"Betting with me is your misfortune." - "God of Gamblers"
Text / Yang Daxia
One Label
Hong Kong-produced films have one characteristic: the label features are obvious.
For example, genre labels such as martial arts films, zombie films, police and bandit films, gangster films, etc., make people immediately think of Hong Kong-made films.
"Gambling films" are also a member of the labelled Hong Kong-produced films.
Going back a decade or two, the film and television images of "God of Gamblers", "Gamblers" and "Saints of Gamblers" can be said to be known to everyone. Many people even bought mousse and hairspray and became the "God of Gamblers" Gao Jin shape.
Nowadays, gambling films are almost extinct, but whenever the theme song of "God of Gamblers" sounds, it makes people's blood boil, giving the illusion of returning to the golden age of gambling films.
Hong Kong-made gambling films officially emerged in 1989's "Supreme" and "God of Gamblers", and disappeared in 2016's "Macau 3" - excluding online movies.
27 years, whether it is long or short, but it has fully explained the special complex of Hong Kong people for gambling films.
Ⅱ·Dream of making a fortune
As early as 1972, Hong Kong produced the first gambling film - "Lucky Casino".
This film is considered an unintentional work, but it has received more than 1 million at the box office.
The story of "Lucky Casino" is very simple. It expounds the idea of making people do good and don't indulge in gambling; however, in the general environment at that time, this movie is very meaningful.
In 1970, the Macau Lisboa Casino was officially launched, and the name of "God of Gamblers" Stanley Ho spread all over the country.
At the same time, another legendary figure in Hong Kong, "Gambler" Ye Han, as a friend and shareholder of "Gambler" Stanley Ho, his prestige is also broadcast in Hong Kong and Macau.
Many Hong Kong people go to Macau to gamble with the desire to worship the god of gambling and the holy gambler, and the desire to get rich overnight.
After these people who gave their lives to gamble came back, some became beggars, while others realized their dream of becoming rich, and they were a lot of money when they grabbed it.
The luck of these minorities blinded the eyes of the public and inspired the dream of getting rich, and the pursuit of riches became a social ideology.
Therefore, during that time, according to the market demand, casinos rose rapidly, and forms such as mahjong, poker, and Mark Six appeared endlessly.
Some smart businessmen have engaged in horse racing, stock trading, and betting to enrich the needs of gamblers.
In fact, gambling was banned in Hong Kong as early as the 1970s.
However, in Hong Kong's downtown, underground, red light districts and other places, there are more signboards for casinos than saunas and nightclubs——
For the little people in the market, as long as they can win money and change their fate overnight, what does it matter if they are caught?
But everyone knows that ten bets and nine loses; the winner in the casino is always the dealer, which is just a game of capitalists.
In this game, players exited, committed suicide, and broke down.
But there are always people, like a wave, one after another. They always believe that those who lose are their own lack of luck and strength.
Personal fighting spirit is low, family harmony is disintegrating, and social atmosphere is disordered. Under such a situation, "Lucky Casino" was born for the purpose of persuading gambling.
The success of "Lucky Casino" has allowed the "Three Xu Brothers" to see a new type of film and new hope.
Two years later, the gambling film "Ghost Horse Double Star" starring Xu Guanjie, Xu Guanwen and Xu Guanying was released.
This is a comedy film, no longer aimed at persuading gambling, but showing the mystery of Qianshu.
In the movie, there is this sentence:
"The cows in the New Territories are also diligent, but don't they see their development?"
This is an anti-teaching material for persuading gambling, and it is "persuading people to gamble". It does not conform to the morals and values of society, but it conforms to the aspirations of Hong Kong gamblers at that time.
The film grossed more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars, making it the highest-grossing gambling film of the 1970s.
It tells Hong Kong people: Gambling is no longer a crime, but a skill and craft related to survival and destiny.
3. Las Vegas at Sea
After "Ghost Horse Double Star", Hong Kong has successively filmed "Bully", "Da Lao Qian", "The King of Gambling Big Scam" and other films to persuade gambling.
"Bully" director Zhang Zengze said:
"I collected a lot of information, and also interviewed many insiders, hoping to reveal the conspiracy of Lao Qian's deception and raise people's awareness."
But these films that persuaded gambling, all received a mediocre response——
For gamblers, how can the values of these films be compared to the philosophical view of "Ghosts and Horses"?
