Hong Kong Entertainment: The King of Kung Fu

Yang Ye didn't know whether the movie "The Third Young Master's Sword" would be a hit.

Because this movie never appeared in its original time and space.

No, you could also say...it has appeared.

Because its script... comes from the 2016D version of "The Swordsman" produced by Xu Ke and directed by Derek Yee in 3.

That movie...it only has a score of 4.8 on Douban, which can be said to be a terrible movie.

What is wrong with Yang Ye that he wants to make a bad movie with a Douban score of 4.8?
Because Yang Ye felt that the problem with that movie…was not the script, but the team.

Yang Ye wanted to know, if a recognized bad movie was replaced by an awesome team, could it be turned into something magical?

……

If Gu Long's movies were made according to the original novel, it would definitely be extremely fucking awkward.

Therefore, all the adaptations throughout the ages have been drastic and unacceptable.

As long as the mood is preserved, then the story will make sense.

Fans of the original novel should consciously stay away and not get involved.

The version played by Adam Cheng as Chu Liuxiang directly changed the original novel to the point where his mother would not recognize him, but it turned out to be a huge hit.

Even Gu Long complained that "the world only knows Zheng Shaoqiu, but not Gu Long."

After complaining, Gu Long changed Chu Liuxiang into someone who looks like Zheng Shaoqiu, which is so cool.

Later, there was a version of Chu Liuxiang played by Zhang Zhiyao, which was filmed exactly according to the original novel. Gu Long fans were ecstatic and gave many praises.

However, the ratings were a disaster, no one watched it, and the producers lost all their money.

Why is it necessary to make such drastic changes?

Because Gu Long's novels do not focus on the plot at all, but emphasize the artistic conception.

If you study his novels in depth, you will find that the plots are full of loopholes and cannot be filmed at all.

Why does a character appear? There is no reason. Gu Long needs him to appear, so he appears.

In "The Sentimental Swordsman", why did Li Xunhuan suddenly come back from outside the Great Wall?
Because Gu Long was starting to cheat people out of their royalties, it was that simple.

Gu Long also particularly likes to first write about a person's profound martial arts skills, and then have him be killed layer by layer by characters that appear later.

It creates a sense of contrast, "there is always someone better than you", to describe the superb martial arts of the last person.

Therefore, there are often many people who are quite famous and spend a lot of words to describe, but in fact they are just a supporting role.

Of course, he may have written this way just to increase the word count.

Specifically speaking of the novel The Third Young Master's Sword, the plot is highly inconsistent and the characters are numerous and messy.

Xu Ke and Er Dongsheng put a lot of effort into adapting this novel.

They simplified the plot into a two-hero film, focusing on the relationship between the Third Young Master and Yan Shisan, who are both enemies and friends, and who appreciate each other.

Together with the two women Murong Qiudi and Wawa, as well as the villain Zhuyeqing, all the remaining people who could be killed were killed, even the third young master's son Xie Xiaodi disappeared.

In terms of the lines, we try to find a balance between maintaining Gu Long's original charm and making it sound comfortable for the actors to speak them.

For example, when Yan Shisan saw the Bamboo Leaf Green for the first time, he said, "Bamboo Leaf Green is poisonous."

It's a very classic Gu Long style dialogue.

It also does a good job in preserving the artistic conception.

For example, when Yan Shisan went to Shenjian Villa, he was alone in a boat, surrounded by fog on the mountain, with no birds or people around, and he fully experienced the essence of the ancient dragon.

……

So what’s the problem with this version of “The Three Young Masters’ Sword”?

First, it comes from the obsession of director Derek Yee.

The most exciting movie starring Er Xiaobao during his Shaw Brothers period was "The Sword of Three Young Masters".

He has a complex about the Third Young Master and is even deeply poisoned by him.

So much so that many years later, when he was directing "The Swordsman", he boldly chose a "retro" shooting style.

What does that mean?

