Do China audiences still want to enjoy the movie plot of a five-foot-four-inch-tall Qing Dynasty man in a gown and pigtails who defeated the Western Hercules with his bare hands?
Twenty years ago, the answer was yes. In the series of movies of Huang Feihong, Ren Shiguan plays a down-and-out martial artist who is dressed in hard qigong, but still laments that "he can’t compete with foreign guns". In a blink of an eye, Huang Feihong, who traveled to the United States, has evolved to avoid revolvers by flying. In such a script market that pursues strange feelings, it is natural and reasonable for an oriental culture learner who seems to have no advantage at all to rely on Zen machine to defeat white muscular men. If he can give a sermon, it will be more convincing.
But now it’s 2015, and most viewers have stopped eating this set. People know Gracie, Bo Qiu and Fido • Emilianko knows what fighting is all about. Movies such as ong bak, Warrior and Winter Yin Gong, with the theme of fighting, are popular all over the world. It is hard for producers to try to replicate the imaginative imagination of action movies in the 1990s in China, but it is hard not to gain ridicule.
Actor Jason Wu may be the best narrator of this performance revolution. He recently participated in two fighting movies — — Wolf Warriors and Breaking Wolf 2, especially the latter, quickly became the dark horses at the box office last week. The audience was pleasantly surprised by the change of Jason Wu’s performance style, and even felt that even his baby face for many years began to show vicissitudes.
In the early TV dramas such as Tai Chi Master and Kung Fu Kid, Jason Wu’s role always continues the traditional pattern of "Kung Fu Kid". It is difficult for the audience to distinguish the protagonists in these stories. Whether he is Fang Shiyu, Hong Xiguan or Yang Luchan, they are all laughing and laughing, with deep internal forces and can fly over the eaves. The characters in these films and TV plays are similar.
In 2005, Jason Wu was invited to play a killer who is good at using a knife in the action movie kill the wolf starring Donnie Yen. This model role was inherited by Zhang Chi in Kill the Wolf 2.
Donnie Yen was unlucky before, and his film achievements were always inferior to those of his peers, Jet Li. However, Donnie Yen is willing to practice new ideas of action movies. He himself has been exposed to free fighting, and kill the wolf has become a testing ground. In the film, Donnie Yen fights with Jason Wu in an alley with a crowbar — — I didn’t design the action in advance, but I relied on my free play. Jason Wu later claimed that he didn’t know that he would really fight, but it obviously gave him a lot of inspiration.
Kill the wolf’s biggest breakthrough lies in the duel between Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, the ultimate villain. They abandoned the usual performance routines of China action movies and conducted an all-round comprehensive fighting. When Sammo Hung was young, he also had a duel with Bruce Lee, an early advocate of the concept of mixed fighting.
In modern MMA, fighting skills, wrestling skills and sleeping skills are all regarded as indispensable, and close combat in various positions can be taken from different schools. For example, you can throw your opponent, you can also use the knee strike in Muay Thai, you can also use the cross in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and even give your opponent a trick to split the door — — As long as you don’t show any flaws. Donnie Yen used them one by one in his own film experiments.
After kill the wolf, Jason Wu’s acting style changed obviously. In 2006, he filmed Black Boxing with a strong mixed fighting atmosphere, and then, Jason Wu led the action film Spike in 2008. Jason Wu performed hard, trying to express the theme of "fighting hard", but the whole film was still full of Weiya performances and exaggerated fights. At the end of the film, Jason Wu frightened many viewers with the heroic plot of one enemy against a hundred. Spike’s box office reputation is bleak.
In 2007, Jason Wu played the villain No.1 in The True Color of Men. This film is very realistic in the fighting scene, but it still has to bow its head in front of the action film Fuse, which was created and starred by Donnie Yen in the same year. "Fuse" is regarded as the pinnacle of Donnie Yen’s action movies, in which more than 7 minutes of mixed fighting is repeatedly interpreted on the Internet as a textbook-style video material — — This is due to the on-site guidance of a large number of MMA masters. Jason Wu missed the film. Donnie Yen, 44, announced that the fuse would be the end of his action movie.
