The film "Chivalrous Girl" is adapted from a short story of the same name in Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai". The film is Hu Jinquan's second film in the Federal Film Company (the first is the equally prestigious "Dragon Inn"). The whole film is divided into first and second episodes. The shooting time is nearly 4 years. The high production fee of 20 million can be regarded as a big production at that time.
Hu Jinquan was originally from Yongnian County, Hebei Province. He was born in Beiping on April 29, 1931. His father, Hu Yuanshen, was a prospecting and metallurgical engineer who stayed in Japan. Hu Jinquan usually likes literature and history books, and has a strong interest in Pingju and local operas. In 1949 he went to Hong Kong alone. The following year, Jiang Guangchao introduced him to the Longma Film Company hosted by Fei Mu as an art designer, and soon transferred to the art department of the Great Wall Film Company, where he worked as an art designer with the famous cartoon painter Wan Brothers. In 1953, he began to act as an actor in "The Slapper" (directed by Yan Jun). In 1954, he starred in the film "Little Angel on the Road" (directed by Li Hanxiang). At this time, Hu Jinquan and Feng Yi, Jiang Guangchao, Li Hanxiang, Ma Li, Shen Shen, and Song Cunshou lived together at No. 107 Boundary Street, Kowloon. Seven like-minded filmmakers once became brothers with different surnames. In their ups and downs in their film careers, they encouraged and helped each other, and eventually became the pillars of the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry.
Hu Jinquan has been in the film industry for decades and has successively served as a film artist, actor, assistant director, art director, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is well versed in every specific link of film art creation. This step-by-step process of film art creation makes him a film screenwriter who is truly proficient in the art of film creation, especially the rules of martial arts film creation.
As a generation master of Chinese martial arts movies, the martial arts world created by Hu Jinquan has its own unique scene: it is sometimes windy and rainy, such as the battle of the bamboo forest in "Xia Nv", which crosses sword light, sword light and sunlight. Editing to form a dizzying image of light and shadow; sometimes the smoke is slanted and foggy, like the fight between the painter Gu Xingzhai and the officers and soldiers in "The Heroine". Under the atmosphere of testing... However, the most prominent aesthetic mark in Hu Jinquan's films is that there is always a kind of masculinity that permeates the screen. He turns the genes of the traditional culture in his mind into the martial arts movies. The heroic spirit of his Chinese sons and daughters turned the blood of his Chinese sons and daughters into the soul of the nation and blended them into the film's connotation, creating one after another of heroes and heroes who showed their sincerity.
The opening tone of "The Heroine" is extremely gloomy and dark. Cobwebs were all over the place, and the flying insects threw themselves into their nets. Then, the camera gradually pans down, as the characters continue to wander, like a spectator constantly peeping into the dark world. Only then did he gradually intervene in the plot, step by step approaching the slaughter of the rivers and lakes of swords and shadows. The film's narrative structure is relaxed and orderly, slow and slow. The rhythm of the first half of the film is slow, except that Gu Xingzhai, the painter on both sides of the conflict, is the clue. Gradually, the central plot of the whole film, the evil forces' strangulation of Zhongliang, is revealed one by one. It shows Hu Jinquan's unique style of laying out suspense and suddenly launching a chilling and terrifying violent plot.
The narrative of "Chivalrous Girl" is divided into two main clues: one is the "escape" in the end of the world where Yang Huizhen and others escaped the persecution of Dongchang after Zhongliang; Among these two main narrative threads, the painter Gu Xingzhai was inadvertently involved. When he eventually became a wanted criminal wanted by the government along with the development of the film's plot, he became the protagonist of a Hitchcock-style thriller: at first he had nothing to do with the conflicts of the whole film, But due to some accidental event, he became the "protagonist" in a life-and-death killing. In "Chivalrous Girl", this kind of accidental encounter is an unexpected encounter with Miss Yang at Jinglu Tunbao.
In the two main action lines of "escape" and "chasing and killing", the conventional film narrative style is "escape" in the front and "chasing and killing" in the back. But that's not the case with "The Lady". Hu Jinquan put "chasing and killing" before the whole drama. At the beginning of the film, Ouyang Nian, a thousand households of Dongchang in plain clothes, appears in Gu Xingzhai's painting shop, followed by three killers dressed as monks. The whole town was suddenly filled with panic and murderous intentions, creating a psychological effect of "the mountains and the rain are about to come and the building is full of wind". At this time, the audience knew that the crisis was coming before the characters in the play, thus strengthening the audience's attention to the fate of the protagonist's "escape". In the dark night of thunderstorms, when Gu Xingzhai was looking around at Jinglu Fortress out of curiosity, the traces of Miss Yang and General Shi flashed one by one, and Ouyang Nian of Dongchang had already arrived at Jinglu Fortress at this time. A life-and-death struggle is imminent. It can be seen that before the clues of "escape" have been fully developed, the clues of "chasing and killing" have been laid in front. Since then, when the main lines of the two actions of "escape" and "chasing and killing" crossed each other, the original narrative motives of the two actions also began to shift in the other direction: "escape" became "revenge" at this time— - Avenge Yang Huizhen's revenge for killing her father, and avenge the people of Lebanon for the traitorous officials and thieves who usurped power and murdered the loyal and the good; and the active "chasing and killing" action also became a passive "prevention" situation at this time. Dongchang Menda led the troops to attack Jinglu Tun Fort at night. It was originally a strong advance in the "chasing and killing" action, but they were ambushed by Miss Yang and others, and they could only parry again and again. The two sides fought fiercely until dawn, Miss Yang and Shi The general jointly punished Menda, the leader of the East Factory, and blood splashed on Yang Lian's spiritual seat, as if paying homage to the loyal and good spirit in the sky. This transformation of the dominant direction of the actions completed in the narrative process is an important feature of the narrative style of Hu Jinquan's martial arts films.
