Hu Mei photography

In the mainland film market in the 1980s, nothing was more popular than martial arts films.

In particular, the popularity of "Shaolin Temple" has driven mainland studios to start competing to shoot martial arts films.

It is in this context that many old directors in the mainland responded to the call of the market and transformed to shoot commercial entertainment films.

Among them, Zhang Zien from Xiying Factory and Li Wenhua from Beiying Factory impressed Fan Yingjun the most.

The former participated in the shooting of martial arts films such as Hero of the Yellow River and Whip of God in the 1980s, while the latter filmed classic martial arts films such as Invincible Yuanyang Leg and Breaking Free House, and was once praised as the highest-grossing director of Beijing Film Factory.

Speaking of Li Wenhua's martial arts film masterpiece "Invincible Yuanyang Leg", after it was released, primary and middle school students all over the country began to imitate the magical skills in the film. Up to now, many people have a deep memory of the invincible mandarin duck legs in the film, and they can improve their skills as long as they draw circles on the ground with their legs.

There is also "Desperate Happiness House", which boldly imitates Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films and draws on many suspense styles of Gu Long martial arts. The plot of the whole film is tortuous and bizarre, and it can be called reversal from beginning to end. The most incredible thing is that the film focuses on the revenge of the chivalrous woman, but the plot combines the strange plot of the two brothers and sisters screwing around, which is a classic of domestic martial arts films.

The above two films were written by Fan Yingjun before. Today, I will introduce another representative martial arts film directed by Li Wenhua.

Compared with the above two works, this film is more famous, but what is most worth mentioning is that it was one of the few domestic martial arts films with the villain as the protagonist. The story describes a killer with superb martial arts in the green forest and his cruel killing and encirclement of the green forest as an eagle dog. Even in the end, the villain laughs at the end, which is called the martial arts film of anti-routine.

If you are an older audience, you have probably guessed the name of this movie.

In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Film", let's revisit this alternative domestic martial arts film 34 years ago-

Golden dart hero

Golden dart hero

The film was shot at 1987 and produced by Beijing Film Factory.

Director Li Wenhua is an old director of Beijing Film Factory. His career started as a photographer. As early as 1950s, he made classic films such as Early February and Red women soldiers. When he became a director, he won the excellent film award of the Ministry of Culture for his film Tears.

In the 1980s, he followed the market trend and made commercial entertainment films. Because martial arts films were the most popular at that time, Li Wenhua was ordered to shoot the martial arts film "Golden Dart Huang Tianba" for Beijing Film Studio. I didn't expect the film to be a great success as soon as it was released. According to the records of China Film Yearbook, the number of copies of this film was 285, and the distribution income was as high as12.9 million, ranking fifth in the domestic box office list of 1988.

The screenwriter of this film is the famous writer Zhang Xian. Won 198 1 the best screenwriter award of the second Chinese film golden rooster award for the film "The Corner Forgotten by Love". Huang Tianba, the Golden Dart, is his only commercial martial arts film written and directed by himself.

The story is based on the case-solving novels of the Qing Dynasty. The protagonist Huang Tianba is the protagonist in Shi Gong An. It is said that there is such a person in history, and indeed because of his loyalty and meritorious service to the Manchu court, Emperor Kangxi gave him a real Madrid jacket, and he joined the Eight Banners to become a standard bearer. After Yongzheng acceded to the throne, he was transferred to the Qing Dongling as the company commander of Malanguan, and his descendants became the standard-bearer of protecting the mausoleum.

Huang Tianba's legendary story spread among the people, largely thanks to the contribution of traditional drama and storytelling. As early as 1928, it was adapted into a movie, and Jackie Chan, 8, starred as a child star in the movie "Big and Small Huang Tianba" on 1962.

The main plot structure of this novel "Golden Dart Huang Tianba" comes from the section of "Evil Tiger Village" in the novel "Shi Gong An", which tells the story that Huang Tianba, who was born as a fugitive in the green forest, was recruited by Shi and joined hands to destroy the evil tiger village.

The story took place in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.

