Law Wensheng's two plays
1996, Hong Kong.
A little-known screenwriter, sold two classic comedies of fatalism that are enough to go into film history. One of them is called "Da Nei Detective Zero Zero Hair", and the other is called "The God of Cooking". After that, he retired from the front line of film and television screenwriting, and joined the "old partners" such as Li Lichi to devote himself to the education of film and television talents.
This person is called Lau Wensheng , who is said to be proficient in numerology. He has not written many scripts, but the two Stephen Chow comedies are both classics. There are rumors that the postmodern script of "Journey to the West" in 1995 was actually caught by him, and Liu Zhenwei just borrowed flowers to offer Buddha. Therefore, in these films, the same flavor of fatalism and sadness is revealed; and the script after Liu Zhenwei no longer has the aura of "big talk", but keeps repeating.
Rumors are rumors, the script with Lao Wensheng is indeed full of contradictions between being obedient and being selfish. For example , in "Da Nei Detective Zero Zero Hair", everyone sees the happy ending, but another possible tragedy is hidden in it: Zero zero hair's wife, in fact, has been replaced by the self-exploding Wuxiang Wang in the end. That's why there was that inexplicable slap in the face, and that's why in the end, Ling Ling chose to "crash hand in hand" with her and die together.
This possibility is mentioned in the director's soundtrack of Gu Dezhao, Ye Nianchen and Peng Haoxiang. I believe this is an idealistic stalk buried by Lau Wensheng. But if we want to talk about the script that will really be run over by the wheel of fate, it is still "The God of Cookery" . Let the prodigal son take the food in the film as a clue and spread it out.
Bursting Set Urine Beef Balls: Turning Over
"I've never tried such a refreshing and refined feeling. The freshness of beef and the sweetness of mantis shrimp combined together taste better than that of mouse spots. It's more poetic and picturesque than my first love!"
This Lee Shau Kee line combines the nonsensical essence of Hong Kong with traditional food reviews, and complements the exaggerated performance of Japanese animation. It can be said that it is difficult not to make a lasting impression. Even after the movie was released, the elastic Chaoshan beef balls were fried as the prototype of Setui beef balls, so that the popularity expanded and sales increased sharply.
And this beef ball is the opportunity for Stephen Chow, played by Stephen Chow in the movie, to turn over. He has repeatedly emphasized that he is very flexible, and he can even play ping pong, which is also a symbol of his own destiny. It can be like this little beef ball: the harder it is pressed, the higher it will bounce.
Setui Niuwan also contributed the most intense part of the "Feng Shui Numerology" in the film. After Zhou Xingchi expanded the scale of Setui Niu Wan, Tang Niu found that the shop locations he chose were mostly in remote places, and the word "dead" was connected together; but as a result, those locations were not storefronts, but processing factories with cheap rents. The canned food produced is supplied to the supermarkets in Hong Kong-these supermarkets are so densely packed that they spell the word "win".
This is the screenwriting thought represented by Wensheng Lo and the director thought represented by Stephen Chow. The overall unity in the film is also the most burning paragraph of the whole film. Using the situation of food to map the character's experience and mentality, this is the most obvious and interesting part. At the same time, it also pointed to Zhou Xingchi, who was in full swing outside the play-why did Lao Wensheng leave the circle after this play, maybe it was just as wise as Zhang Liang leaving Liu Bang?
Chopped Noodles: Beginning
Since Setui Niuwan symbolizes Stephen Chow's bottoming out, the chopped noodles naturally symbolizes the collapse of his image of the God of Cookery and the demise of his powerful posture at the beginning. Such a powerful and tyrannical figure in the industry who uses food as a weapon actually collapsed because of a small bowl of chopped noodles after being targeted. It must be said that it is a wonderful irony.
Then Stephen Zhou was on the street and was penniless, but he still wanted to eat a bowl of chopped noodles, and criticized Mo Wenwei, the double-knife turkey who sold chopped noodles, in the same words that Tang Niu criticized him. To mention and admire once, Karen Mok's double-knife turkey's appearance is really ugly and the sacrifice is huge, but it is precisely because of this that the strong dramatic conflict between appearance ugliness and inner beauty is completed, and he is really a good actor.
