In 1971, the Chinese Theater Academy where Jackie Chan had stayed for ten years finally couldn't hold on anymore, so he followed his senior brother Sammo Hung on the set, working as a dragon and tiger martial artist. Sometimes he would go on set and play a role in King Hu's "The Heroine" Dongchang Fanzi has not even come close to becoming a "box office poison", let alone stunning the Hong Kong film industry with "Snake".
At this time, his future boss, Wu Siyuan, the boss of the film company that produced "The Snake", was not doing well. After running away from the Shaw Brothers studio to work alone, Wu Siyuan spent all his time thinking about becoming a director. He made a movie called "Crazy Killer" with a box office of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. The boss just waved his hand: You'd better leave!
Wu Siyuan was not discouraged at all. With the support of an overseas Chinese, he produced an action movie "Dang Koutan". As you can see from these stills, the production is quite rough, but fortunately it is about a group of Chinese knights fighting back against Japan. The story of samurai invasion.
"Dang Kou Tan" caught the "window", because Bruce Lee's hit "Fist of Fury" was released less than two months ago, and the national sentiment caused by beating up "people who had a good life" made "Dang Kou Tan" Beach" received HK$1.73 million, ranking seventh on the annual box office list!
After the incident, Wu Siyuan's former boss was so angry that his blood pressure soared. In the end, he failed to save him...
No matter what, Wu Siyuan made a lot of money and became a popular fried chicken with low cost and high box office. Hang Seng Company immediately found Wu Siyuan and begged for cooperation, Wu Siyuan! Reluctantly, he agreed to sign three plays, all of which were hits.
The key is that Wu Siyuan knows how to seize opportunities. Taking advantage of Hang Seng Company's investment, he also established a company "Siyuan Pictures", and this company will also produce a series of excellent films that will change the history of Hong Kong film.
Having said that, Wu Siyuan worked hard and directed "Integrity Storm" in 1975, which grossed 2.54 million Hong Kong dollars, second only to Xu Guanwen's " Genius and Idiot ", ranking second in the annual box office list; "Seven" directed in 1976 "Million Dollar Heist" also entered the top ten at the box office.
Since then, whether it was the low-budget "Snake" or the big-budget "Once Upon a Time in 2", Wu Siyuan has always made a profit, and he is even willing to share his film business experience. It can be said that Wu Siyuan is called the "Godfather of Hong Kong Film", and his reputation is by no means in vain. Being able to make money is just one of his many advantages. We will talk about his story later.
But when it comes to making money, there is only one person who makes Wu Siyuan stumble, he is Tsui Hark, and this movie is "Butterfly".
However, when "Butterfly" was just finished filming, Wu Siyuan was very satisfied. He felt that Tsui Hark's film was very new and creative. The only thing he had a problem with was the ending of "Butterfly". He believes that although the male protagonist Fang Hongye does not know martial arts, he still has to fight in the end, otherwise the audience's emotions will not be vented.
But Tsui Hark is awesome. No matter what the boss says, he will not change the ending. In the end, the film only received 1.15 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 43rd on the annual box office list. This result is naturally not ideal.
According to Wu Siyuan later, this film can be regarded as a "nomination certificate" for Golden Princess Cinema. If it succeeds, there will be no problems with the new art city bosses like Mai Jia and Shi Tian. Unfortunately, it was very poor at the box office, causing Wu Siyuan to lose face with Lei Juekun, the head of Golden Princess, which indirectly led to the birth of New Art City.
But after the film was released, Wu Siyuan was not disappointed with Tsui Hark. Instead, he continued to spend money to support him in making his next film. After the great talent Huang Zhan watched the midnight screening of "Butterfly", he kept praising Tsui Hark to Wu Siyuan that he was extremely talented and not just a talent; film critic Shi Qi published this in "Ming Pao Evening News" for three days in a row Film critics talked a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of "Butterfly", calling it:
"Among the big movies made by Hong Kong TV directors, Tsui Hark's "Butterfly" may not be the most successful one, but it is undoubtedly the most successful one. The largest and most challenging one."