Films about gambling are no longer popular, and directors at the time were generally conscientious and reluctant to make films that glorified gambling and gamblers.
In this way, the newly emerging gambling film has not had time to bloom, and it has fallen——
until the late 80's.
In 1988, the "God of Gamblers" Stanley Ho and "The Holy Gambler" Ye Han had already broken up.
After Ye Han left the Macau casino company, he invented a new gambling method - sea gambling.
He rented a ship, and after a luxurious renovation, the ship had various functions and props. Ye Han named it the "Oriental Princess".
That year, Ye Han invited a large group of well-known and promising tourists to board the "Eastern Princess" and take them into the high seas.
What are you doing on the high seas?
Gambling - The high seas are not subject to the sovereign jurisdiction and domination of any country.
It was the first sea gambling ship in the history of Hong Kong and Macau, and it became a momentary talk. People call it-
Las Vegas at sea.
These anecdotes were passed into the ears of a director named Wang Jing.
Wang Jing is no stranger to gambling and gambling films. His father, Wang Tianlin, is also a director. He has directed gambling TV dramas "The King of a Thousand Kings" and "A Thousand Kings of Heroes".
Therefore, when Wang Jing heard about the "Las Vegas at Sea" incident, she decided to direct a gambling film by herself to fill the gap in Hong Kong-made gambling films for more than ten years.
On the other hand, Wang Jing is a market-oriented person.
At that time, the image of Pony Ma in "The True Color of Heroes" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and brotherhood became a popular theme among the public.
Therefore, in 1989, he made two preparations: he filmed two gambling films, "God of Gamblers" and "Supremacy" at the same time.
Among them, "God of Gamblers" is to beautify the legendary life of gambler Gao Jin, and focus on depicting the final high seas gambling scene, without any persuasive significance.
"Supreme" imitates "The True Color of Heroes", mainly expressing brotherhood, and advising the world to stay away from gambling based on the tragic fate of gamblers.
As a result, "God of Gamblers" won perfectly.
The script of "God of Gamblers" is actually not necessarily better than "Supreme", but there is a soul character in "God of Gamblers" - Chow Yun-fat.
As early as 1981's "Thousands of Kings", Chow Yun-fat played a thousand masters. In the hearts of the audience, Chow Yun-fat is a natural "god of gamblers" on the screen.
God of Gamblers is popular for another reason.
A year ago, in 1988, the foreign movie "Rain Man" was released. In "Rain Man", there is an autistic patient with superb gambling skills.
"God of Gamblers" applies this character image like a cat and tiger, and most of the stories of "God of Gamblers" Gao Jin are set as characters with low intelligence. A talented "idiot", this role is undoubtedly likable.
Of course, the biggest reason for the success of "God of Gamblers" is because it satisfies the "Las Vegas at sea" daydream of Hong Kongers with a gambling complex——
It turns out that there are so many ways to gamble, it turns out that idiots can become nobles.
In "God of Gamblers", the knife boy played by Andy Lau said:
"Small bets can support a family, and big bets can make a fortune in business."
For gamblers, these words are simply a powerful drug; it makes people disdain and sneer at the spirit of going through fire and water for the sake of their brothers in "Supreme".
Through these two touchstones, Wang Jing finally discovered the audience's preferences, and officially opened the door to gambling films——
People's gambling complex is his market.
Four Thousand Doors Three Heroes
The character of "God of Gamblers" Gao Jin is a high-level person who has both fame and fortune. Although he is handsome and cool, he is too far from the general public after all.
Therefore, in the second year, Wang Jing was going to abandon this big man and start with a small citizen.
So, in 1990, "The Gambler" came out.
The protagonist of "Gambler" is the countryman "Knife Boy" played by Andy Lau in "God of Gamblers".
After learning gambling from Gao Jin, the "God of Gamblers", Daozi started his career.
In Daozi, there is a characteristic that "God of Gamblers" does not have: charity. It's also a metaphor: no matter what your career or industry, you can keep your goodness, even if you're a gambler.
Therefore, the knife boy is known as the "gambler".
"Gambler" encountered Zuo Songxing played by Zhou Xingchi in the process of roaming the rivers and lakes.
At that time, Stephen Chow made another movie at the same time: "The Gambler".
