Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

"Sword Rain" could not be released after filming, so Li Lianjie stayed at the Yang's Martial Arts Center as a coach, practicing modern fighting, and taking acting classes in his spare time.

Since Zong Yougui started competing in various competitions, Yang's Guoshu Hall hired a professional manager to manage daily affairs.

Zong Yougui became the nominal person in charge, but actually didn't care about anything.

Now that Zong Daochen has passed away, Zong Yougui has returned to Japan to inherit the family business, and her functions in the Yang Family Martial Arts Academy have been transferred to Hui Yinghong.

As for Donnie Yen, he was sent to Thailand by Yang Ye to learn Muay Thai from Muay Thai king Prayuth Chan-ocha.

With the blessing of the New Year's Eve concert, all employees of Baiyang Company and ATV are very motivated.

Baiyang Pictures has long been alone in seeking defeat, while ATV employees are gearing up and clamoring to kill TVB.

After Yang Ye held the first meeting of the year at ATV, he headed to Taiwan with a large team of people.

The content of this meeting is relatively simple, which is to build signal towers in some remote areas of Hong Kong.

LiTV was originally a cable TV station, so when TVB came out, it instantly used advanced wireless technology to wipe out LiTV.

LiTV had no choice but to switch to wireless mode, but at that time, all the good frequency bands were occupied by TVB.

As a result, in some remote places on Lantau Island and the New Territories, as long as there are mountains blocking the area, the entire village cannot receive the signal from Lishi.

Today's ATV has strong troops and Yang Ye's financial support, so it will naturally make up for this shortcoming!

……

On January 1981, 1, Yang Ye led a large group of troops to arrive in Taiwan.

Later, he and China Film General Manager Gu Zhenfu went to Wushe, Nantou County, to hold the swearing-in ceremony for the filming of "Wushe Uprising".

The scale of the filming this time was huge, and most of the time we had to work in mountain forests, canyons and streams. The filming difficulty was unmatched by those previous movies.

In order to ensure that the shooting can proceed smoothly, plans should be made before shooting to deal with various accidents.

In the filming team, in addition to film-related personnel, there are also professional medical teams and safety protection teams.

Therefore, this worship ceremony was particularly grand. There were as many as 800 people participating in the worship ceremony. There were as many as 100 martial arts people brought by Yang Ye from Hong Kong alone.

Faced with a movie of this scale, Taiwan's TV, radio, newspapers and other news media came out one after another. Coupled with the crowds who came to watch the excitement, the scene where the filming was finally started was crowded with thousands of people.

After the worship ceremony, Yang Ye accepted an interview with the media on the spot and explained why he made this movie.

"Four years ago, I lived in Wushe when I was filming "The Swordsman" near the cross-country highway.

I saw the monument of Mona Ludo there and learned about the tragic history of Taiwan’s aboriginal people resisting Japanese aggression fifty years ago.

After listening to it, I was shocked...and cried for a long time. It turned out that such a thing had happened in this land!

This is a heroic epic, so I began to collect relevant information about the "Wushe Uprising".

Thanks to my somewhat obscure reputation, many friends were willing to tell me what happened that year after hearing that I wanted to make this story into a movie.

Many enthusiastic friends even sent me various related materials through various channels from Taiwan, Japan, and other places.

Over the past few years, I have obtained more and more information. The more I read, the more I feel that this is not only an epic, this event will make people feel a sense of pride under the impact of different cultures.

It is not traditional heroism, because Mona Ludo already knew the inevitable outcome before the uprising, so it is a kind of heroism... fighting for the freedom of the soul.

I feel very sorry that as Chinese, we have forgotten a very important period of history, so I want to tell this story and present it to the world. "

Yang Ye's words received warm applause. Yang Ye is a world star and his movies have never failed.

He said that if this story is presented to the world, once the movie is a box office hit, Taiwan's reputation in the world will be greatly enhanced.

Later, Yang Ye casually answered some questions from everyone.

The protagonist of this movie, Mona Ludo, is of course played by Yang Ye himself, and others do not have this appeal.

This means that Yang Ye has to act from the age of fifteen to fifty in the movie, which is a very long time span.

Yang Ye is only 28 years old this year. If he wants to play the role of old Mona, he can only rely on makeup.

This is also the reason why Yang Ye asked Zhang Shuping to be in charge of the art department because he trusted his makeup skills.

Other actors in the movie, except for Japanese, most of the main roles are played by Taiwanese, and many aborigines are also invited to perform as extras.

