In 1971, "Big Brother Tangshan" made Hong Kong Kung Fu films go global
Bruce Lee: The ultimate martial arts is to express yourself honestly
In the 1970s, a personal whirlwind quickly blew up in the film world, which was the "Bruce Lee Whirlwind." As Bruce Lee said: "I will never say that I am the number one in the world, but I will never admit that I am the second." Those fierce kung fu and the iconic long scream made countless people scared. It is said that among all the kung fu movie people, only Bruce Lee has raised the national theme to such a high level, it is also Bruce Lee who truly brought Chinese Kung Fu to the world film scene.
There are too many topics around Bruce Lee, but the topic of "commercial war" may be rarely mentioned. Admirers of Bruce Lee like to regard him as a "personal hero" and his unique personality charm, but the birth of Bruce Lee myth is for the film industry Perhaps there are more enlightenments. Run Run Shaw missed Bruce Lee, while Jiahe "borrowed the east wind". The rapid growth of the company's strength may be the perfect "case" for the film company's commercial war.
Run Run Shaw missed Bruce Lee and Jiahe took advantage of the trend. In 1970, Shaw's more than ten-year old rival "Cathay Pacific (Dianmao)" finally ceased its production business. Shaw thought he could dominate the Xiangjiang film scene. The great minister Zou Wenhuai unexpectedly announced his separation from the Shaw Brothers and took away a large number of elite soldiers to set up a separate "Jiahe Film Company". Although Zou Wenhuai was able to get the support of foreign funds, after all, the foundation is still shallow and there is no amazing performance. Fortunately, Zou Wenhuai had planned to start a business with arduous efforts and actively sought opportunities to create miracles. As a result, the opportunity came.
In 1970, when Bruce Lee, who developed in the American film and television industry, was interviewed by the Hong Kong media, he revealed that he would return to Hong Kong if he had the right opportunity to develop. Although many small companies were moved by the news after hearing the news, only Shaw Brothers and Jiahe were the only ones who were really interested in cooperating with the production level of blockbuster films. Bruce Lee was originally most interested in Shaw Brothers, who has strong financial resources. After all, Shaw Brothers is a leader in Hong Kong's film production industry. So although the savvy Shaw Shaw did not offer generous terms, it is no different from other celebrities under Shaw Brothers. Bruce Lee still said that as long as Shaw Brothers sends the script, everything else can be discussed. But Run Run Shaw thought that Bruce Lee was not satisfied with the development of Hollywood at that time, so he took it into consideration, so he showed that the big boss had to return to Hong Kong before he could arrange everything. This action angered the arrogant Bruce Lee. He insisted that Shaw should come to the United States to talk to him. As a result, the two sides did not compromise with each other, and the cooperation had to fail.
The shrewd Shaw Shaw did not expect that this would give the newly established Jiahe a great opportunity. Zou Wenhuai sent director Luo Wei's flag Liu Lianghua to the United States to win Shaw Brothers' "Queen of Martial Arts" Zheng Peipei to join him. Golden Harvest promised to give Bruce Lee a remuneration of US$7,500 for each film and try his best to meet his requirements. Bruce Lee finally agreed to start two films for Golden Harvest.
In 1971, Bruce Lee rushed to Thailand to shoot the Golden Harvest Kung Fu film "Big Brother Tangshan". This is the script "Big Brother Tangshan" (Tangshan is another name for overseas Chinese to China) co-produced by director Luo Wei and Ni Kuang. Bruce Lee believes this is an existing film. Kung Fu is a masterpiece of chivalrous spirit, so he is pleased to sign the contract. On October 3, 1971, "Big Brother Tangshan" premiered in Hong Kong, bringing a brand new sensory excitement to the audience. In the film, Bruce Lee fights the villains fiercely. With one enemy ten, swift and sharp three-legged circular kicks, volley kicks, and high-pitched screams, the audience is fascinated by martial arts gimmicks. Almost every time in the theater There will be a burst of cheers in a few minutes.
In March 1972, "Jing Wu Men" combined Bruce Lee's Kung Fu charm with extremely exaggerated national sentiments, making the film also a great success. The film even opened up the international markets in Japan, Europe and the United States, and Jiahe made a lot of money with these two films, and the company's strength also made rapid progress with Bruce Lee's move.
In 1972, Zou Wenhuai followed the advice of Bruce Lee to jointly establish Concord Pictures. The company’s first work was "The Raptor Crossing the River", written and directed by Bruce Lee, and Jiahe provided all technical support. "The Raptor Crossing the River" became Hong Kong’s No. A film with a box office revenue of more than HK$5 million.
With the success of the three films starring Bruce Lee in Hong Kong, the kung fu movie craze soon swept the world, miraculously looting nearly tens of millions of dollars in the box office in the United States alone. This drew Hollywood's eyes. MGM, Columbia and other big film companies rushed to offer favorable terms to invite Bruce Lee to shoot. Among them, Warner Pictures, which had a cooperative relationship with Bruce Lee, took the first opportunity to sign with his own boss, Concord. Under the contract, he is preparing to shoot a Kung Fu movie "Dragon Fighting Tiger Fighting" starring him. In January 1973, the film was officially filmed in Hong Kong location. The film lineup was luxurious, and it was a model of the combination of Chinese and Western in the history of the world's film industry. The main creators of the Chinese version are all the main elites of Jiahe Company. "Dragon Fighting Tiger Fighting" is the pinnacle of Bruce Lee's kung fu movies in his heyday. So far, the box office has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars. Became the highest-grossing piece of Bruce Lee's work. "Dragon Fighting Tiger" became the first successful Hollywood-style Chinese Kung Fu film in American film history. Bruce Lee's long-cherished wish was finally fulfilled, but he died before he became a teacher. Bruce Lee died a month before the film was released.
The death of Bruce Lee at the peak of his career did a lot of blows to Jiahe Company, but Shaw may regret it the most. He watched the "Bruce Lee Whirlwind" sweep Xiangjiang, but it was not himself who created the myth.
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