experienced three wire breakage accidents, causing him two bone fractures and one fracture.
When talking about this experience many years later, Zhao Hengxuan said with fear: "If I had stopped earlier, someone else might have played the White Eyebrow Hero."
Although the crew was poor enough and the equipment was a little rudimentary, they had the dedication of the actors and the dedication of the crew. major.
After the TV series was aired, it received great attention. Zhao Hengxuan can be said to have become famous overnight. There are always piles of letters written by fans of the drama.
02. The lead actor's remuneration is only 300 yuan per episode, and the maximum is 500 yuan.
The TV series "The White Eyebrow Hero" has a total of 34 episodes, which is not too short. In order to ensure the broadcast effect, the crew all shot on-site and in real scenes, with a shooting cycle of 6 months, and 4 months for post-editing.
However, the total cost of filming the entire drama was only 2.3 million, which is completely different from the investment of tens or even hundreds of millions in many TV dramas nowadays.
In order to save money at that time, Wia chose 1 mm thickness, and the actor's salary was not as high as it is now, let alone "a daily salary of 2.08 million."
As the leading actor at that time, Zhao Hengxuan's salary was only 300 yuan per episode, and the highest was only 500 yuan. After filming the entire drama, Zhao Hengxuan's salary was only about 10,000 yuan.
As a director of a TV series, Wang Wenjie only gets paid 40 yuan per episode. Even so, the actors on the set had no objections.
But such a poor crew, in such an era with limited shooting technology, has delivered a work of conscience.
not only has excellent script quality and ups and downs of the storyline, but the acting skills of the actors are also top-notch, presenting the audience with scenes of chivalrous and courageous martial arts.
plays a decisive role in the history of mainland martial arts dramas and serves as a milestone.
03. Zhang Zijian didn’t know martial arts at all, but he just learned Kung Fu on the crew.
As the third male lead in the play, Wang Shun can be said to be a rather tragic character. He spent his whole life in hatred and revenge, but in the end he did not Able to take revenge, but ultimately unable to escape the fate of death.
is such a character who is born for revenge. Even if he is not a martial arts master, he still has some skills in his body.
However, the actor Zhang Zijian who plays Wang Shun did not know any martial arts before filming. He initially thought that as the third male lead, he might not have so many fighting scenes, but mostly literary ones. However, he did not expect that the role of Wang Shun has a lot of Martial arts scenes.
But there was no way. He had already joined the crew at that time, so he had to bite the bullet. However, Zhang Zijian did not "trick" the director and the crew, but practiced silently on the crew.
While everyone was resting, Zhang Zijian was also practicing kung fu. In this way, he gradually got good at kung fu, and even fought against Zhao Hengxuan without falling behind.
is so dedicated and attaches so much importance to this drama and character, Zhang Zijian has further increased his popularity with the popularity of the TV series.
Moreover, director Wang Wenjie noticed his hard work on the crew. After "The White Eyebrow Hero", he even invited Zhang Zijian to continue to participate in "Nineteen Sisters" and play the leading role.
Through the drama "Gan Nineteen Sisters", Zhang Zijian is completely familiar to the audience. Since then, he has successfully created two classic characters, Yuan Fang and Yan Shuangying.
04, the TV series was once criticized by Shan Tianfang's book fans.
"The White Eyebrow Hero" is adapted from Shan Tianfang's long storytelling. It already had many book fans before the TV series was filmed.
"There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people." Every book fan has a different understanding of the characters and plots in storytelling.
However, after the TV series was broadcast, there were still many points that were complained by book fans: First, the golden ring sword of White Eyebrow Hero Xu Liang became a seven-ring sword, and the weapons of Bai Yunrui and Xia Suiliang also changed. , which is far from the description in the original work.
Secondly, the plot has also been changed to some extent. The old swordsman Long Yunfeng in the original book has an affair with Xu Liang in the TV series. Xu Liang also calls her "Dragon Sister", which made book fans say "cannot accept it".
In addition, in the original work, Bai Yunrui married Lu Xiaoying, but in the play, Lu Xiaoying died of poisoning.
However, the TV series itself is an adaptation of the original work. It is understandable that some changes will be made in the plot according to the development of the story. There is no need to be so harsh.
Today, 29 years have passed since the broadcast of "The White Eyebrow Hero". Although it seems now that the production of this drama is a bit rough, after all, the shooting conditions and technology at the time were limited, but the plot of the TV series and the actors' The acting skills all prove that this is an excellent martial arts drama. (Written by: Xi Chuangxue)
