Chapter 224: Hong Kong Fast Food Movies, Amidst Chaos...
Although he couldn't help but curse the damn director in his heart while filming, Cheng Erjian and Liu Jixiang were actually old friends who had known each other since they were both struggling.
At the time, he was just starting out in the film industry, while Liu Jixiang had just transitioned from cinematographer to director. Both of them were quite passionate about animation and games. They hit it off immediately after working together on a film and remained in touch even after filming ended.
Along with the other two main supporting actors in this film, Chen Shaozhen and She Xuanhua, and the main villain actor Wu Jinru, they all came from TBL children's program hosts, photographers, dance performers, and extras, respectively. It's hard to say whether to marvel at how TBL training class truly is a talent factory for the Hong Kong entertainment industry, or to say that fate is indeed a wonderful thing. After all the twists and turns, a group of old friends all gathered in this film crew.
Seeing that Li Sishi had been "reminded" by Cheng Erjian and understood the situation, Wu Jinru, who played the villain "Heng Ge", waved to her and greeted her. He played Wen Zhengming, one of the four great talents, in "The New Three Smiles Marriage", but he only had a few outdoor scenes in the Hua Mansion. After finishing his extra role there, he came to the crew of "People in the Jianghu" to continue playing the villain. He had met Li Sishi, who had played the female lead in "The New Three Smiles Marriage", several times.
Currently, Li Sishi is the most famous person in the crew, and she also has Zhuang Menghua as her powerful backer. Anyone with a bit of sense would definitely try to befriend Li Sishi.
It wasn't about currying favor with the powerful or currying favor with the wealthy; it was just normal social interaction and getting to know each other within the circle.
However, relatively speaking, the person who is most familiar with Li Sishi is Wan Jiamei, who plays a minor supporting role in this film. Director Liu Jixiang seems to like casting familiar faces. He previously collaborated with Cheng Erjian and Wan Jiamei on a film with a similar theme called "The Story of Liaojie," which made a small profit. This time, when he encountered "The People of Jianghu," which is adapted from a comic book but also depicts a gang theme, he contacted the artists he had worked with before.
If Li Sishi hadn't been absent from the set today because she wasn't filming scenes with Wan Jiamei, she would have gone to Cheng Er Fitness to chat.
"Actually, I didn't really want to come, but I signed contracts for several dramas..." Cheng Erjian was scouted and signed by Fatty Huang Zheng when he was still in the TBL children's program group. Huang Zheng was the kind of person who wanted to promote him to succeed Hou Beihua.
Unfortunately, the movies Huang Zheng tried to give him screen time always fell short, with mediocre box office and critical reception. His only film that achieved both box office success and critical acclaim, *Mermaid Legend*, didn't feature him as the lead. This time, he put Cheng Erjian in the lead role.
Taking on this role in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," which neither of the two originally intended male leads wanted, can be seen as a way of parting ways amicably.
Once this film is completed, all of Cheng Erjian's previous contracts will be fulfilled.
Huang Zheng is now working with others to run a film company, so he doesn't have as much energy as before to promote a male lead who has good looks and talent but unfortunately lacks luck and ambition.
Moreover, the current era is the end of gangster films and hero films, and the rampant piracy of VCDs, DVDs, videotapes and other pirated audio-visual media has led to poor box office performance for many Hong Kong films; therefore, even though this film, "Man in the Jianghu," has a comic book source material, Huang Zheng is not very optimistic about it.
As for why Huang Zheng chose it as the opening film of his film company, it was purely because screenwriter and one of the company's collaborators, Wang Yunjun, strongly recommended it, and the reported shooting budget was very economical and the film was very good. It was the first shot of the new business. He didn't expect it to be a dark horse. He just wanted to make a small profit and not lose money, which would be a good start.
Li Sishi's films have all grossed over ten million yuan at the box office.
Furthermore, given the popularity of "Mermaid Romance" which was a huge box office hit in Southeast Asia, and considering that the production cost of this film, including the actors' salaries, was less than 1.5 million, if it can gross more than 10 million at the box office after its release, the money they receive will be more than enough.
At that moment, the three men, who were only thinking about making a small profit, could hardly imagine what kind of "opening success" this film, which combined perfect timing, location, and people, would achieve, ultimately becoming a blockbuster IP that saved the market in the mid-1990s...
It really is a matter of timing and fate.
"What are you thinking about?" Cheng Erjian asked softly, seeing Li Sishi's thoughtful expression.
“Just do your best in this role. It’s perfect for you. Maybe this will be your breakthrough.” Li Sishi said meaningfully.
"Hmm, maybe I can get a Best Actor nomination this time..." Cheng Erjian nodded.
With a relatively niche and unconventional subject like this, he's not aiming for a box office miracle. Instead, he's hoping for awards—winning one is probably a long shot, but getting a nomination based on the subject matter and his performance would be a way of giving back to Huang Zheng, who gave him the opportunity to rise to fame.
It has to be said that although Cheng Erjian usually likes to "slack off" and seizes every opportunity to play games, he is also very diligent when it comes to work. After giving an "A," the soft and cute big gray rabbit, which was completely opposite to his boss image, immediately transforms into a real big gray wolf.
Even the slight smile as he tossed his hair in front of the mirror seemed to reveal the confidence and swagger of a newly minted red stick.
This is a scene where the male protagonist, "He Nan," leads his henchmen to a sauna to settle scores with a rival gang's sworn brothers. Because the script was written with extensive reference to the true stories of a retired gangster boss in the film, director Liu Jixiang adopted a documentary-style filming approach to enhance the story's brutality and realism. Incidentally, the group of gangsters who brought their own lunchboxes to act as extras were former underlings of this retired gangster boss...