Donnie Yen is not the first actor to try a new martial arts performance. In Thailand, Tony &bull, who studied orthodox Muay Thai; Jia’s momentum is in full swing. His films "ong bak" and "Winter Yin Gong" have been successful at home and abroad, and he also tried to break into Hollywood. From the audience’s point of view, Tony Jia practices one of the most powerful boxing skills today, with solid kung fu and a good sense of the camera. More importantly, he is still young.
In the American market with high-quality mixed fighting competitions, people are not keen on dazzling fighting actions. But there is still Gavin • Director O ‘Connor’s Fight tells the story of MMA athletes. The China version of this film was born in 2013. Guild Wars directed by Lin Chaoxian used male stars such as Nick Cheung, Eddie Peng Yuyan and Andy On. Except Nick Cheung, all of them were new generation idol actors. Suddenly, everyone received MMA training and played quite well. This film became a dark horse of that year, and both the theme and the effect were surprising.
The upsurge of mixed martial arts even spread to the animation field. In the third part of the widely sought-after domestic animation "Qin Shi Ming Yue", there were a lot of MMA actions in the character confrontation, and the chivalrous men in the late Qin Dynasty showed their surrender skills to each other like Brazilian jujitsu masters.
Compared with China’s action actors’ extensive preference for mixed fighting performance, Tony • Jia’s Muay Thai is inevitably monotonous. After several films and years of exposure, Tony • Jia vaguely noticed the arrival of his own bottleneck period. In 2012, Indonesian director gareth • Evans’s "Raid" was born, and continuous shooting made two films, each of which was amazing. The massive hand-to-hand combat in "Raid" made the film highly appreciated. It also made many people turn their attention to Indonesia, which was originally not amazing.
In Asia, almost all countries have martial arts traditions worth showing off. Although they are rarely shown in movies, the wand in the Philippines, Bankasula in Indonesia and even Majia in Israel are all unique. Action filmmakers from all countries will not ignore their own cultural treasures.
Under great pressure, Tony • Jia and Jason Wu were brought together. Before that, Jason Wu completely embarked on the road of tough guy. He experienced life in the army and was injured or collapsed in various studios. He has appeared in two military movies, I am Special Forces 2 and Wolf Warriors. After polishing, Jason Wu is no longer the dashing constantly chauffeured figure in "Jiangshan comes first".
At this time, it has been ten years since the release of kill the wolf. This sequel "Kill the Wolf 2" is by no means a perfect work. In my opinion, it still has many disharmonies and even serious injuries. Even the reference relationship between the word "kill the wolf" and the characters in the film is obviously not as reasonable as the first one. In the arrangement of martial arts guidance, Tony • Jia’s iron elbow and steel knee are also not able to coordinate with Max Zhang, who is dressed in a suit and moves like an ace agent. But in terms of performance, this film is embracing the future.
For a long time, action movie lovers have regarded Tony • Jia is regarded as Donnie Yen’s imaginary enemy. Whether the title of "The Fuse" intentionally or unintentionally coincides with "The Pirate of the Buddha Line" (alias of "ong bak") or Donnie Yen’s "Tony, you are finished" at the end of the film, it is so subtle. People thought it would eventually be Donnie Yen and Tony • Jia co-produced a male film full of blood. But now, it is Jason Wu who holds the baton.
This time, Jason Wu, with bare tendon and sparse stubble, focused on naked wringing, hook, axe elbow and knee strike in the play, instead of hand folding fan and knocking down the strong enemy in an anti-mechanical way. No one doubts his baby face any more. Forget those kung fu boys, and let the martial arts belong to the martial arts and the mechanics to the mechanics.
Does that mean that the future of action movies belongs to professional fighters? Maybe we should go to K-1 or UFC champion to find the next Tony • Jia? Not necessarily. Generally speaking, fighters who come out of the arena always face limitations in performance. Zhou Bili and Lu Huiguang both played supporting roles or villains for many years in their acting careers, and Hai Long Liu, a famous Sanda player, did not perform well in Tough Guy 2. We can imagine that even if a producer invited Bo Qiu, the most respected in Muay Thai, to star in the sequel to ong bak, I’m afraid the effect will not be better than Tony &bull, who has a pleasant face; Jia.