In "The Gambler", Zhou Xingchi's Zuo Songxing continued to use the title of "Sage of Gamblers". He is also a small person, but he is born with special functions.
So far, the gods of gamblers, the heroes of gamblers, and the saints of gamblers have all appeared, and the "Three Heroes of the Thousand Doors" have gathered together.
"Three Heroes of Gambling" is a success in the history of Hong Kong films, and it is a crucial factor in the formation of the label "Hong Kong-made gambling films". Japan, Europe and the United States saw the success of Hong Kong-made gambling films, and they all made great efforts to shoot this genre, but they were not successful.
The most crucial reason for Hong Kong's success is the support of Hong Kong's historical background and social atmosphere.
After nearly 20 years of development, many gambling methods have been legalized at that time: lottery tickets, horse buying, mahjong, Mark Six, etc.
In order to retain gamblers, game designers are constantly renovating gambling methods, such as Mark Six, which increases fixed numbers every few years and increases the number of winning prizes.
Gamblers are lured by gambling "units" on the one hand and stimulated by movies on the other.
For example, in "Rich and Noble Man", a family in financial difficulties is transformed into a rich man because of winning a Mark Six lottery.
Gamblers keep falling back and forth amid long-term failures and bleak hopes.
They used their gambling complex to promote the glory of the "Three Heroes of the Thousand Doors".
Wu · The wind and clouds are gone
After the great success of "Three Heroes of a Thousand Doors", director Wang Jing led Chow Yun-fat and others to make derivative works.
In this way, 1997 was quickly passed.
This year is a watershed. Hong Kong films have a larger market and more room to play, but at the same time, they are also more commercialized.
The kind of extreme spirit that can be polished for several years for a script in the past has become rare. The film crew hopes to make a movie today and release it tomorrow to get high returns.
The screenwriter also began to perfunctory.
In 1999, Stephen Chow got the script for "The King of a Thousand Kings 2000" and filmed it against his will for 6 days. Finally, he couldn't stand the shoddy script and left.
"Thousands of Three Heroes" became an absolute sound.
On the other hand, with the progress of society, people's thinking has also improved significantly. Later social gamblers learned the lessons of their predecessors, no longer crazy about casinos, and only gambled on small occasions such as family gatherings.
The individual recovered his fighting spirit, the family began to be harmonious, the social atmosphere was also positive, and the gambling film was gradually dying.
After entering the new millennium, many directors have given up gambling films, because Hong Kong people's gambling complex is gradually dissipating.
Only Wang Jing was still struggling.
He filmed two "Sparrow Saints" in a row, and wrote the screenplay for the third one.
However, with the title of "King of Bad Movies" and mediating in the commercial era, its low quality can be imagined.
He recruited Zhang Jiahui to be the successor of the "Gambler". But the older generation of viewers only recognize Andy Lau as a "gambler"; while the new generation of viewers have absolutely no sense of gambling films.
In 2014, Wang Jing decided to go all out for the last time and filmed "Macao".
In "Macau Wind and Cloud", "God of Gamblers" Chow Yun-fat is back. He is like a black hole, sucking old and new generations of audiences, such as former gamblers and current citizens, into the cinema.
Fa Ge's demeanor remains the same, and every move is enough to arouse the audience's emotions back then.
However, the "God of Gamblers" is no longer the well-known Gao Jin, and changed his name to "Shi Yijian".
He no longer uses the superb Thousand Techniques, replaced by advanced technology.
In the movie, Shi Yijian is no longer criticized because he is a gambler. On the contrary, he also serves the police and upgrades the image of the gambler to a perfect score.
But after watching the movie, the audience is extremely disappointed.
The script is really bad, it's all about cheating the audience of money.
More importantly, the film continues to tell the gambling saga, ignoring that the gambling complex has disappeared in a new generation.
Wang Jing saw that the first film was a big hit at the box office and ignored external comments. In 2015, he made the second film non-stop; in 2016, the third film was released.
As a blockbuster, it takes one year to complete one, and its quality can be imagined.
Finally, with the curtain call of the third part, the label of "Hong Kong-made gambling film" has fallen into the dust of history like "zombie films" and "kung fu films".
The gambling complex also dissipated, and only occasionally when watching old movies nostalgically, there was a slight wave in the hearts of the audience.
But the dissipation of this complex is undoubtedly the best result for the audience, the family, and the society.
(END)
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