"The alkaline water has no clear water, and the fish balls don't taste like fish, but you deliberately added some curry sauce to cover it up and turned it into curry fish balls. But this is too naive, because you don't cook the fish balls for enough time, the curry's The taste is only on the surface, not inside at all. It was washed away after being soaked in the soup. A good curry fish ball has neither fish nor curry taste. It failed. The radish was not picked, the tendons Too much, failure, the pork skin is too rotten, not chewy, failure, the pig blood is too loose, and it will be scattered after a pinch, the failure of failure, the worst is the large intestine, which is not cleaned, and there is a piece of shit, you How did you do it?"
When Tang Niu said this line, of course, he was demolishing Stephen Zhou's stage; but why did Stephen Zhou say it again to the double-knife turkey. In fact, the subtext here is: I know how to make a bowl of chopped noodles.
When I was a child, I always had a question: Why can Stephen Zhou be the God of Cookery even though he can't even cook? The later story of Setui Niu Wan actually answered this question: he understands food and has a business acumen; what he lacks is only the cooking skills of the back kitchen. That's why he said the same thing to the two-knife turkey when he had nothing and lost his mind - but instead of repeating it, he was evaluating it objectively as a god-eater. This is to remind myself that although I know everything, I have long forgotten the original intention of "making things delicious".
So, in fact, at that time, Stephen Zhou had actually discovered his own problems, but he had not yet found the motivation and way out of his re-emergence. I know someone handed him a bowl of char siu rice.
Depressed Ecstasy Rice: People's Hearts
As the ultimate killer in the movie "God of Cookery", Ecstasy Rice carries the meaning of returning to the original and true love. Its source is the stunt created by Yang Guo in "The Return of the Condor Heroes" by Mr. Jin Yong: Depressed Ecstasy Palm. Its name is taken from the opening verse in the famous poem "Bie Fu" by Jiangyan in the Southern Dynasties: "Those who are ecstatic, only farewell!" It means that the most depressing and soul-destroying thing is parting.
This is a dish created by Stephen Chow in his memory of the double-knife turkey whose life and death were uncertain at that time. After all, when he failed in a hurry, the only person who helped him was Turkey. She gave the God of Cooking who was curled up in the alley a bowl of barbecued pork rice, and lovingly added a poached egg.
This bowl of rice is the best thing Stephen Chow, who has tasted all the food in the world, has ever eaten. In the end, when his Buddha Jumping over the Wall was destroyed and the game was about to fail, he thought of helping him make a comeback, and even defending himself with the Temple Street Double Swords, which made him feel ecstatic. I finally reproduced the taste in my memory.
"It's an onion."
The material that makes people cry in ecstasy rice is onion. But the reason why I used to cry while eating was not the onion, but the state of mind of being unbreakable. At that moment, Stephen Zhou had actually won. He used the ingredients to make the taste of emotion, which is already the highest level. That's why he was able to say the unexpected but reasonable words "everyone is a God of Cookery". It forms a progressive echo with his exaggerated but empty rainbow flower drawing "heart" at the beginning of the movie.
In the end, Tang Niu was hollowed out by Tianguang, which is also a portrayal of this meaning. So far, Stephen Chow has grown from a secular God of Cookery at the beginning of the film to a real God of Cookery that is respected by all humans. The arc of characters and the structure of the film are complete.
four-course starter
Here are the four famous dishes at the beginning: Emperor Fried Rice, Splendid Multi-flavored Fish, Golden Rod Buddha Clothes, and Qiankun Roasted Goose.
This is the real God of Food - Dai Long
The Emperor Fried Rice is the real deal. The prototype of the God of Cookery in the movie is the original creator of this fried rice - Dai Long . At the same time, Master Dai in the movie was also played by Dai Long himself. It's a friendly cameo plus a ticket. Speaking of which, the young master Long who was fascinated by Liu Piaopiao's first love image in "The King of Comedy" was also played by Dai Long. Speaking of Emperor Fried Rice, steamed rice in Jiwei Shrimp is served with Superb Abalone Sauce and Superb Guanyan Stir-fry. In real life, Dai Long cooks fried rice for big figures like Li Ka-shing and Jackie Chan, and the price is 5,000 yuan for only 10,000 yuan. The theory of the overnight meal, of course, is a bug that he deliberately set aside for the movie, and it also shows that Stephen Chow is not a layman.
