One of the characteristics of Hong Kong film in the golden age is its imitation and absorption of foreign film culture and technology. In the early years of Zhang Che and Hu Jinquan’s films such as "The Assassin" and "The Drunk Man", we can easily distinguish some of the features of Japanese sword halberd movies, and the technology of Diaoweiya was truly improved and promoted in Hong Kong action movies. It also originated from Liu Jialiang's learning and imitation of Japanese action movies. By the end of the 1970s, when Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and others began to develop the Kung Fu comedy genre, they thought of the works of a group of American silent comedy masters who also emphasized physical movements. For example, Sammo Hung copied Chaplin’s fork and bread dance in "Gold Rush" (1925) almost intact in "Beware of Little Hands" (1980); Jackie Chan in the "Plan A" series and "Police Story" "The series includes a large number of elements that have appeared in Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd's films-as large as the scene of jumping from the clock tower through the shade cloth or hanging on the edge of the speeding bus, as small as The details of throwing the hat on the coat rack and playing the curve ball on the pool table can be found in the Hollywood silent film era.
Although the above-mentioned imitations are all wonderful, they still remain in the borrowing of external action forms and details. When it comes to the most thorough and invisible reference to the design of the characters' inner characters and relationships in Hollywood comedies, it is Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao collaborated on the film "Flying Dragon Warrior". Its character setting, plot structure, and corresponding action scene scheduling are not only similar to the three famous comedy stars of the classic Hollywood era, the Max Brothers, but also potentially have some interesting connections with the philosophy of Semiotics ( Here we use the philosophical term "semiology" to distinguish it from semiology, which is derived from continental philosophy.
The well-known American pragmatic philosopher CS Pierce once developed a complete set of notation theory. His key thesis is that things in the world can be divided into three categories according to their nature: first, the original ontological nature of things that cannot be decomposed again (such as substantial Red, the fragrant smell of flowers, the sleepiness that swept through, etc.); two, things that can show their meaning in the action/reaction: for example, a wind vane that is blown by the wind will point out the direction of the wind; three, between things The laws, laws and relationships that establish relationships: For example, what connects the relationship between water and water vapor is the law that "water transforms from liquid to gas at the boiling point of 100 degrees Celsius". Pierce’s theory seems very abstract, but it has very obvious manifestations and applications in many fields. The most common one is the setting of personality and relationship at the level of movie dramas. An obvious example is the classic era. Hollywood comedy star Max Brothers.
The three of the Max brothers, Harpo, Chico, and Groucho, who appear most often in their films, maintain a consistent personality in almost all of their films: Hubble never speaks but He is very emotional, with all kinds of impulsive emotional factors emitted from the inside out. In the film, he always wears a large windbreaker, which contains strange objects that cannot be identified for practical purposes. He has a weird attitude towards these objects. He’s emotionally obsessed with colors, and using them at any time for impromptu and unintended behaviors makes us feel that he is always in a state of emotional emission. His personality and mental state are very similar to the first nature described by Pierce; Chico has obvious Secondary personality: He is an activist who constantly stirs up troubles and fights with others, and plans various large and small "conspiracies" to make the "action chain" continue to operate in the film; Groucho is an intermediary The role, he is the link that connects Hubble and Chico to the plot. Through his actions and words, he gives the actions of the former two real meanings, connections and even logical relationships.
Pierce’s theory of "three natures of things" has a further extension: he believes that these three properties are not independent of each other, but are like Russian dolls. Ke always appears with Hubble. The former constantly uses the latter’s bizarre behaviors and various props to achieve his own goals (the second sex wraps the first sex); Groucho is the overall leader, he will Chico and Hubble gather around, making their behavior closely related to the main purpose of the plot (the third sex wraps the first and second sexes). Although we cannot say that such design and arrangement are directly derived from the idea of notation, the role setting of the Max Brothers and Pierce’s generalization and summary of the nature of things maintain a high degree of consistency, just as philosophy (especially pragmatic philosophy) is about reality. A summary of the laws of operation of world things, their character creation coincides with Pierce's philosophical theory, and achieves the same goal by different routes.
We also cannot know what kind of specific research the director of "The Flying Dragon" has on the Max Brothers comedy, but from the perspective of the unique behavior of the three protagonists (the film co-starring with Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung) Such as "Plan A", "No Lucky Star", "Fast Food Truck", etc.), such a qualitative change should not come from a vacuum.
In "Flying Dragon Warrior", Yuen Biao plays a character who is eccentric, cynical and has a strong "fetish" and unruly complex: he goes out on stage with a folding bicycle and climbs a ladder to return to his home from the skylight. , The light switch he installed on the wall is the size of a TV screen. He grows fish in a long and narrow transparent plastic tube that surrounds the house. Coffee heating... No matter how you look at it, this is a Hong Kong film replica of Hubble who is excited about collecting various ancient monster pieces.