Some people say that although there are differences between the Hong Kong martial arts films before "Butterfly" and the martial arts films that followed, in general, they are connected in the same context. Only "Butterfly" is an anomaly, which surprised movie fans. It turns out that martial arts movies can still be made like this.
And Tsui Hark himself labeled his debut film as: "Futuristic costume film"
What kind of movie is this? Let's talk about its plot first.
The story takes place in an imaginary era, where martial arts people kill each other. The old gangs are destroyed one after another, and the newly emerged Tian Zihao becomes the overlord.
At this time, there is a man named Tian Zihao. In Shenjiabao, the "murder butterfly" incident occurred.
Boss Tian, the boss of the Tian name, planned to find out what happened with the heroine Qing Ying. However, he was plotted by Shen Qing of Shenjiabao and joined another gang. Leibao started to strangle each other.
In the end, Shen Qing was hit by Boss Tian against a stone; Boss Tian was killed by Guo Li from Tianleibao;
Guo Li was hit by a stone blasted by gunpowder. ; As for Qing Yingying, who was full of curiosity about the world, he actually... grabbed a bomb and was killed.
The only one who survived was Fang Hongye, who had eaten melon throughout the whole process and didn't know any martial arts. He actually died on the night before the decisive battle. Run away.
The plot of "Butterfly" is like this. Let's focus on why it is so unique among Hong Kong martial arts films.
I think the first reason is the deconstruction of the martial arts world.
Previous Hong Kong martial arts films generally fall into the following four categories:
Chang Cheh-style martial arts films, represented by "The One-Armed Sword", mostly use routine moves. The southern martial arts master Liu Jialiang handles these routines, using hard bridges and hard horses. Although it is much better than the " Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong" series starring Kwan Tak-hsing, it still maintains the basic framework of the martial arts fantasy.
The second category is the Chu Yuan-style martial arts film that became popular after "Chu Liuxiang", because the scripts are mostly adapted. Since Gu Long's martial arts novels, the action designs of this type of martial arts films are also known for their strangeness, sharpness, lightness and speed, but generally they still follow the routines of Chang Cheh's martial arts films.
The third category is very outstanding, because "The Heroine". Hu Jinquan's martial arts films are famous in the world of cinema. The agile leaps caused by the trampoline and the split-second moves created by the editing will make any movie fan who is particular about martial arts action unable to help but marvel at it. But in the final analysis, Hu's martial arts. The film never negates martial arts, but instead introduces martial arts into the depths of history and culture.
The fourth, needless to say, is the Cantonese fairy tale film famous for " Tathagata Palm ". These "magic films" of the 1960s spent a lot of effort on film development and "special effects" to elevate martial arts heroes into immortal heroes, completely breaking away from basic common sense in the real world. Star Master also paid tribute to this in " Kung Fu ".
Did you find it? The above four categories, no matter which one they belong to, are still creating the fantasy of the martial arts world, but they are just more or less refined or rough.
But Tsui Hark's "Butterfly" is different. He deconstructs the most important martial arts in the martial arts world.
Although Qingying's Qinggong is powerful, it actually relies on a rope tied to a point of strength to swing back and forth; Tsui Hark even spared no effort in writing and used two close-ups to show the process of tying the rope.
Guo Li's fire skill seems very bluffing, but it is just a method of lighting firecrackers with fire sticks and sprinkling gunpowder on the enemy.
The most unfathomable person is undoubtedly Shen Qing, who is wearing iron armor. His ability to enter uninhabited territory turns out to be based on high-end outdoor adventure equipment.
is really about fighting with fists and kicks. Let’s take a look at this section of the fight between Boss Tian and Shen Qing.
is indeed funny, but Tsui Hark didn't hire a professional martial arts instructor just to save money for Wu Siyuan. After all, he caught thousands of butterflies for one yuan each in Tainan's Butterfly Valley. The greater possibility may be to make a contrast. In the world of martial arts, there are no legendary and peerless kung fu, there are only technological levels.
You must know that the ultimate weapon in "Butterfly Transformation" turned out to be the machine gun that Tianlei Fort spent six years developing in a cave with Shen Qing.
