Taking advantage of the opportunity of the 4th "Hong Kong Martial Arts Film Festival", it is not easy to be able to enjoy a piece of "Xia Nv" on the big screen. The space between me and the big screen is two rows of seats, and the time distance is more than forty years. "Xia Nv" is three hours long, and the filming time and cost of capital are unprecedented at the time. Unexpectedly, commercial profits were bleak after its release, but its milestone significance in the history of Chinese films is that all martial arts films since then are hard to beat. Not only established the audiovisual language of martial arts movies, but also because of the integration of traditional Chinese opera art into the movies.
A heavy taste story from "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" has been transformed into a joke history by Dadao Hu. It seems that it is not just the "Golden Heroes" who master this knowledge. The glamorous girl with unknown life experience became the daughter of Yang Lian, an important minister in the Ming Dynasty, the prostitutes turned into foxes became the thousands of families in Dongchang, and Gu Shengzhai was unwilling to claim fame because of the traitorous ministers. Everything is naturally reasonable after being framed in history. Therefore, the food, clothing, housing, and transportation of the people in the game have a reference-Ming Dynasty, this director Hu most likes to tell stories on the stage.
It is said that in order to restore the texture of history, Hu Jinquan specially studied a large number of Ming Dynasty genre paintings in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. David Podwell once wrote, "Although he is a director, he is also a scholar. Before shooting the film, he carefully studied the details of the set and costumes. He also distributed the sketches of each scene to the actors and staff. This approach is speculative. The improvised Hong Kong film industry is unheard of."
So the result of Hu Dadao's hard work is a phrase "the texture of a movie" that is now over-consumed. Where does the texture come from? I watched the movie while recording, and saw several superficial aspects.
A subtitle table
The opening subtitle table of "Xia Nv" is imitation of Song fonts with a rough rice paper background, accompanied by passionate opera music, directly into ancient China.
Second set
The main place of the story, Zhenyuan General's Mansion, is not tall and magnificent, and it cannot be compared to the luxurious palaces in the large period costumes. Moreover, the current shooting is mostly from the front side, which looks magnificent, but as soon as the close-up shot is pushed, the glazed bricks and tiles appear like a cottage. But Hu Jinquan’s ruined General’s Mansion has a courtyard behind the corner gate; a small road by the side room; and a pond with messy lotus flowers; the hierarchical relationship of the courtyard and the integrity of the front side of the eaves appear in the lens. Although the courtyard is small, it reveals the exquisiteness and charm of Chinese architecture. The fact that the two strings of wind chimes are deliberately distressed can be seen in their intentions.
The temple where Master Huiyuan practiced is only visible in the mountains and rocks. There is no need for the magnificent Daxiong Hall, several eaves, and a small tower, which is enough to illustrate the loftyness of Dharma.
The furnishings of Gu Shengzhai's home and shop are simple but high-end, the books are spotless, and the paintings are carefully obscured, full of scholars' respect for culture. Ouyangnian, a thousand households in the East Factory of
Three Garments
, wore green velvet robes. The luster of velvet naturally showed his identity compared with the cloth robes of poor scholar Gu Xingzhai. The guards, guards, and soldiers around the supervising army were few in number, but they walked in the line close and far in three sets of costumes that were completely different from hats to boots. In a night battle at the General's Mansion, East Factory Supervisor Jun Menda put on a white silk and brightly patterned robe. The clothes themselves were quite exquisite, attracting attention, making him particularly eye-catching in the dark night. In the Bamboo Forest War, the actors' dresses are mostly white, red, and black, and the mottled light and shadow of the cut bamboo leaves are really good-looking. The Bamboo Forest War in the
four editing
"Xia Nv" has become a classic of Chinese martial arts movies, "Ambush on Ten Sides" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are all said to be tributes. In this scene, in addition to the mottled light and shadow, martial arts moves, and the crisp sound of weapons, editing is the highlight of the passage. Disassembling the action into short moments and then quickly editing, laid a dazzling foundation, but stealing a few frames in the process of rising, jumping, and falling becomes the key to bewilderment. The knight's body is abrupt, he takes off at the distant view, and then falls at the close view. The viewer's nerves became nervous, and the palms of their hands were also sweating. Between the real and the fiction, Director Hu was very interested in shooting.
In film shooting, there is no later age, filtering out the technology of color adjustment, fill light, CG, etc. This film presents not only the texture of film as a carrier, but also the awe of the artists for the film. Waiting for a sunrise, shoot a scene in twenty-five days, and then the director personally edits it frame by frame. For a while, there was no information on hand to tell how the director conceived the scenes, costumes, and sound. Le, I only saw one sentence: Xia Nu took a total of three years and six days before and after the filming, and the camera was turned on and off by Shi Jun (the actor of Gu Shengzhai).
It is said that "Dynasty Woman: Concubine Yang" was filmed for seven years with a three-person director group. Fan Ye went from 28 to 35 years old; the whole series of "Little Times" was not easy, with children having children and changing actors in the middle. I heard that they are all movies that pay attention to "texture". Why do the same words of "Xia Nu" and "Yang Guifei" seem to have walked from the earth to the black hole of the universe.
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