Speaking of directors in Xiangjiang, people like Mr. Xu, Bai Gewu, Fatty Wang, and Wang Sunjing may be more familiar to you.
But in the Hong Kong film industry from the 1950s to the 1970s, the four most famous directors in Hong Kong were Chang Cheh, Chu Yuan, Li Hanxiang and Hu Jinquan.
Chang Cheh is a martial arts master with many disciples. He made his debut in Taiwan. In 1949, he directed his debut film "The Storm of Alishan", which was also the first feature film in Taiwan's film history.
This person even has a good relationship with the first son of Taiwan Island.
However, in 1957, Chang Cheh left Taiwan and came to Xiangjiang to develop. He first signed a contract with D&M and then joined Shaw Brothers a year later.
"The One-Armed Sword", the first movie in Hong Kong with a box office exceeding one million, was his masterpiece. From then on, Chang Cheh also had the title of "Zhang Wanwan".
Later, Chang Cheh made a series of popular martial arts movies such as "The Great Assassin", "The Golden Swallow", "The Thirteen Taibos", "The New One-Armed Sword", "Ma Yongzhen", and "The Thorn Horse", using the masculinity of men to break the femininity of women. It changed the Huangmei-style style in which female characters dominated the Hong Kong film industry at that time, and ushered in a new era of martial arts dominated by men.
There is a reason why Zhang Che has many disciples. At this time, Wang Yu, who was currently popular in Xiangjiang, and Di Long, Jiang Dawei, Chen Guantai and others who were about to become popular in Xiangjiang were all made famous by him.
In addition, Baige Wu was also a disciple of Zhang Che.
At that time, Chang Cheh's evaluation of Baige Wu was: Wu Yusen does not want to be an actor, he is suitable to be a director.
Even Zhou Xingchi can be regarded as Zhang Che's disciple.
In 1989, a group of Chang Cheh's disciples and grandsons even co-produced a movie called "The Brave Heroes" to celebrate Chang Cheh's 40th anniversary in filmmaking.
Zhou Xingchi also participated.
Chu Yuan, a native of Yangcheng, came to Xiangjiang in 1956. Later audiences are more familiar with him from Cheng Long's movie "Police Story". In this movie, Chu Yuan played the villain Zhu Tao. .
But his career as a director is also extremely brilliant. The films directed by this person like to focus on the lives of ordinary citizens. As a film director, his second film "The Heart of Parents in the World" made Chu Yuan famous in one fell swoop. Throughout the 1960s, Chu Yuan Directed more than 60 Cantonese films.
Extremely efficient, this was fully developed by his apprentice Wang Fatty.
This year Chu Yuan will release his first Shaw Brothers masterpiece "Love Slave". This movie will immediately cause a sensation in Hong Kong as soon as it is released.
Next year, Chu Yuan's movie "Seventy-Two Tenants" became the box office champion of the year, beating Li Xiaolong's "The Way of the Dragon".
Later, "Kung Fu" released by Zhou Xingchi also obviously borrowed from "Seventy-two Tenants".
Later, Chu Yuan began to cooperate with Gu Long and filmed a total of 18 Gu Long movies, such as "The End of the World", "Chu Liuxiang" and "The Sentimental Swordsman".
At that time, Chu Yuan + Gu Long + Ti Long were the guarantee of box office.
Later, Chu Yuan also filmed movies such as Zhou Xingchi's "The Thief" and Zhou Runfa's "The Diary of a Real Man".
Hu Jinquan, on the other hand, is known as a great master who is famous but not profitable. Hu Jinquan, who was born in the capital, came to Hong Kong in the 1950s. Compared with the other three directors, the number of films he made in his life can be said to be very few, with only 16 films.
However, in 1978, he was selected as one of the top five directors in the world by the British "International Film Guide" magazine. In the same year, he was named one of the 50 most outstanding directors in the world by Time Magazine. He was the first person to be recognized by the West.
And a world-renowned Chinese director.
Among Chinese action movies, the most famous "The Drunken Man" is his directorial work. At the same time, because of this movie, the Hong Kong film industry at that time had an additional title of martial arts director.
Xu Laoguai's "New Dragon Gate Inn" is a remake of his movie "Dragon Gate Inn".
The Li Hanxiang in front of us is a native of Liaoning Province. He has been in Xiangjiang for 48 years. The audience is naturally more impressed by his romantic films, but in fact Li Hanxiang's achievements are not limited to romantic films.
Hong Kong's Huangmei Diao movies were carried forward in the hands of Li Hanxiang. In 1958, Li Hanxiang chose Lin Dai to star in the movie "Diao Chan", which broke the box office record of Mandarin movies in Hong Kong at that time and won Li Hanxiang the most prize at the 5th Asian Film Festival.
Award for best director.
Later, Li Hanxiang directed "The Beauty of the Country", which achieved unprecedented box office success.
At that time, Li Hanxiang could be said to be Shaw Brothers' strongest director.
However, at this time, the gap between Li Hanxiang and Shaw Brothers was getting bigger and bigger. Finally, Li Hanxiang left Shaw Brothers and went to Taiwan. With the support of TVB boss Lu Yuntao, he paid Shaw Brothers 300,000 in liquidated damages.
Mao went to Taiwan to open up territory and expand the territory.
Li Hanxiang established Guolian Film Company in Taiwan.
Unfortunately, with the death of Lu Yuntao, Li Hanxiang also ushered in the trough of his career, especially the last film "Xishi" directed in Taiwan. In order to achieve the effect he wanted, Li Hanxiang even seconded Taiwanese actors for this film.