Although this sounds ridiculous, Tsui Hark, who is very imaginative, has indeed come up with new ideas that have never been explored in previous martial arts films and in subsequent martial arts films.
Heroes don't have martial ethics, they only shoot cold arrows in the back and shoot secretly. In order to fight for the dominance of the martial arts, any means can be used.
Li Jian and Guo Li secretly attacked two generals of Tian Zihao; Shen Qing ignored the brotherly feelings and killed Sun Gang, the eldest brother, Li Jian, the third child, and also silenced his wife who had been helping him. This character Really are.
So in the movie "Butterfly", the benevolence, morality, and chivalrous demeanor of the martial arts world are all gone.
Despite the bloody massacre, Boss Tian had some signs of awakening. In the end, he was still greedy for the reputation of being the best in the world and had to compete with the forces of Tianlei Castle. The last gasp.
Fang Hongye, who could only watch with cold eyes, saw all this, got out and saved his life.
It’s hard to say that all of this has nothing to do with Tsui Hark’s many years of studying abroad in the United States. This returnee, who graduated from the film major at the University of Texas at Austin, absorbed a lot of the style and temperament of American science fiction films in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Planet of the Apes" in 1968, " A Clockwork Orange " in 1971, and " Star Wars " in 1977. At first glance, there are huge differences between martial arts films and science fiction films, but in essence, both are just imaginations of another world.
Some people say that the character modeling and scene layout in "Butterfly" are too Japanese-style, but in my opinion, they are more inclined to "Star Wars"! Look at the costumes of Guo Li and Obi-Wan played by Kaohsiung. I can’t say they are very similar, they are almost exactly the same! As for Boss Tian’s hairstyle, he should be cosplaying Luke Skywalker.
If you compare the settings of "Planet of the Apes" and "Butterfly", you will find that the two are surprisingly similar.
"Planet of the Apes" is about a spaceship that travels through hundreds of years and lands on a strange planet ruled by apes. As a result, people finally discovered that this planet is actually the earth. However, the outbreak of nuclear war led to the destruction of human beings and the rebirth of the apes. Just rise.
destruction and rebirth, have you thought of it? This is actually the beginning of "Butterfly Change". Two wars before the new era of martial arts resulted in the death and injury of more than 100,000 martial arts people. Decades later, the "Seventy-two Fighters" once again fought among themselves to compete for the dominance of the martial arts.
So at the end of the movie, Tsui Hark followed Fang Hongye's line of sight and gave a long shot, where countless martial arts people fell in the desert. Later, Fang Hongye caught a butterfly on her clothes and released it. Tsui Hark is telling us: There is no such thing as martial arts, they are all cyclical human tragedies. Butterflies are not murderers. What really kills people is the human heart.
The second reason why "Butterfly" enjoys a unique status lies in Tsui Hark's innovation in audiovisual language.
Audio-visual language sounds very professional, but in fact it means how the camera shoots, how the actors perform, how the lighting is used, and the style of the scenery.
Most Hong Kong martial arts films before "Butterfly" had a style with full colors, even lighting and balanced composition. Of course, there must be differences in subtle places. Tsui Hark broke this aesthetic paradigm of martial arts films that had lasted for many years.
In shaping the relationship between characters, he does not rely on lines and actors' performances, but uses metaphors at the image level.
At the beginning of the film, before the murder at the paper mill, Tsui Hark successively used the "partition" effect in the composition to express the relationship between the poisonous wasp and the owner of the paper mill.
In the mid-shot frame, the out-of-focus iron chain in the foreground separates the two people. Note that this is the process of the poisonous wasp handing the fake "red leaf note" to the boss of the paper mill. It is intended to show that it was this object that led to the subsequent murder.
Immediately afterwards, Tsui Hark raised the camera again, obliquely filming the conversation between the two people, and the "partition" effect changed from an iron chain to a bamboo pole hanging rice paper.