According to legend, there is an evil tiger village in Yangzhou Prefecture, where there are four chivalrous men, namely He Tianbao, Pu Tiandiao, Wu Tianqi and Huang Tianba, who are called "small four dominating the sky". They regard the mountain as the king and rely on their own efforts to fight against the government and become strongmen.

Soon, the good days of "small four dominating the sky" were surrounded by the newly appointed Yangzhou magistrate stone.

Shi, known as "Shi Qingtian", has repeatedly solved strange cases for honest officials and won the hearts of the people. Under Shi Gong's army, He Tianbao, the leader of the four tyrants, was finally captured alive and then ordered to be beheaded.

However, on the day of execution, Huang Tianba, He Tianbao's sworn fourth brother, rushed into the almsgiving ground alone to save his eldest brother.

Huang Santai, the father of Huang Tianba, is a famous figure in the Jianghu. He is the chief bodyguard of 63 provinces in the south, 7 provinces in the north and 63 provinces. He is famous in the greenwood, and his gold dart skill is invincible. His son, Huang Tianba, got his father's biography and martial arts at a young age.

Huang Tianba, a daring artist, rushed into the giving ceremony with a sharp gold dart in his hand, but the officers and men were outnumbered. In the end, Huang Tianba's rescue failed. Seeing his eldest brother beheaded, he had to ride deus ex.

That night, Huang, who didn't want to wear night clothes, broke into the house again and wanted to assassinate him.

When Mrs. Shi saw that the assassin wanted to kill Shi Gong, she struggled to stop pleading, thinking that Shi was a good official who loved the people like a son.

Huang Tianba hesitated. Just then, another masked woman suddenly broke into Master and even came to assassinate him.

Ironically, the masked woman mistakenly thought Huang Tianba, who was also masked, was a soldier's running dog, so the two men fought and were surrounded by officers and men in the fight.

In desperation, Huang Tianba showed off the golden dart stunt, knocked off the veil of the other side with a dart, and turned out to be a beautiful woman.

The two sides just exchanged identities. This woman turned out to be Zhang Guilan, the daughter of seven sons in Fenghuang Mountain Village. Li Xiaoliu, the leader of Fenghuangshanzhai, was killed by officers and men, so he entered Master to assassinate him. Unexpectedly, she met Huang Tianba who was also assassinated.

The two men didn't know each other, but at this time the officers and men had come to round up and the two men were caught in a bitter battle.

In the melee, Huang Tianba saved Zhang Guilan's life from the officers and men, risked his life to cover her breakthrough, but was arrested.

Shi interrogated Huang Tianba, who would rather die than surrender, and his subordinates suggested that Huang Tianba be executed.

Unexpectedly, Shi Gong ordered Huang Tianba to be released and told him to go back and say hello to his father, Mrs. Huang San.

Men don't understand the practice of ShiGong, ShiGong explained:

This is a plan to play hard to get. Treat such fearless Jianghu people with kindness rather than strength.

Huang Tianba came home, and his father, Mrs. Huang San, is now critically ill. Before he died, Huang Santai told his son:

The outlaw hero will not die a natural death. He should turn over a new leaf as soon as possible and gain fame and fortune by the right path.

It turns out that 20 years ago, when Huang San was out as a ranger, he met Emperor Kangxi who was hunting.

At that time, the emperor was chased by a tiger, and Huang Santai threw a golden dart, killing the tiger and saving the driver, so he was awarded a yellow jacket.

On the day of Huang's father's funeral, officers and men suddenly came to the door on the pretext of returning Huang's relics, but in fact they wanted to arrest Huang Tianba.

Huang Tianba's fist was difficult to defeat four hands, and he was finally captured by officers and men. He is about to be escorted to the capital to plead guilty.

Unexpectedly, during the escort, officers and men were suddenly ambushed, and a group of masked men broke through and rescued Huang Tianba.

Huang Tianba was taken to a nearby mountain by masked men and met Shi Gong, the mastermind behind the scenes.

All this is a trick designed by Shi Gong to win over Huang Tianba, deliberately catching Huang Tianba first and then saving him.