Therefore, many well-known Taiwanese actors were present at today's opening ceremony. For example, Golden Horse Best Actress Xu Feng appeared at the press conference, but she was only a guest appearance.

Yang Ye asked Xu Feng to come over because the scene where the Seediq woman committed suicide was too shocking and required a strong acting talent.

In addition, Sylvia Chang and Hu Huizhong also appear in the cast list. They are all guest stars and have no role.

Er Lin, the most famous person in Taiwan, did not come. Maybe Yang Ye felt that it would be a bit difficult to get the three wives together!

Taiwanese actresses are all actors, and the leading roles are all male actors. Mona Ludo's father, Ludo Luhei, is played by veteran actor Shi Jun. Shi Jun is Hu Jinquan's old team, so you can rest assured.

Mona Ludo's son Dado Mona is played by Ma Jingtao, and Mona Ludo's old enemy Temu Wallis is played by Liu Dekai.

These actors were first auditioned by the director team and then handed over to Yang Ye for review and final selection.

For example, Roaring Horse, he was originally studying acting, and he was very talented, so he easily entered the candidate list. After Yang Ye took another look, the candidate was decided.

……

After the launch conference was completed, the crew immediately went to the Da'an River area in Taichung to officially start filming.

The shooting plan for the wild scene is four months, and it must be completed before the rainy season comes, otherwise it will have to wait until the second half of the year to continue.

After that, it will take two months to move to the Seediq village that was built in advance to shoot other scenes.

The Seediq village was restored last year based on the photos left from that year and under the guidance of some elderly Seediq survivors.

However, these buildings are too new to photograph, so they have to wait for a year for wind and rain to corrode them.

During the rainy season, the sky is tidal and the ground is wet throughout Taiwan. At that time, the wooden villages were soaked in water vapor and covered with moss, so they could meet the shooting requirements.

According to the plan, the entire filming period of "Wushe Uprising" lasted six months.

Some people can't understand why a movie often takes three to five months, or even half a year, to shoot when there is a complete storyboard.

The reason is that most of Yang Ye's filming is fighting scenes, which are relatively time-consuming, and he also adheres to the eight-hour work system. A more important reason is that most of his movies are shot in real locations and use a lot of natural light.

After the tone of a movie is determined, for the sake of overall unity, there is actually very little time suitable for shooting.

For example, if a movie is scheduled for a lot of cloudy days, then it will be impossible to shoot if there is a little sunshine and shadows. Then on a rainy day, there was a little bit of rain, so it was impossible to take pictures.

Moreover, transportation in this era is also very inconvenient. In order to go to a certain mountain for shooting, everyone needs to carry various bulky equipment and arrive manually on foot.

After climbing up, the actual time suitable for shooting may only be one or two hours. If you can't finish shooting or miss the time, you have to spend the night on the mountain, otherwise you will have to climb up again the next day.

What if it rains the next day? The weather forecasts these days are not as accurate as those of later generations!

……

In Taichung, in the snow-capped mountains, pits and streams, the crew of "Wushe Uprising" began filming Mona Ludo's appearance.

Get out of the way and headhunt!

Chucao is a cruel custom among Taiwanese aborigines. When a man reaches the age of fifteen, he must leave the tribe and cut off the head of a man who is not from the tribe to complete his coming-of-age ceremony and prove that he is a real man.

Headhunting affects a man's status in the tribe. A man who has not completed headhunting cannot have his face tattooed. He is not considered a man and no woman will marry him.

The most important thing is that Taiwanese aborigines believe that men who hunt too much can only pass through the Rainbow Bridge and enter the land of ancestral spirits after death.

Therefore, tribes will have head racks where heads harvested from grass are placed. After the heads are cut off, they are placed at home, hoping to gain the protection of the ancestors.

Mona Ludo in the movie is the grass-cutting king among the tribes. He started headhunting at the age of fifteen and cut off two sacks of heads in his career.

After seeing Yang Ye's script, people from China Film suggested deleting the crude plot at the beginning, but Yang Ye refused.

The great thing about the movie "Sediq Bale" is that it is not telling the story of a glamorous hero.

It talks about unyielding resistance. Even if I am barbaric and cruel, this is not the reason for you to enslave me!

In fact...if you don't look at it from a standpoint, the customs of the Seediq people are indeed too cruel and barbaric.

The movie "Sediq Bale" is awesome in that it does not deny the civilization of the Japanese, nor the hypocrisy of the Japanese. There is no denying the indomitability of the aboriginal people, nor the barbarism of the aboriginal people.

It does not blindly portray the aborigines as great and upright and the Japanese as big fools just because this movie tells the story of the aborigines' resistance to Japan.

