The author of this article: Grand Duke Petropavlovsk of Habsburg
Have you noticed that recent movies are getting worse and worse.
So much so that Li Xiaotian, the boss of my website, spends all his time tinkering with Hollywood action movies from the 1980s.
What’s so fun about Hollywood’s monotonous tough-guy muscle-man so-called “action movies”?
Jackie Chan complained about the template of Hollywood's standard tough guy action movie in his 1998 autobiographical documentary "The Legend of Jackie Chan" , which unilaterally emphasizes the strong figure of the tough guy, the clumsy movements are terrifying, and you have to take a break after a circle. It takes several seconds, so basically a tough guy who is awesome tends to kill his opponent instantly with one move. It's impossible to do a trick, otherwise it would be the slow effect that Jackie Chan had in Hollywood's " Killer ".
The ultimate in slow movements is Arnold Schwarzenegger's " The Terminator " . The slow movements just correspond to the heaviness of the machine's body, giving it a bit of a cyberpunk feel.
Among the action stars of his generation, the only one I remember who was smart was Jean-Claude Van Damme. Stephen Seagal, who was praised by Li Laoshi, was a serious Aikido master. But I can’t be flexible either.
Sometimes you can’t understand why Hollywood, which was just baptized by Bruce Lee ten years ago, was still exported by the action design of Hong Kong movies in the 1990s, and also created movies such as Quentin Tower. Lentino is such a die-hard fan.
But in fact, before the miraculous arrival of Bruce Lee, action movies from both China and the United States were pretty good.
I mean skill.
It is common knowledge that the mother body of Chinese movies was born in Shanghai, but the first movie shot in China is said to be the "Dingjunshan" starring Peking Opera actor Tan Xinpei filmed by Beijing Fengtai Photo Studio. Why is it said to be legendary? Because the film has been scattered, it only exists in descriptions in documents, and not a single frame has been handed down.
This movie should actually exist, because although we have not seen it, many people have seen it during the Republic of China, so it should not be a big problem to confirm its existence. The biggest problem is that no one knows, what is its specific content?
You must know that it is said that "Dingjun Mountain" was filmed in 1905, just a few years later than the world's first film "The Train Arrives at the Station", so it can be determined that it is a silent film. To put it bluntly, Peking Opera is an art of singing, which cannot be shown in silent movies.
So although "Dingjun Mountain" has been released, it can be inferred that the highlight of it should be the action. That is, the action scenes of Peking Opera actors.
So China’s first movie was the action movie .
A strange combination of circumstances basically established the origin of the Chinese action movie martial arts: Peking Opera in the Liyuan.
After all, everything depends on the background. No matter how powerful new things are, they can't compare to the accumulation of dozens or hundreds of years of playing. After all, the action scenes of Peking Opera have been choreographed by our ancestors for decades. The profession of film martial arts instructors will not be born until nearly fifty years later.
Next, the camera goes to Shanghai, Oriental Hollywood, the matrix of Chinese movies.
The action movie ushered in its first growth cycle from its infancy. This is also the most different place between us and the West.
culture!
We have a martial arts culture. This culture is so important that it has become almost synonymous with Hong Kong movies. When it comes to Hong Kong movies, the first thing that everyone thinks of is martial arts.
The film industry and martial arts culture were born in China at almost the same time.
In 1909, the Russian B. Brasky founded Asia Film Company in Shanghai. In the early days, he shot himself, and later switched to distribution. Xinmin Company, which had supported Zhang Shichuan, Zheng Zhengqiu and other first-generation filmmakers, began production. , the Chinese film industry was born.In 1910, the Kuomintang leader Chen Qimei entrusted Chen Gongzhe to act for the sake of military reserves for the armed uprising. Huo Yuanjia 's Jingwu Sports Association entered the stage of history as a representative of folk martial arts. Chen Gongzhe studied at Fudan University. He is proficient in photography skills and took photos of the early Jingwu books. He also shot 5 volumes of Jingwu Sports Club film documentary with Cheng Zipei. This should be the earliest film about serious folk martial arts (different from Liyuan). Unfortunately, these achievements have not been preserved.
At this time, Shao Zuiweng may have just begun to plan to make movies, and his sixth brother Run Run Shaw was considered unsuitable for this industry and was sent to Nanyang to develop the market.
