In September 1980, Mai Jia, Huang Baiming, and Shi Tian co-founded the internationally renowned new art city film company . The first film launched was "Funny Times" directed by Wu Yusen and starring Shi Tian. The last film of
is "The Wild Fairy Tales" directed by Lu Jian in 1991, starring Zhang Yaoyang and Wu Zhenyu.
In just ten years, Xinyicheng has gone from a budding small company to a dominant box office crocodile, has left a strong mark in Hong Kong film history.
As early as the 1950s, Phoenix Pictures filmed a large number of popular urban comedies, such as "First Night of the Wedding" and "Snatch the Groom". In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers' "72 Tenants" and "Ghost Horse Twin Stars" and "Half Catty Two" edited and directed by Xu Guanwen further set off the "civil comedy" frenzy.
Therefore, it is indeed a wise strategy for Xinyicheng to focus on comedies in the early stage of entrepreneurship. The pioneering work of New Art City is "Funny Times" directed by Wu Yusen and starring Shi Tian. The story is set in post-war Hong Kong. The poor and upright homeless people rely on government and church relief all day long. Still optimistic about life.
This film pays tribute to Chaplin’s classic silent film , thin suits, fat pants, torn hats, dark circles, mustaches, horoscope feet, Shi Tian’s exaggerated expressions and body language, from the type to the gods will imitate Chaplin It must be vivid.
In 1981, the New Arts City invited Tsui Hark to direct the urban comedy "Ghostly Stars". is completely different from the rotten shirts show that prevailed in Hong Kong at the time. The visual style of "Ghosts and Stars" is very foreign, the scenery and costumes are gorgeous and bright, giving the audience a refreshing feeling. The art director of the film was Zhang Shuping, who later became famous for his works by Wang Jiawei.
The box office of "Ghost Wisdom Stars" reached more than 7 million Hong Kong dollars, overwhelming all rivals in the same period. It is also the first film that defeated Shaw Brothers and Jiahe in the market since the establishment of New Art City. The great success of
"Ghosts and Stars" has made modern and luxurious streamlined comedy popular . In the same year, Xinyicheng gathered almost all the funds of the company at that time and filmed the extremely costly "Best Partner" .
This film makes full use of the advantages of the big screen to show the audience a variety of action wonders. greatly enhances the visual impact and appreciation of Hong Kong movies.
In addition, "Best Partner" also went abroad for shooting, and expanded the narrative space of the film to all parts of the world, taking the beautiful scenery and customs of foreign countries as cultural wonders, making the film have cross-cultural affinity in markets outside Hong Kong . Although the protagonist of
is agile and capable of three punches and two kicks, he often does not rely on real skills, but rely on high technology or even cleverness to win, or use pranks to trick opponents, make jokes, and amuse the audience.
One of the protagonists of "Best Partner" is a bald guy with funny looks, speaking in a scumbag dialect. The other protagonist, King Kong, is witty and slippery, and is by no means a brave hero. "Best Partner" cleverly deconstructed the heroism and romanticism of 007 movies , showing strong local cultural characteristics of Hong Kong, and preliminarily showing the post-modernist tendency of Hong Kong movies to subvert all authority during this period. This tendency was gradually strengthened by the films of Wang Jing and Zhou Xingchi, and it became one of the prominent cultural characteristics of Hong Kong films around the 1990s.
may be inspired by the Li Hanxiang Fengyue comedy , New Art City abandoned asceticism in the urban action comedy, and added a large number of plots of love, jealousy, flirting, and sexual provocation.
"I Love Evening Fragrance" released in 1983 invited Lin Zixiang and Brigitte Lin to play the lead role . They were suave and charming, and attracted a large number of audiences into the theater. And Teddy Robin and Tsui Hark's ghost horse performance also makes the film both romantic love and hilarious scenes. With this film, Teddy Robin was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards.
With the prosperity of the economy, the spending power of Hong Kong youths has rapidly increased, which has led to the audienceThe age structure of the movie tends to be younger, and teenagers aged 14-25 have become the main consumers of movies. Xinyicheng has responded keenly to this change and has produced a large number of family movies targeting teenagers.
such as the "Happy Ghost" series. Once, Huang Baiming saw a drama "Zhu Xiucai" performed by a group of middle school students, which left a deep impression on him, and later bought the copyright and adapted it into a movie. That middle school student screenwriter is Ma Weihao, who made many commercial romance comedies in the future.
is different from "Best Partner", which focuses on high-tech. "Happy Ghost" takes the youth campus route. The plot is a simple girls' school life. A few young beautiful girls are really not artificial, plus The intensive bombardment of entertainment elements has made "Happy Ghost" another ace in the new art city.
Since "Happy Ghost" is suitable for people of all ages to watch , most of the audience buys 6 or 7 tickets. Therefore, "Happy Ghost" became the most profitable movie in New Art City at that time. Afterwards, Huang Baiming released four sequels, including "Happy Ghost Summer Vacation" and "Happy Ghost Hit Ghost", each of which has breakthroughs and innovations, and finally made "Happy Ghost" a classic symbol of Hong Kong comedy movies.
Yuan Jieying, Pan Hongbin, Huang Baiming, Chen Jialing (to be continued...)
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