A major feature of Shaw Brothers' martial arts films in the 1970s was that they were "fake"!
In order to save money, the background in the movie, whether it is mountains, rivers or sunset, are all painted on a piece of cloth a few meters away.

The close-up also has some fake rocks and trees, and the actors are performing in this fake setting, like a stage play.

Er Dongsheng actually chose to restore this scene, using new digital technology to deliberately create this fake feeling. He is simply insane.

The audience back then had no choice. There were real mountains and real waters to see, so who would want to watch something that looked fake at first glance?

Don’t you think about how Shaw Brothers films died so suddenly?
While the filming crews of Golden Harvest and Cinema City were shooting all over the world, they were still squatting in the studio shooting at various canvases. Who wouldn’t die if this didn’t happen?
Yang Ye speculated that Er Xiaobao might have been misled by Hollywood's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and believed that the audience would pay for sentimentality.

When filming "The Force Awakens", in order to evoke the audience's emotions, the film was deliberately made to look old, giving the film a 1970s texture.

When this movie was released in China, Chinese audiences were all confused. What the hell is this?
However, it caused a sensation in North America, creating a wave of "nostalgia", with many elderly people crying while watching the film in the cinema, so much so that it broke the North American box office record.

Er Xiaobao took a look and thought, hey, you can play it this way?

I also have feelings for the Third Young Master, I can do the same!

However, mainland audiences have no feelings for his Third Young Master.

After the movie was released, the audience was confused. What the hell is this?
If you don’t fail, who will?
Second, the actors are really awkward.

The first awkward one is the idiot who plays Zhuyeqing. I don't know how he got in.

He must have been given some fucking money, and he was yelling and screaming, it gave me a headache just to watch him.

The two characters, Murong Qiudi and Wawa/Xiao Li, are also hard to describe in a few words.

Jiang Mengjie’s role as Wawa/Xiao Li is actually pretty good, but her face isn’t very good. She’s not sexy enough when she plays Xiao Li, and not pure enough when she plays Wawa.

As for Murong Qiudi played by Jiang Oneyan, there is only one word to describe her: fucking awkward!
Jiang Oneyan is a person who loves to show off. If he doesn't show off for a day, he will feel uncomfortable all over.

Why do we call her Jiang Oneyan? Because she doesn't speak properly, she always blurts out two English words while speaking, and her vocabulary is very limited, which makes her seem uncultured.

If you are an ABC who grew up in the United States, it's fine if you can speak words. But you are a native Chinese, what the hell are you talking about?
So netizens simply called her Yiyan as oneyan.

This person once posted on Weibo boasting that the building she designed won the American Architectural Design Award.

She originally wanted to sell the image of a talented woman, but ended up causing widespread ridicule from the entire internet.

She was not convinced and posted on Weibo: "If anyone thinks that they can just do the event and go to the American Architecture Master Award ceremony to show off their medals, then please come along."

As a result, more people from the design profession came to criticize her. She actually dared to offend that group of bald and strong people. I wonder if it was Fish Leong who gave her the courage.

In the end, the matter became so serious that someone discovered that her building was an illegal construction, and then it was reported. Then the relevant department ordered it to be demolished.

Jiang Oneyan could only apologize and end the conversation. She is really courting death!
Maybe it's because I pretend too much in real life. The same goes for acting. No matter what I play, it's just one word: pretending!

Watching her performance really makes me feel like I have a thorn in my back, a fishbone stuck in my throat and I feel like I am sitting on pins and needles.

As for the two male protagonists, Peter Ho’s performance as Yan Shisan was okay, and Peter Ho has acting skills.

But the tattoo on the face was too scary and many viewers could not accept it.

Lin Gou’s third young master, to be honest, Lin Gou is quite handsome, he is the “dream of 900 million girls”.

As for his acting skills, they are just average and not terrible, but he was dragged down by Derek Yee.

Er Dongsheng didn't know what was wrong with him, he asked Lin Gou not to show his inner thoughts and not to make any subtle reactions.