Splendid multi-flavored fish is very strange. It is said that it is made of Su brow, star-spotted back, three-knife belly, scorpion fish body, and 奀 (ēn) tail. It is also steamed and fried. There are 2 flavors, and there are a total of 10 different flavors.” To be fair, this dish is definitely not cheap, and the ingredients are very scarce. Catching five high-quality fish in the same season is itself a sky-high price. Samui is endangered , Star Spot is included in the protected list, saury is rare because it is difficult to catch, mullet is easy to find but hard to burn, and Brother Zou is hard to buy and hard to burn. They are all good ingredients, but the ten flavors are nonsense. It won't be delicious. This is an irony of the so-called high-end Chinese food that only knows how to pile up precious ingredients (too ugly, so I won't post a picture).
The golden robe is similar to the splendid multi-flavored fish. It is an irony that it only talks about knife work, but forgets that taste is the most basic attribute of a dish. Seriously, cutting tofu, chrysanthemum fish and many inexplicably repeated accessories on the plate really seem to be at the end of the day. This shows once again the characteristics of Stephen Chow's lack of professionalism and advanced ideas.
Qiankun Roasted Goose is actually quite wrong, because the wonderful thing is really wonderful, its feature is not the goose in the main body, but the flower sparrow with Qiankun inside. There is actually an upgraded version of this dish, which is the legendary "four sets of treasures" - duck in goose, chicken in duck, and pigeon in chicken. It is known as the ultimate in knife work and hot stewed vegetables. Here, Stephen Zhou can't pick out the problem of the dishes, and he points out that the chef looks shabby, which is also to show that he really knows the goods, but his mind is weird.
The four dishes serve as the opening mobs of the God of Cookery. One is fascinating, and the other is to express the character. Each has its own reflection and is remarkable.
Buddha jumps over the wall
The Buddha Jumps Over the Wall in the final competition actually exists as the opposite of Depressed Ecstasy. Briefly mentioned here.
During the evaluation of the four dishes at the beginning of the film, Stephen Chow's professionalism and preferences have been shown, and he is disdainful and critical of stacking precious ingredients and blindly chasing traditions. Then, the master who gathers the ingredients and prepares them carefully is the Buddha jumps over the wall.
Tang Niu and he both chose this dish. First, it shows that Buddha Jumps over the Wall can best demonstrate their skills, which can be called the ultimate skill. Second, it shows that even if Stephen Zhou was born Huafa early (in tribute to "Chinese Heroes"), but He hasn't completely surpassed Tang Niu, and he is still fighting on the same level as him.
Therefore, his Buddha Jumping Over the Wall will definitely be broken. Only in this way can we get rid of all past experiences, and then we can find the true meaning of God of Cookery.
If the God of Cookery is the God of Joy, avoid the God of Owl taking food
Zhou Xingchi's ability to completely control his own movies started from "God of Cookery". In 1995, "Domestic Lingling Paint" was still a little immature, but after that, "God of Cookery", which was directed and acted again, achieved a double harvest at the box office and really started the journey to the top.
It can be said that the God of Cookery, who can bring talent, luck and desire among the Eight Characters, Four Pillars and Ten Gods, has truly synchronized with Zhou Xingchi's career curve for a time.
However, the twists and turns, the rapid retreat, Zhou Xingchi has not produced a good work for three years since "God of Cookery", and it was not until 1999 that he ended his peak journey with the semi-autobiographical "King of Comedy" and began to fully turn to the background. And his own emotional entanglements have also experienced Zhu Yin, Karen Mok, Cecilia Cheung... which is in line with the saying that Xiaoshen takes food.
It's hard to say whether there is any true meaning, but Zhou Xingchi's films have been along the way, how many gatherings, separations and reunions, and his understanding of fatalism can be said to be far better than ordinary people. Therefore, whether intentional or not, his works often have the first layer of connotation, always relying on "people have their own destiny, and wealth depends on the sky", such as "The Mermaid" and "Journey to the West". the first golden key.
It's a pity that after we read about Zhou Xingchi, we realized that in our life, no one actually handed him a bowl of ecstasy rice.
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