Of course, this retired gangster plays a relatively "righteous" role in the film, serving as the male lead's superior, "Boss D".
The film opens with a scene of power struggles between bigwigs from the same organization but with different roles.
According to the rules of the underworld, before officially tearing each other apart, the big shots would each send their capable subordinates to secretly compete in advance. That's why the male protagonist was following the arrangement of Boss D to lead his own people to ambush the sworn brothers of the rival.
The way this kind of truly bloody plot is filmed with such a documentary-style approach creates an immersive and captivating experience that is absolutely thrilling and amazing.
Although the person who first popularized this filming technique in Hong Kong was the polarizing director in sunglasses, he focused more on the unique style of art films. While this film also uses frame-by-frame editing to create a special visual effect and feel, it emphasizes the realism of a mix of action and gangster films.
In this way, the entire ambush plot is presented in a short time. The freeze-frames, which have a comic book panel feel, can not only cover up the shortcomings of insufficient production funds and difficulty in clearing the scene, but also create the tension and suspense of the plot through such visual effects. The feeling of bloodshed on the street is immediately brought out by the knife-wielding and fist-fighting.
After all, before director Liu Jixiang officially transitioned from cinematographer to director, he frequently collaborated with that sunglasses-wearing director and for a period of time was even the sunglasses-wearing director's personal cinematographer...
Although they both use the same frame-skipping technique, they ultimately create completely different viewing experiences.
The scene in the film was incredibly tense, with both sides hacking and slashing. Off-screen, however, the initial shock and chaos quickly turned into a crowd of onlookers: although in Hong Kong at that time, the chaotic parts were never truly peaceful.
However, such thrilling and exciting scenes of people fighting and stabbing each other in the street are relatively rare.
Therefore, after a period of panic and chaos, some of the more daring onlookers began to stop and watch from the sidelines.
If it weren't for the thugs who came to act as extras and security guards, this group of onlookers would almost have surrounded the prop machete...
Liu Jixiang, with his sharp eyes, instructed the production crew to restrain several onlookers who wanted to call the police or the emergency services, temporarily halting the filming and the onlookers' actions. After explaining a few more points that they were filming, the onlookers went from being tense observers to simply enjoying the spectacle, seemingly becoming even more engrossed in the show.
After Cheng Erjian and his group of main characters teamed up to "kill" the actor playing the sworn brother of the rival, they even applauded and cheered from the sidelines...
The citizens of Hong Kong have probably long been accustomed to it being one of the most dangerous professions in the world, and thus have developed a strong heart that enjoys watching the excitement.
"Write this down and let the post-production team dub it again..." Even a business genius like Liu Jixiang couldn't resist the overwhelming public demand, so he had no choice but to turn to the PA next to him and give the instructions with a bit of helplessness.
I originally wanted to tag along with these free extras on set, but I didn't expect them to be so bold and enthusiastic in gathering around. As a result, there was so much background noise in the second half of the scene, so we'll have to do the dubbing or background music in post-production.
Anyway, reshooting is out of the question—putting aside the budget issue, it's practically impossible for them to get approval for this kind of film, so they always prepare in secret, start filming on the spot, and then slip away after filming…
Especially for street scenes like these, as long as there are no major problems, it's required to be done in one take.
Everyone in the crew was used to this guerrilla warfare, and after hearing Liu Jixiang shout "OK," they quickly got to work.
To save costs, Lau Chi-cheung took on the roles of director, producer, and cinematographer all by himself. While carrying the camera, he followed Cheng Er-jian to film the scene where the male lead was surrounded by gangsters who realized they wanted to avenge their boss and ended up getting separated from his brothers. At the same time, he kept giving orders and arranging the next scene. This showed a kind of chaotic yet orderly style unique to fast-paced Hong Kong films.
The female lead, "Sisi," played by Li Sishi, will officially meet the male lead in the following scene.
Her character is a student who juggles school and taking on styling jobs. While taking the elevator upstairs, she happens to witness a horrifying scene where a gangster who was killed by the male protagonist tries to escape but collapses in front of her due to excessive blood loss and exhaustion.
Although he was a low-level worker, witnessing a bloody fight firsthand was a different matter altogether. His face showed terror, and he instinctively took a step back.
At that moment, the sunglasses that were originally stuck on his hair fell down in front of his eyes due to the noise of hitting the wall.
The male protagonist's blood-stained reflection, distorted and warped in the mirror of the elevator door, appeared particularly horrifying.
Unfortunately, the upper body of the fallen gangster was blocking the elevator door, preventing it from closing. In an instant, she had nowhere to go.
In a moment of urgency, she quickly adjusted her sunglasses, which were hanging in front of her eyes, and began to imitate the groping movements of a blind person, stumbling forward.
The camera's perspective followed her movement, and the distorted reflection returned to reality, gradually revealing her handsome face, splattered with blood, in full view of her as the camera moved.
She dared not look at the person's face, focusing only on pretending to be a blind person who could not see anything—suddenly, the thug lying on the ground suddenly twitched in a moment of lucidity, and his wildly waving arm immediately tripped her and made her fall forward.
Are you alright?
The person in front of her actually reached out and helped her up.
But as she subconsciously replied that she was fine, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that her handbag, which had fallen to the ground, had some "evidence" that would reveal that she was not blind because the zipper was not properly closed.
The hand released her and then picked up the small mirror, measuring tape, and other miscellaneous items she had dropped, stuffing them back into her handbag.
The more silently he continued tidying up, the more she dared not even breathe. The unease of waiting for an unknown outcome filled the entire space, and the atmosphere became increasingly tense and urgent.
But in the end, as the person in front of her picked up the bag and stuffed it into her arms, he whispered in her ear with a double meaning: "You can't see anything, right?"
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