Donnie Yen is 56 years old this year.
About ten years ago, producer Huang Baiming signed Zeng Zidan, who has entered "middle age" but has a lackluster masterpiece and a tepid career. Let him play the Ip Man series that he invested in.
In the end, everyone was very happy. Ip Man became another big character martial arts symbol after Huo Yuanjia, Huang Feihong, Bruce Lee and Chen Zhen, such as "The Grand Master", "Ip Man Prequel", "Ip Man Biography: Zhang Tianzhi", etc. , This kind of "Ip Man Movie Universe" relies on Zhen Zidan's real kung fu to make a base, and the martial artist spirit of punching to the flesh forcibly opened a door in Chinese martial arts films.
But such a door is too small and too crowded.
Almost all actors who can still perform real kung fu so far will try the IP of Ye Wen. In foreign countries, Zeng Zidan is given the title of "IP MAN". It is difficult for us to produce another character like Ye Wen. There are reasons for capital, reasons for talents, and reasons for the culture we undertake.
Nowadays, none of the characters I know who used to be in martial arts movies can be called young. The 65-year-old Jackie Chan is not so much still showing his fists, it is better to say that such an Oscar-winning actor is earning the last bit of value by capital; 67-year-old Sammo Hung may still be short of money, and recently endorsed online games,
The 56-year-old Jet Li is already in a state of retirement. He believes in Buddhism and seems to have bid farewell to the turbulent martial arts world.
Director Yuan Heping is 74 years old this year. As a world-class martial arts instructor, he is still fighting on the front line, but without him, can we still watch our movie fight scenes? The situation of the older generation was bleak. Among the martial arts actors in the Mesozoic era, the most popular Wu Jing stopped his martial arts exploration ten years ago. What he did was to use his martial arts foundation to create action movies at the core of patriotism; kung fu; The successor of Emperor Zhao Wenzhuo and Jet Li, but it seems that he is always walking the road that others have walked. At the end of the year, he also began to direct and act in war action movies like Wu Jing;
Of course, there is also Zhang Jin, who is now favored by the majority of filmmakers, but we only have his films without him in our minds. Zhang Jin, who is slowly passing through middle age, has not been able to truly locate his masterpiece, and in the current older generation When the filmmaker is still on the field, he may need to continue to precipitate if he wants to usher in his own era.
Of course, there are also the new generation of martial arts actors, who can we think of? It is still a variety show that Shi Xiaolong can appear on the big screen, and the one who has really studied martial arts and is still active on the screen is Wang Baoqiang, who you would never associate him with martial arts. The only one of his that can be associated with martial arts. The one that starred with Donnie Yen in "One Man's Martial Arts", and now, Donnie Yen uses "Ip Man 4" as his last martial arts movie to bid farewell to the world of martial arts.
Ip Man on the screen is over, but he still has an all-powerful apprentice who brings kung fu to the world - Bruce Lee.
But who else is behind Donnie Yen, who plays Ip Man on screen, who can recreate Chinese martial arts movies?
The decline of martial arts movies began almost at the same time as the decline of Hong Kong movies.
Because it is the brilliance of Hong Kong movies that drives the growth of martial arts movies. The development and glory of martial arts movies are inseparable from a specific environment.
Because of historical reasons and responses to living conditions. There are unique martial arts films in Hong Kong, with wonderful actions and the support of loyalty and righteousness. Because of these, Hong Kong-style martial arts action films can be summed up in three words: "live wonderfully", "take it back" and the classic "my fate is up to me".
How to live, how to live, the changes in Hong Kong people's thinking and sense of unease brought about by the changes in Hong Kong over the past century are all reflected in the film. Of course, it is precisely because of this strong "desire to survive" that Hong Kong martial arts movies have fertile ground for development.
The earlier martial arts films were closely linked to dramas and ancient Chinese stories, and supported by the well-established industry of Hong Kong films, actors such as Dillon who had theatrical skills and real martial arts skills, and a group of professional martial arts actors who had changed their careers from martial arts created the era of martial arts movies. Not to mention that there are truly international martial arts superstars such as Bruce Lee who are expanding their territories overseas, making Kung Fu known to the world, and when the market and actors have a lot of demand, Gu Long, Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng are the main martial arts. Class writers also breathe life into screenplays, and apart from the drama, we have new stories to tell the hero's integrity.
