Editor's note: This is a nostalgic theater.

"East Makes West" is the most successful comedy in the golden age of Hong Kong movies. It is not only the childhood memory of many middle-aged movie fans today, but it is also ranked 147th among the 250 most popular movies on Douban. It's been 30 years since it was released.

And the process of its birth is extremely accidental and lucky. There are many unconfirmed rivers and lakes legends and all kinds of vivid details, most of which can be said to be true. If some are exaggerated in the future, then as a movie entertainment, you don't have to take it seriously, it's just to make everyone laugh.

This may be close to the poster that was released that year, and it is a more casual collage style.

In 2020, the Taiwan region of China will re-release the film, and some image quality restorations have been made. Even the posters have become more refined.

The incident originated when director Wong Kar-wai filmed "Days of Being Wild" in 1990. With an investment of 40 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Andy Lau and many other stars were used to star. In the end, the film won many awards and praises from the Hong Kong Film Festival artistically. However, commercially, not only was only one of the two films originally scheduled to be delivered, but it also failed disastrously with a box office revenue of 9.75 million Hong Kong dollars, and even forced the film investors. Deng Guangrong has since withdrawn from the film industry. Wong Kar Wai's reputation as a "box office poison" was thus confirmed. Even though Wong Kar-wai's film style is outstanding, investors in Hong Kong films dare not burn money for him anymore.

Zedong Film Co., Ltd.

Two years later, Wong Kar Wai and his good friend Liu Zhenwei established Zedong Film Co., Ltd. together. It is said that the English name of the company was thought up by Mrs. Liu Zhenwei, Jet Tone, because the company is located on Sau Chuk Yuen Road in Kowloon City, close to Kai Tak Airport, and there are many planes taking off and landing every day, so it took "the sound of the plane (Jet) (Tone)". "The name. Wong Kar-wai transliterated to save trouble, and named the company "Zedong" in Chinese.

Wong Kar Wai and Lau Zhen Wai worked together in Yingzhijie Company in the 1980s. Lau Zhen Wai first directed "The Ghost of the Police", and Wong Kar Wai was the screenwriter. The two met in the early days of Zedong Company, Wong Kar Wai made art films, Lau Chun Wai supervised the production and made commercial films, and they switched jobs after ten years. This is a collaboration between two unconventional artists who appreciate each other. Wong Kar Wai is mysterious and hardworking, and Lau Chun Wai is active and active. Their styles just complement each other.

Cai Songlin and Wong Kar Wai

Because it is hard to find investment in Hong Kong, Wong Kar Wai found Cai Songlin, an investor who has been quite successful in Taiwan, hoping to make a film based on Jin Yong's martial arts and gather many Hong Kong stars. Even though Wong Kar-Wai's last "Days of Being Wild" suffered miserably, the success of "Swordsman" (1990), "New Dragon Inn" (1992) and "Swordsman 2 Undefeated in the East" (1992) 2010) was well received in the market, which still gave investors full confidence in the market prospects of martial arts films. The new film also has Brigitte Lin, who was quite successful in playing the male role in "Invincible in the East", as the backing point, and Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung and many other stars will help out. No matter how you think about it, it is impossible to lose money. So without hesitation, the investor gave another investment budget of 40 million Hong Kong dollars, and asked Wang Jiawei to take the main actor Leslie Cheung and others to Yulin, Shaanxi Province to shoot the film, and started the closed period of several months of shooting.

It is relatively rare for big-name actors to follow Wong Kar-wai to endure hardships in the wilderness for several months, which shows that the actors have a certain trust in the director's art.

However, I didn't expect that Wong Kar-wai's artistic style made the film's shooting progress seriously behind. Wong Kar Wai continued his work method of "looking for the feeling while shooting". Many times, when filming other actors, Leslie Cheung and others even had nothing to film all day long. It is said that they would bury the watermelon in the sand for a day in the shade, and dig it out to eat when needed. Superstars play this kind of game of "burying watermelons to find watermelons", but they have no idea of the scenes they are going to shoot every day. This is really a rare way of creation.