In this way, it was made into an anti-Japanese drama. Who would be disgusted?

……

The Seediqs are all hunters. They run in the sun all year round and have darker skin, so the skin of the actors participating in the show was all painted brown.

Especially for Yang Ye, in the first scene where he was exposed, only two pieces of cloth were hung around his waist to cover his private parts. Even the butt is exposed, so the whole body needs to be painted.

Zhang Shuping personally applied makeup to Yang Ye. After finishing it, he turned into a shirtless Seediq boy who was ready to go out.

He had a knife hanging from his waist and a leather bag on his back, which were his tools. The knife is used to cut the grass, and the bag is used to hold the head.

It's January now, and the temperature in the mountains is only over 10 degrees. Yang Ye put on makeup and came out of the tent wearing this equipment, and was suddenly shivered by the cold wind.

Seeing this, Xu Feng quickly took out a coat and put it on Yang Ye considerately.

"Damn, it's so cold. Is the stream blocked?"

The assistant director took out the walkie-talkie and asked. The other party replied that it was okay. Yang Ye nodded and said, "Then start filming quickly!"

The water dries up in winter. In order to capture the effect of rapid water flow, Yang Ye prepared a lot of wooden stakes and sandbags in advance. He drove the wooden stakes down and filled them with sandbags, cutting off half of the stream.

Another rubber boat was brought in, and the propeller was used to pump water. White waves splashed down, and the current looked very fierce.

Yang Ye walked to the stream. Many extras had already changed into the traditional costumes of the Seediq people and were standing there waiting.

Someone couldn't help but ask: "Director, the rocks here are too prickly, how can you run with bare feet?"

The Seediqs do not wear shoes. They can walk quickly in the jungle with bare feet.

But if the actors were to run in the jungle without shoes... they would be completely reimbursed for one day.

Yang Ye frowned and said, "What's going on? Where are the river-tracing shoes?"

Immediately, someone from the props ran over and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Yang! There are too many equipments to carry at the moment. They are lagging behind. They will be there soon."

This place is several miles away from the station, and supplies can only be transported in boxes. Yang Ye expressed his understanding and urged: "Hurry up!"

The so-called river-tracing shoes are actually a batch of rubber shoes ordered by Yang Ye in advance. They have a shoe clasp on the back and exposed toes on the front. The color is similar to human skin color. After wearing it, if you don't look carefully, you will have the effect of bare feet.

Not long after, the shoes arrived. Yang Ye clapped his hands and said, "Okay, everyone, change your shoes!"

Someone first brought a pair to Yang Ye. After Yang Ye put them on, he compared them carefully and felt something was wrong. He then said, "Take some spray paint and spray them on."

After spraying, it felt fine. Yang Ye nodded with satisfaction and said: "The smoke team is here, let off the smoke and get ready to shoot!"

The staff had already prepared the charcoal. After hearing the order, they immediately smashed the charcoal and added the white wax, and the smoke suddenly filled the air.

The staff ran for a while carrying the cigarette barrels, creating a misty effect in the mountains and forests!

They were busy here. Yuji Yoneda, an elderly Japanese actor who played the general in the crew, watched all this and said with admiration: "I have been an actor for thirty years, and I have never seen a crew that has such sufficient plans.

They actually thought about most of the situations that would happen in advance and made all kinds of preparations. They are so professional! "

Another Japanese actor Kazuma Yanagihara also praised: "Yes, they actually knew that the water flow was not strong enough, and prepared wooden stakes and sandbags in advance to cut off the stream. They must have investigated in advance and thought of various countermeasures. It is amazing ”

Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays the main Japanese character Genji Kojima in the movie, said: "I have made movies with Yang Sang before, and my teacher Shinichi Chiba said to me that Yang Sang is a person with a lot of troubles in his heart. He already has a picture in mind of what the movie will look like, and the entire filming process is to achieve the effect he wants."

Hiroko Yakushimaru looked at Yang Ye standing on a rock and said with admiration: "I also made a movie with Yang Sang. He is really an amazing man!"

The great man nodded to the assistant director, who immediately took the walkie-talkie and said: "Attention to all departments, attention to all departments, everyone is in position, the filming of "Wushe Uprising" has officially begun!"

After everyone was in place, the set recorder came forward with a small black and white board and said: "The first shot of the first scene of "Wushe Uprising", the first shooting, Action!"

Yang Ye walked vigorously, shouted: "Get out of the way", pushed aside his companions, and plunged into the cold and biting stream... The mowing began! (End of chapter)