Not only that, Shi Gong also told Huang Tianba that he was very grateful to Huang Tianba for his kindness to his brother, so he specially ordered He Tianbao, the leader of the four tyrants, to build a grave on this hillside and rebury it.

Shi Gong's behavior finally persuaded Huang Tianba, and Huang Tianba also obeyed his father's will, gave up his status as an greenwood, took refuge in Shi Gong, and was named the lieutenant around Shi Gong.

At the same time, after Huang Tianba was surrendered, his two sworn brothers, Pu Tiandiao and Wu Tianqi, also got wind of it and were shocked to learn that Huang Tianba had defected to the court.

Soon, Huang Tianba was ordered to escort 32 thousand official silver to Beijing, passing through Phoenix Mountain on the way.

What a coincidence! Unfortunately, Huang Tianba, who rarely travels far, happened to meet Zhang Qi and Zhang Guilan, the father and daughter who came down the mountain to rob the Phoenix shanzhai.

It is said that Zhang Guilan has a crush on Huang Tianba, a martial arts expert, and he still remembers it for a long time.

Unexpectedly, they met again and became enemies, which made Zhang Guilan feel very contradictory.

Huang Tianba also has admiration for Zhang Guilan, but at this time, one is a soldier and the other is a thief, so it is inconvenient to show his sincerity.

Fortunately, Zhang Qinian saved his daughter in Huang Tianba and took the initiative to make way for Huang Tianba's silver car.

Huang Tianba and Zhang Guilan immediately parted ways, and a pair of Jianghu children became strangers.

Words are divided into two ends. Shi was rewarded by the imperial court for his meritorious service in cashier, and was ready to go to Beijing for an audience.

On the way to Beijing, Shi stopped at a tea stall. Unexpectedly, the stall owner turned out to be Pu Tiandiao and two brothers, pretending to kill Shi, why did Tianbao take revenge?

The officers and men were unprepared, and finally Shigong was taken away and brought back to the evil tiger village. Two tyrants planned to cut open his stomach and cut out his heart for revenge.

Huang Tianba did not follow Shi Gong to Beijing. After learning the news, he plans to break into the evil tiger village alone and rescue Shi from danger.

Huang Tianba met his two brothers and planned to persuade them to let Shi Gong go and join the imperial court.

However, both of them hated the imperial court and prepared to order their men to kill Shi Gong in front of Huang Tianba.

Huang Tianba disagreed and shot a gold dart on the spot to save Shi Gong.

The negotiations between the three brothers broke down, and Huang Tianba faced the two brothers alone.

At this point, Zhang Guilan and the officers and men walked into the evil tiger village together. It turned out that Zhang Guilan couldn't let go of Huang Tianba, so he followed the officers and men who came to rescue Shi Gong and broke into the Evil Tiger Village to rescue Huang Tianba.

Under the siege of officers and men, the evil tiger village was wiped out and Shi Gong was rescued.

The rescued stone Lord ordered Huang Tianba to mow the grass and remove the roots.

The reason is that the court doesn't trust Huang Tianba, who was born in greenwood. If he wants to prove his innocence, he must completely sever the relationship with the greenwood.

The implication is to force Huang Tianba to kill two brothers.

Although Huang Tianba couldn't bear it, his loyalty was unbearable since ancient times, and he finally got into a fight with his two brothers.

In the end, Huang Tianba was even better. With a golden dart in his hand, he killed two brothers.

Huang Tianba's second sister-in-law was deeply saddened to see her husband killed by his sworn brothers. She asked if Huang Tianba still had a conscience.

Huang Tianba had to kowtow and apologize in the face of yisow who had been biting the hand that feeds him since childhood. I didn't expect-

He pretended to admit his mistake, but took the opportunity to pick up the sword on the ground, kill yisow and set fire to the evil tiger village.

At the end of the film, Huang Tianba, who made great contributions to the extermination of the evil tiger village, received the imperial edict and was rewarded.

It's just that this movie has a subtitle:

Huang Tianba exchanged the blood of his righteous brother and sister-in-law for the flower feathers on his head. However, this eagle dog is doomed to no good end. ...