Sammo Hung’s character is a fat man with a glib tongue, clever ghosts and constant ideas: In order to complete the spy mission, he tried every means to get close to the almost middle-aged female fisherman boss, from pretending to move to the wrong door, flirting on the rooftop and then using a tweeter to show love on the street. , He successfully used strategy and skill to win the heart of the spy target. The inner nature of this character is very much like Chico who is constantly verifying his own existence in the action/reaction effect of the three Max brothers.
Jackie Chan is the key link between all the characters in the film. He not only finds Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung who do not know each other to perform secret tasks, but also establishes a reconciliation relationship between the two parties when conflicts arise. They are united in the camp to deal with the underworld bosses. He is exactly the role of Groucho among the three Max brothers.
Like other action Hong Kong movies of the same time, the storyline of "Flying Dragon Warriors" is very simple: Jackie Chan and the other three were hired by the underworld without knowing it. After a series of misunderstandings and conflicts, they distinguished right from wrong and reconciled themselves, eradicating the underworld system. Poison factory; in terms of action, it is not dominant compared to other major productions of the same era-except for hard bridge and hard horse fights, the film does not have common car chases, blasting, gun battles, and other high-difficulty and dangerous extremes. Big action scenes. In such a film with a limited cost and a straightforward main storyline, the director’s finishing touch on the personality of the characters raised the level of the film’s dramatic conflicts in a four or two way. The hedging contradictions between the three can even be used by Pierce’s. A philosophical way to summarize: This is the conflict caused by the lack of basic mutual understanding of the individual's self (first-sex Yuen Biao), part (second-sex Sammo Hung) and the whole (third-sex Jackie Chan), and therefore it is always In the film, it is shown as the first sex's unbridled self-revelation, the second sex's fierce response to it, and the third sex's attempt to establish an interactive relationship between the former two.
Take Jackie Chan’s meeting with his girlfriend at home as an example: Yuen Biao sneaked into Jackie Chan’s house to seek justice, but met him on a date with the female client. Jackie had to lock him in the bedroom; but Sammo Hung unexpectedly reported to Jackie the progress of spying on intelligence. In order not to reveal his identity, he had to hide in the bedroom; Hong recognized Yuan as the thief he had caught, and immediately fought him; and Jackie Chan, who wanted to have a romantic date with his girlfriend, had to repeatedly find reasons to return to the bedroom. Pulling away the first two that were in a ball in the bedroom, explaining to them the reason, they were mistakenly hit by the two, with blue eyes and nosebleeds, every time he escaped from the bedroom and appeared in front of his girlfriend, there was an extra scar on his face. The person was surprised. In this scene, the different personalities of the three people and the actions triggered by their personalities led to the escalation of dramatic conflicts. Jackie Chan, who appeared as the third sex, was caught between the initiator of the contradiction, Yuen Biao (the first sex), and the fierce opposition to the contradiction. The reactionary Sammo Hung (second sex) was attacked on both sides. At the same time, he had to maintain the harmony of the overall relationship, and had to swallow his breath. Such intricate conflicts, with the careful design of various details, staged extremely wonderful multi-level comedic action scenes. Prior to "Flying Dragon Warrior", the personality differences and connections between Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan have never been established in this way, and the setting is like a perpetual motion machine that continuously stimulates the interaction between the three; it even Dominating the action scene design ideas, we also saw wonderful fighting scenes where three evenly matched three compete against each other at the same time, which is rarely seen in the history of Hong Kong action movies.
Here must mention Sammo Hung, who is also a director and actor. We are familiar with his status as an action actor and martial arts director, but few people have noticed his meticulous and meticulous talent in film creation (especially in literary and opera scheduling and character relationship processing). In fact, he is not only the only actor among the three who can give up action to play literary and artistic roles ("Eight Two Golds"), he also has an innate talent understanding of film rhythm control and character setting. In the film, he held a tweeter to confess his love to Ye Dexian on the street, but the scene was very unique and emotional, but more importantly, he got rid of the external imitation of Hollywood classic comedy, and deeply borrowed from the internal cinematic relationship of the Max Brothers. The setting of, and from this has prompted various interesting changes, which makes "Flying Dragon Warrior" a rare Hong Kong comedy action film that is both internal and external. It's a pity that "The Flying Dragon" is the last time Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung will perform in the same frame. Otherwise, the setting of infinite relationship between characters will bring more screen surprises. Sammo Hung's expansion of the concept of "three" (which is also Pierce's ultimate definition of the relationship between things) will be more exciting and interesting in the action film "No Face" (1995) that he directed and starred in in 1995. .
(First published on the "Iris" movie public account)
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