Although "Chivalrous Girl" is an adaptation of a chivalrous story, Hu Jinquan has a hobby of interpreting history. It may not be faithful to the historical facts in the plot, but the film always has a dignified atmosphere of ancient history, and the characters and history are always implicated in it. Sometimes historical figures will also appear in the film, "repeat" the scene of that year. This writing method of writing history has more historical feelings injected into it than the chivalrous myths of ordinary martial arts movies, which are either rampant by gods or monsters, and show his unique interest in creating martial arts movies. For example, "Dragon Gate Inn" describes the fight of righteous people to rescue Zhongliang's son after the "change of seizing the door" in the Ming Dynasty; "The Storm in Yingchun Pavilion" describes the martyrdom of the assassination of Yuan general Richard in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty; "Zhongliang" "Picture" shows the heroic deeds of General Yu Dayou in sweeping up Japanese pirates on the coast of South China; the stage of "Legend in the Mountains" is the border of the Northern Song Dynasty near Xixia; and "Chivalrous Girl" shows that the daughter of Yang Lian, an important minister of the Donglin Party in the Ming Dynasty, avenged her father... This kind of general The way of writing specific historical events as the narrative background of the film makes the martial arts films created by Hu Jinquan always have a layer of history.
Hu Jinquan's martial arts films are deeply influenced by traditional Chinese dramas. The music of the films he directs is almost entirely in the style of Peking Opera, the scene scheduling has a strong dramatic formula, and the movements of the characters are often accompanied by the drum beats of Peking Opera. The fighting in the film also has a strong color of Peking Opera martial arts. The characters come and go in the film, as if they are traveling freely on the stage of the drama. "Chivalrous Girl" is mainly based on Chinese classical folk music, with percussion as the background music, which further highlights the mysterious and empty color of the film. The characters he creates are often loyal and wicked, with a clear distinction between good and evil, which is very close to the traditional Chinese drama's strict adherence to the pedigree classification of the characters of Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Ugly, so that the audience can judge the face of the characters at a glance. Instead of spending a lot of effort to speculate on the quality of the characters. This method of delineating the lineage of characters is still used in mainstream martial arts movies.
No matter what style or style the martial arts movie is designed, the elaborate design of martial arts movements cannot be lacking in the end. Hu Jinquan's martial arts movies have his own unique tricks in the design of martial arts movements. The martial arts skills in Hu Jinquan's martial arts films have obvious martial arts marks on the stage, and some of them are almost changed from the "open fight" of Pingju. In particular, those martial arts scenes that combine virtual and real, dynamic and static have formed a unique martial arts style, which is far superior to the hoarse martial arts scenes. Many martial arts scenes he designed have not only become classic images in Chinese martial arts movies, but also repeatedly borrowed by many later martial arts movie creators. A fight between good and evil in a bamboo forest in "Chivalrous Girl" is comparable to the wood chase in Akira Kurosawa's samurai movie "Rashomon."