In 1925, the general strike between the province and Hong Kong was too big, and the film industry that had just ignited in Guangdong and Hong Kong was also driven to Shanghai. Shao Zuiweng integrated his film industry (mainly laughing, stage and civilized drama) and absorbed these After obtaining resources, he founded Tianyi Film Company. The first work produced is called "Becoming a Buddha" .
The second film "The Heroine Li Feifei" is considered to be the first martial arts film in the history of Chinese cinema, starring Pink Chrysanthemum , who just won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Action Design Dong Wei Master, Dong Wei’s senior brothers and sisters include, Lin Zhengying, Chen Baozhu, Xiao Fangfang.
At about the same time, martial arts culture was just beginning to enlightenment. Although legendary novels had already been born in the Tang Dynasty, when we talked about third-level films before, we mentioned the still unfilmed "The Ten Tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty" . There is a high probability of three sequels to "Taiyuan Strange Case". This story is very chivalrous.
But the serious martial arts novels in China should have started with "The Legend of Shandong Thieves" by Yao Minai, a writer of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School during the Republic of China. It was not until the 1930s that martial arts novels became popular among hundreds of schools of thought. At this time, the country was in turmoil and the people's customs were unstable, so the people especially looked forward to chivalry. , but at the same time, there are also many strange and weird works that are popular. It shows that people at that time were confused about reality and were not necessarily obsessed with saving the nation.
It is said that there are five major northern martial arts schools, namely
"Fantasy Fairy Sect" Huanzhu Louzhu
"Social Irony Sect" Gong Baiyu
"Gang Martial Arts Sect" Zheng Zhengyin
"Tragic Chivalry Sect" Wang Dulu
"Qiqing Reasoning School" Zhu Zhenmu
Their active era was around 1930. It is estimated that today's young people cannot read the vernacular Chinese of that era, and they will think it is no different from classical Chinese. We can find that Wang Dulu's works are more in line with the pathos of saving the nation from the nation at that time, but his " Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon " will not be available until after the new millennium. It was Ang Lee who made the world famous.
The most popular at that time, at least at the film level, was the work of Huanzhu Louzhu.
Young people may not understand the meaning of Huanzhulouzhu’s works.
Many years later, our generation, brainwashed by TVB's various Jin Yong martial arts films, suddenly saw Tsui Hark's "New Shushan", a movie with a fairy-like air and a soft voice that sounded like Teresa Teng's singing voice. Very uncomfortable.
As everyone knows, this may be a renaissance, because for a long time, from the Anti-Japanese War to the rise of Bruce Lee, martial arts movies of this style were popular in China, with Huanzhu Louzhu's "The Legend of Shushan" as the most popular. represent.
What does this kind of movie look like? You can refer to and Cao Dahua's masterpiece " Tathagata Palm ". Of course that is the original work of Liu Canyang .
Then combine it with TVB's "The Legend of Shushan: Purple and Green Swords" (Guan Lijie, Li Wanhua) and "The Legend of Shushan: The Romance of Cinderella" (Ekin Cheng) to experience it.
How can I put it? Western movies at that time were similar, it was similar to the feeling of Zeus being high up and throwing lightning on the ground.
Tsui Hark is just a reinterpretation of this once popular feeling with the latest technology, which is both retro and trendy.
Renaissance.
Tianyi Company made many movies in that era, and also developed a set of film industry templates, which became the standard for Cantonese-language films in the future, Seven Days Fresh!
Unfortunately, that era was chaotic!
After the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the Shanghai film industry collectively fled to Hong Kong, and a new era was born.
The reincarnation of the world, and the general strike in the province and Hong Kong, made filmmakers go to Shanghai. Unexpectedly, within a few years, all the filmmakers went to Hong Kong.
Note that they all went to Hong Kong, not back to Hong Kong.
Because at the same time, there was also a large wave of the best Chinese movies.
I won’t mention other categories, such as photography, directing, and recording. Let’s just talk about action.
A large number of famous Peking opera actors also followed to Hong Kong, including the action heroine of China's first martial arts film: Pink Chrysanthemum .
and Cao Dahua , which have already emerged in Tianyi.
Chinese martial arts movies, or action movies, have officially entered the Hong Kong era.
forced.
can't help it.