The story of the movie came to an abrupt end.

The film "Golden Dart Huang Tianba" is a follow-up film made by mainland film studios in 1980s, imitating martial arts films from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Like many martial arts films of the same period, this film focuses on martial arts athletes with real kung fu.

Wang Qun, the actor who plays the leading role of Huang Tianba, comes from the famous Beijing Wushu Team and is the elder brother of Jet Li. As early as 1979, he participated in the filming of the martial arts film "Treasure beyond the Great Wall" and was the first generation of martial arts stars in China. In 1980s, he appeared in many classic martial arts films, such as Thirteen Sisters in Summer and Beggar. For young audiences, he and Jason Wu may be more familiar with the martial arts drama Tai Chi Master.

Chen Ye, who plays the heroine Zhang Guilan, is a kung fu master. She comes from a martial arts family and has been practicing martial arts since childhood. At the age of 22, she became a hit because she played the heroine Miao Cuihua in New Fang Shiyu. Chen therefore entered the film and television circle and became a martial arts actress. In 1980s, she appeared in many classic martial arts films, besides this one, there was also the heroine Chen Shimei in Beggar, Sex.

As a martial arts film, the film combines classic case-solving, historical romance, martial arts action and other elements, and rarely takes the villain as the protagonist. Its anti-routine plot design once impressed the audience at that time. Originally thought to be a heroic story against oppression, it turned into a discussion of the dilemma of loyalty and righteousness, full of criticism.

This is certainly worthy of recognition, but it cannot be denied that the film itself was badly hurt in the play.

The portrayal of the protagonist Huang Tianba has a serious sense of separation. The creator wants to be unconventional, but at the same time he dare not completely deviate from the original setting and perspective, which eventually leads to a very contradictory position in the film. Just like the protagonist Huang Tianba, on the one hand, he emphasizes that Huang Tianba is superior in martial arts and is an outlaw, on the other hand, he asserts that Huang Tianba's promotion with subtitles has no good result.

In the first half of the film alone, Huang Tianba made friends with the outlaws by mistake, and finally, inspired by Shi Gong, he turned over a new leaf and saved the people. In fact, there is not much problem for movies to follow this idea, which is almost a common plot pattern in classical chivalrous stories.

Wulin master Huang Tianba avenged his brother. From the beginning, he set the hero's appearance style by riding a horse to rob the charity ceremony, and the lens of riding a cliff was even more handsome. At the same time, he hinted at the fatuity and corruption of Qing court officers and soldiers with various details. For example, seeing the beautiful Zhang Guilan is like flirting with the Qing soldiers, framing Liang Jiuhong and other stone villains against Huang Tianba, obviously trying to shape the outlaws into heroes.

Strangely, the film finally decided to gild the lily, defining Huang Tianba as a fickle and dangerous villain who killed his brother and sister-in-law. I still remember the scene when Huang Tianba attacked the killer after his sister-in-law turned around. Just as the director took the wrong script, the good guys suddenly became bad guys, and then the bad guys killed all the good guys, as if afraid that the audience would not understand, and even directly used the credits to establish the villain status of the protagonist.

This is precisely the problem with the film. The screenwriter lacks a deeper inner shaping of the role of Huang Tianba, which leads to the lack of arc light for the characters. Huang Tianba's transformation from a chivalrous man to a dangerous villain is really unconvincing.

According to common sense, Huang Tianba inherited his father's business and gave up his status as a fugitive to join the court. It is understandable that he wants to get ahead, but he is gradually assimilated by officialdom and becomes an ambitious empleomania. Therefore, it is inevitable that Huang Tianba will be captured and embraced, and his brother and sister-in-law will naturally become warlords.

This is a reasonable villain. Although not all the audience like it, it is more human.

It is worth mentioning that the story of Huang Tianba did not end in the North Film version of The Golden Dart. Later, Changying Factory made a sequel, Death Flying Knife. In the film, Huang Tianba changed actors, completely assumed the villain role, became a sinister eagle dog, and finally died under the knife of death. Unfortunately, the completion of this part is far less than that of the last one, and the response is relatively general.