Although there are many Chinese martial arts films that use religious sites as the space stage, and the theme of the teacher-apprentice relationship between Buddhism and Taoism, the ones that can truly integrate Buddhist thought into the narrative structure and aesthetic mood of the whole film Rarely. And Hu Jinquan's "Chivalrous Girl" shows its unique style in the expression of Buddhist thought. If it is said that there are always two categories of good and evil in traditional martial arts films, then the narrative structure of this binary opposition and its corresponding value system have been obtained in Hu's martial arts film "Chivalrous Girl". A "rewrite" in a religious sense. The representatives of good in the film are Yang Huizhen, a loyal and good queen of the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, and General Shi and General Lu who pretended to be "fortune tellers" and "Jianghu Langzhong" to protect her secretly; the representatives of evil were the eagle dogs of the imperial court headed by Dongchang. And the Buddhist disciples headed by Master Huiyuan are sometimes a bystander outside the conflict between good and evil. After a bloody fight in Jinglu Tun Fort, they silently came here to collect the corpses, as if to appease the dead souls for heaven. At this point, the power of religion is completely outside the film's conflict axis. With the progress of the film's plot, Master Huiyuan really intervened in the narrative situation of the film. After Yang Huizhen and General Shi fled into the forest, they were hunted by a murderous and powerful evil force. The situation of Yang Huizhen and General Shi was in jeopardy. At this moment, Master Huiyuan relied on the aura of nature, leaping between the blue water and the green leaves and sunlight, like an immortal descending to the earth to subdue the demons and subdue the demons, and to subdue the Dongchang eagle and dog on the spot. Master Huiyuan broke the murder weapon into two pieces, showing the boundless power of Buddhism. However, it means that the film did not end a life-and-death pursuit because of the appearance of Master Huiyuan. Under the double shock of Buddhism and martial arts, Xu Xianchun lied that he wanted to reform his wrongdoings and convert to Buddhism, and deceived Master Huiyuan's trust. Just when Master Huiyuan stretched out his kind hand to him, the rebellious Dongchang, whose nature was hard to change, suddenly used a hidden weapon and stabbed Master Huiyuan. The Buddhist nature of persuading goodness was exchanged for the vicious sword of a traitor! At this time, Dongchang Xu Xianchun, who had completely abandoned his conscience and humanity, was completely in a state of madness. He mistakenly killed two of his subordinates while the world was spinning, and his spirit completely collapsed. This human betrayal, who retaliates with grace and revenge, finally fell under the cliff and became meat in the mouth of the goshawk. Miss Yang and General Shi recited Master Huiyuan's life-saving grace, and looked up at the sky. They saw Master Huiyuan sitting cross-legged on the top of the mountain, with the sun shining from behind and pointing to the west sky with one hand, as if they were guiding Miss Yang and General Shi. Follow the path of the common people, and in an instant he has melted into a bright sunlight - this is the ultimate world of chivalry and Buddhist fate that Hu Jinquan shows us at the end of the film.
Chinese martial arts movies have forged an indissoluble bond with gods and monsters since their birth. "Burning the Red Lotus Temple" is not only the pioneering work of martial arts movies, but also the ancestor of monster martial arts movies. A fire in the Red Lotus Temple not only "burned" a generation of swordsmen and swordsmen, but also "burned" many monsters. Hu Jinquan's martial arts films are always full of ghosts: the barren reeds and gloomy music in "The Heroine", the solitary lamp in the night, and the flickering lightning in the dark, seems to have transformed Jinglu Tunbao into a ghost. "Forbidden places". In addition, Gu Xingzhai, who is familiar with military books and focuses on "attacking the heart", uses clever tricks to pretend that ghosts and gods are causing chaos to the enemy soldiers, which adds a layer of "ghost energy" to "Chivalrous Girl".
Hu Jinquan's works often focus on "wu" and "righteousness", not "feeling", not "love", even when writing about love between men and women, such as Gu Xingzhai and Dajinglutun in "Chivalrous Girl" Young girl who took refuge in the castle. The two originally met by chance, Yang Huizhen was upright and stern, and in order to escape the pursuit of Dongchang's henchmen, he met Gu Xingzhai, a painter, unexpectedly. At night, Miss Yang played the piano and sang a cappella, pouring out her heart. The desperate Yang Huizhen and the impoverished Gu Xingzhai fell in love. After the two had a "love affair" overnight, the painter Gu Xingzhai voluntarily threw himself into a bloody duel. Until the end, Gu Xingzhai walked out of the deep mountain canyon holding his and Miss Yang's own flesh and blood. How the two were emotionally, did not explain. Perhaps in Hu Jinquan's film planning, their combination is only to deal with the pursuit of evil forces, and they have no independent emotional meaning.
In terms of image composition, Hu Jinquan draws on the freehand brushwork of Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. Characters are often placed on one side of the screen, instead of "placed" characters in the middle like the usual films. His films are unique in their visual experience.
Once upon a time, how Chinese films entered the international film market, and how to change the narrow situation of Chinese films being confined to one side, was a cultural ideal that many Chinese filmmakers were thinking about and pursuing. Won the Comprehensive Technology Award at the film festival, creating a successful example for Chinese films to expand overseas. In 1978, Hu Jinquan was named one of the top five directors in the world by the International Film Guide due to his outstanding achievements in the creation of martial arts films. It can be seen that he not only wrote a masculine and heroic chapter for the history of Chinese film, but also the martial arts films he created, also the first to enter the international film circle, becoming the pioneer of Chinese films to enter the world.
Hu Jinquan has been galloping in the world of martial arts movies for decades, in the fight with swords, swords and halberds, and in the bloody rivers and lakes, he wrote his ambition and pride. Hu Jinquan wrote a heart-pounding historical chapter of Chinese martial arts movies with his unique artistic style in "The Heroine".
View more about A Touch of Zen reviews