In the early 1980s, the bigwigs in the Hong Kong circle represented by Li Hanxiang, Zhang Che, and Hu Jinquan experienced ten years of development in Taiwan and the United States, and saw the impact of commercialization on movies. The early martial arts movies contained two major elements to attract audiences. : The national spirit and the action scene patterns they designed in combination with the troupe in their early years were gradually abandoned by the audience as the decades of peace and culture became more civilized after the war. So new and improved martial arts movies began to emerge, focusing on comedy and fast-moving action scenes. In addition to the foundation laid by Qi Xiaofu before, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuan Biao caught up with the opportunities for the development of emerging martial arts, and created an excellent martial arts action movie with comedy action design and a plot closer to life.
The charm of artistic creation lies in this, the standard is never constant. The prosperity of comedy action films has also fed back martial arts films. In the 1990s, Jet Li shined. In just 1993, six martial arts films were released, namely "Fang Shiyu", "Fang Shiyu Sequel" and "Once Upon a Time in Three Lions". "Huang Feihong: The Iron Chicken and the Centipede", "The Demon Sect Leader of Heaven and Slaying the Dragon", and "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng".
But after 1996, with the strong impact of Taiwanese capital and the failure to find a suitable path for their own development in the social reform, it is difficult for such martial arts films to be produced. Wu Jing, who entered the Hong Kong film market during this time period, did not experience the grand occasion of martial arts movies. His first film "Kung Fu Boys" was directed by Yuan Heping, but the box office was bleak, and he did not have a firm foothold. Since then, he has been playing a supporting role in Hong Kong films. The only "Slaying the Wolf" and "Man" True Color also does not have a good box office appeal.
Helpless, after 2008, Wu Jing returned to the mainland to direct and act in films. After "Langya", he gambled all his net worth to shoot the "Wolf Warrior" series of transformational action movies to be successful.
Looking at it this way, the prosperity of martial arts films is inseparable from three elements: the market, talented actors, and solid stories.
But now, all three have encountered problems.
The first is the market. The film market, which requires quick returns on funds, cannot afford to provide opportunities for more young martial arts actors. The IPs of established movie stars are the best signboards for attracting money, even if their own age is really not suitable for martial arts films. . The most important thing is the human factor. The previous martial arts actors all had real kung fu. Zeng Zidan studied Wing Chun for three years to shoot Ip Man, but now the younger generation who have studied martial arts do not have the opportunity to show their faces. The actors of the film are full of fists and legs, and the action core of the martial arts films has been lost. No amount of martial arts instruction can make actors without martial arts background become screen masters like Huang Feihong and Ip Man, even Huang Qiusheng and Tony Leung Chiu Wai's Ip Man. It lacks the style of martial arts, let alone the current generation of young actors.
In addition, the loneliness of the southern martial arts and the lack of a market for the northern martial arts are also a major factor. The popularity of Ip Man and Ye Wen, the boundary of the southern boxing gym is full of restaurants that teach Wing Chun, and there are only a few who can really cultivate talents. which one?
The Northern School martial arts can produce talents such as Jet Li, Zhao Wenzhuo, and Wu Jing. There is no market demand for them. They can only use the Northern School skills to perform Southern Boxing. If they do not undertake it, where will they develop? Finally, there are stories. There are too few good scripts. We are still taking the old story of Jin Yong and Gu Long. According to statistics, there are as many as 111 martial arts movies related to Huang Feihong. The core of Ye Wen's movies is the national spirit. , against the line of foreigners, there are no new ideas and stories, and there is no room for filmmakers to play.
It seems that the farewell of martial arts to us will really last for a while.
A few days ago, Donnie Yen was asked by a child at the opening ceremony of the 2019 China (Foshan) Kung Fu Film Weekly Film Festival that he would still make "Youth Ip Man", he replied: He will continue to do it behind the scenes. The behind-the-scenes work of a kung fu movie. If you want to make "Youth Ip Man", if you are interested, I will consider you first.
I hope we can see that this little boy has a fate with Zeng Zidan, and a fate with Chinese martial arts movies.
Farewell may be a new beginning.
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