The initial investment was quickly spent, and the follow-up actors' schedule and investment continued to be coordinated and lengthened, which made the filming stop and stop, and finally developed to 2 years. When "Evil, West Poison" was released in 1994, the short golden period of martial arts films had passed. It also only won 9 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, but it also received many film festival awards and praises. "The process is almost the same.

Of course, this is already a story.

"Evil in the East and Poison in the West" was released simultaneously in mainland theaters that year, and it is not very common for Hong Kong movies that have not been introduced much.

In fact, in the first few months of filming of "Evil, West Poison", one of the producers, Liu Zhenwei, and the capital boss have already seen that the situation is not good. According to Wong Kar-wai's shooting progress, the film will inevitably exceed the budget and deadline, and the final film is still far away no period. Producer Cai Songlin also has quite a background in Taiwan, so he can't be fooled like this. Under coercion and pressure, he must come up with a solution. The main cast and production team of "Western Poison" have created a "martial arts fan" comedy theme in a very short shooting period-anyway, it is an investment movie, so I will hand over a "Lunar New Year Comedy" as soon as possible. Be more at ease. Because most of the staff had already received money in "Evil, West, Poison", they were subsidized with favors and face, which saved a lot of production costs for the new film. However, the abilities of these actors and production staff are real, and they can be called "zero yuan super value purchase" in the true sense.

"East and West" was released in Hong Kong on February 5, 1993, and earned more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars in the New Year's box office. It can be regarded as subsidizing a lot of "Evil and West Poison" in advance, and this matter can be regarded as an explanation for investors.

The cast and crew of "East Becomes West" will each be a well-known name in the industry in the future. As a comedy configuration, it's like adding a Ferrari eight-cylinder engine to a Gold Cup car.

"East Becomes West" has always been said to be the sister film of "Evil in the West", and this is roughly the development process before and after. In the most prosperous era of Hong Kong movies, film investors are for making money, actors and production staff are for food and art, and everyone has to take care of some emotions, so a large number of good films and bad films appear alternately, sometimes in a down-to-earth manner. Making movies is sometimes for the purpose of "returning favors" so that the boss can make money. It’s just that for a place like Hong Kong that pays special attention to timeliness and efficiency, the production process of some bad movies purely for making money is too rushed, and even the stars and production staff are embarrassed to mention that they have made this movie in the future.

But the magic of "East and West" is that it is very fast, and the overall effect seems to have a lot of rough places. There are many jumps and disconnections in the plot, but the essence of the passage is really funny. I have to say that this is due to the charm of the director Liu Zhenwei and the actors. During the hottest period of their creative period, even the results they handed over after rushing the ducks to the shelves can show extraordinary effects.

Leslie Cheung and Leung Ka Fai sing a duet "Shuangfeiyan"

For example, Leslie Cheung and Leung Ka Fai sang the song "Shuangfeiyan" in reverse in the film. There are rumors that this scene was supposed to be a duet between Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung, but because the schedule couldn't come, it ended up being Tony Leung Ka Fai in disguise. The two choreographed impromptuly for a while, together with Leslie Cheung's random lyrics, they rushed into battle.

Generally speaking, in comedies, when a man plays a female role in reverse, it is always 50% funny, 50% embarrassing, and if the acting is not good, it will become very disgusting. But Leslie Cheung's slightly feminine temperament, paired with Leung Ka Fai's white-faced and gentle image when he was young, and both of them have somewhat neutral performance styles, they are a perfect match in a song and dance. Under the flickering, it actually makes people feel that "it's so interesting". The two excellent actors performed this kind of "messy" bridge, and they seemed very cheerful again. Not only did they devote themselves wholeheartedly, but also their posture and movements in the dance were worthy of their years of performing arts training, showing a solid stage performance Feeling, the "opera singing" that is common in a comedy is performed very beautifully.

This has to be said to be a kind of superstar halo. If this scene were performed by two people, it might not be a classic at all.

Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin flirt in this film

In fact, actors who match each other or not match each other are sometimes so magical. Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin flirted with each other in this film, and it seemed that Sister Yu and the younger brother were very compatible, so in 1993 they immediately filmed "The Legend of the White-haired Witch", which made the two of them a classic on-screen romance. But they are also good actors. For example, Tony Leung and Brigitte Lin have never had such screen cooperation. Even apart from Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung has almost no impressive matching effect with most actresses in his film career.

