Knowing Donnie Yen comes from a third-level film called "The Devil's Lips Tribulation", which I watched in the video hall when I was in college. Please don't misunderstand one thing, this film is by no means comparable to "Qing Ben Beauty". And yes, it should be a film about cults. Friends concluded that there are three fasts in the film: "Women undress fast", "location changes fast", and "Donnie Yen's legs are fast". The increase in watching the first two movies has been slowly forgotten, but the last one has always left a deep memory in my memory.
"Iron Monkey" is another very popular film by Donnie Yen. This film once again brings Donnie Yen's legs to the fullest. It is hard to imagine which martial arts star has such agility as Donnie Yen. So although Jet Li and Tsui Hark created the myth of Huang Feihong, in fact, I still prefer Donnie Yen's Foshan Shadowless Foot, and I am afraid that only he can really interpret it. For me, who does not understand martial arts, speed and strength are What I value, I think it is also consistent with Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do spirit.
In my heart, Donnie Yen is by no means inferior to Jet Li. Except for some beautiful movements, Donnie Yen's strength is unmatched by Jet Li, so I am very optimistic about this person, but in fact, Donnie Yen basically did not create any brilliance, although " Huang Qiying in "Iron Monkey" is very popular, although the official in "Once Upon a Time" is vicious and vicious, and the father-in-law in "New Dragon Inn" is perverted and domineering, but he seems to be just a passerby and does not leave anyone behind. I was deeply impressed.
I think if there is a reason to find out, it is that Donnie Yen is too stylish and cool, but this is a bottleneck in his acting career, causing him to miss many good roles.
"Thousands of Machines" can be said to be an important work of Donnie Yen's return. To be honest, this is not a good film, but the martial arts design in it can be said to be the first appearance of Donnie Yen style.
Speaking of Donnie Yen, one person must be mentioned, and that is Liu Jialiang. There are several big classes in Hong Kong, Liu Jiaban (Liu Jialiang), Married Jiaban (Jackie Chan), Hong Jiaban (Hong Jinbao) and the world-renowned Yuan Jiaban (Yuan Heping). As a martial arts instructor, Liu Jialiang has always advocated the true reproduction of martial arts, so he missed Tsui Hark's "A Chinese Ghost Story" series, and it was not until "Seven Swords" that he perfectly cooperated with Tsui Hark.
In the early days, Liu Jiaban made many classic martial arts films for Shaw Brothers, with each move and style, steady and steady, and he was very particular about the origins of Chinese martial arts. As far as I can remember, there were a lot of Hong Kong martial arts films that were named after a boxing style, which is important because naming it that way means you have to respect the characteristics of that boxing style. The martial arts films of that time not only conveyed to the audience the difference between good and evil, but also the problems of various martial arts genres. However, due to the traditional concept of martial arts, it lacks a lot of fighting meaning. In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee's films can be said to be an anomaly. His films combined martial arts and fighting for the first time, which was a very important event.
After Bruce Lee's death, the concept of fighting in the movie was weakened again. Jackie Chan joked about martial arts and began to replace Liu Jiaban's real kung fu martial arts design, so martial arts was more juggling here in Jackie Chan. Later, Hongjiaban and Yuan Kui went to Yuanjiaban to become popular all over the world. It is difficult to see real kung fu close-handed martial arts, and the movies are mostly dance-style martial arts.
Donnie Yen is a person who advocates real kung fu, so he joined the Liu family class, and it was not until he was the martial arts designer in "Thousand Machines" that Zhen's kung fu first appeared. In fact, before this, Donnie Yen made several self-portraits and also served as a martial arts instructor alone, but since the film was not a hit, his design was unknown. "Thousand Machines Change" is widely known because it is the emperor's investment in idol cards. But to be honest, this film did not fully show Donnie Yen's design. Although many actions are refreshing, they are only shining points.
At this time, "Seven Swords" appeared, which can be said to have played an auxiliary role for Donnie Yen's martial arts design. The martial arts instructor of "Seven Swords" is Liu Jialiang, who can be said to have the same concept as Donnie Yen in the performance of martial arts in film and television, and more importantly, the return of Tsui Hark. When the world is full of Yuan's special effects and elegant martial arts, Tsui Hark abandoned the ethereal spirit of "Shushan Biography" and returned to the martial arts itself, so "Seven Swords" showed us the real effect, especially It is a street battle, very eye-catching, and it is obviously different from the freehand brushwork of the blindfolded street battle in "Fang's Jade".
However, Liu Jialiang's profound martial arts skills and his knowledge of traditional martial arts still hindered the film from going further until Donnie Yen's "Slaying the Wolf" turned out.
The concept of martial arts to conquer people with virtue was swept away in "Slaying the Wolf", and fighting has been raised to a new level, especially the fighting moves are full of the character's own character, which may not even Bruce Lee's design can't. comparable. Some people say that "Slaying the Wolf" is the return of traditional martial arts movies. I think it is only half right. There are two reasons. The characters were separated in the 1970s, and they were not combined. Second, it combined the identities of the characters in the play. The most prominent thing was Wu Jing's viciousness, which was just as vicious as the novel said. This is obviously a kind of transcendence on the basis of return, which should not be underestimated.
Donnie Yen also established himself as a famous martial arts instructor because of the film "Slaying the Wolf". It can be said that in this film alone, Donnie Yen's status can be compared with Liu Jialiang and others.
But no one would have thought that Donnie Yen would go even further after "Slaying the Wolf". The film "Dragon Tiger Gate" has almost absorbed the essence of all martial arts films in the past 30 to 40 years in terms of martial arts design. A movie based on a comic book is quite difficult in martial arts design, especially for a close-minded person like Donnie Yen, if Yuan Jiaban is replaced, it may be more logical. But in fact, Donnie Yen has continued the style of "Slaying the Wolf", and it is more prominent and obvious. The combination of close-up real kung fu and fighting is almost perfect. Many people liked the leg work of Nicholas Tse's restaurant at the beginning of the film, but in fact, the battle in the Japanese restaurant that best reflects Zhen's style. The film actually uses an overhead shot, which is a commonly used shot in the early martial arts films. Later, because it was not intense, the rhythm was slow and slowly withdrew from the martial arts film. Instead, it was of course a montage of partial close-ups. The second overhead shot was definitely an adventure, but in fact, he succeeded.
The narrow partition, the crowded crowd, and the close combat under the camera all make an overhead shot that is considered somewhat taboo in modern times to be extremely impactful. (It should be noted here that most of Yuan Heping's overhead shots are renderings, which are not within the scope of this discussion.)
But after all, this is a comic, the film inevitably has many freehand martial arts bridge breaks, especially the last fight scene is the most obvious. It can be said that the last fighting scene is an attempt, that is, the combination of freehand brushwork and realism. To be honest, it is still not as enjoyable as the previous fighting-style martial arts fights, but this kind of attempt is very necessary, at least they are indeed combined. At the same time, it may also be a manifestation of Donnie Yen's ambition.
Chinese martial arts movies are quite proud, and they will definitely leave a lot of color in the history of world movies. Donnie Yen's rise in the past two years makes us believe that there are successors, which is gratifying. Although we can say that Donnie Yen has reproduced the essence of those martial arts films in Hong Kong film history, the author would like to say that Donnie Yen wrote his name on the basis of his return, which is very important.
Finally, by the way, "Dragon Tiger Gate" is adapted from a comic after all, the plot is simple, and some plots are too casual, but with Donnie Yen, this film should be included in the collection, and I personally see it!
2006-8-16
Han Xi
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