The next set of shots are all of two people in the same frame surrounded by rice paper. Note that the scene at this time has changed from a medium shot to a close shot. In other words, the range has shrunk and the distance between the two people has become closer. , the relationship is even more tense. Why does
do this? Because during the process of assembling these pictures, the boss of the paper mill said that the "Red Leaf Notes" was fake, which made the poisonous hornet suddenly have the intention to kill. In the last scene of
, in the close-up shot, a blue light emitted from the window was pointed at the cheek of the paper mill owner.
The above three key pieces of information: the iron chain, the bamboo pole, and the blue light shooting to the cheek have actually foreshadowed the way the paper mill boss died: he was hung upside down by the iron chain on the bamboo pole, and his cheek was crossed by the murder weapon.
This is the lens logic and picture language. Tsui Hark did not show how the poisonous wasp killed the boss at all, but he had already made a judgment in the video.
The famous scholar Bordwell commented on "Butterfly" in "Hong Kong Film Kingdom":
"Butterfly" experimented with voice-over narrative methods earlier than Wong Kar-Wai. Almost twenty years later, he only used the voice-over narrative method in 1995's "Butterfly". "Knife" revived this technique, and due to his appreciation of " Yojimbo ", he also preferred oblique angles and extremely sophisticated compositions.
This is indeed the case. Fang Hongye's voice-over in "Butterfly Change" is very similar to that used by Wong Kar-wai in ""; and this is also continued in "The Knife".
As for the similarities with the composition of "Yongjimbo", we can look at this paragraph.
It is not difficult to find that the only difference is that Kurosawa used a long lens, while Tsui Hark used a front-reverse shot, with the two lenses combining the actors back-to-back.
But in my opinion, Tsui Hark's innovation in audio-visual language is not so similar to Akira Kurosawa, but draws on a lot of expressionist aesthetic styles and film noir.
In the film, there are almost no iconic zoom lenses in Shaw Brothers martial arts films, or dolly shots in the mid-range frame, but a large number of fixed shots from above and below at tricky angles.
even suddenly rotates the camera ninety degrees to allow characters to cross the screen.
This slanted, geometric composition has already appeared in the expressionist film "The Cabin of Dr. Caligari".
A large number of characters appear in an environment where light and dark are intertwined. The low-brightness lighting effect and the sense of danger with the profile immersed in the darkness are Tsui Hark's desire to immerse us in the weird castle he created.
Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend" and "Sunset Boulevard" are typical representatives of this style.
Tsui Hark has been obsessed with the hazy atmosphere created by drapery and gauze since "Butterfly". In "A Chinese Ghost Story" it became a symbol of danger, and in "The Green Snake" it became a symbol of lust.
Certain elements of obsession shown by Tsui Hark in "Butterfly" will continue to appear in many future films. For example, his demonstration of ancient papermaking, the arrangement of movable type printing, and his interest in gunpowder weapons later turned into contemporary music in "Shanghai Nights", Peking Opera in "Dao Ma Dan", and Chinese medicine in "Once Upon a Time" and lion dance, Chinese cooking in "The House of Gold and Jade".
But the black martial arts film pioneered by "Butterfly", or according to Tsui Hark's own words, "futuristic costume film", there has never been a similar film in the Hong Kong film industry.
In 1980, film critic Shi Qi watched Tsui Hark's second film after "Butterfly" and commented:
Tsui Hark's personal style has always been both strong and extreme, so this film is still trendy and weird, with human characteristics. Centered on the horrific story of cannibalism, it maintains the surreal cruelty of "Butterfly". As for the slaughter scenes, they are bloody and realistic. It is said that many cruel scenes have been deleted, but the effect is still amazing.
Many movie fans today said after watching it that this is a timeless movie with high energy throughout.
But some people think: I admit that the old weirdo is very creative, but I really can’t stand this dirty and messy painting style!
This movie still cost Wu Siyuan money, even lower than the box office of "Butterfly Change". After this, although Wu Siyuan still appreciated Xu's talent, he could only let him find another job, until 12 Years later, the pair collaborated again on "Once Upon a Time in China: Once Upon a Time in China".
As for Tsui Hark's second movie, it is "No Gate to Hell", which is called the movie version of "Diary of a Madman".