Jacky Cheung is the best match with Tony Leung

The best match with Tony Leung can only be Jacky Cheung. In this film, the love and killing between Xidu Ouyang Feng and Beibei Hong Qigong played by the two is the most exciting scene in the whole film. Ouyang Feng tried every means to put Hong Qi to death, but he didn't expect that he was beaten to death by Hong Qi in the end. This kind of "assassination and anti-assassination" plot that often appears in Zhou Xingchi's movies is a classic routine of comedy. Not only is the reversal design of the plot open to people's minds, but also Ouyang Feng was vicious at first but was adjusted to the spirit The collapsed state, and Hong Qi's reckless yet lucky self-satisfaction are all very memorable. The difference between "funny" and "hilarious" is still the details of the characters performed by the actors.

In fact, the brotherhood played by Tony Leung and Jacky Cheung, in "Blood on the Street" directed by John Woo, made people feel very tacit. A piece of "Yafei and Yaqi" (1992) shows that both of them have good comedic talents, pretending to be crazy is also a pair of live treasures, and the most brilliant comedy moment of "East Makes West" is also their performance constituted. Because Zhang Tianwang sings so well, his performance level is often underestimated. In recent years, there is a trend of being rediscovered again. "East and West" can also be regarded as his masterpiece. Although there are not many performances, the temperament of the characters is very accurate.

Tony Leung and Jacky Cheung pretend to be crazy and foolish in the film, they are a pair of living treasures

This is a comedy film with a very good performance overall. Although each superstar does not have many plays, they vividly embody their own charm. For example, Carina Lau's rudeness when she played the male role, Wang Zuxian's savage performance, and Maggie Cheung's deliberately stuttering way of speaking are all making some impressive performance designs for the characters. Seemingly effortless, it is actually a natural charm of superstars. Both natural and deductive. If you let many young idols today freely "play around", it will probably be difficult for them to play tricks, because the "idol burden" is too heavy. Only comedians who are not so good-looking know how to "sing, dance, fight and make trouble" regardless of their image. These Hong Kong stars are not full-time "comedians". They are good-looking, but they can sing and dance very hard. This in itself is a very remarkable thing.

Carina Lau's Zhou Botong is very cute. This is also Carina Lau's most impressive screen image.

During the very short shooting period that day, many things were not considered carefully. It was just for everyone to play for themselves. The camera was turned on like that, and they stayed when they thought it was fun. As a director, Liu Zhenwei is inherently lively by nature, and he basically created a book similar to "fanart creation" with a lot of brain holes for this film. There are many paragraphs left. It is more fun to fight with whom, and it is often thought while shooting. , I believe that many of them come from the creativity of the actors, and it is also the collective wisdom of everyone working on the set.

Similarly, although there are many fighting scenes in this film, although they are not the core of the plot, they are also an indispensable part of this martial arts theme. Among them, the most unique design of Ouyang Feng's "Toad Kungfu" is probably also the inspiration of action director Sammo Hung. These creations are all products that seem to be effortless and easy to come by. However, the skill accumulated behind it is far from a one-day cold.

Action design is an indispensable part of martial arts comedy. Sammo Hung is the action director of this film, and the configuration is very luxurious.

Many years later, Liu Zhenwei filmed "East and West 2011" and "A Chinese Journey to the West 3" (2016) in the Mainland, but they both received a lot of bad reviews, and the scores on Douban were terrible. Maybe he himself doesn't understand why he is good at this kind of "messy" firefighting creative method of Hong Kong movies, which was liked by many audiences back then, but was scolded so much by everyone later?

Perhaps in those days, they were all top artists, and they could make a good show by playing together casually, just like jazz musicians playing together casually, and a classic record was recorded. Because "time is also lucky", when "talent" comes, it cannot be stopped. But then the luck was gone, and the complexion gradually faded, so the only thing left was to bury your head and work hard in the way of making movies. If you want to shoot casually, the output is just bad movies that can be seen everywhere.

Making movies, after all, is a very mysterious thing.