Soldiers of the Island, but when the movie was released, it suffered a huge loss at the box office.
As a result, Li Hanxiang was unable to survive in Taiwan.
In desperation, Li Hanxiang had no choice but to return to Hong Kong and filmed two films, "The Story of Deception" and "The Story of Deception". In particular, the film "The Story of Deception" entered the top ten box office in Hong Kong that year.
If Chu Huan hadn't appeared, Li Hanxiang would have returned to Shaw Brothers soon and directed his first film back in Shaw Brothers, "The Great Warlord".
It was also this movie that made Hong Kong's first-generation comedy king, Xu Guanwen, famous.
Of course, there are many other movies about Li Hanxiang, such as "Behind the Curtain", which made Tony Leung the youngest actor to win the Hong Kong Film Awards.
"It turns out to be Mr. Chu. I've often heard of Mr. Chu's name in the industry recently, but I didn't expect that Mr. Chu would be such a young and handsome boy!"
After Li Hanxiang learned Chu Huan's identity, he smiled and said.
Even if he speaks Cantonese, Chu Huan still hears a heavy Northeastern flavor, and Li Hanxiang's Cantonese is actually not that good.
Chu Huan preached in Mandarin: "Director Li can just speak in Mandarin, I can understand him!"
Hearing that Chu Huan spoke fluent Mandarin, the joy on Li Hanxiang's face became even brighter: "Mr. Chu, can you speak Mandarin?"
"I understand!" Chu Huan said with a smile.
Hong Jinbao asked curiously: "Director Li, are you here to shoot for a new movie?"
Li Hanxiang laughed and said: "That's about it. I met Mr. Shao some time ago and we are ready to cooperate again."
When Hong Jinbao heard this, he was shocked, "Director Li is going to return to Shaw Brothers?"
When Li Hanxiang left Shaw Brothers, there was a very fierce commotion. Shao Yifu even threatened to go to court with Li Hanxiang. However, privately, Shao Yifu also admitted that he would not do such a lose-lose thing, and secretly sent the then Shaw Brothers general Zou Wen to think about it.
We need to persuade Li Hanxiang to stay.
But what Shao Yifu didn't expect was that at that time Zou Wenhuai had already developed a bone disease and wanted to leave Shaw Brothers. Naturally, it was impossible to sincerely persuade Li Hanxiang.
This is another reason why Li Hanxiang left Shaw Brothers.
"It hasn't been finalized yet, I just have this idea!" Li Hanxiang said with a somewhat complicated expression.
When Chu Huan looked at Li Hanxiang, his eyes lit up. Chu Huan actually didn't know much about the movie "The Great Warlord" and had never seen it, but Chu Huan knew that Li Hanxiang made Xu Guanwen famous with this movie. This shows that this
The movie is definitely a blockbuster movie.
In addition, now that black and white video is being established, although there are rising stars like Hong Jinbao and Cheng Long, it still takes time for them to grow.
The company now has the future, not the present. If a film industry giant like Li Hanxiang can join, it will have the effect of stabilizing the sea.
At least for the next five years, Chu Huan won't have to worry about the company not having any blockbuster movies.
The most important thing is, if we can sign Li Hanxiang, can we also snatch Xu Guanwen over?
Thinking of this, Chu Huan was a little excited, "Director Li, I have just entered the Hong Kong film industry. I have heard a lot of legends about Director Li. I wonder if Director Li has time to let us juniors have a good time."
What about learning from the experience?”
Li Hanxiang was also a little surprised by Chu Huan's sudden invitation. He had been back in Xiangjiang for a year, and naturally he had seen reports about Chu Huan in the news.
I knew that the young man in front of me was a very famous rising star in the business world in Xiangjiang.
When it comes to their status in the film industry, the two of them are naturally different, but when it comes to their status in Hong Kong, even ten of them can't compare to one Chu Huan.
Now that the other party invited him so politely, Li Hanxiang's vanity was greatly satisfied.
"Meeting each other is fate. Mr. Chu speaks in person. If I don't agree, wouldn't it be a loss of face?"
Li Hanxiang smiled and agreed.
Chu Huan now has his own film company, and more importantly, his own theater chain, which Li Hanxiang does not have.
Regardless of whether black and white video was first established, at this time Chu Huan already had a position in the Hong Kong film industry thanks to Lisheng Cinemas.
Chu Huan said with a smile: "That's just right. It's better to choose a day than to hit the sun. Tonight, I will reserve a seat at Yong Kee. Director Li will definitely appreciate it!"
Li Hanxiang also smiled and said: "No problem, I will definitely participate on time!"
After making an appointment with Li Hanxiang, Chu Huan and Hong Jinbao left the Shaw Brothers studio. Hong Jinbao looked at Chu Huan deliberately in the car.
"Master Huan, do you want to recruit Li Hanxiang to join the company?"
Chu Huan nodded and said: "Yes, directors like Li Hanxiang are rare talents for every film company. If he can join, the black and white images will be even better."
Hong Jinbao nodded and said nothing, but there was still a hint of nervousness in his eyes.
Now he is the only director of Black and White, but if Li Hanxiang joins, he will not be the only one. More importantly, Li Hanxiang has more status and box office appeal than him.
The pressure suddenly came!
Chu Huan saw Hong Jinbao's reaction, but he didn't explain anything to him. Only when you are under pressure can you be motivated!
It's just that I first snatched Hong Jinbao and Cheng Long before Jiahe, and now I'm planning to snatch Li Hanxiang before Shaw Brothers. I don't know what will happen to these two companies in the future.