Lin Gou was very obedient. He really didn't make any expression at all and he finished the entire movie with a paralyzed face.

The plot of the movie was brought to life by the music, but it was really hard for him to keep his expressionless face.

The last point is that the fighting is really lame.

In a martial arts movie, if the fighting isn’t good, you lose half the battle.

As mentioned before, due to the characteristics of 3D movies, the choice of camera positions when shooting is quite limited, otherwise the experience will be lost.

It is also impossible to use the sharp editing that Xu Ke is best at, because it will easily make the audience vomit.

These two points directly limited half of Xu Ke's skills.

In addition, the lack of good action actors limits the skills of the martial arts instructor by half.

In the end, less than 30% was left.

What's the point of watching this movie? I can't watch it!

As for Lin Gou, his movements were extremely stiff and he was simply unable to display the demeanor of a sword god.

How can this movie be made? It can’t be made!

……

So, what do you think of "The Three Young Masters' Sword" now?

The film was handed over to the film studio of Jet Li and Yuen Kwai for production.

The director chose Chu Yuan, and Yuan Kui served as the action director.

Chu Yuan is the person who understands Gu Long the most. The effect created by using real mountains and real waters is so artistic that it brings the mood to the fullest.

Jet Li and Zhen Zidan are among the top martial arts actors in the Chinese-speaking world.

The battles between the two in "Once Upon a Time in China" and "Hero" are both classic action scenes in Chinese martial arts movies.

Now, neither Wong Fei-hung nor the Hero have been filmed yet, but with the support of Yuen Kwai and the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, this classic fighting scene was released ahead of time.

One of the few highlights of the 2016 version of "The Swordsman" is the ink-and-wash figures used in the fighting scenes, which are full of Gu Long's artistic conception.

Yang Ye preserved this highlight.

Te Wei, the former director of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, was invited to Hong Kong by Yang Ye after his retirement.

He is currently working at Blue Bird Animation Studio as the director of the animated film The Lion King.

China's first ink-and-wash animation film, "The Tadpole Looking for Its Mother," was directed by Te Wei.

The production team of "The Sword of the Third Young Master" invited Te Wei to come out and hired professional talents from the mainland. It took half a year to produce this kind of ink-and-wash characters.

And using computer technology, it was synthesized with real people.

Decades later, audiences who saw these ink-and-wash figures felt that they were a rare highlight of the film, let alone in the 1980s.

In the movie, when Yan Shisan decided to teach "Useless Aji" swordsmanship, ink-and-wash characters appeared for the first time.

Seeing Yan Shisan and a watercolor character fighting each other, the audience in the cinema were stunned.

Then there was a burst of warm applause.

Awesome, so awesome!
There were many people from other companies at the premiere of "The Swordsman".

Every time a blockbuster movie from Baiyang Pictures is released, they will come to watch it, learn from it, and see if they can follow suit.

For example, right now, Raymond Wong and Ringo Lam from Cinema City are sitting in the audience.

When the two saw the first half of the movie, they felt that it was just so-so and thought it was quite average.

It's just that Jet Li and Zhen Zi are more cool in their solo performances, and their "Prison on Fire" is not scary at all.

When these two ink-and-wash figures appeared, I was stunned.

At the end of the movie, the decisive battle between the Third Young Master and Yan Shisan is a larger-scale ink battle.

The Third Young Master and Yan Shisan each turned into seven or eight afterimages and fought together, with sword energy running rampant and dark clouds surging.

The audience in the cinema kept clapping and cheering, but Wong Jing and Ringo Lam were sweating profusely!

When it comes to screenwriting skills, Wong Jing is confident that he is no match for anyone, but the films produced by Baiyang Pictures are already one era ahead of them in terms of technology.

After the premiere of "The Swordsman", Hong Kong film companies were considering a question.

Baiyang Pictures has already possessed the strength to rival the big Hollywood studios. Where is our way out? (End of this chapter)